Advent meditation 3 from On the Incarnation

     When beginning his discussion of the incarnation, St. Athanasius takes us all the way back to the beginning, the creation of the world. "The first fact that you must grasp," he writes with emphasis, "is this: the renewal of creation has been wrought by the Self-same Word Who made it in the beginning." All life comes from God, both physical and spiritual, therefore all death comes from that which is anti-God. So, the only way that life can be restored from death is through re-creation by the Creator. Through the will of God the Father, Christ, the eternal Word, works both to create us and to save us. Whatever the Word says is done; to speak something into existence is to make it; so also, to call us to repentance is to restore our spiritual life -- "...and those He called, He also justified..." (Rom. 8)
     But before he gets to the significance of creation and new creation and their relationship to the incarnation, St. Athanasius delivers an interesting apologetic against false views of the creation event. In fact, although succinct, it is one of the best and most useful ever written, for these false ideas are still with us, surprisingly unchanged. We often think that in pre-modern times these false ideas were expressed in myths and stories, but St. Athanasius does not mentions these at all. He cites three prevailing philosophical viewpoints instead.
     First, he cites the Epicureans, who said that "all things are self-originated, and, so to speak, haphazard" because they denied the existence of any kind of  "Mind" behind the universe. This sounds, alarmingly like the theory of evolution, and philosophically, it is indeed the idea that stands behind naturalism. We even see here a hint of the scientific "random mutations over time."  But St. Athanasius replies that they are not even paying attention to who they are or their own experience, for only one entity or thing could come of it, not the diversity we see all around us. (I have often felt that this logical argument against evolution is too little used. What would a random world really look like? It would be chaotic, no doubt, and lifeless, as well, completely without an ordering influence, and it could only, at best, produce one "thing." Yet, no system of operation or thought on the planet fundamentally works this way. We live in an ordered  and complex world, even though we take it for granted.) The differences we see point to a designing Mind who employed engineering hands; in other words, a Cause. Consequently, any time one comprehends the cause of something so great as the universe, so vast as all things, it has to be God.
     Second, he refers to Plato, who taught that God made everything from pre-existing, uncreated matter. This would make God out to be a craftsman like a carpenter, who makes items from already existing wood. This view puts limitations on God. He must work with something outside of himself, which he also did not have the power to create. If we understand God to be limitless and all-powerful, this type of creation could not be done by God at all; it would have to come about some other way. Plato's idea bears some resemblance to the steady-state theory of cosmology that maintained that the universe did not have a beginning but it has and will always exist in the same form as it is now perceived. Giving the universe some kind of eternal existence does away with the need for a cause, so any creator that might come along to make things must be less than God.
     This brings us to the third theory, espoused by the Gnostics, who attributed creation to a demigod. They believed that God the Father appointed the task of creating to this lesser entity. However, St. Athanasius rather quickly points out that this goes completely against the teachings of Scripture, citing the passage in Mt. 19 that states that the same God who joins a man and a woman in marriage also created them. Another passage that supports creation by the triune God is Jn 1:1-3: "In in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God... All things were created through him..." Heb. 11:3 also tells us: "By faith we understand that the universe was created by God's command..." The Bible blatantly affirms that God, and no one or nothing else created the world. To argue against this in any way, he writes, is to be blind to the truth -- "These simply shut their eyes to the obvious meaning of Scripture."
     In summary, St. Athanasius purposes three telling reasons why we should believe that God is the Creator of all things: 1.) There is strong evidence all around us for the existence of "Mind" -- design, order and unity of purpose exist in everything we observe, including ourselves. 2.) The generosity of God's goodness is evident in all that exists. God is good, therefore all he has made is intrinsically good and good for us. 3.) Humans bear in themselves a special grace or gift from God -- the very image of God, which enables us to think, feel and have the ability to know and be known by God.
     Now, back to why this is central to the necessity for the incarnation. What was made so good and unblemished in the beginning, that is, the soul of man, was corrupted through mankind's conscience choice to sin against God. This brought about man's spiritual death and need for divine rescue. "It was our sorry case that caused the Word to come down, our transgression that called out his love for us..."
     St. Athanasius believed that the Fall into sin, in a strange sort of way, negated the original creation. It placed man on a path towards non-existence, the road to Hell. Instead of being ever drawn towards Heaven, man was corrupted, turned irrevocably the other way. We were in danger passing away entirely, essentially returning back to nothingness, because evil had overtaken our hearts. Once this began to happen, "corruption ran riot," as the primal glory and purposes of creation were abandoned for the lusts and desires of fallen flesh. Only the presence of the eternal Word who had made humanity to begin with prevented its complete and utter obliteration.
     It was sin, then, that has caused men, since almost the the very beginning of our existence, to lose sight of the truth about Creation. Sin made the heart of man blind to the purposes of the Creator and caused us to forget the glory and wonder from which we came. False theories about our origins have always plagued us, because we rebelled against the truth. So man has ever blindly followed a weary treacherous path of lies about the God from whom he came. But the amazing thing is, St. Athanasius affirms, it that God wanted us back so much that he expressed his creative love fully and finally by sending his Son to walk the dismal, dark and ruined human path: "...he made haste to help us and to appear among us. It is we who were the cause of his taking human form, and for our salvation that in his great love he was both born and manifested in a human body."

Information God

     I recently listened to a podcast from Houston Baptist University featuring Dr. Phillip Johnson, author of the book Darwin on Trial. Dr. Johnson is a retired law professor and is considered to be the founder of the Intelligent Design movement. While he has been widely criticized for some of his extreme viewpoints, I think that he makes an appealing case for information forming the basis for the way nature works. Information seems to stand behind all scientific phenomena, consequently, the idea of God as creator points to the fact that he may be considered to be the ultimate source of that information.
     It seems that everything that exists exhibits some sort of relationship to information. Therefore, it follows that, in the physical universe, all natural things gather and emit information that can be connotated in a scientific context. Whenever we embark on a scientific study of nature, then, we must attempt to discover the twofold structure of this information: 1.) What is this particular thing listening to? and 2.) What is it saying?
     Everything speaks and understands a "language" by which the information is transmitted or received. These languages are almost always based on the primary language of math. Each particular branch of science speaks its own language, which is, in turn,  is some sort of dialect of math. To fully understand a scientific principle, we must figure out the language behind it and calculate the math behind that. (This is frustrating for people like me who struggle with math and excel at language. We can see the code, but we are unable to decipher what it means.)
     A few examples are:

• All living things are based on the structure of their specific DNA code, which is always formed in the geometrical shape of a double helix.
• Birds heed the "call" to migrate from one specific location to another based upon the hours of daylight.
• A molecule of an organic chemical may be represented by an equation of letters and numbers or as a geometric model.
• Ants lay down chemical trails for their brethren to follow leading to a food source.
• The laws of physics that describe how the various forces of nature work are quantified by mathematical formulas.
• When astronomers observe the light/energy from far-off galaxies, they are able to deduce complex mathematical formulas that detail the nature of the universe itself.  

     Scientific study addresses the questions surrounding what these languages are saying, how they are transmitted and the math behind them. Philosophy and religion ask questions about where the languages come from, who or what is causing them to be spoken, whether or not they have meaning beyond physicality alone and why we are able to perceive them. Once we begin to assess these questions, we have moved from mere scientific study into something that stands behind science, a tenuous locality indeed. If nature is all there is, the languages are allusions at best. But if something exists that is greater than nature, something that is so great as to cause nature to exist, someone who Christianity calls "God" -- then the languages represent reality as well as the possibility of communication between God and mankind.
     In John chapter 1, the Apostle John declares that Jesus Christ is the eternal Word of God, the one who has spoken all things into existence. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God...Through him all things were made..." (v. 1,3) Genesis 1 tells us that God spoke the universe into existence -- "and God said." This speaking of God, this expression of truth, became physical reality. The information upon which physical reality rests came directly and ultimately from the mind of God; it is an enactment of the Plan or Will of God. The Apostle John goes on to say that "In him was life;" for the information, once spoken, was either vitalized by the life that God alone can give, or it contributes in some way to that life.
     Proverbs 8:22-31 details the way information (or, Wisdom) facilitates the created order. It originates with God -- "the first of his works" -- before the universe is made, because it is the foundation upon which all creation was to be built. This information delineated the specifics set for the oceans, springs of water, mountains, hills and soil. (v. 22-26) As God spoke the heavens and the earth into reality, Wisdom/information directed what happened or what came about in very precise ways. (v. 27-29) But verses 30 and 31 go on to describe this a little differently. Just like John 1 tells us, the information is God personified -- he is the "craftsman" who creates with joy; he is the one who delights in or loves the people he has made.
     And this is the point where we come full circle in this sort of "information theory" of creation. Because God created out of his love for us, he has bestowed upon us the ability and desire to read and understand the information. Though our image of God, our innate connection with God, we have been given the privilege discovering and interpreting the languages of the cosmos. We must be careful not to take this position lightly. Far too many of us live as if the information doesn't matter, or that it is not worthy of our attention. If we live our lives ignoring the things that God has said, we will be living in a small and dreary world. The light of creation shines on the soul through the lamp of the mind.
     In addition, God has given us verbal information through his word in written form, the Bible. The truths on its pages agree and correlate with words that formed the world, and we must learn to bring the two together. And through the power of redemption, God gave us himself -- Jesus Christ, the living Word, who brings us back into relationship, connection and communication with God. This spiritual connection gives us the greatest and most worthwhile information, the truth of God that sets us free to live unbounded and unfettered by sin and sorrow.
     Yet, in the end, it will all come down to the declaration of the resurrected Lord: "Behold, I make all things new!" A unlimited wealth of information waits to be revealed in the new created order. In Heaven, we will delight in, explore, discover and even develop the inexhaustible possibilities of a perfect existence. Our eternal life with Christ will be living in the ever present and new reality of "knowing and being known" by God who knows all, explains all, and loves without limits.    

More thoughts on Creation

(Equip 4/21/2013)
     St. Augustine wrote extensively on the subject of Creation. He writes about it in the last section of Confessions, in several books of City of God, especially Book 11, and in a book called The Literal Interpretation of Genesis. It seems as if he wanted to write a commentary on the Bible, but got stuck at the beginning -- there was just so much to think about, so much to marvel at. In this post, we will consider some of his interesting observations from Book 11(mainly) of City of God.
     One of the questions St. Augustine raises concerns how we know that God is the Creator. Even in his time, naturalism was alive and well. He cites a well-known writer, Varro, as believing that "...the soul and the elements of the universe are the true gods," and "...God is the soul of the universe or cosmos...and the cosmos itself is God." (p. 137) A popular philosophy maintained that the universe had always existed, and was perpetually renewing itself. In fact, he even mentions ideas similar to today's theories of the multiverse and evolution. (p. 258, 259) So to answer this question, St. Augustine begins by addressing the issue of how changeable physical things can come from an unchangeable God.
     The physical things we observe with our five senses are real, but God did not bring them into being by either literal physical speech or through "apparitions." God speaks in a greater way; he speaks truth: "But He speaks by means of the truth itself, and to all who can hear it with the mind rather that with the body." (p. 206) God has the power, by means of the truth (which he is) to "...[give] life to the dead and [call] things that are not as though they were." (Rom. 4:17) God "speaks" Scripture in the same way. His truth goes directly to our souls, where it can be perceived and believed. Therefore, Gen.1:1, "In the beginning, God created...," is not just a statement of fact using words, but a truth which is understood through the revealing work of the Holy Spirit. We need to get past the idea that physical things must come from physical roots.
     St. Augustine also says that nature itself reveals that it was made by God. "...the very order, changes and movements in the universe, the very beauty of form in all that is visible, proclaim, however silently, both that the world as created and also that its Creator could be none other than God..." (p. 209) Nature shows its divine origins by both the beauty it displays, because that beauty bears the stamp of God, who is truly beautiful, and by the way it changes. Today we think of change in evolutionary terms -- things change to survive or better themselves, as it were, but true change comes from movement, and the greatest movement acting on any living thing is the movement of God's love. This is why orthodox Christianity declares that God created out of his goodness. It was the force, so to speak, behind his creation of creatures to love. St Augustine reminds points out that God's declaration in Gen. 1 of all things as "good" does not merely mean that he was congratulating himself on a job well done, but "...it was one and the same to God to see that what He had made was good and to see that it was good to make it." (p. 227) God only does good things and gives good gifts because he is good.
    St. Augustine was very intrigued by the problem of creation and time. Much could be written about his discussion of this issue, but I will only mention a few points here. First, he says that time is characterized by movement and change, while eternity is not. Since we know God to be eternal, we know that he exists beyond time. Creation, however, moves and changes, from the love through which it came, as mentioned above, but also because it exists in time, the first of God's creative works. He writes, "Undoubtedly, then, the world was made not in time but together with time." And, "The fact is that the world was made simultaneously with time, if, with creation, motion and change began." (p. 212) He goes into some interesting discussions about time, here in City of God, and also in Confessions. He concludes that since God is outside of time "atemporal," if you will, or existing in "non-time," it really did not take any time for God to create the world, yet he used time in his creative process. Almost as if anticipating our confusion over the issue of the time-stamp word "day" used in Gen. 1, he concludes, "As for these 'days,' it is difficult, perhaps impossible to think -- let alone explain in words -- what they mean." (p. 212) Quite the master of understatement, there!
     Today we know that light (the speed of light) is the chronometer of time. In one of his many interesting and almost prophetic statements on this subject, he wrote, "Perhaps there is a material light in the far reaches of the universe which are out of sight. Or it may mean the light from which the sun was afterwards kindled." (p. 213) Billions of years ago, when the light from the Big Bang first blazed, at God's command, into the darkness of nothing, light became the marker both for what God did and when he did it. Through the voice of the Psalmist, God urged us to look to the stars in the night sky to learn about his mighty works, limitless power and enduring love. "The heavens declare the the glory of God..." (Ps. 19:1)

St. Augustine, City of God, abridged ed., trans. by Walsh, et.al. New York, Doubleday, 1958.