The statement ‘Pray as much as you like, only science will save us’ cannot be
uttered by a sincere Christian because a Christian believes in prayer. This
statement could not have come from the theistic bandwagon, for those who sincerely
believe in God would not entertain such a thought process. Hence those who subscribe to this statement ought
to be from the atheistic or the scientific materialistic worldview.
Pray
as much as you like, only science will save us pits God against science. This,
however, is an artificial conflict.
Science per se does not engineer this
conflict, but scientists and their adherents do. Interestingly, there are Christian
scientists, even those that are much acclaimed in their domain, who believe in
God and prayer.
Christian scientists view the same
data or information that the atheist or agnostic scientists view.
Fascinatingly, the very same data that guides Christian scientists towards God
motivates the agnostic and atheist scientists to disregard God.
So it’s not the data, but it is the interpretation
of that data that motivates scientists to move towards or away from God. Digging
deeper, it can also be reasoned out that the innate bias against God impels
certain scientists to disregard God.
Richard Lewontin, a leading
evolutionist, famously expressed that innate bias against God. His dogged
determination to prevent God from entering through the door is verbalized here,
“Our willingness to accept scientific claims that are against common sense is
the key to an understanding of the real struggle between science and the
supernatural. We take the side of
science in spite of the patent
absurdity of some of its constructs, in
spite of its failure to fulfill many of its extravagant promises of health
and life, in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for
unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we have a prior commitment, a
commitment to materialism. It is not that the methods and institutions of
science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal
world, but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of
investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no
matter how counter-intuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated.
Moreover, that materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.” [Emphasis Mine]1
An a priori commitment to materialism induces a scientist to preclude
any notion of God to enter his realm. Thus the scientific materialist suffers
from this innate bias against God.
We have great regard for science,
no doubts. The fact of the matter is science is yet to conquer COVID-19. In
fact, science is learning from the human immune system designed by God to
overcome the Coronavirus.
Although God can heal everyone, the Bible does not teach that God would heal
every single person who pleads for healing.
Consider the healing narrative at
the Pool of Bethesda. A great number of sick, blind, lame, and paralyzed people
were lying there. But Jesus did not heal all of them. He healed only one (John
5:1-13).
Paul pleaded with God to heal him,
but God chose not to heal him (2 Corinthians 12: 7-10).
Timothy was not healed of his
frequent ailments (1 Timothy 5:23).
Trophimus was also not healed of his
sickness (2 Timothy 4:20).
If God were to heal every believer,
it is quite plausible that all the sick people would become Christians. They’d
become Christians for the sake of healing. That’s a wrong intent!
We don’t become a Christian for
health and wealth. We become a Christian so that we are forgiven of all our
sins and to be in right standing with God.
Those who believe in the Lord Jesus
believe in HIM for their salvation. Only the Triune God can forgive sins, hence
we believe in the only true and living God – the God revealed in the Bible.
If
God does not heal everyone, they why pray?
An excerpt from my blog entitled Why Pray When Everything Happens As How God
Determines? should suffice:2
First, we pray
because we can ask for that which we need. Just as how a child requests a
parent, we can ask our Heavenly Father. It’s our prerogative to ask and it’s
God prerogative to answer. Second, we need to be humble enough to accept
whatever God offers us, for we know that God is just, good and loving. Hence,
HIS decisions are always correct.
But you may
still ask, “What would one learn here that otherwise would not be possible
without prayer?”
We pray to
love, trust, and understand God in a growing measure. When we pray we get
spiritually closer to God. Significantly, when we pray, we are at peace with
God. We will be at peace with God even when our prayers are not answered or
when things do not go our way (e.g. betrayal, death, joblessness etc) despite
our fervent pleas.
But you may
still ask, “Do our prayers of asking God to change the situation make any
sense? How then should we pray? Moreover, how do the prayers in Old Testament
make sense (e.g. 2 Samuel 12:16)?
Yes, it does
make sense to ask God to change the situation, for no one wants to exist in an
adverse situation. Even the second person of the blessed Trinity, the Son,
asked the first person of the blessed Trinity, the Father, to change HIS
situation, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me…” (Luke 22:42,
NIV).
The second
part of this verse offers an answer to the question, “How should we pray?” The
second part of Luke 22:42 states, “…yet not my will, but yours be done.” So let
us pray for God’s will to be done and let us pray according to the will of God,
“And this is the confidence which we have in him, that if we ask anything
according to his will he hears us.” (1 John 5:14, RSV, Emphasis Mine).
(This does not
mean that God does not hear any prayer that is not offered according to HIS
will, for God, as an omniscient being, knows what we will say, even before we
say it.)
So no one could claim that prayer is
ineffective. Any assertion about the ineffectiveness of prayer is an argument
from ignorance.
If a Christian claims that prayer is
ineffective, then he needs to learn more about God and the Bible.
If an atheist claims that prayer is
ineffective, he is being [willfully] ignorant of God and HIS Word.
Recently,
the governor of New York infamously disregarded God while discussing the flattening
of the curve in New York, “The number is down because we brought the number
down. God did not do that. Fate did
not do that. Destiny did not do that. A lot of pain and suffering did that.” [Emphasis
Mine]3
But the governor of Texas Greg
Abbott believes and trusts in God, “Pastor Jack Graham interviewed Texas
governor Greg Abbott Sunday during Prestonwood Baptist Church’s service. Abbott
told Graham that we can see the hand of God working in the fight against
coronavirus. He went on to describe his own personal crisis and how that
informs what he’s doing to get Texas ready to reopen for business.
“When I was just 26 years old, I
suffered, literally, a back-breaking injury,” Abbott told Graham. Abbott was
permanently paralyzed from the accident. It was that injury that put him in a
place to lead Texas effectively. Abbott said that while it tested his faith, he
kept reaching out to God. “I found in the aftermath of that, as I continued to
reach out to God, I found God reaching out right back to me.” His relationship
with God and Jesus Christ was strengthened after the injury. “It empowered me
to go on and become the governor of the great state of Texas.”
Abbott added that everyone is
challenged and tested. Regardless of the challenge, Jesus will support people,
and He will always be there for them. “[If
you believe] Jesus Christ and God, you will be able to weather this storm. God
never promised us a life free of storms. What God promised was a pathway
through those storms. That’s what I’ve seen in my own life, that’s what I’m
seeing in Texas.” [Emphasis Mine]4
For every atheist who throws a
tantrum against God, there are two or more theists who thank God and trust in HIM
during times of trials and tribulations.
Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved - you and your household (Acts 16:31).
To God be the glory!
Endnotes:
1https://www.drjbloom.com/Public%20files/Lewontin_Review.htm
2https://rajkumarrichard.blogspot.com/2017/10/why-pray-when-everything-happens-as-how.html
3https://stream.org/while-ny-gov-cuomo-rejects-gods-help-in-this-crisis-texas-governor-abbott-says-put-your-faith-in-god/
4Ibid.
Websites last
accessed on 23rd April 2020.
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