Has God Surrendered?
It’s over. The battle has been fought. We lost. It’s true, science has finally beaten the Bible.
New Age spiritualist Deepak Chopra, a friend of Michael Jackson, Oprah Winfrey and an author of many self-help books has offered two pronouncements: Science has won over Genesis and organized religion is unnecessary. The Indian born American educated M.D. He opines:
I’m thinking instead of Charles Darwin, whose theory of evolution has proved victorious over the Book of Genesis and its story of God creating the universe in seven days. Since then, God has been found wanting when measured against facts and data. With no data to support the existence of God, there is also no reason for religion and science to close the gap between them.
I am afraid, sir, that you are just wrong. While opponents of the Biblical account of Creation like to suggest a victory they are short-sighted and over confident in their thinking. Despite all their pronouncements, the moment of Creation remains beyond their ability to observe or test. Without observation and without the ability to test and replicate those tests, science is powerless. At the very best, a scientist can offer educated speculation about the Creation but he cannot know that his imaginations are accurate.
In other words, and building on Chopra’s comment, there is no data to support scientific ideas of Creation. It cannot be seen, observed, tested or replicated. It cannot be known through science.
Somehow, people have elevated science to god status. Yet science is ever changing and can never offer a truly stable foundation for any eternal question. But the Bible, rooted in the truth of God, does not change. It is true that God changes his methods in order to deal with man appropriately in every age but He does not change nor does his truth.
Curiously, Chopra argues in the above article against the current attitude of science. He notes that researchers are today asking questions that sound more like religion than old style science. In this he is correct. Scientists of renown are beginning to ask the basic “how” and “why” questions. Their answers are moving many closer to the concept of intelligent design in which some knowledgeable force set the world in motion. Now, that’s still a long way from the God of the Bible but it is a start.
As to the question of organized religion Chopra notes in passing its passing from the scene:
Religion and spirituality didn’t go away just because organized religion has been losing its hold, as suggested by showing decades of declining church attendance in the U.S. and Western Europe.
There is some truth in that statement. Church attendance is declining. But Chopra is trying to make the case for his brand of internal, isolationist faith which is driven by feelings. He uses the Bible to support his claim.
If God is to be found anywhere, it is inside the consciousness of each person. Even in the Christian West we have the assurance of Jesus that the kingdom of heaven is within, while the Old Testament declares, “Be still and know that I am God.”
Like many false teachers, Chopra does a fine job quoting the Holy Scriptures. Satan knows the Bible (Matthew 4:5-6), can appear as an “angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14) and trembles at the presence of God (James 2:19). But the Bible teaches that he church was given by Jesus Himself (Matthew 16:18) and was bought and paid for by Jesus’ own blood (Acts 20:28). It is true that attendance is declining. But it is not true that people have found a better way. Instead they walk the path of emotion and navigate the trail of feelings. They indeed have a zeal without knowledge (Romans 10:2).
Chopra may have some good ideas about alternative medicine, I don’t know, but he is bankrupt when speaking of the divine path of salvation.