A person who commented on yesterday’s post had some things to say with which I agree, even though s/he meant them as a criticism. Nevertheless, it does allow me to make a couple of points. Speaking of religious scientists s/he said:

There’s only a problem when they invoke god, also known as magic, to solve scientific problems. That’s not doing science. It’s called preaching. Competent scientists don’t say “Then a miracle occurs” when they can’t answer a question.

“If the history of science teaches us anything, it is that what conquers our ignorance is research, not giving up and attributing our ignorance to the miraculous work of a creator.” — Jerry Coyne

The poster is absolutely correct though I do partially disagree with the Coyne quote. The poster is indirectly referring to a position that continues to be popular among some Christians. It has been nicknamed the “god of the gaps.” What does that mean?

The phrase God of the gaps refers to a view of God as existing in the “gaps” or aspects of reality that are currently unexplained by scientific knowledge.

The phrase is generally derogatory, and is inherently a direct criticism of a tendency to postulate acts of God to explain phenomena for which science has yet to give a satisfactory account. Rather, theologians look for evidence of God’s actions within natural processes. . . .

In the 20th century Dietrich Bonhoeffer expressed the concept in similar terminology in letters he wrote while in a Nazi prison during World War II, which were not made public until years later. Bonhoeffer wrote, for example: “…how wrong it is to use God as a stop-gap for the incompleteness of our knowledge. If in fact the frontiers of knowledge are being pushed further and further back (and that is bound to be the case), then God is being pushed back with them, and is therefore continually in retreat. We are to find God in what we know, not in what we don’t know.”

Dietrich Bonhoffer–among others–has already pointed out the fallacies of that position. One fallacy is that as scientific knowledge expands, that type of argument means that God gets driven away farther and farther from human reality. The other thing is that it makes God a god of the illogical rather than the God of all reality. This type of position tends to completely opposes God and science for every advance of science means a decrease of God.

Frankly, this type of position tends to be found only among some of the Young Earth Creationists, and not even all of that group. I can remember hearing it in some sermons that would use the line from Colossians that says that in Christ all things hold together. The sermon would go on and try to quote some “scientific” facts to show that atoms should be blowing themselves apart, etc. Or, the sermon would talk about the inability to find a Grand Unified Theory (GUT) and explain that this was because the missing equations were the places in which God was directly at work holding the world together. (Note, I have never heard that argument made by an Orthodox clergyman.)

Nevertheless, the poster reacted with exaggeration when s/he appeared to say that scientists who are openly religious essentially hold to this position. In fact, his/her post confirms what I said yesterday about those who love to quote some of the extremists from the other side in order to have an easy straw man to attack. There are many religious scientists doing significant research, including cosmological research, who see missing knowledge as an encouragement to keep on trying to find the explanation. The reason is precisely that they do not have a god of the gaps but rather have a much better integrated view of the universe.

A philosopher called Arthur Holmes expressed some of that integrated viewpoint in his book, published many years ago, called All Truth is God’s Truth. It is a book worth reading as it talks about the “divorce” that happened between science and religion in the Middle Ages, but also seriously speaks about an integrated theory of knowledge.

It is that type of integrated viewpoint about which I am speaking.

===MORE TO COME===

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As I commented yesterday, the Church has often had a hard time knowing how to respond to advances in cosmology. There has been a tendency to go to one of two extremes. One extreme is that most often cited by the news media, the Galileo trial and the Scopes trial, one by the Roman Catholic Church and one by fundamentalist Protestants. In each case, the church people involved claimed to be defending Scriptures against the ravages of a secularizing science. And, in each case rather than Christianity being defended, it was damaged by the actions of those two groups.

The other extreme is that of a complete capitulation to anything labeled “science,” that is an unquestioning acceptance of any and every theory that goes by. This extreme is found most often in “liberal” Protestants, although nowadays it is also found as an unthinking attitude among many Christians who have simply do not think about the subject or who are reacting against Young Earth Creationists. When the attitude is held by liberal Protestants, it is often associated with a superior attitude towards anyone who might argue with any of the conclusions of “science.” But, I have a soft spot for those who hold that attitude in reaction to the YEC people.

Because of the extremes, it is difficult for Christians who do not see modern science and religion as being at loggerheads. Attempts to form a reasonable philosophical structure that allows for interaction between science and religion are often attacked from both sides. Young Earth Creationists often engage in a modern Inquisition that accuses any who disagree with them of destroying Christianity, and accuses them of not really believing the Bible. YEC’rs have silenced thousands of Christians who go to church but dare not express their philosophical framework because they will be attacked and mocked.

On the other side, the Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawkins types are found both within the fields of academia and science research institutions. They try to silence any scientists who try to express any type of religious conclusion as a result of their cosmological studies. A couple of years ago a major scientist publicly changed his mind and went from atheist to a believer in the existence of God. (Please note that he did not necessarily believe in the Biblical God, but rather in a Creator God.) The attacks against him were ad hominem arguments that simply accused him of old age and of emotional instability. They are the science version of an inquisitional approach.

Not surprisingly, both sides love to use each other as the boogeyman against which they are fighting. Thus YEC’rs are extremely adept at citing any and every example of a professor or a teacher who “tries to destroy faith.” This is used to justify their aggressive campaign. Meanwhile the Carl Sagan types are quick to cite the attempts of YEC’rs to legally force their belief to be taught as the reason why they also must engage in aggressive tactics.

So, what is a moderate Christian to do?

===MORE TO COME===

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Father Orthoduck has been having to travel all too much lately. So, he has not had time to think any of several issues through. Nevertheless, the article below by E.J. Dionne is one that he thinks all of us can take to heart. Do take the time to read it through, as it ends up taking on liberals, conservatives, and moderates, and pointing out that we are all guilty of helping lead this country into the Alice in Wonderland approach that we have taken towards finances.

The Politics of Stupidity Strike Again

By E.J. Dionne, Jr.

Jul 28, 2010

Can a nation remain a superpower if its internal politics are incorrigibly stupid?

Start with taxes. In every other serious democracy, conservative political parties feel at least some obligation to match their tax policies with their spending plans. David Cameron, the new Conservative prime minister in Britain, is a leading example.

He recently offered a rather brutal budget that includes severe cutbacks. I have doubts about some of them, but at least Cameron cared enough about reducing his country’s deficit that alongside the cuts, he also proposed an increase in the value-added tax from 17.5 percent to 20 percent. Imagine: a fiscal conservative who really is a fiscal conservative.

That could never happen here because the fairy tale of supply-side economics insists that taxes are always too high, especially on the rich.

This is why Democrats will be fools if they don’t try to turn the Republicans’ refusal to raise taxes on families earning more than $250,000 a year into an election issue. If Democrats go into a headlong retreat on this, they will have no standing to govern.

The simple truth is that the wealthy in the United States—the people who have made almost all the income gains in recent years—are undertaxed compared with everyone else.

Consider two reports from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. One, issued last month, highlighted findings from the Congressional Budget Office showing that “the gaps in after-tax income between the richest 1 percent of Americans and the middle and poorest fifths of the country more than tripled between 1979 and 2007,” the period for which figures are available.

The other, from February, used Internal Revenue Service data to show that the effective federal income tax rate for the 400 taxpayers with the very highest incomes declined by nearly half in just over a decade, even as their pre-tax incomes have grown five times larger.

The study found that the top 400 households “paid 16.6 percent of their income in federal individual income taxes in 2007, down from 30 percent in 1995.” We are talking here about truly rich people: Using 2007 dollars, it took an adjusted gross income of at least $35 million to get into the top 400 in 1992, and $139 million in 2007.

The notion that when we are fighting two wars, we’re not supposed to consider raising taxes on such Americans is one sign of a country that’s no longer serious. Why do so few foreign policy hawks acknowledge that if they lack the gumption to ask taxpayers to finance the projection of American military power, we won’t be able to project it in the long run?

And if we are unwilling to have a full-scale debate over whether nation-building abroad is getting in the way of nation-building at home, we will accomplish neither.

Our discussion of the economic stimulus is another symptom of political irrationality. It’s entirely true that the $787 billion recovery package passed last year was not big enough to keep unemployment from rising to over 9 percent.

But this is not actually an argument against the stimulus. On the contrary, studies showing that the stimulus created or saved up to 3 million jobs are very hard to refute. It’s much easier to pretend that all this money was wasted, although the evidence is overwhelming that we should have stimulated more.

Then there’s the very structure of our government. Does any other democracy have a powerful legislative branch as undemocratic as the U.S. Senate?

When our republic was created, the population ratio between the largest and smallest state was 13 to 1. Now, it’s 68 to 1. Because of the abuse of the filibuster, 41 senators representing less than 11 percent of the nation’s population can, in principle, block action supported by 59 senators representing more than 89 percent of our population. And you wonder why it’s so hard to get anything done in Washington?

I’m a chronic optimist about America. But we are letting stupid politics, irrational ideas on fiscal policy and an antiquated political structure undermine our power.

We need a new conservatism in our country that is worthy of the name. We need liberals willing to speak out on the threat our daft politics poses to our influence in the world. We need moderates who do more than stick their fingers in the wind to calculate the halfway point between two political poles.

And yes, we need to reform a Senate that has become an embarrassment to our democratic claims.

E.J. Dionne’s e-mail address is ejdionne(at)washpost.com.

© 2010, Washington Post Writers Group

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Father Orthoduck is on the road, so he is printing below parts of a post from Pithless Thoughts. Please do follow the link and read the full post. Father Ernesto hopes to be able to blog again tomorrow.

It is no secret to those who know me that I aspired to the priesthood for about 50 years of my life. For 30 of those years since I got fired from my one “full time ministry job” I’ve been a construction worker to put a lot of food on a large table under a large roof for a large family.  Since I became Orthodox almost a dozen years ago, I’ve been “THIS close” to being ordained a few times, but by God’s grace it hasn’t happened. Now I know… well, actually it’s more like “now I can admit”… why. [Snip by Father Orthoduck]

There are stories of men who were forcibly dragged to the altar and ordained. I have been forcibly dragged to my true altar. I now wear the vestments of my true priesthood willingly. These are the vestments of a true priest. These are the most difficult to wear because they have a hidden glory.

If a man will not wear these in peace, with joy, diligence and gratitude and offer himself to put bread on the altar of his family’s supper table, he is not fit to wear the gold vestments and offer the bread of the table of the Lord.

Oops, did Father Orthoduck leave out a bunch of important stuff in the middle?  I guess you will just have to read his post.

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Father Orthoduck wishes that he had known that it was this easy years ago. It would have certainly saved him fasting, prayer, Bible study, etc.

But, there are definitely mornings  when the statement above sure seems like a true statement!

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Father Orthoduck has preempted Father Ernesto’s discussion on government to present the video below. Certainly, one of the functions of government is to ensure that the laws are written in such a way that they do not lead to inappropriate profiling. As our laws often put it, it is important for government functionaries to have reasonable cause in order to search people, or, yes, in order to require their identity.

The Colbert Report	Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Arturo Rodriguez
www.colbertnation.com
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About three weeks ago, the United Farm Workers launched an interesting initiative, which Father Orthoduck is glad to support. The video above is from the 8 July Colbert Report. It had to do with illegal farm workers. The UFW wants to expose at least one false argument that is used against undocumented workers. That argument is that the undocumented aliens are taking jobs away from citizens and legal residents of the United States. They only work in the area of agriculture, so they can only issue a challenge in that area. But, the challenge is below:

There are two issues facing our nation–high unemployment and undocumented people in the workforce–that many Americans believe are related.

Missing from the debate on both issues is an honest recognition that the food we all eat – at home, in restaurants and workplace cafeterias (including those in the Capitol) – comes to us from the labor of undocumented farm workers.

Agriculture in the United States is dependent on an immigrant workforce. Three-quarters of all crop workers working in American agriculture were born outside the United States. According to government statistics, since the late 1990s, at least 50% of the crop workers have not been authorized to work legally in the United States.

We are a nation in denial about our food supply. As a result the UFW has initiated the “Take Our Jobs” campaign.

Farm workers are ready to welcome citizens and legal residents who wish to replace them in the field. We will use our knowledge and staff to help connect the unemployed with farm employers. Just fill out the form to the right and continue on to the request for job application.

The form at the right asks for your name, e-mail address, and a zip code. Having said that, one can also simply write to the UFW using snail mail. The form at the right gives a very brief description of minimum job requirements. Father Orthoduck thinks the readers of this blog will agree that it is an accurate job description that is not sensationalized:

Job may include using hand tools such as knives, hoes, shovels, etc. Duties may include tilling the soil, transplanting, weeding, thinning, picking, cutting, sorting & packing of harvested produce. May set up & operate irrigation equip. Work is performed outside in all weather conditions (Summertime 90+ degree weather) & is physically demanding requiring workers to bend, stoop, lift & carry up to 50 lbs on a regular basis.

These are honorable jobs, working on farms that follow US Department of Agriculture guidelines. So, since we all believe in the dignity of hard work and since the unemployment rate is so high, certainly there will be plenty of US citizens and residents ready to take these jobs, right? Well, a week ago, the ABC affiliate in the Fresno, California area reported (Father Orthoduck has snipped parts of the report for brevity’s sake):

Tough, back breaking jobs that this farm labor contractor is having trouble filling this season. Leopaldo Garcia a farm labor contractor told us, “This is hard work, to harvest peaches grapes or whatever’s in the farm, it’s hard.” He has had no luck going to state unemployment offices for people willing to take the jobs he has to offer, “I make an order last week and nobody called yet, to whoever wants to work and they don’t call yet.”

Finding a permanent legal solution to a now largely illegal immigrant work force is a common goal for the UFW and farmers these days. And many Central Valley farmers like Chuna are hanging their hopes on the current farm bill before congress to insure a means to harvest their crops.

In other words, despite a terrible shortage of farm workers and a high unemployment rate in the nation, those jobs are going unfilled, uhm, except by those horrible illegal aliens, right? But, even with them, there is still a shortage of people willing to take those jobs. Without them, one can hardly imagine what will happen to the fruit and vegetable industry in this country. The UFW has even guaranteed in a letter to Congress that any new hires will be fully trained by an experienced union member, and should every position be filled, that the undocumented will be the first to be let go, even if they are union members.

And, yet, there has been little response. Here is the worst danger for the USA. Should the farms begin to close because of the inability to harvest their crops in an efficient fashion, we face the prospect of having to import fruits and vegetables from other countries. It is true that we export grains. But, grains can be harvested by combines, etc. Many of the fruits and vegetables, however, do not yield to mass-production mechanized methods of harvest, but must still be hand-picked to this day. So, we face the danger of becoming an importing country for even greens that have been being grown right here in America.

So, let Father Orthoduck do his bit to promote this campaign. Father Orthoduck doubts this will silence those who are convinced that illegal immigrants harm the USA, they are quite ready to believe fantasy tales, as Gov. Brewer of Arizona has demonstrated. But it will at least take one argument away from them.

So, go ahead America. Prove us Latinos wrong. Take those jobs. Are you unemployed and healthy? There are jobs for you, male or female, young or old. As the title of the campaign says, “Take Our Jobs,” please.

But, if you will not “Take Our Jobs,” then change the immigration policy to allow those here to continue working and new ones to come in, as necessary, for the farmers of America to be able to continue to provide the quality greens to which we have become accustomed in this country.

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The Episcopal Assembly of all Orthodox bishops in North America was held back in May. Both before and after the event, bloggers of various types have been busy condemning the event. The charges of Greek takeover are rampant. For instance, one blogger states:

Underlying this article is the equation of the “Greek Orthodox Church” in Greece and the US with Phanar. Sorry but I have absolutely no desire to be seen in the future as in any way,shape or form as a member of a subsidiary of either of these two bodies. This is regardless of whatever bizarre non-rational arguments Phanar may make about themselves as being truly Eastern Romans. They are modern Greeks.

But another blogger comments:

One of my personal difficulties, and I have to be frank about this, is that it appears that everything will be under Constantinople.  There is some logic to this.  After all a recent study states that 80% of the Orthodox in the United States are already in the Greek Archdiocese.  If they have those numbers, then naturally they should have the lion’s share of say.

Generally the enmity against the Greeks seems to have several sources. One is what Father Orthoduck calls the “Big Fat Greek Wedding” effect. If you remember that movie, you will remember that the father was an overwhelming supporter of anything Greek. Sadly, he also disparaged anything that was not Greek. The Greek Orthodox Church in the United States has all too often functioned as a Greek club, and its members have made it all too often clear that non-Greeks are present in their churches (notice, not God’s churches) only on sufferance. That is, the Greek Orthodox in the USA have earned some of the enmity against them. Sadly, some Greeks continue with this attitude.

Another source of enmity is the charge that the Ecumenical Patriarch is trying to take over much of the world and is trying to make himself into a mini-Pope. That could be true, but how would one prove it? There is a theological source of enmity that says that the theological claims by the Ecumenical Patriarchate that they have authority over the “barbarians” is wrong. Yet, while Father Orthoduck thinks that the claim is wrong, he is not ready to use this as a charge against the Patriarchate. This is a difference in theological opinion, not an issue of heresy.

But, Father Orthoduck is a convert. So, he would like to mention that he has some, uhm, ethnic folk in his church who have bedeviled him by having exactly the same attitude as the Greeks, and making it clear that they think that Father Orthoduck does not really know Orthodoxy. So, for a convert, being in one ethnic jurisdiction or in another ethnic jurisdiction does not really matter. In fact, the union of the various jurisdictions may very well work in favor of converts by forcing ethnic people to relate to each other and to the converts in a more godly faction.

As to the conspiracy arguments (that Moscow and Constantinople have made a deal so that Moscow gets jurisdiction over Slavic Europe while Constantinople get the rest of the world) and the theological argument, they do not matter much to Father Orthoduck either. They may or may not be true. There may be a conspiracy, there may not. There may be a mistaken theological argument, there may not. But, as a convert, Father Orthoduck is convinced that the unity of the Orthodox in the USA needs to be our most important priority. And, that united Church will doubtlessly be under some Patriarchate for a period of time. That period of time may be decades to well over a century long. Those who argue that the jurisdictions should be united and immediately be granted a Patriarch are going against the precedent of Church history. It always has taken a while before a region is granted both autonomy and autocephaly. The number of world patriarchs is actually very very low.

As a convert, Father Orthoduck does not care much under which Patriarch the united Church is placed. He has no ethnic connection that calls out to one patriarchate over another, unless there is a Cuban patriarch hiding somewhere. And, since the Greek Orthodox Church is the largest part of Orthodoxy in the USA, they do have a very good argument as to why it should be their Patriarch. And, since their Patriarch is also the Ecumenical Patriarch, well, that would indeed put us under Constantinople.

The only thing Father Orthoduck wants from the Greeks is to control those who disparage non-Greeks. It does not actually bother Father Orthoduck to use some Greek in the service. Using the language of the New Testament is enjoyable and lets Father Orthoduck feel a bit of a connection the past. But the disparaging attitude has got to go!

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By popular demand from Father Ernesto’s blog on kitsch, here is the ever-popular “Plastic Jesus” from 1972. On a more serious note, this is the danger of Christian kitsch. But, Father Orthoduck will probably be forced to go to confession by Father Ernesto after posting this song.

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In one of the more startling results of an already startling World Cup, Brazil was defeated by the Netherlands 2-1. Father Orthoduck was not a fan of Brazil, so he is not too unhappy with this result, but he is startled. Sadly, Ghana lost. Father Orthoduck knows absolutely nothing about the Ghanian team, but he was hoping that at least one of the African countries would make it to the finals, since it is being hosted in South Africa. Nevertheless, Ghana did a good job and their countrymen are rightfully proud of them. Here is one report on the Netherlands / Brazil match.

PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa — Don’t call the Dutch underachievers anymore, not after the way the Netherlands rallied to upset five-time champion Brazil 2-1 in the World Cup quarterfinals Friday.

After waking themselves up at halftime, the title that has eluded the Dutch for all these years is now just two wins away.

“For 45 minutes we went full throttle,” said Wesley Sneijder. “We were rewarded.”

One of the shortest players on the field, Sneijder put the Netherlands ahead in the 68th minute on a header — a thrill so huge he ran to a TV camera, tapped the lens and stuck his face in for a close-up.

Sadly, not all was sweetness and light. Sadly, a player lost his composure and behaved in an unsportsmanlike manner. He was red carded.

The top-ranked team in the world and one of the most impressive squads in the tournament until Friday, Brazil lost its composure after falling behind and defender Felipe Melo was ejected in the 73rd minute for stomping on the leg of Arjen Robben.

So, GGGGGOOOO Netherlands! Good job against Brazil. But, Father Orthoduck must admit that of the remaining teams he is somewhat partial to Uruguay now.

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