The Wonders of Science, or the Wonder of God?

The fact is, the Christian god is a limited deity. By the reasoning of these worshippers, god is a very personal god, one who has no center of calm, who jumps down a person's throat with the swiftness of a major temper, who cannot tolerate any kind of independent thought, whose omnipotence and omniscience is stifled by his own petty jealousy and fear that his adherents will seek out "forbidden" knowledge against his will.

But it's not just the Christian god who holds such limited power--many, many other gods, of one culture or another, seem to have similar shortcomings.

If there were indeed some "deity" that existed, I would never put faith in anything less than the creator of our universe, and any others that might exist. Such a creator would not be confined to planet earth or its environs, but who would continue on its infinite journey, perhaps unaware of who or what it has created along the way.

But it doesn't matter. Whether we choose to believe in something beyond our own borders in the galaxy, the fact remains: science and the knowledge we acquire through it, beats any kind of conscious thought, even if its that of an alleged deity.

Look--there's a rainbow! Beautiful, isn't it? The visible spectrum, fresh and lovely, it shines only after the rain ends, and holds us in its grasp even if it's limited in how long it lasts. Do you feel more awe believing that a god created it, or if there is a scientific explanation for it? Isn't it more hypnotic knowing that it can be repeated, and isn't just a "miracle" that a god created on a whim?

The aurora borealis, a sunset, the green earth, flowers, Grand Canyon, or a tree--the science behind each of these things makes it not only repeatable, but also taken for granted at times. But science knows that all these things, from a rock to a living creature has an origin, and has an explanation for its presence.

There is no hand of god working magic, there is no simple beginning shrouded in mystery. The god is something that ancient cultures created because they could not relate to deeper and more complex origins. If there was a storm, the gods were angry. If someone got killed by lightning, they had been wicked. If someone had "displeased" god, they would end up dying relatively soon.

But there was no science to explain why a storm starts, why lightning strikes, and why someone could have a heart attack, suffer a stroke, die from cancer, or even be pummeled by a brain aneurysm. Medicine was, at that time, and for a long time afterwards, be limited to battlefield first aid, and little else.

I have heard people talking about "god's miracles" and felt uncomfortable thinking someone has more awe of what a gpd might create, than what science has helped to define.

A "fingerprint of god" fills me with less wonder than knowing that I can enjoy something over and over again because I understand how something occurs, and how often I can be assured that it won't be the last time I see that wonder.