Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever.

• Genesis 13:15

Your eyes will see the king in his beauty
    and view a land that stretches afar.

• Isaiah 33:17

But God made the earth by his power;
    he founded the world by his wisdom
    and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.

• 1 Corinthians 13:12

But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”
Then the Lord said, “There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.”

• Exodus 33:20-23

“ ‘Only Darling Speculation can lead us further and not accumulation of facts.’ – Albert Einstein”

• Bryan Magee, The Story of Philosophy

“Good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered.”

• C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) was a German theoretical physicist.  He developed the theory of relativity and contributed to quantum theory.

Einstein was firing a warning shot with his comment.  He took his theories as far as observable science would take him.  Anything beyond that was speculation.  Calling it “darling speculation” was the warning shot part of things.

What Einstein was saying with darling speculation is that some scientists will be tempted to go beyond what is observable.  With money dangling from politicians, the temptation might be too much.

Of course, science can produce even better instruments to fine tune Einstein’s theories, but the temptation to publish what looks like that new observation might become, they will fall prey to darling speculation.  After all, they get the government contract to prove their theory, a theory that cannot be proven.  And government contracts are free money in that you are required to publish something, even if you publish volumes upon volumes of data that proves nothing.

And then, if you can obfuscate enough, you might even get a Nobel Prize out of it.

And in the modern worldview trend where any theory that ignores God is a money-making theory, you might just get entire volumes of books based on darling speculation.

Who cares if it is the truth?  What counts is whether the check cashes.

I am not equating Big Bang, Evolution, and millions of years to this formula, but once you become a darling of the progressive worldview, proof that you were wrong easily gets buried.

All the Scriptures above have to do with seeing clearly.  Can we see an infinite distance?  Can we prove what is out there by what we see within our range of focus?  And what about seeing something that is invisible?

We see God in what He created and the intelligent design in which it was created.  But God is a spirit.  We cannot see God the Father, only His Glory.

We cannot see the sun directly, at least without filters.  Our eyes would become damaged.  In our present earthly bodies who are stained by a sin nature, we cannot see God.  If He revealed Himself fully, we would perish.  But, we can see the effects of the sun.  Why not extend that concept to God?

I know, the unbeliever would say that is darling speculation.

And although I see God in His creation and know God is in my heart.  I do not have to prove God to someone who refuses to see it.  These philosophy discussions are meant to cause people to think.

If you like these Tuesday morning essays about philosophy and other “heavy topics,” but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Tuesday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.