One year ago…

It started as a battle of wits, a competition of words.

“I definitely believe that there could be a creator. I simply don’t see any evidence of it. And I certainly don’t see any connection between a creator of the universe and the god of the bible.”

I replied, “I don’t understand your criteria for evidence. If I find a puddle of water on the floor, I know there had to be a cause: a spill from someone before I got there, an undisciplined dog, a leaky roof. If I find a watch in a field, I assume a designer, as well as a bereaved owner.”

He responded, “The evidence I require is simply science based: when collected and interpreted in accordance with the scientific method. Anecdotes, such as what I find in the christian bible, are wholly insufficient. For example, studies by Pew research show that 93% of the members of the US Academy of Sciences do not believe in God. That would be the level of evidence I want to see.”

Me: “That could be pretty compelling. I wonder, though, when the first scientist proposed a global earth instead of flat, what percentage of scientists may not have agreed. High percentages don’t always insure truth.”

No responses after that.

I looked up the US Academy of Sciences.

It currently has about 2290 members.

That means, according to this data, that there are approximately 160 members who believe in God.

That’s not bad.

Especially considerings that they have a maximum yearly election number of 84 new members.

They can only be nominated and chosen by current members.

Members who are 93% atheist , or agnostic, who would sincerely doubt a scientist’s credibility as a scientist if they knew that he believes in a god that cannot be seen, observed, or duplicated by scientific methods.

And, yet, somehow there are 160 members of this select group who see a possibility of an unseen powerful god.

I would bet the percentages would be much higher over the whole spectrum of scientists.

But, back to the evidence.

I would bet that most of these scientists believe in the evolutionary process proposed by Darwin.

Based on observational assumptions.

Not on personal observation of an event happening.

Not on a duplication by some scientific method of experimentation.

We all begin with some previous assumptions that we seek to prove.

The sad result of the conversation I had was the realization that most people don’t really want to know what is true, but only how to prove what I believe is true.

And, I feel deep, deep sorrow that I am not able to point someone to the Light, the Life, the Joy that I found in 1978, when I let the God that made me have me.

For His purpose.

Not mine.