My son and I were talking today and he asked me the question a lot of 10-year-olds ask, "Do you believe in God?" I flashed back to when I was 10; my father and I were in the garage changing the brake pads on the family car. I chose that opportunity to ask the smartest man I knew the exact same question. At the time, I didn't understand his answer and was even a little pissed off by it.
I was quite the little scientist as a child, breaking things so I could fix them, playing with chemicals and, of course, blowing things up. My analytical mind had a real problem with the notion of an omnipotent and omniscient being in charge of everything. My mind could not reconcile the granddaddy of all religious loopholes, the leap of faith. I mean, after all, science is fact, right?
Well, not exactly.
Science, by its own parameters, cannot find the seeds of its creation. To find a fundamental building block, we must split things apart; first, it was the atom, then the quark. Go ahead and take a look at any theoretical physics text, the list of subatomic particles is expanding.
The real question should be: if you cut something in half, won't there always be something remaining? If we do not understand what the foundation of our house is made of, be it bedrock, beach sand or the back of St. Peter, how do we know if it will weather the next storm?
If we never find the foundation of all science, then, by proxy, does science not require the same leap of faith?
The fundamental unit, whether it be God or Science, does not matter. We will never find the answer, for we were never meant to. The journey to find the answer is the true meaning of life. Our quest for an understanding of the unknown is what unites us all, no matter what your personal basis may be.
It is too bad we choose to fight over the path rather than enjoy the experiences that occur when different paths cross; these are truly the greatest moments in life. We are, by nature, secretive creatures, but ask someone about their faith and the playing field changes — it seems to be the one thing people really enjoy talking about and explaining. We should be able to learn from one another, for I'm sure none of us have it exactly right. But collectively, who knows?
Because the basis of each view can never be definitively known, the two logically cannot contradict each other. Who knows, perhaps at the heart of each view lays the same truth. What matters is that we all inherently hold a piece of the puzzle within us and only with open dialogue and an open mind can we share our piece with others in hopes of completing the puzzle. None of us holds the complete picture in our hands, no matter how strongly we believe we do.
Do I believe entirely in God? No. Do I believe entirely in Science? No. The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle. It took me 20 years to completely understand the answer given to me that day by still the smartest man I know.
When my son Ethan asked, "Do you believe in God?" I turned to him and took pride in borrowing my father's answer, an answer so simple and correct that it only takes three words: "I don't care."
If, after reading this column twice, you wish to cross paths with the author, contact can be made at: jamey.sackett@asu.edu.