The science of Christianity

I had a very interesting conversation yesterday with a good friend who considers himself to be a "scientific Marxist".

Being both scientific and a Marxist he does not believe in the existence of God, and gives me an impression of being quite disappointed that I do. However much I disagree with his views (although I have nothing per se against either scientists or Marxists), I would concede that he is very much an intellectual.

To a certain extent any attempt to counter cold science with faith, or for that matter vice versa, is fairly pointless. The two exist upon different planes. If the metaphysical could be explained by reference to a mathematical formula then it would no longer be metaphysics, and similarly God's power exists outside of scientific comprehension.

As I have stated elsewhere on this blog, infinity and eternity are two concepts that science has not been able to satisfactorily explain. Oddly my friend disagreed with this, but the evidence he used to support his case either went clean over my head or, as I believe to be the case, was not really evidence at all.

A preacher who used to visit my Church once told me about a friend he had, who was a surgeon. A man to whom, in other words, a thorough grasp of science was an imperative. The preacher relayed to me how the surgeon had marvelled at the complexity and precision of the human body, and concluded that only a divine creator could have devised such a thing.

Perhaps that's why even Darwin, having (we are told) debunked the creationist theory, never went so far as to describe himself as an atheist. My Marxist friend protested that this was only because his own (Darwin's) wife had been a Christian.

Not a very scientific argument, I thought.