Science and Religion

Today I read Genesis 1 where God creates the earth and everything in it. You know, I once read a quote from Elder Neal A. Maxwell that said pure science and pure religion were the same thing. I find it really sad that so many people are confused by science because science is not bad. Science is actually really good. But science is also extremely arrogant. They think they have it all figured out which is really a little amusing to me. I mean, how many times in history do scientists think they have it all figured out and it turns out they are very wrong? It was not all that long ago that people thought the earth was flat. Before that we thought the earth was stationary. So many times we have thought we had it all figured out and it turned out in the end that we were wrong.

I only say that because so many scientists discard religion because they do not understand it, can't quantify it. They think that what they find with their science is completely incompatible with religion. For example, geologists will tell you that the earth is millions of years old and they think that Christianity is incorrect because we maintain that time as we know it started in 4000 B.C. I don't find the two at odds with each other at all. Matter cannot be created or destroyed Newton taught us, and he was right. But it can be re-purposed. I have no trouble believing that God used pieces from other worlds that He had previously created that have since been destroyed to create this earth. I also have no trouble believing that God took as much time as it needed to create this earth properly. I don't find the statement that the earth is millions of years old troubling at all or at odds with my beliefs.

In today's reading we read that God created the earth in six days. I prefer to think of it as six creative periods and we have absolutely no clue how long each of those were. I don't see any reason why they can't have lasted for millions of years or thousands of years or however long it took. I think that when we are finally shown/told how it all happened it will mesh with science perfectly, whatever the science of the day thinks is what happened. However, we do know that God understands the laws of the universe much more fully than we do. For example, we know that He can appear wherever He wants over vast distances very quickly. His statements to the Nephites that He had to visit the lost tribes of Israel before returning to them the next morning shows that. Moroni's multiple visits to Joseph Smith that first night also shows that. So to think that we have science all figured out is just plain silly and arrogant.

Perhaps when we see the grand plan we will be shocked just how wrong we all were in our suppositions. Perhaps not. It really doesn't matter. For the time being all we have to go on is faith and I choose to believe that God exists and that He has revealed Himself to man in these the latter days. I believe that He is and that He loves us and has revealed everything we need to know in order to return to live with Him someday. That is my testimony. Until tomorrow.