Sci-Faith

I had never seen anything like it. A television show that took faith as seriously as it took it science. Lost would make arguments- sane arguments, I might add- for being deeply devoted to the spiritual. In an episode that took just as serious a look at quantum physics. For Lost, it seemed science and faith need not be at war- the Island was big enough for the both of them. In fact, the Island NEEDED both of them.

That's part of what makes the dynamic of Man of Science vs Man of Faith so intriguing. Jack was all science and saw no need for faith, Locke was all faith and saw no need for science. The Island was telling them both to open their minds.

Faith and science can and do co-exist here in the real world as well. I know of numerous individuals in the medical field who are deeply devoted to their faith. I know pastors who love to talk about biology or astrology. Yet there seems to come a line that never gets crossed between the two fields.

Usually, that line is evolution or creationism. Faith refuses to beleive we came from lesser organisms and science refuses to allow for a divine hand. Each side taunts that the other is making childishly ridiculous assertions while desperately trying to prove that their belief is fact.

Personally, I don't think we evolved as Darwin had it pegged. More of a (documented) adaptation as man was longer on the earth. I don't doubt that man looked different in the beginning than he does now. And I bet we'll look different in a few thousand years, as well. But our scientic adaptations- even evolutions- do not mean there is no God. God himself talks about an ultimate evolution- when we are made new in his presence at the end of all things. We will all be changed, that much is sure.

And what of healing? Jesus did it regularly. Now? Not so often do we see it. And when we do, it is easily ascribed to medical advances, not God. I see medical advances as very much a way God heals us. Matter cannot be created or destroyed- that's scientific law- aka as close to fact as it gets in science. So all the stuff needed to make the cure for polio was here before we found it. And if you beleive that God made all of man, that includes his creativity and desire for knowledge that led us to find cures. Sure, it would be whole lot cooler, not to mention less politicized, if we could just touch a sick person and make them well, but God has still given us the chance to see the miracle of healing through modern science.

Lost did something cool. It created a genre of entertainment I like to call Sci-faith. Part Science Fiction, part redemptive faith drama. Imagine a world where large stores of electromagnetism existed side by side with mysterious dieties with a mission.

Wait- that's OUR world, too, isn't it?