God Speaks Science by John Van Sloten

Author:John Van Sloten [Sloten, John Van]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Moody Publishers
Published: 2023-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

Right now, these foreign bodies (the mitochondria) sustain our lives. What’s striking about this interdependent relationship is that God put this system into play long ago. Before any of us came to be, God embedded the need for others into our physiologies. Our intrinsic dependence on mitochondria can point to our intrinsic dependence on both God and others. This dependence helps to make us more fully who we are.

DEPENDING ON GOD

To know God is the most essential thing for a person of faith. The ultimate gift you can give God is your whole life. The ultimate gift you can receive is God’s life. To be united with God through Christ—a far deeper union than that of mitochondria and our cells—is to be alive in the greatest sense imaginable.

And the life God has for us is often unimaginable.

When German biophysics researcher Peter Hegemann uncovered how pond algae sense sunlight and regulate photosynthesis by moving up or down relative to the water’s surface, he could never have imagined this discovery would lead to a technology that would allow neurons to be turned on and off with light—enabling a deeper understanding of neural networks.8 Algae have a protein that converts light into an electrical signal. Once a gene connected to this protein is inserted into a neuron, a photosensitive switch is created. Neuroscientists can now study the brain at a level previously unimagined—all because Peter Hegemann wanted to know what made pond algae go up and down.

This is the kind of surprise that can develop from communal interdependence, especially when the community is diverse. Right now, discoveries are being made in seemingly unrelated fields that will change the trajectory of science. To the extent that researchers graciously share what they’ve learned, read what others have learned, and apply these learnings back into their work—science grows. Through the give and take of diverse interdependence, humanity flourishes.

Even as the photosensitive workings of pond algae bring new light to the human brain, God brings light to us through an interdependent connection. Perhaps the best example of two disparate entities coming together is God and human beings! When they were brought together, the result was Jesus—humanity as it was intended to be.

Jesus is the key to understanding what interdependent indwelling can look like. The key to fruitful interdependence is remaining in Him. As we practice remaining in Christ, we’ll grow toward becoming fully interdependent beings who are more humble, receptive, and giving—the way God made us to be.

Science gives us a front row seat to the vast interdependencies of the cosmos. The clarity science brings to the interdependencies of the universe is a gift to humanity and a pointer to Jesus, who invites us to remain in Him.

If humanity is made for God, then depending on God should be the most innate, natural, and life-giving thing imaginable for humanity.

Consider how the interdependencies of your body free you to grow.

Our smooth-muscle cells are born with complete instructions, in need of no help from us, and they work away

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