Where Science and Divine Revelation Meet

Guest Opinion

This column concerns the incident where a long-time employee at a local church was fired because Catholic doctrine could not tolerate having a male employee who was legally married to another man. I was interested to see that the Catholic doctrines concerning marriage are based on “divine revelation,” or God’s revealed plan for us.

Unfortunately, the “revelation” behind these beliefs comes from interpretations, entirely by men, of a series of translations of ancient texts that were mostly based on 200 or more years of verbal stories passed through generations before they were written.

The documents were written before the age of reason and objective examination of nature’s wonders, before there was any understanding of climate, causes of disease, or lightning. It is easy to understand why massive storms and plagues were thought to be whims of an angry God, who might be persuaded by prayer…or by giving money to the Church.

Some biblical stories have been confirmed by science: Genesis described Creation in the right order—except that day four (creation of sun, moon, and stars) actually occurred on day two, right after God created light on the first day (the Big Bang). They created the air and firmament on day three. Switching days two and four could easily have been an error in translation or retelling through generations.

There are also explanations for the plagues that were inflicted by Moses, including Passover, some of which were independently documented elsewhere. There are many truths in the Bible, and some of them are profound, but there are also many things that are demonstrably not true, or are vague enough to be cruelly exploited by fear mongers who prey on the fearful and gullible.

There are many scientists with faith in God who see “divine revelation” in the infinite complexity of the physical and biological laws of nature, as revealed to us through careful study and research. It is these discoveries that slowly reveal God’s plan and that have given us the miracles that we see every day.

We have powers in our pocket that were only dreamed of in biblical days. We have bionic limbs, AED defibrillators, cochlear implants, and drop-in cataract surgery centers. We have vaccines. From a biblical perspective, these are truly miracles.

The Prophets in the Bible promised miracles right then, in the moment, and the people were usually disappointed. But if we look at it in perspective of what God did in a day of creation (pick any of the other six), these miracles took just over 2,000 Earth years, which is about five seconds relative to a full day of Creation. Could God have given his people the gift of reason just for this? Perhaps God arose on the eighth day, heard the peoples’ prayers, and answered them before he had breakfast.

Now we have the answers, but we don’t see them for the miracles they are.

Now, back to the opening topic on “divine revelation.” In the natural world, diversity is central to life and evolution. Two unicellular organisms, on meeting, might have one consume the other, or mate, or cooperate symbiotically. That diversity in attraction and the ability to consume, mate, or join and live symbiotically is how all plants and animals evolved. That started on the fourth day and drove evolution through days five and six.

The only binary feature is that for sexual reproduction, male and female genes are needed to form a full set. Nothing else exists in binary in any species, including attraction, gender, sex, mating behavior, compatibility, or, in many cases, even means of reproduction.

Why do people cling to beliefs based on biased interpretations of translations of ancient stories when we have scientifically proven facts that contradict them? Why demonize friends and neighbors who love differently, express their gender differently, or build their family differently? The question should be, “Why is this an issue?” Why does this mindset endure in communities of faith who claim to love one another and endeavor to follow divine revelation?

Somehow, the doctrine of denial benefited the Church, back when they were a force. My best guess is that their scorn of non-conforming behavior was effective in driving the affected individuals into the Church, because that was the only way they could enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Having other like-minded individuals join them in the monastery might have been a comfort.

We will never know the reason behind the scorn for the LGBTQ+ community, but we do see the unfortunate outcomes. Please, readers, seek divine revelation where it reveals itself every day—in nature and its wonders, where diversity is the secret sauce in God’s plan to make more miracles.

Dan Tholen is a biostatistician who works in the measurement sciences and is the current President of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Grand Traverse.

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