Teaching Intellect and Faith

"Mom, is there anything that God didn’t create?" -- What is the connection between faith and learning? An article by: RACHEL MARRON

William sat up from the breakfast table, “Mom, is there anything that God didn’t create?” I’ve noticed my children become philosophical at two times: bedtime and school time.

“What’s the first law of thermodynamics?” I asked.

He rattled off his science fact for the week: “energy cannot be created or destroyed.” I raised my eyebrows prompting him to continue thinking. After a pause, “Oooh! Well we can’t create energy. God did. We use what God made.” Satisfied, he returned to his math.

Since the oldest is six, I know there will likely come a time when my children will require more explanation. But for now, I’m trying to give my boys confidence that intellect and faith go hand-in-hand, constantly informing and reinforcing one another.

But that is a tough lesson, even for a Christian adult. Our cultural narrative views God as an escapism – intellectual, emotional, or otherwise. As a result, Christians often feel unprepared or bashful when incorporating faith into life beyond Sunday morning.

Western society secularizes everything from science to sex, family to Facebook in an attempt define our existence within the comforts of the physical world. Spirituality is treated as a security blanket for our emotions – affirming but lacking true power. However, society is collapsing from the empty constructs that are unable to provide sufficient answers, thereby only leaving more questions.

Consider that we claim that people can do as they wish so long as it does not harm anyone, but cannot define what is human nor what harm is. We claim gender is a choice, but cannot explain why age, race, or even sexuality are not. We claim man is essentially good, but cannot explain why man-made intuitions are a source of evil. Our scientific laws refute spontaneous generation, but we ignore their implications for the origins of matter itself.

Yet, our own actions betray this secular mindset. When we embrace our spouse, melt to our children’s smiles, or demand for justice in the face of evil, we acknowledge there is something beyond the physical world. Even atheists do not treat love as a mere chemical reaction or marriage as a means of maintaining our species. If life involves more than the material world, discourse that negates this truth will be mentally, emotionally, and spiritually shallow and leave us rotting from within.

The Christian worldview acknowledges that faith and intellect are both needed to understand our world, ourselves, and each other. We should expect the natural world to demonstrate complexity and order, both of which point to a designer of great intellect. We should expect human flourishing where goods are exchanged to benefit one another because generosity reflects his nature. We should expect beauty in stories of sacrifice, redemption, and fulfillment because they point to Christ’s story. And should expect evil and injustice and have a longing to see justice restored.

Indeed, “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight” (Proverbs 9:10).

----------

Reprinted from Rachel's blog "The Renewed Way" at http://therenewedway.com/teaching-intellect-and-faith/ on March 30, 2017