The unending tension between science and religion befuddles me.
When I lose a loved one I don’t read a physics book, I pick up my Bible. I don’t wait to get the flu then pray to get over it, I take a flu shot. I find no hypocrisy in that.
My spiritual upbringing was in a Primitive Baptist Church. The preacher would hold the Bible up and assure me all the answers to life I would ever need could be found within. He was wrong. He was also a farmer, and when an animal got sick, he called the vet. I think he meant spiritual answers.
One constant in that church was the imminent end of times — the Rapture. All signs pointed to it. As they always have and always will. It scared me as a child. I didn’t want to be with God, I wanted to be with mommy. Of course, now science is saying the same thing. Global warming, nuclear war, meteor strikes, volcanic eruption, etc. Dang, science and religion agree on something!
There is one thing that puzzles me. If God rewards nations that follow his rules of life, why are they still subjected to the same calamities as nations that ignore them?
Also, why did the Roman Empire exist for several hundred years only to collapse after becoming the first Christian society? I only ask because of the evangelical assurance that God’s wrath will befall America.
DONALD R. MILLSAP, Auburn