A Human Need

Marsha had a chance to spend a week as part of the crew of the tall ship Ernestina. The week was a scientific journey around Cape Cod waters. She was thrilled beyond belief when she was allowed to steer the ship as it passed through the Cape Cod Canal. When we look at the study of information you can simplify our understanding by recognizing that mathematics is a discipline that is used to explain or quantify science and the natural order, English is a discipline used mainly to explain or illuminate the social order, and theology is a discipline used to explain or illuminate the supernatural order. Although science and mathematics are measurable and express everything with great certainty, a great many of their conclusions are not fact but workable theory. Many of the conclusions over time have been shown to be over simplified and incomplete, but for the moment they are expressed as measured facts. The Enlightenment concluded that humanity would perfect itself over time. That human society would eliminate wars and conflicts because we would develop greater understanding of man and nature. This view is still held by many even though Hitler and Stalin and wars and conflict have continued to rage on.

Why dismiss the study of God's workings as useless when the other disciplines get so much room for error. Why only dismiss the church when humans fail to live better and not the humanist theories of sociology or psychology which over estimate the goodness of humanity. Theology helps us understand ourselves and our creation as well as any other discipline. It has it's proper place for those who seek true knowledge.