I have mentioned on the Home page and About that I am a Rationalist and that things have to make sense to me.  Faith, though I am not void of it, is somewhat alien to my thinking.  It is true that ultimately you must have faith in fundamental facts such as science but it has its foundation upon the consistency and rationale of a scientific process, as imperfect as science sometime is.

And that gets to the crux of my topic.  Science, which is as close to my religion as anything, is a rational discipline of studying and trying to understand that which is within the physical universe.  It consists of a very rigorous scientific methodology where math is usually used to model scientific observations.  Admittedly modern science is less than a century old but what man has revealed in that short span of time is simply astounding.  And man’s quest and the tools he has devised to help him in his exploration and understanding are astonishing almost to the point of miraculous.  But to the well-informed nothing in science is really miraculous.  Science builds upon itself and evolves into something more exacting with time.  Scientist usually spend far more time in peer reviews and efforts to verify and re-verify that a concept accurately represents what it claims than the time it took to develop that concept.  It is systematic to the extreme.  It is far more essential to the process of science that it come as close as possible to revealing the truth, than to the process of theology, which is much more hypothetical since it is largely faith-based.  The fact that science exists and has progressed to the extent that it has is evidence that the physical universe behaves rationally, and that all things seem related to common laws in nature not yet completely understood. Everything seems to hold together.  Given a rational universe, if any one element in that universe were to behave irrationally, the entire universe would ultimately become unstable and unravel into chaos.

So the crux of the question is: if the Creation (physical universe) is Rational then must the Creator, if one exists, also be Rational?  If the Creator was other than a Rational being wouldn’t he/she have created a spiritual world that did not depend upon rational laws instead.  Perhaps God created both but the fact that a physical universe, that seem so scientifically rational, does exist seems to imply a Rational creator or God.  If God has a Rational side then we should be able to understand that rational part.  Man has an amazingly rational and overdeveloped brain.  Perhaps it is the Creators intention for man to gain a rational understanding of Creation and the Creator.  If there is a reason for God to create the physical world as it is, then wouldn’t it seem to show that the Creator is reasonable and rational?  The mystery attributed to God may be less a mater of Faith than of ignorance, just as is true in science.

So if God did create our Rational Universe it is possible that science may ultimately discover and prove the truth about God’s existence.  Science isn’t anti-God, it is about revealing the truth about the universe and possibly creation if there was one.  Religion explains Why God creates creation while science explains How creation works.

I’m starting to sound like I believe in God.  In fact as an agnostic I am still searching for that truth that makes most sense to me.  Science is about discovering and revealing the Truth.  Religion is about assuming a truth and understanding the reasons for existence.  They both seem mutually exclusive, but are they really?