M
MaxRosen
Guest
I found myself in the odd position of defending Christian dogma against two Muslims on Friday. It went like this.
They undertook to “prove” to me from the New Testament that Jesus was not God incarnate. They asked whether I was familiar with the story of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.
I replied that I was.
They then quoted chapter and verse from Mt 26:39
*Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
*
They demanded to know how, if Jesus was truly God incarnate, he could be praying to God in heaven. How, they demanded to know, could God be in two places at the same time?
I have since learned this is a common way in which Muslims attack Christianity.
Well that one is easy. I pointed out that, as we learn from quantum mechanics, a simple particle like an electron can be in more than one place at the same time. If the creator of the universe can create a simple particle that is non-local presumably He can perform the same trick himself.
It took a while for me to convince them that I was not babbling, that is really what the famous double slit experiment demonstrates.
Well then I was asked how God can be both a man and a spirit.
Well, that too, is easy. If we do one set of experiments we observe electrons displaying wave-like characteristics. If we perform a different, non-overlapping, set of experiments we observe particle-like characteristics.
In reality an electron is neither a wave not a particle. It is something which is beyond the ability of our limited minds to understand fully. And if none of us could understand something as “simple” as an electron how did they expect me to understand the nature of the creator of the universe?
All we could say is that at times God shows man-like characteristics, at other times spirit like characteristics and at yet other times very distant father-like characteristics. This may be impossible for our limited brains to understand but if the creator of the universe can create simple particles that seem to exhibit mutually exclusive properties he can, once again, presumably perform the same trick himself.
At this point I’m afraid they became a bit aggressive – verbally not physically – so I terminated the discussion.
Here is what Richard Feynman, one of the greatest physicists of the 20th Century, had to say about quantum mechanics:
*Do not keep saying to yourself, if you can possibly avoid it, “But how can it be like that?” because you will get “down the drain,” into a blind alley from which nobody has yet escaped. Nobody knows how it can be like that.
*
Just so.
Well if we cannot understand how the physical universe “can be like that” then we definitely can’t understand how its creator can “be like that.”
I have no idea whether my “defence” of Christian dogma makes any sense to anybody else here. But for what it’s worth there it is.
They undertook to “prove” to me from the New Testament that Jesus was not God incarnate. They asked whether I was familiar with the story of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.
I replied that I was.
They then quoted chapter and verse from Mt 26:39
*Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
*
They demanded to know how, if Jesus was truly God incarnate, he could be praying to God in heaven. How, they demanded to know, could God be in two places at the same time?
I have since learned this is a common way in which Muslims attack Christianity.
Well that one is easy. I pointed out that, as we learn from quantum mechanics, a simple particle like an electron can be in more than one place at the same time. If the creator of the universe can create a simple particle that is non-local presumably He can perform the same trick himself.
It took a while for me to convince them that I was not babbling, that is really what the famous double slit experiment demonstrates.
Well then I was asked how God can be both a man and a spirit.
Well, that too, is easy. If we do one set of experiments we observe electrons displaying wave-like characteristics. If we perform a different, non-overlapping, set of experiments we observe particle-like characteristics.
In reality an electron is neither a wave not a particle. It is something which is beyond the ability of our limited minds to understand fully. And if none of us could understand something as “simple” as an electron how did they expect me to understand the nature of the creator of the universe?
All we could say is that at times God shows man-like characteristics, at other times spirit like characteristics and at yet other times very distant father-like characteristics. This may be impossible for our limited brains to understand but if the creator of the universe can create simple particles that seem to exhibit mutually exclusive properties he can, once again, presumably perform the same trick himself.
At this point I’m afraid they became a bit aggressive – verbally not physically – so I terminated the discussion.
Here is what Richard Feynman, one of the greatest physicists of the 20th Century, had to say about quantum mechanics:
*Do not keep saying to yourself, if you can possibly avoid it, “But how can it be like that?” because you will get “down the drain,” into a blind alley from which nobody has yet escaped. Nobody knows how it can be like that.
*
Just so.
Well if we cannot understand how the physical universe “can be like that” then we definitely can’t understand how its creator can “be like that.”
I have no idea whether my “defence” of Christian dogma makes any sense to anybody else here. But for what it’s worth there it is.
