Underestimating the Biblical God
Wright, John H.
John Ho Wright Underestimating the biblical God O ur view of prayer usually reflects our view of God and our relationship to him. The God with whom Chet Raymo begins is one who can...
...Here Raymo seems to opt for God as the general supervisor...
...So it was with Teilhard, and so it is with evolution-worCommonweal | 5 June 5, 1998...
...If you, then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him" (Matt...
...What about experimental verification of the power of petitionary prayer...
...7:14...
...for they think that they will be heard because of their many words" (Matt...
...7:9-11...
...True petitionary prayer, Raymo rightly notes, is neither a magical incantation, nor the rote repetition of a formula, nor telling God something he doesn't know, nor an attempt to persuade him to do something he doesn't want to do...
...Ideally, children ask from their parents with trust and confidence for what they will truly need to live and grow toward the truth...
...However, Raymo's God raises further questions...
...As in personal relationships between human beings, it is the relationship that really counts, not the gifts or favors that are asked and given...
...This accords better with a God whose knowledge, wisdom, and concern bring every detail of our unfolding universe into clear focus...
...Operating within each thing and inclining it accordingly to his purpose, God can, without interrupting the network of causal activity that holds the world together, bring about what he wants...
...When scientists begin to worship their own concepts, they are tempted to proclaim vast philosophical systems rather than stick to what the data is showing...
...In view of this understanding of God, we should recognize that God's attitude toward things takes into account the differences among them...
...It is also the biblical view of God...
...Prayer to this God is marked by praise and thanksgiving, arising from wonder at the majesty of the universe and the sweep of the creative process...
...It always aims first at deepening this personal relationship, and secondarily at obtaining a concrete request...
...This is similar to the way in which the mind influences the body without suspending the ordinary laws of physics and chemistry...
...Chet Raymo is another in the long line of scientific metaphysicians who yearn to make a religion out of science...
...We shouldn't conclude that, since God will always do what is best for us, it makes no difference whether we ask him or not...
...That is why prayer is always answered: the personal reCommonweal | 4 June 5, 1998 lationship is always deepened and strengthened, and the gift is given if indeed it will promote this relationship...
...He came to recognize God at the heart of the evolutionary process of the universe, holding all things together in a profound, mysterious, and dynamic movement that has finally given birth to the created conscious intelligence of human beings...
...It is the atmosphere generated by this kind of prayer that enables us to relate to God as one "who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine" (Eph...
...But how can a pollster determine this...
...This means that experiments can neither confirm nor disprove the power of petitionary prayer...
...God was involved if at all only in the very beginning, in setting up the laws, and thereafter nature runs by itself...
...Or if the child asks for a fish, will give a snake...
...Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father...
...As Jesus said immediately after the words quoted above: "So do not be afraid...
...His description of the new story is more in poetic than scientific language, as befits an admirer of Teilhard de Chardin, but he clearly is referring to the standard version of evolutionary naturalism...
...Hence, petitionary prayer always has certain conditions expressed or implied: if what I ask will not hinder my love and service of you and my fellow human beings, if something else will not better achieve what your love and wisdom intend...
...10:31...
...And it seems that, for the most part at least, this is not possible with regard to petitionary prayer...
...We ask in trust and confidence, and, in the same spirit, we trust that God hears and answers us...
...and Sirach advises: "Do not babble in the assembly of the elders, and do not repeat yourself when you pray" (Sir...
...3:20...
...But in neither case does this activity constitute the whole situation...
...Jesus tells his apostles as he is about to send them out on mission: "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny...
...And even if we truly pray well, how can we know that what we ask for is in our best interest and the best interest of alI concerned...
...and so he argues that Christians should adopt for religious purposes what he calls "the new creation story...
...The God with whom Chet Raymo begins is one who can be manipulated by magical incantation...
...According to this story, nature did its own creating through unintelligent material processes, particularly the purposeless Darwinian mechanism of random mutation and natural selection...
...What led Raymo to this development was acquaintance with the methods and conclusions of science...
...In a similar fashion, God responds to prayer with gifts of forgiveness, encouragement, and also material benefits, as he sees these are truly helpful...
...God regards not just the physical size of things but also their degree of complexity...
...It is an expression of personal trust and dependence...
...At this point we need to do two things: (1) pursue this insight into a God who overlooks nothing, and (2) ask about the relevance of experimental evidence in resolving the question of petitionary prayer...
...The National Academy's motives may have been partisan, but there is clearly some truth in its warning that mixing science with religion can produce a highly intoxicating brew...
...6:7...
...This is God beyond magic and the simple recitation of formulas...
...In Raymo's words, nature itself "becomes the sublime scripture," humans are viewed as the universe becoming conscious of itself through evolution, and prayer consists of rejecting miracles while giving praise and thanksgiving to nature...
...For example, the Academy makes no protest when Richard Dawkins (The Selfish Gene) uses the authority of science to promote atheism, or when physicists promote a "theory of everything" that will allow its possessors to "know the mind of God," or when Carl Sagan proclaimed in his Cosmos series that "the Cosmos is all there is, or ever was, or ever will be...
...God can reply to our prayers without going beyond the limits of physical possibility, even if the reply may be highly improbable...
...But he could have found it in the Bible...
...you are of more value than many sparrows" (Matt...
...God will indeed do what is best for us, if we are willing for him to do it...
...The statement was intended only for use in a public-relations campaign against the creation science movement, and it has never been invoked against evolutionary pantheists, agnostics, or scientific materialists...
...And even the hairs on your head are all counted" (Matt...
...The Bible as it treats petitionary prayer, while rejecting magic, everywhere supposes that there is a personal relationship between God and the one who prays...
...Modern science has taught us that the world is not ruled by rigid determinism...
...Valid experiments require control of all the relevant factors...
...Does this God simply occupy a general supervisory position in the world, or does his care reach the vast array of individual beings, both in their distinctness and in their relations to one another...
...John H. Wright, S.J., is the au&or of A Theology of Christian Prayer (Liturgical Press, 1979...
...In one place Raymo says that God "sweeps us along on the grand wings of his abiding plan...
...God seeks first of all to deepen his personal relationship with us...
...Teilhard's comment that "less and less do I see any difference between research and adoration," which Raymo quotes with approval, is about as far from the ideal of scientific objectivity as one can go...
...Petitionary prayer is only one element in a total situation of trust and confidence in God, just as asking and receiving are parts of a total family situation...
...But elsewhere Raymo favorably cites the poet Mary Oliver who speaks of "the light at the center of every cell...
...10:29-30...
...As a result, conscious intelligent beings occupy a uniquely important position among them, as the most complex beings in the universe...
...The author discovered, however, that God is not influenced by magic formulas, nor pleased with the mindless repetition of words...
...This does not suppose that every answer to petitionary prayer is a miraculous occurrence...
...Such things must always be seen within the context of the personal relationship...
...Is there then any sense in which God relates to these complex beings and interacts with them personally...
...and our prayers of petition are expressions of our willingness for him to do this...
...For example, also in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches: "Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone...
...If our words in prayer spring from this kind of selfish concern, or if they reveal a desire to control God rather than to grow in his friendship and service, then they will not be answered...
...P h | l l | p E. Johnson Overestimating the power of science n 1981, the United States National Academy of I Sciences passed a resolution saying that "Religion and science are separate and mutually exclusive realms of human thought whose presentation in the same context leads to misunderstanding of both scientific theory and religious belief...
...Saying certain words and performing certain actions are thought to control or at least influence the Ruler of the Universe...
...In the New Testament, James observes: "You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures" (James 4:3...
...If God does indeed deal with the universe so that there is "light at the center of every cell," it is not unreasonable to suppose that such interaction takes place...
...The world and all that happens in it are in God's hands...
...On the contrary, the National Academy gave Sagan its Public Welfare medal...
...In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus cautions: "When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do...
Vol. 125 • June 1998 • No. 11
