In a few short weeks, I will have graduated from the Air Force Academy fifty years ago.  I learned about military parades there.  I hear that one is coming up soon.  Perhaps it befalls to a career guy to explain military parades to the public who may not understand their history or relevance.  Parades exist for a reason.  You may not like the reviewing official, but let me offer some thoughts from the parade route—my side of the reviewing stand. 

When military units are as large or larger than an entire wing or regiment, a military parade is the only time a senior commander can review all of his troops at one time.  We learned all those years ago that a commander could use parades to assess the morale and, to some extent, the readiness of his command.  Parades always had a purpose.  Perhaps it was to honor a hero who would be given the position of honor in the reviewing party next to the commander.  In each parade I participated, I always privately honored my uncle and namesake who gave the last full measure of devotion for his country serving in Patton’s 3^rd Army in World War II.  Parades brought us together in national unity, to celebrate a victory, and instill a sense of pride before there was ever a “pride movement.”

The Star Wars generations likely do not understand the purpose of a military, much less military parades.  You need standing armies to take and hold territory sometimes.  Armies aren’t cloned in Hollywood studios.  The data is dated a bit, but likely most of our all-volunteer forces still come from the conservative south and intermountain west.  Our moms likely instilled in us the purpose and meaning of discipline, patriotism, and loving sacrifice.  Truth and reality were served daily in my house topped with a dose of national pride and cohesion—values for which her brother gave his life. 

But it really doesn’t matter what you or I think about military service, national unity, or parades.  War is nasty business.  War is about defeating your enemy’s forces in the field, occupying his homeland, and bending his people to your will.  And our enemies know that, too.  If they are already targeting us, and many are, it won’t matter what you or I think about military parades.  Should they come to bend you to their will, it will matter little that we finished in second place. 

I see complaints about a monetary figure ($45 million) assigned to a parade.  That seems to me to be a rounding error in some social programs that target the military for social reform.  Perhaps when we see the enemy on the horizon, we can throw our social programs at them.  That’ll do it.  There’s not much money in seeking national unity and cohesion these days.  I see rich influencers handing out more money to foment dissention, social discord, and left-wing intentions.  But enough of all of that.

I hear there’s a military parade coming up.  It’s on Flag Day.  Not only that, it’s the Army’s 250^th birthday.  I hear military recruitment numbers for the Army are way up.  That sounds like a reason to celebrate.  Let’s all find a little patriotism from somewhere deep inside each of us and enjoy a parade of the troops—while we can. 

The Christmas season is the season of lights.  The star is on overlooking Palmer Lake, and every house, shop and street looks a little brighter these days. 

I enjoy light anytime.  Especially in the April to August timeframe, I most enjoy those longer summer days of light.  I used to go fishing at 9PM on the summer solstice, just because I could.  I called it midnight fishing, but I never really stayed out until midnight.  Even then, that was past my bedtime.  Oh, and yes, I caught fish.

But now is the season of light, and light has always been a part of Christmas, and the Bible is full of that evidence.  Here are a couple of prophetic examples: 

the people dwelling in darkness
    have seen a great light,
and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death,
    on them a light has dawned.”   (Matthew 4:16 quoting Isaiah 9:2)

Arise, shine, for your light has come,
    and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
For behold, darkness shall cover the earth,
    and thick darkness the peoples;
but the Lord will arise upon you,
    and his glory will be seen upon you.
And nations shall come to your light,
    and kings to the brightness of your rising.   (Isaiah 60:1 – 3)

In fact, the scriptures say that God is light.

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.  (1 John 1:5)

So, based upon these and other scriptures, I began a personal quest to see that, if God is light, could we also say that the converse is true?  In this season of light, can we say that light is God?  In apologetics we get some interesting questions from interesting questioners. But, this was a question I recently examined for myself, and what I found out from my research is the subject of my presentation to you today. 

This is my thesis.  Since we know from the Bible that God is light, what is it about light that could tell us more about who God is and what He has done for us?  Might there be some secrets of light that could fill in the mysterious nature of our great God?  Could there be qualities of light that would illuminate more of the character qualities of God?  And, in examining these questions, might we conclude that our God is closer, and more real that we have ever thought of before? 

The answers will be worth the wait. We will delve into the Bible and what it says about God and light.  Then we’ll look at what science says about light in the world.  And the portion of my presentation that ventures into quantum physics will be barely noticeable as quantum physics.  Trust me.  Stay with me.  I was enlightened.  Hopefully you will be, too.

Now before we begin, I would admonish myself—and you—that in apologetics, especially when the apologetics questions relate to science and faith, we should always remember that natural law, laws relating to nature, natural existence, and especially including the nature of light, explains mechanisms; but God is not a mechanism.  He wasn’t meant to be a naturalistic explanation.  He is supernatural.  He’s not meant to be an explanation at all.  He is not meant to be a substitute for things of the world and universe. So we must conclude now that we cannot say that light is or is not God.  God doesn’t explain light.  But, God is light, and perhaps light can help explain God, or at least illuminate some of the character qualities of God. 

And it is at this point in my apologetics class that I explain we have much still to uncover.  Just because science can’t deal with God, doesn’t mean God doesn’t exist.  In fact, science is doing all it can to prove the existence of God.  So, when it comes to questions and research about science and faith, sometimes what it takes on the part of the researcher is a lot more faith than science.  And since we come to God by grace through faith, I think this is likely the way God wants our discussions about Him to proceed anyway.  So, have a little more faith and hang in there with me.  God is still light, and the characteristics of light—with respect to God—are still very illuminating. 

The Characteristics of Light in the Bible

Is the use of the word “light” in this context just a metaphor?  There is no small amount of conversation and research available on this question.  Is Balaam’s talking donkey in Numbers 22 or the talking serpent in Genesis just a metaphor?  Well, what about light?  If God is light and in Him is no darkness at all, and if Jesus is the light of the world (John 8:12), are we talking about another metaphor here?  Or is it natural light?  Or is it something else entirely?

Well, we know this.  It might be a metaphor.  Literary metaphor is used many times in scripture.  Though Christ claims to be “the gate” to the sheep pen in John 10:6, that is a metaphor—a figure of speech as the gospel itself proclaims.  

Jesus used this figure of speech, but they did not understand what he was telling them. Therefore Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. (John 10:6-7)

Our Lord didn’t have hinges or latches for which we can be thankful.  And still, getting back to our study of God and light, I don’t think we can rule out the fact that characteristics of light in the Bible could be a metaphor for something else. 

But not all instances of the word “light” that we find in the Bible are metaphors. We know that there are at least two different kinds of light in the Bible.  We could point this out in a couple of ways, and one is unmistakable. 

Given that the writers of the Bible had no idea about the many forms of light that are not visible to human eyes, their appreciation of the extent to which God is light was mainly by way of comparing God to created (visible) light, showing that he was infinitely greater than any visible light. For example, in 1 Timothy God is spoken of as dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto.

God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see.  (1 Timothy 6:15b-16a)

In Acts chapter 9, Paul knew from his experience on the Damascus Road of a light greater than that of the noonday sun when that light physically blinded him.

And it came to pass, that, as I made my journey, and was come nigh unto Damascus about noon, suddenly there shone from heaven a great light round about me. (Acts 22:6, KJV)

Unmistakably, this “great light” is contrasted with the light of noonday. This light, then, is more than metaphor.  And there are at least two different kinds of light in the Bible.  One is this physical light that is certainly apparent at noonday.  But what of the other kind that was so much brighter than noonday light?

In 1 John 1:5, the Greek word for “light” in this verse is not physical light.  It is not the word for the light of a torch or lamp, or to enlighten (by giving light), or the light of the moon.  It is a word meaning “radiance.”  That Greek word is used five times in 1st John.  We see it elsewhere in scripture as well.  On the mount of transfiguration in Matthew 17, we see that same light radiating from our Lord Jesus Christ. 

There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light.  (Matthew 17:2)

Because God is light, it would make sense for light to radiate from our Lord, who said that if you have seen Him, you have seen the Father (John 14:9).  He would be the light source.  Hopefully, for those of us who believe, that light would reflect off of you and me to a waiting world.  But light radiates from God and His only Son Jesus Christ. 

You see, there are at least two different kinds of light in the Bible.  And then there is another kind of light: darkness.  Bible writers regularly contrasted the light of fellowship with the God who is light, with walking without God in the darkness.

This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.  If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.  But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.  (1 John 1:5-7)

In the case of light, God specifically uses light to be a witness to describe Himself. In effect, light is to be an object lesson God can use with man.  When God points to light as an example of Himself, it is to make clear God’s own nature and power. Therefore, it is important to speak correctly about natural light. In Genesis, God spoke and light was. Isaiah later explains more fully:

I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the LORD, who does all these things. (Isaiah 45:7)

And there is still more about this other light in the Bible called darkness.  We don’t have to look far in the Bible to find a connection between God and light. In Genesis 1:3, God calls forth light from primordial darkness and declares it good. Isn’t it interesting in this season of light, that in Jewish tradition this light in Genesis 1:3 is called the hidden light, the light of Messiah. 

Echoing Genesis, John’s Gospel describes Jesus as word and light made flesh (John 1:1-14). “I am the light of the world,” Jesus declares. “He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).

Many biblical authors draw a sharp distinction between light and darkness. Biblically speaking, light stands for things that we find reassuring—truth, goodness, safety, life, and the sustaining divine presence. Darkness, on the other hand, is shorthand for spiritual blindness and the many things that scare us: sorrow, pain, sickness, and death. 

The truth, however, is that all of us spend time in life’s darker seasons, not because God is punishing us or because we lack faith. Such seasons are just part of being human. Thankfully, biblical authors recognized that times of darkness can also be spiritually sacred. Many significant biblical events take place in the dark. Darkness fell across the earth when Jesus died on the cross (Mark 15:33). It was on a dark night that God showed Abraham the stars of heaven (Gen. 15:5), and dark clouds covered Mt. Sinai when God’s presence descended upon it (Exod. 19:18).

No matter what season of life we are in, the God of Light is with us. Here is the testimony of faith:

If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. (Psalm 139:11-12)

And while God made the greater and lesser lights in Genesis 1 to rule by day and by night, light was pre-existent with Him.  Light was formed before these suns and moons and stars.  In fact, light was pre-existent with God before the world came to be.  Light is formed; darkness is created. Therefore, that which is created has a specific beginning where that which is formed has no created beginning. Light formed reflects God’s pre-existent, divine, eternal power.

So after all this research and examination, can we say, “Light is God?” Absolutely not, for light (in all its myriad forms) was formed over the world by God. There could be no light unless God was light! The radiance of God’s light has always existed, eons before he decided to share with us the sun, the moon, the stars, and all of the material light in our material universe. Let’s turn now to see what science has revealed about that universe.

God’s Light in the World

And God’s light shines on His creation.  This is where Romans 1 comes in.

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. (Romans 1:20)

The created world testifies specifically to God’s eternal power and divine nature. Just as God created specific things, He created the way in which those things would continue to exist. If the continuing aspect of the natural world also gives testimony about God, then God created the natural world to ensure that specific testimony was present.  To be clearly seen, God’s creation is illuminated by light.  And, it’s because of light that we can know He is closer and more real than we have ever thought of before.

A now, we get to the fun part.   Contemporary science has made several interesting discoveries about light. First, the speed of light can be measured; and second, light does not exist in a singular state. Rather, light exists simultaneously as both particle and wave.

These particles, the smallest of all fundamental parts (or packets) of light are called “photons.”  Since God is light, what is there about these fundamental building blocks of light that might reveal something of the mysterious nature of our God? 

Photons have never been seen.  They exist in theory but the theory has been around a while.  They are so small, that they have their own unit of measure: a quantum. Smaller than atoms or electrons, these are packets of light, and they exist in individual particles or in waves. 

Consider the example of the electromagnetic spectrum.  We see there a small narrow band of the spectrum that’s called “visible” light.  The spectrum is not so much a measure of wavelength or frequency, but rather exists as a function of photon energy.  In other words, the entire electromagnetic spectrum is about light—both visible and invisible light.  And the spectrum is a depiction of photon strength or energy. 

And why wouldn’t the entire spectrum be all about light?  The entire electro-magnetic spectrum belongs to God—He created it.  And He wove throughout creation’s tapestry a specific testimony about Himself.  Photons run in and through the whole of creation, which includes you and me.  Contemporary science has enough on its hands with a strand of DNA and the intelligence located there giving each cell of our bodies the evidence of an intelligent designer.  To provide evidence that God might also be present in each photon that exists in the universe might totally blow the minds of our great scientists. 

But here’s the best part about photons.  Science has concluded that photons, which may exist in either particle or wave states, are stable.  In other words, according to scientific theory, light never dies.  And science has also concluded that photons have no mass.  According to the general theory of relativity, contemporary science has concluded this about photons and light:

Photons and light move instantaneously; and light never dies. 

Photons are always everywhere in the universe, past, present, or future.

For light and the photon packets that comprise light, time is no longer defined as we know it. 

Now, does that sound like someone you know?  Does that describe someone you know?  Who else that you know never dies, and exists always everywhere in the universe where time is undefined? 

I don’t know how you envisioned God when you were young—or what you think you see about Him now when He is mentioned at Church, or anywhere else.  Could God use photons of light to constitute Himself, move instantaneously, and never die?  Sure.  He’s God.  But these packets of light help me to wrap my brain around the notions of who God is and what He has done for us.  He is more real to me, and closer than a quantum—however small that is.

After examining these questions, I will now see Him a little differently—from the most fundamental states of photon existence, to the passage in Revelation that tells us in heaven we will not need anything else.

The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.  The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it.  On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. (Revelation 21:23 – 25)

You see, we can know more about God and His wider reality, and still He cannot be fully known.  There are too many mysteries that remain.  This is where we all need faith to follow the evidence to where it leads—even if it leads us to the foot of the cross.  What we see now is like through a glass darkly.  But sooner or later, we will see Him as He is.  My sense is that when we see Him, light will be a big part of that vision.

Now that the winter solstice is here and the daylight is expended way too early for my liking, perhaps now you can join with me in looking at light a little differently as we approach this Christmas season together.  Jesus is the light of the world, not just in a star over Palmer Lake, but also in you.  You have the ability to reflect this light to a waiting world.  Why not reflect light to someone this coming Christmas?  I cannot think of a better gift. 

Today and in this Christmas season of light, perhaps He has given us a quantum of evidence into His reality.  If you want to know how in the world God can be in you, live through you, and reflect His light from you, perhaps we should appreciate photons a little more.  No matter what size the photon may be, God is light and in Him is no photon too small.

Any time we recognize God’s reality in the midst of His creation, whether a photon does it for you or not, we become encouraged by the fact that He is real.  And then, we are also encouraged by everything else we already know about Him: His promises, His precepts, His provision, His presence, and His providence over our lives.  These things remind us that He is real in so many unmistakable ways.  It’s overwhelming evidence to us that, by faith, proves to us who God is and what He has done for us.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  In him was life, and that life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.   (John 1:1 – 5)

We certainly hope you understand THE light this Christmas and perhaps see lights a little differently as you pass them by in the next several weeks.  I wish for you all a very Blessed Christmas season. 

Truth matters.  True truth matters more.  Building on yesterday’s post, should truth not really matter anymore, what is the source of our future freedom?  Do we now crave comfort instead of truth?  Is it just our own pleasure that we crave, regardless of the truth?  No, and the answer is actually much worse than that.

If the truth is no longer the arbiter of what are the best ideas, when the best ideas themselves have no definition, then the only way remaining to vet out the best way to live is by who wields the greater power. 

The Bible supports human freedom.  But it does not support human autonomy.  In our culture of confusion, people cry for freedom, but what they really want is autonomy, and in that pursuit will always find themselves enslaved to their own finite view of existence and may not be able to determine why that’s happening. 

Without truth that outlines our values, standards, and boundaries, all that’s left to define our existence is power, who holds it, and what they do with it.  Nothing divides us as a nation and culture more quickly or easily than the fact that those who are without values and standards and boundaries and hold power in government, lord it over the rest of us at the expense of truth and our deeply held convictions.  But don’t take my word for it.

In a Psychology Today article (not exactly a “conservative” publication), therapist Andrea Mathews examines this conflict between truth and power.

“I’m speaking of the internal conflict each of us has between power and truth. Power is that thing we are always trying to gain over ourselves and others. Power is that thing we think we must have in order to duke it out with life itself. Power is seductive and can be used both consciously and unconsciously to accomplish a given conscious or unconscious goal.

“Truth on the other hand sits us down for a conversation with reality. And while truth can definitely be relegated to the unconscious and can even operate from there without our knowledge, once conscious it stuns on silent mode. The contemplation of truth is singularly the most dumbfounding overwhelm there is. It stops us dead in our tracks along the way to whatever our latest power trip happens to be.

“But power is what most of us are working on, not truth. In fact the more philosophical among us might say that truth cannot ever really be found. But I say that that philosophy is an exercise in denial that is nothing short of another seductive power trip. . . .

“According to that principle, we must be on guard against the powers of others over us, we must stay alert to the strategy we’ve devised, we must do what we have to do to get what we have to get. And if we are honest, i.e., if we can tell ourselves the truth, we know that each one of us has lived based in this power principle most of our lives in some form or another.

“The same is very often true of relationships. We are so busy putting forth the best face and not paying attention to the truth of the dynamics of the interchange that we cannot see what we got ourselves into until much later when we’ve already been pretty seriously hurt. We are trying to get something we think we must have in order to be okay, instead of operating from truth.”

I apologize for the length of this philosophical argument.  But I would think she would agree with me that in the privacy of the ballot booth, or when filling out your ballot at home, that we should look for what we’re getting ourselves into and not wait to find out what happened until we are “pretty seriously hurt” after the election.  Nothing brings this to mind more quickly than the images of the cries and tears I saw on the faces of young people at the Javits Center Hillary Clinton “victory celebration” in 2016.

And yet so many in our nation and culture depend upon others to tell them what they should believe.  We are not an informed electorate.  They depend upon others to just simply tell them how to vote.  The echoes of the 2000 election aftermath still ring in my memory when a victim of the “hanging chad” ballot fiasco in Florida proclaimed on national television that all “voters wanted to do was vote for their democratic party.” 

I am merely advocating that people like that examine the candidates and the issues for themselves, and not refer to others. If you’re interested, you can read my recommendations.  Or you can entirely ignore them.  Your template for determining how you should vote is not me, television news, slick sounding sound bites, advertisements, or any electioneering.

Your filter should be the truth.  And if it’s “power” someone is pushing upon you, I would vote against that.  How you determine what’s truth or power is the key.  It makes you an informed voter.  This is what the Founding Fathers wanted. 

I am writing this to you because I’m convinced, like Thomas Jefferson, that the “truth needs no defense. It can stand on its own.”  Eventually truth will carry the day in our culture.  It may with this coming election.  In my efforts to inform you—at least as I see it—I hope you will choose to explore what is “Truth” as you mark your vote on this year’s ballot. 

Another initiative on the Colorado ballot I’m suggesting for your consideration:

Proposition 131 is as confusing as it sounds.  It will be even worse if it passes because it seems to me to be a power grab.  It makes Colorado look a lot like California in rank-ordering general election candidates for office, it will invalidate many ballots marked improperly—likely from seniors who have always voted, and simply voted for the candidate of their choice, and will favor the majority party in each blue state that passes it.  In conservative states where it has been tried, these ranked-choice voting schemes have been banned.  Some suggest, in on-line commentary, that only conservatives running for office are hurt by this scheme.  Examine the proposition for yourself. 

The 2024 Colorado State Ballot Information Booklet puts it this way: “The new election system proposed . . . is more complex and expensive.  Voters will have to vote in two different systems for each election and may receive multiple ballots.  Taxpayers will pay for extensive voter education and outreach efforts.  Even so, some voters will still be confused and still incorrectly fill out their ballots, which could change election winners.  The complexity of counting ranked results could lead to questions about whether the results are fair.” 

We’ve been praying for the integrity of our elections.  The truth is, there’s not a reason we should do this to ourselves.  I will be voting “No” on Colorado Proposition 131.

The Bible tells us that true truth (actually, “absolute” truth) leads to true freedom.  True truth is defined by God, is embodied in His son Jesus Christ, and the truth that sets us free is found in relationship with Him. The Bible informs my definition of freedom as it does for millions of Christians around the world. 

But all true freedom has boundaries that some call standards and values.  We erect a fence in the backyard so our children may go out and play.  Our airline pilots are licensed for a good reason.  When we operate a car, we are licensed as well.  We routinely check and service our cars so that we are confident the brakes will work when we need them.  That just makes good sense.  And, regardless of our political or philosophical persuasions, we all do these things at our own expense of time, and money.  True freedom has boundaries. 

All freedom requires some limitations, even on college campuses.  Even in the creative realm of the arts.  I cannot improve upon a section of G.K. Chesterton’s book Orthodoxy, who from his chapter, “The Suicide of Thought,” had this to say:   

“All the [freedom]-worshippers, from Nietzsche to Mr. (John) Davidson, are really quite empty of volition. [I]f anyone wants a proof of this, it can be found quite easily. It can be found in this fact: that they always talk of [freedom] as something that expands and breaks out. But it is quite the opposite. Every act of will is an act of self-limitation.

“To desire action is to desire limitation. In that sense every act is an act of self-sacrifice. When you choose anything, you reject everything else…Every act is an irrevocable selection and exclusion. Just as when you marry one woman you give up all the others, so when you take one course of action you give up all the other courses…It is the existence of this negative or limiting side of will that makes most of the talk of the anarchic will-worshippers little better than nonsense.

“Anarchism adjures us to be bold creative artists, and care for no laws or limits. But it is impossible to be an artist and not care for laws and limits. Art is limitation; the essence of every picture is the frame. If you draw a giraffe, you must draw him with a long neck. If, in your bold, creative way, you hold yourself free to draw a giraffe with a short neck, you will really find that you are not free to draw a giraffe. The moment you step into the world of facts, you step into a world of limits.”

And now our American culture has been changed to where it seems we subjugate everything, including true truth, to our own view of personal “will-worship” or freedom.  Is it really freedom we crave? 

One side in this election is advocating for “freedom” in every television commercial, mailer, and personal contact. It is almost like they own the definition of freedom and are the only side backing it.  But the true truth is that it is not freedom they are craving.  Rather, it is autonomy. 

They want the autonomy to tell you what you should buy and how much you should pay for it.  (Price controls, gun laws, electric cars, etc.)

They want the autonomy to tell you that your deeply-held faith and the ability to express absolute truth is bigoted, homophobic, xenophobic, arcane, and not their definition of Christian.  

They want the autonomy to observe their chief sacrament at the temple of irresponsible sex: unrestricted abortion.  They want the autonomy to deny you the right to know her “boyfriend” is pressuring your fifteen-year-old daughter to get an abortion.  And then they want the autonomy to tell you that your tax dollars must pay for it.  (See Colorado Amendment 79)

They seek the autonomy to enforce the laws that favor them and ignore those that don’t.  Quite literally, they seek a boundary-less national border. 

Autonomy has no boundaries.  The word itself suggests anarchy and disorder: Autos (meaning “self”) and nomos (meaning “law”).  Our post-truth culture seeks self-law, or autonomy—a society without boundaries.

Our culture craves autonomy, not true freedom.  As Chesterton reminds us, true freedom necessarily must have boundaries, and it seems our culture does not want to have any boundaries.  And if as a culture we do not use values and standards to decide how to organize ourselves with the best ideas, then we are left to decide these matters by who has the most power.  This is why elections in our current American culture are not about the best ideas—that’s a smoke screen.  What they are about is who gets the power to define how they, and hence we, will live.  More on that tomorrow.

The Bible tells us about and leads us to true freedom and away from the yoke of our own enslavement to self-law.  Yet people have been led to believe that Biblical rules are arbitrary.  They don’t like them.  That’s why they turn from the Bible.  There are boundaries in the Bible.  There are values and standards in the Bible.  They think it’s a freedom restricting book, which sits just fine with our great enemy, Satan, who knows that God is the only source of true freedom.

Today, it’s progressive to be autonomous.  It’s bigoted to be bounded by values and standards.  Is it any wonder we are surrounded by a culture of confusion?  And we do not know when the culture stops before it goes off the edge.  In our culture’s constant craving for autonomy, in any and every good sounding idea, we become like Gods who do not know what we want—other than power.  I cannot think of a worse cultural diagnosis than that.

Make no mistake.  Freedom vs Autonomy is on the ballot again this year.  This year, as before, I’ll be voting for values and standards and true freedom.  I’ll be voting for any candidate that best represents true truth and true freedom.  I’ll be rejecting any candidate or ballot initiative that seeks more autonomy—and my enslavement to that worldview—in this already confused culture.  And I’ll certainly be voting “No” on Colorado Amendment 79.

I suggest you do so as well. 

Tomorrow:  On The Ballot Again This Year – Truth vs Power

For Lee

We have a family mission statement.  That may seem a bit superfluous at first but hear me out in this post on why and then I’ll explain ours to you.    

It is often said (and, quite frankly, it often feels like) our families are under attack.  Our great enemy Satan would like nothing more than to have God’s fundamentally ordained institution of the family crumble under the weight of “world pollution.”[1]  So, if families are under attack, how will we go about defending them? 

Ephesians chapter six tells us we are to “stand” our ground[2] and take up a “holding action” against dark world rulers and powers and principalities and something called spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.  So, I need to put up my hand and say, “Stop.  No further Satan. Not with my family.  Not with my circle of influence.”  One of the best ways to do that in my mind is with our family mission statement.  After all, the true strength of a family is demonstrated when things are not going well, or when we’re challenged by something, or one of us is facing a particularly tough situation. And our family needs to be strong.

Think our family is special?  Just in the last decade-plus, several of us have lost jobs.  We’ve found others, to be sure, but the timing wasn’t ours.  One was unfairly accused by law enforcement and the case was dismissed and the record wiped clean.  We have received medical diagnoses involving any number of illnesses (physical, mental, emotional).  In our immediate and extended family we’ve known miscarriage, suicide, cancer, dementia, Alzheimer’s, autism, and death.  I am not telling you this looking for sympathy or pity, but if you thought our family was doing “pretty well,” I would ask, “What’s going on in your family?”  The family is certainly under attack.

So, how do I begin to hold up my hand to Satan and say, “No further.  Not here.”  In worldly warfare, we start with our military doctrine—the foundation of our military’s purpose and what we believe about how to fight and win the next war.  So, in this spiritual battle, why not turn to the bedrock of my faith (truly, where else are you going to turn)?  And, as far as my family is concerned, what is that which I believe is foundational to my family’s purpose?  How are we going to put up this holding action in a spiritual attack?  That’s why we have a family mission statement.

To contend for the cause of Jesus Christ in the world, by sending out generational leaders who pursue truth, and establish enduring legacies of agape love in their homes.

The Bible says that we each exist, individually and collectively, for the praise of His Glory.  I find this reference in Ephesians 1:12 and again in Ephesians 1:14 to be foundational.  Therefore, this Spencer family unit which God has ordained will exist for the praise of His Glory.  And I would love for our purpose to be otherwise, as Jude wrote about in the first verses of his letter.  But, in order to put up a holding action against the evil one, my sense is that we must, like Jude, contend for the cause of Jesus Christ.  I don’t know how effective we are in doing this, but at least we have chosen to be on God’s side of the line of truth He draws in the culture.  So then, the first clause is the purpose statement: “To contend for the cause of Jesus Christ in the world.”  A purpose statement portion is what gets us out of bed in the morning.  It is why we exist.  It powers us into our days.  We may falter, and we may faint.  But, at least everyone will know what side we’re on.

And just as the “purpose” portion of the mission statement usually begins with the word “To”, the business portion, how we conduct ourselves in this purpose differently or distinctly from others, begins with the word “by”.  So, knowing what side we’re on, this is how our family is going to conduct its business.  In our mission statement there are two ways we’re going to do that.

The first, “by sending out generational leaders who pursue truth”, speaks to the heart of the holding action itself.  My descendants will be leaders in their generations in many ways, but they will first lead others—their families, their circles of influence—in the pursuit of truth.  What other pursuit is there?  I have an expectation for those who follow me that they will pursue truth.  And, when they do, they’ll look behind them and find others following them.  Others want to follow you when it’s obvious you know where you’re going.  So, my family will be leaders in their generation as I was, and I would want them to accept this mantle, and not see it as a burden.  Frankly, it’s what I think God would want them to do as well.  That’s my private prayer for my grandchildren’s children.

The second, “and establish enduring legacies of agape love in their homes” is how we secure the home against the internal challenges and difficulties of life.  Those difficulties will be there to be sure.  But if we each have established a legacy of unconditional love in our homes, we will have done what’s in the realm of the possible to prepare for whatever the enemy may try to do to us.  And, that legacy of love must be enduring, no matter what.  It must stand the test of time and have weathered all sorts of attacks and “enemy campaigns” against us. 

When times are tough for us, you will find our generations pursuing truth and establishing legacies of love in our homes.  We even crafted a “tag line.”  That is a pithy, shortened mission statement that is easy to remember: “Launching leaders for truth, leaving legacies of love.”  When my daughter fashioned a shadow box of pictures and remembrances for my office, did she include a “Thanks, Dad” or a “Love you, Dad” in the shadowbox?  No, she wrote, “Launching leaders for truth, leaving legacies of love.”  She could not have included anything better.  She “gets it.”

In the event of an untimely death or tragedy in our family, and the dust settles for the transition of that family member into God’s wider reality, my family may be facing an uncertain future.  But at least they will have something to reference, remember, and focus on.  And if what they are doing then is not launching leaders for truth or leaving legacies of love, then I would have them think about why they are doing it and return to the mission statement we agreed to long ago.    

When we have disagreements in our family, or are facing unfair accusations, or a critical diagnosis, I would hope that each of us returns to our faith and the mission statement that reflects it for the relationships that comprise the Spencer family.  Our family is strong, and it needs to be.  The enemy is not far off.  But I refuse to give him any ground.  Not here.  Not with my family.  Not with my circle of influence.

We have a family mission statement and it is not remotely superfluous.

[1] See James 1:27

[2] Paul actually uses the word “stand” three times in this passage.

We are approaching a time in our nation’s history when we will need to employ our military instrument of national power.  Our national leadership, diplomacy, diplomatic sanctions, economic sanctions, alliance-building, and political rhetoric do not seem to have made much difference in the Ukraine and Crimea regions, as well as the Taiwan Strait.  As we learned in war college, you go to war with the forces you have in-place.  Right now, we’re having trouble finding them and training them, much less putting forces in-place. 

How did this recruitment decline begin?  When I sat on the stage of the US Army War College and debated the leading advocate for the end of the ban known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” I was asked how could I support such a ban when recruitment for linguists was down.  My answer?  The end of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was not a recruitment answer for linguists or any needed troops.  The end of the ban was for something else.  There was still a need for a recruitment answer to our military’s accession problems.  Becoming a social curiosity to our potential adversaries was not it. 

And, I quietly explained how values-driven leaders in our all-volunteer military would be dissuaded from re-enlisting or simply leave at the end of their next, short-term active-duty service commitment.  These were conservative leaders who bristled at anything being placed before their duty-oriented, service to country.  We would likely experience a purge of needed expertise and values-driven leaders.  Why would young officers ever aspire to command?  I’m still not sure if anyone was listening.  That was in 2010.  And now the wheels of time have turned.

When you put “self” before “service,” military service becomes just like any other less-than-valued organization.  Anything less than a military focused on expertness, fortitude, and duty, honor, and country, might as well be a dime-a-dozen organization: a Target store or Anheuser-Busch or Disney.  I had many military members approach me later and tell me that they could not wait to get out, even though they were within five years of retirement with its many associated benefits. Any military service that placed itself second to one special interest, they said, did not resemble the service they joined. 

And how has catering to special interest groups helped recruitment?  That has become the latest “don’t ask, don’t tell” reality.  And now critical race theory has been deemed by the Secretary of Defense as a national security interest.  Really?  And now the service wants to pay for its members’ trans-surgeries if they so elect.  Really?  And the recruitment numbers remain horrible.

And now, a couple of weeks ago, the Army Secretary blamed lagging Defense Department recruitment statistics on—wait for it—people like me.  Those of us who risked our lives for our country are being blamed for (I guess) bringing these truths to the light of day.  I’m really sorry, Madam Secretary, but when the truth becomes “right-wing rhetoric,” the Army is lost.  And that is just the latest. 

Now try these excuses on for size: “Americans are having fewer children,” and “Americans are more protective of our children,” and “more 18- and 19-year-olds are going to college.”  Heaven forbid it that anyone would ever discern anything for which they would give up their very lives.  Right.  To me, better excuses are “[i]n today’s current society, being in uniform, whether it’s becoming a police officer, a border patrol agent, or in military uniform, seems to be frowned upon.”  That one seems more plausible to me.  But the Army Secretary might accuse me of right-wing rhetoric. So, let us leave the excuses behind and stick with the truth. 

Returning to a military focused on expertness, fortitude, and values of duty, honor, and country, will garner you more volunteers in our all-volunteer force.  Putting service before self will keep them there. 

And, our leaders better get to it.  We will be needing to employ our military soon.  On this fiftieth anniversary of the end of the draft, it seems to me that those crafting excuses for a lagging all-volunteer force should start by looking for those excuses in the mirror.  Trust me, aggressors in the Ukraine and across the Taiwan Strait are looking squarely at us.  And should we ever give up on defending the defenseless, then those aggressors will first look on our military instrument of national power as a social curiosity that failed.

A cold (and sometimes hot) civil war engulfed the former great nation.  Hopelessly divided, they were once among the most respected and revered in the community of nations.  But now, it was different.

One side, more liberal and secular, had grown that way by leaders who had led them from God and Bible truths.  There was worldly wealth and power to be gained by pursuing this course and their leaders were entrenched in these worldly quests. 

Though history might have been helpful to them, they ignored it and erected counter-gods to serve in His place.  They sought autonomy, their feelings and emotions began to rule over them and they allied themselves with actors of evil intent.  They attacked their brothers and sisters on the other side and relished the success they were apparently having.  While power, largess and opulence seemed to guide their day-to-day routine, they continued to plot the demise of the other side. 

Meanwhile, the more conservative side held on to some semblance of God and Biblical truth.  While waiting for Him to show up, they often took matters into their own hands with respect to their defense and well-being.  Good leaders and bad seemed to cycle through their offices and many times those leaders lived in timidity and fear with respect to their pending battles with the other side.  They were granted incremental victories that would not last but they shared those with the people who clung to their religion and God.

And into all of this, the Christmas story was first told.  Into the history of the divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah, we find the first startling announcement of the coming Savior of the World. 

In Isaiah, Chapter Seven, we see King Ahaz (not the greatest of the Kings of Judah) who was facing the overwhelming forces from neighbor Syria (and Syria was in alliance with Judah’s brother people on the other side, Israel).  Syria was an especially ruthless force and Israel allied itself with evil in order to defeat Judah and gain its greatest prize, the city of Jerusalem. 

The overarching theme in this passage is one of fear.  In order to defeat the Syria/Israel alliance, King Ahaz takes matters into his own hands and seeks to form an alliance with Assyria, another evil kingdom. 

But God is intervening on Ahaz’s behalf.  To comfort the King, the nearby prophet Isaiah conveyed that the Lord would protect them.  To prove it, God told Isaiah to instruct Ahaz to ask for a sign.  This was certainly unusual as the Torah had commanded that one should not put God to the test.  For God to offer up a “freebie” sign was highly improbable. 

Perhaps for that reason, or just to sound pious, King Ahaz told Isaiah that he wouldn’t ask God for a sign.   Ahaz could only envision fighting his enemy alone (or with another allied kingdom).  But God wanted to assure Ahaz, that He was going to vanquish his foes.  Then we read from Isaiah 7 in verses 13 and 14:

“Then Isaiah said, ‘Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of men? Will you try the patience of my God also?  Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign.  The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.’”

If Ahaz had been pacing back and forth about the palace in fear of what was to happen to Judah, you can almost see him stop dead in his tracks, look around at the prophet Isaiah, and say, “Wait—what?”  What was the sign Isaiah had conveyed from God?  Really?

This Isaiah chapter continues that by the time the child grows up, Ahaz’s opponents would be vanquished. 

Of course, God did all that He said He was going to do. And yet, both Israel and Judah came to shameful ends.  As it turned out the Assyrians had their way with the kingdom of Israel, whose people were captured, scattered, and relegated to the scraps of history books yet to be written.  Judah was also conquered by the Babylonians and taken into exile.  But, they would eventually return and the nation of Judah would be reestablished. 

Isaiah had prophesied this as well in Chapter 40:1 – 2a, with these words:

“Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.  Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, and her iniquity is pardoned:”

It is all too easy to picture ourselves today as the hopelessly divided nation with two sides pitted against each other.  Many leaders on one side pursue standard-less autonomy and liberal secularism, while many on the other side hold on to some semblance of faith in God.  Many conservatives advocate for distinctive moral values and standards, even if some of those same leaders prove themselves to be inescapably human, and incapable of consistently behaving morally and in line with those same standards.    

We are still in a cold civil war with evil.  Hopelessly divided, we were once among the most respected and revered in the community of nations.  But now, it is different. 

We have ignored our own history.  Our feelings and emotions now rule over truth and we have allied ourselves with actors of evil intent.  We attack our brothers and sisters on the other side and relish the incremental successes we are apparently having.  While the media, academia, and entrenched bureaucratic largess seem to guide our day-to-day routine (on both sides), these powerful entities continue to plot the demise of the other side.   The predominant national sensitivity is one of fear.  Fear grips us all.  And Satan has a field day.

And yet, into all of this, our God still pursues us.  He tells us He will never leave us or forsake us.  We should not fear.  Sure, bad days may lie immediately ahead as we rush lethargically into national demise.  But still God’s message of hope comes to us, and we are reminded of it at this time of year.  We have but to hear Him. 

“Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.  Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, and her iniquity is pardoned:”

I believe everyone is looking for hope.  Many on both sides just don’t know where to find it—or they are looking in the wrong places.  This Christmas, do not fear.  Be comforted.  Your warfare is accomplished, and your iniquity—your sin—is pardoned. 

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign.  The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.

Too much evidence exists that convinces even atheists that Jesus lived and died.  But the question we must all answer, regardless of what side we find ourselves, is this: “Did Jesus die and live?”  If the answer is “yes,” that changes everything. He is the only one who can unite us and bring us His comfort and His peace.

May you find the answer to that question at Christmastime and throughout the year.  That is the reason for the hope that I have for you and for our great nation.

I am breaking from my self-imposed moratorium on blogging as I was moved by a statement made by Ukrainian President Zelenskyy this morning.

He said that it’s apparent that he and his countrymen are going it alone in this war against the Russians.  My heart goes out to him and his people.

As much as feelings are taking precedence over truth in our culture these days, I feel as if I need to discharge my mind regarding the truth about America’s freedom to engage in any war, much less a war for Ukraine, Taiwan, or any NATO country for that matter.  Putin and Xi have already discussed this in their latest meetings at the Olympics. Thank you for giving me a hearing.

You see, in America, we are no longer free.  We are free to choose which shackles of slavery we wish to adorn ourselves, but we are no longer free.  We have forgotten what’s required for freedom, and we have replaced that with our feelings and emotions.  The truth be damned.

In my belief system, love requires sacrifice.  Your mother and father sacrificed for love when you were born and raised, whether you ever knew or appreciated it.  They gave you food and shelter. They changed your diapers, dropped vitamins down your throat, fixed your teeth, prayed over you as you learned how to drive and stayed up late waiting for you to come home from dates.  You may be doing the same for your children.  Love requires sacrifice. 

There can be no greater love than to lay down one’s life for his friends.  The America I grew up in was filled with faults, but I still determined I could lay down my life attempting to defend it.  People still bravely enter the service having determined the same thing.  But many today are likely to view military service as a way to pay for college or achieve gender “equity,” whatever that is.  Many are interested in joining to pursue an agenda-laden purpose than to join for duty-oriented service to country.

It’s not your fault, if you are younger than forty, but this is an amorphous construct to you—giving your life for your country.  Our victory in World War II was so decisive (from the “greatest generation” that knew all about love and sacrifice), that you never had to determine for yourself if you could give up your life for anything, much less a country run by a republican or a democrat. 

Liberals are too busy telling parents how to raise their kids, determining on which swim team to participate, or which bathroom to use based upon their feelings this morning.  Conservatives privately wish they didn’t have to die for THIS president and his administration.  To be fair, scholars have determined that the military likely self-identifies as conservative which concerns the liberals to no end.  So, the current liberal administration is busy “re-educating” the military in critical race theory and gender equity.  Fighting our nation’s wars seems to have taken a back seat.

Our founding fathers placed something called their lives, fortunes and their sacred honor on the line.  What did they get for their efforts?  Franklin said, they’d get a republic, if they could keep it.  It seems as if many Americans now don’t want to keep it anymore.  Many don’t have the stomach for it anymore.  Along the way they have tried hard to revise the founding fathers’ histories. 

These days, Germany’s closer to the action and yet confesses that their defenses are hollow.  They must not know about ours.  It seems we have spent more time lately on carbon credits than on upgrading our defenses.  In a speech at West Point last summer, our defense secretary as much stated that critical race theory is a crucial part of a “national defense priority” program.  Mr. Secretary, when Xi takes Taiwan, do something for me.  Throw your theory at them.  I’m sure that will do it.

Before I return to the obscurity from whence I came, hear this.  The gods of drugs, money, sex, fame, entertainment, sports, the environment, government, autonomy, or power you choose to shackle yourself to will never make you free.  Love requires sacrifice.  You are not free to teach conservatives in the military how to be inferior, or to tell parents how to raise their kids, or free to choose which swim team to join, or free to choose which bathroom to use today, if you are not first free.

Republican or democrat, liberal or conservative, orthodox or progressive, blue state or red, find something for which you could lay down your life.   Then, we might finally have a chance to help people like the brave Ukrainians.  We all might finally be free. 

I have a couple of comments on the entire Matthew Lohmeier affair, the Space Force Lieutenant Colonel who lost his command for publishing an “unpublished” book about current cultural “re-education” in the military.  I’ve already alluded to the fact that this kind of reproach was coming and now it is happening.  Having examined this story, I’ve concluded that all Lohmeier did was run afoul of the military’s official “company line” on this subject.

That’s something I used to do on a regular basis as editor of the professional journal of the Air Force.  We did it to enliven the professional dialogue—and it worked.  Unless his book contained some classified information, I’m convinced his ideas normally wouldn’t result in his loss of command.  My job was never at risk then.  But these are not normal times.  Even if it did, that removal from his position would likely be handled at the noise level—his immediate boss, a Colonel, would have done it. 

But no, his removal from command was handled by a three-star general, which signals much more is going on here.  And that message is chilling to those who are conservative and intent on holding to their values as they swore an oath to do.  What’s more, an investigation has been launched into whether Lohmeier engaged in partisan political activity.  Servicemembers have seen through this smokescreen.  And this is the kind of incident that gives some academics and their liberal readers great pause for concern for the future of civil-military relations in this country. 

They shouldn’t be worried that much.  After the end of the ban on open service for homosexual military personnel in 2010, many people wrote me that service in the Armed Forces was no longer about duty, honor, and country, but rather about accelerating social change.  Values-driven conservatives left quietly in significant numbers—just how many we’ll never know.  That number became the new “don’t ask, don’t tell.” 

Now, Lohmeier is apparently hearing from thousands as well.  These values-driven conservatives are mission-oriented and place service before self.  Who they are personally and politically does not matter.  They just want to serve their country.  Like me, many have spent a career in the military trying to preserve the American way of life for their families.  Now they’re spending their time trying to keep the American way of life away from their families.  

All the tinkering that liberals have done to our armed forces has driven away good, decent warfighters, and we’re left with a force that not many nations respect or fear.  While we care about black lives, those other countries don’t.  They don’t care that Pentagon leaders are pushing critical race theory in a bid to force social re-education in the ranks.  They have Israel and Taiwan in their gunsights. 

Those foreign nations have noted that our government leaders are so afraid of principled, values-driven people in this country that they surround government buildings in Washington DC with defenses to fend off any “white supremacists” and then billet military members in a parking garage. The flower children of the 1960s have grown up, and the “white supremacists” they fear resemble their old parents.  And now the flower children are running the government, seeking autonomy for their value-less agenda, and wanting those rich conservatives to pay for it.  And maybe, just maybe along the way, they can convince a few thousand more values-driven service members to leave our Armed Forces. 

Military members are instructed in our nation’s great war colleges that “war is a continuation of politics by other means.”  Don’t be surprised then when our government leaders mistake values-driven conduct such as speaking real truth to power, which apparently Lohmeier did here, for partisan political activity.  But Lohmeier doesn’t look like their parents.  He’s cogent, articulate, and driven by values and his oath of office.  He’s young, persuasive and right.  He looks good on camera.  We can’t have that.  No wonder they had to take him down a notch.  You can almost hear them say, “Let’s get a three-star to do it.”

And, none of this plays well in the ranks.  The rank-and-file military member knows better.  They place their lives on the line for truth, and they know what truth is when they see it.  This lame attempt to persuade military members that the country didn’t start in 1776, and “Marxism isn’t so bad after all” is going to take more than a briefing or two.  Perhaps our leaders should now look at tweaking their re-education curricula to address that, if they can stop printing money long enough to do so.  My sense is that they do not place the same value on their oaths of office.  Would they be willing to die for their country?  Would you?

One more thing.  I pray for my government leaders every day and likely these values-driven military members do as well.  If our oaths mean anything, it’s that we fear God more than the people for whom we pray.  Honoring one’s oath to the Constitution is the “problem” with Lohmeier and thousands of men and women in the military.  If that’s something our government leaders are trying to deconstruct, then we know how to pray for them more specifically.

But if younger generations of our military are now coming forward, articulating duty-oriented service to country and taking their oaths to the Constitution seriously enough to sacrifice their careers, then that’s something I find most encouraging.  That’s something foreign nations should respect and fear.

We receive some interesting questions at askanyquestion.info and we make our best efforts to respond.  But we also have questions.  Here are some that have come to mind since I have been away for a while.  I thought you’d want to know.  Perhaps you can answer them for me.

Why is science so intent on searching out new worlds on Mars and colonizing the Moon?  Why is science looking for the “origins” of life there?  Is it because science can only explain the very simplest of chemical constructs such as those found on distant barren wastelands of uninhabitable worlds?  Isn’t it because they can’t really explain the origins here on Earth of molecules so complex that it confounds even the wisest scientists? 

Isn’t it because a scientist determined that DNA holds the incredible amount of intelligent information it contains in order to tell each living cell what to do and how to do it?  Could it be because the answers to these questions about Earth confuses scientists who struggle with the obvious conclusion that something or someone must have been present at the beginning to give intelligibility to molecules, DNA, and all of life?  Isn’t science beginning to question its own research protocols and conclude there must have been something there there at the beginning of all things? 

Is this why some struggling atheist scientists are making statements like: “Would you not say to yourself . . . Some super-calculating intellect must have designed the properties of the carbon atom, otherwise the chance of my finding such an atom through the blind forces of nature would be utterly miniscule. Of course you would . . . A common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a superintellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as with chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature.”  Why did atheist Sir Fred Hoyle admit that his reflections here left him “greatly shaken?”  Why has atheist David Hume admitted that the universe didn’t just “pop” into existence?  “I have never asserted so absurd a proposition as that any thing might arise without a Cause.”

Is this where science has figured out it can explain the how’s and what’s of the universe but not the why’s and who’s?  Why do people think that science undermines the existence of God?  Why can’t people see that “God makes science possible?”  Why can’t people understand that, “without God, we have no reason to trust the regularity or the comprehensibility of the universe that underlies the entire scientific enterprise?”  Why can’t science go to the Moon and the other places looking for the transcendent, first cause of the universe, and if science finds God there, acknowledge it?

Well, I don’t know.  I’m not a scientist.  As a kid, I wanted to go into space as much as anyone.  That’s why I became a pilot.  I got close enough to space.  And, I studied science enough to know how to ask questions like the ones on this page.  It’s just that, for the life of me, I can’t understand why it “is one thing to say (correctly) that science cannot answer questions of ultimate purpose.  It is quite another [for science] to dismiss purpose (and beauty and truth) as an illusion because science cannot deal with it.”  My wife is beautiful.  Science can’t deal with that, but it doesn’t make her any less beautiful.  My life has significance and purpose.  Science can’t deal with why I have purpose and meaning in life, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have it.  And, I’ll keep pursuing questions of truth.  You can’t replicate truth in a test tube.  But that doesn’t mean truth doesn’t exist.

If you’re a scientist or someone who can, go ahead and answer these questions for me.  I’ll wait.