The Study of Unicorns

My younger brother is becoming one of those life long students. He has just finished a degree in music composition and now he is about to undertake another undergraduate degree in theology. Why he is not doing a Masters I have no idea, but then again he is doing his theology degree at “THE” Oxford University. I think he got all the academic brains in our family.

The other day he ran into one of his old Chemistry teachers from school. When he explained to him what his next degree was going to be in, his old chemistry teacher replied by saying, “the vast and ancient study of theology is the same as the study of unicorns”!

Obviously my brother was not too pleased with this comment, and for those who want me to translate that comment, it basically means as unicorns are not real, so to is God, so what is the point to study something that is not real.

I find it interesting that a science teacher would make such a comment. Any expert in science knows that nothing can be proved exactly. Everything in science is a theory or a probability. The only way science would laugh or dismiss a theory is if the probability is very unlikely. For example no-one has (to my knowledge) ever seen a unicorn or the effects of a unicorns existence, so the theory that unicorns exist is very unlikely. However, when it comes to God the theory is on the other end of the spectrum. Okay, so nobody may have exactly seen God is all his being, but the effects of God’s existence, the testimonies of millions of people who claim to have experienced God in their lives, the probability of this earth having a divine designer, the inability to disprove there is a God and the fact that this “theory” has lasted and is growing throughout the history of humanity leads me to think that the study of God is a little more viable than the study of unicorns.

The ironic side of this, is that this chemistry teacher endorses the study of other theories that have no weight behind them at all. If that chemistry teacher was an expert in his field then he would follow the theory with the highest probability. You don’t need to be an expert to know if the existence of God has a higher probability than the cosmic event of a random big bang!

Often we can live our lives just like this chemistry teacher. We can be so marrow minded and stubborn in our thinking that we become irrational in our thinking, in our doing and in our speaking. I am a believer that God exists. Not only that he exists but that he wants a relationship with everyone of us. I believe this is possible because God became flesh over 2000 years ago in the form of a man Jesus, who died for our sins and to pay the penalty for our wrong doings. I believe this because the math tells me this is the best probability. I also believe this because I am one of those millions who can testify that God has changed my life, the life of my friends, the life of my family and I now can see God at work in every part of my life. I see him at work in nature, I see him at work in the human body and I see him at work in the human soul!

Sorry Mr Chemistry Teacher, but you have just lost a lot of credibility because you made a statement that was not very scientific!