Science or Sovereignty

 

 

“I am dejected, desperate,” Boschi said, “I thought I would have been acquitted. I still don’t understand what I was convicted of.” Mr. Boschi is the former head of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in Italy.  (http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/oct/22/scientists-convicted-manslaughter-earthquake)

These words were a response to the guilty verdict to manslaughter that he had received with several other Italian scientists. The courts of Italy ruled that these seven scientists were guilty of the deaths of over 300 people killed in a 2009 earthquake because they had failed to “adequately warn” them about the strength of the earthquake before it arrived.

In Daniel 2 King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream and he demanded that his magicians, enchanters, and sorcerers tell him the dream and interpret it for him. They suggested he tell them the dream and they would interpret it. Here is the King’s response: “The word from me is firm: if you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you shall be torn limb from limb, and your houses shall be laid in ruins.”

I guess these men were probably feeling a little “dejected and desperate,” too, knowing they could not tell the King what he had dreamed any more than these scientists could reveal exactly what an earthquake was going to do in any particular region. In both cases God was not considered. In fact, the Italian courts are expecting God-like abilities from their scientists as Nebuchadnezzar was expecting them from his court magicians and enchanters.

In Daniel 2:11 the king’s men argued, “The thing that the king asks is difficult, and no one can show it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.” The King sent for Daniel and his companions to kill “all the wise men of Babylon” because they could not do as the king had asked.

Daniel, “with prudence and discretion” (2:14) asked why, what was happening. When he learned what the King had asked, he requested a time to come and give the interpretation to the King. Then, he prayed and asked his companions to pray. God gave him the dream in a vision and he was able to give it and the interpretation to the King.

Daniel 2:20 says, “Daniel answered and said: “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might. He changes times and seasons; He removes kings and sets up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding; He reveals deep and hidden things; He knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with Him.”

An earthquake could easily be seen as a “deep and hidden thing”. It’s magnitude, though measurable, is not absolutely predictable to anyone but God Himself.

It is clear in the scriptures that God is sovereign over every aspect of life, warm sunny, beautiful days as well as the ones when the earthquakes hit.  No matter how studied a scientist is God has the ability and will to call the shots.  Job points out that God set things up this way in the beginning. In 28:25-27 he says, “When He gave to the wind its weight and apportioned the waters by measure, when He made a decree for the rain and a way for the lightning of the thunder, then He saw it and declared it; He established it, and searched it out.”

Scientists are considered knowledgeable people, but they do not have the knowledge of God. They are not prophets that they can predict the future. Only God knows exactly where an earthquake will hit and how much damage it will be capable of doing.

When a government starts to attribute the characteristics of God to man, that nation has forgotten God. The Bible actually addresses nations that forget God, it is not pretty for them. One of the worst consequences may be in Hosea where God says, “And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.” (Hosea 4:6)

These scientists are appealing their convictions. I pray that there is a Daniel there who, “with prudence and discretion”, will start to pray and point the courts to the One True God in charge of all earthquakes so that future generations of Italians will be exposed to the sovereignty of God both in their courts and in their science.

 

If you find this interesting here is a link to an article that came out after the one I read for this post. http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn22439-bugged-phone-deepens-controversy-over-italian-quake.html