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| Science: The How |
I had an epiphany while I was sitting in a physiology lecture; though I'm not sure it happened at that moment, but rather, after it permeated my brain and even deeper within for a while.
Raised a Christian, I can admit I have had my doubts, questions, and concerns with Christianity as a religion. I think of all religions, it is the one I can relate to MOST, but I definitely had moments when I thought religion tore people apart more than it did bring people together. I witnessed this most often in debate of scholarly, intelligent, atheists with science backing their belief that there is not a God...with loyal, faithful, devoted Christians with faith backing their belief that there IS a God.
I'm sure you've heard the tale:
A professor asks a student if he believes in God.
The student replies, "Yes."
He asked if his God was good.
"Yes."
"Did God create the Universe and everything in it?"
"Yes."
"Including Satan, hell, cancer, and war?"
The student squirms...then asks the professor, "Do you believe in hot and cold?"
The professor replies, "Yes."
The student asks, "Even though there is no such thing as 461 degrees Fahrenheit, or 1 degree below 'absolute zero'?"
The professor squirms...
The student replies, "There is no such thing as cold; only an ABSENCE OF HEAT. Your argument is flawed because it presents a duality. God is neither good nor bad. He is neither Heaven nor Hell. He is all-encompassing, and the moment you present Him as a duality, you lose sight of all He has to offer."
I got that in a forwarded e-mail years ago, and at the bottom of the e-mail it said "this student was Albert Einstein." I don't know if that is true or an urban legend, but that is not my point!
For me, the more I learned about SCIENCE, the more I felt there WAS a strong, omnipresent FORCE or ENERGY that was absolutely undeniable. For me, GOD IS THE WHY. SCIENCE IS THE HOW.
The moment I was referring to in physiology lecture was one involving childbirth. We were discussing the topic as it relates to hormones and neurotransmitters. When an infant both cries and suckles the mother's breast, there is stimulation of a neurotransmitter to tell the pituitary gland in the mother to release PROLACTIN and OXYTOCIN. Prolactin causes your body to take nutrients from your blood supply and turn them into breast milk. OXYTOCIN causes the milk to eject down the milk ducts. Also, release of the oxytocin hormone while breastfeeding after labor will cause the uterus to contract.
If you are really interested in this, and care for a more detailed (but still understandable) explanation, click HERE for a website I found that sums it up well.
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| Baby stimulus to Mother releases oxytocin from the posterior pituitary gland. Oxytocin assists the mother's body in contracting the uterus and ejecting milk. |
Though this is just ONE ELEMENT of our incredible human-body-machine, I find it a fascinating merge between science and God. We need these hormones to evolve. I don't really understand the thought of "believing" in evolution, as it is proven, and no longer a belief or thought. We have evolved in 2011 from our parents and grandparents! And of course this extends back to thousands, millions, and BILLIONS of years ago. However, this merely explains the HOW. These hormones that are released explain HOW breastmilk is created and HOW it is released and HOW the baby is fed, nourished, and able to thrive as a human being.
But WHY?
The more I learned about how the body works, the more I felt we were a perfectly designed machine. Humans have created and re-created the COMPUTER how many times?! The phone?! Technology as we know it is constantly evolving. And humans are, too. Who is fine-tuning us? How does our body innately know to release prolactin and oxytocin? Prior to infant formula, if this didn't occur, the baby DIDN'T LIVE. That, my friends, is EVOLUTION. We have evolved so that women with hormone deficiencies can still nurture their children! But I think it is healthy for us to stop and wonder why our bodies are here, and why they work as beautifully and wonderfully as they do. Knowing that the female body is capable of feeding a child is one thing, but knowing WHY is another. This ability provides bonding time between mother-and-baby. It provides an unspoken understanding to the infant that this mother will provide love and food for this child because her body is DESIGNED to perform these tasks. The infant doesn't ask why. The infant has NO IDEA what has just happened! This infant has been sucked out of his or her warm, safe, cozy womb! And this infant screams and cries until he or she attaches to the mother and TRUSTS. This trust turns in to love and an eternal bond (hopefully) between mother and child. I believe this to be holy and sacred, and whether that is "Christian," or any other religion, I do not care. This is what I cling to as part of my spiritual faith. Science is a huge part of it for me. Thank GOD for prolactin and oxytocin!!!!
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| God: The Why |
I know many people who do not want to wonder. I wonder; it's innate within me. However, I think we can all agree on one thing-Atheists, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Agnostics, (fill in Religion here), alike. We can be THANKFUL.
"If the only prayer you ever say is 'thank you,' it would be sufficient."
-meister eckhart
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