Kingdom of Heaven

For our Friday movie night we decided to rent “Kingdom of Heaven.” The story begins with a man whose life is ruined after the death of his child and suicide of his wife. However, through a series of events he becomes a great leader of the city of Jerusalem.

Besides being a great “guy” movie, it really made me think a lot. I know it’s not a truly accurate portrayal of the Crusades time period, but it made me realize how much people in the past saw God’s hand in the events of their nation and their personal lives (even if they didn’t act Christ-like). They would rely on God’s will determining what happened. I wish that our society could get back to that somewhat.

In our “enlightened” age, we seem to think that we can predict and explain virtually everything that happens in our world, and we push aside any role that the supernatural might play. As a scientist, I see this attitude a lot…which is extremely frustrating. Of all people, scientists should realize that we have a limited understanding of why things happen. Sure, we can explain in great detail how certain things happen, but we have no comprehension as to why they happen. Also, any attempts to say that we “know” what happened over millions and billions of years (and therefore know something about the presence/absence of a god) are ridiculous and are overstepping the bounds of science.

Basically, I’m tried of people trying to prove or disprove the presence of God through science. Science simply seeks to explain how our universe behaves, not what created the universe or motivates it to behave in such a way.

Okay, I’m done. I don’t like to use this blog as a “diary” of my thoughts, but this movie really got my wheels spinning. Maybe one day we will turn back to reliance on God’s will and the role that it plays in our world rather than following only our own knowledge and will.