Christmas - When We Need It Most

Much as things are today, the time of the birth of Jesus was also a time of conflict

Yet, we contrast that with the events of history that provide the reason for this time and day we celebrate as Christmas. Much as things are today, the time of the birth of Jesus was also a time of conflict. The land we today call Israel was under Roman occupation, and subject to brutal rule. To criticize the Roman Emperor was to risk sentence of death. Taxes and tribute impoverished many in the occupied lands. Jews, the original occupants, became second class citizens in their own land. The word of the Emperor was law to be enforced by his local agents who were above any local laws of the inhabitants, and who could even nullify any local laws.

In many particulars, the time in which Jesus was born was much like our own. Many present in those times hoped for a Messiah who would free them from oppressive rule. Instead, they got a baby, an infant, weak and helpless as all are at birth.

But what child was this? What message did he bring that was to ring down through the ages to shape over two millennia of history, with no end in sight? How could one small child bring a message of hope and peace and brotherhood that by precept and example would guide the highest aspirations of uncounted generations?

For many reasons, people through the ages have recognized the operation of the Divine through fulfillment of prophecy, through recorded miracles, through historical records, and even through life experiences of those who followed Him.

In every field of science, there is an ultimate irreducible question that can only be answered as the product of intentional choice

It is in our modern age where so many look back on those times as filled with irrational superstition, of those who they believe to have been an ignorant and credulous people, of a period that did not know of the workings of the world, and so they dismiss the histories and prophecies as a product of an uninformed and primitive people.

I have been asked how, as a scientist, can I believe such nonsense. After all, they claim, science has proven that God doesn't exist, and that all the histories are just fairy tales to provide comfort to people who had no better explanation. Yet most of the most famous and revered scientists throughout history have believed. For me, science is one of the ways that the operation of the Divine is made clear. In every field of science, there is an ultimate irreducible question that can only be answered as the product of intentional choice.

Einstein once said 'God does not play dice with the universe', as an expression of his dissatisfaction with the apparent random nature of quantum mechanics. Yet it is quantum mechanics that reconciles one of the most difficult problems of faith—how can an omnipotent and omniscient God be compatible with free will? In many versions of quantum theory, it is the interaction of conscious will that determines which outcome of a set of possible outcomes will be manifest. One then must ask, how is the possible set determined?

Each day science reveals some new aspect of the marvelous intricacy that is our world

One of the authors of Psalms wrote: " The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.”

Each day science reveals some new aspect of the marvelous intricacy that is our world, from the most distant reaches of the heavens, to the most minute particle of the firmament, the interplay of the components that enable and support our lives goes far beyond anything that mere chance could produce.

All this probably seems a digression from the subject of Christmas. One only has to ask, though, what would the world be like with no Christmas? What if Christ had never been born?

Looking at the history of the world for the many millennia recorded before His birth, prospects weren't promising. Kings and strongmen ruled. The experiment with democracy in Greece had largely faded away, returning to the expediency of Emperors and Kings that persisted until America came on the scene.

Without Christ, there would have been no Renaissance, no Enlightenment. The Christian idea of the value of the individual, the idea of individual rights and liberties on which our Western world is founded would not have been available.

Even science, at least as we know it, would not have happened. For hundreds of years, the greatest scientists and philosophers were supported by the Church. Bacon, Mendel, Copernicus, Galileo, and many others were sponsored, encouraged, and supported in their work. Without these, we would likely have no modern science.

The Left has made much of the supposed persecution of Galileo for his 'heretical' beliefs, but the real story is quite different. In an age when criticism of a king or pope could be punished by death, Galileo was publishing documents making fun of the Pope. In an act of clemency, the Church decided to punish Galileo by making him recant a work of which he was most proud—not because the Church thought it was wrong, but as a way to make humble a proud and arrogant man.

Yes, the world would be a much different place, and likely far less hospitable than the one at present. True, we have problems, even serious ones, but we also have an underlying faith that the evil that seems to surround us can and will be overcome—that light will overcome darkness. In Matthew, we find “The people which sat in darkness Saw a great light, And to them which sat in the region and shadow of death, To them did light spring up." What if that light had never come?

In John we find: " Again therefore Jesus spake unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life. " Christmas is when we celebrate the coming of that light into the world, and is a time we can reflect on how life might be if that light had not come.

A Merry Christmas to all, and may God bless us every one.