Reductionism

The way that our modern world has made such huge leaps through the years has basically been by taking things apart, analyzing them, reducing them to their individual functions to see how they could be manipulated and progress could be made. If you ever dissected a frog in Jr. High, you already know this. And this has been the way we have been taught to see the world. We reduce. We prod. We explain.

I started reading Life of Pi this weekend. I rarely get to read fiction, but I had heard raving reviews about this book from several of my friends, and there’s something about having a newborn in the house that makes one want to go to another world occasionally. The book is written by a guy named Yann Martel, and he made the dangerous, but rewarding decision, to write himself into the story he was telling.

And at one point in the story, he tells about an older gentleman grabbing him by the arm in a coffee shop. The older man told him (Yann Martel) that he wanted to tell him a story. A story that would make him believe in God.

And it did.

Not just in the book either. Martel had started writing his award winning book as an atheist, and he finished it as a believer. When he was asked what changed his mind, it was hard for him to put his finger on it. But what he did say I thought was interesting. He said he was tired of just seeing things on a flat level. There was more…and he was choosing to look further for it.

Yesterday I spent another afternoon with the inmates at the Tarrant County Jail. Just like most Tuesdays we all set in a room, and put a DVD on of Hillsong worship. The guys sang along (at the top of their lungs) and then I taught for a bit. And at one point I was setting back and just observing. If I was a judging this as a worship service, it would rank pretty low. Nobody in their right mind would say it was anything spectacular. It was just a bunch of guys sitting in a room, singing to a T.V.

But…

When I was in the hospital room for Samuel’s birth, everything was pretty surreal. Now I know that births happened all across the world that day, and every day. And I imagine if you were around births everyday it might begin to become ordinary, and rightfully so. This process is common, if it wasn’t the human race would die off. All that was really going on there was a mom giving birth.

But…

About seven years ago, Leslie and I stood in an auditorium with some of our closest family and friends. We repeated some words that a minister told us to, and then we kissed. And really that was all there was.

But…

I think it’s interesting that one of the metaphors that is repeated through Scripture is that God opens our eyes. It happens often when people are looking at things on the surface level. God has this uncanny talent of shaking someone’s world up just by helping them see deeper in front of them. He lets them see something they previously couldn’t. Something that was already there.

And here is the thing about faith. It’s possible to parse and dissect life in a way that makes everything seem explainable. I don’t know of many moments in my life that don’t have rational explanations. But I’ve also come to see that God is in the most mundane things in a way that we haven’t noticed before. The miracles that happen all around us are sometimes called by different names, like sunsets and canyons, or open-heart surgery. But the life of God doesn’t have to look like a 700 Club special.

Sometimes it’s the places, the unexpected altars, where God shows up, and you’re eyes are opened.

When Yann Martel was asked why he finally decided to take the leap of faith,and believe that there was a God, this is what he said:

“Reason is very empowering. Our entire Western Democracies are a meticulous result of reason. But reason is just a tool. It doesn’t, in and of itself, give you a reason to use it…I was sick to death of reasonableness.”

Which resonates with me on so many levels. There is a real mystery, an unexplainable otherness about God. And if I look hard enough, it’s imprint is on every part of our world. Or, one more time in the words or Martel:

1) Life is a story.

2) You can choose your story.

3) A story with God is the better story.

_____

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http://www.wadehodges.com Wade Hodges

I love that book! He’s got a new one out just recently. May have to give it a go over summer vacation.
http://dustcoveredtalmid.blogspot.com/ Dan Gill

I will have to read that. Fiction speaks to me at a very deep level in ways that non-fiction does not.

There is more to belief than western analytical thought. I think I heard Ray VanderLaan quote the rabbi Akiba (spelling uncertain) to say “To believe is to see.” Westerners have it the other way around. We say, “Seeing is believing.”
http://dustcoveredtalmid.blogspot.com/ Dan Gill

By the way, it’s about time you wrote something here. Like a new baby takes up all your time . . .
Peter Mosley

I agree. Mundanity can only occur where we deny God or think enough of ourselves (intellectually, emotionally, physically, etc.) to believe we can put His presence in a (rational, emotional, physical, etc.) box. It’s not permanent, because God doesn’t like being denied, and he certainly doesn’t like boxes.

Congratulations, by the way!
http://stormented.com Jonathan Storment

Wade. I’m loving the book so far. He’s great at crafting a parable on so many levels.

Bro. Danny, Remind me to tell you a story about that. It’s fascinating. And yeah, I know baby tending is no big deal, I should have written a week ago.

Peter, thanks for saying that. I think you touched on something else, it’s possible to put God in an emotional or experiential box as well. Interesting…
http://dustcoveredtalmid.blogspot.com/ Dan Gill

Peter, you’re right about that, and it’s not something we often think of. Thanks for reminding us.

Just pulling your chain, Jonathan. I think it’s amazing when new parents get anything done. I don’t know how Shan does it, caring for the newborn foster babies. But she does, and she seems to thrive on it. I’d be a basket case.
Joe

I just finished his new book a few days ago. It was pretty lackluster compared with Life of Pi. LiP was fantastic because at the end you are left with soooo much to think about. I think that is the greatest aspect of Martel’s writing style: his ability to make you think. His prose isn’t really beautiful, but his story telling is great.

As for modernistic reductionism, I think it, like so many things in modern life, is simply a stage we pass through from time-to-time. I find those that settle down and never move past reductionism are naive, but so are those who can’t cope with the challenge of it on occasion. I find most scientists are quite capable of seeing beyond it, though they live in constant dialogue with it.
http://www.stormented.com Jonathan Storment

Bro. Danny, you are so right. Leslie is amazing, what she manages to juggle right now. She deserves an award, in my opinion.

Joe, I’ve thought about you several times reading this. You were one of the first people to tell me about it, and I loved the description you wrote about. And your right, he’s a great story teller.
About reductionism, on many levels I’m very thankful for it. I’m glad that we’ve made such leaps in things like medicine or transportation. I think reductionism, like a lot of other lens, fall short when we start to approach, all or most of life with that perspective. My point is that, while we have dominion over creation, and a lot of people (like you) thankfully love to excercise that via observing and learning how to manpulate things for good. I think that we are well served to step back and enjoy the mystery that is there….All in all, I think we agree. Thanks for the wise words.
http://www.paulaharrington71.blogspot.com Paula Harrington

So glad I stopped in here. Thanks for this.
http://www.reliefinn.com Debt Settlement

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