Student's perspective

[Lynn Raw]

Jeff Shaw
student
Lower Columbia College
Longview, WA 98632
wrote:
> As a student. I wish only to deal with FACTS. My first organic chemistry
> professor was a soft-spoken man that shared with his class his deep
respect
> for the perfect order of all living things. In my own life, I have found
> that this perfect order, the unviolatable principles upon which life is
> founded, has been the catalyst for my belief in God. Even chaos itself has
> order when expressed mathematically.

As a teenager (non-Catholic), educated by monks at a Roman Catholic school,
I tried to puzzle out the apparent conflict between what I observed and
religious dogma I was taught. Considering that God is by definition
omnipotent, omnipresent and eternal it seemed to me that there is only one
single known entity in nature which meets these criteria and that is energy.
That simple explanation seemed to provide solutions to many of the conflicts
that would otherwise exist. In the succeeding years I have not had cause to
change this concept and, surprisingly, discussions with persons trained in
theology have not led to any modifications, some even agreeing with the
logic of the concept even if their dogma prevailed. Of course this concept
does not confirm or deny that the persona of God has been created in the
image of Man (or vice versa!).

This is the first time I have put forward these views in public so I have no
idea of the potential effect that this might have on the list. My apologies
in advance.

Lynn Raw
(Perivale, Middlesex, UK)