But… This is Engineering
We don’t Decide on “Beliefs”
“We” meaning those young engineers I am around all the time. And being “Engineering” meaning this was originally written for an engineering audience. But this is for anyone who can put up with me for a little bit longer.
Is there a God? And, why does it matter? Well, my purpose here is not to convince others that there is a God. But, I’ll quickly share a tidbit on how I see it, coming full circle back to a design context from my perspective as both an academic and practitioner of design engineering — creation of products and processes of (intended) value.
First, a bit of reminder on what an engineer does. An engineer’s job, in the technical sense at least, is to make decisions. All the “engineering” such as modeling, analysis, testing, data gathering, data processing, etc. are necessities, a gathering of information that constitutes much of the time that is spent in the engineer’s job. But, they are really only a means to an end, that end being a decision to be made. Our decisions, based on this information we have compiled, are made based on facts. In other words, information that drives our decisions are facts, and perhaps more broadly could be called results, and quantitative ones at that. Really, words like very, a lot, tiny, huge, etc. have no place in engineering as they are not at all quantitative. Words of relativity, like bigger, smaller, shorter, taller, more, less, etc., have their place but only in a relative sense, and will always beg the follow-up question “by how much?”
In the same spirit, an engineer does not make decisions because she “believes” this or that, or because he “feels” this or that. Engineers should never make decisions on “their gut,” which is a cumulative accounting for all those beliefs, feelings, and the like. Yes, an engineer’s gut is very useful, but only for guidance, giving direction and perspective, but not as the basis of a decision. One’s gut, like in any realm of life, can improve with life experience if life is lived intentionally, learning continuously rather than living life only going through the motions. But, as good as one’s gut might be, no matter how strong one’s feeling or beliefs… that brings us to the title of this chapter. Is there something quantitative here in all this Christian faith stuff that makes it plausible to the more analytical, logical, mind of an engineer, a scientist, or anyone for that matter? Yes, there is. Of course, it is still faith; not provable. And it is a place where there is a supernatural element, so trying to put it squarely in an engineer’s world is not the point. But there is plausible evidence, at least in my opinion, that may hit home and bring some less touchy-feely credibility to the cause here.
That’s what I offer in this chapter; though, there are plenty of other sources that go far beyond what I do here as this is just one chapter of one very short book that is not devoted to the subject of supportive evidence that there is a God and that Jesus was God in human form. As noted in the first paragraph above, I wrote this not to prove or even convince others, rather to share my experience that may be helpful to others, whether fellow believes in Christ, or not, strugglers us all. But, because following Christ is a decision, then if we put it in the engineering world (which it isn’t, but for those of us who live much of our lives there…) shouldn’t there be some quantitative plausible evidence upon which to make that decision, not just qualitative, relative, beliefs and feelings? Well, like I said, this is supernatural, Creator of the universe stuff; so, no. But it can help for some of us Non-normals (engineers), so here we go.
1 Is There a God?
I sort of said it in my “statement of faith” earlier at the end of section 3 of Chapter 2. But here’s what convinces my objective engineering, research, development, and commercialization/business mind, beyond and in addition to my heart being convinced as noted already. This comes back to a plausible evidence perspective.
I’ll draw from a nice piece at www.space.com, written by Elizabeth Howell,[1] dated May 18, 2017, in answering the question of “how many stars are there in the universe?” The numbers, while being estimates and not exact (part of the point here as well), are mind-blowing. It first really hit me when I heard a Christian pop song entitled So Will I (100 Billion X) referencing 100 billion galaxies. I said: Wait a minute. What’s that?! Astronomy is definitely not my thing, but with Google at my beck and call, within minutes I confirmed that number; actually, I found that more recent findings show 100 billion to be off by a factor of two, clocking in at 200 billion known galaxies. 200 billion! Galaxies! Each full of stars! Millions or billions of stars in the average galaxy! Stars as big as and much bigger than our sun! Oh, but the number keeps going. Here’s an excerpt from what Ms. Howell writes:
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… The number of galaxies is an astonishing number, however, as shown by some imaging experiments performed by the Hubble Space Telescope. Several times over the years, the telescope has pointed a detector at a tiny spot in the sky to count galaxies, performing the work again after the telescope was upgraded by astronauts during the shuttle era. A 1995 exposure of a small spot in Ursa Major revealed about 3,000 faint galaxies. In 2003-4, using upgraded instruments, scientists looked at a smaller spot in the constellation Fornax and found 10,000 galaxies. An even more detailed investigation in Fornax in 2012, with even better instruments, showed about 5,500 galaxies. Kornreich[ † ] used a very rough estimate of 10 trillion galaxies in the universe. Multiplying that by the Milky Way’s estimated 100 billion stars results in a large number indeed: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars, or a “1” with 24 zeros after it. |
Whether the estimate of 100 million stars per galaxy is right or the estimate of 100 billion stars per galaxy is right, at some point, in my mind, the numbers are simply big enough to not really matter. To me, something like that didn’t just happen, nor did life that reproduces on its own, does so in many cases sexually and yet in some other cases asexually. Add to that the variety in both makeup and purpose of so many plants and creatures, and the physical and mental and emotional and instinctual features of the latter, at least as we see it. And in all this, the “as we see it” is just our understanding of it as observers at this point time, an understanding that keeps changing. Ah, not only is it astounding, but it also keeps changing.
When “science” is raised in support that there is no God or Creator, I guess it is more plausible to me that science in fact supports there being a Creator. Science as we know it, at any point in modern history, is an incomplete understanding for one (or there would be no reason for further study and research), and in some cases is not just incomplete but later concluded to be contradictory to new findings and understanding — that is, correct now becomes incorrect later. So, which is it? I could bore you with specific examples in the field of machining where I actually am a world expert, but I won’t. Suffice it to say, to claim that something like “science” that is wrought with admitted incompleteness at present and exhibiting of repeated examples of being found out later to be previously incorrect, and is self-admittedly resorting to estimates when it comes to the vastness of the universe since it is beyond our comprehension… well, I don’t buy it… science as an argument that there is no Creator, that is.
Instead, I see what is around me and, as one who has been blessed with the ability to create, and has done so… the natural world here and to the stretches of the universe must be designed with intention, IMHO. IMHO? Again, as noted earlier, this is faith — a belief about something that cannot be proven, that can only be based on evidence I assess as plausible. That noted “design intent” behind this world and the universe is simply an intention I will never understand beyond a scratch of the surface. And the history of science tells me that even the most intellectually brilliant of God’s creation (humanity) are able to scratch that surface only slightly deeper, when measured relative to its astounding if not infinite depth. Our science tells us that it started with a “Big Bang;” to me, God, with a figurative “snap of his fingers” did, in fact (oops, call it belief), set into motion what we try to understand. And, I think our pursuit to understand it is to His great pleasure, him watching us exercise the intellect he gave us and calling it a Big Bang.
But that’s just me, an amateur who simply writes from my gut feelings that I cannot deny. Others have covered this subject far more rigorously and completely. I have recently come across such a source; I did not change anything I wrote here as a result, but would be remiss if I did not make note of it here for reference — it is I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist by Norman L. Geisler and Frank Turek.[2] Whether you’re Christian, not a believing in God but curious, or whatever, and think you know all sides of the creation and evolution perspective, you should check this out. While digestible by a broad audience, those with a bent toward science, technology, engineering, and/or math, should find it intellectually stimulating and interesting. Its Chapters 3 and 4 address creation of the universe showing how science actually backs God as a creator, intelligently designing and creating the universe, so strongly that names like Einstein, and others big ones not so well known, cannot deny it in spite of an unwillingness to accept it. Its Chapters 5 and 6 take science and the reality of the genetic information captured in a single cell’s DNA as evidence that life was created, not initiated from goo and evolved across, and creating, species lines.
Bringing it back home a little to the engineering perspective, when I design something, others can only understand my design intent to the extent that I can completely articulate it, and I’m just a guy, a decent design engineer, but nothing that amazing. In other words, I’m not that special or smart, so others are very well capable of understanding if I am able to articulate it fairly well. But a monkey can’t be expected to understand it even if I could explain it perfectly. Similarly, we cannot expect to understand what God is actually capable of explaining perfectly — his design intent. Our inability to understand is not from his shortcoming, but from our limitations. What this means is we simply do not and cannot understand God’s design intent, just like your/my designed products and processes do not and cannot understand your/my design intent. And back to us humans explaining to other humans… short of a full archival documentation of your design work at hand, no others would likely have any hope in trying to piece together a complete and correct understanding of your design intent; something is surely left in your head. And that’s just humans humanly observing mere human designers, in contrast to humans humanly observing the outcomes of an all-powerful, all-knowing designer and his intent. Okay, that’s how I see it in my crazy head; on to the next question.
But my crazy head aside, our limitation is important to keep in mind lest we travel down a road that should not be followed. When we seek to understand God and his creation, as noted we can never fully understand it; we are neither capable of doing so nor intended to do so. God did create humanity with intellect, and for that reason I would hope God smiles, even chuckles at times in a loving parental way, as we apply our intellect to understand and explore him, the world, the universe, and life itself. I think of all the unknowns to us as being like Easter eggs parents hide and then enjoy watching their children search for and find at least most of them. But with God’s creation — the universe and life — as we continually learn and understand more, sometimes our understanding is later repeatedly found to be incomplete and at times even incorrect, as noted; we will never get it all complete and all correct.
And here’s where we need to be careful. If we do not keep in perspective our limitations to understand, and we do not humble ourselves and/or rather seek to find worth in our own intellectual “brilliance,” we run the risk of creating ideas and theories, sold as reality and truth, that sound deep and philosophical and cool enough that it is something that just must be. For me, if it contradicts the Bible, then it is not truth. Sometimes the truth is hard to swallow; but better to have the truth than something that just sounds cool, when so much and so many and such meaning of life is on the line. It would be sad to follow a path that meets with a dead end, no matter how nice the path may seem as you take that turn onto it. We all need to take care in every stage of life to think about how sound an idea about life and nature and God is, versus what we might want it to be in our desire to understand, wanting it to be something we can understand and make sense of, something that says there is a god of some sort, whether it be energy or spirits, or…. I actually have found peace in knowing there are some things I am just not going to understand and make sense of as related to the true God of my belief/faith, and for that reason, I just accept that and focus on other things. That is not an indication of inferiority, just acceptance of reality and exercise of humility.
To close this part out and move on, I recently read another book that I would highly recommend. It is not a Christian book, rather written by a professor and clinical practitioner of psychology, but demonstrates what he sees to be an undeniable truth to God as creator of humanity. That book is 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos by Jordan B. Peterson.[3] Really good stuff, though long — each chapter could be a short “one-hour-read” book in itself — it is also incredibly well written and a very enjoyable read. I would sum it up as follows: a cut-the-crap, tell-it-like-it-is, call-it-as-it-is, profoundly-thoughtful, thought-provoking, convicting-but-encouraging, philosophically-insightful, wisdom-filled book about lives lived in the world.
2 Why Does It Matter?
Worth in something comes from the creator of that something, not from the something created. When I was younger and sought to find my value in/from the world, I finally, at my wits end and lowest of lows, realized I was continually coming up short. Finding my worth in and from the world was a no-win. It was a tie at best by way of rationalizations, but in reality, once faced, it was a continual loss. And from here this question and its answer also come back to design, yours/mine and God’s.
Those who assess or evaluate the designs that are a product of your creation, whether engineering or art or ideas or anything else, may or may not see value in them. That’s the world talking.[ ‡ ] But to you, the creator, if you didn’t see value in it you would not have done it, or at least would not have put it out there for others to potentially make use of or enjoy it. The worth in your creative works comes from your works’ creator, you, not from what you created and not from anyone else, in a non-business, non-commercial sense that is. This is simply a model of God as Creator of all things. The worth in them comes from him, the Creator, not from those things he created, including not us humans, individually or collectively, as it relates to the worth of us humans living among all else in the universe.
And to be clear, I think it is more about who we are and not what we are. That is, our significance is not in what we are — living, breathing, thinking, self-healing, reproducing beings — nor in how many of us there are — 8 billion and counting. Amazing as all that is, and it truly is to me, I find more amazement in the mass and energy of the universe and its billions of galaxies and their 1024 stars (and counting). So, what is our significance? Our significance is in who we are — not just created beings but actually image bearers of our Creator. Yes… the Bible says we are created in God’s image. Being in his image, the relationship God desires with each of us is to call us (adopt us as) his children. We need to each keep all that in mind when we interact with others, that they are image bearers of our Creator and, as such, deserve the utmost respect and value in how we treat them — physically, verbally, and emotionally.[ § ]
Many societies in this world ascribe to the notion that we are all created equal, no better no worse. Over time we each change, for the worse in some cases and for the better in other cases, thankfully in most cases. And for those people who change for the better they do so to different degrees or levels — some end up better than others from our reference point, but as I am noting here, not from God’s. If in some aspect of the who or what we are, say, the aspect “goodness” as is the topic here, if I’m a 1 and you’re a 2, you are 2 times better than me. But with God being a million, from where he sits, my 1 and your 2 are indistinguishable. Your 2 and my 1 would both suck, but for the fact that we are created in God’s image, so we don’t suck, but we certainly are not good in the relative scale of God. Basically, if we are measured in units of millimeters or inches, God is measured in light years; really, he is infinite in goodness, but us humans have a hard time with infinite beyond the abstract. Anyway, that’s why the Bible says none are good. But, God did create us for perfection — his design intent — and in spite of our brokenness of imperfection that comes from the brokenness of this world, with following Jesus one is on a path of growth toward him, away from or turning from sinfulness — repentance that is —someday to perish from this worldly life to see him and his perfection, being perfected ourselves. For now, none of us are good in God’s scale, but are encouraged to not find our goodness relative to others, rather to find our goodness in and by following Jesus who imparts his perfection on us, on our behalf, when we stand before the Father. And a lot of that path of growth comes through the struggles of life.
And for that reason, I am thankful for my sequence of valleys that I noted earlier, those that finally brought me to my knees and submission to my loving Creator (by the way, don’t you engineers and artists usually “love” your designs that you create?). From that, at the core was recognizing that my value — my worth — comes from God, not me (one of his creations) and not others of his creation (the rest of the world). And, if I needed to reason on evidence of that, I could look to two things:
- God, Creator of billions if not trillions of galaxies (crap, I still shudder at that number), did not need me, but wanted me, so made me. Whoa, I must matter!
- And, he wanted me for relationship not for the short haul of 50 – 100 years of my worldly life, but so badly wanted me in personal relationship for the long haul of eternity that he sacrificed all for me — coming from his glory to live among us, dying an undeserved death, and, in that, experiencing a separation within the God/Trinity relationship to do so. Wow.
As the creator of anything you design, when you have put your all into it, it has your “fingerprints” all over it. You take it personally when others view it or treat it with negativity. God is The Creator of all design, even what you design by making use of all that he has given you in order to accomplish such. That’s why it matters; without God, we don’t have worth and, without worth, we are without purpose; and, without worth and purpose, why do anything? The latter — without worth and purpose — would suck. It does suck, from personal experience! (not that it was reality, but where I was at). All that said, I still at times seek worth/recognition from the world more so than I should; frankly, it pisses me off that I do that, but as even the great Apostle Paul said…
I don’t really understand myself,
for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it.
Instead, I do what I hate.
–Apostle Paul
Letter to the Romans 17:15 (NIV)
I am indeed imperfect in spite of being created for perfection. Thankfully, my Lord meets me where I’m at, and he does so for each of us, loving each of us as we are, not as we should be.
And in regard to the crappy tough times in life that is the main message of this book, it comes down to this as related to worth/value… It is our worth to our Creator that, if we recognize and accept that, make it possible to know that he is there in the bad as in the good, with a master plan and all-good design intent, imparted at its base as value creation in his design of you, me, and every other human that is, in Biblical fact, an image bearer of the Creator of everything in the universe. ‘nough said with one exception.
To put an exclamation-point on my 1 and your 2, or my 2 and your 1… my worth is not more than yours; as attributed to Billy Graham…
The ground is level at the foot of the cross.
–Billy Graham
a highly influential Christian
leader of the 20th century
3 Help that Might Strike a Chord
As I continue/complete my drawing to a close here, I have to testify that I am no Bible scholar. I have read the book once in its entirety, and a lot of it once to many times more. I know many people who know it far better than I do, and I routinely benefit from their wise counsel and insight. That said, to the best of my knowledge, and having had others more knowledgeable than me review this, I believe what I wrote above is not in contradiction to the Bible. The last thing I would ever want to do is to share anything in contradiction to the true truth, the Bible being the truth according to a Christian’s belief. I would also never want to share that truth in a way that is not helpful, worse yet harmful.
On that note, I have heard numerous times from other Christians that “sharing the truth is loving.” I would agree that not sharing the truth is unloving, but I think the first statement promotes taking the easy way, and that is often seen as an arrogant or condescending or judgmental way. Rather, I say “loving is lovingly sharing the truth.” Love is not what you share (truth, a noun). Love is a verb here, and how (an adverb, which describes a verb) you share it makes a difference, a big difference. “How” must be a focus over the truth itself, but not instead of the truth itself. The same is said in a quote by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt: “People don’t care how much you know [the truth] until they know how much you care [via love].” Or, let’s leave it to Jesus himself: “I am the way and the truth and the life.” [John 14:6, emphasis added] Yet, simultaneously true… Christ “first loved us,” first meaning before we could love others, but also by extension before we were alive, and before any truth was or could be imparted to us, thus God offers the truth in love, or lovingly, so shall we. If someone has a bug on their back, do we gently brush it away for them or do we smash it with a baseball bat and say “you’re welcome” as they are taken to the hospital? Too much of the latter figuratively happens, as unintentional as it may be — unintentional in this case being fundamentally a lack of lovingly acting and speaking truthfully, ya know… with patience and kindness. I would summarize this in my words as follows: “Truth is important; truth in love is influence.”
Finally, turning back to the Bible, and not truth aside but rather because it is the truth, the Bible is the primary useful place to find meaningful, sound, and helpful guidance and encouragement in the tough times. Family, friends, and so forth are often helpful (hey, God provided them in your life), though not in all cases and not at all times. But the Bible is God revealed, and you can always count on that, on him. For sure, the “cheater notes” as I call them, found in life application study bibles, are quite helpful in relating the truth to life. Books, written by authors whose profession (and not necessarily as clergy) is dedicated to understanding God’s Word and ministering to others in Christ’s name, provide help. And I have recently found that when it comes to the tough times, lyrics of Christian music abound with encouragement and insight.
“Music?” you say. My being born in 1966 with siblings 7 – 11 years older than me made for a strong dose of 1960’s – 1970’s rock as the foundation for my musical taste. I then turned 13 in 1979, meaning the 80’s music hit me in those transformational teenage and college years. And in around 2015, inspired by a special friend, I experienced my first dabbling in listening to some contemporary Christian music. In that I found huge refreshment with its departure from so much of the trash and darkness in much of today’s mainstream lyrics. I found that Christian music comes in all sorts of genres from contemporary, to pop, to rap, to hip-hop, etc. I also find that much of those lyrics are aligned to the truth in the Bible, then offered in a way that is helpful in connecting the truth to the realities we face in the toughness.
Much of the music itself, even the rock and pop, is not completely in line with my musical-taste roots, but the lyrics are good and the “music” part is plenty close to my taste in the balance. And since I have found so much in them, I intended to close out the Closing with a bunch of them that have recently come to pass on the stations I catch mainly while travelling or on my phone app, but the time and cost of permissions for any music lyrics is excessive for my purposes here. Those that struck me in this regard bring lyrics that address the toughness of life and God’s hand in it and his promise to you in regard to it — lyrics that for some people at least, in their poetic nature I suppose, strike a strong chord with the realities of life being lived. As an alternative to the lyrics themselves I did include the artists and song titles, which are links to the full lyrics for those interested, from which you can find the actual songs themselves. And… please tell me you caught the “chord” pun in this subsection’s title.🙂
4 with Others for Others Strikes Again
It is inherent in us humans to want to be part of something bigger than ourselves. By that line of thinking or truth, making life about ourselves is going to fall short, even though it is in our nature of pridefulness and selfishness. To not fall short in life, to be part of something truly bigger than ourselves, we are created and commanded to make life first and foremost about something bigger — God, and loving God specifically — and by his close-second command, then, making life about others — loving others. These two things bring the life abundant for which Christ came so we might have. Clearly, then, that abundant life is not about health, wealth, and happiness, rather it is about the fullness that comes in relationship with a loving Creator and the outpouring of his love in us and through us to others… even in, or especially in, the tough parts and times of life. If it sounds unbelievable… perfect; it should, for it is by faith, or belief, in something that is “unbelievable,” or in that sense, maybe “remarkable” is the better word. Whatever the word, it is life changing now with extension to eternity.
Relationship with God and others… Recall from Chapter 1, as I was completing my original book project this theme of with Others for Others surfaced in my head. It then became a thought for a possible series of short, “one-hour-read” books written “from the life and mind of an engineering educator and entrepreneur;” time will tell. As I recast this work, subject to and inspired by the events described in Chapter 1, I realized with Others for Others might capture reasonably well the foundational meaning of life from God’s purpose for creating humanity in the first place. That simple phrase — with Others for Others — is another way of saying life is foundationally, fundamentally in its purpose, about relationship.
God created us for relationship with him, and with each other. That relationship is a love relationship, us to love him (as he first loved us), and to love one another… the great commandment and its close second, the two that Jesus focused us on as those that capture the entirety of the Law.
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Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:23-40 (NIV) |
With others is the relationship base; for others brings in the love part. The “withs” clearly include those with whom you serve. But actually, the “withs” also include those whom you serve, as you must be with them to truly serve, if not physically then spiritually in the remote… that you are with them at heart, as the action of love comes by way of the heart. Likewise, the “fors” actually include not only (clearly) those whom you serve, but also those with whom you serve, in that you complement them, allowing them to be part of something bigger than themselves. So, in this sense, all others with whom we have direct or indirect (remote) relationship fall in both the “with” and the “for” category, not one or the other. And when it comes to relationship, that is about knowing another, not just knowing about them. I can read a book or two on, say, Abraham Lincoln and know about him, but I don’t know him. Knowing the Bible, even memorizing verses, are not bad things, but that is knowing about God… about Jesus. That does not create a relationship through which you know him. Living life in regular communication with God and with others, loving God and others, is how you know him.
Life is indeed fundamentally about others, God first and, a close second, all other people he created, these other human image-bearers of God. And it’s always about others, about God even when we are not liking God in discipline and struggle, and about those other PITA humans we don’t like some times or at all times. In fact, it’s probably more about those non-liking times, with God and others, than not; now I’m getting above my “pay-grade,” so time to stop thinking and writing and let you go.
[ † ] David Kornreich is/was an assistant professor at Ithaca College in New York State. He was the founder of the “Ask an Astronomer” service at Cornell University.
[ ‡ ] I am not talking about value to a market. That is a different story. Here I am talking about how worth does not come from the created, rather from the creator. And the relation here is that God created us for his desire, and him being Creator of all means we then have worth to all regardless of what all (the world) says.
[ § ] My writing of that last sentence serves more as a much-needed daily reminder to myself!
[1] Elizabeth Howell, “How Many Stars Are In The Universe”, Science and Astronomy, www.space.com, May 18.2017.
https://www.space.com/26078-how-many-stars-are-there.html.
[2] Normal L. Geisler and Frank Turek, I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist, 2005,
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0029RJ7D8/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1.
[3] Jordan B. Peterson, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos, 2018,
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01FPGY5T0/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1.
wjendres.com 