I recently had the opportunity to attend a panel discussion with world-class physicist Dr. Freeman Dyson.  While I don't pretend to be a great thinker, nor do I have any direct knowledge of Dr. Dyson's teachings, a quick survey of Google and Wikipedia easily convinced me this would be a great way to spend an evening.

Information and ideas feed my soul, you might call me an infovore.  So, after reading the following quote, I quickly rearranged my schedule to attend this event at the University of Portland.

Science and religion are two windows that people look through, trying to understand the big universe outside, trying to understand why we are here. The two windows give different views, but they look out at the same universe. Both views are one-sided, neither is complete. Both leave out essential features of the real world. And both are worthy of respect.

Trouble arises when either science or religion claims universal jurisdiction, when either religious or scientific dogma claims to be infallible. Religious creationists and scientific materialists are equally dogmatic and insensitive. By their arrogance they bring both science and religion into disrepute. The media exaggerate their numbers and importance. The media rarely mention the fact that the great majority of religious people belong to moderate denominations that treat science with respect, or the fact that the great majority of scientists treat religion with respect so long as religion does not claim jurisdiction over scientific questions.

Sitting in the front row, less than 15 feet this venerated scientist, I consumed and formulated ideas like a starving man.  In the days since, I've learned that Dyson is revered and hated; he is a genius and a rebel; he is also casual, funny, and amazingly agile for a man soon to be 86 years old.

During the discussion, someone asked him to discuss how he could be a scientist and a Christian at the same time.  Basically, he repeated the ideas in the first paragraph of the quote above.  While he had many other interesting and subversive thoughts, including the answer to a broad philosophical question I was able to ask, it was the idea of the two different windows that really captured my imagination.

I am blessed to live in a rural community, so during my hour-long drive home, I was able to introspect and digest some of the ideas I heard last Wednesday evening.  I want to share with you the epiphany that came to me after this encounter.

It occurred to me that the idea of looking out through two different windows is an ego-centric perspective.  It assumes that we are at the center of the Universe, and everything else is on the periphery of our sphere.  What if it were just the opposite?

The two windows analogy still holds true for me, but from a different perspective.  I imagine God to be the center of the Universe, and rational thought.  But often I view Him through a different window. Sometimes I see Him from the East as I look through the spiritual window.  Other times I look from the West - the logical and scientific perspective.

Looking in on God, depending upon the perspective, I will be influenced by different shadows, lighting, and context.  It is the same God, the same body of knowledge, but it is my perspective that has changed.  This makes for a God-centric model, not an people-centric model.

As my friend Samir Selmanovic says, "It's Really All About God."  Too often, we try to make it about us.

This is how I rationalize the scientific arguments and the religious polemics.  I figure I don't have the complete picture.  It seems to me that an infinite God and an infinite body of knowledge, would not fit in my finite brain, be understood by a finite academic and religious society, nor could a finite planet, with a finite population, even begin to understand infinity.  So, I don't stress over the differences.

The answers will come when their time arrives, or at the Second-Coming - either way, I can wait.  My faith is in Jesus and He'll let us know what we need to know, when we need to know it.  Actually, I imagine a collective cry of "Ah-ha!" at the Second-Coming!

Most likely, a lot of us will be walking around slapping our foreheads for many years after we begin life anew in Heaven.  In fact, I can't ever imagine life getting boring - an omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, and infinite God has a lot to teach us.  

Even as a self-proclaimed infovore, I can wait.  God is my Master, He knows how much information I need and can handle.  It's all dependent on His timing - not mine, because it is really all about Him!  And I have eternity - so there's really no hurry.