In My Father’s house there are many mansions – John 14:2
In the long course of cell life on this earth it remained, for our age for our generation, to receive the full ownership of our inheritance. We have entered the cell, the Mansion of our birth, and started the inventory of our acquired wealth.
Talking about the new information revealed by electron microscopy Nobel Lecture, The Coming Age of the Cell, 12 Dec 1974
I have trouble with the word supernatural, because it has taken on the connotation of ”not real” in our society. We’re too proud to stick to its dictionary definition: 1: of or relating to an order of existence beyond the visible, observable universe esp. God or gods etc. 2. A: Departing from what is usual or normal esp. so as to transcend the laws of nature. B: attributed to an invisible agent (as a ghost or spirit).
We’re afraid to admit that there is so much that we don’t know.
Supernatural is most equal to unreal in definition 2B – “ a ghost did it”. However it will be only a matter of time when some things that are considered supernatural today will become part of our observable universe in the future. Things like atoms, radio waves and DNA could not even be imagined two hundred years ago. If it was claimed that things like that did exist in nature, such things would be called supernatural or at least impossible back then.
As we acquire more and more knowledge of this universe it’s critical that we don’t confuse unknown with unknowable, and it’s arrogant to conclude from what we know that we alone are responsible for what we know. I believe that all inspiration, knowledge and discovery is ultimately a gift of God, for the deeper we get in our awareness of the natural, the more of God we also see.
In order to see more of God however, we need to better understand what we are really looking at – ever unfolding, growing, transcending, evolving life all guided by a single design, the incredible structure and actions of the cell. Yes some cell actions seem to be random but others such as how cells gain a sense of purpose in order to become the building blocks of different organs can still only be called unknown or supernatural or, as I believe, ordered by God.
I stumbled across the quote above from the Nobel lecture “The Coming of Age of the Cell” by Cytologist Albert Claude who won the Nobel Prize in 1974 for his breakthrough work using the newly invented electron microscope and creating processes to identify cell structure and actions. I thought his quote went well with what Jesus said about many mansions in His Father’s house. However, before I began this paragraph I thought I better check out this Albert Claude fellow because he might actually consider my idea that there is an infinite intelligence guiding all cells as a bunch of bunk. So I found this article about him on the internet. It includes a complete text of his talk where he describes his life, his work and what he has come to believe about cells: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1974/claude/lecture/ it’s a fascinating read. Far from debunking my ideas, his thoughts went a similar direction and, in some ways, much further. Here’s another quote from his lecture,
Of course, we know the laws of trial and error, of large numbers and probabilities. We know that these laws are part of the mathematical and mechanical fabric of the universe, and that they are also at play in biological processes. But, in the name of the experimental method and out of our poor knowledge, are we really entitled to claim that everything happens by chance, to the exclusion of all other possibilities?
The whole of his lecture deepened my beliefs and sparked my imagination of the infinite possibilities with an infinite and all-knowing Creator.
Since it’s my imagination we’re talking about, it’s only natural that I’d want to write about the infinite possibilities of God’s work using fungi – single celled organisms that follow basic commands to become the oldest, largest and possibly most varied organisms on our planet. Future blogs may be about why sometimes morels make the hard decision to fruit or not, or is Schizophylum really a mansion, or why ash tree boletes lovingly build cradles for aphids.
This blog is about my brother Charlie’s infinite imagination too. So there’s a good chance that these blogs will be about how the early machines purveying radio waves were also beautiful pieces of woodworking art, or finding goodness in a good vacuum/cookbook, or, I hope, how and why we raise a joyful voice unto the Lord. Stay tuned and never stop imagining!
Charlie responds:
Reading this, the thought occurs that it isn’t infinite variability that produces wonders. Rather, it is when that infinite possibility is pruned that wonderful things happen. It isn’t “every possible combination of DNA” that produces an apple or a baby girl; it is the DNA that has been pruned and nurtured in very specific cells – whether apple tree cells or mommy and daddy cells. This is reflected in the Genesis story of creation, where God created certain living creatures (including humans) and then set them to procreating and reproducing. Within certain bounds, species can share DNA and create new possibilities, but I think it’s true that no combination of bird and reptile, human and fungus, or any other possible combination of living things can give birth to a piano or an oriental rug.
I can hear you thinking: “It’s presumptuous of you to say that “God created certain living creatures….” Well, okay, but that word “presumptuous” simply means that I have certain presumptions. One is that there is a reality beyond physical reality and that it is a reality ruled by a being whose power and abilities, wisdom and love entitle that being to be called God. Can I prove this? Not with the scientific tools of physical existence. I can only trust it to be true through observation and experience. I presume that there is a God who creates simply because that explanation makes more sense to me than the idea that an infinite number of chimpanzees could ever sit together long enough to come up with a Shakespeare sonnet.
And here is another question: What is the harm in thinking that there is a spiritual being called God who has the power and inclination to intercede in the physical realm? Would I be happier if, looking out into the universe, I thought “I’m alone”? Perhaps if the God that I attempt to learn from and follow were evil, calling me to hurt and destroy, then there would be harm. But the God whom I understand to be “there” is a God of love.
