“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” –Arthur C. Clarke
With input from my fellow writers in the Rough Writers, our campus creative writing club, I have been talking about magic and science, fantasy and science fiction, and how one can and should relate to it. I have already expressed my bias against magic, stating that it makes writing stories “too easy.” At the same time, I have an attraction to science fiction.
While I’m saying this, I’m thinking, “But you’re a Christian. God does things that some people would call magic. After all, what is a miracle?”
Scientists who are Christians are faced with this issue time and time again. If there is a rational, scientific answer for everything, then how does one explain the miracles that are mentioned in the Bible? How can God be omnipotent (all powerful), omniscient (all knowing), and omnipresent (everywhere at once)?
My answer is one that doesn’t originate with me. And that is: God doesn’t play by our rules because the rules we have aren’t the only rules there are. In other words, God doesn’t break the laws of physics to do miracles. He just has a better understanding of what the law of physics really are. After all, He is the one who created them.
I enjoy science fiction, especially stories that raise philosophical questions and skirt the border between religion and science. I even read those stories that I don’t agree with. I think Christians need to be firm enough in their convictions and confident enough in their faith that they will be willing to ask the hard questions, and even listen when someone who thinks differently than they provides a possible answer.
That’s the best way to learn, for both sides, I think.
The Great Adventure 