So for the second time they called the man who had been blind, and said to him, "Give God the praise; [That is an official oath they are putting him under. That is like the oath taken in a court of law, "I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God."] "Give God the praise; we know that this man is a sinner." (John 9:24 RSV) This pervasive malady is bad news for both science and religion. The worst of all worlds.The personal and social fallout from such a severely misguided worldview portends a grim future for you, me, and our loved ones. For the United States. For the planet. (c) SomeONE, FINALLY, out there, paying attention to this! Thank God!

Believing Is Seeing: A Physicist Explains How Science Shattered His Atheism and Revealed the Necessity of Faith –by Michael GuillenHe works out the implications of this truth in a number of arenas that are typically thought of as the "domain" of the atheist empiricist - physics, cosmology, even the scientific method itself. In each case he shows how a dogmatic restriction to what can be scientifically tested results either in contradictions or stunted reasoning. The disciples are probably thinking of the Jewish rabbinical teaching that it is possible for an embryo to sin. This may be what lies behind their question. But Jesus declares, "No, it is not that; nor is it the parents' sin." As we well know today, babies are born with herpes or with AIDS because of their parents' sins. But, in this case, Jesus specifically says it is not for that reason that the man in question was born blind. The audacity of this man. He spent the whole book trying to convince his readers that faith is big enough for IQ and SQ and yet somehow, he fails to use both when it comes to transpeople. He is so blinded by his personal experiences and biases that he cannot even begin to imagine that God isn’t limited by flesh. He refuses to accept the testimony of transpeople because it doesn’t make logical sense to him even as he accepts the testimony of the apostles that Christ rose from the dead and ascended bodily into heaven on a cloud. What do you say to someone who dismisses faith as a weakness? Who claims to not rely on faith whatsoever? You ask why I believe in prayer? Well, not because I have tried it and it has worked. I believe in prayer because Jesus Christ says that prayer is the secret of life and I believe him. Jesus Christ says that man must either pray or faint, one or the other. Because it is Jesus Christ who says this, I believe him, and, therefore, I pray and find it works. The proof of prayer does not come from my experience; that is simply the demonstration of what I have already believed, and I believe it because of who said it. Believing, therefore, is seeing.

As a physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and Christian, I have a worldview broad enough to accommodate both the scientific method and the Bible . . . reason and faith . . . the universe and God. (c) One day, however, when I was feeling beaten down by a crisis ....., it happened. After decades of being an Atheist-scientist, of assiduously exploring the world's great religions, I relaxed ... let go ... and completely surrendered myself to the buoyancy of Jesus' promise." The last chapter or two of the book were a little disappointing; it felt like they took a sudden professorial turn, with the T/F quiz especially... I appreciated the review of the book's concepts, but felt like this quiz went a little far in predicting possible crises in the serious moments of life (and this comes from someone sympathetic to his premise). I also wish he hadn't begun the last chapter with a takedown of transgender people as an exemplar of people putting emotions over evidence; it felt like this was a sudden left turn and marked a part of the book that felt increasingly based on value judgments rather than the thoughtful conversation between scientific discipline that characterized the earlier part of the book. Honestly, I wonder if he was losing interest here and just rushed through his conclusion. Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, "Do you believe in the Son of man?" He answered, "And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?" Jesus said to him, "You have seen him, and it is he who speaks to you." He said, "Lord, I believe"; and he worshipped him. (John 9:35-38 RSV) The Lord Jesus said that He had come as Light into this dark world, and everyone who believed in Him would not remain in darkness (v46). It’s important to notice that the Lord did not indicate that unbelievers would go into darkness. He indicated that they are already in darkness and they would remain in darkness.That indicates they did know who opened his eyes, but they lied and refused to say because they were afraid. So the clay of fallen, fearful, weak humanity continues to blind the eyes of these involved in this story. Further, in most matters it is wise to insist on seeing before believing. If a person comes to you peddling a cream to cure your cancer or a scheme to double your money in a week, I hope that you will treat such claims with a large dose of skepticism and say, “Show me the evidence” before you lay down your money or mortgage your home. I have had in my New Testament a verse I found in the writings of Henry Van Dyke some years ago. It is a beautiful prayer, and it states what ought to be the attitude of every believer as he comes to the Scriptures.

Genesis records that God appeared to Abraham and made him a promise: Through your seed shall all peoples of the earth be blessed, (Genesis 22:17-18). The immediate seed was Isaac, born of Abraham's old age; but the ultimate Seed is Christ. It is through faith in Jesus Christ that this promise is fulfilled, and all the peoples of the earth are blessed in Abraham. This promise was later confirmed by an oath, God swearing by himself that he would fulfill what he had said. The writer is simply pointing out that Abraham believed God's promise and his oath. Though he does point out how much science has yet to explain about life and our universe, he doesn't use that as "proof" of God, decrying a "god of the gaps" idea that humans have faith only to explain what we still cannot explain, but rather proposes that current understandings and evidence can reasonably lead to faith. He also talks about spiritual intelligence (for example, inspiration) as a uniquely human trait and contends that we should use both our IQ and SQ in our work and effort to learn more about the universe. This part felt a little further out there, but it was entertaining and intriguing to go with him on it.

Then Jesus cried out and said, “He who believes in Me, believes not in Me but in Him who sent Me” (v44). However, nothing could be further from the truth! According to God’s Word, believers have been “called out of darkness into God’s marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). Believers have the great privilege and responsibility to “walk in the light, as He is in the light...” (1 John 1:7). He has got them now. With this simple, logical argument he has pinned them to the wall. He continues: What that indicates, of course, is that we are not living in a world where we can always expect perfection; that God does not try to operate the world in such a way that everything works out beautifully. We are living in a fallen world. From Genesis to Revelation, the Scriptures declare that we are living in a broken world, a fragmented world, a world which is not what it once was and is not what it shall be. For the present we are afflicted with hurts and damage and injuries and difficulties and hardships. That is part of life today, and it is all a result of the introduction of the principle of human evil, of sin, into human life.

But that is where true faith comes in. Faith that is not swayed by new ideas, impressive people, or eloquent preaching. Faith that will not die because something easier comes along. Faith that is based on the belief that He was, is and will be the Savior of the world. Faith that can withstand the pressure of difficulties in life. replied, "Whether he is a sinner or not, I don't know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!" I've heard it said about prayer, I've tried prayer but it doesn't seem to work. It seems to me that is putting things the wrong way. That is really repeating the common myth of our day, seeing is believing. No greater lie was ever foisted upon the human race by the father of lies than this, that seeing is believing. We are utterly convinced that is the way to come to the knowledge of truth, but the man who sees no longer needs to believe. Faith is not sight, nor sight faith. they hurled insults at him and said, "You are this fellow's disciple! We are disciples of Moses! 29We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don't even know where he comes from."Michael Guillen is a thoughtful guy with qualifications up the kazoo on science in Cosmology, Physics and Mathematics. But he is also a Christian. What this book attempts to do (quite successfully in my opinion) is to reconcile science and spiritual belief. Believing is Seeing caught my eye on NetGalley. I really liked the cover design, which features various scientific sketches, equations and symbols. While I’m unfortunately unable to identify all of these, the effect is really cool— and you don’t have to be a scientist to appreciate this book.