In his book The Abolition of Man, C. S. Lewis says that needing an explanation for everything is, in the end, impossible. He says,
“You cannot go on ‘explaining away’ for ever: you will find that you have explained explanation itself away. You cannot go on ‘seeing through’ things for ever. The whole point of seeing through something is to see something through it. It is good that the window should be transparent, because the street or garden beyond it is opaque. How if you saw through the garden too? It is no use trying to ‘see through’ first principles. If you see through everything, then everything is transparent. But a wholly transparent world is an invisible world. To ‘see through’ all things is the same as not to see.”
Lewis is saying that we cannot explain away “first principles,” or the foundational truths that uphold everything else. These “first principles” are the ground of being, existence, morality, beauty, reason, and so forth. Lewis is saying that we cannot explain the explanation for all of reality. He is saying that if everything has a natural explanation, then we can never arrive at any real meaning at all.
In the modern West, immersed as we are in a science-based, fact-based approach to everything, it is becoming harder for us to see the glory of God in the world, the “first principle” behind all things.
Soren Kierkegaard illustrated this using a parable similar to the parable Jesus tells about the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16. He said there was a rich man riding in a lighted carriage driven by a poor peasant who sat behind the horse in the cold and dark outside. Because the rich man sat near the artificial light inside the carriage, he missed the panorama of stars outside. Meanwhile the poor peasant had a front row seat to the glorious display of God’s wisdom, power, and beauty in the natural world.
In his book Rumors of Another World, author Philip Yancy says that, as science casts more light on the created world, “it’s shadows further obscure the invisible world beyond.” In other words, if we let it, science will tell us that everything has a natural explanation, including our longing for another world. Left unchecked, science can leave us without sight.
Those who want to explain everything away are left with a world with no meaning, no mystery, no wonder, no “first principle,” no God. A materialistic vision of reality blinds their eyes from seeing the very thing we were made to see: the glory of God.
Science as a discipline is a gift for understanding the world God made. It is a window to see the glory of God in the world through. It helps us see what is really there. But it cannot explain everything that it helps us see. Seeing the wisdom and power and beauty and mystery of God through science is a wonderful gift. We must not, however, confuse the gift with the Giver.
Wanting to See More of God, With You,
Pastor John