Peter, the prototypical water walker, got his feet wet in the matter of faith when in the first rush of belief he stepped outside the boat. Then an absence of trust sent him sinking like a rock. Peter sputters “Save me!” Jesus does and Peter’s faith became empirical. He had a theory: he could walk on water, he tested it and the test failed but the results led him to a discovery. Based on the new evidence, he formed a hypothesis, Jesus is the Messiah. He submitted the idea to peer review and after a time of testing the other apostles concurred. The theory was published in the journal, “The New Testament.” Science is its own sort of religion, and its method is the same as Peter’s, a stepping out in faith which the scientists call theory; like gravity or the grand unifying: the one theory that explains it all. Peter understood that one, that in fact there is one that encompasses all. Peter met the One on the water.
There has never been a contradiction for me between religion and science. Both search for truths at the heart of the universe. What do you think about this?
Send this poem to a scientist friend.
Maybe even give them a gift subscription to Holy Poetry.
