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From Atheism to Christianity

My return to faith

A testimony by

Emile Goubran

2008

Introduction

Dr. Emile Goubran has kindly asked me to write an introduction to his testimony for our Lord Jesus, a task I am honored to perform. I have known Emile for over 28 years; I met him first as his student, and then became his colleague as a junior faculty member where we taught together for many years. It was a privilege for me to learn from him and be counted as his colleague, but the greatest honor of all came when the Lord asked that I serve Him by witnessing to Emile. I can tell you it was intimidating at first; I have described Emile many times as a man of “crushing logic”, a gift of God that has served him well and served Jesus more than we may ever know. I will never forget what started our weekly conversations. We were talking one day and Emile said, “You know Keith, I can prove the existence of God. It’s through DNA. It’s a chemical language, and a language must have a language Giver.” I had been a Christian only for several years myself, and had read many apologetics books and dealt with many aberrant and pseudo-Christian beliefs from students on our campus. My response was to ask Emile what he thought about Jesus – who is He? At that time, Emile was not convinced that Jesus was the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He still thought that there were many paths to God. But being the man he is, Emile was willing to consider the evidence. We had weekly conversations, discussing the objections and the support for Jesus, and at last there came a point where I suggested to Emile that he had all the evidence he needed. Faith would be necessary to choose what he would finally believe, but it was not a mindless or blind faith, rather it was faith working together with evidence. As a person of logic myself, and a person that respects evidence, knowledge, and the mind God has given us, I knew why Emile was taking the path he took to find the answers. I suggested he read Evidence that Demands a Verdict and The Resurrection Factor by Josh McDowell, a former atheist himself, and we would meet again after Emile finished the books. By the time we spoke again about the Lord, Emile had finished the books and was himself a finished work in Christ!

What impressed me immediately about Emile’s return to faith was the humility with which he sought the Lord, the grace he exhibited as he weathered many personal storms, and the speed at which he grew in Biblical knowledge, Christian maturity, and commitment to the church and its people. He blessed me many times over! I say this to show how gracious God is. Through His sovereign love and endless patience, He took a man that he gifted in a particular way, and at the right time brought him to the Kingdom. He did this rather than abandon the man that challenged God’s existence. God is willing to not only wait for any person, but actively loves and pursues each one of us. If you read this introduction and are already a Christian, let it serve to remind you of two things – the first is to never give up praying for those you love. God is at work in their lives in ways we cannot know. The second is that when you witness to someone, there is no way to know what sort of impact that person will have for the Kingdom when they finally come home. Emile’s story is compelling evidence of that fact, and is one more story added to millions that have gone before, including the great apostle Paul, who not only rejected Christ at first, but actively persecuted Him. How is it that anyone can resist God’s love and patience?

I urge anyone that reads Emile’s testimony to carefully consider his life, what he says, and the prompting of the Holy Spirit; as the Word of God says, “Today is the Day of Salvation!”

Yours in Christ,

Keith Wells

Preface

This is the story of my journey back to the Christian faith after 25 years of atheism. I sometimes think that I should have written my testimony earlier after my return to faith to share my experience with those who might relate to it in one way or another. However, God always has a good reason and a good time for everything. I believe that my years after returning to faith have added more evidence to support my conviction that should be shared as well.

I have been sharing my testimony with my brothers and sisters in the church, bible study groups and with Christian friends, one who recorded it on a CD. However, the only recording done was in Arabic and I have no English recording as of yet. The idea of writing my testimony came to my mind several times, but I never acted on it until I was prompted by the Holy Spirit through some brothers and sisters in the faith to begin writing about my experience to bear witness and give a testimony of the work of God in my life.

In today’s university environment, the liberal way of thinking is controlling the minds of most of our youth and is shaping their outlook on life by pushing the secular agenda. It is now unpopular to believe in God or adopt conservative principles, especially Judeo-Christian values or any choices based on those ideals. The claim is that those values are based on metaphysical belief and not on scientific evidence or rational and logical thinking. Portions of this testimony touch on scientific information that I tried to present in an understandable way for those who don’t have a science background. I hope that I have done justice to that part since it represents the main basis on which I regained my faith.

At this point I would like to thank all of those who encouraged me to write and those who prayed for me regarding this task. I am also grateful to my late father and mother, brothers and sister, and friends who were pouring their tears before the Lord on my behalf during my atheist years so that the Lord would show me the way back to Him. I also thank all of those whom the Lord has put in my path to further guide me through the journey of my faith.

More importantly I am indebted to the Lord Jesus Christ for my eternal life that He has graciously extended to me through his sacrifice on the cross. I am asking the Lord to help me present everything as it happened, with no more and no less, so I may bear good witness and provide a true testimony to His work in me.

For the reader, I would like to say that you must have a reason to read this testimony, and whatever your motivation may be, I ask the Lord to give you the eyes to see and the ears to hear His message to you. I am just a witness but the Lord is the One who will work in you. Glory is to God, now and forever, Amen.

Historical background

I was born in Cairo Egypt in November 1942 to a Coptic Christian Family that raised me in the Christian faith. I was among regular church goers and attended Sunday Schools and youth meetings during my elementary and high school years. My parents were also members of an organization called “The Friends of the Holy Book” and used to take me with them to attend youth meetings devoted to the study of the Word of God, meditating in its deep meaning and application to Christian life. During those years I did not ask any serious questions during those meetings but was busy absorbing the knowledge, and understanding what my Sunday school and Christian youth teachers were explaining regarding the purpose of God and His relationship with humanity.

During those early years of my life between 5 and 15, church services and Sunday School and later youth meetings were a weekly routine. At that time there were no televisions or videogames, but entertainment was limited to some radio programs for children and some magazines and books to read. I gained most of my knowledge through these forms of media. Over time I began to love reading books and going to libraries and borrowing as many books as I could get my hands on, especially during my junior and senior high school years. First the books were fantasy story books, then more serious drama books, then science fiction books.

In the Egyptian educational system we started elementary school at the age of four (now six) and graduated from high school at the age of 16 (now 18). During my junior and senior high school years in 1958-1959, the biology class introduced me to the theory of evolution for the first time. I was about 15 years old when I first heard of it. I remember what our biology teacher mentioned before starting to explain the theory of evolution; he said, “What I am about to introduce to you is a scientific theory that attempts to explain the origin of life including mankind. This is purely a scientific theory and is not related to any theological information that you may have learned. So please don’t bring this information to attest the theory, and don’t bring God into the discussion.” He then went on to introduce Darwin’s theory of evolution.

How I wandered from the faith

After WWII and during the 1950s and early 1960s, waves of change swamped the world beginning with the Cultural Revolution in the Communist bloc, the feminist movement, the existentialist philosophy, new theories in psychology and the inclusion of Darwin’s evolutionary theory into the educational system as an alternate explanation of the origin of humans. The books that were written in all of these fields were countless.

My love for reading drove me to read more about the theory of evolution. Then I began to be interested in philosophy and read translated books by Jean-Paul Sartre, a French existentialist philosopher, and Simone de Beauvoir, another French existentialist and feminist philosopher. Those books lead me to read about Karl Marx, a 19th-century philosopher and political theorist, who is often called the father of communism. Then my interest and love of reading took me to psychology and I read some books by Sigmund Freud, a physician who founded psycho analysis and is known for his theories of the unconscious mind and the influence of sexual desire in driving human behavior. Meanwhile, modern psychology drew attention to the importance of terms like self realization, self esteem, self confidence, and self determination.

Marx did not believe in God because he reasoned that if there is a god, how could He allow suffering, inequality and social injustice? He said regarding religion: “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people”. He thought he could provide a better way to create a society that embraces social justice, equality and fair distribution of social resources among its individuals by offering communism as the perfect model of such a society. Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir were both existentialists and believed that there was no deity behind the essence and meaning of human life, but rather that it was the responsibility of individuals to create such meaning for their lives. For atheists, one of the biggest questions is, “If there is no God, how did man come into existence? Darwin’s theory of evolution seemed to provide the biological explanation and basis for the atheist belief that there is no higher intelligence that created life. According to Darwin, life evolved from simple to complex organisms through a series of evolutionary steps over a very long period of time. His theory of natural selection, sometimes called “Survival of the fittest” attempted to explain the evolutionary process that led to man as the top of the animal kingdom.

The atheists assert that God does not exist; instead God is man’s invention. God is only an idea in the minds of believers. Atheists explain that a human’s need for protection, provision and other necessities of life drove humans to look for a higher power, a deity that can protect and provide all needs. Mankind crafted for itself idols to worship and called them gods. Beginning with the ancient Egyptians and the Greeks as well as other nations, all have their gods; the god of war, the god of peace, the moon god, the sun god, and so on. In other words, the atheists assert that in reality it is man who created god and not God that created man.

For a young impressionable mind at 15, this overwhelming information by recognized authorities seemed logical and convincing. Consequently, many questions began to surface regarding the Word of God and the mysterious meaning of some of the contents of His Holy Book. Our church people were simple minded believers in the Word of God; so were the Sunday School teachers and youth leaders. There was no need for any debates about the existence of God or who He was, because during those times everybody believed in God, both the Christian minority and the Muslim majority to whom this was an irrelevant question.

After I became a student in the medical school in Alexandria, Egypt in fall of 1959, my father put me in a Christian dormitory close to the school since our family used to live in a small city called Suez, which is located southeast of Alexandria by about 210 miles. I stayed in this Christian dorm for two years during which more things happened to drive me further away from my faith. My biggest challenge was that I had so many questions that needed convincing, logical and scientific answers. During Bible study sessions, whoever was leading the service was unable to give satisfactory answers to my questions. Or, they avoided the question, or straight forwardly accused me of trying to confuse others and cause them to doubt their faith. For some it even appeared that I was making a direct and deliberate attack on the basis of faith.

In retrospect, the main reasons for steering away from the faith were unguided readings of material written by unbelieving minds that rejected God and followed their own human wisdom. This was coupled with the lack of satisfactory answers to the atheist arguments by believers who should know how to answer skeptics who challenge their faith. In one evening, at the end of one of those Bible study sessions, and with a great deal of frustration due to the lack of satisfactory answers, I went to my room, opened the window and looked at the stars. I said, “God, if you are there, show yourself to me. I need answers. I can’t come up to you, but if you exist, come down to me”. And that was the end of my relationship with God. I demanded answers, I demanded proof, and I demanded an intelligent and logical explanation to base my faith on.

Twenty five years later, I learned without any doubt in my mind that God was listening to what I said during that evening and was answering my request and even my demands to provide the evidence I needed. Just as Jesus said to His disciple Thomas; “Thomas, reach your finger here and behold My hands; and reach your hand here and thrust it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing” (John 20:27 MKJV). I also realized that the lack of knowledge to deliver satisfactory answers in the church could steer away young believers. They are especially vulnerable as they enter their college education and begin to confront evolution in biology classes and liberal leftist ideologies in sociology and philosophy classes. Without a reasonable counter argument some of them begin to doubt or even renounce their faith out of ignorance and lack of understanding. That is what God has mentioned through the mouth of the prophet Hosea when He said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6 MKJV).

Treading the road of atheism

I decided at this point to adopt atheism as my way of life and to rely on pure logic and scientific evidence to make any choices and decisions. There were new challenges to face, the first of which was to relay the news to my family. It may seem strange to most people that the person I chose to tell first was my father. First, he was the leader of the family and he should be the first to know, I said to myself. Second, he was a reasonable man and I learned through my experience with him that I could have a discussion without him going around the issues. Third, and more importantly, I was confident of his love and care for me, which has evolved over time to a strong friendship. So at the end of the second year of medical school, as my father came to pick me up and take me back to our home town, I thought this was a good private time to bring up the subject with him.

This is the essence of what happened during the trip as I brought up the news to my father:

“Baba (Dad), I want to share something with you.
What is it?
I no longer believe that God exists, and I have not heard a sound argument to the contrary. (After the initial shock, which he managed to control) he replied,
What is your argument against His existence?
Evidence; there is no logical or scientific evidence to point to His existence.
So you believe Darwin’s theory of evolution to explain the origin of mankind, right?
Yes, because scientific evidence supports Darwin’s assertion.
So where did the material, of which man evolved, come from?
The universe.
Where did the universe come from?
It always existed with all matter necessary to build the first substance of life.
Who taught man right from wrong?
Mankind learned through experience; when they suffered from the destruction of wars they began to appreciate peace, when they suffered from dishonesty, they began to appreciate honesty as a value, and so on. So it is all learned experience that ended with the development of some kind of code of honor with all sorts of ethical and moral values.
OK, what happens when we die? Where would we go?
We go nowhere; we just cease to exist, much as we did not exist before we were born.”

The discussion was lengthy and covered all kinds of arguments, and each time my father brought a challenging question, I managed to answer from the arguments made by all those atheist authors. At the end when nothing worked, my father said to me:

§ “It is apparent that I could not prove to you that God exists nor were you able to prove to me that God does not exist right?

§ OK, I concurred…

§ Well here is my last argument: if I die believing in God and there is no God, I lose nothing, but if I die not believing in God and then find out that there is One, the consequence is eternal death.

§ I said this is a scare tactic, I would prefer scientific evidence to convince me, and if there is no such evidence, then I am free to believe what I want to believe.

§ I am saddened by this situation, my father replied, but I will pray for you so that the Lord may show you the evidence you are looking for.”

My relationship with my father did not suffer as I thought it would. On the contrary, he continued to love me and came closer to me instead. I think this was his way to keep an eye on me and keep his counsel available when I asked for it, which I did. He was my best counselor and the closest friend I have ever had. When he died in April 1977, I was so grieved by his departure that my blood pressure went so critically high that I had to be hospitalized and given intravenous medicine.

As I began treading the road of atheism I encountered a new set of issues that I had to think through, which I would like to share with you.

Are there different kinds of atheists?

Are all atheists the same? From my personal experience dealing with atheists, I could say that there are two main kinds of atheists depending on the motivation or reason that brought them to atheism. One kind is the one that could not believe in the existence of God because they can’t see or hear Him, or have some compelling evidence to convince them of His existence. These atheists hold on to some social and professional moral and ethical values, which give them some legitimacy in society in general and among religious people in particular. They use this as a basis to justify that they don’t need God or religion to be good citizens. They also believe that humans are good by nature and are only drawn to evil when they are under adverse circumstances or because of psychological conditions that make them think and react differently from normal human beings. In other words, evil actions can always be explained on a psychological basis one way or another. Therefore, evil is a preventable condition, or at least could be minimized, if society provides the necessary environment for its individuals to grow as normal subjects and by applying good psychological principles in raising children.

The other kind of atheists are those who rejected God essentially because they don’t want to fall under His guidelines of morality and want to free themselves from Him in order to be free to live their lives their way without any rules to limit such freedom. To them, moral and ethical values are relative and can change as circumstances change. In other words, moral values don’t guide their behavior, but their behavior and what they want to do will determine what values should be adopted to suit that behavior. They may even try to legitimize it using the court system as their battleground.

As I look at myself during my atheist years, I could say that I belonged to the first group of atheists. The belief that you can be good without God or religion was my main basis to defend my atheist beliefs before religious people. To me it was important to adopt high moral and ethical values to justify my position and to have a clear conscience. It was also very important to me to hear people refer to my character and acknowledge it. This was what gave me value in my own eyes and what kept me going, but the price was high.

My new challenges

As an atheist, I had to face a number of challenges. First, I had to keep a perfect image to convince people that my way of life was a good choice, especially my family and friends who were mostly religious. This was not easy to do and put me always under stress and on edge. Second, I had to keep looking for scientific evidence to support my position and to be able to respond to those who tried to argue with me regarding my atheist beliefs. Not only that, I tried to use this information to make them doubt their beliefs. Third, and most important, is that I had to wrestle with some issues that a lot of atheists ignore in order to continue living without facing certain nagging questions. The most important of these is the purpose and meaning of life. They say life does not have to have a purpose or a meaning. We are born, we live and then die, end of the story. Why do we have to have a purpose or meaning in the life we live? But to me, that atheist conclusion didn’t make sense, it was not logical; it was even horrible. With all of the complexity of life, all of the sophisticated mechanisms that support it, the entire universe that carries it; what is the purpose? Moreover, why do we have the intelligence to think about it and pose all those questions in the first place? I would rather have no intelligence or will since all that the atheist life is about is “be born, live and then die” with no purpose or meaning.

In spite of those important issues, I continued to lead an atheist life with unanswered questions. However, as a researcher and faculty member in the medical school and with my later interest in technology, God used my inquisitive mind as a tool to draw my attention in a different direction.

New evidence and understanding

During my 25 years of atheism, evidence began to accumulate pointing to a different direction than the one I was traveling. It all happened gradually with small bits of information that connected in a way to challenge my atheism and forced me to reconsider my position based on the evidence that I once asked for. God wanted to show me all the compelling evidence I demanded in order to destroy all the idols I was standing before; the idol of existentialism and its notion that God is unnecessary to have meaning and purpose in life; the idol of communism and its utopian ideal society, and more importantly the idol of Darwinism and its evolutionary theory which claims to be based on scientific evidence.

Let us start from the beginning. In 1962, I was a student in second year medical school and it was the year I talked to my father about adopting the atheist belief. I graduated from medical school in 1965, went for one year internship rotation, and from September 1966 to August 1967 I was practicing medicine in a rural village in Egypt. In September of 1967, I was appointed as a faculty member in Alexandria medical school, where I got my Masters in 1970 and PhD in 1973. My field of specialty was in human microscopic anatomy, also known as histology, which is the science dealing with the study of human body cells, tissues and organs.

New information

During my Masters degree, I went in depth to study human genetic material known as DNA (acronym for Deoxyribo-Nucleic-Acid). This material is found in cell nuclei and stores genetic information that controls all body functions. This includes all mechanisms pertaining to the development of the human body from the first embryonic cell to its full term, body growth after birth, functions of all body organs and systems, and healing mechanisms. DNA even controls the aging process and how body functions will ultimately stop. In other words, DNA contains all biological information that controls all processes from the day of conception to the day of demise of the human physical body.

The information stored in DNA is in the form of a chemical language that uses four particular molecules as its alphabet. Those molecules are called bases and are given the acronyms A, T, C, and G by biochemists to symbolize the alphabet. Each three of these letters constitutes a word. The DNA language is, therefore, made up of several sequences of those three letter words. Each particular sequence represents a command to perform a certain function, e.g., synthesis of a protein molecule. In conclusion, the information stored in DNA represents a very complicated and highly sophisticated biological program written in biochemical language of infinite capacity to address all possible functions of the human body. This also applies to all biological entities belonging to either the animal or plant kingdoms.

The information about DNA that I learned in my Masters program represents an important scientific piece that would connect with other pieces in the future to guide me in God’s direction. In the late sixties and early seventies, computers were not known yet to ordinary people and personal computers were not invented yet, and certainly no computer science classes were available to help understand the meaning of programming or its language.

New experiences in a new land

In 1979 I immigrated to the United States and settled in Southern California where I continued to teach in my specialty area. In 1982 personal computers were in the market and a friend of mine who was an engineer encouraged me to buy one. However, I did not know how to use a computer and certainly did not know any programming language to be able to write one. My engineer friend was working on his Masters in computer science and told me that he could teach me basic programming language to begin writing some simple programs. So I bought my first computer in late 1982 and made my first attempt to write a program that enabled me to develop a grade sheet for my classes. I began writing the program and after several days I completed the task and began testing to see if it performed the intended functions. To my disappointment the program failed miserably and I began to review my work to see where I went wrong, but I could not find where I messed up. So I asked my friend to review my program and let me know where I went wrong. He reviewed my work and found multiple errors, some pertaining to the use of the proper language and others pertained to the logical sequence of the commands that targeted a specific outcome. What I learned is that to develop a simple program it takes knowledge of the computer programming language and a logical sequence of commands in order for the computer to execute the specific task successfully. Obviously designing more complicated tasks for the computer requires a higher level of programming knowledge and skill.

Around 1985 I visited a computer showcase in Anaheim, California that included a robotic section that drew my attention. While the presenter was demonstrating the robot’s functions he referred to the sophisticated program that was written by “the creator” of the robot. My own difficulty to write a simple program made me appreciate the knowledge, skills and intelligence of the person who wrote the software program that controlled the robot’s functions. To demonstrate the importance of proper programming, I am going to share this incident that happened to one of the US satellites that was launched to orbit the earth in the 1980s. The story is that the satellite, while progressing toward the position where it needed to change direction to orbit the earth, continued on into outer space and was ultimately lost in space. When they investigated the cause behind this incident they found out that the program written to guide the satellite to its orbit had an extra comma that led the satellite to deep space.

During that period of time some research had been going on in the US, Europe and Japan on what was called “Artificial Intelligence”. This AI research attempted to develop a sophisticated software program that would give a computer the capacity to think on its own and even make certain decisions based on guidelines written in its program. Now we are talking about a much higher level of performance by the computer driven by very complex programming in order to create “thinking computers”. This required programming of logic and deductive reasoning. The development process included not only computer scientists but also a cadre of philosophers, social scientists and ethicists in order to help develop the guidelines that would guide the “mind” of the computer. In other words, they would try to develop some sort of ethical or moral code that draws a line that should not be crossed when the computer makes its decisions.

Moreover, while this AI research was going on during the 1980s, there was a major research project before the US Congress for discussion. The proposed research aimed at reading and recording the actual sequence of the entire genetic code of human DNA and was called “The Human Genome Project”. The word “Genome” here refers to all the genetic/hereditary information encoded in the entire human DNA. The scientist that submitted the proposal to the congress was Dr. James Watson, one of the scientists who discovered the biochemical structure of the DNA in 1953 and was later awarded the Noble Prize for his historic discovery. After he made the case for the project before the congress and got the approval around 1987, he became the first director of the genome project, which was supposed to begin in 1990 and go on for the next 15 years, the time frame to complete the project.

One of the main benefits that supported this project was its promise to restore health to those with genetic diseases resulting from errors in the sequence of the genetic code. Once the genetic code is read in its proper sequence this could help locate the genetic errors underlying some of the genetic diseases and hopefully correct them through genetic manipulation. After the approval to go ahead with the human genome project, a question was raised as to whether the US government (the owner of the project) would make the gathered information available to the world for the benefit of all humanity. The debate began and there were two opposing views; those in favor of making the information available to the world, and those who felt that this is the ownership of the government and permission is needed to access such information.

In 1987 the good news about the approval of Congress to fund the human genome project was announced in a press conference to the public. One reporter asked the government official, who opened the session for questions, about whether or not the gathered data would be public domain information. The dialogue went something like this (I am paraphrasing here):

Gov. Official: “This information belongs to the government that provided the resources to make it happen.
Reporter: But this is the human genome, which belongs to all humanity.
Gov. Official: As the owners of the information it is our copyright.
Reporter: But the copyright belongs to the author. We did not write the genetic code, we will only attempt to read and record it.                                                                                       Gov. Official: And who do you think wrote this code?
Reporter: To the best of my knowledge the genetic code was written by God.”

This answer hit me right between the eyes and the hard shell of atheism began to crack.

The journey back to faith

All the pieces gathered during my postgraduate studies, my readings of the most recent scientific research and my life experiences began to point in one direction that was contrary to my atheist beliefs. At this point in my life in 1987, I began to recalculate 25 years of information. The most striking piece was human DNA. Some tough questions came to my mind as if someone was talking to me…

· Q: “Is it possible that all those billions of molecules arranged in very specific ways to carry specific instructions that direct all possible functions of the human body happened

by chance?

· A: With pure mathematical calculations, the probability is zero.

· Q: Considering your experience trying to write a very simple computer program, do you believe that this activity required some level of logical thinking, i.e., intelligence?

· A: Absolutely

· Q: Do you think the robot you saw a couple of years ago in 1985 can perform the demonstrated functions without the software program written inside it?

· A: Absolutely not.

· Q: Was the research aiming to create Artificial Intelligence (thinking computers) performed only by one scientist?

· A: No, many scientists were involved, all in their field of specialty; it is a big project.

· Q: If the human genetic code represents a highly sophisticated biochemical program that operates the entire human body, is there a higher intelligence behind it?

· A: There must be

· Q: And who that could possibly be?!?

When I reached this point, I began to cry, MY GOD, how ignorant I am!

For the months that followed this revelation I began to read the Bible with great enthusiasm and desired to look at its truth with a new eye. I have never enjoyed the Word of God as much as I did at that time and the more I read, the more it began to make sense. Meanwhile, I was also praying to God asking Him for forgiveness and wisdom to understand His Word. As I was praying, a thought came to my mind saying; “You demanded evidence to believe and you got it, but it took 25 years to get all the pieces you need to make you believe. From this point on you have to trust in the Word of God because you don’t have too many more 25 year periods.” I concurred with that thought and began to pray to God to guide me through my journey back - and He did.

Three key people were sent my way for that very purpose. One was a faculty colleague and friend who was an advisor of a Christian Association in the university. I began asking him questions that mainly revolved around faith that is based on evidence. He said to me that this is acceptable since it helps to deepen our convictions and there are a lot of Christian apologists who wrote much about evidence to support faith in God and His Son Jesus Christ. However, he said, there are times when that evidence is not readily available and we have to trust in the scripture as the true Word of God. He also said that often skeptical people demand to see everything, and then they will believe. But God asks us sometimes to believe, and then we will see. He recommended some Christian apologetic books for my consideration. I enjoyed those books very much because they spoke to my mind and used logical arguments that helped me better understand the basis for the Christian faith.

The second was a Catholic priest who was very good in meditating on the Word of God through a series of Bible studies that I attended in his church. This spoke to my spirit and I related to them deeply and began to feel that my mind and spirit were both fulfilled.

The third was a Coptic Orthodox priest who was much like the Catholic priest, well versed in the Word of God and very spiritual. I began to look differently at the Christian faith and the person of Jesus Christ and His teachings, which I now hold in very high esteem. I then began to regularly attend the Coptic Church and came to know another priest in the same church who was also very knowledgeable. Both teamed together to teach and meditate on the Word of God; one was handling the Old Testament and the other the New Testament through regular weekly meetings and both were highly educated scholars who authored several books that I enjoyed reading.

As I began walking in the road of faith, the Lord began to reveal more evidence to help me respond to those who doubt His existence. As recent as 2006, a book was published by Dr. Francis Collins entitled “The Language of God”. Dr. Collins was the second director of the Human Genome Project after Dr. James Watson who oversaw the first two years of the project. In 1992, Dr. Collins took over the project until the project was completed in 2003. In his book Dr. Collins talks about his experience with this research project and shares his thoughts about the “amazing complexity of the information carried within each cell of the human body.” In order to demonstrate such complexity and the vast information carried in the human DNA, Dr. Collins states that “reading of that code at a rate of one letter per second would take thirty one years, even if reading continued day and night”. He also states that “printing these letters out in a regular font size on normal bond paper and binding them all together would result in a tower the height of the Washington Monument”. Dr. Collins’ book confirmed the conclusion I reached in 1987, when the project was just an idea. I confirmed that the genetic code written in the human DNA is a highly sophisticated biological program written in biochemical language that must require a very high level of intelligence and can’t be a product of chance as the evolutionary theory states. This conclusion backs up those who offer “Intelligent Design” as the alternative to evolution in explaining the origin of life using scientific evidence to support their claims. As we reach this point there is a series of questions that need to be answered since the debate still goes on concerning science and religion, in particular when it comes to the biblical description of creation and other scriptural accounts.

Lessons learned

As I contemplate all that happed through this experience, I came to realize very important facts that I want to share with you.

Does science conflict with scripture?

This is a frequently asked question by religious believers as they get confronted by claims that science does not support the Bible. First we need to define what is meant by science. Science is a systematic method of inquiry attempting to answer questions pertaining to observed natural phenomena. It is also a method used to assess theoretical assumptions attempting to explain such phenomena. As such, science is simply a tool to help obtain data through research. These data or pieces of factual information obtained through scientific research need to be interpreted and assembled in a meaningful way to come up with a reasonable explanation regarding the phenomenon under investigation. In order to answer the above question we need to grasp the following facts.

The limitations of science

Once we know the steps involved in any scientific research we will understand the limitations that may influence the outcome. The first step is posing the question to which an answer is sought. This will set the goal or aim of the research. Second is designing the method and determining the tools/equipment that will be used to generate the relevant data. Third is collecting the data resulting from the research. This is followed by interpreting the collected data and discussing all possible meaning drawn from such interpretation. Then some sort of conclusion must be reached that may be followed by a choice on what to do next.

In each of these steps there are possibilities for error. If there is fault in the design, the outcome could be erroneous. If the method and equipment used to generate the data are inappropriate, the generated data are invalid. Even with accurate and valid data, the interpretation of such data is subject to different viewpoints. For example, if these data are interpreted by 10 scientists we may get up to 10 different interpretations and hence up to 10 different conclusions as to what the outcome of this research experiment could mean. An example of how the scientific method may produce erroneous results and hence erroneous conclusions was published in the US News and World report in 1986. The article referred to scientific research concerning the time frame needed for the evolution of the human race. Earlier research indicated that this time frame is around 250,000 years but more recent research (in the 1980s) proved that this could be much shorter, to the order of 100,000 years. We are talking here about a margin of error in the order of 150%. Is that good science?

This reminds me of a statement by one of our professors in the medical school warning students about putting absolute faith in scientific research by saying, “In science, the facts of today could be the fallacies of tomorrow.” He was referring to the fact that some current research may contradict the findings of some past research. Does this mean we should not count on scientific research to give us knowledge, understanding and explanations? Absolutely not! Science is a very useful tool and has helped humanity to progress in various fields of knowledge but it has its limitations.

Science lags behind Scripture

What may seem difficult to understand today may become easily comprehensible as more scientific work is done to explain it. With the advance of the scientific methods and technology more discoveries are achieved and more knowledge and understanding is gained. Science may actually explain and support the Scriptural accounts that seemed incomprehensible in the past. The DNA research, for example, points to a higher intelligence behind its genetic coding, therefore, pointing to a creator as the source behind existence. Another example is when the Bible describes God by saying “It is He that sitteth upon the globe of the earth…” (Isaiah 40:22 DRB), in another translation “God sits high above the round ball of earth” (MSG) or “It is He who sits on the circle of the earth,…” (MKJV). All describe the earth as a rounded object, as a ball or globe and not flat as they used to believe during the medieval times. Isaiah wrote this 1500 years BC. Even though it was concluded later, through experimentation, that the earth is possibly round and not flat, it was only in the 1960s that the unshakable evidence came by photographing earth through satellites and by the astronauts who landed on the moon and looked at the earth and took pictures of it. This means 3500 years had passed since Isaiah mentioned that the earth is round before solid scientific evidence could prove it. What this tells us is that science does not necessarily conflict with scripture but simply lags behind it, and with the advance of science over time, it catches up with the truths of the scripture. Additionally, science with its limitations may yield erroneous findings and wrong conclusions that could change when science advances over time and when its tools become more sophisticated.

So I learned that what appears to be in conflict with the scripture today may come tomorrow and supports its truths.

Blind faith versus intelligent faith

One of the scribes asked Jesus, “Which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him, the first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength." This is the first commandment” (Mark 12:28-30 MKJV). The mind is a component that must be involved in the relationship between man and God. Understanding is important in the relationship with God as Psalm 47:7 say “For God is King of all the earth; sing praises with understanding”. God wants us to use our minds and have a relationship with Him based on knowledge and understanding. Additionally, we have to understand our faith to be able to respond to others as the Word of God commands us: “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to everyone who asks you a reason of the hope in you, with meekness and fear” (1Peter 3:15 MKJV). What this means is that our faith has to be based on knowledge and understanding to be an intelligent faith and not a blind faith.

Blind faith will not be able to respond to the challenges and may be shaken or even lost when faced with difficult questions. This is clear in God’s words to His people through the prophet Hosea when He said; “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6 MKJV). On the other hand, an intelligent faith is able to discern good from evil, right from wrong, light from darkness, true from false and is able to provide good answers and defense when challenged by opponents. This is because the Spirit of God in the intelligent believer, who worships the Lord with his mind, will provide the necessary knowledge and wisdom. Jesus said “For I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist. (Luke 21:15 MKJV)

In addition to knowing and understanding the Word of God, using science as a tool to observe and investigate, to understand and comprehend God’s mighty work is actually what God wants us to do, for in it we will see the glory of His creation; “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the expanse proclaims His handiwork” (Psalm 19:1 MKJV). As long as we keep in mind that science is an investigative tool that has its limitations, we should not be troubled when we are confronted with what appears to be a conflict with scripture, since today’s apparent conflict with scripture may be tomorrow’s unshakable support as science advances. It is only a matter of time before science catches up with the truths of the scripture.

I could say that I was ignorant at both ends. At one end my faith was blind since I did not know well the Word of God and did not fully understand its depth. At the other end I was reading material beyond my ability to discern its validity since I did not have the critical information to make that judgment. I was about to be destroyed for lack of knowledge but was saved through God’s love and grace.

The spiritual war

Since the beginning of man’s creation, the devil has set his mind on destroying the relationship between man and God. He uses lying and deception as his main tools to achieve his goal. Since any relationship requires two parties, one of the devil’s strategies is to make the person doubt the existence of God. If there is no God, there is no relationship to start with. In other words, the enemy begins at the root of the issue by not allowing a relationship to develop in the first place. And if the relationship already exists, the enemy will attempt to destroy it by throwing doubt about God’s existence, God’s love and promises, or by using sin as a way to separate man from God.

To make a person doubt God’s existence, the enemy uses man’s ignorance with the word of God and the willingness to believe other man-made foreign ideologies, as mentioned in the Bible; “But the Spirit expressly says that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and teachings of demons,..” (1Timothy 4:1 MKJV). Using science as a tool to promote this atheistic belief is based on current interpretation of data generated through current scientific methods that once they become more advanced and sophisticated may actually point to the existence of God.

To make man doubt the love and promises of God, the enemy uses life adversities as a means to convince man that God no longer cares about man’s suffering and that He does not deliver on His promises to take care and protect him. This is when the knowledge and understanding of the scripture becomes very important and life-saving. The scripture is full of evidence concerning God’s love for humanity. The first and foremost is that “God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16 MKJV).

Conclusion

“The fool has said in his heart, there is no God” (Psalm 14:1 MKJV).