In the last two days earthquakes have been in the news. First it was Samoa and American Samoa that sparked tsunamis with a current death toll of 160. Then it was Peru. Then Indonesia with a current death toll over 500. Then California. Those are just the ones I heard about in the news.
According to the USGS, as of right now there have actually been 54 earthquakes over a 5.0 magnitude just since the 8.0 Samoa Islands quake two days ago. Tonga, Fiji, Bolivia, Russia, Japan, and the United States, to name a few, have all seen earthquakes greater than a 5 in the past 51 hours.
President Ronald Reagan famously said, “Facts are stubborn things.” As much as I admire Ronald Reagan, I don’t see facts as being all that stubborn for a lot of folks, at least when we are talking about facts used in finite human reason.
Many people are expecting earthquakes. Many people are expecting earthquakes to increase in frequency. As it turns out, we all appear to be right about this. We don’t all agree on what it means.
All of us have presuppositions. A presupposition is an implicit assumption about what facts mean. We all have a background of belief in what we understand about the world and assume to be true. When a new fact comes along, it usually supports our presuppositions, even though multiple opposing assumptions seem to absorb the same fact.
Some look at the increasing frequency of earthquakes and assume it is caused by global warming. It’s exactly what they are expecting to see. Ice is melting so they expect more earthquakes.
I too am expecting an increase in earthquakes, but my presupposition tells me the trend isn’t reversible by reducing carbon emissions. The way I see it, the overall trend may have brief retreats in activity like the jagged line on a graph, but the trend will be up. I am expecting this because 2,000 years ago the Son of God said it would happen.
Creation and evolution can be presuppositions, observing the same facts and seeing different meanings. Evolutionists expect to see creatures evolving, getting better. I expect to see a universe falling apart in many ways. I believe all of nature is under a curse, a curse that Einstein partially uncovered in his second law of thermodynamics. I believe it is likely that all matter deteriorates, all energy is only ever lost, information in DNA is only ever lost and never gained in a closed system.
Knowing the God outside finite human reason gives me peace in the midst of bad news about earthquakes. A faith that reaches beyond the finite understands that these earthquakes mean an ancient warrior is coming for his bride. Presuppositions may be equal in the realm of finite human reason, but God is not limited by our inability to understand him. It is good to understand your presuppositions, and it is even better to let God challenge them… since he is not limited by being finite, and thus knows considerably more about science, ourselves, or anything at all, than we do.
Isaiah 29:14
14 Therefore once more I will astound these people
with wonder upon wonder;
the wisdom of the wise will perish,
the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.”
Isaiah 55:8
8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the LORD.
Tags: Earthquakes in various places, increase of earthquakes, Presupposition
October 13, 2009 at 10:53 am |
[...] to the battle of presuppositions. In the realm of human reason, all are equal. It takes a standard beyond the prison of human [...]