About the Blog

My goal with this blog is to have a place where I can testify of miracles I see every day. I am a follower of Jesus Christ and as an Evolutionary Geneticist I get to see His hand in creation, while I work (more about me). The natural world is a beautiful thing, and I believe strongly in the scriptural verse Moses 6:63:
And behold, all things have their likeness, and all things are created and made to bear record of [God], both things which are temporal, and things which are spiritual; things which are in the heavens above, and things which are on the earth, and things which are in the earth, and things which are under the earth, both above and beneath: all things bear record of [God].
I believe God created all things and that natural laws are His laws. This is why I have chosen the title “Material Miracles”. Many believe that miracles happen only through a supernatural force, but I feel this is too limiting. Just because we can explain something, and science is incredibly powerful at doing that, does not mean it is any less a miracle.

We can see the testimony of God and His plan in everyday things of the physical world. I hope to convey my observations of the natural realm as a testimony of Him. For me, many of these connections have come in the form of analogies and symbolism. Forgive me the simplifications that will inevitably come with such comparisons; I still learn from them and hopefully others also will.

The other area I will likely post about are autobiographical experiences I have dealing with my chronic neuropathic pain as I have spina bifida and a tethered spinal cord. This part of my life has given me the opportunity to see how generous we humans can be as well as how loving our God is. I truly see His kind hand in all things. With this will likely be some quotes I find inspiring or in some way poignant.

One thing that will likely come up as I tend to think about it often, but is not my intended focus of the blog, is the integration of science and faith. Others have written extensively on this topic (http://www.sciencemeetsreligion.org, http://biologos.org), and I think it is important. In fact, twice I have given a fireside (a church forum) on this subject for my church. I just also think that focusing on why both science and religion testify of God gets past the contention that can arise from such topics and helps us see the richness of their combination.

Two things I will do my best to avoid are speculation and contention. Though I plan on making analogies of scientific/natural concepts and discoveries, I do not wish to indulge in idle speculation of how they make us understand religion. For example, looking at the last genetic ancestor common to all humans, or the timing of that event, does not tell us anything about Adam and Eve. I believe they existed as two individuals that would be indistinguishable from those we see everyday. I have no idea when they lived or by what means they are the parents "of us all", but I accept that they did live and are the parents of us all.

As to contention: I don't like contention, but I welcome constructive critique or perspective.  For a good talk on how this should be approached see Elder Quentin L. Cook's talk “We Follow Jesus Christ” starting with "Many in this world are afraid...". You can contact me with gmail at 'materialmiracles', for those truly interested. Sorry, if I don't respond.

I guess this is less "About the Blog" and more what I hope the blog to be. I hope you find something of use in this blog.

UPDATE[2 Oct 2012]: I am going to start allowing moderated comments on the blog and see how it goes.