I’ve been reading a lot about the Reformation and the beginnings of the European Enlightenment. The fear or different ideas, whether scientific or religious, drove so much violence and death. I’ve been making similar comment to students that Polkinghorne does: essentially, science has as its purpose to understand and investigate the “how” of life. It can say nothing about the “why”. Religion really doesn’t pretend to be able to answer the “how” of things (like how the universe came into being), but it has answers to the “why”.

Until we realize that God knows infinitely more than any of us can imagine and we let our arrogance affect the way we treat others, we will be living inconsistently with His “why” for us.