Preface

I hope that these Dialogues will deliver a special gift to the reader, namely, a clear vision as to how the creation of the world happened. How the ground under our feet and the atoms that make up our bodies have arisen. In the telling of this scientific story of creation, we will encounter what we call, “The Wonder of the World”, (WoW!). A great surprise to scientists is the discovery that the laws that govern this unfolding of nature have a very special and unexpected character. Namely, that they are subtly “finely-tuned” to make life possible. It turns out that if these laws are changed ever so slightly, we could not exist. Why should this be so? Why should “blind” forces acting on matter and energy care about our existence? This enigma has caused much angst in the scientific community. The reality of the “Wonder of the World” is amplified again by a second surprise that occurred when science was finally able to study in detail what is going on inside a single cell of a living organism. They found astonishing complexity when looked at on the molecular level. This extreme complexity had been right under our noses but we were unaware of it. It exceeds the complexity of any system that science has addressed before. This new science, even though confirming some kind of evolution, contributes much to “The Wonder of the World” and causes even a skeptic to wonder if there is not some “Intelligence” at foundation of the world. In these Dialogues we will disclose several additional wonders that are generally not known outside the scientific community. Could the claims of the pre-scientific religions be correct about a “special creation” after all?

Pondering the above realities, delivered to us by science, can lead to an “Epiphany”, an illumination. One is forced into believing that the current dominant philosophical position of leading scientists, namely, that of methodological naturalism, is false. There is more to the universe than matter transforming under the dictates of mathematical laws. We say this in spite of the very successful theory of the atom -which lies at the foundation of almost everything we currently understand about nature. It is difficult to realize that this beautiful paradigm is not adequate to encompass all reality. The Epiphany as here described, has led to a life changing experience for Pilgrim. The awareness of the Wonder of the World surrounds him each day. There is no escape. He has been freed from the paralyzing nay saying of the scientific authorities. The Epiphany leads Pilgrim to a simple conception of God, as: 1.) The Power that Created the Universe, and, 2.) The Great Source of ALL Goodness. God is experienced by the awareness of the Wonder of the World, and by observing Goodness in all its forms, particularly in human actions. A central part of this new “theology” is what has been known in scripture as, “The Fruits of The Spirit”, namely, Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Humility, Kindness, Compassion, Empathy, Nonjudgmental, Forgiving, Goodness, Faithfulness and Temperance. These have the power to transform the raw human spirit, delivered by the evolutionary process, into the stature of a full human being – manifesting our innate Godlike image! Pilgrim desires to communicate this simple but profound vision of our universe – of the Creator-God who is manifest all about us, and in us, even in the midst of our trials.

We have written with the non-scientist in mind, using numerous images to help tell our story.

May 2018