Seeing God

I recently read an interesting article in the Raleigh News and Observer. In bold print the headline announced, “Study finds prayer doesn’t heal.” I know that headlines are intended to grab one’s attention. I think the writer may have been pushing it a bit with this one. The article recounted the latest results of a study conducted by cardiologists at Duke University. The study involved 748 heart patients about to undergo catheterization. The researchers asked religious groups throughout the world, including Buddhists, Muslims, Jews and Christians, to pray for some patients. The patients underwent the procedures in nine hospitals between 1999 and 2002. The results suggests that intercessory prayers did not significantly better the outcome for those patients who received it. Thus the scientific findings for the headline, Study finds prayer does not heal. One might respond to this survey in a number of ways. How could people genuinely pray for some and not others? Prayer is not magic it is a request. Do not put the Lord your God to the test. There are a number of problems with this survey. However I think it is interesting and quite natural that a major research university should find it significant to try to apply the methods that have led to all manner of new insights about life on earth to the question of greatest significance namely that of people’s relationship to the Divine. However I think that the observation of a group of Medieval theologians offer a helpful philosophical limitation to such an inquiry. One of the most famous complaints about Medieval scholasticism is that during this period there emerged a fascination with frivolous speculation. One of the most famous examples of the triviality of this kind of speculation is the question, “How many angels could stand on the head of a needle.” What kind of possible purpose could such a question serve? This question actually points to an intriguing concern. How can that which is material interact with that which is immaterial? Why is there the need for faith? Why can we not simply see God.? How could we see God apart from God’s own self disclosure? All of our senses depend on the interaction of material objects whether sight, smell, hearing, taste, or touch. Immaterial beings could not be sensed logically using these senses. For me the significance of this musing is that one comes to faith necessarily through the means afforded by God. Learning about God will by necessity require a different approach than that which is applied to the material.