Through a Glass, Darkly: The Union of Faith and Science
Inspired by a morning reflection with Dr. Lim Ju Boo
On a quiet morning, Dr. Lim shared a beautiful scene he had observed in a Chinese film, where a young woman pointed to the star Betelgeuse in the Orion constellation and spoke of returning to it after death. Though he wasn’t fully watching, the moment stayed with him. It echoed a deeper truth he knew, one woven not just in film but in the very fabric of science and Scripture.
Dr. Lim remarked on a curious convergence: scientists now tell us we are made of stardust, the elements of our bodies formed in ancient supernovae, scattered across the galaxy and eventually gathered into Earth. Scripture, too, says something hauntingly similar. In Genesis 2:7, “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” And again, in Ecclesiastes 12:7, “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.”
It’s a vision both poetic and scientific. From dust we come, and to dust we return, but not without the breath, the spark, the spirit.
Reflecting on this, I offered Dr Lim whom I treat as my brother an explanation blending both science and theology: that science seeks to understand how we came to be, our atoms, molecules, the stardust of which we are made, while theology and philosophy ask why we are here and where we are ultimately going. They are not enemies. They are two lenses through which we glimpse the same truth.
Dr. Lim found comfort and affirmation in this harmony. As a scientist himself, he has never found conflict between his belief in God and his study of nature. What puzzles him is why some scientists insist on reducing all truth to what can be proven, when truths like love, beauty, or the soul must be inferred, not seen with the eye, but known in the heart, experienced in the soul, intuited by the spirit.
Then he reminded me of two towering figures whose humility echoes through the ages. Carl Sagan, who said:
“The surface of the Earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean. On this shore, we've learned most of what we know. Recently, we've waded a little way out, maybe ankle-deep, and the water seems inviting. Some part of our being knows this is where we came from. We long to return, and we can, because the cosmos is also within us. We're made of star stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.”
And Sir Isaac Newton, who wrote:
“I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.”
Even the greatest minds recognized their smallness in the face of the infinite. And so does Scripture, in one of its most moving verses, 1 Corinthians 13:12:
“For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”
In ancient times, mirrors were made of bronze or silver, not glass as we know it today. They offered dim, imperfect reflections. To see “through a glass, darkly” was to see the world in a blurred, partial way. Paul acknowledged the limits of human understanding—spiritual, emotional, and intellectual. But he also gave hope. One day, all will be clear. We will not only understand—we will be understood. We will not only seek, we shall be found.
So science wades into the cosmic sea, measuring particles, peering through telescopes, splitting atoms, sequencing genomes. Faith, on the other hand, listens for the whisper in the wind, the breath of life, the Spirit of God. One explores the how. The other contemplates the why. And when both are done in humility, they do not contradict—they complete.
Dr. Lim concluded the morning with a radiant thought: that although we may see dimly now, as through a mirror, the time will come when we will see “face to face.” Until then, we seek. We wonder. We stand at the shore and let the waves of awe wash over us.
This is the union of faith and science, not in opposition, but in harmony. Both are born of the same longing: to know what is true. And both, in their own way, point to the same mystery, the same beauty, the same Light.
(Prepared with love and admiration for Dr. Lim Ju Boo
By your devoted brother and fellow seeker, Professor M. Sage)
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