On Providence

One of the things that differentiates Christianity from a fringe cult is - or at least is supposed to be - that we submit to a rational-empirical epistemology.  In other words, we're not free just to make up whatever we want and believe it; beliefs must be be grounded in demonstrable facts.  That is the basis of the scientific method that undergirds the entirety of modern knowledge, and Christianity is not exempt from this simply because our worldview includes divine revelation.  God's revelation gives God's truth, but, as we know, no two truths can contradict.  The long and the short is that while revelation may transcend human knowledge, it cannot contradict it (and if it appears to, then one of the two is wrong and thus either not revelation or not knowledge).  This is the opposite of what a religious fringe will do.  The fringe will decide on their beliefs, and then desperately pretend that whatever reality they encounter accords with those beliefs.  That's not how religious knowledge works.

Christianity made that mistake already, most notably with Galileo.  When he demonstrated that the earth revolved around the sun, rather than trying desperately to deny that for the sake of their beliefs, the church should have seized the opportunity to learn about God.  Yes -- learn about God.  They should have said "the earth revolves around the sun, that is the reality, so what does such a reality imply about God and his character?  What type of God would effect such a reality, and what kind of meaning should we take from that?"  That is how religious knowledge works. 

With all that in mind, what can we learn about God from today's reading, taken from A Billion Wicked Thoughts by Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam:

In fact, today's human population is descended from twice as many women as men.  According to recent DNA analysis, though the history of the human race about 80% of the women reproduced.  Only 40% of men reproduced.  This means that plenty of men were able to have children with multiple women -- but the majority of men never had any kids (p. 80).