Real Power
Copyright © October 1, 2018 by Robert Wayne Atkins, P.E.
All Rights Reserved.
Introduction
As I get older I gradually become aware of simple things that I did not truly understand when I was younger.
One of the things that I recently began to better understand is the concept of power.
Discussion
In very simple terms, power is the ability to accomplish something. Some examples would be:
- An ant has the power to move small quantities of food into its underground home so it can survive the winter.
- If a mule is properly harnessed to a wagon then the mule has the power to pull the wagon after it has been loaded.
- A train locomotive has the power to pull a chain of freight cars from one location to the next location.
- A hurricane has the power to destroy almost everything in its path.
Most people would not argue about the above statements because most people have either seen or heard about the above things actually happening.
Defining power is usually not difficult when it applies to something that we can see or document. The problem with defining power is when it is applied to something that we cannot see or document.
For example, before the telephone was invented some of the most respected scientists in the world strongly ridiculed anyone who believed that sound could be transmitted over a wire. Wires could transmit electrical impulses and activate a telegraph key. But sound waves could not travel over a wire. Therefore being able to talk to someone who was not within the range of your voice was impossible, according to these scientists.
Another example was the statement that, "If God had wanted man to fly then God would have given man wings." Before the airplane was invented, many scientists believed than anyone who thought he could invent some type of contraption that would enable a man to fly through the air was wasting his time.
The reason that many important scientists ridiculed the possibility of the telephone and the airplane was because they personally could not invent a telephone or an airplane and if they couldn't do it then obviously no one could do it.
This is not a new way of thinking. People have thought this way for thousands of years.
Fortunately, people today are generally more open-minded than their ancestors because of the influence that television and movies have had on their lives. They have seen so many movies about aliens that many people today believe that interstellar space travel is entirely possible and that it has probably already been invented by aliens somewhere in the universe.
The number of people who will accept the possibility that there might be aliens living on other planets, or even aliens living among us here on this earth, is phenomenal.
However, many of these same people absolutely refuse to believe that there may be an all-powerful God who created the entire universe and everything in it. These people have never seen God, and they cannot document that God exists, and therefore God doesn't exist as far as they are concerned. And even if there were some type of spiritual being they do not believe that He is powerful enough to have created the entire universe.
Our sun is one of the smaller stars in the universe. But there is nobody on this earth who can create a star. Therefore, based on the logic of some people, if a person can't do it then it can't be done by anyone, including a spiritual being.
Therefore scientists have invented all sorts of theories about how the stars came into existence. And lots and lots of people believe in one or more of these "theories" even though none of them can be proven or documented. They believe in these theories because some very respected scientists say that the theories must be true. Even though scientists have an extremely poor track record with their theories of what can be done and what cannot be done, many people want to believe in these absurd theories because it allows them to deny the existence of an all-powerful God who created the entire universe, and all the stars, and everything else that exists just by speaking them into existence.
Conclusion
In summary, many people believe that if a scientist cannot make something out of nothing, then it is not possible for God to have created something out of nothing, and especially something a big as the entire universe and everything in it.
In other words, many people want to limit the power of God to what a person can do and cannot do.
However, in my humble opinion, a truly intelligent person will not limit his or her thinking to what man can or cannot do. Instead a truly intelligent person will allow for the possibility of the existence of an all-powerful God who can do things that no person will ever be capable of doing.
Respectfully,
Grandpappy.
Grandpappy's e-mail address is: RobertWayneAtkins@hotmail.com