Negentropy

There is a counterpart of entropy, the law that all things eventually decay. It’s called negentropy. Negentropy is the increase of information that results in the decrease of disorder. If sin leads to decay and perishing, vision provides the solution (Proverbs 29:18)

In the physical world, he only way to prevent entropy is to counter it with outside energy source that will counteracts it. For instance, when you plug a refrigerator into an electrical outlet,  it produces cold air that keeps food from rotting. But if you unplug that refrigerator, decay will take over again.

Spiritually, that is what happens to us when we disconnect from God. Para (perish) takes over. The only way to stop spiritual entropy is to connect to God. Sin introduced entropy, the process of decay, disorder, and disharmony when Adam and Eve rebelled against God in the Garden of Eden. The account of the fall of man in Genesis 3 is a story of entropy. In fact, Paul tells us in Romans 8:21 that we are :in bondage to decay.” It is is inescapable.

However, the story of redemption through Jesus Christ is one of freedom for those who are captive to the chains of sin and the destruction of spiritual entropy. Jesus Himself said in John 10:10: “The thief comes to kill, steal and destroy. I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly.” Don't miss it...the thief bring entropy; Jesus is the negentropy!

I started this week by encouraging you that God is in the business of reversing the irreversible! What areas of your life are in decay? Where are you experiencing the entropy of sin? That is the very place where God wants to reverse the power of sin in your life and start you on the road to healing.

(A special thanks to Mark Batterson, of National Community Church, for the thoughts in this series).

Entropy

As a reminder, one of the meanings of the word  entropy is a gradual decline into disorder. I believe that is an excellent description of what sin does in our lives. Sin moves us toward disorder. It causes us to become more and more fragmented.

How do we overcome this disorder of entropy in our lives? Stay with me for a moment and let's take a back-door approach to the problem. Proverbs 29:18 states, “Without a vision the people perish.” The Hebrew word for perish is para which refers to the process of decay. Sound familiar?  The word is specifically used to describe perishable food that has become rotten.

Allow me to theorize for a few moments. If you don't have a God-given vision for your life, what happens? You para, you begin the process of decay. The process of entropy begins in your life. The cure? A God-given vision. When we see what God has in store for our lives, we would be so consumed with the glorious purpose He has designed for us, we would not waste our time, energy, or thoughts on sinful, decaying behavior.

Psychology has a term called double-bind. A double-bind is when we are put in a situation where we can't accomplish win For instance, if I tell you to act spontaneously, you cannot do it because you are thinking to yourself to be spontaneous....which of course isn't spontaneous.

What in the world does that have to do with entropy, decay, and vision? We often try to tell ourselves to stop sinning by not sinning. I believe that is an impossible battle to win. The more we try to stop sinning by not sinning, the more we have to try harder to stop sinning by not sinning. And the result is we focus on sin and...sin.

The wise man tells us the secret to stopping the decaying process in our lives is to have a vision. When we have a vision of who God wants us to become, what He wants us to do, and what He wants to do in our our lives, we discover the cure for perishing, decaying, and entropy. I am persuaded that a God-given vision is the only thing that will keep us from the process of decay! Vision is God's preservative.

The Law of Disorder

In the 1978 version of Superman, Superman is faced with a decision with which all of us can empathize. Does he save his girlfriend or save the world? Lois Lane was driving through the desert when her car is swallowed by an earthquake. A nuclear warhead is cruising toward Washington D.C. Superman has to decide who to save. So he diverts the warhead and Lois dies in crevice. Superman does something amazing. He starts flying counter-clockwise around the earth and reverses the rotation of the earth. This in turn, causes time to go backwards and he then pulls Lois out of the crevice before she dies. Of course, the thing I could never figure out is...if time really went backwards and he can save Lois, wouldn't the missile still be cruising toward the capital again.

I know it's bad science, but it makes a great movie. Wouldn’t it be great if you said something to someone you wish you hadn't said, you could reverse time and pull it back in. Unfortunately, in life, some things are irreversible.

Some things in life are irreversible. But God specializes in reversing the irreversible. Think about all the things Jesus reversed...the weather, blindness, paralysis, even death. Acts 2:24 says it. “But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.”  Don't miss the phrase impossible for death to keep its hold on him. In the 21st century, we have a saying that says something like this "The only thing certain is death and taxes." But this verse tells us that while humans tell us that it is impossible to escape death, it was impossible for death to hold Jesus.

Thermodynamics is the study of energy. The first and second laws of thermodynamics describe the way the energy works. For this sermon, we are going to focus on the second law of thermodynamics. It introduces a term called entropy, which basically says that, left on its own, everything moves towards disorder. It's the reason why iron rusts, technology glitches, apples rot, and your teenager's room gets messy.

So this week, we are going to explore the relationship of entropy with sin, and the way we combat entropy...and sin.

Obvious!

In light of our study this week, let me make a few observations based on 2 Kings 6:1-6.

First, of all God cares about little things as well as big things. I mean, let's be honest, the loss of an axehead doesn't  equate a life-disaster. Sure, for this apprentice, the axe-head was important. It was borrowed, and he would have to get a new one for the owner. But it wasn't life-threatening. But this story reminds us that little things matter to God.

Secondly, you can't teach miracles...you just have to believe them. I mean, think about the irony. They are building seminary to learn how to be better prophets. And God teaches them the most important lessons about being a man of God...trust Him; believe Him; and put Him first.

Finally, if iron can swim, do you think your problem is impossible? I love Mark Batterson's observation, "God doesn't answer all the prayers we don't pray." James said in James 4:2, “You have not because you ask not.” 


Most of us don't see iron swim because we have never ask for iron to swim. Sometimes our prayers are just simply too small. Now I can't promise God will not answer every prayer you pray in the way you want it answered (you know, He is God...I am not; He knows better than I do what I need). But I can assure you that you will very seldom see amazing things happen if you seldom for amazing things!

I love the story about George Danzig, In the 1930’s, George was  a graduate student at UC Berkeley He was late to class one day. The mathematics professor had written two problems on the blackboard. Danzig thought they were the homework assignment. It was the most difficult homework assignment he’d ever encountered. Night after night he tried solving the two problems. It took him nearly a week to finally figure them out. He finally turned in his assignment and thought he’d get a bad grade because it took so long.

A few weeks later, George heard a pounding on his door early in the morning. He was surprised to see his mathematics professor standing there. His professor said, “George, you solved the problems.” George said, “Of course I did, they were our homework assignment.” The professor said, “That wasn’t your homework assignment. Those were two of the most famous insolvable problems in mathematics. The world’s leading mathematicians have been trying for years to solve the two problems you solved in a few days.”

George Danzig, who later became a professor at Stanford University, said, “If someone had told me that they were two famous unsolved problems, I probably wouldn’t have even tried to solve them.” In other words, if you don’t think it can be done you won’t even try. You’ve got to believe it to achieve it.

George Danzig solved two unsolvable problems because he didn’t know it couldn’t be done. Elisha prayed for the axhead to float because he didn’t know it couldn’t’ be done. Peter walked on water because he didn’t know it couldn’t be done. The little boy with 2 loaves of bread and five fish gave them to Jesus because he didn’t know that they couldn’t feed five thousand people!

Albert Einstein is quoted from the book Mathematics, Queen and Servant of the Sciences (1952) by Eric Temple Bell, as saying, “Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by the age of eighteen.” I don't want to put words in Einstein's mouth, but I think he is challenging us to not allow our experiences to override what we think is and is not possible. I think faith is suspending common sense long enough to believe that God can do the impossible.

Ridiculous!

II Kings 6 records one of the most improbable miracles in Scripture: “One day the group of prophets came to Elisha and told him, “As you can see, this place where we meet with you is too small. Let’s go down to the Jordan river, where there are plenty of logs. There we can build a new place for us to meet.” When the arrived at the Jordan, they began cutting down trees. But as one of them was chopping, his ax head fell into the river. He said, “Alas, master! For it was borrowed.”  (verses 1-5)

Notice the verb tense. This apprentice uses the past-tense. As far as he’s concerned, this axhead is as good as gone. This apprentice regarded his loss as final. He had no expectation whatsoever that it would retrieved. I think he wanted a little mercy or a little sympathy, but he wasn’t expecting a miracle! He didn’t have a category for what was about to happen.

I am so unlike Elisha. Whenever someone comes to me with a problem, my first response is to organize some human mechanism to meet his need. Perhaps I would have taken an offering for him next Sunday to buy him a new axe head. Maybe start a support group for people who have lost axe heads. Or build a dam to stop the water so we can recover the axe head. Do you know what I mean? Then, if none of that worked, I would have prayed.

But you can tell the wheels of faith are for Elisha. He asked, “Where did it fall?” When the apprentice showed him the spot where the axe-head fell, Elisha cut a stick and threw it into the water. Then the axe head began floated. I love the old King James Version of this  in 2 King 6:6: “And the iron did swim.” 


I don't know that I can promise you can always make iron swim. My experience has not been that God always does what I ask Him to do in the manner I asked Him to do it. For me, this story isn't a story to challenge by faith so that I can believe iron can swim. I believe that if God chooses to work in that manner, it can! The challenge for me personally is to be more like Elisha and less like....me! To take every situation to God first and quit using my human mechanisms first. Who knows? If I do that, I may actually see iron swim!

Impossible?

In Luke 1:37, God redefined what is and what is not impossible, “Nothing is impossible.” Jesus confirmed that shifting of the paradigm of possibilities when He said in Matthew 19:26 also said, “All things are possible.” And it wasn't just a motivational speech for Jesus. He went around doing the impossible. He specialized in the impossible.

Jesus changed the weather in a moment with a simple command. He rewired a blind man's optic nerve and enabled him to see. He walked on water and through walls. He made the blind see, the deaf hear, the mute talk, and the lame walk. He took five loaves and two fish and multiplied it to feed 5,000 men, besides the women and children (not to mention there were twelve basketfuls left over after everyone ate). He brought dead people back to life. He even came back to life.

That is pretty much an amazing list of impossibilities! Now, let me counter your reaction before you even give it, “Yeah, but that’s Jesus. What does that have to do with me?” Listen to what the One who said "All things are possible..."said about you and me: “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these.” (John 14:12)

Mark 9:23 adds this snippet to the impossibilities realm, “Everything is possible to him who believes.” The tendency is to fall prey to the idea that if what I am praying for doesn't happen soon, I must not have enough faith. Let me counter that argument by adding a statement that you're going to need to stay with me in order to understand. Impossibilities are relative! Now don't quit...read on!

For a two-month old baby walking is impossible. That child has not developed the coordination nor motor skills to walk. But in time, not only can the child walk, it is expected. In fact, what was once considered an impossibility will eventually be considered an aberation. Sometimes time is the only difference what is impossible and what is possible. 

For a toddler who can't do simple addition and subtraction, algebraic problems would be considered impossible. But in a few years, the child will not only come up with a simple solution to that impossible problem it is expected! Sometimes knowledge is the only difference between what is impossible and what is possible.

Jesus is telling us that faith is the only difference between what is impossible and what is possible. And just as time and knowledge provide the difference between the possible and the impossible, sometimes all we need is the development of our faith in order to see the impossible!

Every believer should live in the realm of possibilities. It is our inheritance. While we may few problems as having a degree of difficulty, in other words, we have small problems and big problems, from God’s perspective, there are no degrees of difficulty! In Jeremiah 32:27, God asks us: “Is anything too hard for me?” We tend to think of prayer requests as having degrees of difficulty. But I love this quote from Mark Batterson, "To the infinite, all finites are equal. There is no big or small, easy or difficult, possible or impossible!"

To God, every situation in your life is equal, and all things are possible!

Believing the Impossible

For years, classical physics taught that there was nothing faster than the speed of light. But A physicist at the European Organization of Nuclear Research in Switzerland introduced the concept of instantaneous non-locality. Instantaneous non-locality is a term which allows instantaneous effects to act over arbitrarily long distances. A cause happening at one point, can thus have an instantaneous effect at the other end of the universe and at all points in between, even faster than the speed of light.

The point of this week's study is not to prove or disprove instantaneous non-locality. Bell’s Theorem redefined for the world of physics what is and what is not possible.

Two weeks ago I talked about Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle and we explored the concept that absolutely nothing is certain. There is always a range of uncertainty in the world. This week, we are going to explore the refining of possibility. Bell was not the first to redefine what is and what is not possible. Long before Bell theorized that something was faster than anyone thought possible, our Savior challenged us to live in the realm of possibilities. He challenged us that there is always a range of possibility. He did it with four words: "All things are possible". (Luke 1:37). 


This week, I am going to challenging the validity of your (and mine) faith in the words of Jesus. Do we really believe what He said? Is it possible that "real" life has so jaded our faith, that we don't really believe that everything is a possibility? No cute answers. No getting off the hook with reasonable answers. "Well, I believe everything is possible...it's just not probable." The heroes of our faith didn't live that way. They lived in the realm of possibility. It didn't matter how big the problem, how small the problem. They believed God could (and would) do anything and everything!

Do you?

Reflecting His Glory

1 John 1:5 says, “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.” 

Philipians 2:14 says, “Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe.”

The word shine means to reflect. In the world of science, they would refer to this as albedo. Albedo is a measurement of how much light a celestial body reflects. Neptune has an albedo of .84, 84% of the sun's light that hits Neptune is reflected. That is why we can see in in the night sky even though it millions of miles away. By contrast, our moon, has an albedo of .07, only 7% of the light that hits the moon is reflected. That is why we don't have daylight at night. The moon absorbs most of the light that hits it.

Spiritually speaking, our goal should be a spiritual albedo of 1, we are totally reflecting the glory of God to our world completely. 2 Corinthians 3:18 says it this way: “We, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord.” I usually use the New Living Translation when I study, an I love the way this verse is translated there: "… as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him and reflect his glory more and more."

Don't miss what Paul is saying. Christlikeness isn’t something we can produce or manufacture. It is about reflecting the glory of God. Christlike qualities in our lives are a reflection of His character. My godly love is only a reflection of His love. Any righteousness in my life is a mere reflection of His righteousness. My joy is a reflection of His joy!

For that to happen, we must be able to see Jesus. But the struggle so many of us have is that we have become absorbed with the cares of our daily lives to such an extent that we have a difficult time reflecting His glory. We have been darkened by the pollution of our culture to the extend that our spiritual albedo is very non-reflective.

How do we cure this? Remember, Christlikeness isn't something we can produce or manufacture. I occurs when we reflect the glory of God. the passage from 2 Corinthians begins with a reference to Moses' face shining with the glory of the Lord when he came down from Mount Sinai after spending time with God and receiving the Ten Commandments. There it is! We radiate with God's glory when we spend time with God! It's so simple. The more we spend time with Him the more we reflect His glory to a darkened world. But more about that tomorrow.

Seeing The Light

Genesis 1:3 declares the majestic creation of light, “And God said, ‘Let there be light.’ And there was light.” God spoke four words and billion of stars came into existence! My words seem so empty compared to that. And those four words continue to have an amazing impact on the universe!

We tend to think of creation as something that occurred in the past. But a series of discoveries that led to a phenomenon known as the Doppler Effect has produced evidence that it appears the universe is still expanding. In other words the studies of men like Christian Doppler, Richard Tolman, and Edwin Hubble indicate that "Let their be light" is an ever-present command that continues to shape the light-given bodies of our universe. God hasn’t stopped creating!

Physics is primarily a study of things you can't see. The laws of gravity and centrifugal force produce results that we can observe, but you can't see gravity or momentum. Physics is a science of the invisible: quarks, magnetic fields, and gravitational forces. And this week, we are going to explore the amazing creation of light and how it is relevant to our lives as Christians.

Arthur Zajonc wrote in his book Catching The Light: The Entwined History of Light and the Mind about about a fascinating experiment called Project Eureka. Zajonc and a friend carefully fabricated a box and positioned a powerful projector to shine light into the box. They designed the box so that it wouldn’t illuminate any objects in the box or the surfaces of the box. So within the box was pure light. However, when they looked inside the box, they didn't see pure light. They saw absolute darkness! You see, light is invisible! It is ironic that the thing that enables us to see can not be seen.

I mean think the pictures you have seen of space above the earth's atmosphere. Even though the sun shines all through "space", you cannot see any light. The sun’s light is everywhere, but it can only be seen when it is illuminating something.

What we see is reflected light. When white light hits a blue object, all the colors are absorbed by the object except blue. The blue is reflected back to your eyes. White objects reflect all of the light. Black objects absorb all of the light.

It is a difficult concept to imagine and explain, but light is always present yet it is always illusive! It is invisible, yet it illuminates everything. We can’t see it but you cannot see anything without it!

Does it remind you of anything? Let me give you a hint: "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for(A) and certain of what we do not see." Tomorrow, we will be looking at the Light of God, and our responsibility to reflect His light to the world.

Seeing The Unseen

“A mind stretched by a new idea never returns to its original shape.” - Oliver Wendell Holmes.

Our current sermon series is entitled The Physics of Faith. My hope is that our minds will be stretched to explore the amazing awesomeness of God!

Hebrews 11:3 says, “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command.” It takes faith to believe in the God of Intelligent Design who created the universe. You can’t prove or disprove scientifically the creation story of the Bible. However, it also takes faith to believe in the God of random chance, Big Bang, and evolution. In fact, I think it takes more faith.

Sir Fred Hoyle, an astronomer, made this statement to the British Academy of Science years ago, “Let’s be scientifically honest. The probability of life arising to greater and greater complexity by chance through evolution is the same probability as having a tornado tear through a junkyard and form a Boeing 747 jetliner.” Hoyle calculated the chances of life being the result of random chance as being 1 in 10 raised to the 40,000th.

Albert Einstein said, “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as if nothing is a miracle. The other is as if everything is.” 

I mean, take this example. Right now you feel as though you are not moving at all. However, as you are reading this, the planet is spinning at approximately 1,000 mph, making a complete revolution in 24 hours. Not only that, we are traveling through space, in our annual journey around the sun, at approximately 67,000 mph. You will travel 1.3 million miles today!

When was the last time you thanked God for keeping us in orbit? Most of us take constants for granted! Few of us get to the end of the day and say, “God, thanks for helping us make the full rotation today!”

Here is the problem with God for most of us...He is so good at what he does that we take Him for granted. He is so faithful, powerful, loving, and wise. And He is completely constant in these qualities. James 1:17 declares that God "...does not change like shifting shadows." He is the ultimate constant. But we tend to take constants for granted.

Here’s what we are going to explore this week: Our lives are utterly dependent upon things we can’t see and don’t understand. We are surrounded by miracles. We just take them for granted. We are going to focus on one of those miracles that I think is most amazing, yet primarily taken for granted.

The Blessings of Uncertainty

The Uncertainty Principle is a law of life. Uncertainty never goes away. You may get a brief rest from it, but eventually it returns. Life will always be filled with infinite uncertainties! There will always be unanswered questions and unexplained experiences.

Donald Miller writes this in Blue Like Jazz: “There are things you cannot understand, and you must learn to live with this. Not only must you learn to live with this, you must learn to enjoy this.”

We all eventually have to accept the fact that God is God and we’re not. Which means, there will be questions that will never be answered. There will experiences that will never be explained. The secret to success in life is to learn to embrace the uncertainty.

Hebrews 11:8 says, “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as an inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.” Don't miss the phrase “even though he did not know where he was going”. That is scary isn't it. Sometimes I will have no idea where God is taking me. However it is also encouraging. If someone as loved by God as Abraham didn't have a clue, then maybe I’m okay. Because a lot of the time, I am clueless. I have my plans, my goals, and my dreams, but the truth is, most of the time, I have no idea where God is taking me!

A teacher of the law said to Jesus in Luke 9: “I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus responded: “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” 

You see, when you follow Christ, you never know where you’re going to end up. Anything can happen. That is intimidating, but it is also exciting. It is an adventure. And adventures are...fun! The element of surprise breathes joy into life. Thank God for uncertainty and unpredictability!

Uncertainty and Complexity

In 1932, a German physicist named Werner Heisenberg introduced a discovery that pulled the rug out from under the scientific community and is considered one of the greatest shifts in scientific paradigms in the 20th century. Heisenberg basically discovered that we cannot know the precise position and momentum of a quantum particle at the same time. Without going into a lengthy explanation of the Law of Uncertainty, Heisenberg was basically saying: there will always be an element of uncertainty.

Now let's shift to mathematics. A French-American by the name of Benoit Mandelbrot introduced a new study of complex shapes. Known as fractal geometry, Mandelbrot stated that some shapes are infinitely complex. What he meant by infinite complexity it that any detail can be magnified to reveal even more detail to the nth degree. Fractals are really the theological equivalent of what is called the incomprehensibility of God. God is infinitely complex.

So here's the deal. Life is infinitely uncertain and God is infinitely complex. It is the only place to start a series on the Physics of Faith. It is a recognition of our finiteness. Life is full of infinite uncertainties and God is infinitely complex. We can hate that. Or we can learn to love it.

Most of us hate negative uncertainties, bad things that happen that we didn’t expect to happen. And we love positive uncertainties, good things that happen that we didn’t expect to happen. But you can’t have it both ways. I think high levels of uncertainty make the best lives!

Hebrews chapter eleven is filled with heroes of the faith. I think we would all have to admit that each of them had a high tolerance for uncertainty! Each of them dealt with things that they didn't have a clue where they would conclude. That is what faith is all about. It is not just embracing uncertainty. It is learning to love it.

To many of us want a God we can control like a puppeteer. We want a predictable God. But that would create an amazing boredom. As we shall see in a couple of days...predictability leads to boredom. We we know something is always going to happen, we are no longer amazed by it. God continually amazes us because He is infinitely more complex that we will ever imagine!

The Law of Uncertainty

Our new sermon series is entitled The Physics of Faith. It is based on a series of message shared by Mark Batterson from National Community Church in Washington, D.C. In this series, I am going to challenge you to explore some immutable laws of physics that will help us better understand the God whom we worship.

By having two eyes instead of one, we are given an amazing optical capability called depth perception. If you cover one eye, everything seems flat. The reason is simple: you lose the ability to judge distances.

Unfortunately, sometimes many Christians go through life with only one eye open when God has given us two. Of course, I am speaking figuratively. Just as God as given us two physical eyes, He has also given us two figurative eyes. They eye of intellect and the eye of faith. If you choose to close either of them, you are not getting a full picture of what God desires you to see.

When we compartmentalize our intellect from our faith, we often lose perception and perspective. Albert Einstein may have said it best. “Science without religion is lame and, conversely, religion without science is blind.” Some Christians focus entirely on the intellect, and they lose the ability to dream, to trust, to believe in things that seem impossible. Other Christians, focus entirely on faith, and they live their lives without a sense of realism.

But what I hope to do in this series is to help us understand that learning and worshipping are not mutually exclusive endeavors. In fact, they are proportional: the more you know the better you can worship.

John 4:22 contains a fascination exchange between Jesus an a woman we refer to as the Samaritan woman. Jesus said to her, “You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know.” Read the New Living Translation of that verse and let me underscore a couple of words. “You Samaritans know very little about the one you worship.” Do you see it? Jesus links knowledge and worship together. Intellect and spirituality are not mutually exclusive terms.

When an astronomer looks into the night sky, he has a greater appreciation for the constellations and stars and planets because they see more than I do. When a musician listens to music they have a greater appreciation because they hear more than I do.

Even in the Great Commandment to love God, one quarter of the mind deals with the intellect. Mark 12:30, “Love the Lord your God with all of your heart and all of your soul and all of your mind and all of your strength.” Loving God with your mind is one-fourth of the command.

This series is being based on the passage of Scripture found in Romans 1:20, which says, “Since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made.” Can you see the connection? We grow to understand God's invisible qualities like his eternal power and his divine nature, when we understand His creation. We are able to more fully worship God for who He is when we more fully understand what He has created.

As Batterson asks, "Can you imagine studying about an artist like Pablo Picasso without looking at his paintings? Can you imagine studying about a composer like Ludwig Von Beethoven without listening to his music? It seems absurd doesn’t it? It’s about as absurd as studying about the Creator without studying creation."