BRUCE LICHT
FOUNDER OF MY ELEVATOR PITCH FOR GOD, ENTREPRENEUR, AND AUTHOR
Bruce grew up in Lafayette, California and received a BA in Political Science from UCLA as well as a Graduate Gemologist degree from the Gemological Institute of America. After graduating, Bruce operated his family’s 100 year-old retail fine jewelry business for twenty-two years. Bruce had a passion for computers and graphic arts, so he changed careers and joined his best friend at a national technical publishing company for seventeen-years as the company’s Publisher, where they invented the modern labor law poster industry, including the first “All- On-One Labor Law Poster” and “Labor Law Poster Compliance Plan.”
Aside from being the Founder of the website, “My Elevator Pitch for God,” Bruce was the co-editor of the book, My Elevator Pitch For God: Volume 1, and author of the cookbook titled, Immediate Chef: No Previous Experience Required.
The “First Car Problem”
BRUCE LICHT
It’s an unfair characterization to say that believers have tunnel vision and outright reject science. This misrepresents a believer’s perspective and creates a false dichotomy, suggesting that one must choose between a scientific understanding of the world and a belief where God is the ultimate “Conductor.”
Far from rejecting scientific investigation, believers see science as the study of God’s handiwork.(1) Their approach suggests that science and faith are not opposing forces but complementary ways of understanding existence, with faith providing the essential context that scientific discovery alone lacks.
The great Medieval philosopher, Maimonides,(2) taught that the study of science can actually deepen one’s faith and that a complete picture of existence requires both scientific observation and the spiritual insight of faith. He said that disassociated from faith, the study of science is analogous to the classic tale of the locomotive with nine train cars.(3) The story tells of a city’s leader who formed a special commission of astute people, thought to have the ability to accurately assess situations, and sent them to the newly constructed train station to determine “how trains move.”
They studied the train from every conceivable angle beginning with the 10th and final car. After several days of intensive analysis, they determined that the final car in the train is connected to the 9th car and that when the 9th car moves, it pulls the 10th car with it. After some time, they discovered that the 9th car moves because it is connected to the 8th car and when the 8th car moves, it pulls the 9th car with it. And so on until they got to the locomotive. When they studied this first car, they were mystified: How does it move? After weeks of fruitless study, they returned to the city’s leaders and announced, “We’ve discovered 90% of how trains move.”
This story is an appropriate analogy for the study of science without faith. Devoid of an acknowledgement of God’s role that initiated and drives the entire process, faithless science will never be the right ticket to tell the full story. Just as the delegation was befuddled by the locomotive, science likewise does not extend to the “first car.”(4)
Therefore, we should not see science as a threat to belief but rather as a tool that can fast-track our sense of wonder and reverence. An unbiased mind is open to the possibility of a divine animating force. This is not as a lesser or compromised form of inquiry but as a more complete one. This recognition is the light at the end of the tunnel that allows for an exploration of the world, propelled by an acknowledgment of the unseen engine with all the right bells and whistles that provides the momentum and makes the entire journey possible.(5)
Science, by itself, will always derail when it cannot explain the what, how, or why. However, coupled with faith, the total equation is on the right track to solve the inevitable “first car problems” because God is in fact the all-powerful First Car.
Footnotes:
1. It would be incorrect to say that believers don’t “do science” or that they, like a knee-jerk reaction, immediately invoke the “God-card.” On the contrary, believers take part in scientific inquiry irrespective of whatever they may think about God. The real problem is not that believers choose to narrow their ways of thinking, but that non-believers offhandedly disregard the possibility of a Creator and refuse to do science in a way that might admit that there could be a Universal God.
2. The great twelfth-century physician to the Sultan of Cairo, Egypt and codifier of Jewish philosophy and Torah law, Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon (1138 – 1204), also known as "The Rambam" or “Maimonides,” (which is the Greek form of "the son of Maimon").
3. The story is properly about the ancient city of Chem and its Elders who formed a delegation to investigate how trains move, as originally explained to me by Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe’s (of Torchweb.org) “Closing Remarks” on page 178 in Elevator Pitches For God: 70 One-Page Essays By Thought Leaders On Why They Believe.
4. Evolutionists, some of whom are “believes,” would counter this argument by saying that “evolution created everything.” Most evolutionists say evolution explains how everything came to be except perhaps for the original formation of the Universe. The “locomotive” (the Initial Cause) cannot be a product of evolution, because evolution can only explain how things might change once they have been created; it cannot explain how things came to be ex nihilo.
5. Johannes Kepler saw astronomy as “thinking God’s thoughts after Him,” driving his search for planetary laws. Isaac Newton believed studying nature revealed God’s design, fueling his physics breakthroughs. Blaise Pascal integrated faith with mathematics and probability. Gregor Mendel, an Augustinian monk, pursued genetics as part of understanding creation. Michael Faraday’s deep Christian convictions inspired his humility and dedication to electromagnetism. In modern times, Francis Collins, leader of the Human Genome Project, views science as uncovering God’s handiwork. These and many other scientists’ faith gave them motivation, purpose, and reverence, seeing science not as opposed to belief, but as a means to glorify God.