Mama didn't raise no fool!

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Mama didn't raise no fool!

Happy April Fool's Day!

· Random Thoughts

Today is April Fool’s day! Today is the day that lots of people play pranks on one another and try to get them to fall for their lies. When done well, it can be a pretty silly and fun day. I remember as a kid, the best/worst prank that ever got played on me was when my dad woke my brother and I up with some suitcases and told us we were moving far away for his job, to England or something. We needed to pack right away. Of course I believed him and I was so upset! I started crying thinking about all of my friends that I was leaving behind, my family. But then… APRIL FOOL’S! We weren’t really moving. It was all a joke.

As weird as it seems, April Fool’s day makes me think of morning television shows. No, not because they always do really lame pranks on this day, though they do. It’s because whenever they try to talk about some new scientific study, it feels like an April Fool’s joke.

“EATING CHOCOLATE CAN CURE YOUR CANCER”
April Fool's.

“SCIENTISTS HAVE FOUND A WAY TO STOP AGING”
April Fool's.

“SMELLING FARTS CAN PREVENT ALZHEIMER’S”
April Fool's.

What?! This must be a joke. Unfortunately they talk about them like they’re facts, but really it’s usually a very misinterpreted tiny piece of a bigger study that probably hasn’t been repeated to test its findings. The morning talk shows still are going to talk about it, but the scientific community knows these claims to be untrue.

That’s because the scientific community is SUPER RIGOROUS when it comes to making any claims of what science knows for sure. This sometimes gets us in trouble with non-scientists because they don’t understand our terminology.

If something can be proven 100% of the time and it’s been tested and retested from every different angle and we are 100% sure that it applies to all things everywhere… THEN and ONLY THEN can it be called a “Law”.

But then, if you have something that almost everyone in the scientific community agrees upon BECAUSE it’s been tested and retested a bunch of different times a bunch of different ways, but due to our lack of perfect instruments with which to study it at this point in time we can’t WITHOUT A DOUBT say that it’s true, it’s called a “Theory”. This isn’t like the common use of the word theory where it is just an idea. It has been tested over and over again and we are pretty dang sure it’s true.

But before it ever gets there, us awesome scientists do experiments. We do a single experiment at a time and we learn a little bit about the world around us based on the very specific variables that we chose. But it can be so dangerous to make crazy big claims just from a single experiment. That’s not how scientific research works. That really is a joke. It makes people look like a fool.

Part of my graduate school education was basically my teachers telling me to be a skeptic, to question everything. If you can, test it then test it again. So today’s readings really struck me because it was the complete opposite.

In the story (John 4:43-54), a royal official has a sick son so he travels over 20 miles to meet Jesus and ask him to come back with him to his home to cure his son. At this point Jesus basically says I don’t need to go to him, instead my words alone can heal him.

The skeptical side of me would totally be like, but you don’t even know him! You really need to come with me. You need to come with me so you can heal him. I need to see you and him in the same room and see it happen with my own eyes.

But the royal official has amazing faith. He believes in Jesus and just from that one line of Jesus, “You may go; your son will live” he immediately goes back home knowing that his child has been cured.

If this had been anyone other than the real God this totally could have been an April Fool’s moment. Just telling the official what he wanted to hear so he could get rid of him. But that’s not how God and faith works.

Through the entirety of my young life I’ve come to understand that faith is just as rigorous as science. Time and time again I fall and test God’s love whether on purpose or not. And thousands of times God has proven his love to me. Through my faults I have run the same experiment over and over. And over and over God has proven that he is here and he is real and he loves me unconditionally. This is just in my life. Think of how many times this “experiment” has been run if you include every soul’s life. This has to be the most tested truth there is.

On this April Fool’s day, or whenever you’re reading this, I honestly pray that you see that it’s not foolish to believe in our God’s love. He loves you and wants the best for you. He accompanies you through all of life’s ups and downs. This has been tested more times than we can count.

And if you get a chance, go to confession. This is an awesome way that God shows his love for us. Another positive experimental result, seen through the healing we feel when we get absolution. Go try it out, then you can be like an honorary scientist in this wonderful experiment.