It Is Hard To Argue With Results

For just one moment, I would like to take the opportunity to extend an olive branch to the atheist who believes that observable scientific properties primarily govern the laws of our universe and all that we see. To the non-believer who has put their faith into scientific breakthroughs and the scientific method, I would simply say this – You are correct! Perhaps you did not expect to hear that from a devout Christian who believes that the most important objective truth in existence is that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior, who died for our sins, and who has a great plan for each of us whom he loves.

Now that I have your attention with such an olive branch, allow me to explain. At the Data Trust Apostolate, it is the truth that matters to us. You, the atheist, may view the truth simply as correct. But for us who believe in Christ Jesus, the truth is not only correct - it is also good and holy. I grew up playing Sega Genesis, Nintendo, and Super Nintendo. I understood at a young age how the audio/video inputs were necessary to make these games work. I am a science nerd. I used to watch every launch under NASA’s space shuttle program, and today I try to catch as many rocket launches as possible. I own a smartphone, I had a job teaching statistics, and I play Starfield. Please do not judge me on that last one, it’s a fun game. The point is, I understand and respect science for what it is - a way to understand the world around us.

Science, the process of learning about the world through systemic observation and experimentation, is vital. If not for the foundations of rocketry and astronautics, along with the pioneers of space in the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions, we would not be where we are today. Always learning, always testing new technology, always expanding our horizons. We made it to the moon because the science made sense, and we pooled the resources to make that science work for us. If there is one thing we can learn from successful breakthroughs in science, it is that it is hard to argue with results. But to my friends who are non-believers, while you are correct in your assertions about science, there is so much more to it than that. As a former professor of statistics, I find my mind constantly racing, looking at all the variables, and trying to figure out why things have played out in my life the way that they have.

I’ll open up a bit of my personal life and tell you that I was an alcoholic for 12 years. It doesn’t matter how or why, only that the lens in which I viewed the world involved the idea that I had to drink in order to socially function. And so, with one bad decision after another, I landed myself in handcuffs, and then in Alcoholics Anonymous. You may not know this, but for the first couple of months of attending AA meetings, you are encouraged to share only your name, but otherwise stay quiet and listen and watch. So I watched, one by one, as people shared their experiences, and turned their will and their lives over to a higher power, of which many acknowledged as Jesus Christ. Their lives began to change. Better decisions, more positive outlooks, and eventually true gratitude. As many of these people began to break free from their addiction (myself eventually included), I was again reminded of the phrase I uttered when discussing rocket science: it is hard to argue with results.  

Friends, there are so many things a person can do when struggling with alcoholism. They can continue to drink. They can attend alcohol education classes. They can read studies. They can go to rehab. But I am telling you now, from the perspective of a science nerd, a math whiz, and a former College Professor of Statistics, I observed a near perfect correlation between those who turned their life over to Jesus Christ, and those who fully recovered from alcoholism. And I do distinguish between the broader concept of a “higher power,” and the specific word of “Jesus Christ.” Why? Because some people failed in Alcoholics Anonymous. In fact, about 90% of people do. They didn’t recover. I watched people share at meetings, only to not return the next day or week because they had drank themselves to death. I watched people read AA’s famed “Big Book,” understand it through and through, and still commit suicide because they were tormented by the prison they had built for themselves with alcoholism. I watched people say they had faith, and die shortly thereafter in an alcohol related car crash. As for myself, I struggled in AA for 6 of the 12 years of my alcoholism. It only stopped in 2020 when I began to find my true faith in Jesus Christ.

For a manned mission to the moon to be successful, everything must be perfect. The calculation of multiple trajectories, fuel dispersion, ability to withstand max q (maximum aerodynamic pressure), and those parts of the lunar excursion module that only have the thickness of a sheet of foil. The science has to be perfect. There can be no room for error. None of this can be denied, as the laws of physics are there, and we interpret them to the best of our human ability. And when an organization like NASA, or SpaceX or the ESA tout a high rate of success, it’s because they did their job, and you can’t argue with results.

But there is something else you should know. After Astronaut Buzz Aldrin’s  rise to fame with the successful Apollo 11 mission to the moon, the pressure became too much for him. He fell into depression and into a deep pit of alcoholism. By 1978 he had fallen very far and was even arrested. But he recovered. He recovered in Alcoholics Anonymous. He recovered not by acknowledging some generic higher power. He was devout presbyterian Christian. He accepted Christ as his savior and the commander of his will. In fact, Aldrin became an elder within the Presbyterian Church, and administered communion during the first moon landing.  From my personal experiences in alcoholics anonymous as a statistician, I would say the r value (strength of correlation measurement) for those who recover from alcoholism (y), and those who believe in Jesus Christ (x) is somewhere between 0.92 and 0.95. This places the r² value (proportion of variance occurrence) between 0.959 and 0.975. That’s a very strong correlation. So my non-believing friends, whether it is landing on the moon, or landing on your own two feet, there is more than enough room in this universe for the wonders of science, and the glory of Jesus Christ. And I believe it was always meant to be that way. We see success in both arenas, and again, it is hard to argue with results.