I SUPPOSE it’s very hard to differentiate the chicken from the egg, thus the famous saying – ‘which comes first, the chicken or the egg?’.

In my previous article (here) I wrote about how energy and spirit are basically the same thing, and not to sweat the small stuff.

Science uses the modulus of energy and Church uses the modulus of spirit and both are eternal (unlimited) and thus indefinable.

That could thus suggest that Church and Science are ultimately the same thing, and here lies the crux of the matter – nothing could be further from the Truth.

They have something in common. Both have baffled mankind for centuries and both have caused heated arguments (sadly to say many needless wars and deaths have been caused because of these differences).

So what is the real difference? To me it is very simple.

Science: Is always searching for the answers.

Church: Tells us we already have the answer.

I know that this might sound a little over-simplistic, but please allow the possibility that the beauty of this realisation might lie in its simplicity.

The key to the answer lies not in the the words Church and Science but rather in the difference between ‘searching’ and ‘having’.

Science is always searching for answers, the intricate study of our DNA, the ultimate limit of our universe (black holes etc) and the true origin of mankind to pick a select few.

Searching, searching, searching, always exploring and always looking for more, always on a never-ending quest. Have no doubt that it has caused great progress in the quality our lives (and ultimate destruction if we are not very careful!).

Remember, I defined stress in a previous article as ‘Being here and trying to be there’. So science is therefore involved in a never-ending quest for more knowledge and results, this may well satisfy the desires of the thinking mind but it will not result in providing ultimate inner peace, in fact it is the antithesis of this.

Church practice (I am using this word in a very broad way to cover all religions and even non-religions that promote inner peace) if done in a meaningful way can provide us with inner peace.

In fact, if it doesn’t what is the point. We are asked to believe in God and to put our total faith in God. Remember, even the name God is a manmade name and can result in real conflict between people as to whether He exists or not.

Interestingly enough, we are given a direct message in The Bible through the story of ‘Doubting Thomas’ that we should never try to understand God.

The reason for this is that as humans we cannot and never will understand the unlimited, so therefore we can never understand the unlimited Love that God has for us.

The key to this is again that word acceptance.

When we as humans accept that we cannot and never will understand a certain inner peace arises. This inner peace arises within us when we are not searching for answers and we allow ourselves to simply be.

That is why meditation and mindfulness has become such a part of modern living. One can never understand how mindfulness and meditation work in exactly the same way that we will never understand the concept and power of God.

It really is not important how it works what is of far more significance and importance is ‘That’ it works.

If you were in a field being chased by a bull in dread of losing your life and if you rang me and I gave you strict instructions to follow and you did so diligently.

If the result of following these instructions got you out of the field and into safety –  it is far more important that you got out, not how!

Jesus gave us all a very strict but simple message: “I am (living in the Now) (is) the way, the truth and the life come follow me and I will give you rest.” Note he didn’t say I was or I will be he said “I am”.

The old name for God is Yahweh which means “I am who I am”.

For those of you who do not believe in Jesus, or in God for that matter, you can still follow the message.

Following this message will deliver an inner peace, joy and happiness to our lives that the human ‘thinking mind’ will never understand.

But then again the real beauty of this is that it works, and we will never understand it, but just like getting away from the bull we don’t need to know how but that it works!

If stress is ‘Being here and trying to be there’ then surely the opposite of stress is ‘Being here and not trying to be there’.

So accept that we cannot understand and practice more mindfulness, meditation, living in the now simply because it works. As Jesus directed us; ‘Be still and know that I am God’

Next week I am going to write about the power of laughter.

• Roger Harty is a life coach and can be contacted on 087-6128336, on twitter at @Innerjoyz1 or by email rogharty@gmail.com