A few weeks ago the preacher at Elmsett brought us a challenging sermon, as is his usual habit! A very brief, and poor, summary of his message was that science and the Bible can and do sit happily alongside each other. We, as Christians, often struggle when challenged by non-Christians about evolution and science and the existence of God.
One of the points he made during his message, was that there is so much we do not understand, nor do the scientists. Take for example our senses. We can only see in the light spectrum, unlike some animals, like bees, that are able to use ultraviolet light to help with navigation to nectar rich flowers. Bats and dolphins use sound waves that we cannot hear to communicate and navigate. The famous dog Bill, who has been the topic of many of my TFTDs, can sniff out the minutest bit of food that I’ve thrown away into the undergrowth, in the vain hope he won’t find it.
And so our understanding of nature and creation is limited to such an extent that we don’t know what we don’t know!
After we’d grappled with these issues we gave our brains a rest by singing the great hymn of Stuart Kine “O Lord my God when I in awesome wonder” (STF 82).
A quote from philosopher, Alfred Whitehead, says “poets are wrong to wax lyrical about nature. Instead, they should congratulate themselves on the fact that their minds create all that they perceive as wonderful in the world around them. Nature itself is colourless, soundless, and scentless; it’s just matter moving around meaninglessly. Our senses give it content.”
That may be so, however, our minds are therefore able to sense beauty in everything around us. For me gazing at a majestic mountain, or the intricacy of a honey bee extracting nectar from a flower is beauty. Gazing at the night sky, and marvelling at the enormity of outer space, is impossible to understand. Seeing the power in a waterfall, or the from the sun’s rays that can be harnessed to produce electricity, is marvellous.
Science has progressed over the millenia, God the creator continues to work wonders and our understanding of him and our faith also is a work in progress.
May you find beauty personally through your senses and this wonderful world in which we live.