You could be forgiven for missing it, but the race is on to find the so-called ‘God particle’, the Higgs boson. And with CERN’s Large Hadron Collider out of action, the Americans believe they will beat the Europeans. (See the BBC article for more details.) Missing the recent celebration of Darwin would have been harder.
Any attempt to discover the wonders of the universe is welcome. Christians need not fear scientific investigation or discovery. We live in a glorious world which induces a sense of wonder.
But while so much scientific research in previous generations was undertaken in a sense of humility before an awe-inspiring creation and a great creator, much today seems to be undertaken in a spirit of human independence or even arrogance. We can find the answers. We will solve the ultimate questions.
God is, in the words of one of the new breed of atheists, Richard Dawkins, a delusion.
There are others who cannot believe in God but seem to wish they could. Check out the Daily Mail interview with David Attenborough or the Times article by Matthew Parris.
John’s Gospel is structured round a series of signs. For those who will come, either to the created world or to the Gospel records, with open minds and humility there is much to be discovered of the ways of God. Let’s cultivate such an attitude for ourselves and encourage it in others.
John Grayston
Monday 23 February 2009
Monday 2 February 2009
Whose wisdom?
Every day, it seems, the news gets worse. On every hand there is gloom, doom and dire forecasts of recession and depression. If ever there was a time when we needed wisdom, it is now.
Our governments need wisdom – it sometimes looks as though the economic forces are uncontrollable. We need wisdom at a personal level in a whole range of decisions affected by the current situation. So, where do we turn?
In Corinthians, Paul talks of two sorts of wisdom: the wisdom of God and the wisdom of man. We can choose to live by one or the other.
God’s wisdom looks odd. It works through weakness rather than power, through the insignificant rather than the prominent. And it makes the wisdom that this world has to offer look foolish, empty and short-lived.
We humans always assume that we know better. Perhaps our current situation should tell us otherwise. But we are slow learners. We will always find a way. There will be a solution.
There is no instant answer in the Bible for the current global financial situation. But in God’s wisdom there are values and ideas that might help us through.
Ideas about where we put our treasure, about our priority to care for the weak and the dispossessed, about generous giving rather than selfish accumulation – about worship of God rather than worship of self-gratification.
John Grayston
Our governments need wisdom – it sometimes looks as though the economic forces are uncontrollable. We need wisdom at a personal level in a whole range of decisions affected by the current situation. So, where do we turn?
In Corinthians, Paul talks of two sorts of wisdom: the wisdom of God and the wisdom of man. We can choose to live by one or the other.
God’s wisdom looks odd. It works through weakness rather than power, through the insignificant rather than the prominent. And it makes the wisdom that this world has to offer look foolish, empty and short-lived.
We humans always assume that we know better. Perhaps our current situation should tell us otherwise. But we are slow learners. We will always find a way. There will be a solution.
There is no instant answer in the Bible for the current global financial situation. But in God’s wisdom there are values and ideas that might help us through.
Ideas about where we put our treasure, about our priority to care for the weak and the dispossessed, about generous giving rather than selfish accumulation – about worship of God rather than worship of self-gratification.
John Grayston
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