new church life: march/april 2016
Well. Fred Hoyle, the astronomer who coined the term “big bang,”
confessed that his ardent atheism was “greatly shaken” by these developments.
It must have been hard for him to write: “A common-sense interpretation of
the facts suggests that a super-intellect [as close as he could come to naming
God] has monkeyed with the physics, as well as with chemistry and biology.
The numbers one calculates from the facts seem to me so overwhelming as to
put this conclusion almost beyond question.”
Theoretical physicist Paul Davies agrees that “the appearance of design is
overwhelming.” And Oxford professor Dr. John Lennox goes so far as to say:
“The more we get to know about our universe, the more the hypothesis that
there is a Creator gains in credibility as the best explanation of why we are
here.”
So there is hope: God is not dead and science is finally discovering what
creation is all about. But you don’t have to be an astrophysicist to get it.
“The universe is like a stage on which proofs are constantly being
demonstrated that God exists and that there is one God.” (True Christian
Religion 12)
(BMH)
every age has its own blind spots
I have an old Time magazine from 1937 that has a full-page ad on the back
cover for Lucky Strike cigarettes, touting their . . . health benefits! There was a
testimonial from a famous athlete (runner Glenn Cunningham), and another
from a well-known Philadelphia society hostess, who served Lucky Strikes
after each course at her dinner parties. Smoking, she says, is good for digestion
– and what good is fine food if it is not properly digested? This strikes us as
laughable today, but there was a time, not all that long ago, when it was not.
Which raises the question: does our society today take for granted any
ideas which are actually very wrong and harmful? Are there beliefs or behaviors
that we think are right today that in 50 or 60 years will appear as ridiculous as
the thought that smoking is healthy does to us now? What are our blind spots?
What are we doing that will cause future generations to shake their heads in
wonder and ask: “what in the world were they thinking?” Or are we the first
generation in all history that at last has gotten everything right?
(WEO)
conservatives and progressives
This excerpt from the Rev. Theodore Pitcairn’s 1967 book, My Lord and My
God, seems timely:
Many who call themselves progressive mistake change for progress. The
196