Thursday 20 December 2007

Give Short Shrift to being Short Changed!

"The 'religious' goods available via the pluralism of the ideology supermarket are not deemed as being equally true - they are all viewed as equally untrue and of no real value".

Martin Robinson (paraphrase from the book - the Faith of the Unbeliever)


How often in life are we short changed (over charged for something which is often second rate)?
Modern culture and media simply do not view it is their remit to tell us more than we need to know, so it's rare we catch a glimpse behind the facade into the true nature, either of our times or of the true nature of the universe in which we are constantly bedazzled by the kitsch.

I was reading a note on the Uncommon Descent blog the other day, and the author noted something that made may pause and deeply reflect. He quoted the passage from Hebrews chapter 11: 'By Faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so what is seen was not made out of that which is visible" (verse 3).
There's much to unpack here, but what rooted me to the spot was that the very nature of the created order is such that it reveals something vital to us:
that what exists is an 'information rich' domain which conveys a fact of great import - the origin of the material is not in the physical order itself, but that physical order, if examined well, affirms something about the source of it's origin - a designer.

In my lifetime, Science has reached a point where it has confirmed both that the universe had a beginning and that the source of what derived from that moment is not found in the 'stuff' that makes this order itself.
In his work, Intelligent Design - the Bridge between Science and Theology, William Dembski examines the nature of how information is communicated. When we take an ontological approach that is informed from the perspective of the passage in Hebrews, then "creation and everything in it proceeds through a divine spoken word...(thus) the entities created do not become silent at the moment of creation - they continue to 'speak' today".

Have we been so informed in our understanding of the very fabric of our reality, or have we been defrauded by a naturalism that essentially mutes the very purpose of creation - to teach us something of the nature of the one who framed us and the farthest stars?

It was this very same 'Word' that became flesh to furnish the other need we all share - to undo the lie of life without this God. Something certainly worth considering over Christmas...


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