Reply To: Idiot of the Year

[Just Iron]

NI .. You had a great time observing the heavens with your daughter and I’m glad about that. You didn’t say why it seems self evident to you from that experience that there can be no Creator. I know you referenced the sheer scale and size of the Cosmos .. but I’ve never claimed that the Creator I claim to know is anything other than mysterious and ‘other’ .. not understandable in terms of time and space and the purely rational markers of restricted creatures like ourselves. What we bring to the experience of our lives colours everything. Several of the early astronauts on the US programme testified to their sense of God’s presence when returning to earth and at least one came to faith after his experience. On the other hand Yuri Gagarin, a committed Communist and atheist, returned to earth and happily reported that he’d seen no sign of God.
As for ‘deep set indoctrination’ and ‘a simple story to satisfy simple people’… these ‘go to arguments’ are pretty shallow if you’ll pardon me for saying so. I trust that you’re not deliberately trying to offend. I refer you to my previous citing of, for example, Nobel Prize winning Scientists or a range of intellectual giants like John Lennox or C S Lewis who share my faith. Misguided maybe. ‘Indoctrinated and simple .. nope.
Maybe a better route for you to understand my perspective is to acknowledge that warmth of heart when your daughter thanks you for a lovely birthday .. and you have a pang of joy and gratitude that seems somehow sacred and out of place in a vast, cold and impersonal universe. Perhaps there is a direction to send that gratitude.
IA and Deerey. I’m sorry that you found my long post inaccessible. I’m not often accused of being ‘mishy mashy’ in my thinking or writing IA. I had a check back and actually thought I’d done OK. I suppose there are a number of possibilities. I really could have been ‘off form’and messed up in trying to answer. As Deerey, with some humility, suggested ..it could have been a bit too clever and required careful reading that stretched capabilities. I’ts possible that readers didn’t have a proper go and pay enough attention. Its even a possibility that someone might not be altogether honest and want the challenge and so took an opportunity to jump on the back of other comments.
From past engagement, Deerey, I know that you haven’t conned the education system. Your questions and challenges to me seem to be in good faith and as intelligent as anyone else’s. I wanted to back up what I said about where some Christians get tangled up in strange theories because they haven’t understood what the Bible is and how it is to be read. I guess a lot of the terminology and even concepts might be new … but that doesn’t mean that the post was a ‘wrong un.’ Maybe it just required a bit more careful thought. Maybe even have another look?
To the relief of some ….I’ve burned myself out.