Tuesday, September 4, 2007

"...and praise God ... "

Now I'm thinking where Pastor Franklin said he could walk into any church and praise God, because he had the Holy Ghost in his life.

I submit that it goes farther than that, much farther.

One of my favorite books, as a theist, is Richard Dawkins' The Blind Watchmaker. But if you've been following the news lately, you'll discover that Richard Dawkins has no use for religion of any kind, and is convinced that the very idea of God is a delusion. He doesn't think that "true" and "religion" belong in the same sentence.

Yet when I read his explanation of the pressures of natural selection – by which all mutations that "don't work" just drop out of the game – I looked up from the book with a new sense of the vastness and beauty of the universe – yes, even its lovability. I was trying to be an atheist then – it didn't take – and at the time I wished God was real, so that I could compliment Him/Her/Itself on the elegance of the vast, complex universe. (Now I know better, or at least different.)

Which just goes to show that – to turn a favorite scripture inside out – anything that is "profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction," or "for training in righteousness," so that you are "completely equipped for every good work" – that is scripture, inspired of God – no matter where you find it. If "the stones themselves cry out," why shouldn't a scientist?

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