Reading the writings of G.K. Chesterton on fairyland and hearing the philosophers talk about ordinary life I find important in reminding us of what is. There is this idea that there is glory all around us and we miss it not because we don’t see it so much as we don’t recognize it. It is like we were walking down railroad tracks and pass up what we think is a chunk of fool’s gold that turns out to be real gold.
All around us is real gold. In fact, not only all around us but all within us. C.S. Lewis in his book “Miracles” uses the simple process of thinking to show that the supernatural has broken into our world. It’s a marvelous argument and I highly recommend this work, along with all of C.S. Lewis’s works. The apologetics world was greatly blessed by having this mind in it.
Yet the trait of seeing what is is something we are losing. We think that because we know what causes lightning today, that we can somehow rule it out as being sent by the gods. Why? If God exists, could he not use a natural process in a supernatural way? Are we obligated to eliminate God once we learn how something works?
This is a problem science presents us with that we Christians need to stand against. The fear of many scientists is that the idea of God creating something will destroy science as we will no longer ask how it came to be. I believe the opposite is true. If anything will destroy science, it is not religion. It is irreligion.
Science is good with its foundation of rationality and order in the universe in the mind of a rational and orderly God. When that is removed though and science tries to declare that this God does not exist, as some are doing even now, then that foundation will have to be eliminated as well. With that, science of that type will only disprove itself. There will be no basis for science, or for that matter, knowledge any more.
With the foundation of religion, we can say that this world is God’s world. When we say that, we already have enough reason to wonder. However, we can look into our wonder. God made the cell?! Wow! Let’s see if we can figure out how it’s been put together and what purpose it serves. When we see life from that perspective, we will find some purpose in everything.
We will also find wonder in realizing that something that is could not have been. Our neighbor who lives nearby could not have been. (We could consider the reality of abortion sadly. How many people might have been today that didn’t get the chance because of the evil of people’s hearts?) We should celebrate the existence of each for they might not have been.
This will also help us with the Problem of Evil. The skeptics complain so much about the world being full of evil. They need to be answered, but they need to backtrack as well. They need to realize that they are speaking about the world first. Then, they are predicating something of it. When they say “The world is full of evil,” we need to tell them to drop the last three words first and then simply go with “The world is” and think about that.
Reality is ultimately fascinating and wonderful. The problem is us. We just don’t take the chance to enjoy it and like the walkers on the railroad track, we miss out on real gold simply by calling it common.
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