We were talking about the people Paul met on the isle of Malta. One of my friends commented, "Those people were incredibly superstitious, weren't they?" He provoked a fascinating thought: Yes, they were superstitious, but they weren't stupid. To the contrary, they had cooked up their fabulous ideas to explain some of those vast areas of life which were beyond their senses. Although they weren't well educated, they had grasped that we live in a complex universe and that our bodies can sense or detect only a small part of what's going on out there!
We're so much more advanced than those unsophisticated people, huh? We still cannot forecast earthquakes or tsunamis, and yet ignorant animals can somehow sense what's in store and head for safety 24 hours in advance. We know about frequencies of sound which animals can hear and we cannot. We have concluded there are powerful black holes in space which swallow up planets and stars, and even swallow up light before it can escape. We can't see these mysterious forces, but measurements tell us they must be there. Good grief! Life as we know it abounds with life as we don't know it: molecules and atoms and neutrinos and quarks, some of which even our most powerful microscopes cannot capture.
If we have learned anything today, we have learned that our physical bodies cannot register many of the forces, complexities and mysteries of life. The cosmos is so much bigger than us, and our frame of reference is incredibly narrow.
That's why it's so astonishing that there are people on this planet who consider themselves "intelligent," who have concluded that there is no God, no supernatural elements to life, no eternal realm. They insist that logic supports their denial of God. And they argue this odd opinion with passion, despite the fact that what we don't know about the universe far outweighs the things we know. If "dumb animals" can respond to powerful invisible forces you can't even detect, what would lead you to assume that you are able to detect everything else in life that matters?
God explains it this way, "The fool says in his heart, 'there is no God." Elsewhere, Scripture instructs that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom.
People like you and me appreciate the weight and texture of the cosmos. It's apparent to thinking people that we can't figure this out on our own. The harder we try, the more superstitious we become. (Ancients believed if they cast salt over their shoulders, they could stay healthy. Post-moderns believe that by paying more for organic veggies, we can stay healthy. Research cannot detect the health dividends of tossing salt or buying organic.) So we have turned to a wisdom that comes from outside ourselves: the timeless Word of God.
It's very easy for fools to get on TV talk shows today. Unbelief is fashionable in our culture, and irreverence is hot. But Scripture and the weight of human experience scoff at such arrogance and ignorance. And simple logic wonders: if these people are so pleased with their godless cosmos, why do they always seem so caustic and angry? If Jesus Christ is just a mythical figure, why is his name so unsettling to them?
Even they worry that they're living in a Fool's Paradise. Let's hope they at least catch some sun before they check out.
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