I noticed a couple of days ago that somebody has started a Facebook group to recruit a million members before the end of June (and the Pope's visit) to declare their belief in Evolution. I guess this is part of the annoying 'social' fall out of the Pope criticising UK Equalities legislation on the grounds that it was contrary to Natural Law - well his version of it. There are, after all, different schools and theories of Natural Law - protestant, catholic, muslim, humanistic, etc.
As the lectionary theme for Sexagesima is 'Creation', I thought I'd have a go at talking about what belief in a divine Creator means, and raise the question of whether the notion of 'belief' in Evolution was a false contrast of categories. Belief in a divine creator is sui generis. Evolution is an observable process within the cosmic order, like gravity or entropy. These are contingent facts of existence, rather than the necessary fact of existence, and consideration of the source of being itself, if I recall the things we struggled to grasp in undergraduate philosophy classes. Some of that stuff is still unravelling itself to me forty five years later. I'm a slow learner in some things. It makes a change from harping on about the environment, as I often do on this Sunday and Harvest festival.
Keeping such things brief and simple is always the real challenge in preaching, and I am rarely certain I get it right. However today I had a small reward. I was thanked for my efforts by a post graduate pharmacologist, recently arrived and settling in. She too gets fed up with the popular presumption that scientific thinking and discipline compels rejection of faith in God, and was pleased to hear this expressed publicly.
I had intended to go out visiting after lunch, but found myself overtaken by tiredness., and dozed for much of the afternoon. Working more than a week without a break is something I find I'm less capable of these days, even though everything I do is more relaxed. There's no let up, with Lent and Easter to prepare for as well as the confirmations and a couple of baptisms - not to mention preparations to move house. If possible I'd like to face Lent fully prepared this year, and enjoy it, and not be under last minute pressure, as I often have been in the past.
As the lectionary theme for Sexagesima is 'Creation', I thought I'd have a go at talking about what belief in a divine Creator means, and raise the question of whether the notion of 'belief' in Evolution was a false contrast of categories. Belief in a divine creator is sui generis. Evolution is an observable process within the cosmic order, like gravity or entropy. These are contingent facts of existence, rather than the necessary fact of existence, and consideration of the source of being itself, if I recall the things we struggled to grasp in undergraduate philosophy classes. Some of that stuff is still unravelling itself to me forty five years later. I'm a slow learner in some things. It makes a change from harping on about the environment, as I often do on this Sunday and Harvest festival.
Keeping such things brief and simple is always the real challenge in preaching, and I am rarely certain I get it right. However today I had a small reward. I was thanked for my efforts by a post graduate pharmacologist, recently arrived and settling in. She too gets fed up with the popular presumption that scientific thinking and discipline compels rejection of faith in God, and was pleased to hear this expressed publicly.
I had intended to go out visiting after lunch, but found myself overtaken by tiredness., and dozed for much of the afternoon. Working more than a week without a break is something I find I'm less capable of these days, even though everything I do is more relaxed. There's no let up, with Lent and Easter to prepare for as well as the confirmations and a couple of baptisms - not to mention preparations to move house. If possible I'd like to face Lent fully prepared this year, and enjoy it, and not be under last minute pressure, as I often have been in the past.
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