THINKING ANEW:SUNDAY last, January 8th, Stephen Hawking, the distinguished scientist celebrated his 70th birthday. His achievements are truly amazing given the fact that he suffers from motor neurone disease, diagnosed when he was only 21, and is almost completely paralysed. This is a man to be honoured and celebrated not only for his courage but also for his intellect: he makes us think.
Although usually represented to be anti-religious, his position is more complicated than that. He claims not to be religious in the formal sense and believes that the universe is governed by the laws of science, but goes on to say that “the laws may have been decreed by God, but God does not intervene to break the laws” – a point made long ago by a psalmist who wrote: “He [God] has given them a law which shall not be broken.” Some people of faith feel threatened by people like Stephen Hawking who raise challenging issues, but we should value their searching and questioning because the ultimate aim for all of us has to be the discovery of truth: truth which has yet to be fully revealed and understood. St Paul, speaking from a religious standpoint, reminds us that “we know in part and we prophesy in part”.
The same has to be said of science and when scientists comment on religious or spiritual matters they are simply stating opinions, not facts.
Elizabeth Basset, an English spiritual writer and conductor of retreats, spoke of life as a longing for meaning and a longing for God.
“Life is a search for this ‘something’, a search for something or someone to give meaning to our lives, to answer the question who am I, why am I here, what is the purpose of my life? I believe that this great need we all feel is caused by a longing which cannot be satisfied by the goals we set ourselves in this journey of life. There are countless ways in which the longing can be expressed, by poets and painters, musicians and dancers, and by so many of those whose talent is for living and loving in awe and worship. Perhaps the whole of life is concerned with this yearning. Nothing can be left out, but it carries us into death and beyond when we dare to hope that we shall come face to face with the source of all our longing.”
Tomorrow’s liturgy includes the wonderful psalm 139 beginning: “O Lord you have searched me out and known me; you know my sitting down and my rising up; you discern my thoughts from afar.”
Whatever about our longing for God, this psalmist has no doubts about God’s constant awareness and knowledge of us: “If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the utter most parts of the sea, even there your hand shall hold me. If I say ‘Surely the darkness will cover me and the light around me turn to night,’ even darkness is no darkness with you; the night is as clear as the day.”
In this age of forensic science and especially DNA, the proof of unique personal identity, it is fascinating to reflect on some of the words of this psalm written over 2,000 years ago. The author suggests that we are not just known to God in some general way, an anonymous speck of humanity, but that we are known personally and individually from the beginning of life and throughout: “I thank you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret and woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes beheld my form, as yet unfinished; already in your book were all my members written.”
Long ago St Augustine suggested that it is God himself who prompts our search for him and our need for meaning and self- understanding: “You move us to delight in praising you; for you have formed us for yourself and our hearts are restless till they find rest in you.”
– GORDON LINNEY