About to begin a short series of sermons on the subject of creation. In Saturday's Times newspaper there was a short piece by the Chief Rabbi whose occasional column is always thought provoking and stimulating. On Saturday he was musing on 'Genesis and the origin of the Origin of our species.' He noted that next year will mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his book 'On the origin of species'. He suggests that Darwin helped us to understand the "how" of God's "Let there be" and that the Creator created not just life but life that is in itself creative. He raises a number of interesting points from scientific discoveries. For example, having deciphered the genetic code, we know that all life in its seemingly endless variety has a single source. "The miracle of monotheism is that unity up there creates diversity down here." But none of the discoveries provides proof either of the existence or non existence of God. But each is surely a source of wonder. He reminds his readers that the Psalmist does not suggest that the heavens prove the existence of God, but that the heavens declare the glory of God. His final comment was, " the more we know about the intricacy and improbability of life, the more reason we have to wonder and give thanks".
As you might imagine I might just quote from the Chief Rabbi on Sunday.
On a completely different subject, I stumbled across a whole series from one of my favourite television cartoon characters from years ago. The cartoons can be watched via the On Demand button on our Virgin Media Cable television. Annette shook her head when I sat and watched two classic episodes of Top Cat who is the indisputable leader of the gang.
