Belief, by Francis S. Collins

March 31 – C. S. Lewis & Alister McGrath

Question 1.  Discussions of miracles have always been touchy, due to their very personal and subjective nature.  C. S. Lewis provides an honest examination of this phenomenon, urging an attitude of open-mindedness to that which we presently don’t or can’t fully comprehend.  His two required conditions for experiencing a miracle include belief in the normal stability of nature and belief in some reality beyond nature (which can neither be proved nor disproved by experience).  The difficulty, as I see it, is that we can never reach agreement on a uniform definition of either of these two requirements. 

What has your approach and understanding of miracles been over the years, and what personal experiences and learning helped to shape your current thinking on this?  Do you agree/disagree with Lewis’ suppositions and conclusions?  Why?

Question 2.  As Lewis notes, skepticism is a necessary and appropriate response in this arena, since claims of miracles, by definition, run the gamut.  For example, I have trouble lending credibility to various sightings of fuzzy images of Mary showing up on the surface of stale food in someone’s refrigerator or on some unusual-shaped vegetable growing in someone’s garden.  These tend to give miracles a bad name, discouraging a much broader attitude toward understanding the miraculous nature of life all around us.  As Lewis rightly points out, “There is an activity of God displayed throughout creation…which men refuse to recognize.  The miracles done by God incarnate, living as a man in Palestine, perform the very same things as this wholesale activity, but at a different speed and on a smaller scale.” 

How, then, does this life – creation itself – reveal a “reality beyond nature?”  How do you perceive the natural order yoked to the creative and ever-sustaining hand of God?

Question 3.  Lewis writes, “The point is that for our ancestors the universe was a picture: for modern physics it is a story….an incomplete story.”  His analogy of Humpty Dumpty’s falling from the wall was clever…exposing the limitations of science to fully observe or claim the boundaries of nature and God’s activity within all of creation.  “These Signs do not take us away from reality; they recall us to it – recall us from our dream world of ‘ifs and ands’ to the stunning actuality of everything that is real.  They are the focal points at which more reality becomes visible than we ordinarily see at once.”  Paul’s voice from scripture echoes here, “Now we see in a mirror dimly, but then we shall see face to face.”  Lewis concludes, “Divine reality is like a fugue…it becomes at once a magnet to which truth and glory come rushing from all levels of being.” 

So, which lines or parts of this complex multi-layered musical arrangement we call “reality” lead you into a greater appreciation for divine influence?  Where has such music emerged for you and what led you to take notice and hear it?  Working from this definition, where are you most likely to encounter the miraculous on a sustained life-giving basis?

Question 4.  In “Trying to Make Sense of Things,” Alister McGrath introduces us to the value of clues, which he defines as “an observation that sets off a way of thinking about a problem.”  Of course, clues may be obvious to some, while overlooked by others.  He applies this discussion toward the universe and our place within it.  Such clues include the natural sciences, “fine-tuning” of the universe, and the deep human longing for significance.  Which of these clues resonate with your experience and observations?  Did these clues prove conclusive to you?

Question 5.  McGrath also acknowledges how certain other clues seem to point away from God, leading to ambiguity.  He rules out atheism as a credible conclusion, due to the lack of available evidence to support such claims.  “We have to learn to live in an untidy world in which we are not certain of everything – a world in which there are unanswered question.”

Take a moment and consider this statement.  What are those specific questions that elude complete answers?  Why are we so uneasy with this unavoidable ambiguity?  What does this say about us?

Question 6.  Ultimately, McGrath says, there are few things that can be known with absolute certainty.  “In other words, they are true by definition.”  In referring to Tennyson, he directs us toward “a leap of faith – a recognition that the clues to the meaning of the universe do not provide an invincible case for a meaningless cosmos or one brought into being by a caring and loving God.” 

What role does faith play in the absence of answers?  What issues, theological or otherwise, do you address through faith alone (in the absence of proof)?  What led you to make this decision or choice?  What continues to sustain you in this approach?