One of the most common reasons why ordinary people reject explanations given by scientists is that they can't (or don't want to) understand the technical terms involved. As a scientist often put in this position it can be extremely frustrating after carefully describing something quite complex to somebody. I try to explain any technical terms I use in ways that they would be totally familiar in everyday life only to find that they have totally "switched off" at the first mention of the term and are not listening to what I am trying to say.

The same is true of religion. In some cases the problem is even more insidious because the "technical terms" are words used in everyday life with a special religious context. Many people today switch off even more strongly the moment a religious technical term appears and immediately classify that person as a narrow minded bigot or some other equally derogative expression. There is also a common feeling that as religion seems to have been the cause of much persecution in the past and appears to be one of the prime movers of many wars of today. They would say that they do honestly want to live in a loving society but refuse to join any religion because of the many sins that are committed in its name.

Unfortunately for us religious insiders our technical terms are things we love and carry far greater meaning and we want to explain this joy to others in a way that they will understand and appreciate.

How then can we get past this impasse? Some fundamentalists would have us go "back to the book" and look for God in exceptional events. They continually try to work miracles and look for the "hand of God" in coincidences. This approach can be very inspiring and comforting but I feel that it is as bad as some scientists who see space for the "hand of God" in the gaps and uncertainties of quantum mechanics. What I would like to do is far simpler and more "common-sense" than either of these extreme approaches. Both of which are dominated by more technical terms.

Let us start with nothing more than simple reality and the "book of nature" try to forget the past and don't worry about the future for the moment and concentrate on now. What do we see? We see a wonderful and complex world that we can touch live in and enjoy and an even more wonderful and complex part of the universe that we can see and measure. Our simple science shows us that it is essential that plants and animals are born grow change and die. During this process they become food for each other in a never-ending chain. We all know this from childhood. Applying a little more science we see that there is a general tendency to an irregular sort of order and an evolutionary increase in complexity. Our observations of the farthest reaches of the universe bear this out.

This is the normal state of affairs and is by definition good. Why should we want for more? We must learn to recognise and accept the love involved in the lamb or the lettuce that is sacrificed to give us food. We must similarly accept our individual final sacrifices for we must all die for life to continue it's as simple as that. "But" you ask me "what has this to do with Christianity?" I say "what do we celebrate in the Eucharist but this process in a symbolic form".

My science tells me that for God to know all that exists in the universe there is no way that God and the universe can ever be separated so we might as well say that they are one and the same thing. The various structures that we are aware of within this universe are the offspring of the evolution of God and life on this planet is a particularly rare and precious one. Our ability to perceive and comment on it is probably even more special. The knowledge of this and its survival is a heavy responsibility that we cannot avoid. If we can understand this simple message and get it over to other people avoiding the technical terms that will cause them to ignore it. We may then be able to remove the beams from our own eyes and the chips from our shoulders before we start to consider the motes in the eyes of the rest of creation.

This is one of the reasons why I am a Christian. * Next Page *

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