As we have a thirty minute
car journey to our Sunday morning meeting place we usually put on a worship CD
and sing along to the music. We are still good charismatics, after all, and
believe it’s good to be stirred up before the meeting begins. But this last
Sunday things were a bit different as we listened to a Radio Wales programme on
the supernatural.
A passion for his presence?
Roy Jenkins (‘Baptist
minister of Cardiff’ as he is always referred to on Thought for the Day) had
four guests to discuss the subject – a friend of ours from Antioch, Llanelli, a
Catholic priest with a PhD in astro-physics, an academic anthropologist specialising
in religious phenomena, and an atheist humanist. I’ve listed them in their
order of enthusiasm for the supernatural – from someone who has experienced it
within her own church context to someone who rejects it out of hand.
No one was going to ‘win’
this particular debate. The first three, however, came over as fair-minded,
deep-thinking people who could be quite objective when discussing the subject.
The humanist, however, did not. Despite her insistence on the need for rational
thinking and on evidence based belief, it seemed that she herself was quite
unwilling to be objective. Indeed she came out with this classic observation –
that there have never been any miracles with any evidence to support their
existence ever. Jenkins responded with a shriek of incredulity at this, as well
he might.
Evidence
Of course, it is possible
that she has done extensive research into the history of miracles throughout the
ages and that she could support her assertion for each ‘miracle’ that has ever
been recorded – but somehow I doubt it. But if she is to consistently live out
the rational, evidence based belief that she claimed to adhere to, isn’t this
what she needed to have done?
But maybe faith and
hypocrisy aren’t just the preserve of the religious?
