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Too Blind to See?

4/21/2018

4 Comments

 
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“Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? Do you not remember?” Mark 8:18

I have never really been an audiobook listener as I enjoy sitting, holding a book, and visually taking in the words. But this past year I found myself on the road for long stretches of time, so picked up an audiobook by a favorite secular writer of mine. He has written mostly biographical travel books, but he also wrote an informational book about the scientific world from the beginning of time.

As I was listening to it, I was again struck by the realization that those who do not believe in God as designer and creator cannot or will not see His hand at work regardless of the evidence. Listen to how close this author comes to admitting that a supreme being had to be involved but stops just short of giving God credit. Whether this is because of his own personal beliefs or because he is trying to keep his book strictly within the scientific realm, I don’t know. But below are a few excerpts from his book followed by a parallel verse from the Bible.

“We live in a universe whose age we can’t quite compute, surrounded by stars whose distances we don’t all together know, filled with matter we can’t identify, operating in conformist with physical laws whose properties we don’t totally understand.” (Disc 3, Segment 2)

(“He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.” Psalm 147:4)

“There is only one place, an inconspicuous outpost of the Milky Way called Earth, that will sustain you…. It appears that if you wish to have a planet suitable for life, you have to be just awfully lucky, and the more advanced the life, the luckier you have to be.” (Disc 3, Segment 10)

(“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1)

“The food chain is thus hopelessly top-heavy but somehow it works. Remarkably no one knows how.”

(“Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” Matthew 6:26)

“All of this is a very roundabout way of making the point that we know very little about earth’s biggest system. But as you shall see, once we start talking about life, there is a great deal we don’t know, not least how it got going in the first place…."

(“'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the LORD.” Isaiah 55:8)

“Despite half a century of further study, we are no nearer to synthesizing life today than we were in 1953, and much further away from thinking we can….

("Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, …. Jeremiah 1:5)

“No one really knows but there may be as many as a million types of protein in the human body and each one is a little miracle. By all the laws of probability, proteins shouldn’t exist….

“The chances of a 1,055 sequence molecule like collagen spontaneously self-assembling are frankly nil….

“It is rather as if all the ingredients in your kitchen somehow got together and baked themselves into a cake, but a cake that could moreover divide when necessary to produce more cakes. It is little wonder that we call it the miracle of life…. (All of the above are from Disc 4, Segment 2)


(“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.
Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?
On what were its footings set,
or who laid its cornerstone—“ Job 38:4-6)

 
Let us have eyes to see and ears to hear.  

Bryson, Bill. A Short History of Nearly Everything. Random House: 2003. Audiobook


4 Comments
Jamie Perillo
4/21/2018 09:20:10 am

Fascinating to know how a Scientist is willing to admit there aren't explinations for God's creations, even if he won't make that connection. I pray people open their eyes, ears, hearts, and minds to faith in God so they have the answer! Thank you for your writing.

Reply
Jody
4/22/2018 07:09:07 am

Thank you for reading!

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essay help link
6/12/2018 02:39:16 am

We have all been blind at some point. Some things are already in front of us, ready to bite us fatally in some occasions and yet, we still choose to believe there is no harm in staying. Sometimes we need to accept the truth no matter how painful or inconvenient it can get. We need to pluck ourselves out from an abusive relationship. We need to cut out people who are doing more harm than good. As for those who seem nice to us but caught in a situation of bad timing, we have no choice but to cut them out too.

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Sylvia
4/21/2018 10:34:55 am

I love Bill Bryson's writings and I have this book; read it years ago. Thank you, Jodi, for picking out these gems to share with your fans. Thanks also for the counter punch of God's word. Such a blatant example of how Satan blinds the eyes and understanding of non- believers.

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    Jody Eileen Solinski spent her career teaching in the California public school system where she enjoyed helping young adults take their place in society. A native Californian, she enjoys the outdoors and so loves living in Northern California where she can enjoy the beauty of God’s creation up close.

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