Dear Friends

Heraclitus: modern technology is marvellous I misspelled the name and the spell checker corrected it! Heraclitus may sound like something you should see the doctor about but in fact he was a philosopher living in Ephesus around 560 BC. Son of a noble family he was by all accounts a miserable individual: he hated people and was happy to spend his time alone brooding over deep mysteries. Having pondered deeply he would explain his thoughts and conclusions in such a ponderous and incomprehensible manner no one knew what he was talking about: he was called “The Obscure”.

One statement for which he is credited is: “A man cannot step into the same river twice”.  He argued that after stepping out of the river it flowed on and what a person stepped back into was not the same river: it had changed. He used this as an illustration of the world being in a constant state of flux, everything changing all of the time and asked: “If that is so, why is life not a complete chaos?”

Through his observations Heraclitus concluded there was order and reason in creation. He went further and asked why do people have an understanding of right and wrong? From these observations and questions he determined that something was involved in the universe and creation which gave order, logic, reason and an ethic: the word he used to summarise this was ‘Logos’.

Writing in Ephesus several hundred years later the apostle John took that same understanding and applied it to the one about whom he was writing: ‘In the beginning was the word (Logos)’. John states that the Logos which gives reason and understanding to the universe is God, God revealed through Jesus Christ.

Today, with the aid of modern technology, scientists, physicists and philosophers have an incomprehensibly greater understanding of the universe, world and the sophistication of life and conclude there is no God: no creator behind what they see. I read recently, can’t find where: “When a scientist states categorically ‘There is no God,’ he ceases to be a scientist and becomes a propagandist”.

Many who speak confidently of being atheist are expressing a set of beliefs which they need to explain and justify if they are to have integrity but very few try to, relying instead on a vehement attack against religion based on caricatures and ridicule. In the face of this too many Christians wilt into the shadows and stay silent.

Our response should be a quiet presentation of our faith without rancour or abuse in the certainty that when we step out in his name the God we worship and adore is working even when we feel inadequate. Never be afraid to admit we don’t have all the answers. We know what God thinks of the unbeliever because he tells us several times in scripture, ie Psalm 14:1. Each one of us should determine to share our faith with others and not be discouraged by the response we receive because there are many people hungry for something to give their life meaning and no one is telling them who it is.

John