Monty Python's "The Meaning of Life"
Life is so so amazing. Why? Well as I was walking from my room to the shower I caught a glimpse of a bird sitting right outside of my stairwell window. Two inches away, resting on a sagging telephone wire. I have know idea what kind of bird it was was but it was gorgeous. I stared it for probably twenty minutes as it stared right back. I suppose it couldn't see me through the window cause it sure acted like nothing else was around. I think that was what made it such an awe-inducing experience, being able to watch another life form that closely for so long is simply amazing. Yes, you can tell from that last sentence that I'm not married.
Whenever I am transfixed on some sort of natural beauty, whether it be Mt. Rainier, the Puget Sound, the Mediterranean, even the smelly and toxic Little Miami River, my thoughts always end up leading back to this question, "How can something so beautiful and complex exist?" Today I was thinking about this as I noticed how the bird used it's tail to balance itself on the wire. I am a follower of Jesus of Nazareth and I believe that Yahweh, the Judeo-Christian God is the creator of everything. So in the debate on origins I align more with the creationists, though I bristle at some of the company I keep. But if evidence does support evolution, I have no problem with that. God almost always takes the creative, scenic route in everything else, so why would he be any different in how he created the world. But I came to my conclusion about God through experience and questioning, not by following a pre-subscribed tradition. And in getting back to the bird and pre-subscribed traditions, I see some major holes in evolutionary theory that I have yet to see answered. Like how many birds fell to their death before they figured out they needed a tail for balance? And wouldn't the evolutionary process in birds be wiped out by every bird that fell to their death? What happened if they figured out the tail before they figured out they needed a certain kind of feet to be able to land and live in trees? Wouldn't in-between mutations kill off whatever progress was made? These questions are only about this one bird but basically I just don't see a lot of the evidence that is supposedly there for evolution. A lot of seems like a stretch. Now I know I am not a scientist and I am not trying to be one. And I know that every theory and faith, no matter what it is, has major questions that have to be overcome or overlooked. But every idea starts from a practical question and these are mine. And because of a bird outside of my window, that is what has dominated my thoughts this morning.
Whenever I am transfixed on some sort of natural beauty, whether it be Mt. Rainier, the Puget Sound, the Mediterranean, even the smelly and toxic Little Miami River, my thoughts always end up leading back to this question, "How can something so beautiful and complex exist?" Today I was thinking about this as I noticed how the bird used it's tail to balance itself on the wire. I am a follower of Jesus of Nazareth and I believe that Yahweh, the Judeo-Christian God is the creator of everything. So in the debate on origins I align more with the creationists, though I bristle at some of the company I keep. But if evidence does support evolution, I have no problem with that. God almost always takes the creative, scenic route in everything else, so why would he be any different in how he created the world. But I came to my conclusion about God through experience and questioning, not by following a pre-subscribed tradition. And in getting back to the bird and pre-subscribed traditions, I see some major holes in evolutionary theory that I have yet to see answered. Like how many birds fell to their death before they figured out they needed a tail for balance? And wouldn't the evolutionary process in birds be wiped out by every bird that fell to their death? What happened if they figured out the tail before they figured out they needed a certain kind of feet to be able to land and live in trees? Wouldn't in-between mutations kill off whatever progress was made? These questions are only about this one bird but basically I just don't see a lot of the evidence that is supposedly there for evolution. A lot of seems like a stretch. Now I know I am not a scientist and I am not trying to be one. And I know that every theory and faith, no matter what it is, has major questions that have to be overcome or overlooked. But every idea starts from a practical question and these are mine. And because of a bird outside of my window, that is what has dominated my thoughts this morning.