Christianity - Meeting Their God

Answer 1 offers only a circular argument, depending on any proof of the authenticity of the Bible; Answer 2 (with its inclusive 'we') opens up the narrative of The Fall and suggests a way onwards. Answer 3 may be well-intentioned but is perhaps rather insistent; Answer 4 may well hold truth for the speaker, but could feel as alien and unhelpful as answer 1 to someone outside any religious tradition or experience.

The lyrics beyond answer 4 include the phrase 'I believe' ... without specifying 'in what'. The two songs in the odd-numbered answers are simply, if artfully, mere 'catalogue songs' ~ though they are certainly, even deservedly popular and can bring on something of a warm glow in the mind. 'All things bright and beautiful' is a 19th-century hymn originally written for children, and remains one of the few widely enough known to be requested regularly at special church occasions such as weddings and funerals. (Five or six colourful little verses are usually sung, but time and taste have quietly sidelined the one which said: 'The rich man in his castle, the poor man at his gate: God made them high and lowly, and ordered their estate'!)

For an analyst of a much earlier age, this is quite a businesslike taxonomy. The Catholic church has a particular interest in miracles, as you may discover elsewhere.

This seems a strange prayer, but by his own account it appears to have done the trick on multiple occasions. (Elsewhere during his trips, he tells of an encounter with a car mechanic who inspected the motor ... and spontaneously declared it a miracle that it should still be running, with so much load and mileage, so much dust and so little maintenance.)

Many of these answers cover similar ground, but answer 2 makes the clearest theological point.

Answer 4 is a circular argument (as offered in an earlier question); Answer 2 opens up an interesting debate over Evolutionism, though its opening premise is certainly sound with regard to the 'days' in Genesis meaning 'time-periods' more broadly ( ... and what could be a more obvious time-period than a day?). Answer 1 somehow confines us to an unhelpfully vast cosmic canvas. If our 'challenger' is coming from a scientific or rationalist standpoint, answer 3 offers a good way forward ~ since some field of specialism may emerge, onto which the discussion might be focused regarding specific examples in the 'Argument from Design'.

You can view a gallery of such images at Image Gallery. Failing that, there may be others, but please only venture carefully into such online realms. Answer 1 covers many examples, but even if non-deliberate, these are collectively 'man-made' in ways in which few of the others could be, and hence beyond the stated scope of our question. The telegraph pole example is weirdly potent visually, at least to your author ~ but by the time we come to steam-iron soles and damp-stained drainpipes, his credulity begins to wane. And the further question begs: WHY might the Almighty choose to disclose Himself in such mundane contexts? Perhaps the response to that lies between Him and the various witnesses.

Whether or not you, personally, are either spiritually or musically inclined, you may still be interested to hear his motets, &/or the Concerto for Organ, Strings and Timpani which contains many sublime moments (though as critics have justly said, this work juxtaposes 'Poulenc the monk and rascal' ~ there are moments of jazz and the fairground in it too; and your author shares this as one who has himself performed the work in public, partly out of a deep empathy for its more soulful passages).

At any rate, in this instance as very possibly in others, one man (Poulenc)'s spiritual inspiration has certainly become a numinous blessing to others.

Many people find music a potent and evocative channel into deeper levels of their awareness ~ not even, or only, 'church' or classical music as such, but also film-scores, showtunes, pop and folk, and, of course, Gospel. Even the sometimes-cynical Noel Coward (no mean tunesmith himself) has one of his characters remark, 'Strange how potent cheap music is' ... and it certainly floats some people's boat. With others it might be evocative smells or scents that somehow transport them to another realm of awareness, and open them to a sense of the Divine or the 'beyond'; the combination of colossal architecture, stained glass, music and incense-smoke in some churches and cathedrals is indeed a deliberate separation from everyday experience. Christians rejoice that we are created as complex beings with the faculties to appreciate and respond to such special stimuli, and to praise and draw near to the Creator through them.

This may be a slightly odd angle from which to define it, but Freud reckoned that the visions played out in our mind's eye overnight were fanciful, yet essentially truthful portrayals (once one could understand the 'code') of what a person deeply hoped for from life. That approach rather barges-out any prospect of dreams being sent by God; but just because Freud argued his case, does not mean that some people might not genuinely believe they have sensed God telling them something important via this channel.

Of course, this could have happened at any moment, but this was when it did. The previous summer (the long drought of 1976, when spontaneous flash-fires would leap across a 6-lane motorway and reservoirs ran dry) had found your author's own parents taking part in a touring production, to local churches in the middle Thames Valley, of a play called 'The Old Man of the Mountains', about the life of the prophet Elijah: one hot and sweaty Sunday afternoon, after weeks on end without rain, we took the show to the charming village church at Hughenden ~ where, just as the play reached the point about Elijah praying for rain to break the drought over Israel, in real life there came a colossal crack of lightning, and the heavens seemed to open at last, and at once, with a torrential downpour.

Within the Great Scheme of Things these may seem trivial examples ... but to one hopefully 'on-wavelength' soul, they offer a fairly convincing and relevant pair, even hinting at a divine sense of humour in the timing!