It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing....

The family I'm staying with here has a staggering amount of resources, I sort of wish I had more time here. They've got philosophy, theology (the couple met at YWAM Perth), nutrition and, of course, GAMES! The wife is the daughter of the inventor of this really hard puzzle game: it's sort of like tetris in that the shape of the pieces is fixed (you cannot change the shape of a given piece), only the colors are also meaningful. The pieces are double sided: red and black on one side, blue, yellow and white on the other. You have to put the pieces together to match the pictures in the book, and, as you'll see if you study the picture closely, it's not as easy as it appears...
The irony of this mesmerizing puzzle game is not lost on me as I spent most of the rest of the day "studying" - philosophy (Ravi Zacharias), the heart I've been handed (the letters people gave me), pilgrimage (the resources in my Iona notebook), science (online reading and a video*) - save for a "sun-break."
I took advance of the 40 minutes of sun and went on a walk around town , mailed a postcard and had a great conversation with the worker there, despite how difficult his accent was to understand. Then, I found a park and got on the swing and things started crashing into place. Yes, while I was on the swing (don't worry, I stayed on the swing).
Guys, this movie - *"Unlocking the Mystery of Life" by Illustra Media - is incredible. This is a documentary about a group of scientists - none explicitly Christian, and most trying to explain science WITHOUT the presence of a designer - basically observing the universe, and explaining the facts...by intelligent design. Now, that's good science: explaining the FACTS - as in, what we DO know - in the best possible way. The argument is something like this:
"Bill Gates does not use wind, erosion and random chance to create his software. He employs talented, educated engineers to write the software because the cause of information is not randomness...it is INTELLIGENCE. So, if we don't attribute complex software programs to random chance (as well we shouldn't), why on EARTH would we attribute the most complex set of information in the known universe - that is DNA, the irreducibly complex building blocks of life - to randomness. That's just bad science." Yeah, if it's science at all...sounds more like someone's got an agenda.
Darwin knew nothing about the cell. We can't replicate this system, even in it's most complicated form, in laboratories. Yet, his impact on the scientific mind for the last 150 years has been that of "evolutionary theory", which basically rules out a certain kind of cause for life before the evidence has a chance to speak. And that cause is intelligence. If THAT'S not science's biggest open-mouth-insert-foot moment...
They're teaching this evolutionary theory in schools and calling it science. You remember - the geologic column with all these names for the different eras (Cenazoic, etc.) evidencing a billions-year-old earth, right? Oh, and that fossils "obviously" indicate age. And that oil is formed by the "squeezing" out of carbon matter from rock layers over billions of years. What they fail to tell you is that, if you ASSUME the 4.6 billion year old earth, there would actually be LESS rock layers (a LOT less) than there presently are (and they don't tell you about the petrified trees standing - UPRIGHT - through various rock layers. How, again, is each layer supposed to represent an "era"? Even trees don't live that long). And fossils are petrified - that happens QUICKLY, not over billions of years. And, if the theory about how the oil got there is true, we'd find FAR less than we actually do, even at our rate of consumption. In other words, the earth bears in her bowels all the markings of a common, worldwide catastrophe that would cause a lot of compression very, very quickly...something, like, oh, I don't know...a flood.
Suspiciously, evolutionary theory is, in almost every way that I've been able to see, nearly exactly OPPOSITE from what the Bible says about creation, mankind, and life. Sounds like someone's got an agenda.
But, the most amazing thing about all of this whole non-Christian-scientists-looking-at-the-evidence (life)-and-coming-up-with-"designer" business is that if life was designed, that means it probably was designed on purpose. I started crying when the movie was describing the process of DNA copying in a cell (up until 45 seconds before I saw that, I hated biology) because I felt such love for God, knowing that He made this thing called life. It was this awe such as I've never felt before, like standing over a 3000 foot cliff with that deep, cave-like music playing in the background - and this feeling of overwhelming grandeur coming from studying inside the smallest unit of life. Life, if it's designed, probably isn't meaningless. And, if it's designed, it means that looking into it in all its vast array is a wonderful gift of enjoyment and awe. (This what some of the world's best SECULAR scientists said...seriously, watch the video). Thank you God.
I'm starting to LOVE science even more, and something fascinating is to see how it matches up with the Bible. So...if the Bible is right about this world (and there are lots of other theological and philosophical things it says about the current state of the world that are making a LOT more sense to me than they used to), and it was right about the this world from sometimes as much as 700 years ago (Biblical prophecy is a fascinating thing), then it's probably rather daft to think that it's wrong about the next world. Thank you Lord, for answering my prayers/the cries of my heart.
In other news, I'm beginning to share more and more of "me" with my family, and to a VERY good result. To quote an e-mail my father sent this morning upon reading the story about Pop's death that won a contest: " I must say that not to do something with your incredible writing ability would be a great waste...". And, I'm loving the letters people have written me. I've read seven, but I'm at the point now where I've got to read one a day (including today) if I want to finish them before I get back to Seattle. (That's the notebook I'm rapidly filling up with reflections on these letters).
So, I'm actually accepting what and who I am...writing is not "just a hobby", dancing is not just "exercise" and my prophetic gift is not "made up stuff I could piece together from what information I already do know."
(Now, we're watching more about nutrition - this one is called "The Pleasure Trap" (as in, why, when we know the right thing to do to get healthy, it is so damned hard to do it) - and eating homemade pudding - made from avocados, honey, dates, sultanas topped with frozen berries and our choice of hot drink)...