Even in our very secular world, I’m often surprised at our newspapers and television at this time of year and how ‘religious’ they can become! (It’s often the case also at Easter time.) But I also notice that running along side the so-called religious bit, there is almost a kind of parallel narrative which is completely areligious. Perhaps in some sort of perverted way, they like to show both sides of the story!

I caught a few minutes of a program last Monday evening on Channel 4 entitled ‘Catastrophe’. I’d like to have watched it properly, but there was, no doubt, something happening in the house that drew my attention. I can’t even remember whether it was a snippet of the beginning, middle or end. But it was all about Tony Robinson visiting Mexico and the alleged location of the asteroid strike which was the size of Mount Everest and hit the earth at 60 times the speed of sound. This is believed to have caused the extinction of dinosaurs about 65 million years ago.

I looked up the opening sequence of the programme and practically his second sentence was, “We’re all here by chance”.

Now I don’t want this to be a Science verses Bible debate, however fascinating that is, because it was my thing a number of years ago, but what I want to say is how freely

accepting we are of fabulous and fantastic sweeping statements, just because they have an air of scientific research behind them. Science and the Bible are not necessarily contradictory, as a lot of people would like to believe, mainly because it’s fashionable.

When Charles Darwin published his ‘Origin of the Species’ in 1859, he was vilified by the Church, although, as far as I know, he remained a committed Christian all his life. Evolution remains a theory and he was never trying to take God out of Creation, at least I don’t think so. Others who followed him did, perhaps. Galileo, a devout Christian all his life, equally, was treated appallingly when he agreed with Copernicus that the earth travelled around the sun. Copernicus was a Canon in the Polish Church. Only on 31^st October 1992, Pope John Paul the second expressed regret for how the Galilean affair was handled and officially conceded that the earth was not stationary as the result of a study conducted by the Pontifical Council for Culture...1992!

And then along the way came Richard Dawkins! His book, The God Delusion is his most popular, and he contends that a supernatural creator almost certainly does not exist and that faith qualifies as a delusion – as a fixed false belief.

I wanted to base this sermon on a famous debate between Professor Dawkins and a Bible believing Dr. John Lennox (from this part of the world originally)which took place in the middle of the Bible belt in America, in fact in Birmingham, Alabama on 3^rd October, 2007.

I listened to a good deal of the debate which was called God of Delusion verses Christianity. I’d liked to have sat down and listened to it properly, but time wasn’t on my side. But it’s the kind of debate that, in a way, nobody wins.

You may agree with one side of the argument and therefore you would believe that that side would’ve won the debate, depending on your point of view; so it was quite subjective. You know that Nietzsche was one of the first philosophers to claim that God was dead, and a famous bit of graffiti at the time was “God is dead” signed Nietzsche and underneath some bright spark had written “Nietzsche is dead” signed God.

I would rather not see Science and the Bible as contradictory arguments, but rather that the Bible compliments Science and vice versa, and that’s not a new thing. (In fact, there are probably more disagreements and apparent contradictions within science itself than between science and the Christian faith). What is appalling, however, is the way the Church treats those who think they are preaching things which are contrary to Biblical doctrine.

As the Centuries have rolled by, the Church has become quieter about its stance with regard to science simply because it doesn’t hold the kind of power and influence that it once did.

Why are we always so quick to condemn? We know that our faith meets our deepest needs – levels of human existence and morality that science can’t ever touch – purpose, meaning and all the other things.

Our faith helps us to deal with the problem of loneliness or hearts broken by grief. Science has no remedy for unforgiven sin and guilt. Science can’t answer all the questions, however plausible it can sound.

It’s only in the person of Jesus do we begin to find answers to some of the questions we struggle with all the time.

That’s why Christmas is such an important time. Since we are all in the same boat, why are we so ready to point the finger? “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”.

I think we sometimes forget what Jesus came here to do. He wasn’t here to just “fill in the gaps” but to teach something of the love and forgiveness of a very patient God.