Author James Hewitt tells of a family of mice who lived in a large piano. In their piano-world came the music of the instrument, filling all the dark places with sound and harmony.
At first the mice were impressed by it. They drew comfort from the thought that there was someone who made the music (though invisible to them) above, yet close. They loved to think of the Great Player whom they could not see.
Then one day a daring mouse climbed far up the piano and returned very thoughtful. He had found out how music was made. Wires were the secret, tightly stretched wires of graduated lengths which trembled and vibrated. They must revise all their old beliefs: none but the most conservative could believe in the Unseen Player.
Later, another mouse explorer carried the explanation further. Hammers were now the secret, numbers of hammers dancing and leaping on the wires. This was a more complicated theory, but it showed that they lived in a purely mechanical and mathematical world. The Unseen Player came to be thought of as a myth.
Greg NanceBut the Pianist continued to play.
All of us hold some kind of answer to the question of where everything came from. We are here and we can explore the environment around us and draw conclusions about things past. Darwin's famous tree of life sketch says at the top left hand corner: "I think."
Based on his explorations and observations, Darwin decided that all life came from a single original source. Given enough time and opportunity to mutate into more and more positive and complex life forms, Darwin thought the answer for our origins could be traced to a single simple life form that was formed by chance. Given enough opportunity, "Time, Matter and Chance," the trinity of evolutionary theory, has resulted in everything we see and know today. These are the strings, hammers and mechanics of our universe, according to that conclusion.
Instead of mocking or disparaging those who hold such a view, let us just say that it takes a lot of faith to accept such a conclusion. While there are certainly "strings, hammers and mechanical" things at work in the universe, there still is the question of where the stuff they came from originated. It is simply not so that all things spontaneously burst into existence apart from some uncreated source. Attempts to discover origins at this level end up defying all logic, much like the Christian is accused of doing when we say:
"I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth: And in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord: Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary:
"Suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead and buried: He descended into sheol: The third day he rose again from the dead: He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty: From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead."
Greg Nance has been minister at Signal Mountain Church of Christ since 1998. He and his wife, Jenny, have three children and 12 grandchildren.