6/25/11

The edge of the world


Impossible!  Yet, there was a time when there was an edge to the world.  And if you went to far, well, you fell off!!!  The knowledge man has acquired is a wonderful thing (for the most part), we can see things far away and speak to one another over vast distances.  We have learned to split the atom and have visited other planets.  All these things (and more) have occurred in the last century and are the culmination of thousands of years of learning.  However, there are questions we cannot answer and problems we do not even know exist.  Man's knowledge is linear, that is, it grows upon earlier experience.  We postulate theories of the past from telescopic observations and inferences, but do we really, really know?  Think how many theories have been proven wrong in our own lifetime.  We don't know everything and never, ever will.  Near the end of the book of Job, God asks Job questions that are too difficult for him and when he realizes his own smallness, he answers God in this way...

Job 42:1-6 (WEB)
1) Then Job answered Yahweh,
2) “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be restrained.
3) You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’ therefore I have uttered that which I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I didn’t know.
4) You said, ‘Listen, now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you will answer me.’
5) I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you.
6) Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

The human race needs to make this acknowledgement; its time to face the fact that our understanding is infantile compared to the creator of all things.  Science will NOT answer everything because it is limited by the capabilities of our human nature.  We may know that the world is not flat, but do we know how to love (and not hate) our neighbor?  Maybe we will have to fall off the edge of the world to understand the greatness of God and our own shortcomings.