They tell me there are penguins in the Galapagos islands and I believe it. Had they told me in the days of Tasman that there were creatures called kangaroos I would have believed that too. I’ve never dipped a toe in the Pacific, never encountered a polar bear, never had a donkey-ride at Skegness, though I may have ridden an elephant in London Zoo.
I clearly am a random believer; my beliefs are not part of a coherent formula. Some things I believe because I trust the messenger. Others I believe because they are qualified members of their tribe. For instance I accept the presence of zebras but I am sceptical about unicorns even though a college symbol of mine incorporates this beast.
Coming nearer home, I hardly ever see a red squirrel, though I have seen plenty of the rats with bushy tails and peerless athletic abilities. Public opinion favours the red; so do I.
Taking me all in all, I am a jumble of the credulous, the sceptical, the inquisitive. In fact I am just like everybody else. And it doesn’t bother me at all. If I had seen pigs fly, that would be a different matter. The fact that Africans grow up knowing more about the dog-star than I shall ever know delights me. How it is that sharks have skins like rubber while most fish have scales is an example of diversity they share with crocodiles and armadillos.
There, I have disqualified myself as an impartial observer. When it comes to animal preferences, I am happy to like some and detest others.
I like to claim that this in no way makes me a good or bad judge in matters of religion. The New Testament contains a gallery of sceptics, hypocrites, idealists and despots just as any other book does. If I lived in Alaska I should not be surprised to see bears in the street. I f I lived on an ice-floe at the North Pole, I might say hello to a passing polar bear. That’s the way life is. If I had been brought up as a Muslim or a Hindu or a Buddhist I might well be expressing myself differently. Great stakes are at issue here and random choice is not enough.
As a Christian I believe it is possible and welcome to think of the Creator taking a place in the scheme of things on a temporary basis. To say that such a thing could not happen is to go further than the evidence allows. We put ourselves alongside those who say the dinosaurs could not have reigned as they did in those far-off pre-extinction days. My triceratops has a glint in the eye as I say this. He has opinions too.
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