Fearfully and wonderfully made

IF you are looking for a good holiday read then try Bill Bryson’s best seller – The Body – A Guide for Occupants. Depending on the nature of your most recent ailments you may be more interested in some chapters than others.

Just before Christmas last year I tore my patellar tendon and I’m still on the road to recovery. On the day I got home from hospital a good friend lent me his copy of The Body and from the marginal notes he had left in the book it wasn’t difficult for me to identify the conditions that had been of most interest in his household. Meanwhile, I was scanning the pages to understand more about ligaments and tendons and for the first time in my life I became interested in the mechanics of walking. You never think about some things until you are deprived of them.

In Psalm 139 there is a verse in which the Psalmist praises God because, looking at his own frame, he recognises that he is “fearfully and wonderfully made” and this prompts in him a sense of awe and wonder. It is not hard to understand why, on contemplating the complexity of the human body, the ancient Psalmist was brought to such a sense of reverence; however, I venture to suggest that if he had had Bill Bryson’s book in front of him the information would have blown his mind completely!

From the intricacy of what is required when we do something as simple as swallow, to the extraordinary progress we have had to make as a species so that we can stand upright, walk, run and stay balanced – there is no question that we are wonderfully made. Unfolding the mysteries of how we are made and how we function has been the work of scientists from a score of disciplines over hundreds of years and yet none of these have answered the question – why are we here and why are we the way we are and what’s the purpose of our being? For insights into these deeper questions we have to look beyond the wonders of science.

Interestingly, Bill Bryson, who has written so much about so many of the extraordinary wonders of day to day life, has this to say on the matter of ultimate questions: “I’m not a spiritual person, and the things I’ve done haven’t made me one, but the one thing I [do] appreciate [is]……… that conventional science and a belief in God are absolutely not incompatible.” He adds: “You can be a scientist and believe in God: the two can go hand in hand.” I find this observation quite refreshing. It acknowledges that science and religion are different spheres and it stands in contrast to the more aggressive atheist writers who believe that somehow science has had the power to relegate God to the mists of time.

"For insights into these deeper questions we have to look beyond the wonders of science."

Another of Bill Bryson’s insights is also helpful. He says: “What struck me during my research was that the very fundamental creationist views – the literal biblical interpretation of how the world was created – is much, much less exciting than real science. If you believe in God, it’s much more fantastic to believe that [God] created this universe billions of years ago and set in motion this long train of activities that eventually resulted in us. I think that’s so much more satisfying, more thrilling, than the idea that it was all done in seven days.”

The Body is a joy to read, with every page there is another wonder to behold or another astonishing process to take your breath away and for many people it will help to confirm their belief in the magnificence of the Maker. But, if like Bill Bryson it’s not the route to spiritual insight; at least take note that the search for God is not closed off by the magnificence of science. ¤