Foolishness

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (I Corinthians 1:18)

          You’ve seen them: the goblet that is also two people’s faces, the old woman who is a young woman if looked at just so. Optical illusions. The latter are especially fun because once you see the picture one way, it may be almost impossible to see it the other way. If you can switch between them, that moment when you first do so produces an “A Ha!” moment. Before that moment comes, you may be willing to stake your life on the fact that the picture is absolutely, positively the way you see it.

       The universe has some optical illusions, too. If you look at it one way, it certainly looks as though evolution is true. But if you look at the same picture a little differently, it’s clear that chance could not have been involved. The universe was clearly the product of a creative being. That’s why the “Look around!” answer to the question of proof of either doesn’t really work. 

          Paul taught us this. Those who see a godless universe, or who see only the “historical Jesus,” may not be able to see more. The whole idea of more is nonsense. For some who hold to Scripture, no amount of explanation is enough to make them see evolution. Both possibilities are nonsense to be believer in the other. Some people can see both. 

          Some people have argued that being able to see both proves that there is no good God, because if He exists, then He has set the universe up specifically to trick us into thinking that He doesn’t exist. I don’t believe God is lying if we interpret what we see in a way that excludes Him even though He has given us specific statements in Scripture that this interpretation is not accurate. Those statements are held as foolishness by those who can only see one image,