Flannery O’Connor on Mystery
“I don’t think literature would be possible in a determined world. We might go through the motions but the heart would be out of it. Nobody could then ‘smile darkly and ignore the howls.’ Even if there were no Church to teach me this, writing two novels would do it. I think the more you…
Continue readingAtheism is Too Simple
I am in the process of re-reading Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis with some men from The Bridge Church. I had forgotten what a great read it truly is. Every chapter has something quotable. Today, I read his perspective on “atheism being too simple.” Often our explanations of things such as atheism or, for that…
Continue readingCosmos
Check out my guest blog at Cosmos: reFaithing Science: http://cosmos.regent-college.edu/2012/04/25/space-by-keith-shields/
Continue readingSpace
I am continually amazed as I think about the nature of our world. We live in constant interaction with the molecules of the universe. We perceive things around us as solid objects: the keyboard on which I pound out these words, the desk on which my computer sits, and the dense mass of the mountains…
Continue readingBig Bang
The “Big Bang” hypothesis of cosmology has become part of our collective psyche and is the most popular explanation for how the universe came to be. If you asked a cross-section of people who it was that first came up with this theory you might get a variety of answers but few would be able…
Continue readingTwo Great Mysteries
In as much as we are conscious at all, we human beings, find ourselves in the centre of these two great mysteries. The first is our presence in a world which we did not create, we could not have expected, which is continually a surprise and a gift and a challenge. We are born into…
Continue readingAncient Wisdom
If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself. Augustine of Hippo (354-430). Lord, inspire us to read your Scriptures and meditate on them day and night. We beg you to give us real understanding of what we need, that…
Continue readingTrinitarian Bash
In Robert Farrar Capon’s The Third Peacock: The Problem of God and Evil#, chapter one, “Let Me Tell You Why” opens the book like this: Let me tell you why God made the world. One afternoon, before anything was made, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost sat around in the…
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Tidal Pool
I am sitting on a rock on the edge of the Pacific Ocean on Galiano Island staring into a tidal pool carved into sandstone. It is completely detached from the rest of the ocean as it is each day when the tide goes out. I am having an E.O. Wilson moment. The pool is approximately…
Continue readingA Rose By Any Other Name
Shakespeare’s often quoted line suggests “that which we call a rose; by any other name would smell as sweet.” The bigger question is how does it smell as sweet? Olfaction, the sense of smell, is still not well understood. There are multiple theories regarding how we actually are able to detect smells. One leading theory…
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