I thought you were someone famous

Electric guitars, Agatha Christie and Darwin

I played the guitar in church this morning.  Here’s a picture of me (I’ve got the silver guitar) my friend Victoria (who’s got a lovely voice) and my daughter Lucy on the flute. 

 

 

It’s a great thing for an amateur musician is to be able to play in public.  It hones your skills and teaches the vital lesson that, if you do happen to get it wrong, it actually doesn’t matter.  You simply catch the next note and hop back on board with that. Perhaps fortunately for me, a church congregation is a more or less captive audience! The thing is, while the psalm was being read, I was reminded of Agatha Christie.  From memory (and I’m far too idle to look it up and compare the New Jerusalem Bible we use with the King James Bible that Dame Agatha referred to) it sounded like the psalm that triggered Poirot’s terrific insight in One, Two Buckle My Shoe where it’s all about a snare being laid for his feet and God not being best pleased with the arrogant and favouring the humble and so on.  That’s a really good bit in the book, where Poirot sees the case the right way up and, I suppose, is yet another example of how the Bible can inspire all sorts of writers and artists. 

            I was thinking about the public face of religion recently because, what with the Darwin anniversary and all, there’s been a far few nutters gathered together to tell us that Darwin got it wrong. 

No, he didn’t.

This is a quote from the Catholic Encyclopaedia:

The theory of evolution as a scientific hypothesis…. is in perfect agreement with the Christian conception of the universe; for Scripture does not tell us in what form the present species of plants and of animals were originally created by God. As early as 1877 Knabenbauer stated "that there is no objection, so far as faith is concerned, to assuming the descent of all plant and animal species from a few types"

            I must say I don’t know who Knabenbauer is  (apart from being burdened with a hilarious name) but he got it right.  What bugs me is the idea that all Christians believe in Creationism.  I mean, in a way, we do (that’s me, my mate Knabenbauer and the rest!)  – after all if you’re a Christian it’s commonplace to talk about The Creator (aka God) but exactly how The Creator created it all is another matter. 

 I’m lucky enough to live within travelling distance of Castleton, Derbyshire, a fascinating area of the Derbyshire Peaks.  (The Peaks are where Mr Darcy’s Pemberly is, but that’s another story!) Anyway, Castleton is composed of limestone and was originally a shallow, tropical sea.  Fossils abound and it’s awe-inspiring and great fun to turn over a stone or pick up a rock and find an ammonite that hasn’t been seen for millions of years.  Rock on!