Something there is that loves a riddle.
Something about an enigma draws us. Why do we instinctively turn towards a puzzle, and not away?
I think of Bob Dylan's cryptic rhyming, and I marvel at the popularity it had once-upon-a-time; but I don't marvel because I'm surprised. I could be fascinated by his enigmas too, if I didn't know they meant nothing. Somehow people are intrigued by what they don't understand.
Maybe that's why God leaves a bit of mystery in religion. He seems to like a paradox; but maybe that's for our sake. G. K. Chesterton said that mystery was healthy--Man should have something he doesn't understand--or something he can't.
I like that thought: we're hard-wired to love a mystery. For one thing, it excuses all the mystery novels I read. For another, it explains my fascination with hieroglyphics, and ancient languages, and greek myths and miracles.
It also explains Man's interest in the unknown. Why did the Greeks invent the Pantheonic gods? Who set up Stonehenge, and why? Who were the Druids?
I think our thirst for mystery is a gift from God--it turns our thoughts to the spirit world. If Man denies the divine, he does so only through deliberate disregard of his innate knowledge that it exists. Man searches for the divine not because he knows it isn't there, but because he knows it is.
The proof of God's existence is our desire for mystery. We look for it in myths and riddles, but we find it in Him.
Something about an enigma draws us. Why do we instinctively turn towards a puzzle, and not away?
I think of Bob Dylan's cryptic rhyming, and I marvel at the popularity it had once-upon-a-time; but I don't marvel because I'm surprised. I could be fascinated by his enigmas too, if I didn't know they meant nothing. Somehow people are intrigued by what they don't understand.
Maybe that's why God leaves a bit of mystery in religion. He seems to like a paradox; but maybe that's for our sake. G. K. Chesterton said that mystery was healthy--Man should have something he doesn't understand--or something he can't.
I like that thought: we're hard-wired to love a mystery. For one thing, it excuses all the mystery novels I read. For another, it explains my fascination with hieroglyphics, and ancient languages, and greek myths and miracles.
It also explains Man's interest in the unknown. Why did the Greeks invent the Pantheonic gods? Who set up Stonehenge, and why? Who were the Druids?
I think our thirst for mystery is a gift from God--it turns our thoughts to the spirit world. If Man denies the divine, he does so only through deliberate disregard of his innate knowledge that it exists. Man searches for the divine not because he knows it isn't there, but because he knows it is.
The proof of God's existence is our desire for mystery. We look for it in myths and riddles, but we find it in Him.
2 Comments:
So, with all this talk of mystery, I suppose it would make sense to suggest that the few bits of Reformed theology we cannot fathom ought simply to be accepted as such (that is, as things we cannot fathom) and then believed in?
*grin* Uh....nope. Not if they contradict scripture ;) Otherwise...stuff like the Trinity...sure!
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