An Act of Faith

Today I came across, in the Straits Times, one of the stupidest statements I ever read.

Of course it an act of faith. We are talking about a religious book here; not the Handbook of Fluid Mechanics. If you are looking for so-called ‘fairy tales’; the Bible is full of them. You don’t need to go to the New Testament. Right in the very first chapter of the very first book of the Bible, the Book of Genesis, you can find lots of such unbelievable statements. Here are some examples:

And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. (Genesis 1:3)

And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. (Genesis 2:7)

And if you go down a few more chapters, you find that Adam and his descendents all lived to several hundred years of age! Incredible!




And then of course there is the story of Noah’s Ark, the target of countless jokes; like this one.

Anyone who believes such crap must be crazy or stupid, or both. Every modern, intelligent, educated person knows that the universe came about from a Big Bang; and that man evolved from apes, which evolved from fish, which evolved from a single cell amoeba.

Now; coming back to this man Jesus. If he cannot even walk on water, how on earth can we expect him to raise us from our graves. Yes; that is what he claimed - that one day, he will return to this earth and resurrect all the dead who have put their trust in him. Well you either believe him by faith; or you can conclude like Mr McKellen, that he was a big con man or even a lunatic.

What is this thing called ‘faith’ anyway. Well the bible defines it this way in Hebrews 11:1:

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

A good example of a man with such ‘blind’ faith was Job who lived in the Old Testament times. This was what he said:

For I know that my redeemer liveth,
And that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:
And though after my skin worms destroy this body,
Yet in my flesh shall I see God.
(Job 19: 25, 26)

Of course Mr McKellen is too intelligent to believe such ‘fiction’. He doesn’t believe in faith. He only believes in what is visible and scientifically proven and tested - like this account of how the Grand Canyon was formed.

Once upon a time, long, long ago, in a land far, far away ..... Wait a minute. That’s not correct. Only fairy tales begin that way. Let’s start again.


“Prior to about 35 million years ago the ancestral Colorado River flowed across a vast plain, along a course very similar to that of today.

When the Kaibab Plateau began to uplift approximately 35 million years ago the river was diverted to the southeast because it could not cross newly created barrier. The new course for the river now flowed out to the Gulf of Mexico instead of to the Pacific Ocean. The old course on west side of the Kaibab Plateau, the Hualapai Drainage System, continued to be a major drainage for the plateau itself and the regions west of it.

At some point around 12 million years ago, the river's course to the Gulf of Mexico became blocked and an enormous lake, know referred to as Lake Bidahochi, was formed as a result.

Meanwhile, on the western side of the Kaibab Plateau, a process known as "headwater erosion" began eating its way through the southern portion of the plateau. After millions of years this erosional process allowed the Hualapai system to break through the barrier created by the uplifted plateau and rejoin the ancestral Colorado.

Once the break-through was complete the ancestral Colorado River began to follow the new course becuase of its steeper and more desirable descent. The waters of Lake Bidahochi began to drain through the new course as well and the result is the gorge through which the Little Colorado River now flows. The combined flow of the Colorado River and the Little Colorado River west of their confluence continued to widen and deepen the course and created the Grand Canyon."

Please tell me, it is not an act of faith to believe all that.