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<DIV><FONT size=2>A text for your reading pleasure - hopefully !</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Best regards,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Mustafa Hussain</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Denmark.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV class=Section1>
<DIV>
<H2 style="mso-pagination: none"><B><FONT color=navy face="Verdana Ref"
size=5><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 16pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">Evolution
and God</SPAN></FONT></B><FONT face="Verdana Ref" size=5><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 16pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">
</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></H2>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
color=red face="Verdana Ref" size=4><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="COLOR: red; FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">James
Byrne</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=2><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">
</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">The
loss of belief in God can strike any person: to one who has been taught from
childhood to rely on God, the loss is devastating.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And, once lost, belief cannot easily be
regained.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It is true to say that
the loss of religious belief can break a
person. </SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"> </SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">I
lost my belief in an external God about fifteen years ago.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I work in the biological sciences, but,
despite this, I had always found the theory of evolution strangely sinister and
had kept it at arms’ length.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Then,
one day, I decided to confront it, examine it, and weigh the evidence.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Instead of going back to Charles Darwin
or Alfred Russell Wallace I read from modern texts.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>(</SPAN></FONT><st1:City><st1:place><FONT face="Verdana Ref"><SPAN
lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">Darwin</SPAN></FONT></st1:place></st1:City><FONT
face="Verdana Ref"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"> worked largely
from the examination of appearances typical of species: he did not have access
to the present-day knowledge of genetic inheritance.)
</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=2><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">
</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<H4 style="mso-pagination: none"><B><FONT color=navy face="Verdana Ref"
size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">Evolution</SPAN></FONT></B><FONT
color=navy face="Verdana Ref" size=2><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"> </SPAN></FONT><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=2><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">
</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></H4>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">A
great deal of rubbish is talked about evolution, partly because it is, in the
repercussions of its implications, a rather slippery concept.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The name itself is not
satisfactory.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But, at its simplest,
it is easy to understand; its core can be expressed in a single sentence.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I’ll try.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><I><SPAN style="FONT-STYLE: italic">The
genetic pattern of a population changes with time. </SPAN></I><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That should be simple enough to satisfy
the sternest purist.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The obvious
question comes: what causes the genetic pattern to change?<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Well, transcription error in the copying
of genetic information as it is passed down from generation to generation.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Most of the ‘gene-stuff’ is redundant,
so it is rare for transcription errors to result in meaningful change.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But sometimes they do.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And, as generations pass, the
environment changes also.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Evolution
implies, in large, a kind of subtle suiting of a life-form to the environment
which surrounds it. </SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"> </SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">You’ll
notice, in the blandness of the above paragraph, a lack of any kind of anthropic
or emotional view (with the possible exception of ‘error’.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Perhaps ‘wandering’ or ‘vagary’ would
have been a better choice <FONT color=blue><SPAN
style="COLOR: blue">(1)</SPAN></FONT>.)<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>The history of evolution theory has been littered with unwise slogans
from its earliest years up until the present day.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The phrase ‘the survival of the fittest’
implies a heartless discard of the weak.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>The phrase ‘the selfish gene’ implies a kind of malevolent
intelligence.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Neither is true.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Loaded words like ‘blind’ and ‘chance’
fill the historical vocabulary.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It
is no wonder that laymen, confronted with this kind of language, have preferred
to stick with the idea of a Creator God who has made a universe, furnished a
panoply of species, and who moulded, with his own two hands, the First Man,
watching over him, giving him rules by which he may live his life and render due
recognition to his Maker.</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">
</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">In
fact evolution works at many levels simultaneously, both of time and space: the
genetic transcription ‘vagary’ can take seconds; the results may occupy millions
of years.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>A change that takes place
in the compass of a micron can change the landscape of a continent.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Evolution is a place of
possibilities.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I began to see that
the theory, so often painted (even by its proponents) as mindless and
materialistic <FONT color=blue><SPAN style="COLOR: blue">(2)</SPAN></FONT>, is
actually quite beautiful.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It goes
some way to explain the changing diversity of all plant and animal species,
including man.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>How can this be
shown?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Quite simply because (to
take our own case) a human’s genetic code is not that much different from a
chimpanzee’s, or, for that matter, a mouse’s.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Most of our active genetic material has
to do with the basis on which we have life itself; much of what remains has to
do with what it means to be a mammal; some — a little — decides membership of
the human species; some — a very little — gives the basis for what I am, ready
to be shaped by the environment for which I have been prepared.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That’s one piece of evidence.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Another can be found by looking at the
cells which make up our bodies.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Each one of them contains tiny organelles called mitochondria; these are
the cells’ powerhouses.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Sometime in
untold prehistory the ancestors of these organelles were free-living organisms
with their own genetic storage mechanisms.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>How they were incorporated into other organisms is unknown.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But we know that these
cells-within-cells were once foreign: but without them it would not have been
possible for us to come to existence.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><I><SPAN style="FONT-STYLE: italic">So each one of us is actually a
mixture of what, ancestrally, were once two species</SPAN></I>.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Possibly we are a medley of many once
distinct free-living species.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I
find this astounding to think of.</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">
</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">Evolution
has not done this: one tends to think in a slipshod fashion of evolution as
being a shaping process, but it isn’t — it’s a kind of collection of processes,
some of which are ill-understood, and some of which are probably still
unknown.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And the most astonishing
thing of all is that this collection of unconscious processes gave rise to
consciousness.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And this quality of
man’s — consciousness — allowed, for the first time, a witness of the Universe.
</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-GB>
</SPAN></SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">One
can draw an analogy (but not a good one) between the birth of consciousness and
the swirling of cosmic dust which will break out into light and become a
star.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But perhaps the analogy is
better than I at first thought — it is our star, and our planet, both once dust,
which have together made conditions right for life, and for the birth of
consciousness.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We are indeed made
from dust. </SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=2><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">
</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<H4 style="mso-pagination: none"><B><FONT color=navy face="Verdana Ref"
size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">The
God of Judgement</SPAN></FONT></B><FONT color=navy face="Verdana Ref"
size=2><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"> </SPAN></FONT><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=2><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">
</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></H4>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">An
understanding of the processes implied in Evolution displaces a Creator
God.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The break is clean.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN></SPAN></FONT><st1:City><st1:place><FONT face="Verdana Ref"><SPAN
lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">Darwin</SPAN></FONT></st1:place></st1:City><FONT
face="Verdana Ref"><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"> apparently saw
this.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>He kept his work hidden for
years, lost his faith and became ill.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>His wife was a committed Christian, and he worried for her.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN> </SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">When
I lost my belief in a God who physically created the world I, too, was filled
with anguish.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Something seemed to
be missing: a little like holding on to a telephone with no-one at the other
end, or, closer to home, the death of a father.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Some part of a childhood’s completeness
had gone. </SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">When
you lose something — if you can stand to do so — you begin to examine why you
were so attached to what was lost; indeed, you begin to wonder what it was, that
it was so dear to you.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Others have
done this; poets, and thinkers of the past.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>With great circumspection Omar Khayyam
(a poet of great emotional depth and wit) looks at the world which surrounds
him.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>To me, his quatrains are a
study of a loss of faith in a Creator. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The Qur’an teaches that Allah created
man, of clay, with his two hands.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>(Allah transcends anthropomorphism — as evolution ironically fails to
evade it — and the reference to ‘hands’ is certainly figurative.)<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Pots figure highly in Omar’s
quatrains<FONT color=blue><SPAN style="COLOR: blue"> (3)</SPAN></FONT>.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>He watches the Potter making one:
</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">
</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">XXXVII
</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">For
I remember stopping by the way </SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">To
watch a potter thumping his wet Clay: </SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">And
with its all-obliterated tongue </SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">It
murmured — ‘Gently, brother, gently, pray!’ </SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">Later,
he imagines a colloquy of pots in the Potter’s shop, at the end of Ramadan,
waiting for the rising of the Moon.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>The vessels are considering their Maker, and asking the reasons why they
were made: </SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">LXXXII
</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">Said
one amongst them — ‘Surely not in vain </SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">My
substance of the common Earth was ta’en </SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">And
to this figure moulded, to be broke, </SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">Or
trampled back to shapeless Earth again.’ </SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">Each
vessel seems to have a flaw in it: why did the Maker make these flawed
vessels? </SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">LXXXVII
</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">‘Why,’
said another, ‘Some there are who tell </SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">Of
One who threatens he will toss to Hell </SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">The
luckless Pots he marred in making — Pish! </SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">He’s
a Good Fellow, and ’twill all be well.’ </SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">It
is the most flawed vessel which asks the most searching question.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is the question which, above all
others, tells of Omar’s loss of faith. </SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">
</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">LXXXVI
</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">After
a momentary silence spake </SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">A
Vessel of a more ungainly make; </SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">‘They
sneer at me for leaning all awry— </SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">What!
Did the Hand then of the Potter shake?’ </SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">Omar
was one of the most accomplished mathematicians, not just of his own age, but of
all time.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>He was not going to fudge
the question.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Neither was he going
to be open about his parable: that would have cost him his life.
</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">Considering
Omar’s verses makes us think of the question: ‘If there is no evidence for, and
no (creational) need of a Creator-God, why do so many people wish to believe in
Him above all else?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Indeed the wish
seems to be a part of us.’<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is
a difficult question to answer, but perhaps not so difficult to consider.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Let’s take the tail of the question:
<I><SPAN style="FONT-STYLE: italic">the wish seems to be a part of
us.</SPAN></I><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>If you look round
the world, in different times and places, the wish for a Creator-God (or at
least a Ruler-God) is more or less universal.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This figure, this object of worship,
takes many forms: God, Emperor, Nature.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Physical objects: the sun, a mountain; water.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The object seems to vary with the
sophistication of the society.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We
have said above that there is no creational need for a Creator-God.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But perhaps the need is within us, and
for an evolutionary reason.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That is
to say, worship gave, by Worship, an evolutionary advantage to those far-distant
communities in whom a communal faith emerged.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It need have had no necessity beyond
that.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It was an illusion: yes, but,
during times of dearth, hardship and war, it seems to have been a necessary
illusion.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>
</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">It
was also a very dangerous one.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Throughout the entire period of recorded history the idea of an extrenal
God has been used for social control by one group over another.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Sometimes this has been relatively
harmonious.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>More frequently it has
been bloody, war-like and wasteful of talent.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It has rarely encouraged new thinking
<FONT color=blue><SPAN
style="COLOR: blue">(4)</SPAN></FONT>.</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">
</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">In
epochs where it has been safe to do so — and until recently these have been very
rare — freethinkers have somehow perceived that this need was an illusion.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Perhaps the most telling word for a God
of Judgement was coined by William Blake.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Blake called him <I><SPAN
style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Nobodaddy</SPAN></I>. <FONT color=blue><SPAN
style="COLOR: blue">(5)</SPAN></FONT> </SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">
</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<H4 style="mso-pagination: none"><B><FONT color=navy face="Verdana Ref"
size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">The
God of Immanence</SPAN></FONT></B><FONT color=navy face="Verdana Ref"
size=2><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"> </SPAN></FONT><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=2><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">
</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></H4>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">Does
this mean that God does not exist?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Of course not.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In fact a
study of evolution shows us a divinity much more real than a Creator or a
Judge.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>A few paragraphs ago we drew
an analogy between the swirling cloud of dust which became a star, and a
lifeless and unwitnessed planet, under that sun, giving rise to witnessing
consciousness.</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">
</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">Consciousness
is a word that should be used sparingly.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Some artificial-intelligence scientists say that if you think you can
explain the nature of consciousness, then you are perforce wrong.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Words can point to it, but, in the end,
it eludes them. </SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">That
is because thinking has to do with the intellect.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Perhaps, in the beginning as well as the
end, consciousness is not so much to be thought about as known, and being known,
realized.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Consciousness is, at its
core, the realization of an all-witnessing divinity, independent of time and
place.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It bears no weight of an ego
and its desires.</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN> </SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">Where
there is love, divinity comes to be.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Where there is compassion, divinity comes to be.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Where there is mercy, divinity comes to
be.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Where there is kindness to a
stranger, divinity comes to be. </SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">Divinity
does not need the straining of belief: it is.
</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">
</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN-LEFT: 18pt; mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=2><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">Notes
</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></P>
<OL type=1>
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style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=2><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">The
virus which causes Aids, the HIVirus, replicates its coat with numerous errors
because it ‘misreads’ its genetic code.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>This confers an advantage on it in its eluding of the host’s immune
mechanism.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s almost as if<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>a combination lock were randomly
twirled.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The virus tells ‘lies’
to further its ‘cause’.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>All this
happens, and the host dies (and the virus, too, unless promulgated to a new
host): but the anthropic reading—where I have put the words in quotation
marks—implies intelligence where there is none. </SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p>
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style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=2><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">Materialism.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Many Christian and Muslim commentators
say that evolution is a godless and materialistic doctrine.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I hope I have shown in this brief
essay that it is not.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Materialism, on the contrary, is the shallow belief in the reality only
of what can be seen and touched: in the end it is the very shallow belief in
the reality of what can be seen and touched <I><SPAN
style="FONT-STYLE: italic">and owned.</SPAN></I> </SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p>
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face="Verdana Ref" size=2><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">From
the Quatrains of Omar Khayyam, translated by Edward Fitzgerald.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I’ve read a number of English
translations of the Quatrains; Fitzgerald’s is subtly simple: I’m told it
allows an insight into the underlying ambiguities of the wit of the original.
</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p>
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style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=2><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">In
fact it implies idolatry.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Let’s
be clear about this.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The Greek
root of the word ‘idolatry’ is <I><SPAN style="FONT-STYLE: italic">the worship
of images.</SPAN></I><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Text or
scripture — that which is written — can convey an image of an image even more
clearly than can representations of stone, or wood, or even clay.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>How often mankind does the thing it
says it hates. </SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p>
<LI class=MsoNormal
style="mso-pagination: none; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt"><FONT
face="Verdana Ref" size=2><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana Ref'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">William
Blake, foursquare in his opinions at a time when it was becoming safe to voice
them, averred that only an immanent God could allow new creation.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>A God of Judgement was, in his
opinion, an illusion conjured up from the ego, a ‘Nobodaddy’: a figure which
can be the father to no originality of thought.</SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p>
</LI></OL></DIV>
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