Expert: Rick Jackson - 7/28/2008

Question
i just want to know the offical view of the catholic church on one of lifes questions: is there a god and how can we know?
thank u heaps and god bless

Answer
Hi Sheila.

You may know that many volumes have been written on this subject...I cannot do better than any of them in this short space, so I'll share a poem with you.

   The Watchmaker

   A long time ago on a planet so bare,
   Some water and dirt got mixed up with the air.
   Some sand and some rocks to make it just right,
   The stage was all set in the deep of the night.

   A bolt of white lightning, a great peal of thunder,
   And suddenly there was a marvelous wonder.
   The rocks yielded metal, the sand turned to glass,
   And as the years flew, a new thing came to pass.

   The metal formed gears, the glass a watch face,
   And little by little, things fell into place.
   The parts came together, just like a good rhyme,
   With ticks and with tocks and with hands that tell time.
   A beautiful watch began ticking one day,
   Formed all by itself in a wonderful way!

   “Ridiculous story!” you say with a grin.
   “Impossible, laughable…surely a sin!”
   A watch needs a watchmaker, that’s plain to see,
   A designer and builder that makes it for me.

   Now all life is made of some interesting stuff,
   Cells of all shapes like blobs filled with fluff.
   But looks are deceiving and what we find there
   Are factories and highways and gadgets to spare.

   Assembly lines, robots, electrical cable,
   Libraries, software; just look, if you’re able!
   The marvels we see with a microscope’s stare
   Make a watch look so simple, we dare not compare.

   Now the doctors from Oxford say cells came by Chance
   From Goo down to You in a beautiful dance.
   What’s wrong with their thinking to have such odd notions?
   That cells could just happen from dirt and warm oceans!

   A cell and its wonders amaze all who see;
   And a cell, like a watch, by Chance cannot be.
   Those cells can build hummingbirds, agile and free,
   Bumble bees, snails, my backyard oak tree,

   A woodpecker built with a jackhammer nose,
   Lightning bugs, monkeys, a beautiful rose,
   And beetles with bombs that give frogs a surprise,
   Chameleons with camouflage and some weird eyes.

   All nature on Earth is so wondrously fine,
   We have to admit that it’s all by Design;
   And our Maker owns everything both great and small.
   He’s the masterful “Watchmaker,” Lord over all.

Does that make sense? :)

Peace and Blessings, Sheila.

Rick.