A most wonderful thing

A few months ago, I watched the debate between Richard Dawkins and Rowan Williams on the subject Science vs God, that took place at Oxford University.

I found the debate very interesting and there would be lots of things to be said about this topic, but this isn't what I want to write about today (Though I really recommend it)

I was watching the debate, and at some point something that Dawkins said attracted my attention: “I was singing to myself in the shower this morning. I realised that it was a hymn.”

Because I had never listened that hymn and I was quite curious to know it, I thought I would search it and listen to it.

The hymn he sang that morning in the shower is titled “It is a thing most wonderful” and it was written in 1872 by William Walsham How. I loved it, and I think it's one of the most wonderful – sorry to be redundant- and beautiful hymns I've ever heard, not only for the music but also for the lyrics.

It is a thing most wonderful

It is a thing most wonderful,

almost too wonderful to be,

that God's own Son should come from heaven,

and die to save a child like me.

And yet I know that it is true:

he chose a poor and humble lot,

and wept, and toiled, and mourned, and died,

for love of those who loved him not.

I cannot tell how he would love

a child so weak and full of sin;

his love must be most wonderful,

if he could die my love to win.

I sometimes think about the cross,

and shut my eyes, and try to see

the cruel nails and crown of thorns

and Jesus crucified for me.

But even could I see him die,

I could but see a little part

of that great love, which, like a fire,

is always burning in his heart.

It is most wonderful to know

his love for me so free and sure;

but 'tis more wonderful to see

my love for him so faint and poor.

And yet I want to love thee, Lord;

O light the flame within my heart,

and I will love thee more and more,

until I see thee as thou art.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKqjtA5HiQU

God, the Unconditional

Science is the investigation into causal conditions. To be a
self means to be liberated from the conditions determining a thing’s
existence. And that which is unconditional cannot appear within the
search for conditions per definitionem. But God is the Unconditional
per definitionem. When I said that the progress of science has driven
the rumors away from the Unconditional, it is not because science
has produced some argument against this rumor. The reason is
instead a psychological one: scientific progress has dazzled us. It
exerts a fascination. It creates the impression that science will
ultimately end up explaining everything, even though this notion is
as absurd as it would be for a person watching a film to expect the
film ultimately to illuminate itself so that the projector would
become superfluous.
No, the alternatives are never: “either we explain the world
through science or we believe in God,” but only: “either we dismiss
any understanding of the world,” i.e., we surrender reason, “or we
believe in God.”













Robert Spaemann. Rationality and Faith in God.