ANSWERS AND QUESTIONS

I've been trying to catch up with what was happening in the world whilst I was cocooned in House 4 in Hong Kong and working my way through e-mails and post. Most of it went in the recycling bin - actual and virtual - but I came across a report in the Times about a new book by Stephen Hawking, 'The Grand Design'.

In his previous book, 'A Brief History of Time', the last sentence seemed to leave open the idea of God but Hawking has now squashed this by claiming that because of a law such as gravity, the Universe 'can and will create itself from nothing'. He states that spontaneous creation means that 'it is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper.'

Now I am not a scientist, I am fascinated by it but cannot add anything to the debate and I can't pretend to understand all his thinking, but it seems to me that even this pronouncement still does not answer the more fundamental question in my mind: 'Where did all the stuff come from in the first place for gravity to do its bit?' Is that a stupid question?

It is right and proper that we keep looking for an answer and helping other people to do the same and I think the best way of doing that is simply to listen to their questions. When we visited Niagara Falls this summer it was a truly awesome moment. Did it prove the existence of God? It certainly got me asking more questions. As I shared a house in Hong Kong with men who are broken and saw and heard how their lives had been changed, did it prove the existence of God? It certainly got me asking more questions.

That is part of the thrill of being a follower of Jesus Christ. Answers are great but questions help us understand even more and we shouldn't be afraid of asking them. I'm pretty clear about many things but I find that one answer just leads to another question. 'Now I know in part; then I shall know fully.' (1 Corinthians 13:12)

I wonder if Stephen Hawking's next book will change his mind again? As he searches for the Theory of Everything, as he continues to ask more questions, perhaps his search will lead him to the Truth - maybe.