TELL ME A STORY

Telling stories is as old as the human race. Parents tell them to children, elders to youngers, novelists to readers, even doctors to patients and judges to defendants. It's a way of reaching deep inside the other person -- getting through those emotional filters like fear or ignorance or stereotyping which can all stand in the way.

The earliest stories I can recall are about a God that loves me, but at the same time keeps a watchful eye on me. Fair enough! But as the years and the books accumulate, simple stories seem to require more complex elaborations. As to this God thing, our scientists have been working ever harder ever since about the 17th C to add some important empirical footnotes to the old Judaic-Christian stories.

Which makes perfectly good sense. As we assemble more historical, archaeological and psychological expertise, it's time to re-visit our simple stories with our new advantages. And so the seekers among us read new studies, attend new seminars, and pore over the increasingly popular magazine pages and TV hours devoted to what modern science can tell us about our actual origins and purposes on this planet.

But here's the snag! Saying that empirical evidence is what is required to justify this term "actual," seems to be saying only the what-is-here-and-testable Natural can verify the what-is-unseen Supernatural. Which almost sounds like the child has to be a parent to understand what the parent's stories are saying to him.

Instead, how about this? How about a God [creative-force, higher-power, whatever] trying to communicate the staggering realities associated with an all-powerful cosmic entity to mortals who have barely any idea about the cosmic? Say like Dad trying to explain to 10-year-old Suzie the facts-of-life. Where do you begin?

With a story....