Highlands Post Column Oct-2014

WHY I BELIEVE- Laureate Professor Graeme Clark AC, FAA, FRS, Hon FRCS

At the Cavendish Physics Laboratory at Cambridge University are the words from the Bible “Great are the works of the Lord, they are pondered by all who delight in them” (Psalm 111:2).

I have been committed to science for a number of decades and also spent the same period considering the importance of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I have come to learn that many leading philosophers and scientists see the laws that have produced the physical universe and the origin of biological life on Earth are the result of a remarkable intelligence, and their origin is next to impossible from mindless chance.

One of the most exciting discoveries in the last two centuries has been the functioning of the human brain: probably the most complex structure in the Universe. The brain is more than an incredibly complex arrangement of electrical circuits, connections and proteins; it is responsible for our thinking, feeling, morality and creativity. This is a great mystery, and I believe can be best explained by the fact that we have been created in the image of a God who is personal.

The nature of a personal God is supremely revealed in the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Jesus is undoubtedly an historical figure attested to by historians of the time and ancient historians today, as well as the writers of the New Testament, most of whom vouched for the facts of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection with their lives.

A central tenet of Christianity is that “God the father so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son [Jesus] that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). The love and self- sacrifice shown by Jesus in his earthly ministry were superlative. There is no one in history who is his equal. His life leaves us in awe. He is the cause of countless lives being changed to become more like Him in showing love and self-sacrifice.

Finally, I am full of wonder that God would answer my prayers and enable me to reproduce speech by electrical stimulation of the brain’s auditory pathways. What a privilege it has been to see profoundly deaf adults and children given new life though the modern cochlear implant.

As Isaiah is quoted in the Bible as saying “Lord all we have accomplished you have done for us” (Isaiah 26:12).

Ian Brunton