Harold Shank

Please leave your comments about ‘Listening to His Heartbeat’ here. I am interested in what you thought about the book.

Our family recently spent a Saturday at the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History in Norman, Oklahoma.  We awed at the huge head of the Pentaceratops which according to the sign holds the Guinness World Record for the world’s biggest dinosaur skull.   We saw the skeleton of the largest known adult Apatosaurus (93 feet long!) that filled a large two-story exhibit on “ancient life.”  

 But most of all, what I experienced was dissonance, hearing two contradictory messages at the same time, one from the exhibit and one from my spirit.

The extensive exhibit on evolution pointed out the four pillars of the theory:  1-each kind of life has variety.  So there are all kinds of dogs.  2-traits are inherited.  So I look like a combination of my parents.  3-evolution requires time.  The exhibit claimed the earth is 4.6 billion years old.   4-only the strongest survive.  The exhibit focused on a group of birds which could only find hard nuts to eat during hard times.  Only the ones with the appropriate beaks survived. 

 We left the museum with all sorts of thoughts.  A visitor’s response area included a posting of recent comments.  Many urged the museum to present a creationist point of view.  One note warned that anybody who believed what the museum taught was headed to hell.

 Ironically, the next day I was reading Ecclesiastes 3.  I was struck by how this Old Testament book framed my thoughts about the visit. 

 First, Ecclesiastes 3:18-22 compares humans to animals.  The writer of Ecclesiastes looks at life “under the sun” which is his way of saying that in the book he views life from a secular point of view.   From that viewpoint, both animals and humans are dust and return to dust.  Although I don’t think the museum had any human bones, much of the exhibit was a trip through an animal cemetery.  All the animals there are dead.  The museum looked almost entirely at the past.  That, of course is its intent.   It views life under the sun.

 Second, Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 stresses that there is a time for everything: “a time to be born and a time to die.”  It helped me to understand that there was a time of dinosaurs and a time without dinosaurs.   Ecclesiastes aims to say that despite our efforts life just goes on.  Despite all we do, beyond all our abilities, regardless of our study and our technology, there is a time to be born and a time to die.  Every skeleton in that museum followed that pattern.  There were no exceptions.

 Third, Ecclesiastes 3:9-11 stands in contrast to 3:1-8.  In the first section the writer uses the word “time” 29 times.  We are stuck in time.  It does not matter whether the time is 4.6 billion years or 4000 years.  We are stuck in it.  There is nothing we can do to transcend time.  In Ecclesiastes 3:9-11 the writer adds another dimension.  Ecclesiastes says we have eternity in our minds (Ecc 3:11).   Despite living in the Cenozoic Era, we all have an urge that there is something more.  It frustrates us that we are confined to this era when we have a sense that there is something beyond time itself.   That is where I felt the dissonance.  

 That verse in Ecclesiastes  helped me to express what I was feeling when I left the museum.  Is the museum’s presentation of existence all there is?  We live, we evolve and then we die?   If we are a big animal, they put our bones on display?   I left thinking there had to be something else to life. 

 Fourth, Ecclesiastes 3 treated the realities of this time and this world much like the Noble Museum.  But Ecclesiastes is unable to resist mentioning the one word that the museum refuses to mention.  Despite our eventual return to dust, regardless of our being limited to time, even with our sense that there is something else out there, Ecclesiastes says the word:  God.   God has made everything beautiful (Ecc 3:11).  It all fits together.  Life is filled with variety.  We inherit traits of our parents.  There is a time for everything.  Yes, even the strong survive.   Based on Ecclesiastes’ reflection on life, it is not by chance, but by design.

 I was struck by how Ecclesiastes 3 gave voice to what I sensed in viewing the delightfully prepared exhibits at the museum.  The scientists join Ecclesiastes in viewing “life under the sun.”   I think the writer of Ecclesiastes would have enjoyed the afternoon touring the exhibits.  He might have added “there is a time to go to museums and a time to stay home.”  But Ecclesiastes senses that there is something more.  Whether one spends a day at a museum or looks around at the world, one is filled with dissonance.   Ecclesiastes allows that dissonance to lead him to God. 

 I’ve decided to follow that same course.

The Bible uses many images to describe God.  He is a shepherd, a father, a warrior, and even a rock.  No one image captures all there is to say about God.

It may be that the two dominating images of God in contemporary society are General God and God the lawyer.   God is called a general when he attacks injustice and oppression.  The Lord of the army comes to the rescue.  We also know God as the law giver and law enforcer which perhaps links him to the contemporary role of an attorney.  God is both a general and a lawyer.

But he is so much more.

When we elevate the military and legal nature of God above all the other images of the divine being, we end up with a skewed vision of who he is.  Those images dominate and overcome other metaphors that depict another part of his nature.    All this has huge implications.

*The current anti-theism crusade attacks a God that is all general and no shepherd, one that is all lawyer and no loving father.  The God they attack does not exist. 

*Many believers wonder if they can believe in God any more.  Perhaps part of their doubt rests on a perception of God as general and lawyer.   Believers tend to look to the distorted God of contemporary culture rather than seek a more balanced portrait arising from biblical revelation.

*When we’re under attack we may be grateful for a God who can command armies.  When society turns barbaric, we can grab on to the God of order and structure.    But we must get beyond those two limited visions of God and probe deeper.  We must listen for the heartbeat of the essence of God.

The world’s most famous atheist, Dr. Richard Dawkins, spoke at the McCasland Field House on the campus of the University of Oklahoma on Friday night, March 6, 2009.   About 2,000 people attended the lecture.  

Prior to the event, the believers in Oklahoma House of Representatives considered a resolution opposing the event.   During the evening, one member of the audience, contesting the atheist’s points, stood up, screamed at Dawkins, and according to people who were there, publically condemned the speaker to hell.   Security officials escorted the man from the field house.

 Why are people so upset with Dawkins?  Increasingly atheists such as Dawkins speak out against those who do believe and insist that many of the great tragedies of our day are rooted in religion.  In the opening chapter of his book The God Delusion, the retired Oxford University professor anticipates responses like the ones in Oklahoma.  He talks about the angry, bitter, vindictive reactions he always gets from believers in God.  He says he knows they are Christians because they always quote the Bible.

 So, why do we need to study God?

 People like Dawkins work off a caricature of a god who does not exist.   They oppose a being that falls short of the God described in the Bible.  This false view is fueled in part by believers in God, like the one in Norman, Oklahoma, who respond in ways that run completely counter to the mandate of scripture that calls for a gentle, loving response to those who oppose us.   While we must oppose error, it seems to me, we need to get to the core of the issue.

 The whole anti-theism movement, headed by Dawkins and others, must prompt us to turn again to Scripture to probe more deeply into the true divine nature.  The more we know God, the more we will be like him.   The more the true God is known, the more he will draw people to him. 

 After the man who berated Dawkins was removed, the question and answer session continued.  One of the next inquirers prefaced his question by claiming to be a Christian and by apologizing for the man who was escorted out.

 Here are a couple of closing thoughts.  Let me know what you think of them:

 *Do not violate common courtesy and publically disrespect those who disagree with our view of God.   Do not violate biblical values in order to defend God.

 *When others throw stones and hurl insults, seek some way to counter their abuse with affirmation of Christian love and dignity.  

 *Seek the heart of God.   Seek to view the world from God’s point of view.

So why did I write a book about God?  What is the purpose of seeking out the divine heartbeat?

The world is filled with God-talk.  People talk about God.  Some speak for God.  Increasing numbers argue against God. A friend of mine says that atheism has become anti-theism.  He means that there is increasingly a militant voice against God.

All that drives me to find his essence.  As I started writing I did not want to study his names.  I wanted to move beyond apologetics.  Just listing his attributes was not enough.  There had to be more than what all the theologians had said about him.  All of those are good and proper, but I wanted to probe his heart.

The more we comprehend his core being, the better we understand who he is and the more accurately we can speak about him to others.

What do you think is the heart of God?