On the 23rd July Jane and I celebrated our 30th Wedding Anniversary with a short trip to Venice Cornwall
A wedding truly is a feast, not only a feast of food and drink but also a riot of colour with everyone dressing up, the flowers, the table decorations, etc. It is also a feast of emotions that run the full gamut at any wedding. The happy couple deeply in love, many older couple recalling their own feelings. Those who have lost their life partner may have feelings of sorrow; there may be feelings of regret. There may also be feelings of anger around at unresolved family issues that always lie just below the surface on these types of occasions.
Where does all of the stuff come from and why do we have it and does it serve any real purpose?
Mechanistic reductionism would have us go back to the lowest common denominator and would, it appears to me, to be in no need for such stimuli.
At one level this is perfectly rational. Food is basically fuel, what it taste like, looks like or smells like is not of any real significance, apart perhaps from early development to try and steer us away from eating things that were not good for us or that didn’t like being eaten!
That strong driver of sex is merely for the purpose of procreation and maintaining the species, no need at all for it to be a pleasurable experience.
However does such an answer satisfy, does it tell the truth of what we experience, the pleasures that we enjoy? Why should a pint of beer taste so nice, or not to some people? There is absolutely no reason to it.
As Christians we are often asked, and rightly so, to answer for the pain in the world. I want to ask those who view the world in terms of mechanistic reductionism to give an answer for the pleasures in the world – especially after a nice meal they have just enjoyed!
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