Fairy Tales
Dr. Stephen Hawking on fairy tales:
I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.
When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.
With the inspiration of these two distinguished British scholars in hand, I offer here a brief fairy tale, which, like all great fairy tales, is even more wonderful because it is true.
A Fairy Story for Those Who Are Afraid of the Dark
Once upon a time…
The earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.
In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.
The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it.
There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light.
…and they lived happily ever after.
I love this story … my favorite in the world, making me appreciate even more any story I read or see that reminds me of this one!
Just yesterday I posted this excerpt from a nonfiction book I’d been reading:
This is the ultimate tale of hope. My upcoming release, the Land of Darkness, is a fairy tale all about this hope, based around Isaiah 53 and the mysterious “bridge” that links the mortal world with the heavenly kingdom.
There’s nothing more thrilling than writing fairy tales that have their roots grounded in the true tale of salvation.
That is the greatest story ever told
Fred, I could hug you. I’m keeping a copy of this. 0=)
Thanks, Kaci. 🙂 It’s sad–here’s a man who’s lived a full life with ALS against all the odds and has a mind capable of working out the mechanics of the cosmos–from a wheelchair–but he has no room for God in his imagination.
And that’s really it, Fred.
I’m admittedly of the opposite framework; try as I might, I can’t comprehend a universe existing without someone having put it there. What makes me angry is not anything Hawking or anyone else might say but the level of deception they’ve endured. It’s like watching a victim who doesn’t realize they’ve been victimized.