Thought for the Week, February 24 2023

“Daddy, why is that kettle boiling?”

 

How do you respond? Is this a chance to encourage a five-year-old with physics?

 

Try this answer: “Firstly, the plug connects to the electrical supply, the switch completes the circuit. Electricity passes through the high resistance nichrome element, there’s rapid heat build-up...”

 

You pause for a moment and notice his eyes beginning to roll, but you must go on.

 

“The water is in contact with this heat and, by a process of conduction and convection, its temperature rises to 100 degrees C – at which point the rapid phase transition, from liquid to vapour, begins and the bubbling starts.”

 

Can you imagine this poor child?

 

“Daddy, for goodness sake, why is it boiling?” At which point someone else pipes up: “Because Mummy is making tea.”

 

Science is wonderful, but in life we know it has its limitations.

 

I was looking the other day at some of the incredible images coming from the James Webb Space Telescope; a whole new world of information, discovering the awesome processes at work in the universe. But what can science reveal about purpose?

 

We need more than science to understand the world, more than only the book of nature.

 

There is another book; it speaks of purpose. As King David writes in Psalm 19: “The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard. Yet their message has gone throughout the Earth, and their words to all the world.”

 

Is there more to life? Where are you looking for answers?

 

Reverend Mark Jasper, Campbeltown Community Church.