Monday, February 11, 2008

Conrad Cornelius O’Donald O’Dell

On Beyond Zebra by Dr. Seuss is a story of Conrad O’Dell who, after declaring that he knows “everything anyone knows” (because he knows all the letters of the alphabet), finds out that there is much more to the alphabet than just the 26 letters A-Z.

His friend, the narrator of the story, introduces Conrad to a whole new world, one which cannot be described by only using the “first” 26 letters of the alphabet. He says: "In the places I go there are things that I see/ That I never could spell if I stopped with the Z./ I'm telling you this 'cause you're one of my friends./ My alphabet starts where your alphabet ends!"

Conrad has learned all that he can from people that use only 26 letters, but his friend is able to show him that there is more in their world than 26 letters can categorize.

I think as Christians we find ourselves in a similar place. Being a part of the modern era, there are many people who restrict Truth to that which can be defined by the “26 letters” of Science. While Christians do not say that the first 26 letters of Science are bad, we also know that there are more letters! For example, God himself is outside the bounds of direct scientific discovery. This means that we don’t have to play by societies rules, simply within the bounds of Science. We can tell our friends about the extra letters that we know about - just like the narrator of the story, and we need not be ashamed to!


On a side note: I know that I haven't updated in awhile, but I will post all my articles up soon with the dates of their authorship (they will appear before this one)