Beyond belief From Chris Tyler Sir: Margot Lawrence seems to
have missed the point entirely in her article (`Head in the clouds', 22 April) in which she attempt- ed to show `. . . how modern science corrob- orates the truth of the Ascension. . . The point is that the Church claims that Jesus was the Son of God and therefore supernat- ural. By definition, a supernatural entity would be able to break the laws of physics with impunity; it would be no more difficult to ascend to a cloud than it would be to turn into a doner kebab!
Margot Lawrence seems to be making the claim that Jesus ascended to the cloud using mechanisms we do not yet understand but still bound by the laws of physics. Contrary to her assertion, this surely does diminish the whole Jesus story to the idea of a visita- tion from outer space by an advanced civili- sation who know more than us.
Personally, I would prefer a clear divide: on the one hand the humanists and ratio- nalists who do not believe in the supernatu- ral and, on the other, the religious and mys- tical who must simply have faith in some- thing that is beyond their comprehension and is therefore inexplicable by definition. It is simply not possible to refute the notion of faith on rational grounds — faith makes no claim to be rational, and attempting to explain miracles seems to be rather self- defeating from a religious point of view.
Chris Tyler
Altrincham, Cheshire
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