The Cake, the Elephant and the Question ‘Why?’

At church yesterday, minister-Lou, preaching on creation and Genesis 1, mentioned ‘Aunt Matilda’s cake’…

I asked Mr Google… Oxford University’s Professor John Lennox, an expert in Mathematics and the Philosophy of Science, tells of Aunt Matilda who’s made a cake…

The world’s top scientists analyse it. Nutrition scientists describe the number of calories, its nutritional effect…; biochemists talk about the structure of proteins, fats…; physicists analyse the cake’s fundamental particles; mathematicians produce equations that describe the behaviour of those particles.

The scientists describe the cake very accurately; they can’t explain why Aunt Matilda made the cake… Scientists use their expertise to describe the creation of the world; they can’t answer the question ‘why?’.  

The old Indian story tells of six blind men and an elephant. Never having seen an elephant, they each touch it. The first man touches the elephant’s side and thinks it’s a wall. The second feels the tusk and says it’s a spear. The third touches the trunk and believes it’s a snake. The fourth feels a leg and says it’s a tree trunk. The fifth touches an ear and thinks it’s a fan. The sixth man feels the tail and concludes it’s a rope.

Each has a real but limited insight. Like Aunt Matilda’s scientists it’s only a partial description. And no-one asks why the elephant is there in the first place!

This week a computer expert will sort out my laptop; I have a hospital appointment with an ophthalmologist. I hope that each will be really helpful, but their helpfulness will only relate to their area of expertise.

The difficult ‘why?’ questions of good fortune, ill-health, unexplained decisions… of bad things happen to good people… big picture questions of meaning, purpose, and the future… often remain unanswered.

Aunt Matilda may choose to say why she made the pie… Someone may describe the whole elephant… God alone knows the answers to my questions. I’m happy to trust Him whether he tells me the answer or not, whether I see the complete picture or not.