In the very profound War Movie ‘A Thin Red Line’, the main character, Private Witt, says ‘one person sees a dying bird and sees death; another sees a dying bird and sees glory’.  In this reflection on life, nature and war, Witt points to a fundamental paradox of life, that the essence of life is beyond logic.

The meaning of this statement is revealed throughout the course of the film in a very subtle way, that some might miss.  Each time a main character dies, there is light.  This culminates in Witt’s death, with First Sergeant Edward Welsh with him; there is a wonderful glow of light.  Yet this is probably not seen by Welsh, for Welsh, the one whom Witt dialogues with throughout the movie on the meaning of life, is a hard-headed so-called realist.  As a realist, Welsh does not see that which is beyond our senses, it is seen with the inner eye.

The insight provided by this film is very applicable to the dialogue between some theologians and some scientists over the existence of God.  Yet in the case of the latter, the statement we began with, needs to be amplified.  For when they see ‘a dying bird’, they see the whole process of evolution, which to them, is beautiful.  As examples, Lawrence Krauss, Brian Cox and Richard Dawkins, as atheists, want us to look at the beauty of nature in the process of evolution, without having to include God in the picture.  This is probably easier for people like them, who are at the top of the food chain.  As very well off 1st world citizens and employed in one of the many amazing jobs that 1st world citizenship provides, they are in a position to see the beauty of nature without personally experienc9ing what it is like to be lower down in the food chain.

This is not the same for people living in poverty stricken developing nations.  Their position in the food chain and hence the power of life leaves them vulnerable to the dark side of the evolutionary process, where the strong prevails over the weak.

If the food chain illustrated in the evolutionary process is the ultimate truth and that is the way things are, then although we might need to accept it, as human beings, we have the capacity to do something about it and even more so, if it is not the ultimate truth.  Similarly, we could say for the atheistic scientists ‘one person sees with physical eyes and sees nothing more, another person sees with the same eyes and sees glory’.

We might develop this further in that the glory that Witt saw in death, and in the revelations based on the Old Testament, is the glory of the time to come.  A time when as the prophet Isaiah says:

” 6 The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;
and a little child shall lead them.
7 The cow and the bear shall graze;
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,
and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.
9 They shall not hurt or destroy
in all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD
as the waters cover the sea. ”  (Isaiah 11: 6-9)