Be careful not to label others

Warren Nunn

Appearances can be deceptive; that’s not in doubt. Assuming someone’s intelligence by their level of education or station in life is also something to be very careful about.

All people have worth and intelligence. Some people better use their intelligence and gifts than others, but, nevertheless, everyone has great capacity.

There is also a small group of people with above-average intelligence and giftedness. No matter how much the rest of us study or try, we will never match them.

That’s just the way the world is; otherwise we would all be exactly capable of doing everything to the highest possible standard. In other words, we would all be exactly the same. What a boring world that would be.

In my ongoing investigation of the creation-evolution divide, I often find what I consider to be gems. Of course, I’m biased as I come down totally in favour of special creation, so I seek out those saying similar things to me.

A letter to the Nottingham Journal newspaper in August 1909 is one of those gems and it demonstrates the abovementioned because it was written by a gentleman who worked as a hosiery warehouseman.

William Lewin (born 15 Dec 1862^[1], died 27 Mar 1954^[2]) did not marry and seems to have spent all his 91 years in Nottinghamshire. He was clearly articulate, well-read and, without knowing his educational background, he was very obviously well-learned on a variety of subjects.

He was a regular contributor to newspaper letters-to-the-editor columns and was obviously keenly engaged in matters about which he felt strongly including politics (he was a Conservative), his Christian faith, literature, philosophy and, of course, science.

Of Mr Lewin, John Derry, Nottingham Daily Express editor from 1893 to 1895, said that “William Lewin writes a good letter”.^[3]

It is William Lewin’s letter on Darwin and religion^[4] that is most revealing in that it is clear he had a wide grasp of the subject.

The letter reads:

“Who am I? What is my origin and destiny? are questions which I am constantly confronted with. Darwinism is unable to answer them. The larger evolution theory avoids the all-embracing subjects of causation, consciousness and destiny, being content to refer to law, variation, and perfection of form, according to its value, in the struggle for existence.

We all can see progress in type and form, we know that law is at work evolving all the changes which are being made manifest in the world. But as to the beginning of law and the controlling of its operation neither Darwinism nor evolution gives a satisfactory answer.

Suppose I want to know what is life, to what extent would the vague, wordy definition of Herbert Spencer help me? Why, the definition needs defining.

It is unreadable, and positively deters the mind from understanding what we all are able to conceive as an existing fact. If I want to know how the earth came to be as it is, I am treated to a disquisition commencing with the nebulous theory, with its revolving fire mist cooling and condensing during countless ages, but what started the nebulous movement and reduced chaos to order who can explain?

Science can tabulate and arrange the varieties in nature, but it is powerless to explain them.

All is mystery, unknown and unknowable, and for me there is no rest expect that which I get from the great pronouncement of the opening verse of the Book of Genesis: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

I therein discover that all things are produced by an all-pervading mind, which is the momentum of law, life, or force. From the eternal spring the ephemeral, from the infinite the finite.

Recognising to the full the existence of that great plenary mind, I at once bow down and do homage to it. Therein comes natural religion. I have discovered God in the world, and I worship Him.

The first chapter of Genesis is really the most modern portion of the whole book, forming a late priestly introduction to the older and more infantile traditions of the origin of things.

The first verse is the most profound thing in literature. The rest is an account of the order of creation as the priest of the prophetic era understood it.

That of the second chapter is the early child world conception. The distance between the two is the evolution of religious ideas.

The inspiration of both is that of a nation straining its intellect to gain the highest conception of God.

There can never be any discrepancy between science and religion, because both seek to understand the works of God-the one in the things which can be measured and classified, the other in endeavouring to bring about some relationship between the lesser mind of man and the greater mind of God.

William Lewin, Daisy Road, Thorneywood.

It is perhaps William Lewin’s last statement that is most profound because one of the aims of anyone with faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour should be to explore the very mind of their Creator as they live out their faith.

And that it what science is; the investigation of the things of God. The staggering complexity of life from its tiniest forms to its largest is packed with such design as to render one speechless in trying to describe it.

On the one hand there is a group of people saying that all this complexity happened by ‘chance’ and ‘natural laws’, but I stand firmly against such a notion because it is the very definition of the unexplainable; a ‘natural’ miracle.

Despite how much those who reject a priori the very idea of God the Designer, they have to start with their own designer; what to me is the ultimate miracle; the springing forth of life from nothing.

In a sense they are right; life did come from ‘nothing’ but that ‘nothing’ was the ultimate ‘something’, the very mind of God which, of course is, everything.

As for William Lewin, he was more than a letter writer as he was also a contributor to The Nottingham Journal, under the tag of Mr William Lewin’s memories.

On page 12 of The Grantham Journal 02 April 1954, William Lewin’s passing at the age 91 as the result of an accident closed the chapter on the life of an extraordinarily gifted individual who was totally engaged with the world.

The article noted that he played the church organ from aged 14, worked for 50 years at a hosiery firm and was part of the Mechanics Institute in Nottingham. That suggests he had wider skills than the description of him being a hosiery warehouseman.

Postscript: This exercise in researching William Lewin has given me a great deal of satisfaction and not just because of our similar understanding of the world. Mr Lewin’s journalism stands out because he shows he was thinking and wanted to engage others; not just to force his opinion but he wanted to encourage others to think more deeply through matters. In that, we share a common purpose.

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References

1. 1939 Register, Ref: RG101/6258E/009/17, The Tofts, Bingham Road, Bingham R.D., Nottinghamshire, England. ｜ Return to text
2. England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966. ｜ Return to text
3. Nottingham Journal, 15 December 1934, p 6. ｜ Return to text
4. Nottingham Journal, 19 August 1909, p 3.  ｜ Return to text