RMS Titanic departing Southampton on April 10, 1912 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Today is April 14th, and quite a bit has happened on April 14th over the years.  For example, in 1775 the first anti-slavery society was formed, in 1860 the first pony express letters reached San Francisco.  In 1865 Abraham Lincoln was shot and would die early the next morning.  In 1912 the Titanic struck the iceberg that would bring her down in the wee hours of the 15th… there is more, but I’d like to consider this last item, the Titanic.

We all know the story; the ship was “unsinkable” a modern marvel if ever there was such a thing.  She was the pinnacle of modern engineering, fast, luxurious and beautiful… and she couldn’t be sunk!

To read the claims made about that great ship at the time is an ironic experience for those of us who know what happened to her on her very first voyage.  The bragging about her invincibility, the bragging about her grandeur and about the greatness of modern science.  It is almost the same feeling that I get when listening to scientists today when they go on and on about all that science knows and how they scoff at God; science is supreme and all-knowing after all.

One hundred years ago today, science got a kick in the teeth from an iceberg and learned that we aren’t quite all-knowing and all-powerful.  Oddly, when it comes to matters relating to God so many of our science folk still haven’t learned their lesson about human arrogance.

For those of us who are primitive and ignorant Christians, we know that God reigns supreme in this universe; that God is indeed in control of things, even if our friends in science haven’t figured out how to observe Him yet.

Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?  For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.

(1 Corinthians 1:20-21)