The Slow Magician

   Most of us have at least heard the phrase "seeing is believing". The problem with that is that all of us have seen, or thought we saw, something that was not as we perceived it. Magicians practice long hours to be able to fool our eyes.

   With that in mind, let me tell you the story about the "Slow Magician".

   He lived long ago and far away. Like other magicians, he had figured out that the essence of magic was to imitate the miraculous. The greatest form of magic was to produce "something from nothing".

   It was high noon when he arrived in the small Midwestern town of Carsonville. He promptly rented the "Opera House" that was now used mainly by the local High School to play basketball and for occasional "special" programs. He quickly went about posting notices at every conspicuous place. "Come see the master magician produce a real live dove from an empty box," they proclaimed.

   It was in the spring of the year, the basketball season was over, and the High School Senior Play was now a sweet memory. People were anxious for some amusement. Besides, the admission price seemed cheap enough. The first night's turnout was very good indeed.

   But lo and behold, the only thing the Slow Magician produced was the sound of fluttering wings, and no live dove. His lovely assistant sang a lovely song, and told the people to come back the next night.

   A few less people came the next night. This time it was only bird droppings, and a different song.

   The next night it was less people, a feather, and a different song.

   By the time the Slow Magician produced a live dove, there was only one man in the audience. He was the custodian waiting to turn out the lights!

   Now, when I said "long ago and far away" you knew that the story wasn't true. Sadly though, a similar story is true ... almost... It is the fairy tale of evolution. The difference is that the crowd keeps coming!

   A jaw bone of an adult is altered to fit the skull of a child ... A pigs tooth is passed off as the tooth of a sub-human link ... faked drawings of embryos are pawned off on the gullible, and are in textbooks still today ... and still people keep coming.

   Saddest of all, some churches have bought into the hypothesis that God was a slow magician. "He did things a bit at a time over billions of years," they say ... and people keep coming. They even disregard what it is costing them financially.

   They finally have sought to combine Creation and Evolution. They have begun to laugh at Creationists. They have heaped scorn on them, and warned that "those people tear up our schools". In their ignorance of what "Big Bang" embraces, they have said "it doesn't matter if God did it in one 'big bang' or 'a lot of little bangs'".

   The only absence is the "Presence of the Lord" in their worship services, and all the people wonder why.