How is the way Richard Dawkins looks at bees the same as the way a lustful man looks at pornography? Dawkins is, of course, a biologist who specializes in bee research and also an atheist. When I look at bees I see God. They make honey and that is just divine! Also in the way they pollinate so many species of flowers and the way they work together. Not as much in the way they sting but all of it is from God and communicates God and can lead us to worship God. Dawkins sees none of this when he looks at bees or at least he does not admit it if he does. He just sees bees.
When we look at a beautiful woman something similar can happen. God has given us hormones that tweak us to a special presence. That biological reaction is intended to awaken us to the great dignity of the human person you are looking at. Here is someone who God has made beautiful and holy. Not only that she is capable of producing another human person in her womb and she is capable of nurturing and caring for that person. She is truly a masterpiece from the hand of God. She communicates God and should lead us to worship God. But when we look at pornography we miss all that. We focus on our physical arousal. We just see anatomy the way Dawkins just sees bees.
What does this have to do with the Blessed Virgin Mary? As a protestant I looked at Mary and saw a concubine. Someone who performed a biological function. A surrogate mother. I was told not to look at her and marvel at how amazing a thing she did. God using her body to bring Jesus to the world. Contemplating that was dangerous. It might lead me to worship Mary. The truth is it leads me to worship but it is worship of God I see in her. Just like I worship God if I look at a woman rightly or look at bees rightly.
But how do we do that? How do we insure that we look at things rightly. The wrong way is to concentrate on what we should be avoiding. As a protestant I came to understand that Catholics saw the worship of Mary as a great sin just like I did. But I was confused. If they recognized that as sin then why did they kneel before a statue of Mary and say a bunch of Hail Mary's? That seemed like a strange way to avoid sin. Now I understand the veneration of Mary leads me to worship God. So trying to avoid worship when it comes to Mary is not right. She communicates God and properly leads us to worship God. We should not bottle up the impulse to worship. We need to let it flow through to God. The more we venerate Mary and worship God in conjunction with that the less likely we are to end up seeing Mary as an idol.
I see a connection between the protestant theology of Mary and the saints and the tendency of science to lead to atheism and even the use of women as objects of lust in pornography. These are all icons of God. They should properly be leading us to veneration. When we do that we see God more clearly and worship Him in these icons. That is the right way to approach science, the right way to approach human beauty, and the right way to approach the saints. But protestants said that was all wrong. We need to worship Christ alone. They left us with nothing good to do with our impulse to worship God through these icons. So it becomes distorted. Science and religion end up in conflict. Sex and religion end up in conflict. Even religion and religion end up in conflict. Rather than marveling at the bigger picture we try and prevent ourselves from marveling at all.
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