Article August 17, 1981 Issue

No opposite powers

WILLIAM S. WARREN

"On any given day," some sports pundits are wont to say, "any team in this league can defeat any other," meaning that because all the teams are fairly evenly matched, in any game victory can go either way.

Such confrontation of nearly equal opposing forces may apply in a sports situation and in many others, too; but it doesn't apply in the realm of divine reality. Sickness, for example, is not a real condition with inherent power that "on any given day" can defeat health—though it often appears to do so. Hate and fear are not staunch combatants able to fight and win against love. Sorrow has no real power against joy, nor war over peace, even though such opposites seem to vie every day of the year all over the globe.

"How can you deny these things when they're so evident?" someone is asking. Well, consider this. Since you can switch on a flashlight and send forth a beam of light that pierces the dark, why can't you switch on a "flashdark" and send forth a beam of darkness that cuts into the light? Because light is something, and dark is nothing. Light's somethingness is an actual presence, but dark's nothingness is only light's absence.

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