Dr Paul Allen

Westminster Abbey in London (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Charles Darwin died in April 1882. He wished to be buried in his beloved village, but the sentiment of educated men demanded a place in Westminster Abbey beside Isaac Newton . As his coffin entered the vast building, the choir sang an anthem composed for the occasion. Its text, from the book of Proverbs , may stand as the most fitting testimony to Darwin’s greatness: ‘Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and getteth understanding. She is more precious than rubies, and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared to her.’ So wrote Stephen Jay Gould , the eminent Harvard paleontologist, professor of geology, and ardent evolutionist in Discover magazine in 1982. Darwin was not buried in Westminster Abbey because he was a staunch defender of the faith. While he was not a friend of the church, neither was he an atheist. Continues Gould, “He probably retained a belief in some kind of personal god—but he did not grant

Cover of Marriage Savers Today nearly a billion people around the world are focused on a wedding taking place in London’s Westminster Abbey : The marriage between Prince William , second in line to the British throne , and his bride, Kate Middleton . For months people have focused on wedding details: Who will design the wedding dress? What jewels will she wear? What food will be served at the wedding breakfast? But maybe we’re focusing on the wrong things. As my colleague Anne Morse noted this week in National Review Online , divorces among the royals have become so common that, shortly after the engagement was announced, British bookies began taking bets about when William and Kate’s divorce would take place. “Can this marriage be saved?” Morse asked. For the answer, she asked several marriage experts about William and Kate’s chances, based on such factors as their family background, age, faith commitment, life choices, and royal expectations. For instance, when William’s mother,

Weddings — especially this kind of wedding — are times when many of us lose ourselves in the fantasy of what a wedding and a marriage are really about.  The fantasy that just that one thing or event can finally make us happy, complete, fulfilled. Can make our life perfect. So we celebrate that. Beautifully. In all that beauty, however, we risk forgetting that the real beauty of a wedding is not the sparkle or the tulle. It has nothing to do with flowers or candle flickers. You can’t even see it in the most blushing of brides or the most breathless of grooms. The real beauty of a wedding is instead found in the truth that marriage is a sacrament, a means of channeling grace. And you can’t channel grace without bearing the brunt of sin. And few things reveal unholy sin quite like holy matrimony. With all our promises of eternal love and fidelity, we get plenty of hurt. Plenty of frustration. Plenty of annoyance. Plenty of mean words. Plenty of disappointment. Plenty of selfish