02-Creation or Chance?
Creation or Chance?
CHAPTER TWO “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God” (Psalms 14:1).
HOW WOULD THE PSALMIST express himself if he were alive today, when unbelief is no longer confined to the secret recesses of the heart, but is blatantly published abroad in the name of reason, enlightenment, and progress? Atheism is folly, as the Psalmist said; and the world is full of fools. Some of them, it must be admitted, are very highly educated and intelligent.
Consider this statement by Robert Blatchford, the most powerful journalist in England a generation ago:
“I claim that the heavenly Father is a myth; that in face of a knowledge of life and the world, we cannot reasonably believe in Him. There is no heavenly Father watching tenderly over us, His children. He is the baseless shadow of a wistful human dream.
“I do not believe in a God. The belief in a God is still generally accepted . . . But, in the light of scientific discoveries and demonstrations, such a belief is unfounded and utterly untenable today.”
Consider, further, this catechism of unbelief published by the American Association for the Advancement of Atheism.
1. -Q. What is God?
A. God is an imaginary character-a myth-a creation of fiction believed by idolaters to be a real being that created and governs all things.
2. -Q. Is there a real God?
A. The universe contains no real God.
3. -Q. What is the soul?
A. The soul is an imaginary character believed by idolaters to live in people and at their death to leave them and take all their senses, mind and knowledge, and live on forever.
4. -Q. Has man a soul?
A. Man contains no soul.
5. -Q. What does dying mean?
A. Dying means the ceasing forever of all organs of the body to perform their functions.
6. -Q. What is death?
A. Death is the name of the condition or state of an organism when life ceases.
7. -Q. Will dead people ever come to life again?
A. Dead people will never come to life again.
Now these gainsayers of God are not stupid men at all; we admit their learning and intelligence. Yet, in spite of that, I insist that the language of the Psalmist is none too strong when he declares, “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.”
You see, the man who refuses to believe in a Creator must believe that everything in the world, including himself, has come into existence by pure chance. But to believe that requires much more credulity than to believe in God. That was why Francis Bacon, whose writings laid the foundation for modern science, observed in one of his famous essays, “I had rather believe all the fables in the Legend, and the Talmud, and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a Mind.”
Talk about miracles! The atheist must believe in a miracle which is altogether illogical and incredible. He must believe that this universe with all its orderliness, with all its intricate arrangements, all its beauty, all its machinelike functioning-the steady circling of the planets overhead, the unfaltering rotation of the stars which never deviate a hair’s breadth from their courses, the march of the seasons with autumn following summer, winter following autumn, spring following winter, year in and year out-all of this he must believe is not the product of infinite intelligence and wisdom and power, but the result of pure chance.
If a watch cannot be explained except by a creative mind, what are we to think of the man who argues that the universe can be explained apart from the creative mind of God? Truly, “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.”
Suppose I were to take you to the Hayden Planetarium in New York City, and, awe-stricken, we were to watch its fascinating reproduction of the steady, unwearied, never-changing movement of the immense stars which constitute our universe; and suppose, after it was all over, I were to remark casually, “Of course, you know this planetarium was not planned and put together. It all just happened. One morning the citizens of New York awoke and to their surprise found it here like a mushroom that had sprung up overnight.” What would be your reaction to that? I suspect you would be either very angry or very sad; either your intelligence would be insulted or else you would be overwhelmed with pity for my idiocy.
Yet remember that a planetarium is after all only a copy of the universe around us. Remember, too, that man did not think it all up and plan it all by himself; he did nothing but copy the original already in existence. And remember, furthermore, that it took all the ingenuity, and resources of modern science even to make that copy. And remember, in addition, that the copy does not function automatically; it must be looked after regularly. Yet if we cannot explain the planetarium apart from human intelligence and ingenuity, how apart from divine intelligence and ingenuity can we explain the universe of which the planetarium is but a copy?
Surely the Psalmist was not amiss in the curt judgment which he passed upon the atheist, “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.”
Pure chance or personal creation, one or the other of these is responsible for our law-abiding universe concerning which F. R. Moulton of the University of Chicago makes this comment:
“To an astronomer, the most remarkable thing about the universe is not its immense size, its great age, or even the violence of forces operating within its boundaries. The thing which strikes an astronomer with awe is the element of perfect orderliness. From the tiny satellites of our solar system to the vast galaxies far beyond our own there is no trace of confusion. There is nothing haphazard, nothing capricious. The orderliness of the universe is the supreme discovery of science.”
Now, what is responsible for our orderly universe, pure chance or personal creation? Only a fool will accept the explanation of pure chance. As a businessman with a keen mind wrote several years ago in the American Magazine:
“It takes a girl in our factory about two days to learn to put the seventeen parts of a meat chopper together. It may be that these millions of worlds, each with its separate orbit, all balanced so wonderfully in space-it may be that they just happened; it may be that by a billion years of tumbling about they finally arranged themselves. I don’t know. I am merely a plain manufacturer of cutlery. But this I do know, that you can shake the seventeen parts of a meat chopper around in a washtub for the next seventeen billion years and you’ll never have a meat chopper.”
Everything about us points with overwhelming force to a personal Creator whose mind and power are infinite. Dr. George Gallup, whose experience as the director of nationwide polls lends authority to his opinion, declares; “I could prove God statistically. Take the human body alone. The chance that all the functions of the individual would just happen is a statistical monstrosity.”
Sir James Jeans, probably the greatest physicist of our time, affirms, “We discover that the universe shows evidences of a designing or controlling power that has something in common with our own individual minds.”
Physicist Dr. Robert Millikan, winner of the Nobel prize, declares, “To me it is unthinkable that a real atheist could be a scientist.”
Dr. C. A. Chant, professor of Astrophysics in Toronto University, expresses himself in this way: “I have no hesitation in saying that at least ninety per cent of astronomers have reached the conclusion that the universe is not the result of blind law, but is regulated by a great Intelligence. Slowly but surely the mind of the great is returning to the Creator and God of Providence.”
Everything about us points to God so overwhelmingly that only a fool can be an atheist.
If you have been denying God, may I give you some pointed advice? Stop being a fool!
There is a God, a God with whom it is folly to trifle, a God with whom you must some day reckon.
Stop denying God and instead do as Job counsels, “Acquaint now thyself with him and be at peace.”
If you have never before believed and if you are really a sincere seeker after truth, pray this prayer: “O God, if there be a God, reveal Thyself to me for Jesus’ sake.” Try that. I assure you that it works. The living God never fails to disclose Himself to a heart that truly seeks Him.