Kedo Peseyie
“Watches imply a watchmaker, buildings imply architects, paintings imply artists and coded messages imply an intelligent sender. Also, the greater the design the greater the designer.” –Norman Geisler
We are all fond of SMSs. Bad SMS jokes irritate. But it is a useful tool to pass on small bits of information. But imagine if you were to receive a cute SMS joke which no one conceived, no one wrote, and nobody sent. It all happened by accident but you enjoyed that cute little SMS. That is not only highly unlikely, it is entire impossible. You cannot receive a SMS which no one wrote, nobody sent with no network. There were some very smart people who designed the mobile phone, created a network and thought of a cute joke. That’s how you have your SMS.
There are some people who say that they cannot believe in a God who created the world, the universe and everything in it. This view is no different from those who may say that they enjoyed an SMS with no origin and no author. Because if there was no origin, no author and no bright ideas everything would be chaos.
In one issue of the journal of Religion and Science, there was an article which stated that the argument of the intelligent designer is making a big comeback in the scientific circles today. This argument simply states that if there is a design, there is a designer.
The world we live in is a world of designs. There are some who claim that there are the random designs and the specific designs. The random designs are found in nature like the clouds, the waves of the sea etc, and the specific designs are the ones we humans design like fashion, statues etc. I personally don’t believe that the designs in nature are random. GK Chesterton said that God himself commands the sun to rise every morning and the clouds to form. These are intelligent designs and far from random. In fact our fashion designs look more random than the designs in nature. The point is made clear by Paul in Romans 1:18. Paul says that everyone has some knowledge about God since He has made it plain to him or her through His creation. Anyone who reflects upon God’s creation can be led to some basic conclusions about the Creator, about his eternal power and divine nature. And so Paul states that those who say they don’t believe in a God who designed and created the world are left without an excuse.
For instance, let us look at some evidences from our universe and they way it is designed for us to live in:
• Oxygen comprises 21 percent of the atmosphere. If it were 25 percent, fire would erupt. If 15 percent, human beings would suffocate.
• If Jupiter was not in its current orbit, we would be bombarded with space material. Jupiter’s gravitational field acts as a cosmic vacuum cleaner attracting asteroids and comets that would otherwise strike earth.
• If the rotation of the earth took longer than 24 hours, temperature differences would be too great between night and day. If the rotation period were shorter, atmospheric wind velocities would be too great.
• If the atmospheric discharges (lightning) rate was greater, there would be too much fire destruction; if it were less, there would be too little nitrogen fixing in the soil.
• If the centrifugal force of planetary movements did not precisely balance the gravitational forces, nothing could be held in orbit around the Sun.
• The average distance between stars in our galaxy of 100 billion stars is 30 trillion miles. (Traveling at space shuttle speed 17000 miles an hour or five miles a second, it should take 201, 450 years to ravel 30 trillion miles.) If that distance was altered slightly, orbits would be erratic, and there would be extreme temperature variations on earth. (Source: from Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, RZIM materials)
Stephen Hawkings once confessed that after looking into the universe and the designs there, the only conclusion he can come to is the possibility of a God who designed and created the whole thing. That is the only probable explanation for this wonderful universe we live in.
There are a lot of other evidences we can find out for ourselves. The designs of a flower, a cute little bird with varied colours, or the designs of our human body. These designs could not have originated by chance or by an explosion. They can only be understood as fingerprints of an immensely intelligent and creative being. The problem is that we cannot see this immensely intelligent and creative being and therefore many find it difficult to believe in something that cannot be seen. But many of the things we consider “reality” are not seen. I never saw my great grandfather but he is as much real to me as my father. Reality consists of things that can be seen and things invisible. But of course God is not entire an invisible being. I suspect that for the moment he is too great and awesome for our human eyes to behold.
Intelligent designs only implies that there is an intelligent being. And an intelligent being means there is a strong personality behind it. We cannot have intelligence without having a person. And hence we Christians believe in a God who is personal and can relate to us in a personal manner. He has made it possible for us to know Him and experience Him. This immensely intelligent and creative being has revealed Himself to us through the person of Jesus Christ. We can know Him and develop a personal relationship with Him. This is what Christianity is all about.
The designs are so great that we can lose ourselves in the designs and miss the person (like some Hindu pantheists have done), or we can let these designs point us to the intelligent and personal designer who offers us a relationship with Him and a place in His creative workshop. I would rather sit with the Designer and learn from Him, than to be lost in His designs and miss the Designer.
