Does God exist, or not? Were we intentionally created by intelligent design, or are we here by molecular chance? No greater issue exists than the issue of creation. If there is a God, and if the Bible is the word of God, then man is eternally accountable to a creator. However, if God does not exist, then man has no higher authority than man (either man the individual, or man collectively as a society). Moreover, there certainly is no eternal accountability.

Think of the implications. More than one philosopher has been credited with saying, “If God does not exist, then everything is permitted” (Fyodor Dostoyevsky in the novel The Brothers Karamazov, Jean Paul Sartre). Aldus Huxley admitted “I had motives for not wanting the world to have meaning; consequently I assumed it had none . . . the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation . . . liberation form a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom” (Bert Thompson, Rock-Solid Faith: How To Build It, pp 81-82, quoting Confessions of a Professed Atheist, Report: Perspective on the News, 3:15, June).

Think of the implications historically. (a) Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany (1933-1945) – It is estimated that 11 million people were murdered in the Holocaust, including 6 million Jews (two-thirds of Europe ’s Jewish population). This does not count the tens-of-millions who dies in the war. What law did the Nazi’s violate? Their own? No. British/American law? No. They were never under such. International tolerance? Okay, but understand that all such is, is the collective will of the international communities. What if the international communities one day tolerated such behavior? Would such then be morally acceptable behavior? (b) The Tuskegee Experiments (1932-1972) – 399 poor black men from Macon County , Alabama had a test performed on them. They had syphilis, but were not told of such. They were denied available antibiotics to treat such. They were told that they had “bad blood”. They were treated as guinea pigs in a government experiment. They were promised free medical care, meals, and burial insurance. Is there anything inherently morally wrong with such? If each man is his own moral standard, then no. Richard Dawkins acknowledged, “My own feeling is that a human society based simply on the gene’s law of the universal ruthlessness would be a very nasty society in which to live. But unfortunately, however much we may deplore something; it does not stop it being true” (Bert Thompson, Rock-Solid Faith: How To Build It, p 165, quoting from The Selfish Gene, pp. 2-3).

Richard Dawkins was correct in his last sentence. So, why should I believe?

The Cosmological Argument

This argument starts with the existence of the cosmos (from the Greek “Kosmos” meaning order, i.e. the material universe). It reasons that for every material effect, there must be an adequate cause.

There are only three possible options for the origin of the cosmos: (1) It is eternal. (2) It sprang from nothing. (3) It was created.

(1) Is it eternal? No. Robert Jastrow admitted, “modern science denies an eternal existence to the universe, either in the past or in the future” (Bert Thompson and Wayne Jackson, the Case for the Existence of God, pp. 6-7, quoting from Until the Sun Dies, pp. 19, 30 by Jastrow). The First Law of Thermodynamics indicates that the total of all energy and matter in the universe is fixed. While matter may be converted to energy and energy to matter – either matter or energy is being created or destroyed. The Second Law of Thermodynamics indicates that the universe is running down. “The universe as a whole is steadily moving toward a state of randomness” (Britannica 1979 Vol. 10, p. 894). Energy is becoming less available for use. It is as if this cosmos was wound up like a clock, but is now running down. These two laws (the First and Second Laws of Thermodynamics) suggest a beginning.

(2) Did it spring from nothing? It should be considered self-evident that something cannot come from nothing. Dr. George E. Davis, a physicist has said, “No material thing can create itself” (Bert Thompson and Wayne Jackson, A Study Course in Christian Evidences, p. 19). Hebrews 3:4 reads, “Every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God.”

There is an issue beyond the origin of matter, and that issue is the origin of life. There are only three options: (a) Life is eternal. No scientist, to my knowledge, holds this position. (b) Life arose from non-living matter. The idea of “Spontaneous Generation” has no support. Many used to believe in “spontaneous generation”. However, this thinking was defeated centuries ago. Francesco Redi (1626-1697), an Italian physician did an experiment. He took three jars and placed meat and fish in them. One jar he left open. One jar he covered with a mesh net. One jar he sealed. Only the open jar developed maggots (Andrew Dickson White, History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom, p. 42). This and other such experiments thwarted man’s belief in “spontaneous generation”. Those who choose to believe in such do so without any evidence. Martin Moe in Science Digest, December 1981, wrote “A century of sensational discoveries in the biological sciences has taught us that life arises only from life” (Bert Thompson, the Scientific Case for Creation, p. 77). (c) It was created. This seems the only option left.

(3) Was it created? This seems the only option left.

The Teleological Argument

This argument is of design (from Greek “telos” meaning end, purpose, design). If there is design, then there must have been a designer.

Let us notice a few things from the human body which cry out design.

(1) The eye cries out design. Robert Jastrow has written, “the eye appears to have been designed; no designer of telescopes could have done better” (Wayne Jackson, Human Body: Accident or Design? P. 56 quoting The Enchanted Loom: Mind in the Universe pp. 96-97). In truth, man in all his intelligence has not matched the abilities of the human eye. Charles Darwin admitted, “To suppose that the eye with its inimitable (uncompared B.H.) contrivances (planning B.H.) for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could be formed by natural selection, seems I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree . . . it is scarcely possible to avoid comparing the eye with a telescope. We know that this instrument has been perfected by long-continued efforts of the highest human intellects . . .” (The Origin of Species, pp. 227, 231).

(2) The brain cries out design. Isaac Asimov called the brain “the most complex and orderly arrangement of matter in the universe” (Wayne Jackson, Human Body, p. 50 quoting the Smithsonian Institute Journal, June 1970, p. 10). Carl Sagan said of the information content of the human brain, “if written out in English . . . that information would fill twenty million volumes, as many as the world’s largest libraries” (ibid, quoting Broca’s Brain by Sagan, p. 275). If a computer was created by intelligence, how could we believe that the brain simply happened?

(3) The nervous system cries out design. Britannica says “transmission of information within the nervous system is more complex than the largest telephone exchanges” (1989 Vol. 2, p. 226).

(4) The kidneys cry out design. Some people require dialysis to survive. This requires time, hours each week. This requires money, tens of thousands of dollars each year. Ask these folks if they would trade working kidneys for a dialysis machine.

(5) Man’s intellect is able to design certain replacement body parts. There are replacement knees, prosthetic hands, feet and limbs. There are hearing aids which enhance a damaged ear’s ability to hear. However, which of these can perform all the functions of the original?

The human body originating by chance has been compared to a tornado sweeping through a junk yard and the result being a fully functional 747 jet. It has also been compared to an explosion at a print shop which results in an unabridged dictionary. The human body cries out design.