Not By Chance

In Ecclesiastes 12, Solomon makes a strong case to remember the God who created each of us.  In verse 1, we read:
1Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, Before the difficult days come, And the years draw near when you say, "I have no pleasure in them":2While the sun and the light, The moon and the stars, Are not darkened, And the clouds do not return after the rain;
And, in verse 6 of the same chapter:6Remember your Creator before the silver cord is loosed, Or the golden bowl is broken, Or the pitcher shattered at the fountain, Or the wheel broken at the well.

You know, we're not guaranteed tomorrow.  The Bible says in 2nd Corinthians 6 that today is the day of salvation.  We have the evidence of the hand of the Creator all around us, pointing to a designer beyond this earth.  We have the certainty of the Word of God, that outlines for us His love for humanity, expressed in His sending His Son to die for us.  And, Christians, by the way we live our lives and testify to that love, can provide powerful evidence of the change that Almighty God can make in the heart and life of a person.

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In Acts 17, we see that the apostle Paul declared to those gathered in Athens that God was Creator and we live in Him...
24God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands.25Nor is He worshiped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.26And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings,27so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;28for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also His offspring.'

On Christmas Day, the Wall Street Journal ran an op-ed piece by Eric Metaxas, the author and commentator who is heard on the Breakpoint commentary twice each weekday on Faith Radio - at 11:25am and 7:25pm.

On one of the commentaries from last week, Eric shared some highlights from what he had written and touched on the response.

He said:

I noted that the initial euphoria over the possibility that there were a septillion -- that’s one followed by 24 zeros -- planets capable of supporting life in the universe was followed by the sober fact that such planets, never mind evidence of extraterrestrial life, are exceedingly rare.

That’s because science has learned just how “fine-tuned” the universe has to be in order to support life of any kind, never mind intelligent life.

As I wrote in the Journal, “Today there are more than 200 known parameters necessary for a planet to support life—every single one of which must be perfectly met,” or our existence would be utterly impossible.

Yet, not only do we exist, we're discussing the fact that we exist, which prompted me to ask, “What can account for” all of this? and “Doesn’t assuming that an intelligence created these perfect conditions actually require far less faith than believing that a life-sustaining Earth just happened to beat the inconceivable odds to come into being?”

Well, Eric relates that the piece has garnered more “likes” on Facebook than any article the Wall Street Journal has ever published - as of late last week, over 350,000!

He also highlighted a couple of areas of objections. One centered around the contention that scientists should be allowed to talk about the religious implications of scientific things.  Eric said that objection is not rooted in science but in scientism, which holds that “empirical science constitutes the most authoritative worldview or most valuable part of human learning to the exclusion of other viewpoints.”

He also attracted some objections from religious believers, who took him to task for saying that science can “prove” the existence of God, much less the God of the Bible. But he didn't say that. As he responded,

What I did was point to the sheer improbability of our existence and ask whether it might not be reasonable to infer, like Fred Hoyle, who coined the phrase “Big Bang,” whether the universe might be, as he put it, a “put up job.”

The scientific findings I cited aren’t “proof” that compel belief in God’s existence but “signs” pointing to that possibility and inviting you to follow them to see where they might lead.

Near the conclusion, he said that: "In the end, belief in God, especially the biblical God, is an act of faith. But so too is believing that our existence is simply the result of chance. Like it or not."

On his Facebook page, Metaxas poses the question, "what does this tell us about the appetite for stories about faith?"  I think the popularity of this article could actually points to the curiosity that human beings have about how we came to be.   You could say that Paul seized on this in his Athens speech I referenced earlier - he wanted the people to think about their origins, and he challenged them to think about the existence of God.

You can also surmise that the discussion of our origins can tap into a longing that people have to experience God - a present, involved God - someone with whom they can have a relationship.   You have many people who will intellectually or emotionally create or design a deity who meets their felt needs, but the Bible points to the deity who created them, who designed them in His image and calls them into that relationship with Him.  There are those that don't know how to pursue that relationship, or better put, who don't know how to enter into a relationship with the God who is pursuing them.   Adequate exposure to the truth of the Scriptures can provide the remedy, and perhaps God will use you to communicate His truth.