Stage One – Snack Bars
I am going to suggest a theory to you about the origin of the chocolate bar. Billions of years ago there was a massive explosion. This big bang produced some rock. Over millions of years some dust and gunge formed on the rock surface and, over time, it formed into a pool of chocolate. Some of the dust caramelised and formed into a sweet caramel layer. Some of the chocolate became fluffy after being blasted by a solar wind, which produced a nougat layer. The layers joined and emerged from the pool of chocolate in a bar shape. Somehow plastic formed and grew around the bar. Millions of years later paint dripped out of the sky onto the plastic wrapper and formed itself into the words ‘Chocolate Bar 62.5g’.
Are you still with me? No doubt you are thinking that this theory is childish, silly and an insult to your intelligence. You know that a chocolate bar is manufactured. It was designed and had a maker. I am sure you can agree that to say, ‘A chocolate bar came about by chance or a random process,’ is to move into an intellectual-free zone.
The Banana – An Atheist’s Nightmare.
Have you ever wondered at the features of a natural snack bar?
The banana:
- Is shaped for the human hand.
- Has a non-slip surface.
- Has outward indication of inward content: Green – too early, yellow – just right, black – too late.
- Has a tab at the top to aid removal of wrapper.
- Wrapper is bio-degradable.
- Is the right size and shape for a human mouth.
- Tastes good and helps prevent high blood pressure, heart disease, cancer and rheumatoid arthritis (Valuable source of vitamins B6 and C and also potassium)
- Is curved toward mouth to make eating easy.
These features are superior than any man-made fatty snack-bars. To say that the banana came about by accident is on the same intellectual level as thinking that the chocolate bar did not have a manufacturer.
Eyes
– Maintenance of night vision
Stomach
– Prevention of peptic ulcers
Intestinal
– Electrolyte replacement in diarrhea
– Ease of constipation
Cardiovascular
– Prevention of hypertension
Bone
– Protection from breakdown
Kidneys
– Decreased risk of cancer
The person who thinks that the chocolate bar had no designer is:
1) Intelligent
2) A fool
3) A person with an ulterior motive for denying the obvious
Stage 2 – Eye to Eye
Did you know that the eye has around 40,000,000 nerve endings, the focusing muscles move an estimated 100,000 times a day and the retina contains around 137,000,000 light sensitive cells?
Did you also know that Charles Darwin wrote the following in Origin of Species?
‘To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest possible degree.’
What an admission! Man has never managed to produce a lens or device to equal the qualities of the eye. Is it possible that an eye, being so complex in design, can come about by chance? It is a fact that man cannot make anything from nothing. We can re-create, re-form or develop the matter around us, but we cannot even create a grain of sand from nothing. So where did all matter come from, and how did it form into objects with the appearance of complex, intelligent design?
George Gallup, the famous statistician said:’I can 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 Fred Hoyle (English astronomer and Professor of Astronomy at Cambridge University) is quoted here from ‘Hoyle on Evolution’:’The chance that higher life forms might have emerged in this way is comparable with the chance that “a tornado sweeping through a junk-yard might assemble a Boeing 747 from the materials therein”.’
Albert Einstein said:’Everyone who is seriously interested in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe – a spirit vastly superior to man, and one in the face of which our modest powers must feel humble.’
Do you know of any building that did not have a builder?
Do you know of any painting that did not have a painter?
Do you know of any car that did not have a maker?
If you answered yes to any questions above, please email me the details.
Stage 3 – Lemon Order
If you were out walking and saw five rows of ten lemons lying on the ground, you would hopefully conclude some form of intelligence placed them there. The chance that they fell to the ground in five rows of ten would be remote, especially at the same angle of rotation.
In this world we see order in many things; The earth’s water-cycle, DNA, the feathers of a peacock, even the wildlife found in our back garden. With regards to how complex creatures were formed: did chance throw together some legs, arms, lungs, skin, eyes, ears and a brain, then out popped a perfectly formed marvel of creation? Take our brains, they are ordered in such a way that we remember facts, images, music and even smells. The processing power of the human brain puts most super computers to shame, yet no one believes that super computers came about by chance.
George Sim Johnson wrote in ‘Did Darwin Get it Right?’ (The Wall Street Journal, October 15, 1999):’Human DNA contains more organised information than the Encyclopedia Britannica. If the full text of the encyclopedia were to arrive in computer code from outer space, most people would regard this as proof of the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence. But when seen in nature, it is explained as the workings of random forces.’Sir Isaac Newton, the great scientist, wrote;’This most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comets could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful being.’How much more orderly are all the aforementioned things compared to a few rows of lemons?
In his book, The myths and reality of technology, John P. Swords writes:’Analysis reveals that the probability of the spontaneous assembly of DNA, the complex molecule that carries the DNA code, as a result of random reactions is infinitesimally small. There are so many countless billions of possible molecular combinations, that the chances of exactly the right one cropping up by blind chance is virtually zero.’
To explain life without supernatural or divine intervention is denying the obvious.
Stage 4 – Gold in China
The declaration, ‘There is no God,’ is what is known as an absolute statement. For an absolute statement to be true, one would require absolute knowledge. Another absolute statement is: ‘There is no gold in China.’
What would I need to have for the statement about China to be true?
1) No knowledge of China
2) Partial knowledge of China
3) Absolute knowledge of China
If you answered ‘c’ then you are right. I would have to know the contents of every rock, all jewelery, every dental filling and so on. In fact I would need to know about every atom of China for me to say there is no gold. To say, ‘There is no God,’ would require complete knowledge of everything in the universe. How can you say for certain that there is not a God? Have you searched the depths of the sea or the vastness of the universe? Let us say that this whole bar represents all the knowledge of the universe and let us suppose you have attained an incredible 1% chunk of all of that knowledge.
Is it not possible that in the remaining 99% of all knowledge there could be overwhelming evidence that God exists?
If you are reasonable you would have to say, ‘In the very limited knowledge that I have, I believe that there is no God; but really, I just do not know.’ If this is the case then you are an agnostic and not an atheist.
An atheist denies the existence of God, just like a person who denies a house had a builder.
An agnostic is a person who doubts the truth of religion and is uncertain of all claims to knowledge. This is like a person who looks at a painting and is not sure if there was a painter.
If someone was standing on a busy train-track and denied the existence of trains, it would not change reality. Sooner or later that person will meet a train, whether they believe it or not. Even the train tracks are a large clue that trains exist.
It is the same with God. You are standing on His creation, which speaks of Him, and one day you will have to stand before Him, whether you believe it or not.
The person who looks at a painting and is unsure if there was a painter is:
1) Intelligent
2) A fool
3) A person with an ulterior motive
Stage 5 – Seeing is Believing?
Perhaps you have questions that hold you back from faith in God. Almost every question you have about death, suffering and God can be adequately answered. You just need to seek answers until you are satisfied. Either there is a God or there is not. If not then we are hurtling through space at more than 66,000 miles per hour without anyone in control. If not then what is our life worth? In the vastness of the universe our lives would be as significant as a leaf turning over. When we die it would be just lights out, like billions of people before us, and who would remember us?
Some make the excuse that they will not believe in God until they see Him. Yet many already have faith in things they do not see or even understand. Television signals are transmitted through the air constantly. Films, music documentaries and news reports go unseen past our eyes twenty-four hours a day. Does that mean that they do not exist? No. To see them we need a receiver. Not everyone quite understands the internal workings of a TV, yet by faith they turn it on and receive the signals. Not everyone who drives a car knows how it works. Yet this does not hinder them from turning the key, starting the motor and driving away.
God is an eternal, invisible spirit, thus we cannot see him. Until our receiver is turned on, we cannot experience Him. God is all-wise, all-knowing, and far above human understanding, but should this hinder us from ‘turning the key’ of faith?
The Bible says:
‘But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.’ (Hebrews 11:6)
Would it please your father if you did not believe that he existed?
Would it please God if you did not believe that He existed?
Will your spirit live on after your death?
There are many people to be found who have come to faith in God and His son Jesus Christ. They will tell you that they know their sins forgiven, and have a great hope for the future. Some may even be able to prove the transforming power in their lives. It would be difficult indeed to find a similar story from an atheist ‘convert’. Does atheism give a peace in the heart and encouragement to do good to our fellowman? Have you read anything that starts, ‘Atheism changed my life, I am now more content and happy than I was before?’ No? Perhaps this is why we never see atheist street preachers. Great men and women in history have been motivated to do great exploits because they knew their God. Examples are: David Livingstone, Thomas Barnardo, Lord Shaftesbury, Louis Pasteur, Michael Faraday, the Wright brothers, Charles Babbage, James Clerk Maxwell, William Thomson (Lord Kelvin), Joseph Lister, John Bunyan, George Muller and Henry Heinz – to name but a few.