Starting With God

The universe and everything in it either originated at the behest of a powerful and intelligent God, or it didn’t. If God was involved then purpose, plan, design and His guiding hand were involved. If God was not involved, there was no purpose, no plan, and no design. If God was not involved, the only power for causation (as opposed to creation), that is applicable to human activity, had to come from electrical impulses and chemical reactions.

Without God, all life forms are merely a mass of protoplasm experiencing electrical impulses and chemical reactions, nothing more. Note that chemical reactions and electrical impulses excercise no choice. They are controlled by physical laws which they have no part in determining. Humans excercise choice. They have free will. There’s more than electrical impulses and chemical reactions to humans (and dogs and many animals.) That requires something besides inanimate matter.

Beyond that, anything that you have ever encountered that showed elements of design and it was possible to trace its history back to its origin, a 747 jet, a cell phone, a pencil, a clock, a kitchen table, a corn field, even a bird nest, you will find it was brought into existence by an intelligent being with power over the elements of which it is made. Design requires a designer. You have never seen an item displaying elements of design, which item was traceable to its origin, that was not made by an intelligent being with power over the elements of which it is made.

With that background, if you should find an item that displays design and you cannot trace that item to its origin, what would be the logical conclusion to make about that object? If you find a clay pot with a pouring spout and a handle along a remote trail in northern New Mexico, would you assume that you had found an artifact from people who may have lived in the area hundreds of years ago? Or would you plod on thinking that random clay had formed itself into a vessel complete with a handle by happenstance? One of those is a logical conclusion, the other is irrational delusion.

The universe shows element of design. It consists of untold numbers of galaxies, each possessing untold numbers of stars. There are stars with planets, a solar system. Our galaxy is the Milky Way. Our star is the sun, around which our solar system is centered. The planets function like a well-oiled machine as they make their revolutions around the sun and rotations on their axes. They are so precise and constant in their motions that those who study them can predict the exact position they will occupy at any moment of time. They are so predictable that astronomers were able to predict the existence of Pluto and find it orbiting where they predicted it would be.

Things don’t happen randomly in our solar system. They are ordered and precise. There are elements of design. The logical conclusion, because every time we can test it this is the result, is that it was created by an intelligent being with power over the elements of which it is made. The logical conclusion is that there is a God. But atheists don’t like that conclusion. They prefer to think that a piece of pottery arose out of random happenstance and just created itself.

Without God you have to make up the Big Bang theory to explain the universe. Without God you have to believe in spontaneous generation and make up evolution to explain life. Atheists will not admit it to the layman, but they know and discuss amongst themselves the many problems inherent in their ideas. Some of the ideas they hold, the theories they espouse and the positions they are forced to take are totally without merit. Many are actually unscientific. They bluster their way through and ridicule and cast aspersions at those who believe in God. Bluster and ridicule, and casting aspersions are not arguments. They are a way to keep from having to make arguments.

Without God you have to use might to determine what makes right. Without God you have to hem and haw trying to explain how chemical reactions and electrical impulses can appreciate classical music and Rembrandt’s art, and contemplate differential equations, relativity, universal gravitation and quantum mechanics, or fall in love or be consumed by hate

In short, when you leave God out of the picture, nothing makes sense. You have introduced many unanswered questions. You must accept ridiculous answers to those questions. Atheists know this, but their means of avoiding humility is to cast aspersions at those who believe in God. They claim expert credentials while espousing nonsense and trying to cow believers into silence.

When you start with God everything makes sense. How did the universe get here? God created it. Where did humans come from? God created us. What is right and what is wrong? God determines that. Why are we here? Read the Bible. Study it. Learn it. Live it. “Fear God and keep His commandments. This is the whole [purpose] of man,” Ecclesiastes 12:13.