There are two particular studies of science that can draw a person closer to faith in God : the study of the universe and the study of the cell, the macro and the micro. The more deeply an inquiring mind examines either, the more the astounding the observations.
“To look out at this kind of creation out here and not believe in God is to me impossible, ... It just strengthens my
faith. I wish there were words to describe what it's like.”
– John Glenn
Read more at
http://www.beliefnet.com/Inspiration/2009/07/Famous-Astronaut-Quotes.aspx?p=5#trCL8YvHujUI8F0V.99
“To look out at this kind of creation out here and not believe in God is to me impossible, ... It just strengthens my
faith. I wish there were words to describe what it's like.”
– John Glenn
Read more at
http://www.beliefnet.com/Inspiration/2009/07/Famous-Astronaut-Quotes.aspx?p=5#trCL8YvHujUI8F0V.99
(John Glenn, born 1921, Astronaut)
Above is an illustration of a typical living cell. If it looks a little like a new city layout plan for Sydney, Australia, this is merely co-incidental. And of course it is far more complex than a city. Each of the elements involves many working parts and each of these elements can be sub-divided into many other parts and performs multiple functions. For the cell to live, all of these multitude of aspects have to be functioning perfectly and functioning simultaneously. Evolutionists know that the chances of these structures evolving by means of beneficial mutations is nil. The current view is based on the concept of "hopeful monsters", a turn of phrase which was first coined by German geneticist Richard Goldschmidt in 1940 * and later adopted by other leading evolutionists such as Stephen Jay Gould - being, that much of this appeared suddenly without having to "evolve" in the normal sense of the word, by a mechanism we can neither explain or observe. In other words, it's something else evolutionists just made up.
As mentioned, delving deeper into just one part of the living cell, such as Mitochondrion (plural Mitochondria) reveals a mind-boggling array of functionality and inter-dependence **. Mitochondria are membranes that generate cell energy. In addition to this vital task, they help co-ordinate cell actions (known as "signalling"), stem cell division (called "differentiation") embryonic development (through what's known as "apoptosis"), assist in control of the cell cycle (involved in the renewal of internal organs, blood, hair, skin etc) and affect cell growth. Mitochondria are also understood to play a role in the aging process. Estimates of
the number of different proteins alone involved in observed Mitochondria ranges from 600 to 1000. It's not rocket science! It's far more complicated than that.
In Charles Darwin's day, the study of the cell was naturally only beginning. But when Darwin considered complexity at a far higher level, the human eye, he found the idea that this complex organ evolved to be preposterous.
"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
formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest
degree possible."
(Charles Darwin, "The Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection")
Yet Darwin persisted with his theory, though by the end of his life, it literally gave him nightmares.
"Often a cold shudder has run through me, and I have asked myself
whether I may have not devoted myself to a fantasy."
(Charles Darwin, Life and Letters, 1887, Vol. 2, p. 229)
Scientists ever since have come up against the same brick wall. And the deeper they investigate, the more incredible the evolutionary tale becomes.
"All of us who study the origin of life find that the more we look into
it, the more we feel it is too complex to have evolved anywhere. We all believe
as an article of faith that life evolved from dead matter on this planet. It is
just that life's complexity is so great, it is hard for us to imagine that it
did."
(Dr. Harold Urey, 1893-1981, Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry, 1934)
"Human DNA contains more organized 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."
(George Sim Johnson "Did Darwin Get it Right?" The Wall Street
Journal, October 15, 1999)
Of course, not all scientists are evolutionists. Many believe the purely naturalistic, atheistic explanations of life and the universe to be simply untrue.
"The likelihood of the formation of life from inanimate matter is one
to a number with 40,000 nought's after it...It is big enough to bury Darwin and
the whole theory of Evolution. There was no primeval soup, neither on this
planet nor on any other, and if the beginnings of life were not random, they
must therefore have been the product of purposeful intelligence."
(Sir Fred Hoyle, 1915-2001, respected British physicist and astronomer)
"The occurrence of any event where the chances are beyond one in ten
followed by 50 zeros is an event which we can state with certainty will never
happen, no matter how much time is allotted and no matter how many conceivable
opportunities could exist for the event to take place."
(Dr. Emile Borel, 1871-1956, who discovered the laws of probability)
"The simplicity that was once expected to be the foundation of life has
proven to be a phantom; instead, systems of horrendous, irreducible complexity
inhabit the cell. The resulting realization that life was designed by an
intelligence is a shock to us in the twentieth century who have gotten used to
thinking of life as the result of simple natural laws. But other centuries have
had their shocks, and there is no reason to suppose that we should escape them.
Humanity has endured as the center of the heavens moved from the earth to
beyond the sun, as the history of life expanded to encompass long-dead
reptiles, as the eternal universe proved mortal. We will endure the opening of
Darwin's Black box"
(Michael J. Behe, born 1952, biochemist, "Darwin's Black Box, pg. 252")
Other scientists of past renown have echoed the same sentiments :
“In the view of such harmony in the cosmos which I, with my
limited human mind, am able to recognize, there are yet people who says there
is no God. But what makes me really angry is that they quote me for support of
such views.”
(Albert Einstein, The Expanded Quotable Einstein, Princeton University, page 214)
“Posterity will one day laugh at the foolishness of
modern materialistic philosophers. The more I study nature, the more I stand amazed
at the work of the Creator. I pray while I am engaged at my work in the
laboratory.”
(Louis
Pasteur - as quoted in The Literary Digest, 18 October 1902 ***. French
microbiologist, chemist,
pioneer of the Germ Theory of Disease, discoverer
of molecular asymmetry and stereo-chemistry, and inventor of the process of Pasteurization)
~
As science continues it's work of grappling with both outer space and inner space, there is nothing in this process that should cause creationists to fear. Each matter that has been discovered thus far, once viewed dispassionately, lends itself to strengthen the case for Intelligent Design. God is not seated on heaven's throne with his nails dug deep into the armrests, full of consternation. God's word, the Bible, written two millennia ago and more, predicted this search that mankind would go on to discover his origins and search for answers. The "evolutionary phase" has lasted 175 years so far and has led many up an intellectual cul-de-sac and to spiritual barrenness. But God is still in control and has not been caught unawares.
20 For
since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal
power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from
what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
21 For
although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave
thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts
were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools.......
25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator......
(Romans 1:20-21, 25)
And in all of this, His care is still for the individual :
24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands.
25 And
he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he
himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else....
27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.
28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being....
(Acts 17:24-25, 27-28)
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
(John 3:16-17)
* http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Hopeful_monster (don't mind the paragraph of creationist-bashing at the end of the article - evolutionists sometimes adopt this kind of rhetoric when their ideas are systematically challenged. I heard Duane Gish speak live in the early 1990's in Trinity College Dublin. He was awesome!! Where creationists have distorted the facts, this is of course wrong and in the end, weakens their case. But often, anti-creationist sentiment on the web seems to contain more criticism than critique)
** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitochondrion
*** http://www.unz.org/Pub/LiteraryDigest-1902oct18 (see section "The Religious World - Is Darwinism on it's deathbed?", p.490)
