All the Time in the World (Irreducible Complex part 4)
Space Age
The concept of free will is up for grabs these days. And it makes sense when you think about it–along these lines. Us. A product of the outworking of billions and billions of years and billions of constituent parts swirling around and finding structure and order in a giant space. And as each of those parts are merely doing what they were created, er, made to do, it would seem that we are, for better or worse, “irreducibly complex”. The singularity was. It blew apart and it’s come together the way you see it now. “Irreducibly complex” is a phrase coined by Creationist Michael Behe to identify the impossiblility of our bodies having been created rather than evolved. The idea is, many of our systems cannot afford to lose or gain one piece in order to continue functioning as it was intended, er…designed. Or whatever. And that’s a simplistic paraphrase. If I leave off believing in God as the “Watchmaker”, I’d have to radically change my parlance. Oh, I’m willing, don’t get me wrong, it’s how I’m made up. I’d change my argot, as it were, and you’d find no reference to God in any of my words. But that would only happen were I totally shut off from the God I believe in and know and love. It’s black and white for me. And I would (my will, you understand) have it no other way. All the preceding aside, I absolutely couldn’t care less about what happened prior to six-thousand years ago. The peace and closure that stems from hearing and reading about such things devoid of God’s touch doesn’t hold a candle to the love that Jesus shows me and shows through me. There’s no such thing as love if all we are is “billion year old carbon”. We have to get ourselves back to the garden. Naive, I know. But more knowledge doesn’t necessarily lead to servanthood nor selflessness, let alone miracles.
The way of the dinosaur
“And in the morning, it will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?” (Matthew 16:3)
I find it remarkable, as the relatively paltry number of seconds tick away in our lives, that people are so brutally resistant to the idea of God. Yes, He’s been bandied about ad nauseam for thousands upon thousands of years. Different religions bring their structures and strictures to the table. But look around you. Yes, He’s been blamed for tragedies and disbelieved in as a result. Turn it around though. How often does one acknowledge a God, let alone a good One, when good things happen? The sunrise? The sunset? The clouds billowing prior to a rainstorm? Three things of inexpressable beauty that can (and are) explained away through the lens of unbelief. The wonder of which, does not go to the top floor.
Winding Down
“In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words.” (Colossians 2:3-4)
I’m actually quite serious about this. We as Christians are not called to appeal to the unbeliever through the rhetoric of, how can I say this, a broader fact base. Because the world is so infinitely complex as to render anyone speechless with wonder. It’s the condition of a soft heart that inspires one to lay down their preconceived notions as to who God is or is not, or not. And that’s something that, in each and every one of us, the Holy Spirit has access to. As you live out the love of Jesus (don’t pay attention to the time) with every one you meet and every situation you encounter, hearts will be changed. Minds will be renewed and life will go on. Because I know God’s real. All this other stuff will work itself out.
Hmmm… I read through this thinking that this was going to be a post on Paley’s idea, But it wasn’t – well kind of. An interesting set of pieces – and I’m going to delve deeper into you blog – even though we have completely and contradictory world views!.
For example:
“I find it remarkable, as the relatively paltry number of seconds tick away in our lives, that people are so brutally resistant to the idea of God” I find it remarkable that people waste these precious seconds praising a creator for which there is neither evidence nor indeed need…
and the line: “We as Christians are not called to appeal to the unbeliever through the rhetoric of, how can I say this, a broader fact base..” just confuses me. Which facts? A broader belief base I’ll agree, but facts? True rigorously provable, scientific facts? Surely you have to give the atheists and scientist the nod for this one?
By the way – I’m not trolling – I came here by searching the tag “atheist” but instead found this interesting sermon. I look forward to commenting on your other posts, and perhaps you’d like to do the same? http://thebobdelusion.wordpress.com/ is my blog – not as well written as yours perhaps – but with what I hope is an interesting set of differing views….
I appreciate the respect. Firstly, I’d like to say thanks for not trolling. I didn’t start this blog to start arguments that go nowhere. So far as facts, or “facts” go, I’m referring to my brothers and sisters (Christians) trying to appeal for God’s existence (and therefore Christ’s necessity?) using the same science as non-believers. I’m not up on all the arguments for both sides but for instance, are Christians using the same carbon-dating to prove the veracity of Noah’s Ark as are non-believers who say the earth is billions? It makes my head hurt. Not from conflict but from confusion. Jesus led with things that are sub-biological and if the former’s all we focus on, we’ll miss Him. This is my opinion.
I will indeed check out your stuff. Thanks for the comment! Blessings.