GOD – AND THE GREAT GOD CHANCE – Part V

Some years ago British Biblical scholar, J. B. Phillips published a book titled, Your God Is Too Small, focusing especially on God as perceived by Christian denominations But today both scientists and theologians need to expand their concepts so as not to have a God too small.

But is it all chance – a chance collocation of atoms? Our atheist evolutionists prefer Darwin’s term, “natural selection” but fail to explain what is “natural” about natural selection. Why should life evolve and not devolve? Why is there an “ascent” of life from lower to higher and not a descent from higher to lower? Why do things become more complex with time? How does one explain the development of the human brain?

Even Darwin had difficulty explaining how the human eye could merely have evolved and Hitchens admits that the real “miracle” is that “we, who share genes with the original bacteria that began life on the planet, have evolved as much as we have.” (op. cit. P 84) Indeed!

Or as the old Scottish theologian put it, “nature is not as natural as it looks.” The probabilities of life appearing as it has are staggering says British scientist, John Polkinghorne, namely about one in ten followed by forty zeros. British astronomer, Sir James Jeans suggested that “the world was beginning to look more like a great thought than a great machine.” (Pilgrim At Tinker Creek, Annie Dillard, P. 148) And physicist, Werner Heisenberg, with his Principle of Indeterminacy, says the scientific world view has ceased to be a scientific view in the new sense of the word. The observer and the observed are joined together.

Heisenberg continues, saying, “There is a higher power, not influenced by our wishes, which finally decides and judges.” And Sir Arthur Eddington says the Principle of Indeterminacy “leaves us with no clear distinction between the Natural and the Supernatural! (ibid. p. 307-8)

This coincides with the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen theory of the non-local universe. These scientists/physicists have found that what runs the universe lies outside the universe. (see Why Religion Matters, Huston Smith. P. 176)

That brings us closer to John’s Gospel where he says the Word of God, the logos of God, the reason or idea or rational, ordering, structuring principle of God, has brought everything into being. And by it all things exist and hold together.

So on pleasant summer mornings when my wife and I sit on the front porch with our morning coffee, we behold the beauty of the flowers and trees and grasses. And we watch the amazing antics and maneuvers of the birds at play and in their courtship dances. And we look at each other and quip, “isn’t it great what this great god Chance has done. He/she must be worthy of wonder, awe, and worship.” Bur we prefer to adore and worship the Creator God, the Eternal Mind and Energy of the universe, who as the writer of Hebrews says, created the world by his word from that which is unseen.

Is it a matter of faith? Yes, in the end. Not credulity or gullibility, but faith. But so is science, says Harvard’s Thomas Kuhn in his book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions: scientific breakthroughs often require a leap of faith. Is the alternative a matter of faith, that the “stuff” of the universe is eternal and just happened to evolve to the present state? I think it is.

But I’ll take the former proposition, believing where we cannot absolutely prove, knowing that faith is the courage to live with uncertainty. But with the conviction that in the beginning God created and continues to create and to hold everything together.

Or as world renowned expert on world religions, Huston Smith, says, “Every day we discover that the world is more strange, more complicated, and more mysterious than we had suspected.” (Why Religion Matters. P. 185)

Indeed it is!