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Science will say that life is a chemical process. If so, then it is the most complex chemical
reaction in the universe. It is so
extraordinary and complex that many people, for many reasons, believe that it
cannot have come about by accidental means, but only as a result of intent and
purpose.
The extreme unlikelihood of life— even in its most primitive
form— coming into existence by purely material means, depends on pretty much
everything else in the universe being exactly right for life. The entire universe conspires, as it were, to
form life. More than even that, the
universe provides the right conditions for the existence of human beings. There is even more— the universe provides the
precise environment needed for civilization, science, and advanced technology.
It is easy to overlook these facts and to minimize their importance. According to natural-materialism, life could
possibly have come about without producing humans. Humans might have come about without the
conditions needed for civilization, science, and advanced technology. Enormous numbers and combinations of exact
conditions were needed to produce the result, that result being humans
producing a technologically advanced civilization.
Let’s consider some of the steps in that process.
First, the formation of life from inert atoms is itself
miraculous. Atoms come together to form
amino acids. These combine into more
complex proteins. Eventually, DNA[1]
comes into being, which is perhaps the most amazing molecule in the universe,
for it has the ability to make copies of itself, and to control every physical process
of life from conception to reproduction, and even death. And we are only scratching the surface.
Because the conditions for life require that everything in the
universe must come together with unimaginable precision, life is clearly
intertwined with the universe as a whole.
But, whereas natural-materialists view life as the happenstance byproduct
of nature, the God Paradigm says the opposite, that the universe is the product
of life. The living God made the
universe, and designed it precisely as a physical home for life.
There is more. Were life
to consist of only a few microorganisms, that would be amazing enough in
itself. But human life has gone far, far
beyond the mere biological definition of life.
We have developed technology, social structures, arts, and yes,
science. This requires enormous cosmic
infrastructure which science is only just beginning to fully appreciate. In order for human civilization to occur, the
universe must not merely be so designed as to support a few chemical processes;
much more is required. The unimaginable
series of so-called coincidences that support human civilization are beyond
calculation.
For example, we have already mentioned the physical constants
that govern the universe. These alone
seem miraculous, but they are only the beginning of a long and coordinated
series of coincidences, most of which are mysteries to science. For example, seventy-six percent of the known
universe is comprised of dark matter and dark energy, and scientists do not
know what these are. (We shall discuss
them later.)
The universe is structured into filaments of galaxies, galactic
clusters, and galaxies. Planet earth
exists in one of the billions of galaxies in the known universe, but not just
anywhere within that galaxy. The galaxy
itself is structured into spiral arms, and in order for the earth to support
life and human civilization, our planet must be carefully located within a
favorable part of the galaxy. We must be
neither too far from the center, nor too close to it. Furthermore, we must be situated just right
with reference to the spiral arms.
If that is not enough, there is a long list of other
requirements for human civilization to arise and flourish. The structure of our sun, the orbits of the
planets, and the precise relationship between the earth and the moon are just a
few of the many, many coincidences that make human civilization possible.
Atoms themselves are complex structures composed of various
electric charges and nuclear forces (the strong and the weak), and these must
be precisely coordinated with each other, or else atoms could not exist, nor
could they form complex chemicals.
On the earth itself, the chemistry must permit long-term
stability. There must be oceans and dry
land, and a transparent atmosphere composed of the right mix of elements to
permit fire, but without scorching the planet.
The dry land must contain minerals and metals that are used in
technology, and these must be close to the surface where they are accessible. Coal and petroleum must be formed to provide
the massive amounts of energy needed for industry.
Add to that, another, even more astonishing series of
coincidences which resulted in the formation of our moon. The earth-moon relationship produces so many
benefits to life that they are not yet fully known.
The moon is thought to have formed when, billions of years ago,
the primordial planet earth collided with another planet. In effect, the two planets collided with each
other in exactly the right way so as to send billions of tons of debris into
orbit, but without destroying the earth.
This debris eventually coalesced into what today we see as the moon. That collision also adjusted the rotational
speed and the angle of the earth’s inclination toward the sun, so as to result,
eventually, in our present 24-hour day and our four seasons.
It has been said that this collision had to be so precise that
even the tiniest angle of difference would have produced very different
results, results not conducive to life.
Tracing backward in time, this collision had to have been “set up,” so
to speak, from the very first moment of the universe’s existence.
Many, many other conditions for human life and civilization were
also met, conditions too numerous to explore fully in this text. A book titled, The Privileged Planet contains many astonishing details. (ISBN
0-89526-065-4)[2]
As we can see, then, the existence of human life in its present
form is either the result of divine miracles, or else, the result of so many
unlikely coincidences that science has had to devise a hypothesis like MUH to
even hope for an alternative to the miracle proposal.
We are not done. Perhaps
the greatest miracle of all is needed to explain life.
Science has discovered a molecule at the heart of physical
life, a chemical called DNA. DNA has the
seemingly miraculous ability to make exact copies of itself. It is this ability that allows living
creatures to reproduce. Even more
miraculously, a single molecular contingent of human DNA contains all the
information needed to construct and operate the human body from conception,
through every stage of life, and then to produce another human individual to
repeat the process.
This tiny molecule contains all that information, and yet it
fits into a single, tiny cell, in a part of the cell called the nucleus. Nearly every type of cell in the body
contains a full set of DNA.
Physically speaking, DNA is only a molecule, and yet it has
remarkable similarities to a complex computer program, the type of coded
instruction written by humans. The sequences
of DNA partitions are closely comparable to a written language, complete with
an alphabet, punctuation marks, words, and paragraphs.
Proponents of the theory of ID (Intelligent Design) of the
universe point to DNA as one of the most potent evidences of divine intent in
creating the universe for human life. Opponents of ID say that it is all a
coincidence, and rely upon hypotheses such as MUH to support that claim.
While this book cannot empirically prove that God designed and
created the universe for human life and civilization, the long list of
evidences for that claim has at least forced the natural-materialist to concede
the existence of higher orders of reality beyond our own universe, and to adopt
a hypothesis (MUH) that has more flaws in it, and less evidence for it, than
does ID.
[1] DNA is
the well-known acronym which stands for deoxyribose-nucleic-acid
[2] Guillermo Gonzalez and Jay Richards.
Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2004.
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