Working by chance is not God's way

Why couldn’t God have used chance to guide the evolutionary process throughout millions of years?

Biologist and geologist Gary Parker gives the best response to your question when he says, “ ‘Time and chance’ are logical opposites of ‘plan and purpose.’  To give due credit, that’s the real genius of evolution: a bold attempt at design without a Designer.  If God used chance on purpose, then would it really be chance?  On the other hand, if it were chance, how could it be on purpose?”

God is omnipotent and capable of creating any way he wants to, except through chance.  Why can I be so bold in this statement?  Because God is also sovereign.  Sovereignty means God is in control, He is not just the director of chance events.  For God to use random changes over millions of years to eventually produce life is completely against the nature of God. Evolution is an inefficient, wasteful and cruel process totally against the character of God.

God has told us in Romans 1:20 that creation reveals Himself. “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.”   All of creation points to an intelligent designer.  It didn’t just get here by small changes randomly occurring over long periods of time.  Intelligent design is all around us.  The make-up of DNA, the precision of the universe and even the wonder of ornithology (the study of birds) are just a few examples of intelligent design. 

My daughter and I have been studying ornithology for a while now.  Birds are absolutely amazing creations and obviously the result of the intelligent designer God of the universe.  The beautiful Gouldian finch, for example, has an amazing design feature.  It makes its nests in dark places like a small bush or a hollow in a tree.  Amazingly, our Creator, exhibiting intelligence, forethought, plan and purpose equipped the young nestlings with iridescent nodules inside the mouth.  Two pairs of purple-blue nodules visible within the gaping beak of the baby birds act like landing lights to guide the mother where to place the food.  It is obvious that this bird is designed to do what it does. 

Throughout nature we see a premeditated pattern.  It is obvious that life could have never resulted from thoughtlessness.  Life appears to be the product of premeditated design.  Life is linked together by a web of similarities looking like the product of a common designer.  An artist, for example, has common features in different painting which distinguish his work.  So also you would expect common features in the design of a single designer.  Just because apes and men both walk upright doesn’t mean evolution and a common designer.  Homologous features do not prove a common ancestor, but do prove a common designer.

Even a non-Christian can agree that intelligent design is a better explanation for what we see and observe.  Walter Remine in his book, “Biotic Message” (which was written “free of religious reference”) describes the impossibility of any explanation except that of an intelligent design.  He says, “Life is the product of a single designer – life was intentionally designed to resist all other interpretations of origin.”

Chemist A.E. Wilder-Smith explains the mental acrobatics necessary to empower chance.   Chance, he explains, is “non know-how.”  For any biologic system to work, it requires the antithesis of chance – know-how.  Embracing chance in scientific explanations makes scientific inquiry pure philosophy and ignores experimental (real) science.  Intelligent design, however, is what can be shown with experiment and what can be seen and observed in nature.

Design can be defined as the evidence of the outworking of intelligence.  For example, if I gave you paper, ink, and glue, what would be missing in order for you to have a novel?  Intelligence.  Intelligent design is logically and scientifically defensible and should be allowed and investigated, not censored out of this debate.  True science welcomes scrutiny.

 The importance of this aspect of the debate cannot be understated.  Wilder-Smith says, “If chance is our creator, a universal absolute moral code no longer exists.”  It is no wonder evolution is so attractive.  It appeals to anti-Christian beliefs and provides an excuse to live free from morality.  This is becoming very “American.”  Freedom is being extended to include freedom from morality.  This independence from God is nothing new however.  It is just the contemporary expression of what Henry Morris calls “the long war against God.”  It goes back to the Garden of Eden – instead of being dependent on God, Adam and Eve wanted independence; freedom set the rules for themselves.

7/22/00
Page 25

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©Tom Carpenter
Originally published in the Rockdale/Newton Citizen