Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Why we're here

John C Wright has posted a few thoughts on God and the universe.  It's interesting reading.  Here, and here, and here

To be honest, this is a topic that is well above my pay grade.  I usually avoid it since, for the most part, I'm only repeating what someone else has said or written.  Since I'm ignorant of much of the topic's substance, I'm not sure if what I'm repeating carries any real weight.  So I avoid it.

When I do repeat it, it's because it was presented in a way that makes sense to my amateur ears.  So a physics prof back in my Protestant days explained why he could never see evolution as a stand alone reality separate from God.  His specialty was aerodynamics.  He explained that flight simply couldn't evolve.

Why?  Because to have an airplane, or even a glider, one needs more than just a bus with wings grafted on it. The entire mechanism of flight must be built into every part of it.  At once.  Not in stages.  An airplane half completed won't fly.

A bird is made to fly.  Everything about it is made to fly.  As is a bumblebee, a helicopter, a humming bird, a jet, or a bald eagle.  Take one part of it away and it can no longer fly.  Change one factor in the total equation, and it's grounded.  And, as he points out, having only part of the mechanisms needed to fly is a detriment, not a boon.  After all, if you only slapped wings on me but didn't give me any other parts needed for flight (build, body shape, bone density, etc.), I'd be at a significant disadvantage fleeing a predator.  Running with giant wings strapped on is quite a slow down. 

Now, to my novice and former track and cross country mind, that makes sense.  Either in a freakish fluke that makes belief in God seem easy, an organism was born with a hundred mutations that all spontaneously fit to allow it to fly, or over a long period of time, different parts were added that didn't harm it, but didn't allow it to fly either, until finally, one day, all the pieces fit and it could suddenly fly.  Again, it's much easier to believer in a Creator behind it all.

But that's the extent of my meddling in this particular branch of apologetics.  I leave it to others, like Mr. Wright, who have done the hard work of knowing what to talk about when it comes to taking on the belief that the Cosmos is all that is or was or ever will be.

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