Chicken and Egg – Design as Evidence of God.

Design is difficult to describe. It is different from randomness. It is the difference between a crumpled ball of paper and an origami sculpture. It is obvious when you see it…but only obvious when you are looking for it.

Design follows a sequence. It starts somewhere and then moves to an end. When we contemplate the chicken and the egg…we wonder which came first? Of course it is an unanswerable question. Without a chicken there can’t be an egg but without an egg there can’t be a chicken. And half an egg won’t give you a chicken. An altered egg won’t give you a chicken. So how come we have both chicken and egg?

As we look at the world around us, we see constant evidence of careful design-the bird's wing is shaped and structured in such a way that flight is possible; but the bird would not survive if the wing were partially formed or moving through an evolutionary process. The wing needs to be complete and made for purpose in order to function.

The same is true with so many piece of the human body. The human ear has many pieces but it is only when all pieces work together and are present together that the ear works.

Human reproduction cannot happen in pieces, or over an extended period of time. All pieces must appear simultaneously for humans to reproduce. And without them all appearing simultaneously there would be no humans to reproduce

The natural environment is complexly designed to support life. If some aspect was missing or different then life could not happen. These all point to a careful deign and a world made fit for purpose.

But if there is design then there must be a designer – a great mind called God.

Evidence for God - Complexity 

We live in a universe that is immensely complex. Everywhere you look, every interaction, every activity is a complex set of finely tuned interconnected events and parts. Take as an example the simple task of eating a meal. For eating to be productive the human body needs a complex collection of bacteria and processes that all must function properly in order for eating to provide the nutrition that the body requires. Looking at any discipline produces a similar conclusion. In every sphere that can be contemplated there is immense complexity. In mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, anatomy, psychology and economics all contain immensely complex processes many of which are far from being fully understood. Add to that the reality that life is more than an interconnected set of events it also contains such things as love, joy, music, pain and laughter – these too contain immensely complex interactions.

But if complexity is a true way to describe life then it demands an explanation. In human experience complex things do not happen by themselves. There are only three possible solutions to a complex existence…everything happened by accident, the universe created itself or someone made it. Complexity points to design and careful craftsmanship… it seems more probable to conclude a mind behind a complex existence than a cosmic accident…

Complexity seems to indicate God.

Evidence for God – the Problem of Existence

At its most simple the problem is that we exist - we are here. Now most of us don’t regard existence as a problem…we might have thought it a problem that the bully at school exists or that our boss exists; but existence needs to be explained because things don’t simply happen by themselves.

In our family home things happen. A few years ago our house alarm went off inexplicably one night. I had just put the children to bed and had set the alarm and I was settling down on our bed to read when my peace was disturbed by the mournful wail of the siren. For once I was fairly sure ‘the bad guys’ as my children used to call them were not to blame. After turning off the alarm and assuring the security company that everything was alright I went and asked the children what had happened, they told me, “I don’t know. It wasn’t me.”

“Nothing,” said my very young daughter but I had seen her running down the passage heading for bed in panic at setting the alarm off.

Things don’t just happen by themselves. The toys did not fall out of the box by themselves; the paint did not get on to the wall by itself; Airbus A380’s do not get assembled by themselves; mathematics textbooks do not simply appear by themselves; hurricanes do not blow and leave behind them newly assembled nuclear submarines. Our universe is much more complicated than any of those simple machines…our bodies are much more complicated than those machines…something caused them to happen. We exist…that is the problem that needs an explanation…

There are only three possible solutions to existence…

1. Everything happened by accident, 
2. The universe created itself 
3. Or a powerful being made it all…

The Most Important Question

Life is full of questions. Some have answers others do not. Some are important others are trivial. The most important among them is the question of God. Is there a God? If there isn’t then all questions including this one are irrelevant. If there isn’t a God then life is simply a cosmic accident. A spectacular and impressive event but an accident nevertheless. It is impossible to find a purpose in this life if there is no reason for living. Shakespeare described it well when he said

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,

And then is heard no more. It is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.

But if there is a God then human existence is filled with meaning. There is a reason for life and life is heading in a direction. If there is a God, then what we do matters. There is the prospect of justice in a world of injustice. There is the prospect of hope in a world of despair and there is the prospect of life in a world of death. The question of God’s existence then becomes the most important question you could ever ask. So ask it! Investigate it and then embrace the answer you find.