did all this beauty and order just happen?

Many years ago, we lived near a large woods where I would often hike with our kids. Near a small pond in the woods was a tree that had a birdhouse nailed to its trunk. I would sometimes (with tongue in cheek) say to my kids, "That birdhouse just happened by itself. A log was on the ground and got pushed into the tree by a huge wind. Then some stones shaped like nails also blew up and nailed the stick to this tree."

In response, my kids would in unison say, "Dad, no way! Somebody put that birdhouse up there." Deep down they knew I had to be joking. And, of course, they were right. I was trying to make a bigger point that, even though we don't know who or how or when, the evidence was unmistakable: intelligence and focused energy produced and installed that birdhouse.

How much more when we look at the overwhelming design, beauty and order of the Universe! It HAD to be designed by an incredible intelligence to make it and then to keep it functioning.

Why in the world do otherwise smart people conclude differently? Because they have embraced a worldview friends of mine would call "One-ism." That is: they believe there is only one reality: the universe that we know and live in. There is no God outside of it. So since the universe is all there is, we are forced to somehow explain how all this order and beauty created itself. (The other worldview, that Christians should embrace, is called by my friends "Two-ism" which holds that an all-wise, all-knowing, all-powerful, all-loving God exists outside of His Universe who has created it and sustains it.)

One-ism says that despite the Second Law of Thermodynamics ("The entropy (randomness) of the universe is always increasing."), given enough time, order will somehow flow from disorder. Which, of course, begs another question asked even by atheist Richard Dawkins (for which he admits he has no answer), "Why is there something and not nothing?"

And how about the critically important constants in the Universe that must be precisely what they are for life to exist at all. Constants like the gravitational constant, Planck's constant, the speed of light, etc. etc? And where in our own experience have we ever waited long enough for our socks automatically to be placed back in the correct drawer by themselves? Or for a birdhouse to magically appear on a tree?

My friends, the fact is we live on a tiny speck in a huge universe with billions of galaxies each filled with billions of stars. Right now you are traveling at 67,000 miles per hour around the sun. Our relatively thin atmosphere with the right gas mixture and our precise distance from our sun amazingly allow higher forms of life to exist on this planet. Our Creator God sees every bird that falls from the tree. He knows each one of us better than we know ourselves, yet He loves us completely! This is not just our religious opinion. This is ABSOLUTELY TRUE!!

We need to quit playing defense and apologizing for believing in the God of the Bible and start boldly (and lovingly) sharing its wonderful truths with our neighbors, fellow students and fellow workers who don't yet know Him. Need some help? Go here to download a helpful card with which you can share the Gospel. Below is the front and back of the Gospel card.