Do you believe in God?
What are the odds of nothing creating something? What are the odds of non-life creating life? What are the odds of simple organisms randomly mutating into complex beings?
“Do you believe in God?” I asked the young man, as I often do when speaking with young people.
“No, not really,” he said. “All-powerful, invisible— No, I don’t really believe in God. Do you?”
“Absolutely,” I replied.
“Why?” he asked, barely glancing up from his phone.
“Do you believe your smartphone spontaneously created itself?” I asked. “Did it appear from nowhere out of nothing?”
“No.”
“No, of course not. It was made from silicon, plastic, copper, and so on. And these elements certainly didn’t accidentally bump into one another to create such a sophisticated device. The process required intelligence to design it, to know how to find and use the elements, and to build the machines to manufacture it. Then, many hands were employed to mine the components, make the parts, assemble them, and ship the phone. What are the odds a smartphone could ever exist by pure accident?”
“Zero?”
“Zero,” I nodded. “So, what are the odds of nothing creating something? What are the odds of non-life creating life? What are the odds of simple organisms randomly mutating into complex beings—far more complex than your phone—like you and me? And what are the odds of all of this happening?”
“Zero?”
“Zero.” I nodded again. “Statistical probabilities won’t let us get past nothing creating something. It’s impossible. Perhaps we can debate who God is, but it’s unreasonable to assume this world doesn’t have an Intelligent Creator.”
“I don’t know. Maybe God does exist,” he conceded halfheartedly.
“We can’t begin to make sense of this world without first acknowledging he does exist. If he does, we have a limited time to figure out what we can about him and his will for us before, you know, we potentially meet him.”
“I guess so,” he said, sliding his phone into his pocket. “So, what do you know about him?”
I smiled.
“Well…”
Pray for this young man.