I once heard a story about a prestigious scientist called Joe. One day, Joe went and told God, “Listen God, I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but you’re becoming a bit out of date. We know why rain falls now, and what causes earthquakes. We know how bacteria and viruses work. My colleagues and I have even started to investigate how we could download human consciousness into computers – we could give ourselves eternal life! Us humans really are capable of enjoying and sustaining life on our own.” After listening patiently, God said to Joe. “You know I created free will, so if you really want to go on without me that’s your choice. But just to check that you’ll be okay, could you do something to prove that you really can create and sustain human life without me?” “Sure thing” said Joe, “In fact, I reckon us scientists could make a human just like you did with Adam.” Joe bent down to collect some dust off the ground. “Wait a minute” said God, “That doesn’t count. Without me here you’ll have to supply your own dust.” You see, the thing is, it doesn’t matter how much science advances, we really have nothing without God. As astronomer and scientist Carl Sagan once said, “To really make an apple pie from scratch, you must begin by inventing the universe.”
I’m Sophie Gillespie from Thinking Matters and this has been your thought for today. For more reasons to believe, visit thinkingmatters.org.nz