CAST UP!

Everything has an Originator

Human beings understand that the natural world and universe is magnificent in its complexity, rational design and orderly fashion. By simply looking at the world people recognize that the world appears to have been designed.

This is true from the smallest to the largest, from the simplest to the most complex. If a person sees a painting, the individual knows that someone painted the painting. If we see a chocolate cake, we know someone made the cake. This is natural and intuitive to everyone and is a most basic part of human understanding about life. In fact, this is among the most basic and foundational aspects of all human comprehension. Simply put, everything has a designer and maker.

Atheistic scientists admit this. For example, Richard Dawkins, a staunch and outspoken atheist and naturalist states, “Animals give the appearance of having been designed by a theoretically sophisticated and practically genius physicist or engineer.” Dawkins is correct. He knows this even more than the typical person because of his extensive training and scientific experience with biological designs. There is an obvious and apparent design to all living things recognized by even the most adamant naturalist.

But it is not just living creatures where this obvious design is easily recognized—the entirety of the universe shows the same tale-tell signs. I encourage you to read the article ”Atheists’ Design Admissions” to understand how scientists freely admit to the obvious design of the universe.

As a side note, Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple Corporation, makes an interesting comment about design and the practical workings of design. Job says, “Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” While Job was no doubt referring to his Apple products when he made the statement, his assumption as a designer is correct. Design not only pertains to beauty and appearance, but the intricate operation and practical workings of a design. By implication we can say, when things operationally work, and the more complex the operation, the greater the indication of a designer.

Yet, somehow things went wrong with some people’s perspective. Take for example a statement made by British journalist Mark Thomas, who says, “The world looks like it was designed. Of course, the Sun also looks like it revolves around the Earth. It is only thru science that we know that both of these perceptions are wrong.” In order to get around the need for a designer, the idea that the universe only looks designed was adopted. And then, naturally, came the next plausible idea, restated for us by Alan Moore: “Who made the world? Perhaps the world is not made. Perhaps nothing is made. Perhaps it simply is, has been, will always be there...a clock without a craftsman.” Yet, nothing in all of human experience exists without a designer and maker—not footballs, not cars, not books, not buildings. Nothing is without a designer. If a chocolate cake is sitting on the kitchen table and I say to you, “Maybe no one made it...maybe it always has been or, maybe it just is,” you would quickly point out the flaw in my thinking.

A well used analogy
There is a simple analogy sometimes used to explain the need for an originator and designer behind everything. The analogy goes like this. Let’s say you are invited to a country club and upon your arrival you find an immaculate golf course with beautiful landscapes. As you pull into the parking lot you notice that on the side of the club house building there are vines which have grown in such a manner that the vines spell out the name of the country club. Your immediate and natural reaction is that someone manipulated the growth of the vines in such a way that the name of the club was spelled out. Your conclusion would be natural and correct and any argument against it would be considered ludicrous. After all, one of the most basic points of human understanding is that everything that is orderly and functional has an intelligent mind behind it.

Nevertheless, naturalists argue there is no need for a creator, that all things can exist without an intelligent mind behind the things that obviously appear to be designed. Yet, when a person believes that something can be brought into existence without a person behind it, he defies one of the most basic understandings in human experience. Such people who maintain that such complex and ordered systems can be mindlessly produced do not think like this in any other area of their personal life. No, in every aspect of their lives they will maintain that there is someone behind all things that are produced, from a painting to a chocolate cake. Only in regards to the existence of the world and the universe are such people willing to break a fundamental and comprehensive point of reality: behind everything that is produced, there must be an intelligent mind behind it.

In fact, so much do naturalists know and believe that everything must have a designer and creator that they attempt to turn the table by asking the question, “Who created God?” This is undeniable proof that everyone understands there is a personality behind everything that is produced. The question of God’s origin is a viable question because it is a universal inquiry. The inquiry being that there must be a cause behind all of life, everything! To say that any form of consciousness and life and matter existing without a creator makes no sense and, is in fact, senseless. People asking how God originated is not so much a question about the origin of God as it is an acknowledgment that people intuitively understand that everything must have an originator behind it.

If then it is true that everything must have someone behind its production, who do naturalists give the credit to? To answer this question, let’s continue our discussion about naturalism’s great predicament.