C.S. Lewis once commented that there are some things that are so obvious that we often do not see them. That is probably something that every ageing male can relate to, but Lewis was referring to things like windows or grammar. True enough, for looking out of the window on a clear day means to look at the scenery, not the window. Similarly, with a beautiful piece of writing, one is moved by the words, not the grammar, although the grammar undergirds all that is written.
That is not quite so with the natural world around us. We are meant to look at what we see, and then see beyond it. In 1870, John Henry Newman affirmed: ‘I believe in design because I believe in God, not in a God because I see design.’ The Bible is quite happy to reverse that. Psalm 19 is adamant: ‘The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky proclaims the work of His hands. Day after day they pour out speech; night after night they communicate knowledge’ (Ps.19:1-2). That comes from the pen of David, a believer. Even more pertinent for our purposes is what Paul states in the first chapter of Romans.
Here, Paul says that what can be known about God is plain; it is self-evident (Rom.1:19). He goes on to say that God’s eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived in the creation. This renders all humanity ‘without excuse’ (Rom.1:20). There is a sense in which all humanity knows God (Rom.1:21). Paul is not writing of a knowledge of salvation – of sins forgiven and life everlasting. And it is true that the creation is cursed since the Fall, and so is double-sided. As Lewis put it, ‘there are worms in the belly as well as primroses in the wood.’
Yet the evidence from the creation of an all-powerful God is perhaps so obvious that many of us miss it, but also is so obvious that none of us should miss it. Sandcastles are not created by random gusts of wind, and even wrecked sandcastles are evidence of a creative mind. There is great clarity in the biblical revelation of God, yet there is also great clarity in that which has been revealed in the world in which we dwell.
We might well wonder what evidence did Paul have in mind. Did he know of dolphins? Apparently, the deepest recorded dive of a dolphin is 547 metres. At that depth the water pressure is 54 atmospheres. A land mammal diving to such a depth – or anywhere near it – would blow its brains out. The dolphin calf is also born tail first. As a mammal which breathes air, if it were born head first, it would drown before it was able to swim to the surface for air. This looks like evidence of design, not the result of gradual change and adaptation to the environment.
One could also point to the distance of the earth from the sun; the interaction of oxygen and carbon dioxide in keeping animals and plants alive; and the basic order we see in night and day, summer and winter, rain and sunshine to make life sustainable and, indeed, bearable (see Acts 14:15). Even smaller, less spectacular, things point to their being a designer. Robert Blair was captivated about life under God by thinking about a cow he was watching; Cotton Mather thought an atheist could not explain a fly; Martyn Lloyd-Jones was moved by the majesty of the horse. Sir Isaac Newton famously declared: ‘In the absence of any other proof, the thumb alone would convince me of God’s existence.’
James Montgomery Boice asserted, quite rightly, that ‘There is enough evidence of God in a flower to lead a child as well as a scientist to worship Him. There is sufficient evidence in a tree, a pebble, a grain of sand, a fingerprint, to make us glorify God and thank Him.’ We are by nature blinkered people who need eyes to see and grateful hearts. Then we can respond to Augustine’s call: ‘God, then has given you all these things. Love Him who made them.’ It is not only the Bible which urges us to respond; all creation joins in.
With warmest regards in Christ,
Peter Barnes