COULD THE UNIVERSE HAVE HAPPENED BY CHANCE?

Day 5

Job 38:31-33, 36;, 42:1-6

COULD THE UNIVERSE HAVE HAPPENED BY CHANCE?

The situation is clearing for the modern man. He sees more and more that he must affirm some "Yes" about the universe, and that "Yes" may be God. For how could this universe come by chance into a cosmic orderliness that stretches from the molecule to the outermost star, and controls everything between? And how could this orderliness just happen to stay by chance through millions of years? That would be a stark materialistic miracle--universal chaos by chance gives birth to universal order! The one who believes that must spell his "chance" with a capital "C" and mean it by--God. How long do you think it would take for you to throw up a font of type into the air and have it come down by chance into a poem of Browning? I asked a printer that question and he replied, "Both you and the type would wear out first."

Someone has figured out how many chances to one it would take for the world to have happened by chance, and the figures go round the world thirty-five times. "A preposterous figure," says Dr. Millikan the scientist. Sir James Jeans has figured out that it would take a hundred million years for a hundred thousand monkeys, pecking at random on a hundred thousand typewriters, to happen by chance upon the plays of Shakespeare. And then, after they had happened upon the arrangements of the letters, they wouldn't know what the letters meant!

When I pick up a book and see that there is intelligence in it--that sometimes does happen!--then I know that behind that intelligence is an intelligent mind expressing itself through the intelligence. When I look at the universe, I find that it responds to intelligence--it can be intelligently studied. Intelligence has gone into it--into its very structure. Then the simple conclusion must be that behind that intelligence, which is built into the structure of things, is an intelligent mind, and since that built-in intelligence seems to be universal, I will have to spell it in capitals--a Universal Mind.

Prayer

O God--I say the word now with more confidence--I begin to see Thee; help me to act as Thou art. Thou art beginning to come into my intelligence. Help me to take Thee into the rest of my life. Amen.

WE BEGIN THE QUEST

This new entry is to let others to read parts of a great little book that I have found called “Abundant Living” by E. Stanley Jones. The first part of the book deals with the following questions: Is there a God? Can He be found? Where? This part of the book will take about a week to read since there are daily readings to meditate upon. There are also scriptural references for those inclined to research more thoroughly. Welcome to this new journey and may the Lord enlighten you. Amen

Day 1

Genesis 1:1-3; John 1:1-5; Matthew 28:20

WE BEGIN THE QUEST

Life can never be abundant unless it has abundant resources. It is obvious that no organism can expend more in energy than it takes in from without. Just was does “the without” consist of, physical nature and human society only? Or is there a third dimension in addition to “the within” and “the around”, is there an “Above? Many have decided that there is no “Above, at least, there is none they can contact; so they have short-circuited life to “the within” and “the around.” But, to their dismay, they find that “the within” and “the around,” instead of offering resources to abundant living, offer resistances to it, “the within” is clashing, and “the without” is contradictory. The resources are in reverse, pulling the other way.

Someone has said, “If we haven’t that within us which is above us, we will soon yield to that which is around us.” We become circumstance-conditioned and circumstance-fed, and grow weak and anemic on the fare. And if we turn within for our resources, we find the well is dry. Professor Hocking, speaking as a philosopher, says: “Man come up to a certain point and then finds he hasn’t resources in himself to complete himself, so he remains incomplete and frustrated.” There ensues what an able and earnest man said he had “a sense of cosmic loneliness.” “I am not sure,” he continued, “whether my doings have anything cosmic back of them, whether I am working with anything significant, or just working meaninglessly alone with no one to back my work or care.”

“A sense of cosmic loneliness” that is the frigid thought that lays its cold hand on our hopes and endeavors. Can it be lifted and the sense of a warm, living, cosmic Presence, who is with us and for us, takes its place? If so, then that would hit the spot, the central spot. For if the central spot is empty and meaningless, then all life turns empty and meaningless with it. But if that central spot is full and meaningful, then all life turns meaningful with it.

Prayer

O warm, living, cosmic Presence, if there be such a Presence in this inscrutable universe, help me as I begin this quest for You and Your resources. I will need Your help even to inspire me to begin the quest, for I am not sure at all that You are there. I am only sure of this, that Something beyond myself should be there. So I begin. Help me. Amen