God Issues Today: "Surfing the Unfriendly Skies"

Author, educator and commentator Dr. James Denison has been pastor of Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas since June, 1998. Prior to that, he was pastor at churches in Atlanta, Georgia, as well as Midland (at First Baptist) and Mansfield, Texas.

I think I am the victim of technological discrimination. I was on a Southwest Airlines jet last Sunday equipped with Internet access. Today's Wall Street Journal confirms that the airline is testing the service on four airplanes; mine happened to be one. Tragically, my MacBook was not able to access the Web. The lady in the next seat was happily surfing away on her PC. The airline must dislike Apple products; the problem surely could have nothing to do with my caveman technological abilities.

We live in a world filled with disappointment. So much suffering surrounds us, in fact, that Christopher Hitchens says God does not exist and religion poisons everything. Mr. Hitchens debated four apologists last Saturday at the Christian Book Expo; I was honored to be one of them. In response to that fascinating experience, I am reflecting on the reality and relevance of God's existence with you this week, applying the issue to the challenges we face in these uncertain days.

We've seen that the argument from creation to Creator is countered by atheists with the claim that the universe may have always been what it is, or may exist in a cycle of Big Bangs and collapses. Yesterday we considered the argument from design to Designer. If you found a watch on the road, you would assume a watchmaker. Isn't the world infinitely more complex than a watch?

Cambridge astronomer Fred Hoyle once calculated the possibilities that life arose spontaneously through mere chance as 1 in 10 to the 40th power, which Mr. Hoyle likened to the probability of a tornado blowing through a junkyard and forming a Boeing 747. Even if the universe is 14 billion years old, that's not nearly enough time for life to have evolved naturally through random chance, we're told. Atheists such as Mr. Hitchens are not persuaded, however.

Many invoke Darwin's assertion that life evolves through natural selection and survival of the fittest. If this is so, life did not come to exist as a tornado through a junkyard. Rather, we evolved through a process which chose the parts needed to make that Boeing 747. The odds of chance occurrence are irrelevant in a world which evolved through such a process of selection, as that process "sped up" the creation of life.

Scholars continue to debate the merits of Darwinian evolution, of course. But whether you think Darwin was brilliant or deluded, you can see why atheists such as Mr. Hitchens aren't much impressed with the design argument. If this is the best we can do, our skeptical friends will probably remain skeptical. Are there other ways to demonstrate the reality and relevance of the Christian God? Absolutely, as we'll see tomorrow.

Note: Many of you have asked where you can view a video of Saturday's debate. Christian Book Expo officials tell us that it will be posted on "Tangle" (formerly GodTube) in the next few days. I am grateful for your interest.