Some thoughts by a former Atheist on the Logical Fallacy of the Universe Being created by Chance

Anthony Flew was a well known Atheist. In 2004 he became a theist because of what he says were overwhelming evidences from a scientific and logical viewpoint of the need for an Intelligent Designer.

He wrote a book called There is a God about his journey from Atheism to Theism. He was in his 80's when he converted to Theism. He is not a Christian, yet his case for Theism is very strong. I have posted a passage below from his book.


Gerry Schroeder first referred to an experiment conducted by the British National Council of Arts. A computer was placed in a cage with six monkeys. After one month of hammering away at it (as well as using it as a bathroom!), the monkeys produced fifty typed pages - but not a single word. Schroeder noted that this was the case even though the shortest word in the English language is one letter (a or I). A is a word only if there is space on either side of it. If we take it that the keyboard has thirty characters (the twenty-six letters and other symbols), the the likelihood of getting a one-letter word is 30 times 30 times 30, which is 27,000. The likelihood of getting a one-letter word is one chance out of 27,000.

Shroeder then applied the probabilities to the sonnet analogy: "What's the chance of getting a Shakespearean sonnet?" he asked. He continued:

"All the sonnets are the same length. They're by definition fourteen lines long. I picked the one I knew the opening line for, "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" I counted the number of letters; there are 488 letters in that sonnet. What's the likelihood of hammering away and getting 488 letters in the exact sequence as in "Shall I compare Thee to a Summer's Day?" What you end up with is 26 multiplied by itself 488 times - or 26 to the 488th power. Or, in other words, in base 10, 10 to the 690th.

[Now] the number of particles in the universe - not grains of sand, I'm talking about protons, electrons, and neutrons - is 10 to the 80th. Ten to the 80th is 1 with 80 zeros ofter it. There are not enough particles in the universe to write down the trials; you'd be off by a factor of 10 to the 600th.

If you took the entire universe and converted it to computer chips - forget the monkeys - each one weighing a millionth of a gram and had each computer chip able to spin out 488 trials at, say, a million times a second; if you turn the entire universe into these microcomputer chips and these chips were spinning a million times a second [producing] random letters, the number of trials you would get since the beginning of time would be 10 to the 90th trials. It would be off again by a factor of 10 to the 600th. You will never get a sonnet by chance. The universe would have to be 10 to the 600th times larger. Yet the world thinks the monkeys can do it every time.


Thoughts?

Thoughts from Bernard of Clairvaux on "Glorying in the gifts God has given"

Here is a passage from a great author. The title of Bernard of Clairvaux's book is "On Loving God". He lived from 1090-1153.


There is no glory in having a gift without knowing it. But to know only that you have it, without knowing that it is not of yourself that you have it, means self-glorying, but no true glory in God. And so the apostle says to men in such cases, ‘What hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now, if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it? (I Cor. 4.7). He asks, Why dost thou glory? but goes on, as if thou hadst not received it, showing that the guilt is not in glorying over a possession, but in glorying as though it had not been received. And rightly such glorying is called vain-glory, since it has not the solid foundation of truth. The apostle shows how to discern the true glory from the false, when he says, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord, that is, in the Truth, since our Lord is Truth (I Cor. 1.31; John 14.6). We must know, then, what we are, and that it is not of ourselves that we are what we are. Unless we know this thoroughly, either we shall not glory at all, or our glorying will be vain.

Thoughts?

Some More Titus Brilliance

This past Saturday I was going to our backyard in order to ask Titus if he wanted to come with me to the store. Titus was sitting on one of those bouncy exercise balls in the middle of the yard and this is the conversation that ensued:

Me: Hey buddy! What are you singing?

Titus: Um, The Happy Song!

Me: Why were you singing that song?

Titus: So God and Jesus can hear me.

Me: Why do you want them to hear you?

Titus: Oh, I just want them to still know I am here. Let's go to the store now.


He blew me away with his comments. I was talking to my step mom today and she made the statement that it would be good for all of us to sit in the middle of the yard on a exercise ball and sing to Jesus. So, if you are by the house any time soon and you see me in the middle of our backyard singing, just know that I have been learning from my son :)

Great Thougths from a Muslim Friend

I was meeting a friend yesterday morning for coffee. His name is Hasan and he is an Imam (a Muslim Pastor) in Arlington. As we were talking he said a couple of things that I thought were greatly interesting and also challenging to the Christian community.

He gave typical Islamic reasons for being against Christianity, such as the thought that the Trinity is a form of Polytheism etc. These are always very good and challenging discussions. The two things he said, which I thought were interesting, were the following:

1. He said, "Your pastors are so proud of preaching that is so focused on man. I have never seen someone who has walked out of a church challenged by God, just more focused on themselves and what they need to do."

What a powerful statement! Although I corrected him on the over generalization, it seems he has a decent point. He went on to say, "Don't your pastors understand they are talking about God!" I believe his challenge is incredible because if we truly trust that God knows us better than we even know ourselves would it not be best to seek Him and then let Him tell us what is best for us? Instead, many times we fall short by focusing PREDOMINANTLY on us. I am not saying preaching and teaching will not include practical outworkings, but it is possible to focus in such a way that we look good in carrying out "good works", while we miss Him.

2. Hasan also said something that is a fairly typical argument for Muslims, but is always interesting to talk through. He said, "Islam is an entire way of life. Christianity is only spiritual. In fact, separating Christianity into the spiritual seems to be a pride they like."

Again, I corrected him in saying that Christianity is not an entire lifestyle. I believe it is, but listening to these objections from someone who does not trust in Jesus for eternal life is always quite sobering. I believe Hasan is right when it comes down to many Christians trying to segment belief from lifestyle. This is not the way of Jesus.


I say all of these things hopefully in a way that is challenging to you, if you are a Christian. I also say these things so you have a chance to see things through the eyes of a Muslim. I am always challenged and encouraged in Jesus when I am able to have a conversation with a Muslim.

Love Truth

LRA

Sorry for the delay in writing :) If you are interested in seeing a good video on the Lord's Resistance Army, I am putting a link below. I use the term "good" because of the journalism, not because of the atrocious acts. Please take time to watch this video. Take time to pray for all the people involved.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYURvl8WXFU

Let me know what you think.

Some thoughts from Daniel Taylor

I have been reading a book by Daniel Taylor called Tell Me A Story: The Life-Shaping Power of Our Stories. It has been very "eye opening".

He wrote a couple of paragraphs that have made me think a ton and helped me immensely. Here they are:

Since its inception, psychotherapy has overwhelmingly focused on what is wrong with our stories rather than what is right with them. It has replaced the puritanical nose for sin with the psychiatric nose for abuse and discord.

Everyone looking back on the beginnings of his or her story is expected to find pain, distortion, and abuse or be accused of repression or dishonesty. As old-time religion encouraged us to ferret out sin everywhere, so we could confess and be absolved of it, so modern social science encourages us everywhere to find oppression, deformity, perversion, and misused power. This narrowness encourages us to undermine our own beginnings and to see ourselves as helpless victims with damaged personalities rather than as active characters with the power to shape our own plots.

I could create a story of my own childhood that focuses on trouble and pain. The many individual details would be true but the story would be a lie...

The point is not to tell only Pollyanna tales about one's beginnings. It is to see tales of pain in the context of a larger whole. We should marvel as much that pain coexists with and even stimulates good as we lament pain's destructive consequences. WE OUGHT NOT TO ALLOW OUR CURRENT OBSESSION WITH FINDING SOMETHING TO BLAME FOR OUR DISCONTENT BLIND US TO THE LIFE-ENHANCING POSSIBILITIES THAT FLICKER IN EVEN THE DARKEST STORIES.

I have not heard such a balanced view of personal story, not being defined by tragedies, and also to not have an "everything is great all the time" mentality, before in my life.

What do you think about his comments.

Hajj: One of the "Pillars of Islam"

Hey Everyone,

Muslims have 5 "Pillars". One of the pillars is going on the hajj. This is a journey to Mecca, and some surrounding areas, that each able bodied Muslim is required to take in their life. Here is a link to a virtual hajj. It gives a great and concise rundown of each step that must be taken.

Although I am not a Muslim, I believe it is important to understand the beliefs of others and take them seriously. If we think about it logically (and I believe from a biblical view), if someone does not agree with what we believe, it should not cause us to be intimidated, but should propel us towards conversations with those whom we do not agree. After all, if what we are saying is right, we have nothing to be fearful about. Also, if someone is not thinking properly, this should cause us to have a burden, not a spirit of ostracizing.

I am an evangelical Christian (just to clarify for those who do not know me). I want to say this because I believe the model given in Scripture is to lovingly engage unbelievers (one example would be Paul in Acts 17), instead of the opposite. I pray that we will be people who, with a bold gentleness, testify to the Gospel of Jesus. I also pray we will be people who, with great compassion, give a fair hearing to people who do not believe the same way. This should not produce a "spirit of compromise", but should empower us to study Scripture (and the way other people think) with fresh vigor. I have found that the more I talk with unbelievers, the more I realize the need for each of us (Christians) to be astute theologians. After all, we are all theologians, it is a matter of being a good or bad one.

Any Thoughts?