By: Mark Tabata (Evangelist)
Many of the people I study with are atheist and agnostic. I have no problem studying with my friends of these persuasions: the truth is powerful and able to convert even the most hard-hearted skeptic (provided they are sincerely seeking the truth-Jeremiah 29:13; 1 Peter 3:15; Acts 26:25; Proverbs 28:14).
I often talk with my friends about the amazing complexity of the universe, a complexity which is often demonstrated through the orderliness and incredible functionality of the integral parts of the cosmos. Even down to the molecular level, our scientists have learned that the universe is exceedingly complex and complicated. Indeed, every molecule of Creation cries out to the Great Designer behind it!
Yet one of the objections often raised by my unbelieving friends goes something like this:
“Mark, I have no problem acknowledging that the universe is extremely complex and that it appears to be designed. However, since I believe that the universe is billions of years old, I believe that everything could have just evolved to this state of complexity, giving this incredible age.”
As such, evolutionists often claim that time is the “hero of the plot.” But is that true?
Let’s assume that the evolutionist is correct that the universe is billions of years old.
Will such age allow for the arrangement of DNA (i.e., the genetic code which governs the working of the cell)?
Two scientists have written on the mathematical complexities of this:
“Evolutionists claim the universe is about five billion years old. There are less than 1017 seconds in 20 billion years. Therefore, even if a trial and error combination occurred every second from the beginning of time until today, the odds still appear hopelessly high against the natural assembly of even this single molecule. Take 1070 combinations: 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 minus 100,000,000, 000,000,000 seconds that a single DNA molecule could be formed by mere chance, and the remaining “odds” are 1 in 9,999,999,999,999,999,999,999, 999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,900,000,000,000,000,000. This means that the odds of a single functional DNA molecule coming together at random are about the same odds that you could fill a billion universes with golf balls and put a small red dot on the bottom of one ball and somehow a blindfolded baby could find that ball while rummaging through the hundred billion galaxies on the very first try. Pierre-Paul Grassé of the University of Paris and past-president of the French Academy of Science, echoes this view: To insist, even with Olympian assurance, that life appeared quite by chance and evolved in this fashion, is an unfounded supposition which I believe to be wrong and not in accordance with the facts.29 Dr. Wilder-Smith, a chemist and former evolutionist, concludes: It is emphatically the case that life could not arise spontaneously in a primeval soup of any kind.30″ (Joe White with Nicholas Comninellis, Darwin’s Demise: Why Evolution Can’t Take The Heat, 340-353 (Kindle Edition); Green Forest, AR; Master Books)
Even if we were to grant the evolutionist argument that the universe is as old as they claim (which I certainly do not, but merely do here for the sake of brevity), it STILL could not even begin to account for the complexity of microscopic life.
With these things in mind, is it any wonder that so many scientists have been turning to faith in God? Such faith is far from blind: it is the simple conclusion of overwhelming evidence. As the Psalmist said:
I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well.” (Psalm 139:14).
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