The Gospel of Chance

In the beginning was Chance. And Chance was with Chaos. And there was no God.

Then Chance created the universe, and there was light, and a period of inflation. And the background radiation was Good. But there was still no God.

Then the first generation of stars burned out. Some became supernovas, spewing out elements heavier than iron. And these elements became the firmament out of which the Population I stars condensed. And it was Good. But there was still no God.

Then the Solar System condensed out of the cloud, and the planetesimals collided by Chance. And there were eight planets and assorted junk hitting those eight planets. And it was Good. But there was still no God.

Then water fell on one of these planets and it was not too hot, nor too cold, nor the gravity too weak nor too strong, and the water became oceans. And the oceans were filled not only with water but carbon and nitrogen and phosphorus and other elements. And these elements gathered together around hot volcanic vents and spontaneously formed purines and pyrimidines and sugars. And these compounds chained together and formed ribonucleic acid. And it was good. But there was still no God.

And the ribonucleic acids collected amino acids and the first proteins developed. And through random connections and disconnections, a double layer of polarized lipids formed to gather in these proteins and nucleic acid and the first cell was made out of the dust of the sea. And it was Good. But there was still no God.

Aren't you getting tired of this already? If it was chance, how could it be good? How can you ascribe any moral values to random events?

So, it was all chance, and you and I are having this dialogue because there is no organizer, no creator, and we're just the end product of emergent systems that self-organize out of lower-order random events.

I say 'nonsense'. The cell is what convinces me that this is not done by chance. How could the cell in its complexity self-organize? I know it only had to happen once, but this picture cannot be the correct picture. It doesn't have the proper aesthetic for a true scientific theory. It's not simple enough. It's not elegant enough. You don't have to be a religious believer to doubt that mere spontaneity created life on Earth.

Now, after the first cells, the rest of the story of life on Earth is plausible. We don't know all the details, but we'll never know one hundred percent. Science relies on hypotheses suggested by evidence. We can model these past events, but we can't know for sure.

This leads to a philosophical debate, but just as in “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,” we demand rigid demarcations of doubt and uncertainty.

I'm writing this essay on Good Friday. This is an important day for Christians. It is also Passover, where God historically manifested a miracle. And yet on these days the dysvangelists insist on publicity for theories such as finding Jesus' body, or publishing stories that Americans are losing their Christian faith.

You can't prove Christianity from first principles. Internally it is a very logical religion, but you must adopt its premises to believe: that there is a God, that Man was created in His image, that Man willfully sinned, that because of that willful sin we are doomed to death, and God had to come in the Person of a God-Man to satisfy both the requirements of perfect justice and perfect mercy. And yet, there is evidence in the life of the believer that Jesus did rise from the dead. It isn't overtly based on anything but miracles.

I hope a miracle comes into your life.

Comments

[C Brackett]

I really enjoy reading your commentaries Greg. You have a brilliant mind and a terrific sense of humor. Keep up the good work....

[essay structure]

This article makes a number of excellent points! One of the things I would add to it is being able to not only track those leads and customers but also the opportunities as well.