The Miracle of Man: Evidence for God from Human Nature

By Jim Howard

What Is a Man? Biologically, we are animals--homo sapiens. But men are different, born with consciousness, reason, free will, notions of morality, and other characteristics of what we call "human nature." Why are we different? Were we created by God or are we just accidents of nature? Are you a child of the King or just a child of King Kong? This is a book of apologetics for laypeople. It looks at arguments for the existence of God and especially at those arguments that can be drawn from human nature. It argues in plain language, with illustrations and humor, that we cannot explain human nature without God, that men are miracles.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Release date: Jan 31, 2017
• ISBN: 9781498206136

Jim Howard

Author was born, raised, and schooled in Coffeyville, Kansas, later schooled in Waxahachie, Texas, and Berean School of the Bible, Springfield Missouri and has pastored in southeast Kansas for 20 years. Author currently writes about public interest issues, novels, biographies, and short stories, and all with Judeo-Christian values.

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The Miracle of Man

Evidence for God from Human Nature

Jim Howard

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The Miracle of Man

Evidence for God from Human Nature

Copyright © 2016 Jim Howard. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.

Resource Publications

An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

199

W.

8

th Ave., Suite

3

Eugene, OR

97401

www.wipfandstock.com

paperback isbn: 978-1-4982-0612-9

hardcover isbn: 978-1-4982-0614-3

ebook isbn: 978-1-4982-0613-6

Manufactured in the U.S.A.

February 7, 2017

Excerpts from The Collected Poems—Five Sonnets, by C. S. Lewis are reprinted by permission of The C. S. Lewis Company.

Excerpts from Sweet Beulah Land, by Squire Parsons are reprinted by permission of Capitol CMG Publishing.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Introduction

Chapter 1: Men Are Different

Chapter 2: I Yam What I Yam

Chapter 3: Elementary, My Dear Watson

Chapter 4: When You Come to a Fork in the Road, Take It!

Chapter 5: If There Is No God, Everything Is Lawful

Chapter 6: We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us!

Chapter 7: I Can’t Get No Satisfaction

Chapter 8: The Most Urgent Wish of Mankind

Chapter 9: The Good, the True, and the Beautiful

Chapter 10: Nothing Comes from Nothing

Chapter 11: The Miracle of Life

Chapter 12: A Creator as well as a Creature

Chapter 13: A Cosmos rather than a Chaos

Chapter 14: Why, Lord?

Chapter 15: Old Answers to an Old Question

Chapter 16: Don’t All Roads Lead to God?

Chapter 17: How Should We Then Live?

Chapter 18: Cross Examination

Bibliography

Name and Subject Index

Scripture Index

In Loving Memory of

Thomas Howard Bishop

December

2

,

1990

—June

14

,

2008

Introduction

[A]lways be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.

—I Peter 3:15¹

There is nothing original in this book. Every original idea I ever had was stolen! But I am old-fashioned enough to believe that truth is more important than originality. So borrowing from many authors, I have attempted to write an easy-to-read summary of one aspect of what is called Christian apologetics, arguments for the truth of Christianity. I want to look at evidence for the existence of God, and especially that evidence which can be found in human nature and experience.

I am not a philosopher, a theologian, or even a preacher. I am a trial lawyer and a former judge. What business does a lawyer have writing a book about God? That is a good question, but I would suggest two reasons why a lawyer might be a good candidate to write a book such as this. First, attorneys are trained to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of both evidence and arguments, and we do so all the time. Second, as trial lawyers, we present expert testimony from scientists, doctors, engineers, and so forth, much of it quite complicated, and then try to explain to a jury in ordinary language what those experts have said. That is my effort here. The real philosophers and theologians have written many books on apologetics, and I have read quite a few of them. If I can express the thoughts of those wise men in plain, twenty-first-century language, I believe that would be worthwhile.

Why should you read a book of Christian apologetics? Because truth matters, and Christianity claims to be true. Some say that religion is only a matter of faith, but faith is of no value if what we believe is not real. It may make us feel better for a while, but it will be of no help when we really need it.

In the classic movie, Miracle on 34th Street, Maureen O’Hara’s character tells her daughter, Faith is believing what your common sense tells you isn’t true.² They are talking about Santa Claus. But Christian faith must be honest, believing what our reason and common sense tell us is true. Believing a falsehood is not a virtue. Christians believe that God gave us our ability to reason—it is one of the primary characteristics which distinguish us from other animals—and He expects us to use it. C. S. Lewis wrote, God is no fonder of intellectual slackers than of any other slackers.³

Of course, merely believing that God exists is not what Christians mean by faith. The Apostle James pointed out that demons believe that!⁴ Christian faith involves a commitment of our lives, not just an opinion about God. So we cannot intellectually convince anyone to become a Christian. But to use an old analogy, if those making intellectual arguments for God neither sow the seeds nor harvest the crops, they may be useful in clearing the field of rocks and thistles, by answering honest questions which prevent someone from believing in Christ. They may also help other Christians grow in their faith, and be better able to share that faith with their family and friends.

Some say that we should not ask questions such as those we will consider, but should simply accept the revelation which God has given us in the Bible. Christianity teaches that God has revealed Himself to us through His Son, Jesus Christ,⁵ through Scripture,⁶ and through nature.⁷ I believe in all these, and I accept the Bible as God’s divinely-inspired Word. But if we are speaking with nonbelievers, who are not convinced either that Jesus was God’s Son nor that the Bible is His Word, surely it is appropriate to argue the evidence from nature, including human nature.⁸

We can never get to know God on our own. Man’s search for God inevitably ends in failure. C. S. Lewis wrote, [I]f Shakespeare and Hamlet could ever meet, it must be Shakespeare’s doing.⁹ This is why, according to Christians, God took the initiative and revealed Himself to us. But that revelation includes His creation. So it is appropriate to look at what we know about ourselves and the universe, and see how these facts fit, either with Christianity or any other world-view. This is what we will attempt to do.

Questions Without Answers

‘Is the universe designed?’ is not a scientific question . . . we will learn the answer neither by looking for items trademarked ‘Heavenly Construction Company’ nor by coming upon objects stamped ‘Blind Chance Rules.’

—Owen Gingerich¹⁰

I would like to make three other points before we begin. First, there is a popular idea that a statement is trustworthy only if it can be proven scientifically, if it can be observed, measured, or repeated, as in a test-tube experiment.¹¹ But we very reasonably hold many beliefs which cannot be proven in this way, including everything we believe about our family and friends, about history, or about philosophy or religion. For me to demand scientific proof to believe that my wife is an honest person, that George Washington was our first President, or that there either is or is not a God, would not show my wisdom, but my foolishness. Even the statement, We can only rely on something which can be proven by the scientific method, cannot be proven by the scientific method.

The study of questions such as the existence of God or the meaning of life is sometimes called metaphysics, meaning after or beyond the physical. It is said that the word came about because the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle’s writings on this subject were found following his death, untitled and placed after his treatise on physics!¹² Since the word physics was originally used for all sciences, metaphysical is generally used to mean beyond science. The point is that there are things beyond science. Science is important—it is the study of nature and natural laws—but it is not the study of everything.

Notre Dame philosopher Alvin Plantinga wrote, Science can’t tell us whether slavery is wrong.¹³ In fact, science can’t tell us anything about right or wrong, meaning or purpose, love or beauty. But man, from his earliest beginnings, has believed in all these things. You can say that all mankind has been wrong about these beliefs (it seems to me you are being rather presumptuous), but you cannot answer these questions based on science alone.

Francis Collins is one of the leading geneticists in the world. He was head of the Human Genome Project, which first sequenced the human genome, is now Director of the National Institutes of Health, and is a devout Christian. In a recent interview with Newsweek magazine, he said:

[S]cience is the way to uncover valid, trustworthy information about how nature works, about things about the natural world. But if you limit yourself to the kinds of questions that science can ask, you’re leaving out some other things that I think are also pretty important, like why are we here and what is the meaning of life and is there a God? Those are not scientific questions.¹⁴

Owen Gingerich, long-time professor of astronomy at Harvard, suggested, perhaps tongue-in-cheek, that science succeeds because it chooses to answer the questions which have answers, and leaves for philosophy the questions without answers, such as why anything exists or whether the universe has a purpose.¹⁵ Science explains how the universe works, but not why. In this book, we will look at the questions without scientific answers. We will consider the scientific evidence, but no one can prove by that evidence that God either does or does not exist.

The Missing Piece of the Puzzle

No one has ever seen three feet of love or two pounds of justice, but one would be foolish indeed to deny their reality.

—Paul Little¹⁶

This brings us to our second point. If science cannot answer the question, how do we determine if there is a God? In my profession, we use scientific evidence, such as DNA, but we never require anything to be proven scientifically. Instead, facts are proven, to such an extent that we may imprison a man for life, primarily by testimony about things which witnesses have seen or heard, things which happened in the past and can never be repeated. Neither does the law require absolute certainty. To convict a man of the most serious crimes, we only require proof beyond a reasonable doubt. In most civil (non-criminal) cases, the standard is a preponderance of the evidence, meaning more likely than not.

In any question of philosophy or religion, I would suggest that this is the proper standard. To use any other standard is to rig the question by requiring one side to prove more than the other. If we are intellectually honest, we should believe whatever appears to us most likely to be true. So our question is, looking at all the evidence, what is the most likely explanation for the universe or for man? What system of belief best explains the facts we know, and illuminates those areas where we cannot see?

We will consider several different characteristics of what we call human nature. Why do we start with human nature? Because we are human. We have inside information¹⁷ about ourselves that we do not have about anything else in the universe. We know something of the drives, thoughts, and emotions that make up a human being.

I do not claim that any one of these characteristics proves the existence of God by itself. But taking them all together, I find the evidence to be quite compelling, far beyond a mere preponderance. I will argue that the traditional teachings of Christianity explain more of the facts than any other alternative, that they are the missing piece of the puzzle that makes sense of everything else. As British theologian Alister McGrath wrote, Once the world has been seen through a Christian set of spectacles, the relative inadequacy of other perspectives becomes clear.¹⁸ So let me set out the evidence as I understand it, and see if you find it as persuasive as I do.

Your Philosophy

There are some people . . . and I am one of them, who think that the most practical and important thing about a man is . . . his view of the universe.

—G. K. Chesterton¹⁹

Third, please do not be afraid of the word, philosophy. Literally, the word means the love of truth. It is frequently defined as the search for truth. We will use the word most often in the sense of your philosophy or my philosophy. Used this way, we mean the beliefs we hold concerning the big questions of life—Is there a God? What is the meaning of life? Where did we come from? Where are we going? Your beliefs regarding these questions are sometimes called your world-view.

Thanks

Finally, I must express my thanks to a great many people. The greatest influences on my life have undoubtedly been my parents, Ivan and Martha Howard. My father was a theologian and my mother an educator, but more importantly, I believe they were the two most morally and ethically incorruptible people I have ever known. Dennis Kinlaw, who was President of Asbury College when I was a student there, has greatly impressed me by his preaching, his writing, and his life.

I owe a great debt to many whom I have known only through their books. My daughter says that I cannot speak or write on any subject without quoting C. S. Lewis. This book proves that statement! I have also been greatly influenced by the writings of Peter Kreeft, G. K. Chesterton, Francis Schaeffer, Charles Colson, Ravi Zacharias, and many others.

I am also much indebted to John Neihof and Gary Cockerill of Wesley Biblical Seminary for their advice and assistance with the manuscript and in finding a publisher. Most of all, I must thank my wife Sharon and my daughter Ellen for their encouragement, proof-reading, and patience, and the many other friends and family, in-laws and outlaws, who have read and commented on various sections. I could not have completed this project without their help.

1. All Scriptural quotations are from the New King James Version (NKJV), except where otherwise indicated. The Greek word translated in this verse as defense is apologia, from which we get our word, apologetics.

2. "Miracle on

34

th Street," Twentieth Century Fox,

1947

.

3. Lewis, Mere Christianity,

61

.

4. James

2

:

19

.

5. In John

14

:

9

, Jesus said, He who has seen me has seen the Father. Hebrews

1

:

1–2

says, God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son.

6. II Timothy

3

:

16

says, All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.

7. In Romans

1

:

19–20

, the Apostle Paul wrote, [W]hat may be known of God is manifest in them [unbelievers], for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made.

8. Quaker theologian Elton Trueblood wrote, Revelation must be tested by reason for the simple reason that there are false claims to revelation. Trueblood, Philosophy of Religion,

32

. Furthermore, if we are attempting to determine whether the Scriptures are true and whether the God about whom they teach is real, I do not see how we can use them as proof for themselves. Such an argument seems to me to be circular.

9. Lewis, Surprised by Joy, 227

.

10. Gingerich, God’s Universe,

70

.

11. This idea was proposed by the eighteenth-century Scottish philosopher, David Hume. Hume wrote that we can speak meaningfully only about abstract matters which are true by definition, such as mathematics, or about matters which can be empirically verified (scientifically proven). Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding,

211

. But this argument refutes itself—it is neither true by definition nor empirically verifiable.

12. Davies, The Mind of God,

31

.

13. Plantinga, Where the Conflict Really Lies,

167

.

14. Begley, Francis Collins Talks about Science and Faith,

62

.

15. Gingerich, God’s Universe,

84

.

16. Little, Know Why You Believe,

21

.

17. Lewis, Mere Christianity,

19

.

18. McGrath, Mere Apologetics,

71

.

19. Chesterton, Heretics,

3

.

Chapter 1

Men Are Different

Eight Things I Know About You

Men are different. They propound mathematical theorems in beleaguered cities, conduct metaphysical arguments in condemned cells, make jokes on scaffolds, discuss the last new poem while advancing to the walls of Quebec, and comb their hair at Thermopylae. This is not panache; it is our nature.

—C. S. Lewis²⁰

You and I are human beings, men and women. But what is a man?²¹ On the biological level, we are animals—homo sapiens. We share with other animals all our basic biological systems, including our brains and nervous systems, hearts and circulatory systems, skeletons, digestive systems, and sexual function. Even our cells and DNA have the same basic structure. But men are different. From consciousness and reason to free will and notions of morality, from symbolic language to romantic love, from science and technology to art or music, the differences between man and the other animals are at least as great as the similarities.

What makes us different? Our twenty-first century culture says that the difference is only one of degree—our brains are just more developed than those of other animals. Traditional Western culture taught that we are different in our very nature—we are made in the image of God. Which view is correct? Are we just physical beings—trousered apes²² or grown-up germs²³—or are we also spiritual beings? Are we the accidental products of nature, or were we created by God for a purpose? Are you a child of The King or just a child of King Kong?²⁴

What is a man? The modern answer was stated by the atheist philosopher, Jean-Paul Sartre: You are your life and nothing else.²⁵ In other words, all you have is yourself and you will last no longer than the uncertain span of your earthly life. This conclusion is unavoidable if you are only a product of nature. But some 2800 years ago, the Psalmist asked the same question and got a very different answer:

"What is man, that You are mindful of him,

And the son of man, that You visit him?

For You have made him a little lower than the angels,

And You have crowned him with glory and honor."²⁶

I want to look at human beings and see what we can observe about ourselves, and then ask what conclusions we can draw from these characteristics about the big questions of life—especially, is there a God and if so, what is He like? In the end, I am going to argue that we cannot explain human nature without God. I am going to propose something which is quite radical in our culture, that men are miracles. We are not only natural beings, related horizontally to the rest of nature. We are also supernatural beings, related vertically to a Creator God.

Self-Evident Truths

I do not know you, but I believe I know at least eight things about you. If you are reading this book, you are human, and these eight facts are true of all human beings. They are part of human nature. In fact, I believe they are self-evident. By this I mean that they are obvious to anyone who takes the time to think about them, and we can safely assume them to be true, without requiring proof. Thomas Jefferson wrote, in the American Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

In believing in self-evident truth, Jefferson represented the mainstream of human thought, going back at least as far as the Greek philosopher, Aristotle, in the fourth century, BC. Aristotle taught that we must accept some truths as self-evident if we are going to think at all,²⁷ and he was right. You cannot reason your way to any conclusion if you do not start from some assumption.

I will suggest that we can reasonably accept as starting points for our thinking several self-evident truths about human beings, because these truths have been obvious to most all men throughout history. They are part of the general understanding of reality that we sometimes call common sense, and that I will call universal human experience.²⁸

I am not very interested in any belief system which requires me to say that our universal human experience is an illusion, whether that belief system is secular or religious. The Christian Scientist movement, so far as I can understand it, teaches that human sickness is not a physical reality, but is only in the mind. I would suggest that the appropriate response to this idea is the joke about the Christian Scientist who met a friend and asked, How is your father? The friend answered, Not well. He has cancer. The Christian Scientist responded, He’s not really sick. He just thinks he is. A few weeks later, they met again. The Christian Scientist again asked, How is your father? The friend replied, Not well. Now he thinks he’s dead.²⁹ Please forgive me if I am being flippant, or if I misunderstand the Christian Scientists. But the idea that physical illness is only in the mind violates our universal human experience. Therefore, it is very unlikely to be true.

The ancient Greek philosopher, Socrates, said, Know thyself. That sounds good to us—our motto is be yourself. But by know thyself, Socrates seems to have meant know what it means to be human, what you have in common with all men.³⁰ This is the question I want to explore. So here is my list of eight characteristics which you and I have in common, but which distinguish us from all other creatures:

1. You are a conscious self, aware of your own existence. You are the sort of being that says, I am.

2. You can think rationally. You can reason from one point to another, about abstract things like mathematics, or about physical realities beyond what you can perceive with your senses, and you can get true answers.

3. You have what we commonly call free will. You make real choices, in a real world, with real consequences.

4. You have an innate sense of morality, basic notions that certain conduct is right and other conduct is wrong.

5. You have these moral notions, but you fail to live up to them. Am I wrong? Are you always as loving, truthful, kind, and fair to others as you expect them to be to you?

6. You are never satisfied. You have, deep in your heart, a secret longing which you cannot name, but which always leaves you wanting something more.

7. You want to live forever, and naturally believe you should live forever. But you know that you will die.

8. You believe in certain things—that life has meaning, that men have dignity and equality and rights, such as freedom, that love and beauty are real, and your life would be miserable without these beliefs.

We will discuss each of these characteristics, one at a time, in the chapters that follow, and argue that each of them points to the existence of a Creator. We will then look briefly at other evidence for God by asking the questions, why does anything exist, why does life exist, why does intelligent life exist, and why is there order in the universe rather than chaos? We will attempt to answer some of the objections frequently raised against the belief in God, such as the question of suffering, why the theistic religions believe theirs is the only way to God, and the evil that has been done in the name of these religions. Finally, we will conclude with the practical question, if the God of Scripture is real, how should we live?

The God Question

Is ultimate reality God or the cosmos? Is there a supernatural realm or is nature all that exists? Has God spoken and revealed His truth to us, or is truth something we have to find, even invent, for ourselves? Is there a purpose to our lives, or are we cosmic accidents emerging from the slime?

—Charles Colson and Nancy Pearcey³¹

Human beings are naturally religious. The Bible does not even argue against atheism, only against idolatry, the worship of false gods.³² If atheism is true, most all men throughout history have been wrong about the belief which mattered to them most.³³ This does not prove there is a god, much less that He is the God of Scripture, but it is an important piece of evidence to notice as we begin. If there is no God, why have we evolved so as to believe in something which does not exist?³⁴

There are three basic answers to the God question.³⁵ The first is atheism, which says that there is no God and nature is all there is. Everything which exists is the result of an uninterrupted chain of natural causes. And since, naturally speaking, something never comes from nothing, that chain of natural causes must go back forever. As the popular scientist Carl Sagan said, The Cosmos is all that is, or ever was, or ever will be.³⁶

We will also refer to this view as naturalism (the belief that only nature exists) or materialism (the belief that only matter and energy exist). While some naturalists or materialists consider themselves agnostics (one who does not know if there is a god), rather than atheists, these philosophies agree with atheism that everything is explainable by natural causes—any god who might exist has no effect on our everyday lives. So we will use these terms interchangeably.

The second answer is pantheism, common to most of the Eastern religions such as Hinduism or Buddhism.³⁷ George Lucas’ Star Wars, with The Force as a deity, is a modern, Western example of such a belief.³⁸ Pan means all or everything, so pantheism is the belief that god is everything and everything is god, the good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly. I am god and so are you. A star is god and so is a pebble. Where an atheist says nature is all that exists, a pantheist can say god is all that exists. But this god is not a person; it is just a name for everything. A pantheistic god is not supernatural. God and nature are never separate or distinct, and one did not create the other.

The third answer is theism, or monotheism, which says that there is one God and He is eternal, self-existent, and all-powerful. He is not part of the physical universe and it is not part of Him, but He created the entire natural order—matter and energy, space and time, even scientific laws—out of nothing. He is infinite (limitless), personal (conscious, rational,