I Believe in God Because the Planets Don't Colliode

I Believe in God

Because the Planets Don’t Collide

When I see your heavens, the work of your hands,

The moon and stars which you arranged,

What is man that you should keep him in mind,

Mortal man that you care for him?...

How great is your name,

O Lord our God

Through all the earth!

Psalm 8:4-10

             I believe in God because the planets don’t collide; because gravity keeps me grounded to Earth; because trees give me oxygen to breathe, and I give them carbon dioxide; because the sun warms me but doesn’t turn me into cinders; because caterpillars morph into delicate butterflies; because a baby starts life as a single cell and is born as a fully formed human being.

            Nature, how precise her laws that finely syncopate her movements—planets orbiting sun with nary a hint of invasion into another’s path. Nature’s waltz melded so perfectly into a blended cohesion.

            From whence came the origin of these laws? Did they happen by chance? Seems utterly unlikely. Did they evolve? If so, evolve from what to expand from a Big Bang of our cosmic source along a path of near limitless expansion? Random occurrence? ‘Twould be quite implausible, quite impossible.

            I believe in God because of the Big Bang. Had it occurred one miniscule splinter of a second earlier or later, the universe would have either imploded into itself or exploded too rapidly to develop its cohesive symphony of orbits--planets, suns, solar systems, galaxies, universes, black holes, comets. A seemingly boundless universe as vast as multitudes of solar systems and as miniscule as microscopic atoms, the laws of orbiting bodies maintained precisely within both—planet around sun, electron around nucleus. Both paths following predetermined laws--paths that do not intersect. Nature’s harmonic synchronization.

Yes, I believe in God because the laws that hatched the Big Bang could not be self-ordained, but must have been the handiwork of an awesomely, infinitely intelligent and powerful Being. The Big Bang may have been the seed of our universe as we know it, but what originated the Big Bang and the particles that made up this seed of the universe and the laws that caused it?

            The Big Bang. The dawn of an eternally perfect, eternally giving God sharing Himself and His love with His vast creation and with each human being. His love, ever endless, so very complete that it never quits spreading, expanding—just as the universe continues to expand exponentially. So great is His love that it burst forth in one colossal bang.

            One obscure planet evolved from this bang to become the home of a myriad of animals, plants, waterways, topographies. Its night sky twinkles with gems of incomprehensible number, while moon lights nocturnal paths and pulls ocean tides as it circums a globe of land and water.

            Universal laws of physics are so neatly patterned that their random evolution is highly suspect. Too convenient is the theory that evolution just happened to produce laws that govern so precisely. Yet if evolve they did, whither came the criterion of evolution? Mere luck of the evolutionary draw? If by evolvement the laws came to be, then what sourced the model that determined their progression along the chain? Laws of physics, so uniform throughout all elements of the universe. So uniform from galaxy to the sub-microscopic atoms. So uniform. Quite logically, these trace their inception to one massive intelligence—an intelligence millennia greater than all the collective intelligences of all the human beings who have lived, are now living, or will ever live, a supreme being benevolently magnificent. Humanity merely discovers minute aspect upon minute aspect of physics’ laws, of the vast secrets of our universe. I believe in God because the laws of physics are so very precise and uniform.

            With the probable exception of humanity, each element of nature faithfully follows its pre-ordained path, ever obedient to the laws that govern nature. Traversing the vacuum that would be space, Earth plots a defined path around our sun every 365 ¼ days—not 364 or 365, but 365 ¼ days. Nary too far nor too near the sun. The gravitational pull between Sun and Earth conjoin with Earth’s centrifugal pull away from Sun—so intricately balanced that Earth does not fling from her orbit into oblivion; so intricately balanced that Earth’s environment sustains a wide variety of ecosystems and life forms. Random? Hardly likely.

            Ours is one miniscule solar system, one speck of a planet in a mind bogglingly vast universe. How humbling that we should exist at all. And how humbling that the Immense God Who created this vastness should raise our status among His creatures by sending His Son to die for us that we may live eternally with Him as His heirs, His children. Who are we imperceptible creatures that the God of the universe should love us so completely? Could make us significant and gift us with a planet and a universe that fill our survival and exploratory needs?

            Yet we live on a planet with an atmosphere balanced for our existence; that is exactly positioned from the sun to maintain human life. A moon so perfectly distant as to govern the oceans without creating tidal waves so mammoth that humanity succumbs to extinction. Yet Moon is not dislodged by Sun’s gravitational pull. Could this jeweled precision be random luck? Once again, I think not.

            Ecosystems. Biological niches. Each tuned to the life requirements of the creatures and foliage that call Earth home. Left undisturbed, Nature provides the proper environment needed to sustain life within each ecosystem.

            Frog suns himself atop a riparian boulder. Tis lunchtime near the river’s edge. Dragonfly flits a zigzag pattern over the river’s surface, its reflection keeping pace. Hovering a bit too near Frog, Dragonfly disappears with one quick dart of Frog’s tongue. Quite content is Frog with his snack.

            Snake’s advance escapes Frog’s notice. Snake inches up the boulder flicking her tongue for the scent of prey. Within Snake’s stealth, Frog disappears—mid croak—first head, then body, then feet into Snake’s mouth.

            Hawk circles overhead, the azure sky outlining his sudden swoop toward Earth. Momentarily hidden amidst pines and oaks, Hawk soon returns skyward, Snake dangling limply in his talons. Lunch in a riparian ecosystem—meticulously tuned.

            The amazing evolution of life cannot be dumb luck, haphazard randomness. Ecosystems balanced to the micrometer. Each species playing the roles of both predator and prey. Niches orchestrated to ensure that each species survives, yet not reproducing to excess. Random luck? How could such fine synchronization be a hit or miss concoction of happenstance events that magically evolved to produce all of the integrated ecosystems on planet Earth? Thus, I believe in God because ecosystems orchestrate life.

            I believe in an infinitely loving, infinitely perfect Intelligence. I believe in a Supreme Being—my loving God—because His planets do not collide, because a wooly worm evolves butterfly wings within the incubation of its chrysalis and takes flight, and because a baby grows from the union of two single cells to emerge from its home within its mother’s womb as a fully formed human being with ten little fingers and ten little toes. I believe in God because of His creation, because every single day God reveals just a little more of His magnificent awesomeness and of His gentle, fatherly love to me. I believe in God because He established the laws that disprove haphazard randomness. I believe in God because He is infinite love Who shares Himself with humanity through His creation.