ALL THE EVIDENCE POINTS

Just how much evidence is required for certainty or to reach a conclusion that is beyond doubt?  The modern age stands or falls on the application of scientific methods – hypothesis, theory and law.  When new evidence comes to light, new hypotheses will lead to a questioning of previous assumptions and theories which can even undermine reasoning formerly taken to be factual, sound, solid laws! This is the way bodies of knowledge develop and are passed on to subsequent generations as ‘received fact’.  It means however that many theories are overturned and some taken as fact now will be overturned in the future!  Let’s consider science and faith to see where the evidence points.

In 1989, Fleischmann–Pons’s theory that nuclear fusion could happen at low temperatures was popular but it has now been laid aside. Then there was Phrenology that suggested the shape of skull to be indicative of the strengths of different faculties – it is now widely considered as a pseudoscience.  Einstein proposed a static universe in 1917 but Edwin Hubble’s discoveries now demonstrate an expanding universe.  Nicolaus Copernicus disproved the flat earth theory and so it goes on and will go on.  

Patricia Wiltshire is a British forensic scientist who has solved murder enquiries using the tiniest pieces of evidence – pollen!  In the Soham murder inquiry, Wiltshire’s analysis of soil and plant evidence from clothing, footwear, and a vehicle, yielded trace evidence that linked Ian Huntley to the place where the victims (Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells) were found. Observation and experimentation of plant growth at the deposition site enabled her to estimate the time that the girls had been placed in the ditch very accurately. Her evidence was important in the conviction of Ian Huntley.  In the 2007 Christopher Laverack murder case, three decades after the nine-year-old’s murder, Wiltshire linked the unusual pollen and other plant matter on the victim’s clothing, along with the ornamental brick used to keep him submerged after death, with that found on the property of his uncle, Melvyn Read, thus providing substantial evidence to implicate Read.  Tiny evidence indeed.

  • ‘Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence’ – John Adams
  • ‘We can’t have full knowledge all at once. We must start by believing; then afterwards we may be led on to master the evidence for ourselves’ – Thomas Aquinas

The human brain appears to be ‘wired’ to look for patterns, answers and solutions, but why?  Computers are programmed to do the same, but why?  Obviously it is done by a programmer to perform a function that is deemed to be useful by the programmer.  The better and more sophisticated the programme, the more credit goes to the programmer.  This is true for inventions and any item that is designed.  It would be a wilfully ignorant person, a twister of fact or a lunatic who would claim that there was no designer behind all things pointing to design.

  • ‘For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;  your works are wonderful, I know that full well’ – Psalm 139:13-14
  • ‘So God created mankind in his own image,  in the image of God he created them;  male and female he created them’ – Genesis 1:27
  • ‘Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious’ – Stephen Hawking

If you look to outer space as we were encouraged to do by Stephen Hawking, you see wonder and mystery.  The deeper you look, the more you realise how delicate the design for life on the earth to exist.  The more you look, as we humans do, the tinier you realise the earth is in the vastness of space and the more remarkable that we exist at all!  The evidence for the Designer is vastly more compelling than tiny pollen – who made the pollen in any case!

Perhaps you prefer to look down a microscope – you will find even more precision and pointers to The Creator there!  Take a snorkel and go under the sea, be amazed by the creatures that swim the depths and the inter-connectedness of both plant and animal life.  Go potholing or journey to the centre of the earth (so far as you can) and you will find more and more compelling evidence of the brilliant designs.  Even a summer’s walk with birds, bees, butterflies, buttercups and love in the air should do it!

Far from being someone who has thrown their brain away, a believing Christian is someone who has learnt how to use the brain to work out what should be obvious!  Yes a Designer, yes a reason for living, yes a solution to our mess, yes an empty tomb and YES you’re right even when everything in the world seems stacked against you.  Only one thing can be right … and ALL THE EVIDENCE POINTS!

C4L Videos for Life – ‘The Age of Enlightenment’

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