It Is

 A brief pondering on the idea of  intelligent design

I looked up at the sky, and I saw a pinprick of light that was at least 700 years old. To put it in perspective, the photons of the light I was seeing started their journey at about the time Columbus was trying to convince the Queen of Spain to finance his expedition. This was before the English set up colonies in the New World, when Europe was undergoing a Renaissance, and Africa was but a dark mystery to the West. And so the farther out from Earth one sees, the older what one sees. There are galaxies that are so far away that the light that strikes our eyes is older than the Earth itself. It's strange the way we rattle such figures off, as if they were just another set of figures. "The Andromeda galaxy is about 2 and half million light years away". Wow, just like Siberia is on the other side of the world, right? The thing is, light travels at 186,000 miles per second, making this number so incomprehensibly vast as to be almost unintelligible.

There is in these insanely vast numbers a clue to something humans have contemplated for a long time. How did all this come to be? Somehow, the idea that the universe has always existed, a Totality with no origin and no end, seems mad. Our minds try to impose a background grid upon which to operate and focus; we postulate a beginning to the Universe, because if we did not, we'd be overwhelmed by the infinitude of it all. We impose order upon chaos, like God, who created us in his image.

Look now in the other direction. The "smaller" we focus, the more we find, including things which seem to contradict the various laws of physics. It turns out that atoms are not the smallest things in the universe, and there are living things that can be seen only under a powerful microscope. The process of protein formation is done in a manner similar to a machine process. T\here is no way for this process to have been randomly evolved, as it involves complex sequencing of genes. 

The more we look in both directions, the more we see tantalizing clues, outright evidence that someone or something created this space we live in. Evolution becomes more and more absurd as we understand the astonishing mechanisms of life, at least as a theory explaining the origin of life and it's infinite diversity. Darwin was partially right; organisms evolve structures and characteristics that increase their chances of survival into the future. To claim that a single cell, microscopic organism evolved into something as complex as an animal with it's many specialized organs is like saying that a billion monkeys hammering mindlessly away at a typewriter will eventually produce Shakespeare's Hamlet. Or the constitution of the United States.

As it turns out, the Earth is located in a very narrow space where temperatures and the resulting climate are suitable to sustain complex life forms. The presence of the moon, the atmosphere, the tilting of the north-south axis, the Earth's magnetic field, and the Earth's rotation all are in a perfect balance to create a cradle for the existence, and thriving, of complex life forms. All of the proportions are in perfect balance, and even the smallest deviation from them would make life impossible. 

Finally, I will refer you to a piece of scripture written over two thousand years ago, when it was apparent to people that someone or something built all this:

(Romans 1:18-20, NIV)...The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

The creator whom we sometimes call God exists. We see clues to existence all around us. 

The Only Thing We Have to Fear

is God....

 I’ve heard it said that the Russians (which Russians?) are nervous about having a NATO ally so close to it’s southern border. But…why? the member nations of NATO stand for democracy and non-aggression. What exactly does “Russia” have to fear from NATO, and the Ukrainians? Most every day Russians have more to fear from their own government than they do having NATO-allied Ukraine at it’s southern border.

Here in America, most people are busy working for a living, protecting their families and loved ones, pursuing personal interests and hobbies, etc., etc. The same goes for the Ukrainians, at least before Russian dictator Vladimir Putin decided to invade their country. A small group of people in Russia are willing to kill innocent people who don’t agree with their ideology. They have taken over Russian culture and society, and have the Russian people under their yoke. Now they propose to do the same to the Ukrainians. This is why I say the war mongers in Russia, and their supporters abroad, are criminals. Criminals who believe that they will get away with their crimes and their evil. This is the demon we humans let loose on Earth when we created governments long, long ago. The need for government unleashes psychopaths like Putin, like Hitler, Pol Pot, Che Guevara, Stalin, and any number of other tyrants who leap at the opportunity to kill and destroy with impunity and pseudo-moral justification.

So how will these criminals ever come to justice? They control nuclear weapons, capable of ending all life on Earth many times over. Do we slap economic sanctions on them, hoping to provoke the oppressed citizenry to rise up against their masters? How is this just? Ordinary citizens, desiring from others only to be left alone, will suffer from these sanctions. Many will starve, their lives destroyed by poverty. In such a condition, how will they fight against an armed government?

Meanwhile, here in this country, there are people debating how many genders we have; there are people so consumed by self-righteous hatred for Donald Trump and his supporters that they are willing to destroy everything Trump accomplished, out of spite. Here in America, people allow themselves to be obsessed with a person’s skin color, sexual identity and gender, when none of these things even matter to the actual worth of a human being. Loud, obnoxious people become shrill and scream “theocracy” or “white supremacy” when any attempt to defend Judeo-Christian ethics are made. You know, those pesky, oppressive life affirming and life sustaining ethics that Christians and Jews have been tyrannically imposing on the world, who only want the right to be self-loving narcissists, baby killers, and promiscuous fornicators.

The world is broken. Evil is abroad and at home, on the march, unchecked and unopposed in any meaningful way. The horrors we are seeing in Europe right now will soon come to our homes, our towns, our families and friends. The demons of war are loose, and they’re coming for all of us. Why did this happen? Because America basically gave up on it's position of leadership in the world, wracked by hand wringing self loathing.