Have you ever looked at the universe and wondered whether its remarkable beauty and precision point to something more than chance? We are reasonable creatures; it’s logical to see something that has clearly been intentionally designed and to know that it had to have a creator. William Paley gave us a great example to understand this concept known as the “Watchmaker” analogy. If we are walking along the beach and come across a pocket watch in the sand, we know that it didn’t begin to exist by chance. Even though we didn’t see it happen and we don’t know how it got there, we know that at one point someone designed and created it. We know that there was a watchmaker. It would be irrational to look at the watch and say, “What an amazing watch! It’s incredible that random grains of sand, wind, and waves somehow came together into this complex and functional object.” The complexity and purposefulness of the watch point to an intelligent designer. In the same way, the incredible complexity, order, and beauty of the universe and humanity point to an intentional creator.

 

There are many things we can see about the universe and our planet that make us think this way. Maybe the starry sky on a clear night, the instinctive way animals care for their offspring, or even a pretty sunset. I’m sure there are times that you can recall when you’ve experienced the feeling of awe and purpose that arises from the admiration of life. However, to fully understand just how fine-tuned our world is, there are things we can look at beyond what is immediately visible.

 

If we take a deeper look at what we know about our universe and our planet, there are some mind-blowing facts. Philosopher Robin Collins points out that “if gravity had been stronger or weaker by one part in 10^40, then life-sustaining stars like the Sun could not exist” (Reese, 2026). Mathematician John Lennox explains the math this way: “Cover America with coins in a column reaching to the moon (236,000 miles away), then do the same for a billion other continents of the same size. Paint one coin red and put it somewhere in one of the billion piles. Blindfold a friend and ask her to pick it out. The odds are about 1 in 10^40 that she will.” This is just one example. Similarly, if we were even infinitesimally closer to or further away from the sun, the planet could not sustain life. Additionally, our atmosphere is made up of the exact oxygen concentration that life and humanity need to prosper. These things could not have happened accidentally. A quick study of the human body reveals the same thing. Our bodies, and their DNA, are far more complex than most people know. 

 

Knowing these things, it is hard to come to any other conclusion other than that our universe and the people in it were intentionally created by an intelligent designer. God is all-knowing and all-powerful, and the evidence is in His work. 

 

Written by Kayleigh Isaacs

 

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