Course Content
How was life on earth created, was it all by chance or was there a creator?
If there was no creator, then consider for a moment what it would take for life on earth to have begun by chance. For life to have come about, somehow the right chemicals would have had to come precisely together in the right quantities, under the right pressure and temperature with the right amount of other controlling factors maintained over the correct amount of time.
Moreover, these precise conditions would have had to be repeated millions of times.
But how likely is it for even one such event to take place by chance? According to leading mathematicians and scientists (evolutionists and creationists alike), the probability of the right atoms and molecules falling into place to form just one simple protein molecule is 1 in 10 to the 113th power (that's 1 followed by 113 zeros). This number is larger than the total estimated number of atoms in the entire universe.
Mathematicians dismiss anything taking place that has a probability of less than 1 in 10 to the 50th power much less anything happening in 1 in 10 to the 113th. But far more than one simple protein is needed for life. Some 2000 different proteins are needed just for a cell to maintain its life, and the chance that all of them will occur at random is 1 in 10 to the 40,000th power.
To the logical mind these calculations wipe out the idea entirely that life originated spontaneously on the earth. All evidence points to order and design throughout the earth and indeed the whole universe. From the study of the tiniest atom to the giant nebulas, one can see logic and order in everything that is taking place. It has already been established that this order is governed by mathematical and scientific laws that are constant and maintained.
If, then, we have a universe that is governed by laws (as everyone admits), we can perceive that there had to be an intelligent lawmaker who formulated and established these laws. And that is just what Scripture declares, "What may be known of God is manifest in them, 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, even His eternal power and Godhead" (Romans 1:19-20).
Design and order are not only seen in the patterns of the universe but in the workings of living things around us. Take for example the marvels of the human body. How, for example, does the pancreas maintain the correct level of sugar in the blood? Without it we would all fall into a diabetic coma and die. How about the heart that beats for over 70 or 80 years without fail? Or the kidneys that filter poison from our blood, taking out the bad and leaving the good? Also, the eye and ear show such intricate design and complexity that modern medicine cannot fully explain it.
Who showed the womb how to receive a tiny egg and help turn it into a complex organism with millions of specialized cells with different functions?
Who designed the animal and plant worlds with their hosts of beautifully interdependent workings? Who created bird and animal migrations and chose which species would migrate and which wouldn't? Who built photosynthesis into plants so that almost all living things can ultimately receive their life-giving energy from the sun?
There is no God? Only a fool would say so.
Hector M. Earle was born in Roddickton, Newfoundland/Labrador and completed his secondary education at AC Palmer Collegiate. In 1986, he completed a BA(Ed) degree from Memorial University at St. John's, NL in upper elementary education. In 1976, he was a teacher/principal at Ridgewood Academy at Stoneville, NL for 24 years. In 1991, he received a Graduate Diploma in Educational Administration from Memorial and a subsequent Master of Education Degree in Educational Leadership in 1997. His thesis, School Based Decision Making, is in the education archived section of the research department at Memorial University Queen Elizabeth Library, in St. John’s, NL. Hector is a Justice of the Peace/Notary Public for the province of Newfoundland, Department of Justice and he is currently with the Northland School Division as a Special Education Coordinator in Janvier, Alberta.
Writing has been a part of Hector Earle’s life over the years and he has written numerous articles in many educational journals and Christian magazines across Canada and the United States. His educational articles have been reprinted in Educational Journals in British Columbia and Manitoba. He has been published in such magazines as The Good Tidings Magazine, The NLTA Bulletin, The Canadian Teacher Magazine and numerous articles for Virtual Christian Magazine. He enjoys sharing his Christian faith with United Church of God readers. He was converted in September 1975 after reading an issue of The Plain Truth magazine and subsequent literature in the mail from the former World Wide Church of God.
He has just recently written a book entitled Death of a Race, a historical fiction novel about the demise of the Beothuck First Nations of Newfoundland and Labrador. His work is intended to be a novel for Junior High Social Studies in the Schools in Canadian schools. The manuscript is currently being published by DRC publishing in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Hector is happily married to his lovely wife, Marilyn and currently resides in Chard, Alberta. They have three beautiful daughters: Elaine, living in Calgary, Alberta; Rhonda, a RCMP officer in Bay Roberts, NL; and Wendy, a grade 12 graduate, currently working in Fort McMurray, Alberta.
