A couple summers ago, my wife had a conversation with a girl on the boardwalk in Ocean City. The conversation turned to reasons for God's existence. Jill talked about the order and design in the universe as a reason to believe that there is a God, or designer. In response, the girl said that was like a puddle thinking to itself, "Wow! How great is this that this hole was specifically designed for me!" The idea is, just like the hole was not designed for the puddle, the earth only appears to be designed for us humans.
While shaving just now, a response to that argument (which perhaps you have heard) just occurred to me. What if Jill had said, "Well, what if, instead of a hole in the ground, the water was in a swimming pool? What would the water conclude? The hole (i.e. the pool) was designed for the water! If you look at the incredible order in the universe, it makes more sense to me to see our world more like the swimming pool than the hole in the ground."
I doubt that this girl reads my blog, but now you know what to say if you ever come across that line of reasoning.
For some great illustrations to use when you are having conversations about God, I highly recommend a book by my friend Tim Muehlhoff called The God Conversation. You can order it here .
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