THERE ARE A MILLION — and more — mysteries and miracles in nature that defy explanation. No man apart from Divine Revelation can explain the origin of matter. Neither can man explain the secrets of the atom, nor account for the origin of motion, or the miracle of sustained, controlled motion in this vast universe.
We do not know what LIFE is, nor why or how a new unit of life can be started with the union of two small cells. Neither do we know why plants and animals grow — nor why, when many of them reach a certain stage, they stop growing — nor why they grow old and eventually die.
It is one of the ironies of modern science that the most elementary questions are still the hardest to answer. How, for instance, is a new animal created? We know that an egg and a spermatozoon unite to form a single cell, and this union somehow sets in motion a chain of events that gives rise to a new being. But what trigger, what spark, starts the process? What, in short, is the secret of fertilization? We do not yet know, although many eminent biologists have searched many long years for the answer.” (Albert Monroy, in “Scientific American“).
Scientists do not know how life got started in the beginning; the gap between the inorganic elements and the simplest forms of life is infinitely great. No one knows why life is divided into the two major kingdoms: plant and animal. Why not all one kingdom (say, animal); or, why not more then two — plant, animal and some other radically different form of life? No one can explain the origin of sex; why male and female? Nor can anyone explain the secrets of heredity, or of instinct, that amazing property of animals which acts like intelligence but is not intelligence as we know it, but which enables certain creatures to do what man with all his intelligence can not do!
No person on earth can explain fully what electricity is, not gravitation, magnetism, light, heat, sound or color! We know how these natural forces act — but WHY and exactly how they do so, no man knows.
How are we to explain this phenomenon? “One can send an electric current through a copper wire at 100 below zero, and at the other end of the wire heat a heating coil to thousands of degrees. Where was the “heat” while going through the wire? We all know there are “laws” governing heat and electricity that explain HOW these phenomena work — but who knows WHY they work that way?
No one can explain the origin of chlorophyll, or the fascinating, involved process of photosynthesis. “Photosynthesis — the amazing process of the synthesis of organic compounds from carbon dioxide
and water by plants in light remains one of the great unsolved problems of biology.” (Eugene I. Rabinowitch, “Scientific American,” 11-’53).
WHY does a comparatively minor change in the number of protons, neutrons and electrons in an atom produce an entirely different element? Essentially, all the atoms of all the elements are built on the same general plan: a central nucleus, made up of protons and neutrons, with an equal number of electrons revolving around them, with unbelievable speed. WHY, by merely changing the number of the protons, neurons and electrons, does one get the different elements — so vastly unlike? What magic legerdemain did the Creator use to accomplish such uncanny results?
No one, save the Bible-believer, has a satisfactory explanation of the mysteries of sin (evil) and death in human experience.
NO ONE YET HAS THOUGHT OF A SATISFACTORY THEORY FOR THE ORIGIN OF THE
EARTH, IF GOD IS LEFT OUT OF THE PICTURE. Every theory advanced so far has been riddled full of holes by FACTS that disprove the theories. As an example of how “theories” have been made and blasted into bits, we quote from Fred Hoyle.
“Nearly all of the planets LIE VERY FAR OUT (far away from the sun).” This simple fact is “the death blow” of every theory that seeks for an origin of the planets in the sun; for, “how could the material have been flung out so far?” (See Fred Hoyle’s argument, p.85, in “The Nature of the Universe“).
` Moreover, if all the planets were originally part of the sun, Why do some of the moons of some of the planets revolve in retrograde motion — in the opposite direction to the others?
If the earth were originally thrown off the sun, which is 98% hydrogen, where did the water on the earth come from, and the oxygen to make water? In a universe that is practically without water, why is there so much water on our earth?
Millions of mysteries envelop our earth! Who understands the mysteries of cosmic rays — and other forms of stellar radiation?
“In cosmic radiation we are dealing with a universal phenomenon that is energetic, basic and mysterious” (Shapely).
Who can explain why, except by admitting an act of God, there is an “ozone belt” about forty miles up in the atmosphere, that filters out “killer rays” from the sun. Without that ozone belt no life on earth would be possible. WHO PUT IT UP THERE!
The whole gamut of life on earth, from bacteria to man, is so involved, so interdependent, so filled with specialized organs that perform functions needed by the SOCIETY OF LIFE, as well as for their own benefit, that it presents one grand miracle of integrated achievement. Life on earth in any organism is really a LIVING MACHINE, with a million parts, ALL necessary for the successful operation of the whole. Bateson sensed this, though he professed to be an evolutionist. We quote:
“To supply themselves with food, to find it, to seize and digest it, to protect themselves from predatory enemies whether by offence or defence, to counter-balance the changes of temperature, or pressure, to provide for mechanical strains, to obtain immunity from poison and from invading organisms, to bring the sexual elements into contact, to insure the distribution of type; all of these and many more are accomplished by organisms in a thousand most diverse and alternative methods. These are the things that are hard to imagine as produced by any concatenation of natural events.” (Quoted from “Problems of Genetics” in “Evolution, the Unproven Hypothesis“).