God's Fingerprints

King David saw God's fingerprints in nature. He observed, "The heavens declare the glory of God" (Psalm 19:1). The wise king Solomon saw them, too. He conducted extensive studies of "plant life . . . animals and birds, reptiles and fish" (1 Kings 4:33). Likewise, the apostle Paul saw in creation clear evidence of God's "eternal power and divine nature" (Romans 1:20).

Unfortunately, not everyone recognizes God's fingerprints. An article in Time magazine (March 5, 1993) referred to the regularity of the earth's seasons and the ocean tides as "a lucky accident, a side effect of the moon." But who put the moon in its place? Did our planet just happen to be positioned at an ideal distance from the sun? Was it also a "lucky accident" that the percentage of oxygen in the atmosphere is ideal to sustain life? If the earth appears "tailor made" for human habitation, isn't it reasonable to believe God is the tailor?

Scientist John Haldane once told theologian Ronald Knox that in a universe containing millions of planets, it was inevitable that life should appear by chance on one of them. "Sir," Knox replied, "if Scotland Yard found a body in your Saratoga trunk, would you tell them, 'There are millions of trunks in the world—surely one of them must contain a body'? I think they still would want to know who put it there."

Mere chance cannot explain the abundant design and complexity we observe in the universe. A monkey playing with a computer keyboard might type a word or two by chance, but he will never write Gone With the Wind!

Job urged, "Ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds of the air, and they will tell you . . . . Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this?" (Job 12:7-9). It's no surprise that children (and adults) enjoy visiting the zoo. Animals and birds bear the Creator's fingerprints.

With wings beating 70 times per second, a tiny hummingbird can fly forward, backward, upward, sideways, upside-down, and it can hover. A bumblebee is too round and heavy to fly at all, but it does. A woodpecker is equipped with a thick skull designed like a bicycle helmet to absorb shock, with feathers over the nostrils that act like a dust mask to screen out wood-chips. An osprey has a protective visor that drops down over its eyes a split second before the bird hits the water in pursuit of a fish. Birds like shearwaters, which live for long periods over the ocean, have special glands that extract salt from sea water.

Scientists are studying squirrels to gain insight into the treatment of human stroke victims. When squirrels hibernate, their body temperature drops from 98 degrees to 42 degrees, their heart rate drops from 300 beats per minute to five or 10, and blood flow to the brain falls to 10 percent of normal. Yet the squirrels emerge from hibernation with no brain damage at all. One scientist speculates that "some peptide or hormone is masterminding" the squirrel's unique ability. Master Mind, indeed.

Science presents problems for people of faith, but it only generates more problems if you leave God out of the equation. Alexander MacLaren said, "The difficulties of faith are 'gnats' beside the camels' unbelief has to swallow." Eighteenth-century theologian William Paley put it well: "As clay in a man's hand shows the lines of his palm, so the universe is stamped with the intelligence of the Maker."