Are You Just an Accident?
"Welcome and congratulations. I am delighted you could make it. Getting here wasn't easy." These are the first sentences of the introduction to best-selling author Bill Bryson's new book, A Short History of Nearly Everything. He is referring to your arrival on earth as a human being...
Mr. Bryson continued: "For you to be here now trillions of drifting atoms had somehow to assemble in an intricate and curiously obliging manner to create you." He then speculated as to why these atoms should go to the trouble of bothering with you since they "don't even know that you are there."
Bill Bryson further remarked that atoms were fickle, and that their devotion to keeping you together had its distinct limitations. After all, even a very long human life only amounted to "about 650,000 hours." This is a curious way of describing our lives.
What follows in Mr. Bryson's new book is over 400 pages of entertaining commentary speculating on how human beings and the universe got here in the first place. Interestingly enough, he began his research with a 4th- or 5th-grade U.S. science textbook.
Like most of us in the Western world, Bill Bryson received his education in a system fundamentally based on the evolutionary teachings of Charles Darwin. It has been said (and with much accuracy) that all modern education is based on the theory of evolution. Basically, evolution implies that the presence of the universe itself was due to an accident.
But there has always been an alternative, credible understanding of how human beings were put on earth.This alternate knowledge tells us that it really occurred due to wise planning and forethought. Even the tiny atoms that make up a human being were all tempered together by intricate and deliberate design. King David exclaimed in Psalm 139:14 that "I am fearfully and wonderfully made."
To believe all that is you is just a fortuitous accident deprives life of any real meaning. Thankfully, there is rational proof available that a benevolent God created you for a very great purpose.
You can discover this supremely valuable information by requesting our free booklets Life's Ultimate Question: Does God Exist? and Creation or Evolution: Does It Matter What You Really Believe? Or you may choose to view or download these publications online. Truly our Creator is the God of small things when tempering all these minutely tiny atoms together into just one human being.
For further insights on today's headlines from other sources, checkout Current World News & Trends.
Course Content
John Ross Schroeder
John died on March 8, 2014, in Oxford, England, four days after suffering cardiac arrest while returning home from a press event in London. John was 77 and still going strong.
Some of John's work for The Good News appeared under his byline, but much didn't. He wrote more than a thousand articles over the years, but also wrote the Questions and Answers section of the magazine, compiled our Letters From Our Readers, and wrote many of the items in the Current Events and Trends section. He also contributed greatly to a number of our study guides and Bible Study Course lessons. His writing has touched the lives of literally millions of people over the years.
John traveled widely over the years as an accredited journalist, especially in Europe. His knowledge of European and Middle East history added a great deal to his articles on history and Bible prophecy.
In his later years he also pastored congregations in Northern Ireland and East Sussex, and that experience added another dimension to his writing. He and his wife Jan were an effective team in our British Isles office near their home.
John was a humble servant who dedicated his life to sharing the gospel—the good news—of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God to all the world, and his work was known to readers in nearly every country of the world.
