The Selective Search for Intelligence
In the movie Contact, Jodie Foster plays Dr. Arroway, an atheist scientist who works for the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) program at an observatory in Puerto Rico. She and her colleagues work tirelessly using high-tech equipment to analyze the airwaves for possible signals sent by extraterrestrial life.
After years of patiently scanning the skies, they finally hit the jackpot -- a strong signal repeating a sequence of prime numbers, apparently emitting from the Vega star. The moment Dr. Arroway hears a pattern in the signal, she immediately recognizes that it was produced by an intelligent source.
"Those are primes!" she exclaims. "Two, Three, Five, Seven...those are all prime numbers and there's no way that's a natural phenomenon!"
Dr. Arroway's reaction to the pattern in the signal is a reasonable one. The human mind naturally recognizes purposeful patterns when it encounters them, and logically infers that they are the product of intelligence. But for those who have made up their minds that God does not exist, the search for intelligence is highly selective. Dr. Arroway, like her atheist colleagues, is only prepared to see intelligence where they want to see it. The complexity they encounter in nature, and even in their own DNA, though far more complex than a list of prime numbers, does not impress them in the same way.
It seems that the weighty implications that come with an admission to the existence of God have closed their minds to what should be obvious to them.
"So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts" (Ephesians 4:17-18).
Give Me Immortality And That's An Order!
Chinese archaeologists recently discovered a set of wooden slats in Hunan province recording an order from Emperor Qin Shihuang (who died in 210 BC) mandating a nationwide search for the elixir of life which he felt would alone provide him immortality. Also discovered among the 36,000 messages were replies from perplexed local officials who were embarrassed at their failure to meet his demands.
Emperor Qin's quest for eternal life was well known: He was responsible for the massive underground mausoleum in the northern province of Shaanxi filled with nearly 8000 terracotta soldiers built to protect him in the afterlife. The Qin dynasty -- notorious for its book burnings and executions of literati -- laid the foundation for China as the unified nation that has persisted for two millennia.
The Emperor's obsession with immortality and the COMMAND that it be brought to him were doomed from the start precisely because eternal life is the gracious GIFT of God, promised to all who simply receive it. Sinners that we are, we cannot demand, and we certainly can't command, anything from God.
In truth, all we really deserve is condemnation! However, the Apostle Paul declares in 2 Timothy 1:10 that God's saving grace "has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel."
Asking The Best Questions
The Tampa Bay Times staff reports:
According to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, William Joe Johnson, 26, on Thursday stole an undisclosed amount of money from the Achieva Credit Union.
... Johnson entered the bank just before 11 a.m., approached the teller, implied he had a gun and told the teller to give him cash, according to deputies. He ran from the store with the cash.
After an investigation, deputies found him at the hotel. In an interview, detectives said Johnson told them he was in need of money and searched on Google "how to rob a bank."
It seems Google has an answer to every question we might think to pose to it. But that doesn’t mean that the advice gleaned ought to be followed, or that the questions we pose should have been asked in the first place.
In life, we tend to find what you’re looking for. The Bible offers answers to the best questions we might ask; questions like: What is my purpose? What is God like? Can I be sure that I have eternal life? To those asking the best questions, Jesus said, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7).
The Bible doesn’t answer every question we might ask but it does answer every question we should be asking.