Not Made For Us

I was watching a video on YouTube the other day made by an astrophysicist named Neil DeGrasse Tyson. I watched this video because it says it's about his thoughts on the "unintelligent design of the universe." This stuff intrigues me and has done so for years. Also, since I am a Christian and believe there is intelligent design in the universe, I wanted to hear what he had to say.

Before I talk more about the video I want to say that I highly value hearing people out on their points of view. Sometimes I think I know everything but I have had many experiences in life that shows me there is usually more to life--nay, more to the universe--than what I know. Christians are often guilty of quick judgments and then vehemently sticking to those ideas. This is really frustrating to me because I am then grouped together with these knuckleheads. I am hesitant to tell people I am a Christian because of the associations that are typically made in most of our culture.

Ok, that being said, I watched the video to hear what Dr. Tyson has to say. He has 2 PhD's (1 of them is honorary) so I figure he is an intelligent guy. Basically, Dr Tyson is laying out an argument against Intelligent Design. Soon after he begins, the powerpoint behind him says: STUPID Design.

Why would he make this claim? He points out that most places in the universe would kill life instantly with heat, cold or radiation. Galaxy orbits bring you in close contact with super novas (trust me, that's a bad place to be). Our own galaxy is on a collision course with the Andromeda galaxy and the universe is generally winding down into oblivion.

His concerns are not just galactic concerns either. He talks about the fact we can't live on 2/3 of the earth (otherwise known as oceans). Earthquakes, tsunamis, lightning, floods, tornados, etc all kills thousands each year. And, if you think about the dinosaurs, about 90% of life that ever existed is now extinct.

I could go on but I won't continue in such detail. He does look at the aging process and still births (if you get queasy, look out for the still born babies he shows...ugh). At the end of the video he lays out a pretty good argument that this universe is pretty screwed up and why would anyone believe in Intelligent Design when they consider these things.

I thought about this for a few hours and there was one line that kept standing out in my mind. The video did put a little doubt in my mind about the goodness of God's creation but then I remembered what he said near the end of the video. He said that it's obvious that this universe is not made for us.

Honestly, I think this was the key statement in the video. I believe he looks at how weak and vulnerable we are in this dangerous world and thinks that an intelligent designer would have made us more robust and able to live in more environments and use less energy doing so. However, when I look at what the Bible says I believe that God purposefully made us weak and vulnerable so that our reliance would be on him. I believe God wants to play an integral part of our lives and if we are built in such a way that we don't need anything, God would have very little place in our lives.

Some people might think this is a horrendous idea because they don't believe God could be loving. I understand that. But for me, it helps me when I see beautiful things in the world and also very ugly things in the world. I love watching the sun rise but I am appalled seeing people suffering and dying. There is so much right in the world and so much wrong in the world too, but I don't think this automatically negates a good creator.

(there's more to this discussion, but for now, I leave it at this)