ONE HEARTBEAT AWAY

 ONE HEARTBEAT      AWAY       

                                            Mark Cahill's book


Nobel Prize

"I can see how it might be possible for a man to look down upon the earth and be an atheist, but I cannot conceive how he could look up into the heavens and say there is no God."  -Abraham Lincoln

Many people believe there is no God because they are convinced that science has fully explained how our universe came to be. If there is a natural explanation of our origins, they think, who needs a supernatural one?  Perhaps like many, you see a contest between science and religion, and believe that science has been the winner hands down.

But does science alone explain this incredibly  beautiful and complex creation in which we live?  Doesn't its magnificence make you wonder?

How does the sun provide just the right amount of energy to light and heat our planet?  What makes everything in our orderly world work so well together?  How is it that we can predict the precise day of a full moon, or an eclipse, or determine whether to expect a violent thunderstorm or a fresh snowfall?

Where does lightning come from, or a brilliant rainbow?  When we see the startling colours of a sunset, we often wonder how such a spectacular display was created. We marvel at the grandeur of mountains and the beauty of beaches. 

As I saw the Grand Canyon for the first time, my jaw dropped. The canyon's vastness was awe-inspiring, and its colours were truly amazing. Where did that canyon come from?

Everytime we look at something built by man - a house for example - we know it had a builder, someone who assembled it . When we see something that has design, like a watch, we know that it had a designer who planned it. When we see artwork, like a painting, we know there is an artist who painted it. When we observe order - say twenty coke cups lined up in a row - we know there was an "orderer"  who set them up that way.

When we look around the universe, at things not made by man, what do we see?  We see creation, design, art and order. So if everything manmade has a creator, designer, artist or orderer behind it, why would we not think that there is a Creator, Designer, Artist and Orderer behind the universe?

Why is it that when we look at Mount Rushmore, we don't say, "Wow, erosion is an amazing thing!  Look how it formed the heads of  four presidents of the United States ?"   We realize that would be a foolih statement. Whenever we see creation, design, art or order, it's obvious that there was some intelligent force behind it to make it happen.

I speak in many venues around the country, so I fly a lot. Once, on the drive from the airport, I saw a beautiful sunset - one of those amazing technicolour displays, that keeps changing lije a kaleidoscope. I began to pray that someone would see that beautiful sunset and wonder who painted it in the sky.

The following night was halloween. I was staying with some friends who had a very large house set back from the road quite a distance. No one had come to the house for candy that night - until there was a ring at the door at around 9.30.  As the lady of the house went to answer it, I stuck my head around the corner to take a peek.

At the door were two young ladies, their faces painted like cats.  They looked a bit too old to be trick-or-treating, and, of course they said they wanted some candy!

After chatting a few minutes, I brought up a question about eternity. One girl said, "you're wasting your time talking to us about God. We're atheists."   So I asked them what evidence they had found to prove that there is no God. They didn'thave any evidence at all which I found very interesting. 

Like many people they were probably thinking that reason was on their side. Yet without any evidence to support their belief, what they actually had was blind faith - and they were using that for their eternal destiny.  Some people think it takes blind faith to believe in God . But we use calculated faith for most decisions in life, and we should 
do the same  for our decisions about eternity.

I asked them what would be enough evidence to prove that God exists. Tgey didn't have an answer for that either.  So I told them I would give them something to think about, and I explained the concept that the universe displays creation, design, art and order I asked them, "if everything else has a creator, designer, artist  and orderer behind it, why would you think that there is not a Creator, Designer, Artist and Orderer behind this universe? "

Suddenly their eyes grew wide . One of the young ladies said, "Yesterday I walked outside at dusk and saw a gorgeous sunset. And I was wondering to myself  'who painted that in the sky?'  "

Within twenty-four hours of my prayer , I got to meet someone with whom God had answered that prayer!

Both young ladies were students at a local art college . As artists they knew 
that for every beautiful painting there must be a painter who created that artwork. And logically the same would have to hold true for all that is in this incredible universe.

Logically, we know that there cannot be an unpainted painting, an unsculptured sculpture,  an undesigned design. That just doesn't make sense. And it makes much less sense for us to base our eternal destiny on something we know is not reasonable.