Chance

In a 2024 interview the actress Julia Fox was asked, “Do you meditate or journal or otherwise practice mindfulness?” She replied:

I don’t, but I do pray. When I was little, I [prayed to] Jesus Christ. Now I pray to the universe, the collective consciousness, the karmic force behind everything. I used to pray for things that I really wanted. Now I pray to be guided, stay on the right path, for strength, for positivity. But then I also definitely do pray for things I want, too.

Most people believe that evolution provides an adequate account of human origins. But for substantial numbers around the world, that doesn’t preclude divine direction. A new survey spanning North America, South America, and Europe found that 13 to 29 percent of people believe in God-guided evolution.

People Who Say Humans Evolved in A Process Guided by God:

13% Germany

22% United Kingdom

25% Argentina

29% United States

In CT magazine, Brad East reflects on Olympic athletes sharing their Christian testimony:

The opening ceremonies of the Olympics are extravagant celebrations of national glories and global unity. But if you watch past the opener to the 2024 Games themselves, you’ll notice an unusual pattern: Athletes are always talking about God. Athletes of every kind continuously gave God the credit, often in explicitly Christian terms.

For my money, US track star Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone won. After breaking the world record (again) for women’s 400-meter hurdles, she answered a reporter’s question this way: “Honestly—praise God. I was not expecting that, but he can do anything. Anything is possible in Christ. I’m just amazed, baffled, and in shock.” The reporter laughed nervously and moved on to the next qualifier.

It’s not news that athletes thank the Lord for their success. But watching these public displays of piety made me wonder: Why is this still normal? Unlike other events, like the Oscars, sporting events appear to be the last refuge of “acceptable” public faith in our secular culture. In a time when belief is belittled, ignored, or relegated to one’s private life, athletes are unapologetically faithful in public. But why?

The place to start, I think, is the nature of sports itself. Athletic discipline is rigorously controlled because, when the whistle blows, nothing is under control. It’s chaos, contingency, and chance all the way down. The skies fill with rain clouds; the court is slick with sweat; the track is spongy; your opponents are strategically unpredictable.

With good reason, therefore, athletes turn to God. None but God is sovereign. I can’t control the weather, but he can. I can’t stop my body from failing, but he can. Even the wind and the waves obey him (Matt. 8:27). Shouldn’t footballs and softballs obey him too?

For athletes, God isn’t just in charge of the moment. He’s the governor of history. This is true for all of us, at all times, but elite athletes are viscerally reminded of it with a frequency few of us experience.

It should come as no surprise, then, that a victorious athlete will speak of more than God answering a prayer. Sure, they may be caught up in the moment. Deep down, though, they’re expressing faith in divine providence. It’s one more way to be clear about control. None of us has it, because only God does, and the sooner one recognizes that, the sooner peace is possible when losing and real joy available when winning.

Every person starts as one fertilized egg, which by adulthood has turned into roughly 37 trillion cells. But those cells have a formidable challenge. These cells must copy 3.2 billion base pairs of DNA perfectly, about once every 24 hours. To speed up the process, cells start replication in multiple spots with people having tens of thousands of them throughout their genomes.

However, this poses its own challenge: How to know where to start and how to time everything. Without precision control, some DNA might get copied twice, causing cellular pandemonium. Bad things can happen if replication doesn’t start correctly. For DNA to be copied, the DNA double helix must open up, and the resulting single strands are vulnerable to breakage or the process can get stuck.

It takes a tightly coordinated dance involving dozens of proteins for the DNA-copying machinery to start replication at the right point in the cell’s life cycle. Keeping tight reins on the kickoff of DNA replication is particularly important to avoid that pandemonium.

Today, researchers are making steps toward a full understanding of the molecular checks and balances that have evolved in order to ensure that each origin initiates DNA copying once and only once, to produce precisely one complete new genome.

Possible Preaching Angle:

3,000 years ago, King David exclaimed, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well” (Ps. 139:14). Scientific knowledge has increased exponentially since that time and we should be even more in awe of God’s creative genius on display.

It is impossible to do justice to the wonder of the creation of the world and everything in it. You and I have to work hard to make anything. Even when you buy a piece of furniture from IKEA, with all the pieces properly designed and a booklet of instructions, you are driven to the edge of your sanity trying to follow the instructions and assemble what you bought.

All of our DIY projects require mental focus, physical dexterity, and perseverance. We struggle to make things, even though we always start with raw materials, are following instructions, and have collected the appropriate tools. But you and I have never created anything; we do not make something out of nothing. C. S. Lewis said it this way: "Creation, as it is for God, must always remain totally inconceivable to man. We only build. We always have materials to build from.”

The truth of creation should fill us with awe, humble us, and drop us to our knees. God, with nothing more than his will and his word literally spoke the universe into existence. Think of huge galaxies and little ants. Think of the body of an elephant and the translucent creatures that swim in the deep­est trenches of the sea. Think of huge towering trees and microscopic organisms. Think of the technology of the human eye and the intricate design of your hand. Genesis 1 and 2 are meant to put you in your place and insert God in his proper place in your heart and life.

When Principal James Marsh arrived at Zela Elementary School in rural Summersville on a Monday morning, he had no reason for alarm. Everything looked normal and in working order. He greeted his teachers and stood out front to greet students as they arrived on buses.

When a custodian informed Marsh that he couldn’t unlock one of the dumpsters, he quickly went over to help. After unlocking the combination lock and lifting the metal bar restricting access, Marsh heard deep growling. After a moment, the dumpster lid lifted, and Marsh was staring into the eyes of a black bear. “If he’d have reached his paw out, he could have swiped me,” Marsh said.

In a sequence captured on security footage, the bear quickly bolted from the dumpster and ran off into the nearby wilderness as Marsh too ran in the opposite direction. After a brief moment to collect himself, Marsh was seen laughing. “Did you not hear anything?” he asked the custodian. Nope, he hadn’t seen or heard a thing. It wasn’t until they reviewed several hours of security footage that they uncovered evidence that the bear had previously gorged itself on food inside, then fallen asleep.

When he asked the students to name the bear (in case it ever returned), the students decided on “Jack.” “Because he came out of there like a jack-in-the-box.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Life is filled with surprises and sometimes sudden danger. We are not to worry about the future or live in dread, but put our trust in God. We should live confidently, recognizing that any moment may be our last on earth.

In a fictional YouTube video, the main character, Eric, is walking his dog Nova. The dog sees a rabbit, runs after it, pulling the leash from Eric's hand. The dog is soon lost and Eric spends several days frantically searching for Nova. After a week Eric is devastated. He is upset about the bad luck of a rabbit jumping out just at the wrong time and leading Nova on a wild chase.

After another week a woman, Vanessa, rings Eric's doorbell with Nova in tow. After the emotional reunion with Nova, Eric slowly gets to know Vanessa and they fall in love. Eric realizes how lucky they were that Vanessa was at the right place at the right time to find Nova.

Two months later as Eric is driving to visit Vanessa, he is T-boned by a negligent driver. He suffers a severe head injury and tests are immediately done at the hospital. He is furious that his life could be ruined by this random accident when he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The next day the doctor tells him of the results of the CT scan. There is a tumor growing in his brain. It had nothing to do with the accident, from which Eric would make a full recovery. The tumor was discovered because of the accident and the CT scan. It was in its early stages, and could effectively be treated. Normally the tumor is discovered when there are symptoms, when it is almost always too late. The doctor tells him the car accident saved his life.

A week later Eric has successful brain surgery. Days later Eric is at home, recovering, with Vanessa. To get some fresh air he takes Nova out for a walk.

You can watch this 6 min. video here.

Possible Preaching Angle:

This short story video is quite compelling and an excellent illustration for Bible verses like “All things work together....” (Rom. 8:28), facing trials (Jam.1:2-4) and restoration after suffering (1 Pet. 5:10). Christians are often perplexed by the things happening to them but God intends that good should come out of evil. (Gen 50:20)

The next time LeQuedra Edwards unexpectedly bumps into someone, she might expect more than just an awkward situation. Because her last unexpected bump resulted in some very good fortune. Edwards was in a convenience store when she spent $40 on a lottery vending machine. However, when she went to make her selection, a rude patron bumped into her, causing her to push an unintended number on the machine. Edwards said, “He just bumped into me, didn't say a thing and just walked out the door.”

Instead of spending money on several lower-priced tickets as usual, she ended up spending most of her money on a $30 Scratchers ticket. But her irritation quickly faded after she went to the car, scratched off the numbers on her ticket, and realized that she’d won the grand prize of $10 million.

She said, "I didn't really believe it at first, but I got on the freeway and kept looking down at (the ticket) and I almost crashed my car. I pulled over, looked at it again and again, scanned it with my app and I just kept thinking, 'This can't be right.'"

According to the news release, Edwards plans to use her winnings to buy a house and launch a nonprofit organization.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Even our accidents can be redeemed by God for our good.

The Pew Research Center regularly surveys Americans on human origins, but it recently re-examined its questions on evolution. When theistic evolution was presented as an option in a new single-question format, most religious groups answered about the same. But white evangelicals and Black Protestants (two of Pew’s standard categories) were twice as likely to say humans evolved in some way.

A) Humans have always existed in their present form

B) Humans have evolved; God had a role

C) Humans have evolved; God had no role

White Evangelicals: A) 38%, B) 58%, C) 4%

Black Protestants: A) 27%, B) 66%, C) 6%

Catholics: A) 13%, B) 56%, C) 30%

Unaffiliated: A) 11%, B) 24%, C) 64%

All US Adults: A) 18%, B) 48%, C) 33%

Researchers calculate that about 530,000 fewer public school students are learning about intelligent design in 9th or 10th grade biology classes today, compared to 2007. The amount of class time science teachers spend on human evolution has also doubled in those 12 years, according to scholars at Penn State University and the National Center for Science Education. The changes come from a new generation of teachers, new textbooks, and updated education standards.

Science teachers who teach intelligent design is a valid alternative:

2007 – 8%

2019 – 5%

Science teachers who discuss intelligent design:

2007 – 23%

2019 – 14%

Science teachers who teach evolution is established science:

2007 – 51%

2019 – 67%

Every bird is covered with feathers, and almost every feather on an individual bird is different, specialized in length, shape and structure to match whatever function is needed at that position. Feathers around the head are all quite specialized, with tiny feathers around the eyes, feathers modified into bristles at the base of the bill, and longer feathers on the throat.

Among the most specialized are the feathers that cover the ear opening. These must allow sound to pass through but also protect against debris and create a streamlined surface over the ear for air to flow across as smoothly and quietly as possible.

Small songbirds generally have about two thousand feathers, fewer in summer and more in winter. Larger birds like crows mostly have larger feathers, not more.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Think of it, 2,000 feathers on a bird and nearly every feather designed by God with a purpose in mind. With such a display of purpose in a single bird feather, is there any doubt that God has a purpose in mind for his people.

In his book, The Sentient Machine, Amir Husain writes:

Today I find myself drawn to the important observation that the universe around us is clearly a consequence of computation. A seed, for example, encodes the information necessary to produce a tree. With DNA as the software and cells and proteins as the hardware, the biological process is a computational one. We find these types of algorithmic outcomes everywhere we look in the universe.

Patterns like the Fibonacci sequence, for example, unlock designs across our cosmos. Everything from flower petals to the curving shells of a mollusk, to spiral galaxies, to hurricanes, adheres to this mathematical formula. Is this by chance?

There seems to be a mathematical seed at the heart of the cosmos that through the power of computation, has been magnified into the universe as we know it, just as a tree is a magnified seed.

At some point in my early adolescence, I tried to imagine a future where all of science fused together. All the deductions completed and all the building blocks of science synthesized into a great pyramid of knowledge. At the very top of this pyramid however, I realized that I was still missing a block that tied it all together. That block is the ultimate question, “What is this all for?’”

He then concludes with a chilling realization, that even with all of our advancements, “we still don’t know the purpose for our existence."

Possible Preaching Angle:

As a Christian, we would argue, that just as a computer program begins in the mind of a computer scientist, the mathematical patterns that govern our universe are testimony to a Programmer. And just as a computer program must run on hardware, that is itself manufactured by an intelligent being, the universe itself bears witness to a supernatural Creator.

A recent survey polled people with an average age of 38. Eighty percent had college degrees. The results revealed a lot of ignorance about origin of life research and the success of life creating life from nonliving matter (also called abiogenesis).

More than 41 percent thought that researchers had created “complex life forms from scratch,” such as frogs, using simple chemicals and conditions that “approximate Earth’s early atmosphere.” Remarkably, more than 72 percent of respondents thought origin of life researchers had created “simple life forms from scratch,” such as bacteria.

To put it kindly, the respondents’ great expectations about the accomplishments of origin of life researchers are wrong. Wildly so.

Researchers have not created a frog or a bacterium from simple chemicals in the lab under early Earth conditions. They haven’t created a functional membrane, or flagella or cilia, or any of dozens of molecular machines, or the DNA required for even the simplest living bacterium.

Possible Preaching Angle:

The mystery of life is explained in the profound phrase “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well” (Ps. 139:14). We can only understand the origin of life when we turn our minds to our Creator God who is the Source of life.

On December 6, 2020, astronomers awaited the return of Hayabusa2 (a toaster-sized capsule launch by the Japanese space agency). Onboard was a payload of 5 grams of material from asteroid Ryugu. While they were anxious for whatever made the 60,000-mile journey back to earth, what they were really hoping to see was chondrules.

Chondrules are small, seedlike rocks measuring up to just a few millimeters across, embedded inside larger rocks (called chondrites). They are essentially rocks within rocks and are thought to have formed shortly after the birth of our solar system. The majority of the roughly 60,000 meteorites that humans have discovered are chondrites.

Scientist believe that understanding how chondrites formed is key to unlocking how the solar system was formed. Science writer Jonathan O’Callaghan says, "In our understanding of how (planets) came to be, there may be nothing as important as the mystery of the chondrule."

But the secret has eluded astronomers. In fact, there is no consensus on how these objects formed. The joke goes that there are as many theories about chondrule formation as there are chondrule scientists themselves.

A few years ago, at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, a stunned audience watched as revered scientist John Wood appeared to admit frustrated defeat in understanding their origin. He said, “We still don’t understand what the meteorites are telling us, and sometimes I wonder if we ever will.” A few years later, he quit science cold turkey and turned his attentions to oil painting and spending time with his wife. And to anyone following in his footsteps Wood say, “I wish them good luck.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Dr. Fred Ciesla, a planetary scientist from the University of Chicago, says: “We can build a story about how planets form … but it’s obvious that there’s a piece of the story that we’re missing." With all due respect to Dr. Ciesla and his fellow scientists, it's actually not missing. We read it in Genesis 1.

Evolutionists like to claim that our Sun is merely an average star, just one among billions. There’s no reason to believe our Sun is unusual … or so they say. After all, if our Sun were special, that might support the idea that a benevolent Creator made it for us! Nevertheless, our Sun is special indeed. Stars come in a variety of sizes, colors, and temperatures. As a single “Class G” star, our Sun is very well suited to support life on Earth. Most other stars are not.

For example, the most common stars (about 75 percent of all stars) are red dwarfs. These stars commonly emit flares: eruptions of superheated material, radiation, and charged particles blasted out into space. Large-enough flares can sterilize any planets orbiting these stars. Although our Sun occasionally releases small flares, they’re gentle compared to what we see elsewhere. We’ve seen other stars produce “superflares” up to 10 million times more energetic than those from our Sun.

Even among Sun-like stars, our Sun is unique. In a study of 83,000 solar-type stars, 148 erupted in just 120 days of observing. Extend this rate out, and each solar-type star would have more than a 50% chance of erupting every 100 years. Over thousands of years, a typical Sun-like star should have multiple massive eruptions. Yet there is no evidence that our Sun has ever emitted a superflare. As the study’s summary noted, “The flares on our Sun are thousands of times punier than those on similar stars.” But why?

Secular astronomers are scratching their heads over this. But creationary astronomers aren’t surprised by this. As Isaiah 45:18 says, the Lord created the heavens and Earth “not in vain … He formed it to be inhabited.” Since our Sun was designed by a masterful Creator to support life, we shouldn’t be surprised that it supports life very well. Our Earth, Sun, and Solar System are fearfully and wonderfully made to be our home--and to proclaim the glory of their Creator.

On May 25, 1979, Denis Waitley was desperately trying to catch a flight from Chicago to Los Angeles. When he arrived at his gate, they had just closed the jetway. Denis begged them to let him on that airplane. No luck! Out of breath and out of patience, he made his way to the ticket counter to register a complaint and rebook his travel. While he was waiting in line, an announcement came over the airport intercom. AA Flight 191 to Los Angeles had crashed upon takeoff.

The engine on the left wing of that DC-10 sepa­rated from the airplane right after takeoff. The unbalanced aerodynam­ics caused the plane to roll, a roll from which it could not recover. All 271 people on board died in the crash. It was the deadliest aviation accident in United States history.

That near-death experience had a life-altering impact on Denis Waitley. Had he been on time, it would have been the last day of his life. Needless to say, he never registered his complaint. In fact, he never re­turned his ticket for Flight 191. He took his paper ticket and put it in a visible place in his office. On difficult days, the days when he felt like throwing in the towel, all it took was one glance at that ticket to regain perspective. That ticket was a constant reminder that every day is a gift.

Samuel Kempf was in Spain representing New Zealand in the Fistballing World Championship when he took a break to ride a rollercoaster. While he was on the ride, he showed off his considerable coordination and fist skills.

During the beginning of the ride, Kempf noticed that another man had dropped his phone on the floor of his car. Because of the ride’s safety restraints, he was unable to pick it up. While pointing out the man’s predicament, Kempf joked to his brother and others around him that they should “get ready to catch.” Sure enough, that’s exactly what he did.

Kempf said, “The ride started and I totally forgot about it because I was just in the moment. And then after the first drop we rose up and I just saw the phone drift across my view, so I reached out and managed to catch it.”

After the ride, Kempf reached out to give the grateful man his phone back, and was surprised to find that the ride’s reaction video apparatus had recorded his miraculous catch. As a token of gratitude, the man purchased the video memento.

Potential Preaching Angles: Even things that seem like blind luck are within God's control, because God is sovereign and all-powerful and rules of all things and people. That said, both the righteous and the unrighteous suffer setbacks and triumphs alike. God's ways are not always completely understandable to mortals like ourselves.

Physicist Sean Carroll is a professor at the California Institute of Technology. In an interview on NPR, he marvels at the breathtaking number of 100 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy and the 100 billion galaxies in the observable universe. What amazes him more is that at the theoretical Big Bang, everything had to be just right. Just a few atoms out of place and there would have been no birth to the known universe. “It's a delicate arrangement. It's a clue that the early universe is not chosen randomly. There is something that made it that way. We would like to know what.”

Notice how Carroll can’t help implying that the universe looks like it was created. But Carroll is an atheist, so how does he explain the appearance of creation? He basically says, Yes, the universe looks really fine-tuned. As a matter of fact, it looks too fine-tuned and orderly. So it must not have been created. Here are his exact words:

There's something called the teleological argument (that intelligent design argues for the existence of a supernatural creator). This says that features of our universe, if they were very different, wouldn't have allowed for us human beings to exist. But (in) the early universe … the problem is not just it was quite orderly, but it was really way more orderly than it needed to be for us to be here … If you really want to make this argument that the universe is set up to allow for the existence of life or humanity or something like that, the early universe is overkill.

Possible Preaching Angles: If you’re determined not to believe in a Creator God, you can always find a reason to reject him.

A Korean War veteran by the name of Laurel Hunsinger told friends and family that, "When I worked on the flight line in Korea and flew combat missions, there was a post set in the ground that everyone had to walk past. Someone had carved into the post these words: “You always have two chances.” When I asked what that meant, I was told that when you fly a combat mission, you have two chances: You'll make it back to the base or you'll be shot down. If you are shot down, you have two chances: You'll survive the crash or you won't. If you survive the crash, you have two chances: You'll evade the enemy or you'll be captured. If you are captured, you have two chances: You'll live through being a prisoner or you won't. If you die as a prisoner, well, you still have two chances.

(In 1953, Laurel's plane was shot down 15 miles inside North Korea. Though severely injured, the entire crew survived and was rescued. Laurel died January 6, 2018 and is buried in Little River, KS).

Possible Preaching Angle:

Life might seem like a series of events controlled only by random chance (Ecclesiastes 9:11 “time and chance happen to them all”). But for the believer there is the absolute certainty that God is at work behind the scenes of our lives to bring about his perfect will (Jeremiah 29:11, Ephesians 1:9-11) for our good (Romans 8:28).

On August 21, 2011, an American software engineer named Jesse Anderson created the Million Monkey project, which featured millions of virtual simians typing away randomly. In just forty-six days, Anderson claims, the mindless authors recreated all of Shakespeare's thirty-eight major works. “This is the largest work ever randomly reproduced,” he crowed.

The media trumpeted the achievement uncritically. Yet the claim is so misleading as to border on deception. In truth, what the digital monkeys produced randomly were unbroken strings of letters. It took a computer program (a digital maestro) working behind the scenes to recognize correct sequences and break them up—intelligently, not randomly—into the proper words.

My purpose is not to criticize Mr. Anderson or accuse him of any wrongdoing, nor even to lament the ignorance of the popular press. It is to illustrate the lesson that creativity is not a random process. Science and the Bible agree that in order to create something from nothing, there needs to be something or someone behind the scenes directing the show.