The Clues of God

Intro - Counting Cards

There was a book written in 2003 called Bringing down the house: The inside story of six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions. This book was later adapted into a movie called 21 and it tells the story of, as it says, 6 students from MIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, I think JP has a hoodie from there. But these 6 students, led by one of their professors form a blackjack team that would travel from Massachusetts, to Las Vegas regularly and together they would be able to manipulate the odds to consistently clean out the blackjack tables through card counting.

In this story, the team is pursued by a casino security expert who’s job it is to make sure that no money is stolen from the casino and everyone is playing fair. Eventually, cameras are able to pick up on these characters, despite their efforts to disguise themselves, security picks up on their faces, and they track their winnings.

Not that I would ever encourage you to dive into gambling, but the cardinal rule gamblings is that the house. always. wins. If you ever read or watch anything that dissects how it is that casinos are built, it is actually fascinating. Everything is structured to keep you in the gamblers seat because no matter how much you go up, casinos know that if they can keep you in the seat long enough, eventually you are bound to lose it back.

The house always wins. Lighting is set to specific levels to induce endorphins, lower inhibitions, so that you will take more risks. They pump in heightened levels of oxygen to produce a more euphoric feeling. There are no clocks in casinos so that you are more likely to lose track of time, sit at tables longer, lose more money. Waiters come around more frequently than in typical restaurants, why, because they want you to drink, get a little looser, and guess what… lose more money.

So when this crew from MIT strolls in and consistently clean out the Big Vegas Machines, they clues point to the fact that something is going on. The term is card-counting, these brilliant minds are able to perform a certain system of math so instinctually that they are able to calculate odds that higher value cards are more likely to be dealt at this time, vs a colder deck of cards at this time.

Their defying the typical odds of the house coming out on top pointed to a reality that something was going on.

That’s where we’re heading in this second part of our apologetics series where previously we were tackling these common objections to faith, and now we move into a series of seeing reasoning for faith. And just as the surrounding clues pointed to something deeper with the MIT 6, so too can we take stock of everything around us in this world and we see that it points to something deeper doing on than just chance.

We spoke a couple of weeks ago about the how science is not an inhibitor to faith, but instead it shows the majesty of God’s glory in that he brings chaos into order. We serve a creator God who has intelligently and sovereignly constructed this universe just so, so that we might live, thrive, and ultimately worship the Creator.

The Regularity of Nature

Think about it. We spoke a couple of weeks ago about how science indicates that our universe is ever-expanding and has been doing so since so long ago and because of this expansion, scientist can essentially predict the rewind and guess how long ago the origin point was when this indescribable surge of energy bursted forth all of creation, from nothing.

What are the odds? What are the odds that in a universe filled with countless planets, innumerable stars, and natural forces so finely tuned to sustain organic life that it would be just an accident that we find ourself in such a situation. Where gravity is operates just so, where our atmosphere is just rightly composed for us to breath, where we are just so rightly situated from the sun for warmth and for life to spread.

What are the odds? To say that it is merely an accident would be like sitting at the card table and being dealt quad aces 20 times in a row. There’s no way that that just happens.

The philosopher John Leslie poses a similar illustration. He imagines a man who is sentenced to be executed by a firing squad consisting of fifty expert marksmen. They all fire from six feet away and not one bullet hits him. Maybe an expert marksman can miss from 6 feet away. And maybe it is technically possible that all fifty just happened to miss at the same moment. Though you could not prove they had conspired to miss, it would be unreasonable to draw the conclusion that they hadn’t.

Something deeper is at play here. You cannot assume those odds and just say, oh that was lucky that they all missed. No, It would be much more probable that together those men planned to miss all along and that deeper purposes were at play. So too it is with all of this. You could guess that its just a coincidence that out of an ever-growing universe that we are the only planet that has sustained organic life. You could guess that it is just a coincidence that if the earth’s axis were off by an infinite decimal point that life would spiral out of control, but it isn’t, and well isn’t that fortunate.

What do the clues point us towards? That this is all just an accident? Or that there is an intelligent designer behind all of this orchestrating all that we see? That there is an all-powerful, personal God who created and sustains an orderly universe?

What do the clues point us towards? That this is all just an accident? Or that there is a higher power orchestrating all that we see?

Transition

The Clue of Beauty

And that points to a thing like faith and yes I will agree with you that faith is hard to rationalize by worldly standards, by natural selection, by scientific method. But I have to argue that neither you nor I can explain away that something deeper is going on here! And that is what the writer of Hebrews meant when he said: (CSB)

LIVING BY FAITH

11 Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen. 2 For by it our ancestors won God’s approval.

3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.

There is no doubt that there is much about this natural and observable world that points us to a deeper reality. And we are able to honor Go with our minds and thoughts as we process it all as we see this world, full of order and beauty and know that it was the sovereign God of the universe who put it on display to further reveal to us who he is. We spoke about a lot of this a couple of weeks ago when speaking of against the suggestion that science disproves God and we ultimately walked away knowing exactly this, that as we study the world around us it points to this wonderful artist who splashed his glory on the canvas of creation and though that we see another clue.

Transition

There is no doubt that there is much about this natural and observable world that points us to a deeper reality. And we are able to honor Go with our minds and thoughts as we process it all as we see this world, full of order and beauty and know that it was the sovereign God of the universe who put it on display to further reveal to us who he is. We spoke about a lot of this a couple of weeks ago when speaking of against the suggestion that science disproves God and we ultimately walked away knowing exactly this, that as we study the world around us it points to this wonderful artist who splashed his glory on the canvas of creation and though that we see another clue.

That there is beauty in this world. And in a naturalistic society that merely tells you that all of this is through years of processes of natural selection, survival of the fittest, that it is merely the environment fine tuning itself. If that were the case there would be no need in us, in people to appreciate things like beauty, majesty, deep thought. There is far more than just this observable world in front of us, but how many of you can attest that you are not merely a mass clump of cells adapting to your surroundings? No, you are not! You are so much more. There is so much more about you than what your biology textbook can explain. And therein lies another clue, the clue of beauty.

The Clue of Beauty

That there is beauty in this world. And in a naturalistic society that merely tells you that all of this is through years of processes of natural selection, survival of the fittest, that it is merely the environment fine tuning itself. If that were the case there would be no need in us, in people to appreciate things like beauty, majesty, deep thought. There is far more than just this observable world in front of us, but how many of you can attest that you are not merely a mass clump of cells adapting to your surroundings? No, you are not! You are so much more. There is so much more about you than what your biology textbook can explain. And therein lies another clue, the clue of beauty.

The Clue of Beauty

Many hold to the belief that everything can be boiled down to a scientific explanation and whether or not they want to admit it, will worship scientific reasoning above all else. They will tell you once more that everything you see has come about due to things like natural selection or a survival of the fittest type of argument. But I have to ask that if that were the case. What survivalist purpose to things like beauty, sentimentality, and artistic thought serve?

If there is no God, and everything in this world is the product of “an accidental collocation of atoms,” then there is no actual purpose for which we were made—we are accidents. If we are the product of accidental natural forces, then what we call “beauty” is nothing but a neurological hardwired response to particular data.

Many hold to the belief that everything can be boiled down to a scientific explanation and whether or not they want to admit it, will worship scientific reasoning above all else. They will tell you once more that everything you see has come about due to things like natural selection or a survival of the fittest type of argument. But I have to ask that if that were the case. What survivalist purpose do things like beauty, sentimentality, and artistic thought serve?

In the same way, though music feels significant, that significance is an illusion. Love too must be seen in this light. If we are the result of blind natural forces, then what we call “love” is simply a biochemical response, inherited from ancestors who survived because this trait helped them survive.

If there is no God, and everything in this world is just the product of “an accidental collocation of atoms,” then there is no actual purpose for which we were made—we are accidents.

And If we are the product of accidental natural forces, then what we call “beauty” is nothing but a neurological and hardwired response.

responses, in the presence of great art and beauty we inescapably feel that there is real meaning in life, there is truth and justice that will never let us down, and love means everything.

But that’s not the case is it?

But in the presence of art or even great natural beauty, our hearts tell us another story.

“So what?” someone might object. “Just because we feel something is true doesn’t make it so!” Are we, however, only talking about feelings here? What is evoked in these experiences is, more accurately, appetite or desire. Goethe refers to this as selige sehnsucht—blessed longing. We not only feel the reality but also the absence of what we long for. St. Augustine in his Confessions reasoned that these unfulfillable desires are clues to the reality of God. How so? Indeed (as it was just objected) just because we feel the desire for a steak dinner doesn’t mean we will get it. However, while hunger doesn’t prove that the particular meal desired will be procured, doesn’t the appetite for food in us mean that food exists? Isn’t it true that innate desires correspond to real objects that can satisfy them, such as sexual desire (corresponding to sex), physical appetite (corresponding to food), tiredness (corresponding to sleep), and relational desires (corresponding to friendship)? Doesn’t the unfulfillable longing evoked by beauty qualify as an innate desire? We have a longing for joy, love, and beauty that no amount or quality of food, sex, friendship, or success can satisfy. We want something that nothing in this world can fulfill. Isn’t that at least a clue that this “something” that we want exists?15 This unfulfillable longing, then, qualifies as a deep, innate human desire, and that makes it a major clue that God is there.

Music feels significant. Love, too, feels significant.

But if we are the result of blind natural forces, then what we call “love” is simply a biochemical response, inherited from ancestors who survived because this trait helped them survive. Are you willing to bet your life on being so cold and callous as to believe that these things aren’t meant to point us deeper?

In the presence of great art and beauty we inescapably feel that there is real meaning in life, there is truth and justice that will never let us down, and love means everything.

In the presence of art or even great natural beauty, our hearts tell us another story.

“So what?” someone might object. “Just because we feel something is true doesn’t make it so!”

Are we, however, only talking about feelings here? What comes about in these moments where we are in the presence of great beauty and fulfillment are appetites and desires, a blessed longing. We not only feel the reality but also the absence of what we long for. An old writer named Augustine reasoned that these unfulfillable desires are clues to the reality of God.

How so?

Let me put it this way. My birthday is coming up and I’m going to get to celebrate with around 35 of my best friends when we get to go to Atlanta. The rest of you, you’re still my best friends, and I wish you were going. But when I get back and I get to celebrate with Becca. I’m going to start to get a strong appetite for a birthday steak dinner. Now, just because we feel the desire for a steak dinner doesn’t mean we will get it. But, while hunger doesn’t prove that the particular meal desired will be obtained, does it not display the appetite for food in us mean that food must exist?

Isn’t it true that innate desires, buried down deep, correspond to real objects that can satisfy them? Physical appetite (corresponding to food), tiredness (corresponding to sleep), and relational desires (corresponding to friendship)? We have a longing for joy, love, and beauty that no amount or quality of food, friendship, or success can satisfy. We want something that nothing in this world can fulfill. Isn’t that at least a clue that this “something” that we want exists? This unfulfillable longing, then, qualifies as a deep, innate human desire, and that makes it a major clue that God is there.

Now I cannot put your head up to a telescope and point to the sky and say, “see there, past the Little Dipper, that’s where God is.” But if you are in this room or you encounter someone you know who surveys all that this world has to offer and they tell you that there is no meaning behind the beautiful, there is no meaning behind the longings of our hearts and minds, that is an incredible roll of the dice. But this is what I mean when we speak of these things as the clues of God. That we look at the reality around us and it points us to something deeper going on.

But if you believe in this amazing Creator God, all seems to find its place. Beauty is an incredible gift given to us by Him who is ultimately beautiful. Purpose is an incredible gift given to us by Him who thoughtfully and wonderfully crafted you in your mother’s womb.

You’ve heard me quote CS Lewis a good bit but he once famously said: “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”

And the response for the believer is to revel in these good gifts as he has given them to us on this side of heaven and ultimately knowing that what awaits us when we no longer have this barrier of sin and fallenness between us and our Savior, is beyond any description and we will echo the prophet Isaiah when he saw the glory of God and the only thing he could muster was, “holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Armies! The whole earth is filled with His glory!”

We were made to be in God’s glory, that is the source of our deepest longing of which only he can fulfill. So if you have found yourself looking. Looking for something that will satisfy the depths of your soul, look no further. You were made for this. Let us pray.