Chance In An Ordered Universe

Two weekends ago, DH and I were in Singapore for several meetings. Our flight back to KL was at 7 pm (delayed by 40 minutes, but we didn’t mind a bit because Singapore Airport Terminal 1 is always such a pleasure to stay in), giving me the chance to see the airport as we were taking off during one of most magical time for photographers, i.e. just before sunset. The long rays of the orange sun bathed the airport in an ethereal glow. The planes were lined up neatly at their respective gates, like replicas put into place by a child at play. Dusk slowly drew its veil over the earth and I watched, dazzled, as the painted sky turned from misty blue to a kaleidoscope of orange, red, pink, and purple hues.

Singapore’s Changi Airport was as busy as ever, so I wasn’t surprised when the plane had to queue at the tarmac, waiting for its turn to take off. Plane after plane after plane went through the routine that I’ve seen hundreds (perhaps thousands?) of times — turning slowly on to the runway, building up speed, going faster and faster until, as though by magic, its wings are suddenly airborne and the rest of its huge metal body follows suit.

As I gasped silently, marveling at the miracle of flight as though I were seeing it for the first time, memories came flooding back of a debate with a former classmate at the Alliance Française Kuala Lumpur.

When I was new in Malaysia, way before I got married, I used to attend French language classes at the Alliance Française Kuala Lumpur. The classes were twice or thrice a week from 7.30 to 9 pm. We’d usually take a 10-minute tea break, during which time I managed to befriend some of my classmates. One of them was a Chinese lady whose name escapes my memory at this moment. But the one thing that I remember about her was that she was an agnostic. That was big news for naive 22-year old me. I mean, I’ve heard about such people but it was the first time I had ever known someone in the flesh who believed that everything in this world exists and happens by mere chance.

I think I tried persuading her that God does exist, using some of the arguments that I learned during my ‘Philosophy of Religion ‘ class in Ateneo de Manila University, particularly the one about the Watch and the Watchmaker. All I remember is that she remained convinced that there is no God and that everything in this world happens by mere chance. I was young, I was naive, and I didn’t want to antagonise her, so I just let the subject drop.

Now, if she were to tell me the same thing, I’d tell her – if everything happens by mere chance, how is it possible for human beings to have human babies each and every time and horses to have colts, cows to have calves, chickens to have chicks and so on and so forth? And how come humans always have 2 eyes, 2 ears, a nose, a mouth and the exact same anatomy as anyone else, with any mutations considered an abnormality? [NB: The classic anatomy textbook Gray's Anatomy ('Henry Gray's Anatomy of the Human Body'), for instance, which was first published in 1858, still remains in use today.] How is it possible for a ball to fall to the ground every time we throw it up in the air? Why do we get tomato plants that bear tomatoes every time we plant tomato seeds? Why does water go through the exact same cycle — evaporation, condensation, precipitation — for millions and millions of years?

It’s maddeningly simple to me now. I’d say it’s because there are laws in this world by which each and every living and non-living thing abide.  There are patterns, there are rules, there is order in this universe, and scientists merely translate these into words and equations. Those rules and laws existed long before they did, all they had to do was find them.

According to Wikipedia:

‘The Achilles heel of the (Watchmaker) argument is that it fails if there exists a plausible explanation of phenomenon X in terms of natural processes. This makes it vulnerable to advances in science, which has progressively found more and more naturalistic explanations for natural phenomena, and progressively abandoned explanations in terms of teleology. The location of mountains, for instance, is now explained in terms of plate tectonics. The structure of biological organisms is explained in terms of the theory of natural selection. The structure of the solar system is explained in terms of the nebular hypothesis and its refinements.‘

To that, I say: the rules existed long before anyone even knew they existed and they continue to exist long after we cease to exist. The planets stay in course in their invisible orbits, the earth continues to revolve around the sun, day continues to change into night then back into day again, the heart continues to pump blood into the lungs for oxygenation and into the rest of the body to nourish and sustain cells. With new techniques and more advanced equipment, scientists come up with new explanations and new theories to age-old questions. But the fact remains that the world lives by certain rules. And for everything to exist in such ordered, minute detail (right down to the smallest quarks), it can only mean that a Supreme Being must have put these rules into place. For such an intricate creation, there must exist a Supreme Creator.

Tags: God