Johnny and the Garbage
Sixteen year old Johnny came down from his bedroom and stumbled into the kitchen to get a bowl of his favorite cereal-Alpha Bits. When he got to the table, he was surprised to see that the cereal box was knocked over, and the Alpha Bit letters spelled “TAKE OUT THE GARBAGE-MOM” on the place mat.
Recalling a recent high school biology lesson, Johnny didn’t attribute the message to his mom. After all, he’d just been taught that life itself is merely a product of mindless, natural laws. If that’s the case, Johnny thought, why couldn’t a simple message like “Take out the garbage-Mom” be the product of mindless natural laws as well? Maybe the cat knocked the box over, or an earthquake shook the house. No sense jumping to conclusions. Johnny didn’t want to take out the garbage anyway. He didn’t have time for House chores. This was summer vacation and he wanted to get to the beach. Mary would be there.
Since Mary was the girl Scott liked too, Johnny wanted to get to the beach early to beat Scott there. But when Johnny arrived, he saw Mary and Scott walking hand-in-hand along the shore. As he followed them at a distance, he looked down and saw a heart drawn in the sand with “Mary loves Scott” scrawled inside. For a moment, Johnny felt his heart sink. But thoughts of his biology class rescued him from deep despair. “Maybe this is just another case of natural laws at work!” he thought. “Perhaps sand crabs or an unusual wave pattern just happened to produce this love note naturally. No sense accepting a conclusion that he didn’t like! Johnny would just have to ignore the corroborating evidence of the hand-holding.
“Take out the garbage-Mom” and “Mary loves Scott”, he work of natural laws? These conclusions are perfectly consistent with principles taught in most high schools and college biology classes today.
Excellent examples! People constantly infer design, and correctly so. Sometimes I have fun with those who deny such things and pretend I didn’t write the previous comments under my name. “Gee, they must have just been a random creation.”