Bible Briefs

J O H N   W.   M O O R E LET'S SEE A SHOW OF HANDS In a debate at North Texas State University in 1975, Thomas Warren, a doctor of Philosophy, asked the renowned atheist Antony Flew of Reading University a very important question. Displaying a chart of a human hand alongside a human-made prosthetic hand, Dr. Warren asked if one or both of the pictured hands came about as the result of intelligent design. Being an atheist, Dr. Flew was forced to conclude that the vastly inferior prosthesis was created by design while its archetype, the human hand, came about by chance. Isn’t that interesting? The hand with less dexterity, a limited range of motion, an inability to repair itself of cuts and burns, and a frail replica of its model, is unquestionably known to be the creation of learned technicians, physicians, therapists, and engineers. Is it not therefore logical to conclude that the human hand, serving as the archetype, was intelligently designed by an engineer as well? If one day, while planting a tree in your yard, you unearthed an artificial hand, to what would you attribute its origin? Would you conclude that - through a mere mindless, gradual interaction between wind, rain, and soil - over time, a mechanical hand appeared? Undoubtedly, your investigation would focus on why it came to be in your yard, and not upon whether someone actually created it. Take a look at your own highly engineered hands and be reminded of your marvelously intelligent Maker, and then focus on why they came to be and how you might use them to glorify His Name.