Four families I know recently announced new additions on the way! They are their first, second, third (grandchild) and fourth, but all have the same joy.  Our natural response to such precious news affirms the intrinsic value of human beings, though these babies have accomplished nothing yet.  They just exist, safe and oblivious in their moms.

We love, care for, train, and educate children because of a truth expressed by the Psalmist, “You formed my inward parts; you wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You for I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (Ps. 139:13-14).  Created by God, human beings are valuable.

Why do we think of a life as wasted if not lived well or if it ends in suicide? If a tree fell in the woods, it is nothing; but why is it horrible if it falls on a person?  Why does the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibit “cruel and unusual punishments”?  Why do the Geneva Conventions protect prisoners of war, regardless of how they fought?  The answer is that human beings have intrinsic value, and we know that even if we refuse to admit it.

Where does this value come from? Scripture says, “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Gen 1:27).  Francis Schaeffer wrote, “If man is not made in the image of God, nothing then stands in the way of inhumanity.  There is no good reason why mankind should be perceived as special.  Human life is cheapened.”  If the universe is impersonal with chance origins, no evidence would exist for intrinsic value of people.  But a natural awareness of that value makes sense if there is a Creator who set us apart from the rest of creation.

C. S. Lewis wrote, “There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization – these are mortal… But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.” Even an immortal horror has value as Jesus calls to him, “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” Mark 8:36-37.

To the Christian, a person has value and is worth saving; hence we present the gospel as revealed by God and experienced in history that Jesus saves. As Creator, He values and loves people and invests his likeness, creativity, and reasoning ability in us.  To be completely human, to be an everlasting splendor, is to connect with the God who, while you were yet in your mother’s womb, created you in His image.

Suppose that you were the intended victim of a firing squad and thousands of attempts were made to dispatch you, but instead you walked away unharmed. Wouldn’t you be inclined to wonder if something had been arranged on your behalf?

Such is the question raised by astrophysicist Martin Rees. In his book “Just Six Numbers,” he describes vital parameters in the universe and how they must be precisely fine-tuned for it to exist.  For example, he explains that if the expansion of the universe were too slow, gravity takes over and it collapses; if too fast, it’s just a gas with no complex chemistry and no possibility of life.  But somehow, it’s arranged to be just right.

Astronomer Fred Hoyle remarked, “A common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a superintellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as with chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature. The numbers one calculates from the facts seem to me so overwhelming as to put this conclusion almost beyond question.” Notably, he also admitted that his atheism was shaken.

I can see why. Scientists calculate that the chances that such fine-tuning would happen randomly are 1 in a million billions.  These chances are roughly the equivalent of looking for a specific single grain of sand from among all the beaches on the earth. Given that miniscule chance, the elephant-in-the-room question is could the universe arrive at these finely-tuned parameters with no arranging?

If it did, then outspoken atheist Richard Dawkins would be right. He wrote that in a universe without a Maker, “some people are going to be hurt, some will be lucky, and you won’t find any reason in it, or any justice.  The universe we have is what you would expect if there is no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference.”  Note the absolute hopelessness for the human condition.  No arrangements.

Christianity makes sense of the world as we experience it, answering questions raised by science. “Since the creation of the world, God’s invisible attributes – His eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that (people) are without excuse” (Rom 1:20).  Oxford mathematician John Lennox said, “God is not an alternative to science as an explanation. He is not to be understood merely as a God of the gaps. He is the ground of all explanation: it is His existence which gives rise to the very possibility of explanation, scientific or otherwise.”

We are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Ps. 139:14) and not meant to be lost in the chaos of a pitiless existence. We identify with our Maker through Jesus Christ, the best arrangement of all!