It Doesn’t Just Happen

“Extraordinary Lesson in Modesty”

A director of a research department at the Pasteur Institute relates belief in God to modesty, saying: “In the early days of molecular biology we thought that it would be relatively simple to find out why the cells of an organism differentiated themselves during their evolution; why one would become a neuron, another a cell, etc. Twenty-five years later we still do not know, and we really see no way of knowing. Almost inevitably we are drawn to reiterating Hamlet’s words: ‘There are more things in heaven and earth. . . .’ Yes, it is more complicated, more complex than anything yet conceived. And this is where the extraordinary lesson in modesty comes in. . . . If I personally estimate that something that we may call God is at the origin of reality, it is because I consider that there must inevitably be an intelligence holding sway over everything. As the famous Hungarian scientist Szent-Gyorgyi (Nobel prizewinner) says: ‘All the same, there must be something driving it all.’ In my opinion ‘driving’ is just the right term. I do not know who could be doing this ‘driving.’ However, in a nutshell, it is an intelligence, whatever form it may assume.”​—“Dieu existe? Oui” (Does God exist? Yes), 1979, Stock Editions.

Superiority of a Tree

Modern architecture, for all its advancement, has never been able to rival the construction of a tree. What drawing board could design a structure suspended from a central mast that is not only functional in providing shelter but also able to humidify and freshen the atmosphere? Unlike man-made structures that tend to trap the air and solar heat, a tree permits a free flow of air in all directions and yet serves as a bulwark against strong winds. Like a large fountain in suspended animation, it will draw up as much as 1,000 L (265 gallons) of water a day and evaporate it through its leaves into the atmosphere. This is, in effect, a natural air conditioner and when a slight breeze is blowing the immediate environment is cooled considerably. Overhead the cascades of overlapping tiers not only filter out much of the solar heat but permit sufficient light to penetrate the canopy beneath. A premium quality is found in a tree’s ability to absorb sound and so diminish noise pollution. It is calculated that each 30-m (100-foot) width of trees can absorb about six to eight decibels of sound intensity. In effect, everything about a tree is good, and whereas man may do excellently with mortar and brick, only God can make a tree.

Design Intricacies

Like other things, the price of skeletons has gone up, and medical schools must now pay more for them. “The price of skeletons is getting out of this world,” recently said Dr. Harry Monsen, a professor of anatomy at Illinois College of Medicine. To reduce costs he ordered a plastic skeleton. How does the plastic skeleton compare with the real thing? Dr. Monsen observed: “The arms, legs, hands, ribs, hips and spine are well duplicated. But a plastic skull is not too good for study. They just can’t reproduce the intricacies of the human skull very well. Nothing is better than real bones, no matter what they cost.”