A Test: Created or Not Created?

*A reprint, but one of my favorites.

This is an excerpt from “The Truth: God or Evolution?“, Marshall Hall and Sandra Hall, 1974. I haven’t been able to verify the actual story but I have found it in the book. Even if the story is not true, the story is so true. Couldn’t we say the same of anything?

Sir Isaac had an accomplished artisan fashion for him a small scale model of our solar system, which was to be put in a room in Newton’s home when completed. The assignment was finished and installed on a large table. The workman had done a very commendable job, simulating not only the various sizes of the planets and their relative proximities, but also constructing the model so that everything rotated and orbited when a crank was turned. It was an interesting, even fascinating work, as you can imagine, particularly to anyone schooled in the sciences.

One of Sir Isaac’s colleagues, a scientist and an atheist, came by for a visit. Seeing the model, he was naturally intrigued, and proceeded to examine it with undisguised admiration for the high quality of the workmanship. “My, what an exquisite thing this is!” he exclaimed. “Who made it?”

Paying little attention to him, Sir Isaac answered, “Nobody.”

Stopping his inspection, the visitor turned and said, “Evidently you did not understand my question. I asked who made this.”

Newton, enjoying himself immensely no doubt, replied in a still more serious tone, “Nobody. What you see just happened to assume the form it now has.”

“You must think I am a fool!” the visitor retorted heatedly, “Of course somebody made it, and he is a genius, and I would like to know who he is!”

Newton then spoke to his friend in a polite yet firm way: “This thing is but a puny imitation of a much grander system whose laws you know, and I am not able to convince you that this mere toy is without a designer or maker; yet you profess to believe that the great original from which the design is taken has come into being without either designer or maker! Now tell me by what sort of reasoning do you reach such an incongruous conclusion?”

Test: Is each item below created or not created?

#1

We produced life-saving technology.

#2

Nobody made this?

#3

We figured this out.

#4

This just happened on its own?

#5

Someone created him. Aw.

#6

He was a material accident (who has accidents)?

#7

A masterpiece!

#8

Random occurrence?

#9

Technical genius

#10

Eyes of a child

#11

Cutting-edge technology

#12

An overgrown blob of tissue?

#13

An invention that can take you to space

#14

Chemicals?

#15

Manufactured doll

#16

Nobody made her.

#17

Changed the world

#18

Shines on the world every day

#19

A castle, the triumph of man

#20

Home

“We firmly believe and simply confess that there is only one true God, eternal and immeasurable, almighty, unchangeable, incomprehensible and ineffable, Father, Son and holy Spirit, three persons but one absolutely simple essence, substance or nature. The Father is from none, the Son from the Father alone, and the holy Spirit from both equally, eternally without beginning or end; the Father generating, the Son being born, and the holy Spirit proceeding; consubstantial and coequal, co-omnipotent and coeternal; one principle of all things, creator of all things invisible and visible…” Fourth Lateran Council 1215

*Some of these images were in an email (in Spanish) my husband sent me, and it is where I got the idea. There is no attribution in the email and none that I can find searching the internet. Whoever you are, thank you!