Understanding Abraham and the Creation – Part IX

Continuing with Abraham’s account of the creation and the principles behind it so we can better understand how the Earth was changed during the crucifixion and why it was not merely a cosmetic event, but a change that was extremely complex and performed in a specific and exact manner.

What are the chances that a big bang, that is an explosion out of nothing, could produce an orderly array of billions of galaxies each with billions of stars placed in orderly elliptical patterns? What are the chances that such a random explosion would produce so many energy-filled stars that they can hardly be numbered?  How likely is it that these separately positioned stars would all move in perfect order within their respective galaxies?  What are the chances that our sun and our moon would be positioned so as to appear exactly the same size in the sky?  What are the chances that the moon would rotate in such an orderly fashion that the same side of the moon is always facing the earth?  What are the chances that all the necessary elements for life would be conveniently present on the third planet from our sun in our solar system?  What are the chances that the carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and other atoms would spontaneously erupt into the first living organism? 

What are the chances that millions upon millions of years, as the evolutionists claim, could transform such a basic form of life into a being as complicated and organized as a fish, let alone a reptile, bird, mammal, or human being?  What are the odds of all of these coincidences when taken collectively?  What if we multiply the probabilities of all of these miraculous coincidences?
    In addition, what are we to make of scientists who would have us believe this sequence of events?  Should we honor their wisdom, knowledge, and powers of deductive reasoning?  Do they have the most believable story?  Does their position make the most sense?  We are left to conclude that these thinkers may be great scientists, but they are poor mathematicians.  They may be great at comparative anatomy, but they are lousy at statistics.  They excel in discussing possibilities, but fail miserably in understanding probabilities.
    Doesn’t it take a lot of faith to believe such a story?  The rigid scientist disregards religious ideas because they are based on faith. They mock the idea of a supernatural being. Yet, we may fairly ask—“What takes more faith?”  Certainly, it takes a lot of faith in coincidence, chance, randomness, and dumb luck to believe a sequence so unlikely. 

If an alien race visited our planet and saw an automobile but no humans, would they return home with the tale that on earth, the iron ore, nickel, aluminum, copper, rubber trees, components of fiberglass, cow skins that make up leather, hydrocarbons which make up plastic, and crude oil that makes up petroleum had spontaneously evolved into a car?  Would they explain that the process involved matchbox cars evolving into larger plastic cars which later developed self-propelling engines, power steering, disc brakes, and GPS navigation systems?  Would they estimate the process to have taken several billions of years?  Would they be esteemed as the greatest astronaut-scientists of their planet? 
    Which is more complicated—an automobile or the human body?  Which is more likely to arise by pure chance alone?  Which is more ridiculous to believe—that all this structure, organization, and order is a product of eons of time—or to believe that an omniscient being, a supreme and ultimate scientist, has control over the entire universe and all the life-forms in it? 
    Indeed, all the believers in a supreme intelligence should bend the knee, take off the hat, and honor the evolutionary scientists who demonstrate more faith, more belief in the unbelievable, more hope in the invisible, more confidence in the impossible than any believer in God ever could.  They have more to teach us about believing in the unlikely than any religion.  They have grasped the unreachable, accepted the unthinkable, and rejected the most plausible.  We stand in awe of them; we honor their great and unequalled exercise of faith. 

As Elder Russel M. Nelson has said, “My long road to become a doctor of medicine was only the beginning. After that came years of hospital work, research, specialty training, and certifying examinations. Then followed many years of teaching, service, and the challenges of the newly emerging field of open-heart surgery, all of which brought me to a profound reverence for the structure and function of the human body. I was convinced that its creation was divine…Scientists in many disciplines observe similar manifestations of law and order, whether in the predictability of the tides, the phases of the moon, or the location of stars in the sky. Such law and order undergird all creation. Those laws can be discovered and defined. Their consequences can be measured. Such order bears witness of a Supreme Creator (Russell M. Nelson, “Faith in Jesus Christ,” Ensign, March 2008, p25,27).
    Alma put it this way to Korihor: “Thou hast had signs enough; will ye tempt your God? Will ye say, Show unto me a sign, when ye have the testimony of all these thy brethren, and also all the holy prophets? The scriptures are laid before thee, yea, and all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator” (Alma 30:44).
    Surely the signs are there for all to see and to try and understand.
    This earth on which we dwell is an individual planet occupying a unique place in space. But it is also part of our solar system, an orderly system with eight other planets, asteroids, comets, and other celestial bodies that orbit the sun. Just as the earth is a planet in its own right, so each of us is an individual in our own sphere of habitation. We are individuals, but we live in families and communities where order provides a system of harmony that hinges on obedience to principles. Just as order gave life and beauty to the earth when it was dark and void, so it does to us. Obedience helps us develop the full potential our Heavenly Father desires for us in becoming celestial beings worthy someday to live in His presence (Conference Report, April 1999, p47).
    In Genesis 1:12 we find: "And God saw that it was good." This as before the Fall. To understand the Fall, we need to understand what existed prior to that moment, so we can comprehend what took place and what is meant by the word Fall. First of all, Parley P. Pratt makes it quite clear when he said, “We can never understand precisely what is meant by restoration, unless we understand what was lost or taken away."

And then he describes how the earth was pronounced very good. Paarley P. Pratt describes what he surmises may have been the glory of the Creation: "From this we learn that there were neither deserts, barren places, stagnant swamps, rough, broken, rugged hills, nor vast mountains, covered with eternal snow; and no part of it was located in the frigid zone so as to render its climate dreary and unproductive, subject to eternal frost, or everlasting chains of ice. The whole earth was probably one vast plain, or interspersed with gently rising hills and sloping vales, well calculated for cultivation." (A Voice of Warning, Deseret Book, Salt Lake City, 1978, pp83, 84)
    In addition, Harold B. Lee said, “Besides the Fall having had to do with Adam and Eve, causing a change to come over them, that change affected all human nature, all of the natural creations, all of the creation of animals, plants-all kinds of life were changed. The earth itself became subject to death, that it might be cleansed likewise. How it took place no one can explain, and anyone who would attempt to make an explanation would be going far beyond anything the Lord has told us. But a change was wrought over the whole face of that creation, which up to that time had not been subject to death; and from that time henceforth all in nature was in a state of gradual dissolution until mortal death was to come, after which there would be required a restoration in a resurrected state" (The Teachings of Harold B. Lee, edited by Clyde J. Williams, Bookcraft, Salt Lake City, 1996, p34).
    It is not difficult, then to see that the Earth, from its creation to its current existence follows a form—albeit a very complex one. It was not an accident of nature, but put together by the Gods.

And when, during the crucifixion, we learn of the destruction in the land of Promise, we see how it was taken apart, so mountains could collapse and valleys could be raised into new mountains, “whose height is great.” Like all things, the complexity of all these events is awe-inspiring and involved the full attention of the Gods to organize and reconstruct this part of the planet. Someday, when we know exactly how this was done, we will be even more astounded at the ability needed to perform such assignments. What we do know, however, is that nothing happens accidentally, nothing is a surprise to the Gods, nothing is unknown. There is a Plan and it is carried out, and in a specific manner, and in the scriptural record we are told far more than most have yet grasped and understand.