Despite the controversy, Psalm 139 is a must-read

A great many people wrote to thank me for raising the questions, while others suggested I was “either willfully ignorant or blatantly mendacious.”

I am thrilled with all the responses because the column's purpose has been achieved. We have invited folks to take a second look at an issue where faith and contemporary life intersect. I am a deep believer that Jesus died to take away our sin — not our minds; so challenging folks to think deeply is a part of my pastoral calling.

Let me respond to a couple of our readers who shared their thoughts.

P. Leon Brown works in the neuro sciences. He described the human brain as “an organ with redundant pathways and meandering circuits, a cobbled-together Rube Goldberg device that is so sensitive that the slightest change in development, genetics or environment can drastically impair its function.” He asked, “What kind of an engineer could design something with such obvious flaws?”

Brown believes the human brain evolved with all these “obvious flaws” due to the inefficiency of the evolutionary process. Is it not equally plausible that these “redundant pathways” were designed by a loving creator to serve functions that Brown and his colleagues have not yet discovered? Many in the fields of neurology and psychiatry feel that their understanding of the human brain is only in its infancy. The flaws, if real, that Brown observes could result from the slight changes in genetics he describes that lead to a gradual deterioration of function from one generation to the next. (Is that de-evolution?) A trend from function (order) to the less functional (chaos) would fit what most of us observe about how the world really works.

In the April 12 column I made the parallel of what we all see each day to the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics (which I mistakenly attributed to Newton. Newton had a second law, but it was about something else.) This law, which has applications well beyond physics, has many different forms — but the relevant one is this: “The entropy of the universe tends to a maximum.” While some of our readers who are proponents of evolution suggested in their e-mails that this universal principle has no application to biology, I beg to disagree.

The concept of entropy (which predates its use in thermodynamics) has to do with the amount of order and disorder in a system. Simply stated, the natural progression of things is toward chaos, not increasing order and complexity. In the April 12 column I joked that if I drove my Honda into a swamp, it would not somehow evolve into a Mercedes. Let's try a different metaphor — a teenager's bedroom. Unless acted on by an outside force (like a parent), it will tend toward chaos, not order. My desk, my body and my congregation all reflect a similar trend. Evolutionary theory suggests that in the animal world, living creatures are able to evolve from limited function (single-celled organisms) to incredible function (the human brain). Possible? Sure. Certain? Hardly.

I'd like to thank those readers who suggested books I should read. As an unrepentant bibliophile, I will surely follow their advice. I'd like to suggest a book for all our learned readers as well. This year, as every year, it will top the best-seller list. If you want to reflect on the origin of human life, try the Bible. First, look deeply into a mirror, and ask: “Where did I come from?” Then read the words of an ancient song that still sings true today. Psalm 139 is not a scientific statement but a prayer, laden with truth: “You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex. Your workmanship is marvelous — and how well I know it.”

Kevin McGhee is a senior pastor at Bethany Community Church in Laurel and a 1978 graduate of the United States Naval Academy. He can be reached at kmcghee@baltimoreexaminer.com