.
Blind Watchmaker
A blind watchmaker tinkered for billions of years
without blueprints for making his intricate gears.
So, he failed many times but got up when he fell
and was shocked when he made not a watch, but a cell.
From that cell, which he made from primordial slime,
every creature evolved through the passage of time.
On a planet like ours, this was bound to unfold
through an unguided process, or so we’ve been told.
But the knowledge we gain from new questions we ask
shows blind watchmakers useless at their assigned task.
It seems more and more likely that we were designed
by a being possessing a limitless mind.
The Big Bang would have fizzled without someone there
who began time and made all there is from thin air.
And with three billion letters in our DNA,
it’s impossible chance had a big part to play.
And if physical laws were not quite so refined
then all known time and space would begin to unwind.
And there’s no way that randomly mutated genes
can make novel molecular-level machines.
If our minds remain open, the more we will find
that our science is clearer with God intertwined.
Every day, the skies speak, and the heavens declare,
if we’re willing, we’ll hear them say “God’s everywhere.”
.
.
Warren Bonham is a private equity investor who lives in Southlake, Texas.
Love it! Such a clear, rhymed and well-metered explanation of the truth. “God intertwined” is a lovely thought.
I’m glad you enjoyed this one! God “intertwined” seems obvious to me, but not yet to everyone.
Well done, Warren, both in form and theme. C. S. Lewis wrote that the project of the modern scientific endeavor is not to get the facts in but to keep God out. But I think people today are becoming much more open to the idea you proffer. And by putting it in such a lilting, quizzical meter, I’m sure many would delight in and benefit from reading and meditating on your poem. Hopefully, some will find their way here to read it. It would be delightful to hear you read this.
I need to step up my game on the C. S. Lewis front. I pretty much stopped at Narnia but I’ve recently learned that he was an accomplished poet in addition to everything else that he was good at. I’m very glad you enjoyed this one.
I love the theme of this poem. It could be the universe was created so that God will have something to do. Of course, I’m only speculating. Being mere mortals, it is all beyond our comprehension.
Why God did all of this is a question I’ve never pondered. Having the humility to recognize that we are mere mortals is something many people never seem to get past (a group that seems to include many scientists).
“or so we’ve been told,” indeed. For human beings with such comparatively limited brains, to think we’re smarter than “ a being possessing a limitless mind” is as absurd as the watchmaker theory. I think the anapestic meter you’ve chosen is appropriate because it lends humor to the absurdity. Nice job, Warren.
I’m fortunate to have been born when I was. I was initially drawn to the Watchmaker concept (don’t judge me) but many recent scientific advancements point in the other direction and have re-opened my eyes.
Love this!
Thanks so much for saying that!
Warren, if you haven’t already, you should listen into some of the many podcasts in which Stephen Meyer has participated. Michael Behe is also very good. Together they are great and will likely give you greater understanding of why your position on this matter is quite tenable.
I still have a lot to learn, but if it hadn’t been for those guys, I would have kept marching down the wrong road.
Dear Warren,
I have always loved analogies and parables for their effectiveness in making concepts more within reach of understanding.
When the stories are put to verse, it is even easier for the reader to get drawn in to think logically.
Your concluding couplet is my favorite – the Truth and the the way you communicated.
Gigi
Thanks! In the last couplet, the key word for me was “willing”. The skies have been loudly declaring for a very long time. We just need to turn off our noise cancelling headphones and so we can hear them.
Well done, Warren! If we are willing to use our intelligence, we see that nature is intelligible. That’s what science is all about. Blind design is the untenable position. Your Big Bang couplet is splendid, as is the shocking appearance of the first cell. And there is meaningful artistry in “novel molecular-level machines,” more than in many uses of internal slant rhyme, as creatively satisfying as these may be. “Novel,” while meaning “new” or “original,” can also imply “fictional,” supporting your statement that there is no way for the described random process to happen. A nice touch, as is your allusion to one of the Psalms in the next-to-last line. The poem is enjoyable because the human intellect not only likes to discover truth, but to review modes of thinking as they are explained, and see the truth itself well-stated.
You have once again adeptly peeled back the layers. You focused on my favorite couplet (molecular-level machines) and expressed the meaning more clearly than I could have. The idea for that couplet came from Michael Behe (as CB surmised) and his work on “irreducible complexity”. We’re fortunate that some great work is being done by some incredibly intelligent scientists like Behe, and it is finally gaining some traction.
Excellent poem, Warren. Well-conceived, worded and rhymed. Your logic is impeccable, and your theology is so well stated. Science is for mortals with flawed results. It took an infinite intellect to make a world.
Thanks! It seems that many scientists believe themselves to somehow be infallible.
Wow, Warren! What a wonderful way of showing the indispensability of God in all of creation. I thought it was a very creative transition to begin with a seeming affirmation of evolution without God to an echo of Psalm 8 that “God’s everywhere.” Thanks for sharing this!
The poem basically follows the path I took (I’m ashamed to say). I’m very glad you enjoyed it.
I have asked often~~sometimes in an exasperated tone~~”How could anyone,
having looked at a tiny part of this world, doubt that there is a God?” Your truly excellent (in every respect) poem has addressed this issue in a definitive and
deep BUT down-to-earth manner. Doubters should read your poem!