Jim Bishop, popular author of 21 books including "The Day Kennedy Was Shot" and "The Day Christ Died," died in 1987. This column, which appeared in Reader's Digest and is condensed from a Miami Herald article, was a favorite of his wife, Kelly.
By Jim Bishop
There is no God.
All of the wonders around us are accidental. No almighty hand made a thousand-billion stars. They made themselves.
No power keeps them on steady course. The earth spins itself to keep the oceans from falling off toward the sun. Infants teach themselves to cry when they are hungry or hurt. A small flower invented itself so that we extract digitalis for sick hearts.
The earth gave itself day and night, tilted itself so that we get seasons. Without the magnetic poles man would be unable to navigate the trackless oceans of water and air, but they just grew there.
How about the sugar thermostat in the pancreas? It maintains a level of sugar in the blood sufficient for energy. Without it, all of us would fall into a coma and die.
Why does snow sit on the mountain-tops waiting for the warm spring sun to melt it at just the right time for the young crops in farms below to drink? A very lovely accident. The human heart will beat for 70 or 80 years without faltering. How does it get sufficient rest between beats?
A kidney will filter poison from the blood, and leave good things alone. How does it know one from the other? Who gave the human tongue flexibility to form words, and a brain to understand them, but denied it to animals?
Who showed a womb how to take a fertilized egg and keep splitting a tiny ovum until, in time, a baby would have the proper number of fingers, eyes, and ears, and hair in the right places, and come into this world when it is strong enough to sustain life?
There is no God?
What comes to mind is the Psalms 14:1 verse which states, "The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God."