An entry in A Blog I Follow

By Jennifer Fulweiler


Reach for the Light: The moment I was no longer an atheist

These cucumber sprouts my husband put on our window sill caught my eye this morning as I was washing dishes. I noticed that they were growing at an angle, reaching out towards the sun rather than standing vertically. It reminded me of a key moment in my conversion.

Somewhere in this plant’s DNA are instructions that say something like, “By default, grow vertically. Unless the sun can only be found one side; in which case, reach for the light.”

BY DEFAULT, GROW VERTICALLY…REACH FOR THE LIGHT…

If I were to see these statements written on a piece of paper, I would understand them to be information. Instructions. I would take it for granted that someone wrote them. It would never occur to me to think that random forces constructed those sentences. The idea of creator-less information is an absurdity.

I remember back in 2005, when I had barely dipped my toe into the world of agnosticism after a life of atheism. I wasn’t sure if I believed in God or not, though I was leaning toward not. One afternoon I was reading about the subject of DNA, and I got butterflies in my stomach when I realized: DNA is information. It’s a set of instructions.

The implications of this realization could not be overstated. I leaned back in my chair, thought for a moment, and asked myself: “Can information — instructions — ever come from a non-intelligent source?”

I realized that the answer is no. And my life was never the same again.