Discovering God in chicken's milk...

What’s more important than asking the age-old question, “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” Asking, “Why can’t we milk a chicken?” is more valuable, if you ask me. I know, the scientific reason we can’t milk a chicken is due to the fact that biologically, chickens are birds, they aren’t mammals. Still, why can’t I have it all?

What started this line of questioning, for me? It occurred to me while I was eating my cheese-covered scrambled eggs: If only we could milk chickens, they would be the perfect breakfast-producing-animal ever. This in turn got me thinking about the point some atheists make when they try to refute the existence of God, that being, this creation we inhabit isn’t perfect. Because as they assert, if a perfect God created the world, why are there imperfections all over the place?

That’s a fair question. Why isn’t this world a utopia? Why can’t I fly like a bird and breathe underwater like a fish, and then drive my car when flying or swimming is inconvenient? Why do we have unmet expectations, and why aren’t all of our desires fulfilled? Why do we have so many limitations and problems?

We could respond, the Garden of Eden was perfect before mankind sinned. But then people could ask, why were the first people allowed to sin and mess it all up? How did that slippery serpent sneak into the garden anyway? Still, even in the Garden of Eden, we couldn’t milk our chickens..., so Eden wasn’t quite a utopia.

But, doesn’t the Bible say everything was perfect when God finished creation? Not really. Several times at the conclusion of each day of creation we read, “it was good,” and on the last day of creation we read, “it was very good.” Yet nowhere do we read it was a “sublime heavenly perfection.” It’s the material universe, and it is very good, but this realm leaves plenty of room for the perfect.

Recognizing imperfections requires a standard of what perfection could be. This follows the same line of reasoning that the existence of evil and suffering points us eventually to a loving God. I know this sounds counter-intuitive, but think through the implications. To say there is evil is to recognize there is good. Yet, a material universe can’t solely account for this understanding or provide a standard of good/evil. Therefore, when we are offended by evil, injustice, or wrongdoing, it’s because there is a universal sense of good. Just what is the source of that good? It must be a supernatural source providing our standard.

Another way to look at this is to realize that asking why is this world so imperfect isn’t the right question. Asking “how” can we tell this world isn’t perfect reveals much more.

Around 200 years ago, atheistic philosophers tried in earnest to assert the existence of evil and suffering disproves God’s existence. Not anymore, they realize that doesn’t add up. Logically speaking, evil doesn’t disprove God or His goodness.

You might still be asking: Why isn’t this world better or perfect? What if there is an otherworldly perfection God wants us to long for, and this stage of our existence is like the appetizer but eternity is the actual main course? We all need to ask, what if this life is not all there is?

By this point, you might’ve wondered to yourself, why would I conceptualize a chicken we could milk over conjuring up in my mind a cow that laid eggs. That’s simple. Could you really find room in the fridge for eggs if they came from a cow...?