In February 2021 a team of researchers from MIT, Johns Hopkins University, Harvard University, and many other research centers published an article which details their success in developing a cancer-detecting device. This device has been in the making for many years. Its sensors can pick up and identify the specific molecules given off by various forms of cancer. Then a set of programmed algorithms determines which particular form of cancer is present in the patient.
The team is led by research scientist Andreas Mershin of MIT. He and 18 other scientists hope to incorporate artificial intelligence into the device. This will make it capable of “learning” new forms of cancer, adding them to its growing repertoire, and using the knowledge to detect any form of cancer a patient might have.
Dr. Mershin and his team also envision a time when this technology can be linked with a patient’s smart phone. This would enable patients to scan themselves with their mobile phone and receive back the results in real time.
As the title of this paper suggests, this technology is beginning to rival the disease-sniffing capabilities of trained dogs. In fact, Dr. Mershin explains that disease detection dogs are his inspiration for this work. He’s worked with sniffer dogs for 15 years and has been amazed by their disease detecting powers. His hope is to mimic the technology resident in the dog’s nose and miniaturize it. This will make its applications virtually limitless.
You know, I’m glad we haven’t had to wait until modern times to witness the wonders of technology. Technology has existed everywhere in nature throughout human history. Technology, far beyond anything we’ve produced, exists everywhere in all living things. Even scientists have acknowledged this, though only tacitly. They study various design features of animals and then try to “reverse engineer” and mimic their complex machinery.
Of course, humanity has yet to develop a disease-detecting device that walks on four legs, climbs through earthquake rubble to find trapped victims, gives companionship and love to its owner, detects land mines, IEDs, explosives, or drugs, catches criminals – and can replicate itself! God’s incredibly complex creatures always have the upper hand over the scientist when it comes to technology. Modern science is always playing “catch up” with God.
And should humanity ever achieve such marvelous inventions which rival those made by God, what will they have proved? They will only have demonstrated the wisdom, intentional effort, and creative genius necessary to develop and refine such inventions. They will have unwittingly proved the existence, supreme intelligence, and power of God.
But though we can see inescapable proof of God’s infinite genius in the complexity of all living things and the order of the universe, yet nature doesn’t tell the whole story. We know there must be a first and ultimate cause behind all things, but there’s still a lot that the universe doesn’t tell us. So God gave us answers from another source.
I just began my next journey through the Old Testament. I only got as far as, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” before an amazing fact hit me. God has already given us the answers to our most haunting questions – long before we ever asked them.
But what if God had told us “Figure it out for yourself,” when it comes to life’s most perplexing questions? Where did all of existence come from? How can we explain the order and complexity that exists in nature? How do we explain the technology which exists in all living things? How can we explain the presence of encoded information in every living organism’s DNA? Is there any purpose to life or hope for the future?
I’m so glad humanity hasn’t had to wait until the 21st Century to get answers to these questions. God’s already provided the answers in the Bible – starting with its very first chapters. God’s given us His special revelation (the Bible) that tells us everything that general revelation (nature) cannot.
We haven’t had to wait thousands of years for science to mature enough to conclude there must be a God. God’s already told us so much in His word. We don’t need to wait for science to exhaust all other options before it finally admits that God created the universe. God’s already told us.
And only the Bible tells us the “how” and the “why” of creation. God gave us an orderly, matter of fact, account in Genesis 1:1-2:3 that is free of all the polytheism, pantheism, and fanciful mythology of the Babylonian, Sumerian, Chinese, Egyptian, and Greek creation accounts.
Science is still in its “formative years.” It’s far too childish, haughty, and bigoted to accept the realities already revealed by God. But be patient. The scientific community will finally come around and admit the obvious – nothing but God can account for the complexity and order that exists in the world around us.
In the meantime, cherish that Bible of yours. An ever-growing number of scientists are believing its creation and flood accounts. An ever-increasing number of archeologists are attesting to the accuracy of its history. More and more mental health professionals are acknowledging its wisdom. And millions more are experiencing its life-changing power. “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. It pierces as far as the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and is able to judge the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). Indeed, “the word of the LORD endures forever” (1 Peter 1:25).
PRAYER: Open my eyes, O God, that I might discover wonderful truths in Your word – and by them grow closer to You and be conformed into the image of Your Son. Amen.
(Information from: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/02/210217151121.htm; https://www.ukessays.com/essays/religion/a-comparison-of-creation-myths-in-bible-greece-and-china.php; https://biologos.org/articles/genesis-1-and-a-babylonian-creation-story/; https://graecomuse.wordpress.com/2012/04/14/in-the-beginning-biblical-creation-myths-vs-others-around-the-mediterranean/)
