in Today's Slice (rzim)

"Where the Flying Spaghetti Monster attempts to shake belief and dissuade certainty, it holds no power as an analogy for belief in God because it misses the very heart of why so many people intuitively believe. This was illustrated recently in a debate between Richard Dawkins and Christian mathematician John Lennox. Dawkins referenced the illustration of a person walking through a forest and finding a beautiful garden. He asked, "Isn't it enough to appreciate the beauty of the garden without having to believe in invisible fairies hiding behind the flowers?" Lennox's reply demonstrated the fallacy in this analogy. He said, "Of course you wouldn't have to believe in fairies in the garden, but you would assume there was a gardener, wouldn't you?" You would believe in a gardener even without seeing him or her because it is the only way to make sense of a garden. Otherwise, how would you distinguish between the garden and the rest of the forest you were walking through? A garden is only a garden if it was planted and cared for on purpose. The God of the Bible is not comparable to any of the funny invisible internet deities, but He is quite like the gardener. He makes sense of the world and He assures us that we are not here by accident, but that we were created on purpose and for a purpose."