Sometime ago, nationally syndicated columnist Mona Charen wrote a column about lawyer/author Dean Overman whose passion is investigating the big why and how of life. In his book, "A Case Against Accident and Self-Organization," Overman tries to prove that scientific reasoning actually leads to the conclusion that life is the result of an intelligent God.

The problem with Charen's reasoning ,and presumably Overman's as well, can be seen in Charen's constant use of the terms "random," and "accidental" as the only alternative to an intelligent God.

The example used by Charon to ridicule so-called randomness: "a typhoon blowing through a junkyard and constructing a Boeing 747," is silly, but ironically may almost be a picture of the real engine of creation, not only on earth, but in the entire universe--the spiral organization of chaos. But as an aside, and this is relevant to the news of the killer tornados in Florida recently: If tornados are random, why do they always seem to hit mobile home parks?

True randomness, is, well, random. It has no pattern, no form, no predictability. However, we do not find true randomness in the universe. Instead, we find a pattern and this pattern is there in front of us every time we watch water drain from our kitchen sink or when we flush our toilet. It is in every typhoon, hurricane, tornado, gust of wind. It is in our DNA, and in the way branches grow on trees. It is in sea shells at the bottom of oceans and in clouds at the top of our atmosphere. It is seen in the developing fetus. It is also in the organization of galaxies consisting of billions of stars. It is the constant in our universe and gives example to the Biblical saying: "As above, so below." It is seen in the ancient cornucopia.

In fact, it is almost impossible to find anything in nature that does not have this spiral shape involved with it. This is the organizing, non-random principle; the great builder and destroyer of all that exists. This is the great card shuffler that takes those four simple chemicals of DNA and shuffles them one way to make a snail and another way to make a man.

Of course this leads us to the next question. What causes the spiral to exist and sets it in motion? Religionists, if backed into a corner on this question, will posit an intelligent God but in fact, it can be explained much more simply with elementary physics and can probably ultimately be traced back to something as simple as hot and cold, and negative and positive charged particles.

If one wanted to go even further with the speculation, it could be pointed out that in some religious traditions, God is said to have brought everything in our universe into being by bringing light into existence in a previously all dark universe. The image created, by way of analogy, is, perhaps, of a sort of a pre-universe made out of black paper and God was on the other side of that black paper and struck a match which first burned a pinhole in our universe and then grew in a spiral fashion as it devoured more of the dark paper and the spiral--and especially the swastika form of the spiral--has kept our universe going ever since.

Perhaps the true Spirit in the Sky is that tornado bearing down on your trailer park, and perhaps a swastika is not really a representation of the sun traveling through the heavens as is sometimes stated, but a formalized representation of the spiral in its most active forms as seen anywhere you look if you have eyes to see.

Interestingly, some groups have gone to such great lengths to obliterate the swastika that they have even browbeat some companies known for making exact scale models of military vehicles for hobbyists into removing the authentic swastikas that were on the full size original vehicles upon which the models were based.

Also of interest is that the New York Times recently ran an article concerning the rehabilitation of the swastika as an acceptable design in polite society.

Is the swastika, or more properly, that which is behind the swastika and which has made it such a pervasive symbol throughout nature, God? And, if so, can we conclude that the universe has no need for an intelligent God at all, because existence is perfectly capable of ordering itself through a simple spinning?

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• References: (links may expire...)
• "Reconsidering Theism" by Mona Charen
  
• "A Case Against Accident and Self-Organization"
• Move afoot to detoxify ancient, once-benign swastika symbol
  
• "The Swastika did NOT originate as a Nazi symbol of hatred."
  
• Nintendo stops production of Pokemon card with swastika-like symbol
  
• Can the Swastika be Re-sanctified?
  The Swastika in Astrosurf When Nepal went to the polls last year, its people stamped a swastika next to their choice candidate. In Tibet, farmers place a swastika symbol on their doors to ward off evil. Navajo medicine men use colored sand to draw swastikas on the floor while performing their curative rites. Indian boys paint a swastika on their shaved heads. In Japan too, the swastika is a holy symbol. The Senso-ji Buddhist temple in Tokyo's Asakusa district has huge lanterns, made famous through the prints of Hiroshige, that show several swastikas. In Washington D.C., the Capitol building in Washington D.C. reveals several friezes formed out of swastikas... (more...
  
  
• War Toys: 
  A two-year campaign by the American Jewish Congress has resulted in the deletion of war toys bearing swastikas by American toy manufacturers.
  Revell of Venice, CA and Lindberg of Skokie, IL were the first to "suspend the manufacture of swastika-emblazoned toys" and the largest manufacturer, Mattel of Hawthorne, CA, were soon to follow. The AJC's Director, Julius Schatz, gloated: "We consider the Mattel action to be a major victory in our effort to discourage the production of toy tanks, planes, ships, and other military objects carrying the symbol of destruction of six million Jews and millions of others. Mattel's announcement vindicates our stance. . . No badge or symbol in human history is as foul a reminder of bestiality as the swastika. Yet these insignia of blood lust, of human skin made into lampshades, of millions of men and women and children slaughtered like cattle, are emblazoned on toys that are sold by the million to American children. . . it is also a matter of safeguarding young and vulnerable children from the taint of war toys with swastikas, playing war games that will simulate the Nazi war machine."
  B'nai Brith Messenger 15 June 1979
  
  Act 2:19 And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: