A famous argument for the existence of a Creator of the universe is called the watchmaker analogy. If I were walking through the woods, the argument goes, and I stumbled across a rock, I might suppose that this particular rock had been in this particular place practically forever, but if instead I stumbled across a pocket watch, after examining its intricate and complex inner workings, I could not as easily come to the same conclusion that the watch had been there forever, but must accept that there had to be some watchmaker who made that watch. And since the universe as a whole is much more complex and intricate than a watch, then it too must have a creator. There have been a lot of arguments in support of and critical of the arguments put forth by the watchmaker analogy, but one of them is that if the universe is just like a watch, then all of us are trapped inside of that watch. We have only the one data point of how our universe operates and we have no other universes against which to compare it. We can conclude that a watch is complex enough to need a watchmaker because we are standing outside of the watch and can compare it to other things, but we can't do the same with the universe. Of course, this deconstruction of the watchmaker analogy doesn't actually make a particularly strong case for atheism, because if we are all stuck inside of the watch, then we are not going to be able to find the watchmaker inside of his own watch. But I didn't actually bring all of this up in order to score some points in a debate about whether God exists or not. I believe that the watchmaker analogy, and even the criticism of the watchmaker analogy, can be applied to each of us in a much more personal way. In some respects, our minds, or our selves or our souls, are their own little universes, and we can no more step outside of ourselves and look at ourselves with a completely detached and objective eye than we can step outside of the universe and look at it with a completely detached and objective eye. Whether we compare the whole universe or our own personal universe of our psyche to a watch, in both cases we are trapped inside of the watch. So if we come to the conclusion that we are fundamentally flawed and broken, which all of us are, by the way, then we can't repair our watch while we are stuck inside of it. Not only do we not have the right perspective to see the problem clearly, but we also lack the expertise and the tools and the materials to effectuate such a repair. So what? Are we just doomed to be stuck inside of a broken watch forever? No! Whether it makes sense or there exists sufficient evidence or not, there is in fact a Watchmaker that is responsible for the entire universe in all of its complexity and for each of our own personal universes. He can see clearly from His outside perspective what needs to be done to fix us, and even if He sometimes does things that don't make sense from our perspective, especially because we can't see things from His point of view, we can trust that He knows what He is doing. I know many of us would prefer it if we could just fix ourselves by ourselves, but that's never going to happen. We need the Watchmaker. Only He can truly fix us, and until we let Him in, we will continue to be broken. I hope we can all learn to open up to the Watchmaker and trust Him enough to do what He needs to do. I know if we will let Him, He can make our lives run more smoothly and precisely than the finest watch.
