What does da Vinci's masterpiece, the Mona Lisa, let alone Marilyn Monroe, one of Hollywood's most beautiful and accomplished actresses, have to do with the existence of God? Well, put aside the jokes about "heavenly" bodies and "angelic" faces and allow me to draw a rational comparison between these two masterpieces and their masters. If the painting in the Louvre was created by a master artist, can Marilyn Monroe take all the credit for her great looks? Does random chance really get all the credit for making DNA and then writing the code to create Marilyn's face? This logical relationship between masterpiece and Master makes one reconsider 1) should evolution get all the recognition for the amazing human body and 2) the existence of God the Creator.
Why is the Mona Lisa so famous?
Once upon a time, an Italian merchant, Francesco del Giocondo — a.k.a Frank — hired an local painter, Leonardo da Vinci, to do a portrait of his wife, Lisa Gherardini — mama Lisa, or as they say in Italian, mona Lisa.
Smiling Mona Lisa
But what makes the Mona Lisa a masterpiece? Why is it so famous?
Well, no one knows what Frank thought, but critics today point to her enchanting half-smile as being her real selling point. Depending on your viewing angle, her smile changes. Others specialists get more technical and refer to the lighting that da Vinci used in the painting and his unique brush strokes.
In any case, when last checked, the sweet anniversary gift that Frank's purchased for his wife was worth a cool billion dollars — no wonder the Louvre today has the painting behind bulletproof glass and protected by armed guards.
Who gets the credit?
All the credit for this masterfully painted painting goes to the genius who made it — not to Frank the merchant, not to Lisa his wife (well, yes, some, its her face after all) and not the goat-hair brushes! Leonardo da Vinci, and his skill at playing around with oils on a canvas, gets the recognition.
Why is Marilyn Monro still famous?
Jump ahead four centuries and we come to Hollywood and Marilyn Monroe. It could be argued that Marilyn Monroe was the creation of Norma Jeane Mortenson. But that kind of argumentation would be unfair. Thinking like that we'd have to also say that John Wayne was the invention of Marion Robert Morrison, or that Lady Ga Ga is the simple fabrication of Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (you thought she was called Lady while still in her crib?).
Credit where credit is due
Whichever name you prefer, it's undeniable that Marilyn/Norma should receive a lot of credit for her success. She knew how to act, how to sing, how to carry herself, and was even a successful businesswoman in the film industry. (So it is more than tragic that she went to an early grave.)
Notwithstanding, she cannot take full credit for her beauty. She had her wardrobe, her hairstylists, make-up artists and her plastic surgeon!
More attention should be given to what Marilyn inherited from her biological mother and father. A unique combination of her parents' DNA gave rise to the one and only Norma Jean from Los Angeles. And what was written in the DNA was written by another great Master.
More than a pretty face
Just as Mona's smile came from Leonardo's skills, so too, Marilyn's amazing figure — by and large (pun intended) — came from her amazing DNA structure. The importance of the DNA is seen in ones' looks, but it is also true for all other parts of the human body. Our skeleton, digestive organs, the nervous system and everything connected to them is a breathtakingly astonishing arrangement of biological devices.
Humans have always noticed that humans are well made. Nearly 3,000 years ago, a king in ancient Israel wrote a hit song about the Master of the Universe. In it, he worships God for crediting the human body:
"For You Yourself made my most important inner parts. You would cover me over in my mother’s womb. I will thank You because of how frighteningly wonderful I was made — Your deeds are full of wonder. And my very soul knows this so well." (Psalms 139:13-14)
Two masterpieces but only one master designer?
My overall masterful argument is that everyone who gazes upon the Mona Lisa applauds her smile and then passes profound praise upon its creator — naturally.
But when they talk about Marilyn Monro's great looks, their praises stop there. No one recognizes the Master who designed her body or the human body.
To put it another way, would anyone ever walk into the Louvre, look at the painting that Frank commissioned hanging there and say, "How did that get there?" and then concoct the idea that the wall spontaneously produced the painting? Yes, a ridiculous conclusion; no one in his right mind would come up with such a stupid idea. So how could our bodies have evolved from a carrot or potato or any simpler structure? (Even the argument about "simple structures" is getting pretty lame — those one-celled organisms are not simple. (Have a look at this website's video if you care to see how complex even "simple" amoebas can be.)
Norma Jean's genes
Deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, is a marvelous molecule inside the nuclei of each and every one of your cells. It is responsible for making you you. Our eye colours, skin colours, heights, even our genders are what they are because of the exact instructions written down in those special spiral strands.
How can one hear about genetic code, messenger DNA, rules of translation, etc. and not agree with that old king in Israel? Things inside the human body are even more breathtaking than what he had thought.
A Master Artist and a Great Author
Remember that writing implies a conscious, intelligent and organized Being . (The author of this blog is painfully aware of these facts!)
Random chance does not write. Code cannot be random. Ask any software programmer. One misplaced comma or period and the program is probably dead in the water. Therefore, don't hire a gorilla to write program for you. Not even a million monkeys could type a sentence of Shakespeare's Hamlet--they'd spend more time crapping on the typewriters--so how could they do your IT work for you? Furthermore, how could mindless "natural selection" write a single line of genetic code?
A Masterpiece of a video
I challenge you to watch these Crash Course videos on the subject of DNA and not be amazed. (Leave your comments below. I would love to hear from you.)
One Colossal Cosmic Crap-shoot
I hope you are starting to see the drift of my argument. How could the sweet face of Marilyn Monroe be anymore an accident of the cosmos than smiling face of Mona Lisa Gherardini? For either one to exist, there had to be some master creator.
I am not asking any more of you than to be logical.
Most biologists ask the reverse from you. The human body is chance they say. The emotionless, purposeless chaotic forces of the cosmos were in charge and got us to where we are. Every pretty face connected to every human body is the result of gradual, successive random improvements to simple forms of life giving rise to more complex forms. There is nothing miraculous about where Norma Jean came from, say they. Evolutionists would have you believe that Marilyn evolved from a lizard, which evolved from a carrot, which evolved from chemicals in a rock — heavens, what a totally "rational" explanation.
But forgive me for my lack of faith. I am not a believer.
I just cannot swallow the line that billions of years ago there was a colossally purposeless big ka-BOOM which spread out dust and gases beyond our wildest imaginations, with some settling and creating a yellow dwarf star (though gas is usually not affected by gravity!) and some more settling to orbit that star, only to cool and harden and then by happy chance receive a crap-load of water from wandering meteors which spontaneously allowed for the eruption of simple-complex life-forms from inanimate Earth-rock chemicals, eventually giving rise to carrots, lizards, maybe some monkeys — rumour has it that Richard Dawkins is fond of bananas — and finally to da Vinci and then to Marilyn!
A wall spontaneously sprouting the Mona Lisa would be more believable.