Matter is moved by matter, and to a lesser extent, by light.

Why bother stating something so mundane? The reason has to do with current discussions of apparent design in nature. Is the design merely a natural “appearance” or the intentional product of an intelligent mind? A strict materialist, of course, has no choice but to believe that everything we see in the universe came about by natural causes. 

Let’s look into that opening assertion from the point of view of physics. Every structure in the universe, whether galaxies, stars, planets, moons, or mountains, was formed by interactions of matter with matter. Matter produces gravity to pull other matter together, which is the dominant force sculpting the large-scale structure of the universe. Charged particles of matter produce the electric force that pushes or pulls other charged particles along a line connecting their centers. This force is the prime mover for all molecular interactions. Nuclear forces between protons and neutrons act on such a short distance scale that they go unnoticed by us in our normal experience. 

Photons of light (electromagnetic radiation) also carry momentum in inverse proportion to their wavelength. This miniscule amount of photonic momentum can kick about individual electrons, as manifested in photodetectors and solar cells. But under the concentrated barrage of photons from bright stars, entire gas clouds in the vicinity of the star can be driven away into interstellar space.

Stars and Molecules

Knowing these quantifiable forces of nature allows us to computationally predict the properties of structures as disparate as stars and simple molecules. Comparing these theoretical predictions to actual structures gives us confidence in our understanding of what nature can produce, following the maxim that matter is moved by matter. Particles of matter, by virtue of one or more of the four fundamental forces of nature, affect the motion of other particles, and are themselves affected in return.

Here’s My Reasoning

Having risked losing my readers’ interest with this basic physics tutorial, let me explain my reasoning. Imagine, for example, that you’re watching a ballet. The flowing, graceful, artistically balanced movements, according to the materialist, must be ascribed to nothing more than matter moving matter by the actions of the electric and gravitational forces. Based on all we know of the physics of interactions between matter, our universe cannot produce the complex functional structure known as a ballerina, nor the movements performed by her in a ballet.

Although every movement of the dance is initiated by the intermolecular forces within the muscles of the ballerina, the sum total of every particle composing her mass would, strictly according to the laws of nature, lie in a lump on the floor, like a pile of dirt.

What’s the difference between a ballet and the natural movements of matter? The laws of nature governing matter are unintelligent; they follow simple rules. Mass attracts mass by gravity, and the cumulative direction of complex interatomic interactions inexorably tends to the lowest available potential energy state. There’s no dance, simply a gradual running-down to an uninteresting equilibrium.

How, Then, the Ballerina? 

All living things, from amoebas to humans, temporarily avoid the lump-of-dirt equilibrium end-state by metabolizing environmental energy (chemical energy from food, or solar radiation, or thermal energy) into movement and heat. Converting energy from one form to another is a commonplace physics phenomenon. 

Why should we not conclude, therefore, that life is simply natural? For this reason, the molecular mechanisms within living systems represent a distant detour from the direct path to dirt. A universal principle of nature is that natural processes always take the shortest possible path in the shortest amount of time to the lowest available equilibrium state.¹ Life, therefore, is the most unnatural thing we’ve ever discovered in the universe.

As humans grow older, we intuitively come to realize that we are living on borrowed time. We feel the approaching end of all bodily movement, when we will lie down in death. Even so, as our colleagues Michael Egnor and Denyse O’Leary argue in a forthcoming book, our essential being exists beyond nature as an immortal soul.² The exuberant detour we call life has allowed us innumerable conquests over the relentless pull of nature back to equilibrium. But our most enduring rearrangements of matter into unnatural structural forms, whether the pyramids, or battleships, or our own bones, will eventually return to amorphous dust.

Two Conclusions Follow

Two conclusions come from this discussion. The first is a scientific one, based on the laws of nature, that life is designed. For only an intelligent designer can orchestrate the miraculous detour of matter into the functional forms required for living things. The second conclusion is what we all come to know, that physical life is transient. Life is a miraculous gift, and our self-awareness presses upon us a sense that life ought to continue.

But the confident hope we can have is this. With our understanding of the natural workings of our universe, affirming that physical life could only arise from an intelligent source, the hope of life beyond the grave finds a firm footing in the same reality. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, we have assurance of this in the saying that God is “not God of the dead but of the living, for all live to him.”³

Notes

1. “During a non-equilibrium process, statistical fluctuations become negligibly small for systems with even more than ten particles, which easily applies for any system relevant to the origin and development of life…[S]mall statistical fluctuations from the most probable configuration of such a system (with its particles randomly mixed) will never occur in a time frame as short as the entire history of our universe. This means that any appeal to statistical fluctuations as the source of new biological information flatly contradicts the physics of statistical mechanics.” See Eric Hedin, Canceled Science: What Some Atheists Don’t Want You to See (Seattle: Discovery Institute Press, 2021), p. 160.
2. The Immortal Mind: A Neurosurgeon’s Case for the Existence of the Soul, by Michael Egnor and Denyse O’Leary (Hachette Worthy, June 3, 2025).
3. Luke 20:38 (ESV).