"which makes it extremely improbable that any of these mechanism could have been created by natural causes."

It only seems improbable. It looks really improbable without a belief in god too. I am always in awe of the natural world around me.

Having a god gives you just one easy answer to those immensely complex questions you just asked - "God did it". He simply spoke it all into existence all fully formed...sort of cheapens the grand phenomena doesn't it?

Just for a moment Ryan, imagine there is no god, and try to perceive that the universe you see around you did develop without a designer, a creator, a god. Not by chance, but by natural forces, not supernatural forces. You would have to recognise how much more incredible this reality would have to be without a disembodied omnipotent mind outside time and space creating it. (Whatever all of that means)

And the mechanisms do exist for all of that to happen. Astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology and the other arms of science aren't belief systems, but methodologies, that help us understand the genesis and inexplicable complexity of life and the universe. We have not got it all yet, not by a long shot but we have come a hell of a long way in just a few hundred years using the scientific method.

Its only complex and "extremely improbable that any of these mechanisms could have been created by natural causes" because you have never read or tried to understand them because you think that kind of knowledge is beyond your grasp. It isn't.

I got as far as high school and didn't do very well either. I am not a smart guy, but it was after escaping formalised education that I began to really learn. When I really started reading, 30 years ago, I was lucky because all the great authors of science, Gribben, Gould, Hawking, Dawkins, and of course Sagan were just starting to take off. The publication of popular science books was in its heyday. They wrote elegantly simple books to explain the beautiful mechanisms of the universe and all within it. They led me back to writers like Asimov, an incredible science teacher. My reading list will outlive me, I know I will never have the time to read them all, but I have been very lucky to have read what I have and had reality opened up for me. These books have given me a greater and deeper sense of life and living and meaning than the poorly written bible ever did when I was a christian. It only depresses me now.

Those science books are still available. Some are even free online. No church or priest ever recommends them, so you never hear about them from that source.

It has already been said you have a lot ahead of you to learn, if you truly want to understand the world beyond a mere simple faith that an omnipotent being wished it all into existence. But remember that supreme being you continue to believe in, gave you a brain. What if he really wanted you to use it? To probe, to question, to dispute, to discover. What if on judgement day there is a general knowledge exam for entry into paradise? Better start studying, lol.

Ryan, with all sincerity start reading, today, asap, but take your time, read to understand. I wish I had started thirty years earlier than I did. There is so much fascinating stuff out there, and today, with the internet there is nothing you cannot research. Damn I only had books.
And a lot of folks on this forum have a greater understanding of it all than I do. I learn a lot here from them too. They're a good bunch here, including Mykcob4, who is very honest, hard, but honest and thats a combination you can always trust.

You have a great looking dog there in Ernie. I love dogs too. The relationship between humans and dogs is unique in nature. I always say that nature made the wolf, but we made, and remade ourselves with, the dog. My current hound is a small multimixed bitser who is the smartest damn dog of the eight I have had in my life. I love him more than most other people, because he is just a whole lot smarter than they are, lol.

Cheers