It’s a 16th century painting called The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo for crying out loud!
This first topic is one that I will not be covering “live” with the students… this is the passion of one of my very capable leaders and he will present tomorrow night. But I’ve been thinking about it all week too and thought I would at least put my two cents in here.
Honestly I was all-too-eager to pass on this subject. I’m not a very technical person. Math was not my thing (my wife does the checkbook). I only did ok in the sciences because I had a good teacher who tried to make things interesting. My leader who is speaking Sunday will look at the title and masterfully focus on the “defend” aspect… I would hit the “believe” part… and probably will do that here to some degree. So if you’re more the scientific-type, you may want to avoid my juvenile musings and visit an intellectual website like Answers In Genesis.
Please don’t misunderstand my approach. First, for me, my personality is very trusting. This can be a very helpful resource. It can also get me into a great deal of trouble. Second and I already alluded to this earlier, I’m an English-type guy and usually those who do well in English don’t excel in the sciences and vice-versa. So I couldn’t give you a firsthand well-reasoned defense for why I believe the creationist hypothesis above all others.
All of that said, I think it does matter how we think about this issue. It is after all the beginning deal. Biblically speaking there is no recorded human event that precedes this one! If you don’t have the beginning straight it has a much more significant impact than if you may have disagreement about the end of things (which ironically we will touch on in coming weeks).
If God was not the author, then it calls into serious question His ability to act as sustainer. Truthfully it calls everything into question. Genesis means beginnings. So it really is a pretty good place to start when you’re talking about origins.
But what if I don’t believe the Bible? Well I told you that I would definitely not be representing the scientific community in my opinion. So here it goes. At the end of the day when all of the hypotheses are on the table and every arguable theory has been proposed every one of them boils down to the same thing… faith.
You may not like that. You may not be a religious person at all. But I’m not speaking of religious faith. I speak of simple trust. There was no human present at the beginning – on that point I think most of us would agree. Therefore, no scientific theory can be plausible at the end of the day because one of the first tests of something’s veracity is that it must be verifiable. And since no one was around to verify any theory… it must come down to which idea I am willing to trust.
For me that’s it. It really is that simple. And I feel much more comfortable relying on the God of the universe who is the same yesterday, today and forever than any of the other options available.
re:THINK 