Because it is so important.
I am a Christian and I believe that these 3 things are the most important and least understood ideas that mankind must sort through. From an eternal perspective, the misuse of these ideas will cause mankind more pain than anything else we will ever encounter. The central goal of this blog…….is to diminish that pain.
Most Americans believe in Darwinian Evolution.
Many Americans believe in intelligent design…….creation.
One belief system essentially denies an intelligent creator, God. The other accepts the idea of a creator. These “origin stories” are mutually exclusive. I know a great many people who try to believe both. I once did……but this is intellectually dishonest. Evolution says that we got here by accident. Intelligent design says that we were put here by an intelligent being.
How can two groups of intelligent, sophisticated people look at the same set of facts and come to such different conclusions?
Bear with me while I tell a story. It’s fictional but very instructive.
A father and his son (normal biological son) go for a Sunday drive. There is a terrible accident. The father is killed instantly. The son is rushed to the hospital. The ER doc says “this boy is dying….get a surgeon!”. The phone rings…….the ER doc describes the situation. The surgeon says,” I can’t operate on this kid….. he’s my son!”. The ER doc says, “That’s impossible, the kid’s father died in the crash”.
The surgeon says:
“I’m his mother.”
The ER doc grossly misinterpreted the situation.
Why?
Because he began with an assumption that was incorrect. He assumed that surgeons are men. The lesson is that if you begin with a bad assumption……..you can follow a bulletproof chain of logic to a ridiculous conclusion.
Each side of the evolution/creation debate begins with an assumption. And those assumptions are the key.
Furthermore, they are mutually exclusive.
The evolutionist assumes that a creator, operating outside of the rules of our physical world is impossible.
The creationist assumes that a supernatural, intelligent creator exists.
The evolutionist trots out the fossil record. The creationist trots out the Bible and miracles.
The simple fact is this:
Using a set of logical, scientific, fact based rules that both sides agree on…….. neither side can “prove” their underlying assumption.
The evolutionist cannot prove that God doesn’t exist.
The creationist cannot prove that God does exist.
And this is a logical “dead end”. We cannot honestly analyze our way out of this. Using the intellectual tools at our disposal……we cannot think our way out of this delimma.
This would be an amusing intellectual exercise……if the stakes were not so high.
The problem is this.
God is not a simple isolated idea.
God is an idea that comes with expectations……that comes with eternity…….and consequences……..both good and bad.
So……..we find ourselves at a fork in the road…….a choice between two mutually exclusive “origin stories”. There is no rock solid logical proof that will help us to choose which to believe…….and the consequences of selecting the wrong path could be even more profound than “life or death”.
What to do?
What do you do……..when logic fails…….when intellect fails?
This is uncomfortable ground…..for me.
When logic fails……when intellect fails……you must listen to your heart.
Because the truth……..is in your heart.
When you search your heart what do you sense?
Are you the product of a giant biochemical accident?
Or
Are you the creation of an intelligent being?
In my heart, I do not feel like an accident. I sense that there is a purpose behind my existence…….and behind that purpose …….is an intelligent creator……..a creator with a plan……..for me.
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
David, NIV
Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
Moses, NIV
1 Comment
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