In the last several years or so, most of us had to make an important choice (if we hadn’t already) regarding our beliefs about creation, evolution, and intelligent design: Are they correct? Is anything in error? Although I wrote on this subject in several other posts (# 52 and also “Unlocking the Mystery of Life’s Origin”), there is more delving to do. I recently had a scary thought: Do scientists who firmly believe in evolution also believe in the existence of an intelligent supreme being? I truly don’t know. If the scientific community per se does not believe in God, this country and our world are in big trouble. Through their prolific literature and TV exposure, scientists are in control of school and college students’ minds, as well as the adult population’s beliefs. This is potentially a super-serious problem, if it is not already too late. In fact, as you continue to read, you will soon realize that this post is more significant in its new approach to this never-ending controversy than the rest of my writings. If anyone has more information on this subject, please respond by clicking on the “comment” icon.
Most people who believe in creation believe verbatim in the creation story from the Book of Genesis: God created everything from scratch in seven, 24-hour days. Something to remember: God was in no hurry in His creation, because He lives in eternity and time does not exist in His realm. Since Moses is the author of that book, he supposedly wrote as God dictated the events of creation to him. That was the best, if not the only, way God could explain the genesis story because of the limited, amount of scientific knowledge the Israelites had. (In fact, all people had limited knowledge at that time—imagine the knowledge 4,000 years ago in comparison to all the know-how we have acquired in recent times.) Because of the first four chapters of the Book of Genesis and the seven-day creation story, many people have alienated themselves completely from God and religion; I can understand why. This should not be. We now have empirical, geological, and scientific evidence that our planet is at least 4.5 billion earth-years old. Therefore, all a person has to do is stretch that seven-day creation period into 4.5 billion years and the contradiction/conflict will be solved. And since God does not live in time, it doesn’t make a bit of difference to Him. Does that explanation make me a heretic? I don’t think so. Once we put that modern-day updated rendition into our thinking, we can still call ourselves creationists; and when we are challenged by an atheist or others, we have a much easier way of explaining those events in modern terms.
Then another question arises: Did God create Adam in a single day, or was he the product of Darwinian evolution and/or God-guided evolution? The answer is clear: God mentioned Adam as the first in line of a people who would represent Him. God still created Adam, but it took a lot longer than 24 hours. Once a person believes the above, which is synonymous with science, he/she can easily still believe the rest of the Bible, especially the New Testament. Here is a valid reason to believe that Adam was not the only person on earth when God introduced him in Genesis: Genesis 4:13-17, “But Cain said to the Lord, ‘My punishment is more than I can bear . . . I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.’ But the Lord said to him, ‘Not so; if anyone kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance seven times over.’ Then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. ” Verse 17. “Cain lay with his wife . . .” I ask this question: Who were these other people, and where did they come from? This fact alone makes me believe that there were other humans on earth when God introduced Adam to us. Therefore, we can still believe in creation while believing all of the above.
Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution concerning natural selection is accurate except for a few fine points. Evolutionists are in error when they try to connect the origin of the first living organism with Darwin’s process of natural selection. I will unequivocally state that this is impossible. The reason is that natural selection preserves mutations/changes that have a functional advantage and most often rejects those that don’t. And the DNA double-helix molecule is a chemical language that consists of information and instructions for reproduction and repair of the organism. Therefore, the snag for skeptics who are thinking people is this: They know that information does not create itself, and cannot figure out where or how the information got there, especially through natural selection. In fact, that original DNA molecule in the first organism was so complex that to decode it would have taken many pages to translate its chemical language into coherent words. Yet, some still believe that the first living organism came into existence by pure chance without DNA instructions/information, through a process known as chemical evolution. In chemical evolution, amino acids, chemicals, etc. arrange and rearrange themselves until life is somehow created again out of non-living material. Nevertheless, the vast majority of the scientific community has rejected that theory because amino acids do not have the ability to order themselves into the necessary sequences to form proteins (the most basic element in all life). The one thing that is needed for the production of information is a mind/intelligence. That is where “Intelligent Design” comes into play, without taking anything away from God’s or Darwin’s evolution process. When creation, evolution, and intelligent design are coalesced, we can for the first time see the big picture. Remove any of the three from this merger and there is controversy, confusion and division. And of course, that intelligence, as Christians believe, is a supernatural intelligent being which we call God Almighty. How in the world can the three vastly different theories ever unite into one coherent entity? I will discuss my answer in the last paragraph.
Another error in the thinking of skeptics is this embarrassing riddle: Where did the first physical material come from that caused the Big Bang or whatever way God created the limitless universe? I have mentioned this question several times in my blog to display to atheists that at this point, the laws of physics break down. And at that point of breakdown, the mystery of the first appearance of matter transcends the scope of understanding for schools of physics, astronomy and all other sciences. It is at this point in time that the metaphysical makes its appearance. And if one believes in a theory that has a big break in it, without question, they are taking part in an embarrassing error. I don’t know if the above information will change the minds of any atheists and cause them to become Christians, but for certain it will give them something to think about. That thinking also applies for Christians who believe the first four chapters of the Old Testament in a verbatim manner. An open mind is an absolute necessity when attempting to understand our complex, multi-faceted God without inserting heresy, whose only purpose is to separate people from God. It is extremely important to apply logic in an easy-to-understand manner. I hope I am doing just that. If I confused anyone, please let me know and I will certainly be more descriptive. I believe the main reason skeptics don’t want to believe in “Intelligent Design” is because they think we want them to believe in our God. Although that may be true, let us approach this in another way. We can’t force them to believe in God, but we can give them relief from their embarrassment by allowing them to admit that there must have been some meta-physical, intelligent force beyond the physical, and leave it there. That, at least, could be a step in the right direction.
This is the hypothesis for a win-win situation: 1) Genuine Christians can still believe in the Bible, and at the same time believe in God-guided evolution, thus making partial peace with skeptics. 2) Atheists can somehow believe in the “Intelligent Design” theory without being coerced by Christians into having to worship our Almighty God. They can acknowledge the existence of an intelligent, metaphysical force or energy (or whatever they choose to call it) that designed the DNA molecule in the first living organism, and the maker of the first physical material that started the Big Bang theory. Just because of their partial concession for accepting the metaphysical as part of their evolutionary agenda, they just don’t want to hear the words “faith,” “religion” or “theology,” or to seem weak in their scientific upbringing. 3) Those who promote “Intelligent Design” will be placated without having to become Christians; they’ll know there is an invisible force that the Christian community and evolutionists partially agree on.
This is an extremely difficult subject to cover with all the ifs, ands and buts. We certainly need more complete explanations. Then it still may never fly. But it never hurts to try. And that is exactly what I am attempting to do. I ask everyone to carefully analyze all the aforementioned to see if there are any holes (errors) in, or additions to, my hypotheses. If there are, let me know by clicking on the “comment” icon, and I will make the needed corrections. Once this post has been critiqued over and over, I will present it to the readers to spread the word for a final though partial solution to the continued controversy over what to teach and not to teach in public schools and elsewhere.
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