Posts tagged Creation

Wading into the primordial slime…

October 7, 2011 · Filed under Things that Matter · Tagged , , , , , , ,

Image: M – Pics / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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look like anyone you know?

I’ve been thinking of re-naming my blog “EvolutionCareKids,” just for fun. I wonder how many people would check it out. Somehow it doesn’t have the same ring to it though. What’s the point of caring for anything that happens by pure chance? I might as well just wash my hands of it all and allow humanity’s stupidity to play itself out (survival of the fittest), regardless of the cost. If nothing has any transcendent value, then why bother saving anything?

In reality though (and ironically enough) it’s the evolutionists and atheists who seem to be more concerned about stewardship than creationists are. Some “followers of God” believe that “God wouldn’t have put all that coal in the ground if He didn’t want me to burn it!” which betrays an incredible lack of understanding of the God of the Bible. It’s no wonder that to many people, atheists and evolutionists appear enlightened while fundamentalists/creationists (it’s all the same to the casual observer) are dismissed as fools and simpletons.

So I’ve been asking myself: are the aforementioned simpletons the same ones (and only ones) who also believe in a six-day Creation? Quite frankly I have no interest in aligning myself with people who give so little thought to what they believe. Is there any scientific evidence that the Genesis account is more than just an allegory? It’s not that I don’t believe that God can do it; it’s just that I’m not sure He did.

Lately however, these questions have been answered not by the Bible, but by Science. The obvious side-effect has been that I look at the world and its wonders with new eyes: this didn’t happen by chance! The Earth sits precisely in its sweet spot not by accident, (which would be about as likely as every person on earth chosing the same pair of socks on any given day) but because God knew what He was doing when He hung it into the heavens at 149 million km away from the sun. A Giraffe doesn’t rupture blood vessels in its brain or retina every time it lowers it’s head to drink, not because of a chance mutation (which could have lengthened its neck but not simultaneously equipped the animal with the numerous fine-tuned mechanisms needed for that long neck to work) but because a Creator with a sense of humour wanted to make an animal that runs like an athletically challenged teenaged girl and lets its newborns drop 6 feet to the ground at birth (try surviving that as the first generation of an “accidentally tall mutated mother.” I would think that this new “tall gene” would have been selected out right then and there.)

According to creation, everything happened on purpose, and I have a small role to play in this epic story of humanity. Humans are not a speck on the continuum of the Earth’s long history; they have walked this earth as its highest creation (unbelievable in many cases, I know) from the beginning, and will do so until its spectacular end.

The scope of the arguments supporting biblical creation is far greater than can be covered in one blog post, but I will say this: contrary to what evolutionists claim, both beliefs of how the world began are precisely that – beliefs.Since nobody was there, the question of origins can only be settled by faith in the evidence that is presented. As we know from the sphere of politics, the same set of data can be interpreted in many different ways, and the same is true of the fossil record, the age of rocks, and every other clue about our planet’s origins.

Even though I am a Bible-believing Christian for years, I had never heard of any scientific evidence that would support the Bible’s account. The only “hard evidence” I’d ever heard regarding the beginnings of the earth came from evolutionary science. Without any alternative teaching I had no choice but to listen to what my teachers were telling me in school. After all, how can I as a non-scientist argue with someone who holds a PhD in radiometric dating, geology or paleontology? The answer is that I cannot, but there are people who can and do, at www.creation.com. If you have ever wondered whether there are actually any well-educated people on the other side of the debate, check out this site.

Ultimately here’s what it all boils down to: My children deserve to know the truth, and after hearing the evidence for biblical creation I am going to present them with it. I will no longer wonder where dinosaurs fit into the picture or whether Noah’s was a literal ark. The answers are there for parents to find, and I would encourage every parent – evolutionist or creationist – to inform themselves of the issues their kids will ask about. Our kids are wondering about this God they’re hearing about, and where everything came from, and its our job to get the facts.

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Mommy, Why Did God Create Mosquitos?

July 19, 2011 · Filed under It is What it Is · Tagged , , , , , ,

Yerba mate growing in the wild.

Image via Wikipedia

“Mommy, why did God create mosquitos?”

 Now there’s a question to give you pause. While we’re asking tough questions, I’d like to know why God created snakes or giant hogweed. (Aren’t snakes the ones that caused all the trouble in the first place?) My answer to the mosquito conundrum, after some initial head-scratching, was “honey, I don’t honestly know. Probably to be food for bats.” That’s a safe one. The food chain explains all sorts of natural evils.

Apparently things weren’t always like this, because if you believe the creation account, there didn’t seem to be any animosity between the snake and Eve. Let’s just say if that slimy creature had talked to me, I’d have clobbered it on the head first and asked questions later. That’s what I was taught as a child growing up in Paraguay, South America, a place where everything is either venomous, prickly, or both. When God banished Adam and Eve from the Garden at the dawn of time saying, “cursed is the ground because of you…both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you,”[1] He was talking about Paraguay.

In the past few days our family has been catching up with my sister who once again lives in that hot, arid place we used to call home. After three years of living there, she is now sharing her adult experiences which are far different from what I remember as a child. My childhood memories are almost magical, although I do have a few bad ones: whenever it rained, the mosquitos were sure to follow, and believe me when I say that my son’s experience of mosquitos absolutely pales in comparison to the epic proportions of the swarms that would descend upon anything with blood running through its veins. (Oddly enough, this experience has had the unexpected benefit of making those of us who lived there essentially immune to the effects of mosquito bites!). Then there was the relentless heat and drought, not to mention the wicked sand storms that pounded everything and everyone first from the north and then from the south by turns, blanketing kitchen counters, tables, and beds with the dust of the earth despite tightly shuttered windows.

 Otherwise I don’t remember it being too bad. I remember care-free days romping around our yard, climbing trees, killing a baby snake (talk about a sense of accomplishment!) celebrating New Years Eve outdoors by moonlight, Santa Claus in shorts throwing candy off the back of a tractor, and sitting in a Mandarin tree eating its ripe fruits.

 In sharp contrast to my childish rose-coloured glasses, my sister now sees things through the lens of a mother. She is now the one dealing with the masses of spiders under the porch rafters, cockroaches in the kitchen, scorpions in the children’s rooms, and small frogs and bugs in the clean laundry. She’s the one who now has to care for children who fall victim to West Nile virus, or any of the myriad other diseases and parasites that thrive there. For the first two years they lived there it hardly rained; it was so dry that even the weeds died.

On the other hand, she tells of seeing the Milky Way in all its glorious splendour in that cloudless southern sky, a spectacle made possible by the sparsely lit streets of the small towns and villages. Where she lives, people and animals share in a simpler existence that includes sleep in total darkness and early mornings spent sipping Yerba Mate tea while watching a day-old foal being nuzzled by its momma. The cacophony of birds, frogs and insects that join together in the dawn chorus is almost deafening.

And so it is that in the midst of the Curse there is Grace for those who open their eyes to see it.

“For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of

[1] Genesis3:17 – 18

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