Wednesday, April 14, 2004

Evolutionary faith: All we know came from nothing

I read Peter Duran’s letter regarding the notion of design and order in the universe without a Creator and noted his illustrations of how finite men used finite modern computers to determine the finite number of steps to reach the complexity of the human eye. Somehow this computer model is supposed to validate Darwinian theory.

I can use my computer to morph a cat into a dog, but it proves nothing. A computer being guided by intelligent minds to show how something is created without a Creator seems ironic.

Then Mr. Duran goes on to give other examples of how order is merely perceived by our finite minds in our finite world, because everything in our world can be calculated in finite numbers, no matter how mind-numbingly immense the numbers may be. And deep down in those numbers, there is an intrinsic order. But perhaps we perceive order in the universe because it was created orderly.

Somehow, with our finite minds we are supposed to understand all these numbers and theories created by men to mean there is no Infinite Creator. If we can draw a closed circle around what we know from the known world, how can it be said that we “know” there is no God?

The birds and the bees don’t seem “dumb” at all when you understand they are creatures created with the instinct to fly in certain patterns and build elaborate houses.

We run into big trouble when we attempt to construct theories to rationalize our desire for there not to be a God. We bristle at the thought that we might ultimately be responsible to the One that created everything.

But if there is no Creator, then there is no purpose for the universe or for us. No purpose in being kind to others, obeying the law, writing letters to the paper, or living another day.

Is creation possible without a Creator? I’d say that the answer is emphatically, “No.” This newspaper EXISTS. Either this newspaper created itself, has always existed or was created (made). Nothing can create itself because that thing would have to pre-exist to create its own existence.

This newspaper didn’t always exist. For one thing, it’s dated. We can determine how old it is. Something or someone made this newspaper.

We exist in a universe that has age, although we may differ as to what that age is. We can tell it didn’t always exist. Our orderly and designed universe had to be created by someone or something.

In the same way that we need faith to believe in God, it also takes faith to say, “There is no Creator.” Our minds cannot see or perceive what is behind the curtain of the universe. Stringing miles of numbers together cannot prove or disprove a Creator beyond space, time and matter. We all have the same evidence in front of us. Atheistic Evolutionism takes the evidence and says nothing made this. It just happened, a cosmic accident.

Have you ever watched a sunset and then swelled with emotion? When we take time to enjoy and delight in the beauty of this world we are left with a sense of wonder and maybe even thankfulness. We are created with this disposition to turn us toward the Creator. When we deny the Creator, we deny the evidence within and without.

Van Edwards

Fayetteville, Ga.