Looking at the awesomeness of
Creation – how mindblowingly complex it is, how marvelously beautiful it is,
how gloriously big it is – and, by extension, all the incredible creations and
accomplishments that have come out of human imagination, creativity, intellect,
resolve, and talent, I am deeply perplexed that some people can dare conclude
that all of these “just happened.” To
me, with my daily encounters with reality and its wonders, it is very much
apparent that there is Someone Bigger beyond all of these. Yes, it is based on faith. But it’s not an irrational faith. In fact,
as a Christian, is it with Spirit-driven faith that I was able to think more rationally – to sincerely seek truth.
Pompous “enlightened people”
pretend to have all the answers. They
believe they are superior because they aren’t a “superstitious bunch” that
believe in a Supreme Being. But upon
meticulous scrutiny, you will see that they are hypocritical, that their
presuppositions are also based on faith – and a faith working on a foundation
something actually shakier than a faith in God at that!
For example, the strongest
“evidences” out there for the Theory of Evolution are almost solely limited to
“microevolution” – wherein an animal or plant develops an additional function
in response to particular stimuli. And
that doesn’t prove Evolution at all. An
illustration of microevolution is a fish developing a camouflage in order to
avoid predators; in that scenario, the fish’s nature as fish remains
intact. But a fish transforming into a
bird is the kind of dramatic change that Evolution is claiming as possible –
that’s “macroevolution” – and there are no empirical data to support such
absurdity. More so with Abiogenesis – wherein an
inanimate object is supposed to dramatically transform into a living thing. Macroevolution and Abiogenesis are ridiculous,
proof-less claims; without these two, the Theory of Evolution falls apart. And yet people will readily accept Evolution’s
infallibility! Most atheists I encounter
that believes in Evolution or the Big Bang or any other theory that denies God
creating life and the universe simply accepts these theories are true without
really thoroughly understanding them (or they pretend that they do). They embrace these as truths without any
struggle, without further reflection or discernment, just because a famous
scientist or philosopher said so. In
fact, if they choose to exert an effort in honestly examining these for
themselves, they might discover that these presented ideas don’t really have airtight,
empirical proofs. Hence, they might not
have faith in God, but the manner of how they strongly believe in the ideas of Evolution
or Big Bang or Sagan or Dawkins or Darwin – without genuine comprehension of
them and without finding definitive proofs to support them – is some kind of faith.
Science is a great, great
thing. But it is not God. Science should lead us to God. And if more scientists are more honest with themselves,
and not give in to peer pressure, and really apply objective thought, and get
rid of prejudices and double standards, they would definitely see God in the
wonders of the universe that they discover through Science.
When one truly fathomed the
awesomeness of life and the universe, one won’t really be comfortable of
accepting that all of these were brought about by random accidents. The existence of life and the universe – Creation
– is clearly a definite affirmation of the existence of God – the Creator (for,
in fact, Creation is the physical manifestation of God’s glory). The intrinsic beauty and complexity found in
every detail of Creation are something that I can never rationally accept as
things that “just happened.”
The Law of Cause-and-Effect
states that, for every effect, there should be an appropriate, reasonable cause
that made it so. And the only
“appropriate, reasonable” cause there is for an “effect” of such magnitude as
the universe is an infinite, intelligent God.
To think that the universe has been brought about by a “cause” lesser
than that is ridiculous.
If one denies an eternal Creator
has made the universe, one has to embrace the belief of either: a.) the
universe created itself; or b.) the universe originated from a finite cause – either
a finite catalyst or a creator, who himself has been created by something or
someone. Both options are obviously
absurd. The first option is
contradictory. How can something create
itself? For the universe to be capable
of creating itself, it should first have to be.
It would have to be before it was.
And that’s an impossibility. Even
God can’t create himself, because he wouldn’t be present to create himself in
the first place. God is – by essence and
definition – infinite, un-created, and exists before time came to be.
The second conclusion – that the
universe originated from a finite creator/catalyst – is very problematic
because, ultimately, it relies on the belief that an actual infinity of finite
things is possible. One would have to
wrestle with the problem: if the universe is created by an A, what is the B
that created A in the first place? How
was B created then? By a C? Then what created C? And so on.
Ad infinitum. And that is just plain nonsense. If one subscribes to such thought that an
infinite chain of finite causes is possible, one also has to subscribe to a
belief that time has been running eternally since an infinity of finite causes
would require infinite time to work on.
The problem however is that infinite yesterdays is unthinkable for it’s
an impossibility to cross through eternity.
You won’t be able to go through an infinite number of yesterdays to get
to today just as a negative infinity can’t “count down” towards zero. If it has been going on forever, it can’t
possibly get to today.
So for this universe to exist, it
should have been created by something eternal – something that existed before
time even existed – and is infinite in essence.
It’s the only possible solution.
Furthermore, this infinite something can’t be something without
awareness. It should be something –
someone – with intelligent consciousness – a supreme intelligent consciousness.
When I was still a kid who had
never even ridden in a plane yet, airplanes provoked awe in me. I was curious of its engineering (or whatever
term the concept of engineering represented in my mind then); my mind was
asking things like “How something heavy was made to fly?” I knew that the answers would be complicated
and I probably had to get a bit older to understand. However, I knew that this complex airplane
couldn’t possibly have “just happened”; its complex, purposed design required a
conscious, intelligent effort to be. Now,
life and the universe have much more complex engineering in it than an
airplane. It definitely couldn’t “just
happened”! Believing that is more
ridiculous than believing that an airplane can be made out of an exploding
junkyard.
Even if, let’s say, experiments
using the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland supposedly proved the Big Bang
Theory or how matter exploded out of energy, it doesn’t necessarily is a point
against Creationism and a point for Anti-Creationism theories. What was done to simulate the supposedly
beginning of the universe hasn’t been something random, undirected, or
unsupervised. There were scientists who
had consciously worked, assembled,
and directed the factors to bring the creation of matter about. It didn’t really happen chaotically. There was a conscious, intelligent effort behind
it. It’s not the same thing as what
atheists believe in – that the universe just “exploded” into being without
conscious guidance.
The universe exists because an
infinite and intelligent and living God created it. It’s the only logical conclusion. The Apostle Paul revealed in the first
chapter of Romans that men have no excuse in denying the existence of God
because the universe clearly manifests His being and glory. The existence of the universe should be a
sufficient – no, overwhelming – objective proof for the affirmation of God’s
existence.
But why are there atheists? Why aren’t everyone compelled to believe in
God if the universe compellingly proves his existence? Well, it’s because humans are sinners, and
our sinful and depraved nature won’t allow us to be persuaded by the
overwhelming proof. We are blinded (or
prefer to be blinded). The truth never
really mattered to us. We prefer to deny
the existence of the Creator since we don’t want to acknowledge our
accountability to our Creator.
But through the transforming
power of the Holy Spirit, the stubbornness and pride brought by our depraved
nature will be shattered. We will be
able to humbly embrace truth and instruction.
And it is only by this time that our reasoning won’t be hindered when we
argue or encounter arguments for truth.
When proof of the existence of God is brought forth by the universe, we
can now allow ourselves to be persuaded.
From the point where we can wholeheartedly acknowledge God’s existence,
then we can proceed to the next step of wholeheartedly acknowledging His
lordship over us, and decide to live – to exist – solely for declaring His
glory – just as what He has always intended for His Creation to be.
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