Of course, none of us would be dumb enough to let ourselves get struck by lightning or to actually take a swim in some radioactive waste in the hopes of getting superpowers, because there really isn’t any scientific formula that you can follow to be a superhero like in the movies. There is no actual evidence that something like that could actually happen!
This week, we looked at OUR origin story. The origin story of our planet. Where did we come from? How did our planet come to exist? Are all of the plants, animals, and people alive because of some weird cosmic accident… or were they CREATED?
In nearly every text book, class, or scientific article, we’re never told that we were CREATED… we’re never even given that as an option. All of those sources usually tell us that we are a result of some weird cosmic accident that happened billions of years ago, and over the process of time, that accident somehow produced LIFE that evolved into living creatures. But here’s the problem- no textbook or scientist can explain where LIFE came from or how it came to exist out of nothing! It’s a big question mark in the scientific community.
Recently, there was a science and technology report from CBCnews about how Canadian scientists believe (AND TAKE NOTE OF THAT WORD…BELIEVE) that life on Earth came about because they THINK that a few billion years ago a meteorite that carried a molecule that contained some of the building blocks of life splashed down into a pond of water…and that SOMEHOW, life began. Of course, where those life-infused molecules came from is another huge unanswerable question for our scientific friends.
This is humanity's best guess at our origin story. This is what is being taught in schools and presented on the news as if it’s 100% true. But personally, I think it’s as crazy as saying you’ll get superpowers if you stand on the roof with a metal pole in a lightning storm.
Now, the reason why scientists, our textbook writers, and the people on the news choose to believe that life came about because of a big bang or a rock falling into some water, as far-fetched as those things might seem, is because they start off with the assumption that there is no God. If you don’t believe that God exists and you don’t believe that God created life, then I guess you don’t have any better option than to say that we’re a result of some weird cosmic accident. I mean, what other option is there? That aliens did it? If aliens did it, where did the aliens come from? When scientists try to explain life without factoring God into it, they’re left with a lot of big question marks. And sadly, you’ll read in your textbooks that the weird cosmic accident is the TRUE origin story. Scientists say that this is the TRUTH to our existence, even though their version of the truth, in my opinion, takes a whole lot more faith than it does for someone who believes in God.
WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT OUR ORIGIN STORY?
The Bible says that we’re not a result of a random space rock landing in some water but that we were CREATED—that we have an intelligent designer! John 1:3 says, “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made”.
The Bible says here that EVERYTHING we see or use originally came from something that God created! This verse tells us that God is the only way for us to adequately explain the complexity of life and nature. For example, if you were to walk in the woods and happened across a chair—would you assume that it just grew out of the ground or would you assume that someone created it? By looking at it, you would see that it was sanded or painted, that pieces of wood were cut, that metal or plastic was melted down and poured into a mould—that someone shaped the materials and put it all together. A chair, in comparison to humanity or what we see in nature, isn't really that complex. Just look at an apple tree. It grows apples, and if you plant an apple, it’ll grow another tree. And the fruit is DELICIOUS to eat! Look at our bodies—our eyes compete with some of the best cameras that technology can build! When we cut ourselves, our body has the ability to heal itself! Look at our minds—we can create and invent all kinds of amazing things, from a tablet to an amazing piece of artwork! Nature, our bodies and our minds are far more intricate and complex than a chair—and we say it’s OBVIOUS that someone made the chair, but it’s not OBVIOUS that someone created life?
Our textbooks always say that the first spark of life came from nothing. That a big bang happened (and there’s no answer to who might have caused that big bang), and somehow a spark of life occurred and it started as a plankton and it took billions of years for that plankton to slowly improve and eventually become a human being. Our textbooks say that the answer is in the "billions of years"—that somehow, when you add a long period of time to the equation- ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE! But, that doesn’t make sense.
To use another illustration. I’m a fan of LEGO—I actually have a big collection of Star Wars Microfighters in my office. A LEGO set isn’t very complex. You can have a box with around a hundred pieces that contains ALL of the parts inside to build that exact model. If I shook that box for billions of years, do you think at the end, a fully built LEGO set would be inside the box? No. If anything, the pieces would wear down and degrade over time! But, that’s what our textbooks are trying to pass off on us as truth—that the building blocks of life (and remember, they can’t explain how those building blocks of life came to exist in the first place) somehow became something as complex and intricate as a human body over billions of years WITHOUT SOMEONE ACTUALLY CREATING IT! Our bodies and minds are WAY more complex than a few pieces of shaped plastic! To say that we evolved over a process of billions of years with no intelligent designer or creator is a HUGE stretch of logic! It’s like saying that a simple LEGO model built itself! It’s like saying that a simple cake or casserole came about because all of the right ingredients (with the exact amounts of ingredients) happened to be in a pot, and they happened to cook at the right temperature, and someone happened to take it out of the oven at the right time.
Let’s take a look at a few other things the Bible has to say about our ORIGIN STORY.
Job 12:7-11- “But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this? In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind”.
Again, this is saying that by scientifically examining animals, the earth, plant life and all of the things we find in nature, the intricacy of those things lets us know that they didn’t all appear out of nothing by complete accident—but that “the hand of the LORD has done this. In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.”
Psalm 19:1-4 says, “The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard. Yet their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world”.
Here, the Bible isn’t saying that nature LITERALLY talks to us—but that everything in nature, is in a sense, SCREAMING out that it was created by a “craftsman”- by an intelligent designer!
Romans 1:20 says, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse”.
This is saying that when we take a walk outside, when we see the birth of a child who grows up to think and create and have a unique personality, when we see animals around us—these things all SCREAM OUT THAT THEY WERE CREATED! All of this complexity doesn’t exist because of random chance.
Here are some amazing facts about our planet- all taken from scientific studies. It's important to note that in ALL OF THESE CASES, these scientific studies say that these things are all a result of random chance.
AMAZING FACT #1- THE POSITION OF THE EARTH
There's a reason we've found life on Earth and nowhere else. Our world orbits the sun at just the right distance — it’s not too hot, it’s not too cold. If the earth was just a fraction closer or farther away from the sun, we would all freeze or burn up!
AMAZING FACT #2- THE EARTH’S ROTATION
The earth's rotation brings the sun up each morning and, thankfully, puts it back down. If it weren't for this, one side of the world would be unbearably scorched and the other would be so cold and dark, it couldn’t sustain life. The only place where people could survive would be right at the border between constant sunlight and constant darkness.
AMAZING FACT #3- GRAVITY
Science can’t really explain where gravity comes from, but it’s something we experience every single day. To put it in simple terms, gravity provides a certain degree of weight to things. Gravity holds us perfectly to the earth. With less gravity, we would float away like a balloon or an astronaut floating off into space. With more gravity, all life would be crushed under the weight of this force.
AMAZING FACT #4- MAGNETIC FIELD
The Earth has this magnetic field that gives us our atmosphere. Without our atmosphere—the gasses in the air- nothing would survive. The magnetic field also protects us from the radiation of the sun.
AMAZING FACT #5- WATER
70% of our world is covered by water. About 60% of an adult’s body is composed of water. Without water, no life would exist. Nothing would grow. And water is something VERY unique to our planet. So far, it hasn’t been found anywhere else.
AMAZING FACT #6- VEGETATION
When you look out your window and see the colour green, It is nature's sign that sunlight, carbon dioxide and water are being converted into plant food by photosynthesis. Those plants give off oxygen so we can breathe, they provide us food! If trees didn't exist, we would have more carbon dioxide than oxygen and we wouldn’t be able to breathe!
Just these few amazing facts tell us that this world is perfectly suited for us. If just one of those things were missing, life wouldn’t exist. If we were just a fraction farther or closer to the sun, life wouldn’t exist. The odds of all these things happening by accident are just impossible! But, because the scientific community starts with the assumption that there’s no God, they really can’t adequately explain how and why life exists beyond “an explosion happened, the building blocks of life came from “somewhere”, and happened to land in a place perfectly suited for life, AND those tiny living organisms (which again, can’t be explained) somehow changed to become incredibly complex living beings who can think, create, and reproduce".
Textbooks contain a lot of truth. Science is very helpful at discovering how a lot of things work. But if you're looking for answers about our ORIGIN STORY- those textbooks and scientific studies are asking us to believe something that takes a whole lot more faith than believing that life and our world exists because of an Intelligent Designer. The scientific community is biased. They start with the assumption that there is no God and then attempt to somehow explain the intricacy of biology and nature without the supernatural. This is why their best guesses are so far-fetched and illogical.
The Bible tells us that we have an Intelligent Designer. It tells us that a loving God created this world that is perfectly suited for us. It tells us that we're not here by accident, but that we're here on purpose. It tells us that all of the intricacy of our bodies, plants, animals, and our world didn’t come from nothing! All of that intricacy is God’s signature. An artist’s signature.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Have your teen take a look at a fruit or vegetable. Cut it open. Taste it. Ask them where they think it came from. How does it grow? (Look it up online). Ask them where the first seed came from? Do they think it's amazing? Discuss how this can't grow on any other planet- that our world is perfectly suited for this to grow and reproduce. Something this simple reminds us how amazing nature is and how perfectly suited this world is for us. To suggest that all of this happened by accident is pretty incredible.
2. Can your teen think of an example in a book, textbook, or class where it conflicts with what the Bible has to say about our origin story?
3. What stood out to your teen the most from Pastor Ben's talk at CATALYST? Was there something in particular that reminded them that God is our creator and that we're not all here by accident? What fact did they learn that might help them explain to a friend about how we have an Intelligent Designer?
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