CoffeeBreak With The Word

"Wonderfully made, I'm no accident"

In Dover, PA a school board is defending its decision to place four paragraphs in the High School Biology curriculum that presents students with an alternative view of the origins of life to Darwinian evolution. That view? Intelligent Design. ID is not the same as Biblical Creationism. The theory of ID is relatively new and there is no universally accepted definition of it, but generally proponents of ID state that living organisms are so complex that it can be logically argued that their existence is best explained by the fact that their development was guided by an intelligent force outside of themselves. Dr. Michael Behe, a Ph.D. biochemist from Lehigh University who is a leading voice in defense of ID, used the illustration of seeing the sphinx in Egypt or the stone heads on the Easter Islands and reasonably concluding that someone must have created them.

A materialistic view of the world, one that asserts that only what we can measure, touch, and observe is real, refuses to even consider that there could be a Being that is unknowable through scientific method. Materialists fear that the world will rush back to the Dark Ages where all puzzling and unexplained things were given a supernatural cause if the door of science is cracked open even a little by acknowledging the possibility that Intelligent Design theory could be true. Implicit in the theory of Intelligent Design is the belief in god - the small 'g' is deliberate since ID does not define the who or what of the designer. ID does not argue for the God of the Scripture. But, if taught in our schools, it has far-reaching implications for the way students view life. Dr. Behe knows this. He sees the debate as being driven not purely by scientific inquiry but also by political and sociological issues. Scientists who support Darwinian evolution as the explanation of origins know that it provides 'freedom' from the restraint on human choices and behaviors that come with any recognition of God's existence. Put simply- if there is a god who designed organisms and guided the emergence of life as we know it, then we human beings owe some level of accountability to that god.

I believe it is a terrible mistake to discard those facts that scientific method help us to discover, but it is an even worse mistake to discard God! Here in these United States, where churches dot the landscape and a large percentage of people (40-50%) regularly attend worship services, God is in a curious limbo. Acknowledged by most as being there, He is ignored by nearly as many as being irrelevant to daily life. Thus, we live as though He did not exist. We are functional atheists, bereft of the comfort and stability that is found in knowing the living God.

The simple sentence that opens the Scripture is profound! When we read and believe that "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." (Genesis 1:1, NLT) we discover a source of meaning for our lives, a purpose that goes beyond the propagation of our DNA or the satisfaction of our sensual desires.

The Psalmist sings of the joy that he found in believing that God was his Creator.
"For You formed my inward parts;
You covered me in my mother’s womb.
I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.
My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.
How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand;
When I awake, I am still with You. " (Psalm 139:13-18, NKJV)

You and I - we are not random accidents, the products of millions of years of unguided selection. We are the work of the Designer.
Does such a statement answer all of our questions? Of course not.

Are there mysteries unexplained even by the affirmation of the Creator in Scripture?
Most certainly.
But, the evidence, as I see it, convincing argues for the existence of an Intelligent Designer.
The Bible shows me His Identity.
Jesus Christ shows me His love.
And I am at rest in Him, living purposefully, hopefully, and joyfully for Him.