These are the two basic choices we have…self-assemblage by accident through the means of naturalistic materialism…or premeditated intelligent design through the special creative actions of a divine God.
Scientifically qualified or not…like many other people…I see large holes, inconsistencies, and contradictions in the macroevolutionary program that should disqualify it as a viable explanation for the origin and diversity of biological life.
As a Christian, I can concede to the Darwinists all of the scientific fact-based evidence regarding the material aspects of living organisms…because this evidence belongs to me every bit as much as to the person who accepts Darwinian macroevolution as the explanation for the diversity of life and the origin species.
The scientific fact-based evidence produced by research into the material aspects of the living and non-living world…are entirely neutral…are not conclusive for common descent or design…a topic for a later essay in this book on the delicate balance between belief and unbelief…a huge apologetic argument in favor of the existence and the brilliance of the God of the Bible.
What I cannot concede…as a Christian…to the Darwinists…that is an issue worth fighting for…is the philosophical extrapolation from the scientific fact-based evidence generated through the investigation of the material aspects of the living and non-living natural world…what can be observed, measured, quantified, categorized into groups, and formulated into natural laws…to artificially and unjustifiably extend as if by good logic…into the atheistic worldview of naturalistic materialism…the adopted mechanism and methodology of Darwinian macroevolution.
The facts that we discover through the scientific investigation of the phenomenon we observe in the natural world…does not overwhelmingly point to either common descent or to intelligent design.[1]
This ambiguity…after hundreds of years of modern science and the uncovering of the answers to myriads of questions into the mysteries of the natural world…in one of the top-level, fundamental questions underlying the source of the origin of this magnificent existence we see all around and inside us…requires some explanation as to why the outcome of this question is still in doubt.
From the atheistic perspective…why would the Creator God hold back some of the clear evidence for His existence…allowing space for the alternate view of a purely naturalistic explanation for the phenomenon of the natural world to operate…fully developed within the atheistic worldview of Darwinian macroevolution?
From the Christian perspective…why doesn’t God write across the sky in flaming, fiery red letters that He is the true God…and to worship only Him. Why didn’t Jesus a few days after His resurrection…walk down the middle of Main Street in Jerusalem and straight into the temple…showing Himself that He is the Son of God and the Messiah of Israel?
Why doesn’t God instantly create one new species on earth today…popping-up in the clear and unquestioned view of everyone…that would resolve the evolution/creation debate once and for all?
Why doesn’t the God of the Bible…translate the immeasurable and unquantifiable elements of faith and trust…central to all personal relationships of friendship and love…into the empirical certainty equal to the existence of the noonday sun or the fact that two-plus-two equals four…through a natural miraculous demonstration…changing faith and trust into the commonplace and unremarkable observation of an obvious fact?
The observation that after intensive research for hundreds of years into the workings of our natural world…that this yields no conclusive answer as to the question of its origin and source…is itself a window into the purpose and meaning of our existence.
Some scientists argue that belief in God limits scientific research. This is both accurate and inaccurate.
The orderliness and intelligibility of the natural world has enabled enormous progress into the deepest understanding of the living and non-living world.
The Creator God cannot be faulted on this score…in the openness of the natural world to scientific investigation…in our mental capacity to formulate programs of inquiry…and to be able to analyze the results.
But a materialistic approach will probably never unravel what life is…any more than musical theory will explain how Chopin artistically created his Opus 10 Number 3 Etude…or how Jane Austin thought-up her brilliant book Pride and Prejudice.
There seems to be within reality a definite demarcation-line between the material and the immaterial.
Should God prove His existence by telling us in the Bible how He created life…in terms of the physics, chemistry, and mathematics?
Might this rather be proprietary information that is best kept to Himself?
Using the material aspects of the natural world…human beings have already created the atomic bomb…that is capable of destroying all life on the planet.
In the critical area of biological life and the origin of species…the God of the Bible has limited His revelation of how He created life to the simple words of: “And God said.”
Why would God want to tell us more than this in the area of the biology of life…when today a tyrant like Hitler or Stalin could use this information to create the science-fictional, clone-soldier armies in books and movies…like Star Wars…to dominant the world?
The orderliness and intelligibility of the natural world has already enabled human beings to create weapons of mass-destruction that can wipe-out all life on the earth.
As previously argued…a complete knowledge of the material aspects of living organisms will only take us so far.
Scientific investigation will not answer the question as to whom or what is the source and origin of the universe. It will not answer the fundamental questions as to the purpose and meaning of human life.
[1] Stephen C. Meyer, “The Methodological Equivalence of Design & Descent”, 67-102, in The Creation Hypothesis: Scientific Evidence of an Intelligent Designer, J. P. Moreland, ed. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1994).
The Cross in the Christian Life 