And so it began.

In 1859, Charles Darwin’s book, “On the Origin of Species” was published, igniting a debate that continues to this day. The principle concept that caused the uproar was the idea that evolution by natural selection was the mechanism that determined the emergence of new life forms over long periods of time as newer generations changed and adapted to better survive the environment.

In other words – survival of the fittest.

While today’s science-oriented society is more open to the idea that mankind gradually came into being from the evolution of more primitive life forms, the culture of the era of Darwin’s publication more firmly embraced the Biblical description of creation.

And so it began.

More than 150 years later, our science has pretty much accepted the idea that evolution is reality. The study of fossil remains and other traces has established that the history of the earth and the life forms on it is much more complex than the Genisis description. In some instances, science has been able to identify the evolutionary history of a particular species, verifying the legitimacy of the theory of evolution.

Chances are that most of us alive today have been exposed to both the science and the Biblical versions of the story of our existence. Chances are, as well, that we gave little thought to the conflict as science gained the upper hand. We live in an era of astounding scientific development, an era when science seems capable of providing answers to our most perplexing questions about our existence.

But one very critical element is missing from the science catalog of answers.

Science would now have us believe that in the earliest days of our planet’s existence, some random mix of chemicals gave rise to the simplest form of life, and that life form evolved, over eons of time, into more complex life. Eventually, humans emerged from the mix.

That missing element is the spark of life, the final piece of the puzzle that turned that random mix of chemicals into a life form that feeds and reproduces and evolves.

Even if we accept that evolution might simply be God’s tool for developing life on earth, it is that leap from chemicals to consciousness that seems insurmountable. A single-cell organism that functions merely to survive long enough for survival of the fittest to push it into the next stage of the evolutionary ladder is a far cry from a self-aware being that is capable of discovering its own origins.

Perhaps that spark of life that transformed that chemical mix into a life form was merely the first of many sparks. Perhaps it required periodic jolts from a Creator to turn those first living cells into a being that can journey to the stars in search of its origin.

Perhaps it is that spark that reveals the identity and existence of the Creator.