Evolution – Proof of God

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The great debate pitting evolution against creationism has existed for generations. Perhaps longer. The two camps routinely face off, hurling their latest findings at each other like a game of intellectual volleyball. If we step back from the conflict, we might find that the reality is, in fact, a merging of both positions.

If we are truly going to apply logic to our pursuit of the truth of Christianity, we must face the reality that there are some discrepancies in the Bible. This does not mean we dismiss the concept that the Bible was inspired by God, rather it is an acknowledgement that these texts were recorded by human beings, using the language and knowledge available to them.

Perhaps the best example is the story of Cain and Abel. Following the murder of his brother, the Bible records that Cain is banished, and complains to God that anyone who finds him will kill him. A few verses later begins the story of Cain’s wife and children.

The immediate discrepancy is that Adam and Eve are portrayed as the very first human occupants of the world and their sons the first offspring. The question then becomes, “where did these other people come from who pose a threat to Cain in his exile?” Equally conflicting is the question of the origin of Cain’s wife.

The logical conclusion we must reach is that at least some of the Bible is symbolic. This does not diminish the ultimate message of the Bible as a whole. It merely means we must open our minds to possibilities that God has an enormous toolkit and may use whatever tool suits His purpose. He may, in fact, use a variety of tools to reach the variety of the human population over the centuries.

So, how does that help us embrace evolution?

We start by using this understanding to confront our own humanity and the handicaps we face in making our judgements. Most of us were educated in Bible lore as children. Without the ability to question what we were taught, we accepted these teachings as fact.

Then comes adulthood.

As adults, we have learned logic, we have learned science, and we have learned to question. What we may have failed to learn is how to merge Bible teachings with scientific theories. We probably also failed to grasp the intellectual capacity of the human mind as opposed to the mind of God. In doing so, we find ourselves putting human limits on God’s actions.

So, are evolution and creationism truly in conflict?

Perhaps the answer is staring us in the face.

The creation story is literally a mirror image of evolution. If we look at he sequence of events described in the book of Genesis, is sounds almost identical to the sequence of evolutionary events described in our science.

Once again we must ask “what are the odds that evolution is merely an accident of nature?”

Then we must ask ourselves – “Are we placing limits on God’s abilities, based on our human abilities?” What tools would God use to accomplish His goals?

Rather than being in conflict with creation, perhaps evolution is proof of God’s master plan. Perhaps evolution is simply the tool God used to plant the seeds that would ultimately produce the fruits of His labor.

 

 

 

 

Living the Dream

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There’s no doubt that some of our dreams can be a bit bizarre. We dream of places that don’t exist, people who have gone before us, and events or places we would like to see. We speak of dream vacations, dream lovers or dream jobs. In many cases, we see dreams as positive images of things we would like to have or accomplish.

But, there are other types of dreams. There are nightmares.

There are times when we literally force ourselves awake to escape the terrors and tragedies of those nocturnal images. We may awake with tears in our eyes, or we may elect to sleep with the light on after a troubling nightmare.

In our quest to apply logic to embracing faith, we might ask, “what do dreams accomplish, and how does that impact our belief system?”

There is no shortage of scientific studies on dreaming, and no shortage of dispute on the various interpretations.

Some believe that dreams are the brain’s way of rebooting at the end of the day – addressing unresolved issues to allow a new day to start with a clean slate. Dreams may also reveal hidden stresses, such as the common “falling” dream that may be triggered by anxiety over life’s circumstances that seem out of control.

Dreams may be the brain’s way of idling to stay “on-line” during a period of rest. The fact that most dreams are forgotten within moments of awakening would suggest that dreams may just be the brain’s “play-time,” and not necessary for conscious functioning and are quickly discarded.

Finally, there are multiple examples of dreams, both Biblical and mystical, seemingly being a channel to the spirit realm, giving counsel or prediction. In short, the dreaming period seems to briefly lift the veil of awareness between our normal waking state and the tenuous connection with the spirit realm.

When it comes to finding the connection between dreams and faith, we are faced with one, very logical question. If we revert back to the non-believers’ viewpoint that all of existence is the result of random chance events, we stumble when we are faced with the incredible improbability that dreams, and their refreshing effect, are just another accident of nature. We stumble even further when we try to tie accidental design with the occasional ability to access the spirit realm.

Once again, it is just another of the plethora of evidence that there must be intelligent design behind our existence, and that intelligence is what we call “God.”

And that is the starting point in building faith.

 

Lessons from 9/11- Voices From the Grave

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There were several such messages, but it was the first one I heard that shook me to the core.

The voice on the phone was chilling. It was a recording of a voicemail message left by one of the passengers on United Airlines Flight 93 on September 11, 2001. The message was a final “good-bye” from a passenger who fully expected to die.

That passenger did, in fact, die on that fateful day. And that is what made that brief and simple voicemail so hard to hear.

It was a voice from the grave. More importantly, it was an expression of love that rose above fear.

My wife and I had visited the other two sites involved in the attacks that took place 9/11/2001. They were sobering reminders of our national tragedy. But it was that voice that made it real.

The Memorial Museum in New York is mind-boggling. The scale of the site, the remnants of two huge buildings, brings home what television coverage cannot. Huge steel girders, warped by the intense heat, compressed wreckage that may or may not contain human remains, and a variety of debris were grim reminders of an unimaginable tragedy.

But it was those voices.

Washington, D.C. is, of course, a city of monuments, so it is perhaps fitting that the memorial site at the Pentagon is a subdued and artistic reminder of that community’s losses. Row upon row of memorial benches. each engraved with a name of one of the victims. Each bench suspended over a long narrow pool of water. It is a quiet, dignified display of memorials to those lost at this site.

But it was those voices.

The memorial in Pennsylvania recognizes the loss of United Airlines Flight 93, and it is the home of those haunting voices. There is little to see outside the walls of the museum. When that aircraft struck the ground at more than 500 miles per hour, the aircraft and all it contained was reduced to shrapnel. From the platform at the site, you can view the point of impact, but there is little to mark the spot. Nature has reclaimed the area and it looks like any other piece of farmland.

Perhaps what remains is a message of love.


 

Many lessons were learned as a result of the tragedies that day. There were harsh lessons of security failures, lessons of sacrifice, and lessons of compassion and courage. Ultimately, there were far too many lessons to count.

So, what has all this to do with faith, Christianity or a belief in God?

There is no denying the pain of those losses, and there is no denying the tragedy of the sacrifice of the first responders who were lost trying to save others. It is difficult to find any positive aspect of these events.

But perhaps there is one – one so faint that it is easily overshadowed by the overwhelming pain.

It was those voices and the love behind those messages. It was evidence of the power of love to conquer even the fear of death. Those voices belonged to people who were convinced they were about to die, and yet their most urgent concern was to reassure those they loved.

One of the most often quoted verses in the Bible is John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

For those of us who struggle with the concept of a love so powerful that it would allow such a sacrifice, perhaps we can learn from those voices.

It was, perhaps, the final and greatest lesson.

 

 

 

 

Sin Score

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There is no escaping the fact that the ultimate message of the Bible is that access to heaven after physical death is impossible for a sinful human without shedding the burden of that debt. Christianity is based on the concept that Jesus paid the debt for all humanity, provided that each of us acknowledges that sacrifice and embraces Jesus as He who took on that burden on our behalf.

Central to that belief is the admission that each of us has sinned throughout our lifetime.

It is human nature that we contemplate the definition of sin and exactly how deep in debt are we. If I have never committed murder or other such heinous crime, do I qualify for the fast lane to a heavenly reward? Does God keep a ledger record of our sinful acts? Is there a category of small sins and another category of major sins?

The Ten Commandments of the Old Testament is a pretty basic guide to avoiding sin, but still leaves a few questions in terms of the severity of our transgressions.

“Thou shalt not steal.” Okay, I get it, I shouldn’t steal my neighbor’s car, but what about that piece of candy I snatched from the bulk bin in the grocery store? Surely that can’t be comparable.

The problem we have with our method of judging sins is that we are handicapped by our humanness. We view our transgressions on a scale from “little white lie” to “murder and torture,” and we expect God to judge us on that scale. We trust that our good deeds and good intentions will somehow tilt the scale in our favor and cancel out our debt.

What we fail to grasp is the deeper definition of sin.

If we see a citizen of heaven as a pure, spiritual being, existing in perfect harmony with love – the basic foundation of a relationship with the Creator, then sin becomes anything that is in conflict with that status of the ideal citizen. Sin then, becomes any thought, word or deed that is not in keeping with God’s principle of love.

It is pretty basic and all-encompassing. It is also very logical.

Perhaps instead of worrying about the number and degree of our sins, we need to count our blessings and reflect on our sins. Perhaps that reflection will enable us to recognize the path to a better relationship with our Creator.

It might also help us understand forgiveness as a step toward strengthening that relationship.

“He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone…”

 

 

 

Cloudy Skies

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We are all guilty of it – grumbling about a rainy day. We are so self-absorbed with our own comfort and convenience that we fail to appreciate one of God’s greatest miracles. While it might spoil your picnic plans, those clouds, and the rain they bring, are a critical component of our environment.

On brighter days, when fluffy white clouds float across the sky and bring a pleasant accent to a beautiful sky, we are more likely to admire the beauty of nature. We may even appreciate the brief respite we get when a cloud temporarily blocks a scorching sun. Less obvious to the casual observer, night clouds keep us from getting too cool when the sun’s heat is absent.

It is probably safe to say that we seldom pause to reflect on the miracle those clouds represent.

Science gives clouds a variety of names or classifications, depending on their composition, height, water content and other factors. Weather forecasters study clouds to predict pending weather changes, and many of us do the same, although with less accuracy than the pros.

Comprised of water vapor or ice crystals, clouds may also contain dust or sea salt, and may transport other lightweight matter clear across the globe. Clouds may contain soot from forest fires or dust from a sand storm thousands of miles away.

But, the most important task of a cloud is the transport of water.

Clouds form as warm, moist air rises, either from bodies of water or evaporation from vegetation. That moisture condenses as the air cools, forming water droplets that hover in the air to form a cloud. When the water droplets combine and become too heavy, gravity causes them to fall as rain or snow. That rainfall then provides moisture for plant life and feeds the lakes and rivers that provide an environment for aquatic life.

It is a long, complex process, and science can explain virtually every step in that process.

What science cannot explain is how such a process came to be in the first place. It is an involved process that combines temperature ranges, gravity, sunlight, chemistry, air currents, and any number of known and unknown factors.

In short, it is an engineering feat that defies explanation. It is an engineering feat that is beyond human abilities or imagination. It is a combination of events and circumstances that defies the label of accidents of nature.

Perhaps it can only be explained as the work of the universe’s Chief Engineer.

 

 

 

Brain Power

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Think about it. That tiny little creature crawling across the wall in my kitchen has the mental capacity to move those little legs in perfect coordination. He has the ability to detect and locate food sources. He doesn’t quite understand it when I ask him to go elsewhere, but that’s another story.

If we attempt to use logic to dismiss the concept of a Creator who is responsible for all things, we are faced with two extremes that confound us – the incredibly vast expanse of our universe, and the equally incredible microscopic world that surrounds us. The visitor in my kitchen is approaching that microscopic world, but he is still much too large compared to the size of molecules of matter that comprize his body components.

While science delves deeper and deeper into the components of the atom, we are still faced with the reality that our ant’s small head can only hold so many molecules of brain material. Yet, somehow, that tiny cranium manages to contain enough power to provide all the functions that allow that creature to survive,  thrive, and interact with his fellow insects.

While we won’t expect our ant friend to develop any revolutionary scientific theories, create music, or write the great American ant novel, we have to admire the abilities it does demonstrate. While the more cynical among us may dismiss our ant’s abilities as “instinct,” we have to acknowledge that even instinct requires a degree of brainpower.

Like so many other examples of the miracles of nature, we have to concede that the possibility of this tiny miracle being just an accident of nature is a stretch.

In this digital age, we have become accustomed to enormous amounts of information being stored on or in small spaces. We watch a two-hour motion picture stored on a 4-inch plastic disc. Our cameras contain a small, square, plastic memory card that can store hundreds of high-definition photos. The phone that we carry contains a personal phone book, a calculator, more photos, and a host of applications.

We have become so acclimated to these miracles of modern science that we have lost sight of the fact that many years of research and development were required to achieve this standard. Today, the computer power that would have filled a room with equipment 75 years ago is surpassed by a device that you can hold in your hand.

Yet, our ant friend can function more efficiently than any computer program can duplicate, fueled only by the food he can consume and the instinct programming contained in that tiny cranium.

Faced with the enormous amount of time and effort required to develop the technology to store huge amounts of data in such microscopic file cabinets, can we believe that evolution, along with millions of years of random selection, could result in multiple cases of accidental development?

Considering how much more advanced humans are beyond our ant friend, a look in the mirror should answer the question – are you an accident of nature, or the result of creation by God?

The answer should be obvious.

 

Watching for Angels

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His name was Jim, and he spoke of his heartbreak. He spoke of his shock and the unending flood of tears he shed when he learned of his wife’s infidelity.

And he spoke of angels.

It was a chance meeting, and a chance conversation with a man who had lived the high life and lost it all. But it was at his lowest moment that he felt he was touched by an angel. In his deepest moment of anguish, when the tears were flowing unending, and he was praying for relief from his pain that he literally felt a touch on his shoulder – and the anguish drained away.

He believes it was his guardian angel. He also believes that his angel has interceded for him more than once. He believes each of us has a guardian angel.

In a world ruled by logic, there seems to be no place for angels, let alone an angel for each human being. That would seem to be an inconceivable number. Nearly eight billion. Common logic rejects such a number.

But, common logic forgets that the number of stars in our galaxy alone is estimated to be in excess of 100 billion. If that many stars reside in one galaxy, who is to say that a few billion angels cannot hover over as many humans at any point in time?

Once again, we are faced with the limitations we embrace, based on our own human experience. If an angel exists primarily in a spiritual realm, we cannot apply our customary dimensions of space and time to a type of existence beyond our senses. So, we are left with ur doubts.

If angels are truly emissaries from God, why don’t we sense their presence?

Perhaps our doubts and our logic blind us to the spiritual realm where angels reside. Perhaps we miss the signals because we are too busy doubting.

Most of us can recall moments in life when we seemed to be extraordinarily lucky. Perhaps we avoided a traffic accident because the light turned red. Perhaps we were in just the right place at the right time to reap unexpected rewards.

Were these moments the efforts of our personal guardian angel? Did we fail to recognize divine intervention because we didn’t believe enough?

If we believe in a God who created the universe, perhaps a few billion guardian angels isn’t too big a stretch. Perhaps those angels would be more obvious if learned to believe with more intensity.

If you need a little coaching to enhance your faith, well, just ask Jim.

He knows from personal experience.

 

Seeing is Believing

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In our struggle to embrace faith in God, we often overlook basic evidence of His existence and His hand in the creation of the world we inhabit. There is an expression – “seeing is believing.” In this case, it is what we don’t see that is proof of one of God’s miracle creations.

Every day, we gaze through windows in our home and drive our cars by watching our route through the windshield. And we give no thought to the fact that we can see through a solid substance – glass. We have become so accustomed to the properties of glass that we fail to recognize the miracle that glass represents.

For centuries, glass has allowed light to enter our homes while keeping inclement weather from causing us discomfort. In the lens of a telescope, glass has revealed detail of other planets and celestial bodies of our solar system. The lens of a microscope has allowed the discovery of the minute world that impacts our health.

Glass has found a place in cooking and eating utensils, building materials, mirrors, pictures on the wall, and coffee tables. Glass is everywhere. Glass is so common that we easily take it for granted.

We have learned to create and modify glass, but it is a natural part of our earthly environment. The intense heat of a volcano, for example, can create glass. The raw material for glass is the same sand that covers your favorite beach.

As we contemplate the idea that all we experience is the result of creation by God, we need to consider the alternative. What are the possibilities that humans would ever have conceived the idea that common sand could be converted into a transparent substance unless the example had not been provided by nature?

The idea that a solid substance could allow light to pass through is foreign to human experience.

It is just one more example of the collection of miracles that are the signature of the hand of a loving God.

 

God and Goldilocks

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In the children’s story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, the title character samples three dishes of porridge. She finds one to be too hot, one to be too cold, and finally, one to be just right. Interestingly, most of us have experience with this concept. It might be sipping a cup of coffee on the porch on a cool summer morning. Or, it might be sitting on a beach, watching the sunset on the horizon, or gazing out over a valley from a mountain peak. It is that rare moment when we find that life seems in perfect harmony.

Modern science has adopted this concept to describe the conditions that allow the earth to exist and support life. The placement of the earth in relationship to the sun is termed “the Goldilocks zone.”

The orbit of our planet around the sun is just right – neither too close nor too far. This allows water to exist in liquid form, an essential component of our environment. It allows the environment to be moderate enough to permit life to flourish. Even the tilt of the earth that creates the seasons is part of the equation.

But this is no frivolous fairy tale. It is, in fact, another example of the subtle proof that we owe our existence to that higher power we call God.

That set of circumstances our science calls “the Goldilocks Zone” is but a small part of the cosmic environment that permits us to exist. If we were to add in the orbital mechanics of our solar system, the celestial pattern of our Galaxie, the effects of the moon, the protective shield of our atmosphere, and the incalculable number of other factors, known and unknown, we would soon realize the circumstances of our world are too complex to be calculated, regardless of our computer power.

In short, it would require a super-intellect, and powers beyond our ability to comprehend. And to those who would doubt, we might challenge them to imagine the incalculable odds of all that exists being the result of random chance. Do a rough calculation, and then just keep adding zeros.

We’ll wait.

God’s Power Plan

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Flip a switch and the lights come on.

It’s such an everyday activity that we give it no thought. Power available at a touch, and we give little thought to the source. Somewhere is a generating plant. It might be nuclear, wind power, gas, coal, or water. The common element is that mankind has learned how to harness and convert these forms of energy into electricity.

Putting energy to work has been critical to the development of our civilization. It probably began with the discovery of fire. Then perhaps, water power. Eventually, mankind learned the secrets of the atom and the energy it holds. Along the way, we learned the hazards that accompany the use of energy, and we learned how to use it safely.

If we step back from our earthly view, we would recognize that, on a cosmic scale, these forms of energy are incredibly minor when compared to the immense powers that exist in the universe. If we were to view a lightning strike from space, it would seem to be only a flicker of static electricity. When we observe the destructive power of an atomic bomb, we are amazed that so much energy could exist in the heart of a few pounds of nuclear material.

It is almost as if energy sources have been tempered so that humans could benefit. Could a Creator have engineered energy sources to make them available in stages as mankind evolves? Each type of energy seems to be a step more complex than the last.

Once again, we are faced with the dilemma of our perspective. While we struggle to accept the idea that our universe and all that it contains is the work of a single Creator, we need to recognize that it is our lack of experience with existence on a cosmic scale that is our primary handicap.

Since we, as humans, cannot grasp certain concepts outside of our experience, we have trouble imagining those factors on a cosmic scale. Energy is one of those concepts, and we have just begun to understand and harness those forms of energy that we have discovered.

The truth about all forms of energy is compelling evidence of divine action.

Science tells us that virtually all matter is a combination of energy forces that comprise the structure of the atoms that make up that matter. The deeper we go into the structure of the atom, the smaller and more mysterious the components become. Ultimately, we must conclude that all matter is a form of energy.

When we consider the incalculable amount of mass in the universe, we can only wonder – what could be the fundamental source of so much energy?

When we have narrowed our search down to the most basic element of energy and matter, we are left with only one conclusion.  Perhaps the answer is simply – the will of God.