Wonders of Creation - Intelligent Design
Contributed by Richard Gunther, 9 Nov 05

Suppose someone built a car with everything as it should be, but instead of the usual tires, they filled the inner tubes with concrete, or left out the steering wheel. The car would still go, but it would not be very efficient. Just one change to one significant variable would spoil the performance of the whole machine.

In a similar way, if there was any significant alteration to any of the mechanisms which comprise our galaxy, or our solar system, or our planet, or our environment, or our own bodies, we would be either dead, or hovering on the brink of extinction. Let me explain, what I mean in layman’s terms.

The speed at which our galaxy turns is important. Any faster or slower and catastrophe would soon follow. The fact that our sun is a medium size and very stable is also important. Many stars emit huge solar flares, but ours doesn’t. We also whiz through a very empty, and therefore safe area of the galaxy.

Our Earth has a tilt of exactly the right angle. This ensures seasons, which bring warmth periodically to the surface, and also help the oceans circulate. The circulation of water is important for all life, as it carries oxygen and nutrients to all parts of the planet, and also mixes fresh with salt, and cold with warmer waters. The spin of the planet is just right too - any faster or slower and many disadvantageous things would happen. Earth also orbits the sun in a circle, rather than an ellipse - an ellipse would cause the planet to freeze and boil, but a circle is exactly the right shape to support life.

The moon orbits at just the right distance and speed from Earth to create tides. The tides cause water to break on shores, which oxygenates the water. Without the tides the oceans would die along with all life in them. If the moon were smaller, the tides would be too small, if it were larger the tides would devastate and erode the land. If the moon were closer it would be crushed by Earth’s gravity, if further away it would spiral off into space. The moon is also made of a very reflective mineral, which means that it gives light to the Earth at night (see Genesis 1:16).

The biosphere of Earth is a fully integrated system, including many subsystems. One simple subsystem is the fact that plants absorb carbon dioxide and give off oxygen, while animals absorb oxygen and give off carbon dioxide. The whole natural realm displays interdependence like this. Flowers need bees, bees need flowers. Symbiosis and mutualism are two terms that scientists have coined to express this mutual interdependence in nature.

Moving into chemistry we find more evidence of fine tuning. For example, Stephen Hawking (an evolutionist and theoretical physicist) has written that it is an interesting feature of protons that they are 1.836 times heavier than electrons, and that this ratio is essential to the formation of molecules that are the building blocks of all life. The precise ratio between protons and electrons is a fundamental number governing the universe. He said, "The remarkable fact is that the values of these numbers seem to have been finely adjusted to make possible the development of life."

Taken all together, the numbers stack up against any of these things being the result of random chance. The universe and life are best explained in terms of some Intelligent Designer. But who might this Designer be? The Bible says his name is Jesus.

Richard Gunther

What Genesis Refutes

The story of creation in the Bible contradicts the major philosophies of life as they are often given to us today. For example, the Bible begins by saying in the beginning, God existed, and contradicts the philosophy of atheism. Atheism means "no theism; no God." Atheism is the view that says, "I know beyond a shadow of a doubt there is no God. God does not exist. We are alone in the universe, floating around on a planet in outer space. We are all that there is. There is no God." The Bible, by contradiction to that, says, "In the beginning, God was there. God has always been there. God will always be there."

Secondly, the Bible also contradicts the idea of pantheism, the idea that all things are God. God is every­thing, and everything is God. The phi­losophy of pantheism says, "The trees are God, the flowers are God, the Earth is God, the sky is God, every­thing is God." The problem with that, logically, is, if God is everything, then in reality God is nothing! He is no thing that is unique and distinct from everything else If something is everything, it is ultimately nothing. That is, it is no thing in particular. But the Bible says that God is not part of the creation; God is the Creator, who uniquely, distinctly created the world, separate from Himself, by the power of His spoken word.

Thirdly, the Bible contradicts the phi­losophy of polythe­ism, which is found in so many primi­tive cultures. This is the idea that there are poly ­many - gods. There are gods for this and gods for that, and every­body has their own god to worship. The Bible, in con­tradiction to that, says there is only one God. The Lord God Himself, Elohim, spoke the world into existence, and did so instantaneously and dramatically. He is the only God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth.'

The Bible also contradicts the philosophy of materialism, the idea that matter is eternal. Some would try to argue that the world has always been here. Material things have always existed, so ultimately, all that God ever did is reshape what was already here.

Or some maintain that there is no God, and the material universe created and shaped itself. By contradiction to that, the Bible says there was a time when nothing was here except God. God spoke the world into existence, and it appeared instantly from nothing. Matter is not eternal. Matter, in fact, is aging, wearing out, and running down all the time.

The Bible also contradicts humanism, the philosophy that man is the measure of all things. Humanism is the concept that "I am the one around whom the world ought to revolve."

This philosophy teaches that human beings are the ultimate apex of the evolutionary process, against which all other things are to be measured. Another version of that is called naturalism. It teaches that nature is really the ruler of all things.

In the end, the weeds win. The jungle takes over. Nature conquers all.

From this comes the idea of evolution, that life has evolved from lower life forms. The Bible makes it clear that species can adapt over a period of time. But it never gives us the idea that mankind merely evolved as an accident of natural processes. Instead, the Bible emphasizes very strongly, very' powerfully, and very clearly that God Himself is the Creator of the universe. God brought life into existence.

One of the fundamental principles of science is that non-living things cannot produce living things. Dead things cannot produce living things. Two cannonballs cannot get together and have a beebee! Two chairs cannot get together and have a footstool. It is absolutely impossible. Non-living things cannot reproduce. It takes life to produce life. The message of the Bible is that God, who is life itself, created the world, and created you and me. Therefore, we are responsible and accountable to God.

We cannot simply say, "I'm going to live life by myself. I'm going to do my own thing. It doesn't matter how I live. Millions of years from now, it will not have made any difference at all. I'm just a 'blip' on the biological radar screen of life."

Instead, the Bible tells us that an infinite, personal God has created us, brought us into existence, so that we might have a relationship with Him. Our lives have meaning and purpose because we reflect the ulti­mate purpose of the God of creation Himself.

Dr. Edward Hindson, Assistant to the Chancellor, Liberty University

Purpose of Creation

Ultimately, the creation of God's world was accomplished immediately by the power of His spoken word. The world has meaning and significance because it is not here as an accident of chance. Rather, it was created by the direct intervention by a Divine Being, who is a personal and sovereign God. God is unique and distinct from His creation. God has uniquely existed from eternity, and He created the world from nothing, instantly, powerfully and dramatically, by the power of His spoken Word. Yet the God who created that world did so for a reason and a purpose. He was moving toward the apex of the creation: "And God said, Let us make man in our image..." (Genesis 1:26).

This verse contains a plural reference to God. It refers to the tri-unity of God Himself - Father, Son and Spirit. It is God the Father who plans and initiates the creation. It is the Spirit of God who moves over the planet. And the New .Testament tells us it is the Son of God, by whom all things are.. Created, and through whom all things "consist," or hold together (Colossians 1: 16-17). God the Father, the Son, and the Spirit were actively involved in the creation of the world.

So God created man in His own image and likeness. The Bible makes it very clear that you and I are not accidents of chance. We are not just here as a result of scientific processes. God may use those processes to shape and develop life as time goes on, but it is God who has initiated that creation as a unique and distinct action of His own. He has ultimately made you and me in His image and likeness.

The Beginning of Life

The Bible tells us that God instantly created life and the various life forms. Every day of creation is spoken of as a specific day. Genesis used the Hebrew word yom for the word "day," a word that always means a 24-hour period of time, especially when it is used with a number: day one, day two, day three and so on. In fact, in Exodus 20: 11, the Scripture specifically says God created the world in six days. That is why the Jews rested on Sabbath, the seventh day.

There are three things in the biblical account of creation that are evident from the very beginning. First of all, the creation is instantaneous; secondly, it has an appearance of age; and thirdly, species tend to develop after their kind, or after their type. In other words, the Bible begins with the assumption that God exists and that the God that exists is the God that created the world instantaneously.

God took nothing and instantaneously made something appear out of nowhere. All of a sudden, instantly, He made the world appear. God created that world from nothing by the power of His Own creative genius.

If God can make a planet appear out of nowhere, then it automatically looks older than it really is. If He can create Adam and Eve instantly, He can make them appear to be older than they are. Adam was not an infant crawling around on the ground. He was created as a full-grown man. He already looked like he was 20 or 30 years old when in reality he was brand new.

God's creation is an instantaneous creation that carries with it the appear­ance of being older than it really is. God can make something appear from nothing and give it an appearance of age. That means that when you and I look at the world in which we live, it already appears older than it actually is.

But that is not to say that there are not processes that take place on the planet. Rivers had to cut their way through canyons. Moving water shaped mountains and valleys. Moving ice did the same thing. In fact, when we consider the impact of the flood of Noah's day, we discover that much of what we see on the plan­et today was carved and cut by the flood. The Grand Canyon was not formed because the Colorado River just slowly trickled away in the bottom of the canyon. If you go there and look at it today, it is just laying there doing almost nothing. Instead, that was cut by a massive wall of water moving at one time during the great deluge. Natural Bridge in Virginia is another such example.

Creation
Dr. Edward Hindson, Assistant to the Chancellor, Liberty University

The Bible declares that God created the world instantaneously, by the power of His spoken Word. Yet the theory of evolution says that the world evolved over a period of billions of years. Every year, when America's young people go back to school, they are confronted with the challenge of evolution in the public schools. The tragedy for many of our Christian young people is that they end up confused.

On the one hand, they have been taught the biblical account that God created them in His own image and likeness. They are then told, "No, you're the product of an accident of chance. A series of evolving events over billions of years finally led to the development of the human race." It is no wonder they are confused .

When we open the pages of the Bible, we find in Genesis Chapter 1, the six days of creation are summarized. Then in Chapter 2, the six days of creation are scrutinized. In the first chapter of the Book of Genesis, notice that the Bible begins with two major facts. First of all, it begins with the fact of God Himself. "In the beginning God created..." (Genesis 1: 1).

Secondly, the fact of creation is presented. The Hebrew Bible begins with the word bereshith. It is the Hebrew word for beginning. Genesis is the Latin word for beginning. The Book of Genesis is the book of beginnings. It records the onset of time as we know it. For until God created a material universe that is time sensitive, there was, in essence, no time. God has always existed from eternity past and He always will exist into eternity future as well. In the beginning of time, the God who, was already there - Elohim, as He is called in the Hebrew text, created the Heavens and the Earth.

The Hebrew word "created" is the word barah. It means that God literally created the entire world. He initiated the creation distinct from Himself. He did not take preexisting matter, form it and shape it. He literally created the world from nothing. The Latin theological term for that is ex nihilo "from nothing." The Bible says God spoke the world into existence from nothing.