I found myself in discussion a few days ago with an athiest. Someone that the very thought of a God creating all things in the way He did, was completely absurd. Although their beliefs are much different from my own... (by billions of years... and many different aspects) I was encouraged to look back at how I really came to have the view I do have. I am the product of the public school system where I was fed a steady diet of evolution. Not the term, but the facts. I was simultaneously raised in the church and learned that according to Genesis, God created all things. When I was young, I didn't really make the connection that the two refuted eachother. As time went on, I struggled on what I really believed. What made sense to me. I tried to look at both sides. Since no mention of creation was made in school and no explicit teaching in my church either established biblical creationism or refuted evolution, I was forced to somehow reconcile these contrary positions on my own. For most of my life that amounted to a kind of battle where, on the one hand, I was inclined to believe the Bible, but on the other hand, I saw that evolution had the backing of science. Scientists were supposed to be smart, right? How could that many people be wrong? Then again, I looked at Creation the same way... What I did know, is that that these two views were not, in fact, compatible.
In order to fully accept evolution, I would effectively be concluding that the God of the Bible was a myth. Evolution was unable to provide satisfactory answers to a number of my questions. For one thing, evolution did not have a good enough answer to how matter came into existence. The Big Bang, the idea that everything in the universe was the size of a dot on this page and then exploded to "create" everything in the known universe, always struck me as utterly ridiculous. The same reaction that this person I had the discussion with had about God. Unrealistic. It seemed far more plausible to me that God was involved in the creation of matter. I looked at nature... and I saw a creator. I remember thinking to myself... for every piece of artwork, there is a maker...and look at this beautiful place in which we live, and the uniqueness of every person here... how can you tell me that there isn't a creator of these masterpieces. But I must be honest, I equally could not reject science, for I felt that doing so would be throwing away what I thought to be established fact. It seemed growing up, I had the desire to follow God, to fully believe, but this theory of evolution as a young teen had the upper hand and I lived life accordingly as most of us have seemed to.
Later on, at the age of twenty-two, that all changed. I was loaned a book called for than a carpenter, among many others in the past. In the book, an intelligent man, who was formerly an evolutionist, compiled evidence commonly used to support evolution and placed it in the context of creation and the flood. He went out searching to prove Christianity wrong. However somewhere in the process, he did the opposite. He proved himself wrong. Basically, what he established is that the square peg (the evidence) fits this square hole being creation and the flood far better than it does this round hole of evolution. I did not have to read very far before I found myself agreeing with him. One discussion I remember having and contemplating was about the duck-billed platypus. Crazy, I know. I knew however from this discussion it could not have merely evolved. It is a creature that incorporates features found in mammals, birds, fish, and even reptiles. From which of these could it have evolved? And if from one, how could it have obtained traits from all the others? For me, Evolution could not ever provide an answer for the platypus.
The realization concerning the physical world and its origins had a sudden and profound spiritual impact on my life. Having the door now opened to understand things in creation meant that the door was also now open to the Bible as a whole, and to Jesus! I then became a born-again believer directly as a result of settling the creation-evolution debate in my mind combined with needing to turn to God in troubling times in my teenage years and early twenties. My morals and character had an immediate upgrade, and I have had a passion to study and live God's word ever since. Thanks can be given to many people I have talked to, people who have served as a good example, authors of books I chose to read, and keep reading, and mostly to God and to that strange little patchwork creature they call the platypus, a clear "creation" if ever I saw one.
I am convinced that many others are in the same predicament that I was in: rejecting God because of the belief that evolution was "scientific" and therefore true. Just as in my case, many people will not listen to anything said about God, Jesus, the Bible, etc., while in this state of mind. If Christians can get them to see the implausibility of evolution then they may be able to share the Gospel effectively with these people. I hope to stress the importance of confronting this issue and to equip others with the knowledge I now have. There's much more to learn, but I'm working at it. Evolution needs to be confronted, because it is preventing so many people from finding salvation.
"Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead;" (Romans 1:19-20)
Just thoughts going around in my mind
God Bless,
Tina
From a religious perspective, trusting in man means to rely upon humans as though they were the ultimate power. Trusting in God means to "trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men"
