I Am a Creationist

In 1st Peter chapter 2, we read about our position in Christ and our purpose to testify to His greatness:
9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.   We live in some interesting times, a challenging culture into which to share and live the gospel.  There are those that simply do not understand and perhaps do not even want to acknowledge the presence and the principles of God and His truth.   But, we can be emboldened in our witness for Christ, recognizing what He has done and continues to do in our lives.   We can be encouraged by the evidence of God as our Creator and recognize that science reveals design to us and that we can then point the way to the designer.   And, we can be effective by sharing and living the principles of God's Word, convinced that His way is best, His truth is absolute, and His Spirit is powerful in reaching hearts with the gospel.

In the midst of a culture that was seemingly intent on denying God and His relationship with humanity, the apostle Paul stood on Mars Hill and proclaimed truth.   Here is a portion of Acts 17:
24 God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. 25 Nor is He worshiped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. 26 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, 27 so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;  
3 headlines have piqued my interest recently on the topic of origins, and the stories are positive for those of us that don't believe that the earth and its inhabitants merely evolved from nothingness - there had to be a fixed point of origin, and there is overwhelming scientific evidence, I believe of design.

But, to say so in this culture, especially if you're high-profile, gets you some pushback.   Just ask Virginia Heffernan, a former New York Times writer who now writes for Yahoo!   She states:

...at heart, I am a creationist. There, I said it. At least you, dear readers, won’t now storm out of a restaurant like the last person I admitted that to. In New York City saying you’re a creationist is like confessing you think Ahmadinejad has a couple of good points. Maybe I’m the only creationist I know.

This is how I came to it. Like many people, I heard no end of Bible stories as a kid, but in the 1970s in New England they always came with the caveat that they were metaphors. So I read the metaphors of Genesis and Exodus and was amused and bugged and uplifted and moved by them. And then I guess I wanted to know the truth of how the world began, so I was handed the Big Bang. That wasn’t a metaphor, but it wasn’t fact either. It was something called a hypothesis. And it was only a sentence. I was amused and moved, but considerably less amused and moved by the character-free Big Bang story (“something exploded”) than by the twisted and picturesque misadventures of Eve and Adam and Cain and Abel and Abraham.

In the end, she says that, "I still read and read and listen and listen. And I have never found a more compelling story of our origins than the ones that involve God."

Well, criticism has been swift and quite strong. Jim Denison reports that someone has said that "Virginia Heffernan should no longer be taken seriously." According to him, "Well-educated people who are still creationists have lost the plot somewhere along the line." Denison writes that "I guess that counts for Raymond Bohlin (Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Texas), Cornelius Hunter (Ph.D. in biophysics from the University of Illinois) and Jonathan Wells (Ph.D. in religion from Yale, Ph.D. in molecular and cell biology from the University of California), among others."

Then, we have the ongoing saga from Ball State University.  After coming under fire because one of its professors used non-evolutionary theories in an honors class.   Even though he did not necessarily teach creationism, as has been alleged, he did present intelligent design, which is a big no-no in so many segments of academia.   However, Ball State has now hired another believer in intelligent design, Guillermo Gonzalez, who was denied tenure at Iowa State a few years back, allegedly because of his belief in intelligent design.  He was even featured in the Ben Stein movie, "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed". Gonzalez is an astrophysicist who has voiced his belief in a Divine Creator, and he helped craft a highly-successful book and accompanying film called The Privileged Planet, both of which received significant attention following their 2004 release.   And, not unexpectedly, the criticism has flowed toward this university just because it did not tow the party line and embrace evolution.

And, finally, Ray Comfort is blowing up the Internet again with his short film, "Evolution vs. God".  The film, according to ChristianNews.net, features interviews with several well-known evolutionist professors who struggle to provide observational evidence supporting evolutionary theory.

Ray says that, “As you will see on Evolution vs. God...not one of the experts could give me a whisper of evidence for Darwinian evolution. The movie is going to shatter the faith of the average believer in evolution, and strengthen the faith of every Christian.”   And, of course, he has received his share of criticism. But, the critics have actually helped spread the awareness of the film. Richard Dawkins mentioned Comfort’s project to over 750,000 followers on Twitter. PZ Myers—one of the evolutionist “experts” interviewed in Evolution vs. God—angrily called Comfort a “liar” and “a dishonest fool,” labeled the movie a “monstrosity” with “Jesusy nonsense,” and then posted the entire film on his blog.

Virginia Heffernan, Guillermo Gonzalez, Ray Comfort - they have all taken a bold, reasonable, and faith-filled stand.   And, when you consider that less than half the population believes in evolution, according to a Gallup poll last year, their opinions are not as out-of-the-mainstream as the vocal critics would have you believe.  In that same poll, 46% said that they believed in creation, about a third said they believed in evolution, but with God's guidance.   Only 15% - 15%!! - believed in godless evolution.   So, over 80% of the population embraces either creation or some sort of God-directed evolutionary process.

Just because you believe in a Creator doesn't make you hostile to science.  In fact, science can offer us some amazing discoveries that can reinforce our faith and provide evidence of the hand of God.   But, as we've found, the loudest voices are not necessarily the majority voices, but we proclaim our faith because it is true, not because it is popular.

We can be challenged to boldly stand for truth, even when we face criticism.  And, we can know that we are not alone.  I think of Elijah when he was on the verge of giving up and being reminded that there were 7000 who had not bowed to Baal.   In a culture where you have many who do not share our view of the world, we know we have solid and compelling evidence of God's existence, of His hand in creation, and His presence with us as we state our viewpoints in a winsome and reasoned way, grounded in Christ's principles.