Download God and Creation Our subject is God and creation. For me, this is a

God and Creation
Our subject is God and creation. For me, this is a very exciting topic. After all; if it turns out that the evidence really does point to there being
an eternal God - that is a very exciting discovery. I love God and I love science. I believe science reveals to us something of the wonder of God.
When we learn science, we learn about his creation. The more we discover in science, the more we realise how great, wonderful and
awesomely intelligent He is. In the short time we have this morning; we can only scratch the surface. But I hope we can learn something
useful.
On this first slide we can see some of the most well-known words that have ever been written down: ‘In the beginning God created the
heavens and the earth.’ These are the very first words of the Bible. In the background we can see a nebula and some galaxies: some of the
things God made ‘in (or near) the beginning’ and, I hope you agree, their beauty is breath-taking. The Bible claims that the universe didn’t
happen by accident, or appear out of nothing; it was purposefully created by the God who has always existed. I want us to begin to look into
whether or not this can be true.
In this talk, I want to ask some questions: What does the Bible say? What does the evidence say? What does science say? What do scientists
say? What do I say? And finally: What do you say?
First: what does the Bible say?
Here is a verse from Psalm 19. It says ‘The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.’ This psalmist is telling
us that the heavens preach to us; they show us how marvellous God is. They also show us some of the marvellous things he created. I am sure
you know that the universe is huge. Even in our own galaxy (i.e. the cluster of stars that is nearest to us) there are about 2 billion stars. It
would take you over 74 years to count up to 2 billion if you counted at the rate of one a second and didn’t do anything else 24/7. But our
galaxy is only one of about 2 billion galaxies in the universe! So, it would take you about 150 billion years to count all the stars in the universe
and the Bible says God made them all! When the Bible describes God creating them, it uses only five words (in the English translation): ‘He
made the stars also.’ (Gen 1:16) Apart from the sun, the nearest star to us is called Proxima Centauri and light from that star takes 4 years and
3 months to reach us. But light travels 186,000 miles every second. That means in 4 years and 3 months, it will travel 25 million, million miles.
It’s difficult to imagine how far away that star is. But that’s only the nearest one of billions and billions.
The heavens declare the glory of God. But it’s not only the heavens.
This verse from Romans 1 says ‘For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been
clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.’ It is telling us that God has clearly shown he is
there in all his creation. If we study creation, and are honest, we have to come to the conclusion that there is an almighty, creator God.
Next, we are going to ask ‘what does the evidence say?’ We need to do a bit of detective work and we need to see where the evidence will
lead us. I believe we are going to discover that the universe has been very carefully designed so that biological life can exist on this earth (but
not anywhere else).
It is a fact that almost the whole of the universe is empty space. But of the bits that aren’t empty space, almost all of them (99.9%) consist of
flaming gases. These are the stars, and in the stars a nuclear reaction is going on as hydrogen turns into helium. As this happens, a huge
amount of energy is released.
The other 0.1% of the universe consists of frozen solids drifting in space (as planets, asteroids, comets, meteoroids and dust).
The liquid state in the universe is very, very rare. In fact, we don’t currently know of ANYWHERE in the universe where there is liquid water,
except …. EARTH.
And liquid water is vital for life. Life can’t exist without it.
The reason why liquid water is so rare is that a planet has to be exactly the right distance from a star for water to stay as a liquid. Water easily
turns to a gas if it gets too hot and easily turns to a solid if it gets too cold. It has to stay between 0 and 100 degrees centigrade to stay liquid.
So, the distance from the earth to the sun must be just right. A difference of only 2% and life would not be possible on earth.
Just a bit closer and all the water would turn to gas.
Just a bit further away and the water would all turn to ice.
To have life, you need the right gases in the atmosphere. But the amount of gravity and the temperature on the surface of a planet have to be
just right to keep a life sustaining atmosphere there.
The planet must rotate at the right speed: if it rotates too slowly the temperature differences between day and night would be too extreme.
But if it rotates too fast, wind speeds would be disastrous. What we are discovering is that the earth looks as if it has been very carefully
designed and put in the right place to sustain life. But there’s more.
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The earth’s magnetic field protects the earth’s atmosphere from solar winds. Solar wind consists of charged particles streaming from the sun
(mostly electrons and protons). When these particles pass by a planet they can rip off its atmosphere; that’s why some of the planets in our
solar system don’t have an atmosphere. But the earth’s magnetic field deflects the solar wind, so we keep our atmosphere.
I’ve no doubt that you’ve noticed that when we look into the sky, from our perspective, the sun and the moon look exactly the same size.
That’s why we sometimes experience solar eclipses. But sun and moon are vastly different sizes; the sun’s diameter is 400 times bigger than
the moon’s. But the sun is also 400 times further away from the earth than the moon; so, to us, they look the same size. That is an amazing
‘coincidence’.
Our solar system is between two arms of the spiral milky way (‘milky way’ is the name of the galaxy we live in), so we are not ‘drowned out’ by
starlight, so we have dark nights. That means we can enjoy the beauty of the night sky and are also able to explore the universe using our
telescopes. If our star (the sun) was closer to other stars (like most of the stars in our galaxy are), the light from these stars would shine very
brightly on us at night; so it would be as if it was daylight, or semi-daylight all the time.
There is much much, much more that we could look at. The fact is; the evidence shouts out loud and clear that the universe has been very
carefully designed and the earth has been placed very carefully in exactly the right place so that biological life can exist on it. The skies really
do show the work of God’s hands. We would never have been able to see the beautiful night sky.
What does science say?
Here is something a bit more technical, so now it’s time to really engage our brains:
The first two laws of thermodynamics are foundations of science and give indirect witness to the fact of creation.
The first law of thermodynamics tells us that the amount of energy in the universe has always been and always will be the same. Energy can
be changed from one sort to another, but it can’t ever be created or destroyed.
So, where did all this energy come from?
Two possible answers are given.
The first is that God made it in the beginning.
The second is that nothing made it (in the so-called big bang). Which would you think is more plausible? Is it more likely that an almighty,
eternal God made all the energy, or that nothing made it? Is it really possible for nothing to make anything?
There’s a Bible verse that says ‘by faith we understand …’ Is it more sensible to have faith in an intelligent, almighty, personal God, or to have
faith in nothing?
The 2nd law of thermodynamics says that the amount of useable energy in the universe is decreasing. Eventually there will be no useable
energy and the universe will suffer what is called ‘heat death’. (But that would take trillions and trillions of years.)
If you think about this carefully, you will realise that this must mean that the universe had a beginning because the amount of energy in the
universe has always been the same (the 1st law of thermodynamics taught us that) and the amount of energy is not infinite. So there must
have been a time when all the energy in the universe was useful and since there can be no such thing as more than all the energy in the
universe and, since useable energy is always running down, the universe can’t have existed before that time.
So, science tells us that the universe had a beginning and leads us to believe in a creator. The Bible says that God created the universe ‘in the
beginning’. Some scientists tell us that nothing created it in the beginning. Which is more likely?
What do scientists say?
First of all, let me say that it is a fact that from our point of view, the universe looks the same in all directions; as if we are at the centre of the
universe. Now, if we are at the centre of the universe, this is further evidence that God designed the universe for us to be there and He has
given us a very special place.
Stephen Hawking wrote in his famous book, ‘A Brief history of time’:
Now, at first sight all this evidence that the universe looks the same whichever direction we look in, might seem to suggest that there is
something special about our place in the universe. In particular, it might seem that, if we observe all other galaxies to be moving away from us,
then we must be at the centre of the universe. There is, however, an alternative explanation. The universe might look the same in any direction
as seen from any other galaxy too. This, as we have seen, was Friedman’s second assumption. We have no scientific evidence for or against
this assumption. We believe it only on grounds of modesty. It would be most remarkable if the universe looked the same in every direction
around us, but not around other points in the universe.
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He is saying that, although the evidence indicates that we are at the centre of the universe he (along with many other physicists) doesn’t
believe it. But it is not because of the evidence that he doesn’t believe; it is despite the evidence. He doesn’t believe it because he has already
decided that it is not possible. And he has decided that because he has chosen not to believe that God designed and created the universe. His
religious belief is causing him to deny clear scientific evidence. We find this again and again in the writings of scientists who choose to believe
in naturalism (which is the belief that everything has a natural cause; there are no supernatural happenings; so there is no such thing as God).
But not all scientists bury their heads in the sand like this. Here is another quote from two astronomers who can see that the ‘skies show the
work of’ God’s ‘hands.’
‘And yet as we stand gazing at the heavens beyond our little oasis, we gaze not into a meaningless abyss but into a wondrous arena
commensurate with our capacity for discovery. Perhaps we have been staring past a cosmic signal far more significant than any mere sequence
of numbers, a signal revealing a universe so skilfully crafted for life and discovery that it seems to whisper of an extra-terrestrial intelligence
immeasurably more vast, more ancient, and more magnificent than anything we’ve been willing to expect or imagine.’
And even scientists who don’t believe God exists can’t help seeing the design in creation, but then they refuse to believe it. Here’s Britain’s
most famous atheist, Richard Dawkins,
‘We live on a planet where we are surrounded by perhaps ten million species, each one of which independently displays a powerful illusion of
design.’ And again:
‘Who, before Darwin, could have guessed that something so apparently designed as a dragonfly’s wing or an eagle’s eye was really the end
product of a long sequence of non-random but purely natural causes?’
David Attenborough gives a reason why he can’t believe those who say to him, ‘can’t you see that the wonderful design in nature shows there
must be a designer?’ He says:
‘My response is that when Creationists talk about God creating every individual species as a separate act, they always instance hummingbirds,
or orchids, sunflowers and beautiful things. But I tend to think instead of a parasitic worm that is boring through the eye of a boy sitting on the
bank of a river in West Africa, [a worm] that's going to make him blind. And [I ask them], 'Are you telling me that the God you believe in, who
you also say is an all-merciful God, who cares for each one of us individually, are you saying that God created this worm that can live in no
other way than in an innocent child's eyeball? Because that doesn't seem to me to coincide with a God who's full of mercy.’
If he opened his mind and looked into the Bible he would find the answer to his dilemma:
The world we live in today is not the one God made. That world was perfect; God said it was ‘very good.’ It was without sin, suffering and
death. Sin, suffering and death entered because the 1st man disobeyed God, sin entered the world and it has affected negatively every aspect
of creation. There’s much more we could say about this, but time doesn’t allow.
It seems to me that
the Big Bang, long ages and evolution are all attempts by man to understand the universe based on a materialistic/naturalistic worldview.
Their starting point is to assume that there has never been any supernatural intervention (i.e. that there is no God).
But the evidence points in a different direction. It says that the earth appears to be at or near the centre of the universe – it looks as if it has
been given a very special place in the universe. And, the evidence says all living things appear to be designed.
What do I believe; what do I say and why?
There isn’t time to talk about this in detail this morning, so let me just state a few things:
I believe that God created the universe out of nothing and in 6 days fashioned everything in it – all the wonders that we see today. I believe
this because the Bible clearly states this; the Bible is God’s word. But also the ‘scientific’ evidence supports this view better than a Big
Bang/evolutionary view.
I believe that Creation happened a few thousand years ago (not millions or billions of years ago). I believe this because the time of creation
can be worked out from Bible genealogies and there is much more evidence for a young earth than an old earth.
I believe when God created living things, he created different kinds. All living things reproduce within their kind. This means one kind never
turns into another kind (this is sometimes called macro-evolution), but there can be tremendous variation within a kind (this is sometimes
called micro-evolution). So for example, there are different types of dogs; different types of cats etc.
I believe this because the Bible clearly teaches it, everything we know about genetics teaches it and the fossil record reveals it.
As I said at the beginning, we have only just scratched the surface. But I hope you are inspired to discover and know the truth. We live in a
culture where it has almost become a sin to believe that God created. In state schools and most private schools only one side of the
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‘argument’ is ever presented. Pupils are not encouraged to question the validity of evolution. Our media almost exclusively presents an
atheistic, evolutionary point of view. But what I have been saying is that I believe the evidence shows that evolution is simply not true. We
have been misinformed. We have allowed our children to be duped.
There are many resources available now which can help you research this subject at all sorts of levels; from the layman’s level to the technical
level. If you don’t know where to look, I suggest you start with the websites: Answers in Genesis and Creation Ministries International.
Finally, let me say, I believe it turns out that the Bible is completely correct after all. Of course, if the Bible really is the word of God, as it
claims to be, and God is all knowing and does not lie, that is what we would expect, isn’t it. What a wonderful discovery this is!
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