Discerning the Origin of Life

Ecclesiastes 8:17: "Then I saw all that God has done. No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun. Despite all his efforts to search it out, man cannot discover its meaning. Even if a wise man claims he knows, he cannot really comprehend it."

As one gazes upon the world around him, he cannot help but be overwhelmed with its beauty and its order. One only need to stand at the edge of a tall mountain and look at the world below him or sit on the beach and watch the waves crashing on the shore to see that this world is a magnificent sight.

Recently, I had the opportunity of watching Ben Stein's movie, Expelled. It saddened me to see scientific minds adamantly concluding that the universe was the chance assimilation of proteins to form life. These "intellectuals" had rather far-fetched notions of the origins of life; some even concluded that crystals or aliens might have been the catalyst for life to begin. The Darwinists in the documentary seemed to be so adamant that they had figured out how life began; yet, their theories were disturbingly inconclusive. Although these minds were rather hostile to the thought of "intelligent design," their flawed opinions left much to be desired.

We find in the passage quoted above that man is not able to comprehend fully the work of God in this world. To be sure, God has revealed His "eternal power and divine nature" through His creation so that no one can say, "there is no God" (see Romans 1:20). The beauty and expansiveness of the universe necessitates that we must consider that something or someone greater than ourselves has brought this to pass. What God has chosen to tell us in His Scriptures is that He is the One who has created everything (see Genesis 1). His revelation to us and our sensory reflection forces us to a point of crisis where we must respond by faith to the conclusion that He is the Sovereign Creator. And, of course, if one will affirm God as Creator, one must also understand that God has the right and the power to call the shots. This necessitates a second crisis point of submission to God's rightful Lordship. I believe that this second decision highly influences the decision of the origins of life for the evolutionist. That is, the evolutionist is not willing to surrender himself to God; he would rather see himself as his own lord. He wants to call his own shots without any accountability whatsoever. This is why these evolutionary "intellectuals" are so hostile to the teaching of "intelligent design" in educational settings. They are quite averse to any notion of Divine creation being taught, even though some of these brilliant minds will conclude that aliens or crystals were the creative spark starting life.

As I have conversed with Darwinists, I have yet to have the question answered, "From where do the foundational elements that started evolution originate?" Each Darwinist will scurry from answering that question, for they cannot assert their conclusion with 100% certainty. One atheist from Europe with which I had a dialogue about 5 years ago said quite tellingly, "No one for certain can know where the primordial elements originate." To which I replied, "Then your assertion that evolution is science is in actuality a theory." There was no returned response.

Each of us must come to the point of crisis in which we must affirm or deny that the Sovereign Lord is the Creator of the world and is thus worthy of our submission. My hope for you is that the Lord will reveal to you that He is in fact the Creator!