God and Creation

A Scientific, Analytical Approach

I just finished reading the note by John Derbeyshire on The Corner about an article in The New Republic (registration required) that once again has me shaking my head with the illogical conclusions some otherwise well-educated, intelligent people can come to.

I believe in God. I've had a personal relationship with Him for more than 45 years. God has answered my prayers, not once or twice, but hundreds of times. He's also guided and protected me through a life that should have ended when I was less than a year old. I KNOW He's real, that He cares, and that He fulfills His promises to us, because He's done so with me, time and time again. That's the ONLY proof that can truly convince anyone that He is real - to experience Him on their own.

I also have a very firm foundation in the sciences, ranging from geology and geophysics to astronomy to chemistry to zoology and paleontology. I spent a lot of time in conflict over the account in Genesis and what I see in the real world around me. Apparently, UNLIKE most people, I prayed about it, earnestly. I also listened, and heard God's words to me.

Right there, most people will write me off as a religious nut, or a delusioned fool. I am neither. The explanation I received from God is truth. Science, too is truth. The problem arises with how people approach simplistically the most complex chapter in the Bible.

When God created the "heavens and the earth", in effect He created the entire known universe - and perhaps even some unknown parts that mankind hasn't discovered yet. God is orderly, not chaotic - His "six days" are metaphor, but establishes a firm reference to deduce this (Argument about the "six days" and fundamentalist interpretation is available - write me). When He created the universe, He also created all the "natural" laws that govern how it works, from the weak binding force of the atom to the gravitational forces between bodies that affect the entire universe. Therefore, the study of science is the study of God's laws that control and bring order to the universe we live in. There can be no separation - if God created the universe, and the laws that govern it, studying how those laws work is studying how God created them.

Using that framework, there can be no conflict between "science" and "creationism", because they're both talking about the same thing: the natural laws that govern how the universe works, from the macro to the micro. The only difference is between accepting that those natural laws come from God, or whether they're the product of "random chaotic behavior".

Accepting that God created the universe, that He established the "natural laws" that we're so fond of, also explains many other things both within the Bible and in everyday life. "Evolution" isn't the be-all of species "creation", but a process that allows God's creatures to adapt to the changes God Himself set in motion for our world - a simple, effective feedback loop. Jesus' miracles are understandable, because the Creator knows His creation better than anyone else, and can certainly do a simple molecular transformation to turn water into wine, clense a body of disease, turn five loaves and two fishes into a feast to feed a multitude, or even reverse entropy and bring the dead back to life. WE can't do it, but God can, because He created the rules that govern the universe, and knows how to use those rules to do things we cannot.

The entire argument over "creationism", "intelligent design", or "science" is nothing but a battle of semantics. In all three cases, we're talking about the same thing. Only the stubbornness of people who refuse to accept the TRUE magesty and power of God keeps us arguing.