Last night my husband I finished watching the movie EXPELLED, which features Ben Stein as he interviews various people about their view of I D - Intelligent Design.
I was actually stunned that the view of so many otherwise intelligent people is that they don't even want to consider the possibility of I D as something they'd want to explore in their quest for scientific truth and accuracy.
For those who may pop in and read this who don't know me, I will state a couple of basics that are pertinent:
One: I believe in God - specifically the God of the Bible. I believe Genesis 1:1 when it states 'In the beginning God created....' I don't care if He calls a billion years a day as far as the account in the Bible is concerned....but I absolutely do believe He created the universe, created life and all that sustains life, including forming man from the dust and breathing life into him. I believe He could have created everything in 6 literal days - but probably didn't. The time frame is not the important issue. I don't care how long He took to create - I just care that He was the one doing it - that He is the 'Intelligent Designer' of Intelligent Design.
Two: That means I do not believe in evolution as defined by Darwin. I do, however, absolutely believe in changes that occur over time - which some people refer to as partial evolution. Things evolve. Peoples' life spans vary according to eras and influences; new animal breeds are created through cross-breeding, etc. But - animals do not evolve from one thing to another, from one species to another. For example, horses have come in sizes that range from a few inches to many hands high - - but they are still a horse....look like a horse, shaped like a horse, identifiable as a horse....
My husband says we came from monkeys. I didn't. God created me. Which will eventually bring me to point Three.
I married my dear, sweet husband when I was away from God - I was angry at God for letting me make a terrible choice (gotta' hate that free-will thing sometimes). And during the couple of years I was away from God, I married a wonderful man who is a doubter (his term). Our church - or lack of church - affiliations were not part of our conversation.
When I recommitted my life to the Lord, he said I married him under false pretenses. I didn't - but I am overwhelmingly grateful for God's grace that brought me back to Him.... And, I believed that in time, Mr. Right would come to believe in Him too. That hasn't happened yet - and we've been married since August, 1970.
I guess I might as well tell you just enough of the story for you to understand...so this is a diversion from my purpose of writing.... When I was pregnant with our first child, I started bleeding and cramping - indicating the likelihood of my body aborting, and I was afraid I would lose the baby. I prayed and said, "God - I don't know if you are real or not, but if You are, and if You'll save this baby, I'll recommit my life to You." He did - and I did.
So - finally, the clarity of point three: my dear husband does not believe in God. On our recent trip, the issue came up a lot more than usual, because we were in areas of such amazing geological wonder. And - everywhere we turned, things were presented as fact that I view as supposition. It was somewhat of a running banter between us - - me seeing God in everything - and His amazing creation - and him referencing Mother Nature and evolution.
So - - I had purchased this movie several months before, and just hadn't got it out yet. In between Al saw the last part of RELIGULOUS, with comedian Bill Maher - and he wanted me to see it - so I bought it for him. It his new favorite movie. He believes it is a factual documentary. I view it as a comedic spoof. So - since I have watched it a couple of times, I asked him to watch EXPELLED with me.
In our discussion after the movie I said, "When I attended Evergreen (a very liberal Liberal Arts College in Olympia) if I had said I believed God was a basket, people would have been affirming - but because I believed in God, they wrote me off as a nut case.
His response was, "They should."
One of the questions Ben Stein asked one atheist (a Professor Dawkins)in the movie was what he'd say if he got to the end of life and ran into God, and the professor said, "Bertram Russell had that question posed to him, and he said he would ask God, 'Sir, Why did you take such pains to hide yourself?' "
That was the most haunting query in the movie.
God, in fact, has not taken pains to hide Himself: just the opposite is true. God revealed Himself fully in His Son, and reveals Himself in His creation. And - He reveals Himself in His passion for mankind, and His desire to have an intimate personal relationship with us - the ones He created as the overseers of all of His other creations.
I don't understand why my husband doesn't see God as the One who is Truth - the only absolute Truth there is in this world.
I don't understand why scientists want to squelch searching for truth.
I do know that true wisdom is holding fast to a durable value system, and that value system has to be based on God. The Bible is the plumb line. If we want to know Truth, we cannot exclude it from our resources for searching out the wonders of the world.
I am constantly accused of not having an open mind. What I have observed is that when people's minds are too open a significant and most important part of their brains fall out....
If I want to know how to operate my camera, I don't read the manual for the washing machine. If I want to know about life and the possibility of a creator, the manual I read first is the Bible. I have asked my husband to challenge God's existence by seeing what God has to say.... I would challenge anyone else with the same solution for finding out. After all, if God exists - wouldn't an intelligent person want to know?
