For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Romans 1:19-23
I could happily hike every last hour of my life in and around the Brainard Lake Recreation Area of Colorado. I am not well-traveled, I admit, but there is something I love about the hush of this particular place, an impression of serene seclusion spiked with the scent of evergreen. The entire area is a feast for the eyes from the stately spruce trees to the peculiar, lime-green lichen on the stones. As I strolled, thrilling in the piny fragrance, I spotted a grey jay peering down in curiosity from a branch while I, equally curious, peered back up at him. A golden-mantled ground squirrel posed teasingly on a fallen limb just long enough for me to ready my camera but not quite long enough to release the shutter. Small streams murmured a muted tune as they ambled along the rocky ground while the bare tops of mountains poked their heads just above the treetops as if straining to gain a better vantage over the scene. It was a glorious hike and I reveled in it.
As I reflect back on all that splendor now, I cannot help but wonder how a place that is so marvelous, so replete with evidence of its Creator largely unobscured by concrete, plastic, and metal, how can such a place be so full of spiritual blindness? I'm sure a person could argue for the Big Bang theory or some other theory common to modern science, but then a person could also display their absolute confidence in unproved theorems over the abundant evidence of mere common sense. Such a man as this has much more faith than myself, albeit in the wrong things. For I firmly believe that it takes a much greater measure of faith to believe in that which my very senses deny, to believe that all the intricacy of creation came about by mere happenstance. It takes a faith bordering on fantastic--and indeed, it is rooted in fantasy--to think that the marvel of the spoken and written word, the capacity for complex thought, the conscience and the ability to reason all evolved from some more primal, base creature.
The capacity to accept, and therefore also to reject, one's Creator is hardwired in the brain of Homo sapiens, and it is silly, really, to go poking through the bones of primates in an attempt to find the imaginary moment the ancient brain drifted from the genus Australopithecus and discovered it had evolved into a separate genus altogether. It is funnier still to hear the media latch onto these rather mediocre and uninteresting discoveries, calling them an "early species" of human and thus exposing their complete disregard for elementary school science classes in which we are all taught that genus and species are the final two categories in which each individual creature is distinguished from others in their class.
Oh, do not worry, my friends... I can laugh at these things because I once swallowed them whole and so I can find amusement in that for I find that I am most ridiculous of clowns. I have to admit that even when I was a wholehearted proponent of evolutionary theory, the one fine difference between what is commonly called "species" and the actual meaning of the term did always chafe. At the time, I brusquely ignored it in favor of the "enlightened" view I felt I was adopting. I was educated, intelligent, beyond such foolish myths as gods and devils. I was the new man, no longer in need of a god to guide me. I would shake my head at the simple, naive beings who had that need of a god as a crutch; poor things unable to stand alone. I marveled in the wisdom of man, who had created himself! A world which had just incredibly formed itself out of chaos, evolving from nothing into everything! It was astonishing! And it was not until late in my 20s that these idiosyncrasies began to do more than chafe, they began to be revealed as glaring holes in the theories. It wasn't until I remembered the meaning of the word, "theory" that the theories themselves began to crumble. I had chased ghosts and found them to be wisps of mist. I had rejected God as a myth and then found that I was rejecting reality instead. In my utter horror of being foolish, I had embraced a myth and become a fool. It was a humbling experience.
Now that I know Him, I can see Him everywhere--and I know that I was without excuse. I did not need to be told about God; God was telling me about Himself in every majestic oak, in each immovable boulder, every gorgeous sunset and every mighty storm. He was teaching me about Himself through His creation when I would not look into His word, and so when I came to read and believe the Bible, I knew I was firmly without excuse. He had been teaching me all along. It was me who was not seeing or hearing, but He was no less there. His fingerprints and His nature are indelibly stamped into the world He created, and to fail to see it is to be spiritually blind. He opened my eyes. It is my prayer that He will open many more in the days to come. May our species no longer worship the creature--ourselves--but instead our Creator. He has given us His world and His very word that we may know Him. May it be that we, with open hearts and in humility of mind, may we come to worship God in spirit and in truth.
As I reflect back on all that splendor now, I cannot help but wonder how a place that is so marvelous, so replete with evidence of its Creator largely unobscured by concrete, plastic, and metal, how can such a place be so full of spiritual blindness? I'm sure a person could argue for the Big Bang theory or some other theory common to modern science, but then a person could also display their absolute confidence in unproved theorems over the abundant evidence of mere common sense. Such a man as this has much more faith than myself, albeit in the wrong things. For I firmly believe that it takes a much greater measure of faith to believe in that which my very senses deny, to believe that all the intricacy of creation came about by mere happenstance. It takes a faith bordering on fantastic--and indeed, it is rooted in fantasy--to think that the marvel of the spoken and written word, the capacity for complex thought, the conscience and the ability to reason all evolved from some more primal, base creature.
The capacity to accept, and therefore also to reject, one's Creator is hardwired in the brain of Homo sapiens, and it is silly, really, to go poking through the bones of primates in an attempt to find the imaginary moment the ancient brain drifted from the genus Australopithecus and discovered it had evolved into a separate genus altogether. It is funnier still to hear the media latch onto these rather mediocre and uninteresting discoveries, calling them an "early species" of human and thus exposing their complete disregard for elementary school science classes in which we are all taught that genus and species are the final two categories in which each individual creature is distinguished from others in their class.
Oh, do not worry, my friends... I can laugh at these things because I once swallowed them whole and so I can find amusement in that for I find that I am most ridiculous of clowns. I have to admit that even when I was a wholehearted proponent of evolutionary theory, the one fine difference between what is commonly called "species" and the actual meaning of the term did always chafe. At the time, I brusquely ignored it in favor of the "enlightened" view I felt I was adopting. I was educated, intelligent, beyond such foolish myths as gods and devils. I was the new man, no longer in need of a god to guide me. I would shake my head at the simple, naive beings who had that need of a god as a crutch; poor things unable to stand alone. I marveled in the wisdom of man, who had created himself! A world which had just incredibly formed itself out of chaos, evolving from nothing into everything! It was astonishing! And it was not until late in my 20s that these idiosyncrasies began to do more than chafe, they began to be revealed as glaring holes in the theories. It wasn't until I remembered the meaning of the word, "theory" that the theories themselves began to crumble. I had chased ghosts and found them to be wisps of mist. I had rejected God as a myth and then found that I was rejecting reality instead. In my utter horror of being foolish, I had embraced a myth and become a fool. It was a humbling experience.
Now that I know Him, I can see Him everywhere--and I know that I was without excuse. I did not need to be told about God; God was telling me about Himself in every majestic oak, in each immovable boulder, every gorgeous sunset and every mighty storm. He was teaching me about Himself through His creation when I would not look into His word, and so when I came to read and believe the Bible, I knew I was firmly without excuse. He had been teaching me all along. It was me who was not seeing or hearing, but He was no less there. His fingerprints and His nature are indelibly stamped into the world He created, and to fail to see it is to be spiritually blind. He opened my eyes. It is my prayer that He will open many more in the days to come. May our species no longer worship the creature--ourselves--but instead our Creator. He has given us His world and His very word that we may know Him. May it be that we, with open hearts and in humility of mind, may we come to worship God in spirit and in truth.
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. Romans 8:18-23
Scripture quotations are from the ESV®
Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®),
copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News
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