Tag Archive: god

What Does Nature Say About the Creator?

November 11, 20081

Romans Chapter 1, verses 18 through 20

What does nature tell us about the Creator?  Lets consider the following list (you might be able to come up with others to add to the list):

·         Order

·         Beauty and creativity

·         Power

·         Life-giving and reproducing

It is truly amazing how nature works together to strike balance.  Take for example, humans and animals breathe oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide.  Plants use carbon dioxide and give off oxygen.  Wow, that works out pretty conveniently, doesn’t it?  There is a balance created by the existence of herbivores and carnivores in the animal kingdom.  Too many herbivores would deplete the land of foliage.  Too many carnivores would lead to overgrowth.  In the movie, “Lion King”, the young cub is taught about the ‘circle of life’.  Some animals eat other animals.  Other animals eat the grasses of the field.  When the animals die they then provide nutrient for the grasses of the field to grow.  A striking illustration of the balance and order we see in creation.  

Take a drive through the central and northeastern U.S. during the fall and tell me if you don’t see beauty and creativity in the world around you.  Look into the Grand Canyon.  Sail up to the Cliffs of Dover along the British Coastline.  Ski the Swiss Alps.  Visit the rain forest of Peru or Brazil.  What do you see?  You see the immense beauty and creativity of God in His creation.  The diversity of the corners of earth alone, speak to us regarding how creative God is.  Some summer night look up into a star filled sky and tell me if you don’t see the creative genius and beauty that is in the mind of God.

I remember sitting in my dorm room my freshman year of college as a spring storm rolled in.  I sat and watched out the window as the dark clouds filled the sky and the wind grew in intensity.  Yes, I probably should have been studying instead.  But I was simply mesmerized and in awe at the exhibition of power I was witnessing. 

When you sit on the beach of the ocean and see the waves crashing in and notice this whole gigantic body of water is moving you cannot help but be impressed by the power it represents.  Take note of what an earthquake, a hurricane, or a tsunami can do to the greatest structures built by man and you get a glimpse of the level of power in the Creator’s hand. 

An acorn falls from an Oak tree.  If it doesn’t get picked up and added to a fall decoration in someone’s house like mine, or get collected and eaten by a squirrel or pig (bet you didn’t know pigs liked acorns did you?), it stands a good chance of becoming another Oak tree.  All over the world in all manner of plants this cycle repeats.  In animals, the adults give birth to young that resemble them.  In other words, these plants and animals reproduce.  Life produces life. 

This cycle of reproduction gives us a view of God’s desire and design for the importance of life.  We see that the created are to continue on.  That life is a continuous stream pointing back to its original Creator. 

Creation, General

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Where Did it All Come From

November 4, 20080

     I was teaching a group of teens one time about the origins of all that we see.  One of the teens asked me where did God come from or who created God?  Let’s go down that road.  For sake of argument let’s assume someone created the God to whom we attribute creation.  We’ll call that someone Super-God.  Well, then the question must be asked, who created Super-God?  We’ll call the one who created Super-God, Super-Super-God.  Well then, who created Super-Super-God?  You see where that can go very quickly.   Because of our God-given understanding of finite and infinite ultimately we must accept the fact that there was someone or something that created it all and was not created.  Otherwise the argument goes on forever and ever without any logical conclusion.  Was that Super-Super-Super-Super-Super-God?  If, in order to make sense, we must come to the conclusion there was someone or something that created it all and was not created, doesn’t it make just as much sense that someone was God? 

           Even the theories of origin that so often accompany the theory of evolution require us to acknowledge something had to start it all.  We often hear the Big Bang theory discussed.  This term, as used by scientists, refers to the idea that the universe has expanded from a primordial hot and dense Initial condition at some finite Cosmological time in the past, and continues to Metric Expansion of space to this day.  The Big Bang theory cannot and does not provide any explanation for this initial condition.  Instead, it describes and explains the general evolution of the universe since that instant.  So what are the origins of that initial condition?  Something had to precede that condition and that instant. 

     Notice the use of the term finite time?  In other words, meaning it had a beginning.  No matter how we wrap our minds around the origins of what we see and have today we keep coming back to the logical conclusion that something back there must be infinite, that is, without a beginning.  Every theory put forth by man regarding the origins has at its foundation something that in and of itself is finite.  But where did that something originate from?  Something had to precede it.  Ultimately that something had to be infinite, without a beginning.  In other words it ‘always was’.  Remember our illustration above with the teens.  If you precede a finite thing with another finite thing the question can ALWAYS be asked, what is the origin of that finite thing?  The only way to end is to accept what our mind is logically telling us and that is at the beginning of all finite things there exists an infinite thing. 

Creation

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Does it Makes Sense to Believe in God?

November 3, 20080

    Is a belief in God logical? Yes!  God makes sense.  Well of course He does, but what does that statement mean?  It can be looked at from two ways.  One is from the perspective that it makes sense there is a God and makes sense to believe in Him.  The other is that what God says and does makes sense.  In other words, the existence of God makes sense and He makes sense in His existence.  This site is going to approach the matter from both angles.  The two really are completely complementary of each other.  

     This is not attempt to explain all about God.  Such an undertaking would be folly.  On the contrary, it is more an attempt to help each of us use the God given logic that we have to makes sense out of God.  We spend far too much time relating to God purely on emotion and feeling – poor barometers at best.  Relying on our feelings to understand and interpret God and his message opens us up to the danger of believing and following lies and delusions.  

     Feelings do not provide us roots.  Our minds and the logic that God has built into them are what give us stability.  Unfortunately it gets far too little exercise.  Like the muscles in our body when it does not get used it gets weak and lazy.  We then become susceptible to a variety of mental and spiritual maladies.

 

General

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