The second point of the doctrine of creation is as follows:
2. After creating the universe, God continued to be actively and intimately related to his creation. That is to say that God is present and active in the whole universe and in our particular lives (cf. Gen. 1:4, 7-11, 14, 16-18, 20-22, 24-31, 2:1-3, 5-9, Isa. 41:17-20, 43:6-7; 45:7; 65:17; Eph. 2:10; Heb. 1:3).
And when it really comes down to it, I think this is the main reason why many people are so adamantly opposed to the idea of intelligent design or the possibility that there could be a supreme being ruling over the universe. Really, there must be some explanation for the astoundingly virulent attitudes of many of atheism’s greatest proponents. Just take atheistic figurehead Richard Dawkin’s comments for example:
“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.” (Quoted on Dawkins sycophant Steve Wells’ blog from The God Delusion)
So what’s the cause of all this outright hostility towards the idea of God and towards Christians in particular? Natural selection?
No, I really think it has to do with the implications of point 2 of the doctrine of creation. I’d be willing to bet that most of these guys (and gals) wouldn’t have very much at all to say about belief in an intelligent creator if that’s all there was to it. After all, it’s not unusual for them to posit that very thing in the form of some kind of extraterrestrial “seeding” theory (here’s Dawkins on this). If the creator simply “seeded” biological life on earth and then zipped away to some far off galaxy in their flying saucer, then well and good. The problem is that the Bible teaches (and science really does affirm*) that God not only created at the beginning, but stuck around afterwards.
This is the idea that sinful people (myself included before I met Christ) have always shuddered at. The idea that there is an omnipotent God ruling over the entire universe and prying into your personal affairs is just pretty scary when you think about it. Moreover, when it turns out that this God actually cares about things like right and wrong, holiness and obedience, love and justice – well, YIKES! There is a sense in which Dawkins is right in calling God unpleasant. For those who live their lives in enmity towards God, nothing could be more unpleasant than to realize that it all matters.
It seems to me that atheism is the ultimate crutch for those who don’t want to face the fact that God sees and cares. Atheists like Dawkins are on a boat to Tarshish, and what they don’t seem to understand is that sleeping in the cabin won’t make the storm go away.
We need to be ready and willing to try to persuade such people to believe in God and the salvation that he offers through his son, Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 5:11). But we also must persistently pray for our atheistic friends and family that God will mercifully pursue them, granting them faith and repentance that leads to a life-giving knowledge of the truth (2 Tim. 2:25).
[*There is a good scientific discussion of this in The Case for a Creator.]
Posted on
Friday, January 9, 2009
by Cody C. Lorance
filed under