If evolution is true, there is no meaningful good news in the world.
Many moderns believe themselves clever when posturing as enlightened functional atheists. A functional atheist is one who, perhaps not denying the existence of God, lives and thinks as one who does. All atheists are, of course, functional atheists. But, ironically, many professing Christians are also functional atheists.
One evidence of a functional atheist is one who believes the universe, our world, and they themselves are nothing more than the product of mindless nature churning along its merry way to self-create all of nature we observe. They themselves, perhaps passively and maybe unwittingly, believe in evolution, the idea that they were created by mindless natural evolutionary processes that never had them in mind. Passive or unwitting, creation by evolution is exclusively the atheists’ creation story.
But clever as they may be, today’s functional atheists are merely those happily waving to the world as they sit on the current float of an old but continuous parade of like-minded thinkers. Epicureans, for example, are among those in ancient history who held this view as far back as 307 BC. They waved for a brief moment in time before one by one each was jolted to reality after their last wave.
It appears that the view of the Epicureans, past and present, is bad news. Not only is this view contrary to all the facts of experience, but it seems that if this view is true God either does not exist or is completely separate from the rest of reality; He is uninterested in it, plays no role in it, and remains completely undisturbed by it.
But the human condition is disturbed. We all know it. Is there any good news?
Consider a slightly more reality-conforming opinion of many: that God made all things out of pre-existent and uncreated matter, just as the carpenter makes things only out of wood that already exists. Plato, the giant thinker of old, held this view. But this view as well seems to be bad news. This view makes God not a creator but only a craftsman.
But the human condition needs more than a craftsman. We all know it. Is there any good news?
Then there are the many who believe themselves modernly wise by following the age-old tradition of the Gnostics. Such people invent for themselves an Artificer of all things other than God. Some modern agnosticism is clearly in jest, such as those funny Pastafarians who hold The Flying Spaghetti Monster as a deity of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Others, somewhat more serious hold views such as Theistic Evolution, in which invented views of human creation don’t quite satisfy God or man.
But the human condition needs more than funny or serious inventions of man. We all know it. Is there any good news?
Are we are left to our own devices in this world? Are we to face the grim prospects of atheism by embracing pleasure as the greatest good with the rest of the modern Epicureans? Are we, along with modern Platonists, to hope in a limited God whose ability to craft the world depends on something outside of Himself ? Or should we simply resort to inventing a creation story that appeals to our wishes for reality like modern Gnostics? Are we left with only bad news on earth from which to seek meaning by our own devices?
The beauty of the Gospel message is that we are not left to our own devices. The Gospel message is a message of good news to all humans on earth. This good news is news of a new kingdom populated by a new kind of person who can live on earth more abundantly now and will live on a un-corrupted new earth in the future.
Contrary to the impious and foolish views of modern functional atheists, the Gospel message includes the truths that behind the universe is a mind; the universe did not originate itself. For those who demand material evidence on earth, consider your own DNA. Despite all the supposed explanations from functional atheists, nature cannot code to make a sea sponge, much less successfully reprogram an existing code to make humans from sea sponges.
Further, the God of the Gospel is infinite, not finite, and the universe was not made from pre-existing matter, but out of nothing and God brought out of non-existence everything into being through the Word.
It’s time for those who profess to believe the Gospel message to reject all un-Godly creation stories. Any creation story that posits purely natural (i.e., Godless) evolutionary processes for the origin and existence of the DNA in human beings is not true; it does not conform to reality and it is contrary to the Gospel message. It is impossible for such a creation story to include the truth that human beings are made in God’s image, and Jesus came to save just those human beings.
Many professing Christians, unfortunately, by adopting a belief in the creation story of atheists have unwittingly weakened the gospel message. For what kind of person is in need of a savior? Not one created by purposeless processes of unguided nature; if evolution is true this person is no different in essence than any other creation of purposeless processes of unguided nature, like rocks, trees, and rivers.
The Gospel message is no message at all to rocks, trees, and rivers. If evolution is true, why should it be a message to men and women?
Think about it.
NOTE: For more reasons why the discovery of DNA provides for scientific inferrences of a creator, see here, here, or here. Enjoy!
NOTE: Much of the background material for this post was gleaned from an excellent work by St. Athanasius entitled “On the Incarnation.” Check it out.
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