Day 3: Did God really create? – Part 1b
The evidence we are not alone.
Bible References (NIV)
21. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.
22. Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and champions at mixing drinks,
23. who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice to the innocent.
24. Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw and as dry grass sinks down in the flames, so their roots will decay and their flowers blow away like dust; for they have rejected the law of the LORD Almighty and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel.
16. And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden;
2. The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,
3. but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’
4. “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman.
5. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6. When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
7. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
33. Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”
34. Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God—I say this to your shame.
Devotional
What is one of the most upsetting things for you in this world? For me, it’s the abuse of power that causes suffering, and also false beliefs that give permission to behave in ways that create suffering. Because beliefs lead behaviour, beliefs matter!
In the Bible verses you read from Isaiah 5, Isaiah said, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil.” He said this because he believed their claim that there is no actual ‘evil’ was incorrect. Actual evil does exist – because a God who can objectively define what is good and bad within this creation exists!
Paul warned in 1 Corinthians 15 that if we reject the idea of God and of Jesus’ resurrection, we might as well “eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” Like Isaiah, Paul recognised that if there is no moral law-giver, then there is no actual moral law. This opens the way for great evil. Many people believe this. Many religions believe this too. As a result, morality is viewed as a matter of opinion or culture, and the pursuit of personal happiness easily then becomes more important than doing what is ‘right’!
If we consider the various religious ideas, for the atheist who believes there is no God, good and evil are just ideas – not realities. Human life is an accident, which also means there is no greater meaning or purpose to our lives – or hope beyond this life.
In the Eastern religions, while there is talk about good and evil, a core belief for many is that these things are just two sides of the same coin. While good and evil seem real to our experience, they aren’t actually real. Also, good won’t actually triumph over evil because they are both a part of the same ‘glue’ out of which we all mysteriously came.
In contrast, for the Jew, Christian, and Muslim (who all believe in a Creator God), good and evil are very real things. God is good and created this planet to be good. Evil is the bad stuff that is created through our choices to mistrust God and to live contrary to His pure and loving ways.
To bring us toward a conclusion: As far as logic goes, if actual good, evil, right, and wrong exist, then God exists! To put that differently, just as design needs a designer and information an author, moral laws need a moral law-giver. Without that moral law-giver, it’s all just opinion!
Christians believe there is a God because the evidence suggests it. Design needs a designer. Beauty needs an artist. Information needs an author. Irreducibly complex things need a mathematician and a highly skilled engineer. Moral laws also need a moral law-giver. In short, if the evidence suggests this is a creation, it has a Creator!
This is called ‘the inference to the best explanation,’ and it’s yet another reason why Christians believe this faith to be true.
Video clip: A Seemingly Arrogant Claim – Part 5b— 5mins
Reflection questions
- In what way does the existence of things like human consciousness, free will, good and evil suggest there is a Creator?
- What was the point related to the illustration of Charles Darwin and the killing of Aborigines in Australia? How are ‘good’ and ‘bad’ defined if we deny the existence of a God?
- What does the ‘inference to the best explanation’ mean, and why is it such an important idea?
- What most convinces you that God exists?
For prayer
“Thank you, God, that you are good – not bad. Thank you also for giving us a moral law to help us find and protect what is good, while avoiding the bad.”
related topics
coming up in our next devotion
Day 4: The world’s most reliable ancient document – Part 2a
The Bible is the world’s most read, printed, stolen and attacked book. It doesn’t win these awards by a small margin. It would be fair to say its readership and influence are so significant that it belongs on a bookshelf all by itself.