Part 1a: Did God really create?

The evidence we are not alone.

What is the most amazing thing you have ever created? For me, it’s an album of 15 songs I created at home as a hobby. The experience of laying each track one by one in the evenings took me a year. It was fun, and I got a real kick out of hearing the result – even though it’s still just a home recording.

How about the most amazing thing humans have ever created? For me, it’s got to be something like the airplane. The flight of a 300-ton plane seems almost a miracle – equalled only by the miracle of its safe landing!

When we compare the things people have made to what God has created, there’s no comparison. The things God has created are far more complex. When considering life, all life has multiple interlinking components. Many of these components are invisible to our eyes. Powerful modern microscopes have, however, now made some of these things visible. The detail and complexity discovered within life are mind-blowing! In addition, were any of a myriad of different components removed from any life-giving system, it might die. When the complexity is seen, it doesn’t take long to realise this kind of complexity couldn’t have put itself together one ‘self-preserved’ accident at a time.

When I look at the laptop I’m typing on or the plastic bottle with juice in it next to me, I know these things have been designed. We all know how to recognise the evidence of design. It follows that if something is designed, there was a designer. If we can recognise design in things humans have made even while not knowing who did the designing, why does the suggestion that there is a God have to be so difficult? This makes no sense – unless we have other reasons for not wanting to believe in a God.

Genesis 1 – which you read yesterday – explains how God created our planet and the life on it. Psalm 33:6 affirms that God created the universe that surrounds our planet, which includes things like the ‘fine tuning’ discovered within even the mechanics of matter so that matter could exist. Psalm 139 affirms that God created us, inclusive of all the miraculous ongoing processes in our bodies by which we live and reproduce. What is discovered at every level is so amazing that even many notable atheistic scientists in history (who believe there is no God) have admitted that the evidence of design is overwhelming – even while maintaining their atheism.

So, why deny God if the evidence of design exists? What if it’s actually because they don’t want to believe in a God?

The reasoning behind the Christian faith begins with acceptance of the simple logic that the extravagant design found within this creation is evidence enough that there is a designer.

Reflection questions

• How compelling is the evidence that there is a Creator?
• What other motivations might some have to deny the existence of a Creator?
• What most convinces you that a Creator exists?
• What story or illustration might you be able to share with someone else to prompt them to consider God’s existence?

For prayer

“Thank you, God, for the amazing level of design you have built into the Creation, so we could know you are there.”