On the Sunnyside,
Mitchell’s Journey
Part 1 of 7
Mitchell lay on the ground tearing away at the grass in frustration. Neither the sky above nor the scenery around him were of interest. Parading through his mind was a replay of that afternoon’s interaction between him and his friend. It had started so innocently. Mitchell had invited his friend Sam to come with him to hear a prominent evolutionist speaker on their university campus. He thought it would demolish the ideas of creationists like Sam. He was looking for a knock-out blow in that lecture.
Sam had answered, “Really? What was that knock-out blow?”
“We don’t need a god to explain the existence of the universe,” replied Mitchell.
“Tell me,” responded Sam, “why is there something instead of nothing?”
“What has that got to do with it?” queried Mitchell.
“A lot,” responded Sam. “How did we and everything else around us get here?”
“A singularity exploded and the rest is history,” Mitchell had replied.
“Really? And what was that singularity? How did it get here along with all the laws of nature and science needed for an explosion to occur?” Sam had remained very calm but Mitchell was getting irked. “Well I guess it was just there.”
“Mitch, I sense that you are getting upset,” responded Sam. “I want you top know that I am not against you. I’m interested in finding out what is based on sound logic, matches reality, does not conflict with established laws of science and nature and gives meaning to life. Then I’ll have the truth.”
“OK, OK. I get it,” conceded Mitch.
“So, a self-existent piece of something had the capability of producing the entire huge, complex and intricate universe, including us, by exploding. But an all-powerful, superbly intelligent, self-existent Being is not acceptable as the creator of it all?”
Mitchell struggled to respond. “So where did this God come from?”
“I guess we have to choose between a self-existent, inanimate singularity exploding or a self-existent, super-intelligent God creating,” answered Sam. “It’s a question of what was the first cause. May I explain how I feel about that?”
“Alright,” responded Mitchell somewhat grudgingly. “Go ahead and try.” Sam proceeded with his answer.
“Both the theories of creation and evolution are faced with the question of how it got started. We can envision an eternally self-existing God capable of designing everything that exists or postulate a god of some kind who kick-started the process and left it for evolution to carry on. Or we could imagine that it all started by itself from nothingness that condensed into a very small singularity and exploded with a big bang to form everything. In that option we are faced with the idea that if you start with nothing and wait long enough, then by chance and natural selection you will get everything. That I find to be truly untenable. Starting with self-existing inanimate matter instead of nothingness capable of turning itself into living things and all else that we have is also unexplainable. Is that self-existent “matter” a god? If God pre-programmed the development it is no longer by chance and therefore not evolution. The only logical choice is an eternally self-existent person, God, capable of creation. In life we consistently look for cause and design. Why should we then conclude that the universe is without cause or design?”
Mitchell had left without knowing what else to say and it angered him. Now, here on the grass he was faced with his parting words to Sam. “I’ll straighten you out on that one next time we meet.” Then he had an idea. (continued next week)
The sunny side has answers,
Henry Wiebe