I can boil my reasons for being a creationist down to two. Here they are.
- Because conclusions are commonly drawn at the beginning of an experiment, not the end.
My wife and I visited The Creation Museum in Kentucky near Cincinnati a few years ago. The first exhibit we saw when we entered the museum was about a dig made by two archeologists. One was a Creation scientist, and the other an Evolution scientist. The whole point of the exhibit wasn’t about the findings of the dig itself. Rather, the exhibit showed that each of the two scientists went into the dig with certain assumptions that determined the conclusions they ultimately drew. So the Creationist, going into the dig with the assumption that there was a global flood several thousand years ago, concluded that the fossils uncovered in the dig were from a much more recent time than did his Evolutionist counterpart.
I think the word preposterous is an interesting word. It’s two word parts (plus a suffix) put together. Pre means before and post means after. So what belongs in the front (or the beginning) is at the back (or the end), and what should be at the back/end is, instead, at the front/beginning. The proverbial cart before the horse is the perfect word picture for preposterous. And that’s what that scientific process really is: preposterous. Our conclusions, which should come at the end, are established – albeit usually unknowingly – at the beginning. I suppose it really speaks to the power of one’s worldview, because it’s our worldview that most powerfully informs how we see, and what we believe about, pretty much everything.
I’m certainly not exempt from preposterity. (I think I just invented a word!) And neither is anyone else. That’s why it’s uber-important to have a worldview built on assumptions that are correct. I’m convinced that the Bible is God’s written Word, and I try to build my worldview completely upon its principles, so I know going into reading an article that I’m not buying any assertions that don’t somehow line up with Biblical Scripture. I won’t be swayed on that issue. But if I’m preposterous based on God’s stated truths, I’m in good company, God Himself is preposterous in the most awesome and holy sense:
For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done. – Isaiah 46:9-10 NKJV
2. Because I know the Creator.
I believe we must go outside all the things we can study intellectually in order to find the truth about origins. Once we find that truth, we can study it intellectually. Once we encounter the Creator of everything that exists, we can view it all with the knowledge that He created it. Once we have that perspective, the creation itself serves as evidence. When I see a night sky, massive ocean waves running up to a sandy beach, or a majestic rocky mountain reaching up to a beautiful blue sky, I see God’s handiwork. I see it that way because God has introduced Himself to my heart, and has helped me understand His Word. Speaking of preposterous – getting things backwards – it’s preposterous to expect someone to believe God created the universe before knowing Him intimately. I see God’s creation because I know God. I didn’t see the world and exclaim, “Wow! Who created this?! I want to meet Him!” I met Him, and now He helps me see His work as His work. Jesus said in John 14:6 “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” If He is the Truth – and He is – then it’s in Him that we’ll find the real story of how the universe originated. We can look forever in the wrong places, and we’ll never find the truth.
