ID and Me arrived in the mail the next day. I was so excited to start reading it because I knew that it held answers to some of my biggest questions concerning God and science. Immediately I unwrapped the book from its packaging, took it to the lounge area in our dormitory, and started to read.
“Too many people take it for granted that they know that the God of the universe loves them. Before I began my journey I held people who believed in God in contempt. God was nothing more than a hypothesis. He was not even that! He was something that someone thought up a long time ago to frighten their children from going outside into the dark or from running too fast, climbing trees, having sex, or being disobedient. The idea of God was laughable, but I was not laughing.
“I was bitter. I would not say that I was full of hatred, but I certainly did not enjoy life. To me, life was about achievement. I was a hard worker and could definitely get the results I always desired. I went to the most prestigious schools and sparred with the most intelligent minds. Then one day, my life changed. I got married.
“I am not sure what my wife saw in me. I am convinced that maybe she enjoyed being around people that made her feel miserable. The only thing that disproves my conviction is that she was never miserable. In fact, there were days where I treated her like dirt and she continued to be her sweet old self. Granted, I was aware of her Christian faith before we got married, but really? I was a jerk, plain and simple. She was an angel that was showering me with grace.
“One day, she invited me to church with her. I had turned her down many times in the past, but it was Easter! I agreed because I thought it would make her feel special to be seen at church with her husband. I was in for quite the treat. The Pastor was cheerful and boisterous. He preached about the resurrection of Jesus, eternal life, and the life that God has called us all to live. What really disturbed me was that he truly believed what he was saying. First of all, I thought to myself, ‘how can he possibly believe what he is saying?” Second, I asked myself, “Why don’t you believe what he is saying?” Today, I question whether or not that second voice was the Holy Spirit.
“My answer to the second question was, ‘Well, science disproves the existence of God. And if not the existence of God, at least the necessity of God. If science can prove that, why should I believe what this man is saying?’ I stayed after church and spoke with my wife and then her pastor, and then some of the people from the congregation. I was thirsty for information. Finally, they directed me to a professor at Good Shepherd Seminary. It was there that I got many answers to the questions that troubled me.
“This book does not detail my journey from disbelief to belief, but it will answer the questions that troubled me most before I gave my life to Jesus. What you are about to read are ten interviews with renowned professors in the fields of science and theology that will challenge the philosophy of our day. If you are a skeptic and desire to remain that way, you might want to stop reading this book right now. If you truly want to challenge your blind faith in the material world continue reading and prepare to have your world turned upside down.”
I had a chill run down my spine. This was exactly what I was looking for. I could not wait to continue reading. Once I read this book from cover-to-cover I would be able to go toe-to-toe with Dr. Derkins.
I would venture to say that this is the biggest question that many people have, both Christ followers and not. If God is so loving, why does He allow suffering in this world?
The easy answer is two words: free will. But what does that mean, and why?
Free will is the term for God allowing us, His creations, to make choices on our own. We are autonomous beings, and the God who created us does not control us. I enjoy knitting stuffed animals as a hobby, but when I create one, I still control it; it isn’t a living being that can make choices on its own. Not so with us! God created us to make our own decisions, right from the very beginning. God allowed the first humans, Adam and Eve, the choice between obeying Him and disobeying Him. He gave them one rule - don’t eat from this one particular tree (Genesis 2:16-17). They had the free will to choose what they did, so did they obey that one, single rule? Nope. You can read the full story in Genesis 3.
God is omniscient (all-knowing), so He knew ahead of time that at some point, His beloved Creation that was so good would disobey Him. So why did He even give them free will to begin with?
We know that God is a loving God, and in fact that God is love (1 John 4:7-21). There is no question in the Bible that God is good. God created us in His image, so that we could love Him. If God created us with no free will, with no choice, then we would love Him because that’s how we’re wired, not because we want to.
Have you ever seen young children get into a fight? When a parent intervenes and determines who the offending party was, it’s almost certain that they’ll say something like, “Now you say you’re sorry to her.” Does the kid do it? Yes, but usually his heart isn’t in it. He only says he’s sorry because he’s forced to, not because he truly is sorry.
That’s how it would be with us if God had not given us free will. We could only love God because we’re forced to, not because we want to. Just like with fighting children, love that’s forced isn’t really love at all. You wouldn’t want someone to love you only because they’re forced to, would you?
So free will has been explained, what about that question of why such a good, loving God allows suffering? God allows suffering because we choose to do things that cause it. Our free will allows us to make choices that disobey God, and we suffer the consequences for them. If you disobey the traffic rules choose to drive your car into another car, you will suffer the negative consequence of a smashed car and bodily injuries.
But what about bad things that happen to us, that we had no effect on? What if you’re the car that got run into, through no fault of your own?
That, too, is indirectly the result of a choice to disobey God. Before Adam and Eve sinned, creation was “very good” (Genesis 1:31). There was no death; no pain; no thorns and thistles even. When Adam and Eve sinned, the earth suffered the consequences too, along with humankind. Death and disease entered the world, and humans became susceptible to them.
But the fact remains that God is still good, even though His creation has been corrupted by evil. We humans have original sin, and we are continually suffering the consequences, until the day comes that those of us who believe in Jesus can join God in heaven forever.
If you didn’t read last week’s blog, please take a moment and go back and review it. There is a key to freedom from addiction discussed there that is essential. Without it, nothing I share this week will make much sense.
The Bible shares the life story of King David – who was considered a “man after God’s own heart.” He was definitely passionate about honoring God in all he did, but he also was human and proned to sin like everyone else. The lustful attraction to a woman he saw bathing, lead him down a path of violence and self-destruction. After arranging for the woman’s husband to be killed, he takes her to be his wife and pays some very serious consequences for his actions. If you haven’t read David’s story, please take a moment to go there – 2 Samuel 11.
If we have felt the hook of addiction, the guilt and shame of lustful actions, we can identify with David’s situation and his grief. Sometimes it is more challenging to get to a point where we are really broken and really ready to change. Sometimes after being broken, we have a hard time keeping ourselves free from the addiction and away from the triggers that draw us it.
After David was emotionally and spiritually broken over his sin, he wrote Psalm 51. He shares a perspective that I believe is helpful for those who are already wrestling through what I shared last week, and are trying to walk in freedom from their addiction. David realizes there are bigger reasons for him to continue to walk in freedom.
In the first couple verses of the Psalm David shares a humbling struggle that all of us have experienced in one way or another. Our sin, the things we have done wrong, are always before us – maybe they play like a video tape in your mind. And on top of our own remembering of our sin, we see the consequences in our life, in our family, and maybe even hear it in the disapproval of others. It feels like a constant loop leading us back again and again to our shame. But look what David shares in verses 6-13.
“You desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret place. Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out my iniquity. Create in me a clean heart oh God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you.”
David latches on to a few things here that are essential to walking in freedom from addiction. The first is, God intended us to be free! God made us to be able to walk in faithful relationship with Him – and walking in that relationship brings freedom to every part of who we are. Because of that David can appeal to God to rescue him and cleanse him. From what I understand “hyssop” was a mixture of materials that stripped things clean like acid. David appeals to God’s design for him and God’s mercy, and essentially says, “strip me down to bare bones, cleansing me like with acid to burn away this sin, and return joy and gladness.” We depend on God’s mercy and compassion to restore us to the design and the freedom He intended us to live in.
Second David knows he needs “heart surgery” to deal with the roots of the desires that lead him into sin. The wounds of life, of circumstances, of things others have done to us, and that we have done to others, all get piled up in our heart - twisting the way we see ourselves and the world. David asks God to clean out his heart, make it pure in desires and motives, and to renew the ability to stand firm in what is good and right and true. And he knows what will help him stay pure, and walk in freedom, is the joy of experiencing God’s rescue.
I am not sure if you have ever been rescued from a dangerous situation, or maybe you experienced a close call that made you certain “angels were watching over you.” But that sense of RESCUE, of SAVING from a dangerous situation is what David is talking about. There is a joy and excitement that wells up in your heart after you realize you get to live and breathe another day. It can add incredible perspective and bring determined life change. That is what David is asking God to refresh and renew in him – the joy and the experience of being rescued by God.
So David latches on to God’s design and mercy to cleanse him, then he asks for God to purify his heart and renew his joy. He asks for a willingness to receive these things so that he can stand firmly and free in God. But the third thing David latches onto here is something that gives an even greater reason for David to seek Freedom from his lust and sin. He realizes that if he is free, truly free, then he can help OTHERS be free.
“…then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners to turn back to you…”
David gets the “bigger picture” of what his freedom from lust is about – helping to rescue others. When it comes to being free from addiction and walking free in sobriety, our overcoming of that addiction relys on us knowing it is beyond our control, needing and accepting God’s help in overcoming that addiction, and realizing we are not seeking freedom for any other reason than our own freedom (meaning it cannot depend on someone else’s expectations or freedom). But what helps us in those moments when we have walked free for a while, what helps us grit our teeth and lean into trusting God a little more in the face of temptation, is realizing our freedom can set the stage for others to be free. The simple sharing of our freedom, the simple example of walking free for one more day, can help someone trapped in addiction realize that they too can be free.
If you are struggling with addiction, make sure you get help and be honest with those who can help you take the necessary steps to deal with your addiction. Let this blog be a simple encouragement that there are those who have been able to break free – and so can you.
If have been freed from addiction and are walking free – don’t let your story be anonymous. Let God revive, refresh, renew, and purify your heart of all fear and shame. And then let your story be told, so others know they can be free. God will shine brightly through your most broken places.
With this post, I am starting a new series on the Armor of God. In January, I spoke about the Israelite war cry: Rak Chazak and how we need to be warriors who will stand for the truth and the Gospel of Christ. But how do we do that? We need equipment. We can’t just jump into battle empty handed. We need a means of defending ourselves against a spiritual enemy. We need Armor and we need weapons. Paul describes some of the weapons God has given us in Ephesians 6:10-18. In the next six weeks, I will go into detail about each of the pieces of the Armor of God. I will describe what the piece of armor does for the physical body and then describe how the armor works for us spiritually.
First, we need to address what kind of war we are in. This is not a standard war with guns and bombs. Our battle is not against flesh and blood but against the principles and the powers and the spiritual forces of this dark world. This spiritual war has greater stakes, is fought on a grander scale, and has more implications than any physical battle we fight. And when we fight, Paul pleads with us to stand firm, hold our ground, and when the battle is over, to remain standing. And to do that, we can’t use our own weapons. They won’t work. We need God’s equipment.
The first piece of equipment listed in Ephesians is the Belt of Truth. First, what is a belt and what does it do? Then we can dig deeper into what truth is and what it does. A belt today is what we use to hold our clothes up and hold them tight to our bodies. We are supposed wear a belt with our pants because that helps keep them from falling down. We also often hang things off the belt such as cell-phones, or a tape-measure, or a tool. In Paul’s time when he wrote Ephesians, the belt did even more than that. The belt kept the soldiers tunic from flapping around all over the place in battle. That also kept enemy soldiers from being able to grab the tunic easily. And it gave them the greatest amount of flexibility and mobility with the clothes they wore. You cannot move easily with your clothes moving around on their own. The belt is also where a solider carried his weapons. The sheath for a sword is held at the belt. Any extra daggers, axes, or other weapons were held by the belt. Even today’s soldiers use belts to carry their magazines of ammunition.
There’s more. The belt was used by any person of any trade to carry the tools of their trade. From a carpenter to a fisherman, to a tradesman, to any job. The belt represented the tools of the trade, the livelihood of the person. When two men decided to partner together for a business, they would often trade belts, signifying that “what I have is yours and what you have is mine”. Does this not sound like marriage? Where two become one? When we become Christians, we trade our belts with Christ. He gets all of our skills and abilities, and we get all of his. Just let that sink in for a minute.
Now let us explore truth. Paul saw the connection. Everything that a belt does for us, it is the same for truth. It is the truth that keeps us held together. It is the truth that keeps us from veering to the right or to the left. Did you know that if you were to try to send a space probe to the moon or to Mars, that if your angle of trajectory at the launch was off by just a fraction of a degree, that your probe would miss its target entirely? Why? Because over distance, the slightest error slowly propagates to be bigger and bigger and bigger. Truth keeps us within the target window, as long as we heed its word.
Truth is also the source of all of our equipment in the spiritual realm. That is where it is stored and how we carry it. I will get to the Sword of the Spirit in a few weeks, but it is the Belt of Truth that carries and holds the Sword of the Spirit. Think about that. You need one piece of Armor to have the other. If we are not rooted in the Truth that God reveals to us in Scripture, our belt will not hold us together nor will it hold the weapons we need. We cannot wield the Sword of the Spirit if we are living a lie. We have to be living the Truth just to hold the weapon.
The Belt of Truth is also the belt that Christ trades with us. We give him our tools of our shortcomings, our livelihoods of our selfish desires, and he gives us his tools of his Righteousness, his perfection, and the infinite source of his resources. We must learn how to use those tools, but if we do not have the Truth in us, we do not even carry the tools, let alone have the ability to use them. How can we use God’s tools if we don’t have a means of carrying them?
The Belt of Truth is our anchor, our standard, our guide. Without the Belt of Truth, we are easily susceptible to the whims of the enemy as they try to capture us and lead us away from our source of strength and power: Jesus Christ. Let us stand firm with it bucked around our waist, holding us secure, able to give us the greatest amount of mobility, and carrying all the tools we need to do the work of our Lord. Next week, I will discuss the next piece of the Armor of God: the Breastplate of Righteousness.
“Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money’. Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that’. As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil” (James 4:13-16).
You might look at the above verses as depressing and hopeless, or like me, you might look at them as a much-needed wakeup call regarding how you live and carry yourself. What do you think of when you think of boasting? Personally, the only meaning it has ever carried for me is the idea of promoting my achievements, especially in comparison to others. I think the above verses reveal that boasting is even broader than that. Basically, anytime we think of ourselves higher than we should or “count our chickens before they are hatched” to use an old saying, we are boasting. James reminds us here that there is nothing about us or our lives that is so special apart from God that guarantees we will see tomorrow. The statement that compares our lives to a mist that is here one minute and gone the next is not meant to be an insult. It’s meant to alert us to the fact that every day we have is a gift because we don’t deserve it and we have no control over whether we receive it. The question is how does that change us?
For me, I can honestly say that I have had times in my life, even after I became a Christian, that I became comfortable in my sin. I don’t mean that I didn’t suffer consequences. I most certainly did. But I think the sin was too enjoyable to give up. Rather than living as if Jesus is my Lord over EVERY area of my life, it was as if I became comfortable knowing that I was “doing a lot for Jesus” and convinced myself that the good things I was doing gave me the right to sin in other areas of my life. This is what is often known as “greasy grace”. Allowing this nonsense to fill my mind causes me to “slip” on the grace I have received because I’m choosing to view it as a license to sin instead of what it actually is – a force from God that allows me to overcome any temptation and conquer any sin as I remain in Christ.
One time while I was a Christian, sin had reached a point in my life where it almost destroyed me, but I thank God that he worked in my heart to have me confess it to those who were most hurt by my actions and also to two close Christian brothers who not only didn’t judge me, but also encouraged me that I could still serve the Lord in the ways by which he has called me and stood by me as I walked the path of letting God restore me. I’m also thankful that the church I was just beginning to pastor at the time graciously accepted my request to wait to officially become their leader while God did what I needed him to do in my heart.
At some point during that time, I remember reading my Bible while traveling back to Pennsylvania with my girlfriend to see my family. The verse that I “just happened” to see that day was Proverbs 29:1. It says, “A man who remains stiff-necked after many rebukes will suddenly be destroyed – without remedy”. Wow! It hit me like a ton of bricks and also reminded me of the verses I shared at the start of this writing. Is it likely that all people everywhere who remain in their sin will not see tomorrow? Most of us would say “no”. However, we must remember that God has done it before with the Great Flood. There is no guarantee he won’t do it again. Plus, the point of the verse is that anyone who stubbornly remains in his sin does so either because he doesn’t care about the consequences or doesn’t understand the full scope of them. Thus, his destruction will be SUDDEN to him even when others see it coming!
The Scriptures I’ve shared in this writing have changed my view of life quite a bit. That doesn’t mean I still won’t sin. Sometimes, I might even do it stubbornly. But I have a much clearer picture of what’s at stake. When I’ve wanted to sin and even made plans to do so, the reminder that God could accomplish his purposes on this earth without me and that I could be “suddenly destroyed without remedy” to the point where I never see tomorrow has caused me to turn away from the sin. I’m now a part of an accountability group with two other men I trust. We meet every week to confess our sins, ask forgiveness for them, and discuss how we can eradicate them from our lives. We understand God’s love and grace for us, but we also know that he has not promised us tomorrow. I’m thankful for God’s work in my life and how he has used others to help and encourage me along the way. But that’s not all.
This reminder that came from the Holy Spirit has also changed how I view others and God’s mission, which he has entrusted to us, to make the gospel known to all. I’ve realized that every person with whom I come into contact might need me to tell them about Jesus, whether they know him well already, used to know him but don’t anymore, or have never known him. This doesn’t mean it depends on me because God can use someone else if he wants to. However, the knowledge that not only am I not guaranteed tomorrow but no one else is either has given me a renewed focus on sharing the good news. This doesn’t mean just standing on a street corner and preaching. This means building relationships with those who are regularly in my life so that hopefully they see Jesus in me. It means being prepared and observant to those “chance” encounters (which are actually God-ordained) with complete strangers who need to hear about Jesus’ love for them. You see, knowing that tomorrow is not guaranteed is not just about making sure we don’t do the wrong things. It’s also about taking the opportunities we have to DO the right things, because we know we might not get another chance. For this reason, James ends the passage I quoted above with an important truth. “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins” (4:17). I urge you to live for Christ TODAY!
People started to arrive at the Radical House and it was quite a crowd. The most incredible thing was that this ministry was not only feeding the students, it was feeding anybody who wanted to attend.
Pastor Doug stood in the midst of the crowd of thirty people and made an announcement:
“Greetings everybody! Welcome to Radical Ministries. This is the Radical House and I am Pastor Doug. Our intern, Stephen, is in the back preparing the vegetarian dish for tonight. Steve-O, come on out and say ‘hi’ to everyone.”
A thin dark haired young man poked his head around the corner. “Hi everybody.”
“Thanks Steve. Tonight is our kick-off. Typically we would have a guest speaker, but tonight just enjoy getting to mingle and meet people. I am hoping that this will be a great night for you and that you will form meaningful friendships that will last a long time. Without further ado, dig in!”
The people lined up starting in the kitchen and extending toward the main entrance. I waited a bit, and then when the line dwindled down I went to take my place at the end of the line. But as I was about to take my place at the end, a young lady walked through the entrance, apparently late. Typically, I would not try to be shy, but there was definitely something different about this girl. She was dressed in designer clothes and yet she had a look to her that was rather plain. She walked confidently, but the smile on her face was welcoming and meek. After a brief hesitation, I greeted her.
“Hello.” Was all I could squeak out.
“Hi there, wow I can’t believe I am late. Have I missed anything?”
Again, I couldn’t put my finger on it, but the way she spoke was both proper and informal.
“Nope, we were just lining up to get some food.”
“Good, I am starving. What are they having?”
“German cuisine. I’m sorry, my name is Ryan.”
“That’s okay, my name is Ava.”
“It’s good to meet you Ava. So are you a student here?”
“Oh, no. I actually am working on getting my master’s at the school down the road a little ways.”
“You mean Prestige University? O my goodness, you must be sharp.”
“If you say so. It’s by God’s grace that I am there.”
“What are you studying?”
“Sociology.”
“Cool.”
We spoke until we got to the front of the line and then I decided to move on and speak with someone else.
“Hey Stephen! My name is Ryan. How are you doing?”
“Haha, pretty good. I’m quite a mess though.”
Stephen and I spoke for a while. He was a really nice guy and was in an acting program at Downtown State University. After conversing for a bit, I had to ask him about church.
“Where do you go to church?”
“For right now I come here on Sundays. Pastor D leads it and we normally have a few other people attend.”
“That’s good to know. Maybe I should check it out.”
“Absolutely, we would love to have you here.”
It was a great night of fellowship and all of the people were kind and interesting. Already I had made three new friends: Ava, Stephen, and Pastor Doug. This year was really starting to shape up to be something really special.
Over the years, we’ve heard it said—often times aggressively—that creationists aren’t scientists. If a man or woman professes to believe in Jesus Christ and the Bible, he or she is deemed incapable of being scientific! How absurd! Here is one of many examples of such criticism:
"I dispute Henry Morris's claim that thousands of scientists are creationists. No scientist today questions the past and present occurrence of evolution in the organic world. Those ‘thousands of creationists' with legitimate post-graduate degrees and other appropriate credentials are not scientists, precisely because they have abandoned the scientific method and the scientific attitude, criteria far more crucial to the definition of scientist than the location or duration of one's training or the identity of one's employer" --Steven Schafersman, of Rice University's Department of Geology (Geotimes, August 1981, P. 11).
Such statements are easy to come by. Here’s another typical example from noted believer in evolutionism, Richard Dawkins, from Oxford:
“It is absolutely safe to say that if you meet somebody who claims not to believe in evolution, that person is ignorant, stupid, or insane (or wicked, but I’d rather not consider that).”
It’s rather intriguing that one would say such things given that the bulk of what we know of as science today was founded by creationists. In some cases, the claim of “unscientific” is put on a creationist who is a biologist, geologist, or paleontologist or some scientist in a field directly related to evolutionary biology. But, as we can see from the above quotes (and there are many of them to find online), the idea that creationists cannot be scientists or even intelligent for that matter is pushed around as though it’s settled. These people have no idea that they are standing upon the work of some of the greatest minds science has ever known—who just happen to be creationists.
Science is broken up into branches i.e. there are different categories of things that science is involved in. Social science—behavioral and societal. Natural science—physics, chemistry, geology, oceanography, meteorology, biology including zoology and botany. Formal science—logic, mathematics and statistics, even computer science. Applied science—most notably medicine and possibly engineering. We can argue that this field should be called this type or whatever, but the point is that science has different branches. For many of these branches, you will find a creationist at its foundation. For example:
Oceanography: Ben Franklin first scientifically explained the Gulf Stream although men had studied the oceans as long as history goes back. Matthew Fontaine Maury was a believer who published the first text on oceanography.
Geology: Nicolas Steno is credited with 3 defining principles of geology. However, many had described different geologic features and even some processes for centuries before Steno. It was assumed for centuries that the Flood was at least partially responsible for many geologic features. Modern day geologists who are young earth creationists would include Andrew Snelling, Ph.D., Steve Austin, Ph.D., John Morris, Ph.D., Kurt Wise, Ph.D., and Emil Silvestru, Ph.D.
Meteorology (the study of the atmosphere): Aristotle is generally given credit for founding this study. Many creationists have added to its principles and applications including Albert Cologne and Roger Bacon.
Even in biology, the science of life, we find creationists at the foundation like Carl von Linné (Carlus Linnaeus) who founded modern biology and the system of taxonomy we still use in biology today. He is especially credited with his work in modern botany. A subcategory of biology, microbiology, was founded by Anton van Leeuwenhoek who was a creationist. He did not invent the microscope but greatly enhanced its usefulness. Andreas Vesalius is considered the father of the modern study of human anatomy. William Harvey, who first accurately described how the circulatory system works, was a follower of Christ as well. He was also instrumental in the creation of the modern scientific method especially in medicine. Gregor Mendol is credited with great advancements in genetics and modern day botany. Louis Pasteur demonstrated that spontaneous generation is an old wives’ tale. Today, a similar idea, abiogenesis, is a core believe by many atheists. Strangely, that idea was debunked two centuries ago. Another monumental contributor to modern health care is Raymond Damadian. He is a young earth creationist who recently played a role in the Ken Ham/Bill Nye debate. He is the inventor of the MRI which has advanced the practice of medicine more than nearly anything else in the last 30 years. Lyle Johnson, another creationist, developed the Johnsonian telescope for NASA.
Five of the most notable physicists in history (Newton, Faraday, Einstein, Thomson, and Maxwell)were each outspoken in their conviction and faith that the universe was placed here by a Creator. Einstein was not a Christian, but never the less, each of these men knew in their hearts that only a Creator could account for what they knew to be true in science.
We could also note Joseph Lister, Johan Kepler, Robert Boyle, Georges Cuvier, Lord Rayleigh, Charles Babbage, John Ambrose Fleming, Henri Fabre, Lord Kelvin, George Stokes, Robert Boyle, Leonardo Da Vinci, Pascal, Rudolph Virchow, Louis Agassiz and many others.
The truth for the atheist ranting that a creationist is “ignorant, stupid or insane” is that he wouldn't have science in its state today without the moronic creationist. Many of the most brilliant minds who studied the world around them or made major contributions to technological advancement were lovers of Jesus Christ. We only touched on a few of those who made monumental contributions to the study of the world and/or universe. Not only is it possible for a creationist to be a scientist, it seems to actually enhance one's ability to do the work! The awe and wonder of a scientist to want to learn how God created the universe and to study how God set all the various processes we see around us in motion is what fuels the creationist. And since the creationist has it right from the start—that at the start of it all is the God of the Bible—he or she is far more capable of awesome discoveries.
Psalms 14:1 and Psalms 53:1 tells us about the secular scientist. He doesn't stand a chance.
