10:01:26 am on
Tuesday 19 Mar 2024

The Builder
M Adam Roberts

There is a pressing question upon my mind that won't let me rest. It is one that has been with me since my youth. It's a mystery beyond my ability to understand, something I can't make any sense of no matter how hard I try.

It's driving me crazy thinking about it!I must know the answer. I need to understand so that my soul can live in peace.

"Who am I? Where did I come from? How did I get here? How can I be? "

It seems ridiculous to imagine that an eternal, supernatural, spiritual being, who never had a beginning, and will never have an end, created us all from the dust of the ground, breathed His breath of life into us, and then placed us here, upon the earth, to serve and worship Him.

There has to be a more logical explanation for our origin and existence than the fairy tale above, right? I mean, "Come on! That's about as naive and childish as believing in Santa Claus and the Easter bunny!No intelligent adult could ever believe a story like that. Or could they?

Besides that, there's another reason that makes the creation story too hard to believe. If an Almighty Creator does truly exist, then why doesn't He just show Himself or speak to us or send us an angel or vision or something to let us know that He is truly real? Wouldn't that make things so much easier on all of us? If He were real, wouldn't you think He would want to ease our minds by just letting us know what's really going on, rather than to keep us wondering our whole lives?

What's with all the mystery? Why cause people to be miserable over trying to understand where they come from and where they're going? Why not just come out and let us know the truth so we can be happy, and full of peace, knowing that our eternal future is safe and secure in Him? Why keep us wondering? Why cause division, and war, amongst all the people of the earth? What could possibly be good about doing that? What's the sense in it?

"Come on!Never once in our life time has the Creator appeared or verbally spoken a single word to any of us. Who is this mysterious Creator? Certainly you would think that He would want his creation to know Him. Why doesn't He just come out and show Himself? "

Many believe that He can't or won't because He isn't real.

Could it possibly be that He is real, and we're just not able to comprehend His existence yet? Maybe there is a logical reason for His silent,. mysterious nature. Maybe we're just blinded to seeing it due to our unbelief. Perhaps it is His will that we freely choose to seek Him on our own. It is a way of proving our love for Him. I don't know! I'm only trying to figure things out, just like you are.

I once read a story about a man who said that there is no way to prove the existence of a creator. Another man, who believed that there was, gave him this proof.

The two men were standing among several tall buildings, in downtown Atlanta, while having this conversation. The believer pointed to one of the skyscrapers, and said to the non-believer.

"Confirm to me that there was a builder for that building." The non-believer said, "That's easy. The building itself is proof that there was a builder."

"You're exactly right." The believer said." You don't just gather some concrete, pipes, windows, paint, wires and so forth , then turn around and look back to suddenly find a building standing there. A building requires a builder. The fact that you can't see, touch, taste, smell or hear the builder of the skyscraper doesn't mean that such a person doesn't exist."

The believer went on to say, "Why is it when we look at Mt. Rushmore, we don't say, "Wow, erosion is an amazing thing! Look how it formed the heads of four presidents of the United States!

We realize that would be a foolish statement because whenever we see creation, design, art or order, it's obvious that there had to be some intelligent force behind it to make it happen.

When we see a house, we know it had to have had someone to assemble it. When we see something that has a design, like a watch, we know it had a designer who planned it. When we see artwork, like a painting, we know that there was an artist that painted it. When we observe order-like say twenty cups lined up in a row-we know that there was an orderer who set them up that way."

When we look around the universe at things not made by man, what do we see? We see creation, design, art, and order. You will never hear of a tornado whipping through a junkyard and leaving a fully formed 747 Jet, a Mercedes, and a skyscraper in its wake. Blind chance can't make that happen.

Imagine this scenario.

Billions of years ago, a dark substance began to evolve from nothing. It came out of nowhere. Then there was a big bang. We don't know what caused the bang or why, but it happened.

As many millions of years passed, this substance developed a fizz to it and became sweet. Millions of years later some aluminum molecules formed from nothing, gathered together, and wrapped themselves around this liquid in the perfect shape of a cylinder. The aluminum then formed a pop top on the cylinder.

Forty or fifty years ago, some red and white paint molecules fell onto the can forming the words "Coca Cola," an expiration date, and a complete list. Wow! That is amazing!

"This universe is infinitely more complex than a can of coke, yet for some reason people are content to believe that it came out of nowhere-that it came from nothing."

I have taken all of the above quotes from an interesting book that I read titled, "One Heartbeat Away," written by Mark Cahill.

The book is full of interesting material and I would recommend everyone read it. I believe you will find it most entertaining and enlightening.

I have delayed in writing this article for over a year now because I knew it had the potential to be a very long, drawn out, controversial subject. There are dozens of scientific facts and references I could go into to support my belief in the theory of creation. Of course, I do not have the time or space to do that here in this brief letter.

One final fact I would like to mention before closing is that living matter cannot come from non-living matter. This is a proven, scientific fact. Life can arise only from pre-existing life and will only perpetuate its own kind. This is known as the law of Biogenesis.

Knowing that life can only come from another source of life, and knowing that life can only perpetuate its own kind, where did the first life in the universe come from?

In conclusion, I must admit that as difficult as it is for me to believe that I have been wonderfully made, hand-crafted, and created for a specific reason, by an intelligent, supernatural creative being, it takes greater faith for me to not believe it than it does for me to believe it.

I'm as frustrated with the whole mystery of life and creation dilemma as everyone else is. I definitely don't have all the answers. I just believe in my heart that, somehow, it is true, and this gives me peace and hope for the future.

If there truly is a builder of the universe, and I originate from His very own eternal life source, and if it is true that I was created in His very own likeness, then maybe there is purpose to my life after all!

Maybe, as the Bible says, I was created for a very specific reason. Why else would an Almighty, all-knowing, eternal creator build me in the first place?

If it is true that the universe was created, rather than something that just popped up out of nothing, and nowhere, then there must be a plan, and a purpose, for you.

M Adam Roberts lives and writes from Clearwater, Florida.

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