MORE than a thousand people jostled for the exits. Many appreciative murmurs were heard as to the excellence of the lecture. The speaker had clearly delighted his audience.

This was puzzling. It was plain that the lecturer had been in command of his subject. He was obviously a brilliant scholar and an able chap. Much of what he had said, however, had been beyond my grasp. His vocabulary left me wanting a dictionary. I could not keep up with some of his arguments.

I began to wonder about my own intelligence. Was I really so stupid? Had all these people been able to follow the lecture? Was I the only on left behind in my ignorance.

I questioned one or two about the evening, It quickly became apparent that I was not alone. Many of them had not understood it all either. In fact, some of those moving towards the doors were declaring their simplicity too. "Wasn't it good?" the said, "right over my head"!
It's a bit like the king's new clothes. Do you remember the children's song about the king's invisible suit? No-one wanted to look foolish by admitting they could not see it. It was the naivety of a little boy who revealed the truth that the king was in the nude!

It is sometimes like that with things scientific. No-one likes to admit their ignorance. Instead we look up in admiration to those better qualified. We respect the educated and feel sure they must be right. It sounds good even if it is over our heads!

Blind Chance
Sadly, all too often, it is true that many of us are "blinded with science". The nudity of the theories is not exposed. Evolution is such a theory. If carefully examined, it has little to recommend it. It is bankrupt for ideas in piecing together how our world might have come into existence.
It suggests that the world has developed by chance. Yet it leaves many gaps. It supposes a long line of coincidences leading from one sort of creature to another. Yet it is quite unable to account for the many links between them that do not exist.

Today's theories began life in Darwinism. That set out to provide an alternative to creation by God. It began from a standpoint of unbelief in Genesis. The theory has been built on from there.

Created or Evolved?
It has been bolstered up by various "finds", usually of parts of animals. The dating of these finds has cast doubts on a literal acceptance of Creation story. In disputing the idea of creation in six days, many have dismissed the complete story. That is called "throwing the baby out with the bathwater"!

From this vantage point evolution has been widely taught. It has often been presented as fact. It has found its way into schools and into the minds of schoolchildren. However, it acceptance by so many does not make it true. It is still theory.

The situation has been made worse by compromise. Well-meaning religious people have tried to meet the evolutionist half-way. They have suggested that God was the force who set in motion the process that others call evolution.

This will not do. It dilutes the simple teaching of the Bible. The things that God made did not develop gradually over thousands of years. Each one was a specially made creation.

Real Science
Science is good. The manipulation of scientific facts by biased unbelievers is not good. Science has at present no facts which disprove the Bible's claims.

Even from a common sense point of view evolution has nothing in its favour. I have a piano in my home. It works when someone presses the ivory keys. They, in turn, raise little wooden hammers covered with felt. These strike wires stretched tightly between metal pins on a sounding board. The wires have to be of different lengths and thicknesses in order to make all the various notes.

The piano did not come into existence by accident. It was carefully thought out and designed. It has no doubt been improved from the design of earlier pianos. In this sense it has developed. But no improvement has taken place without someone being responsible for it. The developments have also been thought out and planned.
This is true of anything that is made. Where there is design there has to be a designer.

Occasionally my car breaks down. I would be a fool to put it in my garage and hope it gets better. Cars do not repair themselves. If they need attention, someone who knows about such things has to attend to them.

The theory of evolution makes no more sense than that. Yet thousands accept it. They believe that somehow, sometime, somewhere, the odds were such that it must have happened. They believe it happened not just once but time after time after time after ...

Sight, language, man's ability to reason, his sense of beauty, his reproductive system are all miracles in themselves. Such things could not all have happened by accident. Nor could the accident then have been repeated over and over ad infinitum. They are things that betray design. They are perfectly fitted for a particular purpose. Awareness of them should make us question further. Admiration should lead us to want to know more. The planner, designer, builder of things so fantastic ought to arouse our interest and awe.

The Bible says:-
"For since the creation of the world his (God's) invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they (men and women) are without excuse…"
(Romans 1:20)

This means that there are things about God which are normally invisible. These are such things as His power and Godhead. Even these invisible things can be seen! They can be "seen" by being understood through things that God has made.

"When I Consider The Heavens"
Nature can teach us that there is a God. It shows a powerful force that has created. That same force keeps things going. It sustains. Wherever we live, nature's evidence of God is close by. In the window box or the garden; town centre landscaping or countryside; household pets or birdsong outdoors, there is a witness. It speaks of design, order, beauty, power and precision.

This evidence for God leaves us with no excuse. We ought to be finding out about Him. Nature can help us so far. It cannot tell us what God wants from us. That's where we need the Bible. The Bible tells us why God made the earth.

Of course, it can be argued that no-one knows what happened at creation. No-one was there to see it. The answer to that objection is that God knows what happened. He told Moses. Moses wrote it down in the book of Genesis. There are scientists who accept this and believe in God. Even unbelieving scientists agree that Moses has the order right. The chance of his doing this accidentally are put at nearly one in 40 million. That suggests to me that Moses did not guess. He knew!
It seems harder to accept the theories of men than the simple statement of Genesis: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."

Creation is not the only Bible story people doubt. There are plenty of other examples of the "king's new clothes" syndrome. People have accepted the word of others they felt should know. Or they have assumed that people speak with more authority than they do.

Myths or Reality
In this way there have arisen countless myths about the Bible. Nowhere does the Bible say that there were three kings who visited Jesus shortly after his birth. The ark was not a boat. It was not designed to sail, only to float. Angels appear as men and don't have wings. The Bible does not contain the phrase "immortal soul" anywhere. It is not the Bible's teaching that money is the root of all evil. The Bible says that it is the love of money which is at the root of so many troubles.

Once again reliance on what others say proves to be a mistake. Popular opinions, even the teaching of those who should know, are no basis for faith. There is an urgent need for personal seeking to find what is true and what is false.

And this is a matter of life and death. 