Creation Spotlight
Daddy is There Really a God?
Is the title of a book that got one woman very upset at me while I
was doing a program at a school. She came up to me incensed that I
would have a book with a title that would cause any child to question
the existence of God. As so often happens when taken by surprise by
criticism, I didn't have an answer right then, but it caused me to
think about the issue. I came to the conclusion that she misunderstood
the problem.
What she failed to realize is that children very early hear about
disbelief in the Bible. Whether it is explicit rejection of the Bible
from programs on PBS or the Discovery Channel or is implicit rejection
in movies like "Land Before Time", children learn early that there are
people who consider the Bible to be nothing but foolish myths. The
question isn't, are they going to hear that some people reject God and
the Bible, but how do you prepare them for hearing it? In a
conversation with a young man I asked him if he believed the Bible was
God's Word? He said "yes". Then I asked why? He thought for a minute
and answered, "because my parents told me so". What his answer revealed
was how he had never been taught what the facts were about God and the
Bible. His answer also showed how vulnerable he was to a cult or
atheist propaganda. What he had never been taught were how the facts
show the truth about God and the Bible. This teaching is called
apologetics, but what it simply means is giving to people, young and
old the tools to successfully deal with a world that is hostile to God
and the Bible. In Hosea 4:6 God says, "My people are destroyed for lack
of knowledge". We need to love God with our minds as well as our
hearts. In 1 Peter 3:15, Peter tells us, "But sanctify the Lord God in
your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that
asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear."
This teaching of a reason for the hope that is in you needs to happen
early and continue throughout life. Not only is the question, "Daddy is
there really a God?" a question you need to be able to answer, you
should be the one who starts the conversation. You should be teaching
your children or students to be able to give reasons for believing in
the reality of God and the truth of the Bible. I can remember in the
4th and 5th grades having conversations with other students about God
and I had many questions about the issues involved before that.
Unfortunately no one ever taught me that there were reasons to believe
and for many years I didn't.
One of the best things about this whole issue is that there is so much
evidence for God in His Creation. Below are two examples that can be
used to show design and are appropriate for ages from 6 years old and
up.
DNA - you can relate this amazing example of complex and compact
information storage as an example of design even to the very young by
using the analogy of directions for assembling a toy or plans for a
house. In neither case can these happen by accident.
Mousetrap - this has become an instant classic first introduced
by biochemist Michael Behe to show how even a simple device cannot
function unless all the parts are fully formed and in place from the
beginning. It is an example of how the individual parts had to be
designed with the whole object in mind, something that could never
happen by accident.
The above are just two, of numerous examples, that you can use from
every day life to encourage people, young and old, to see the world as
a place where only intelligent design by God makes sense.
