"It took years of battling insecurity before I had the courage to venture out into hostile territory and look hard at contradictory teachings, and now I am the better for it."
The Intellectual does not take popular Christianity very seriously, and for good reason. Pastors and evangelists, in the froth of the moment, misquote, misunderstand and make ridiculous assertions that have not been well researched or thought out. It would be better to say nothing at all than proclaim inaccurate information. There are many respected Creation Scientists in all fields of study, but unfortunately when it comes to media, oratorical talent wins over educational excellence. This has not furthered our Christian voice among the intellectual community.
Jimmy Swaggert falsely claimed that on Darwin’s death bed, he had a change of heart and denounced evolution proclaiming: "How I wish I had not expressed my theory of evolution as I have done!" Untrue, and of course the press was all over it. Today in Kenya the Pentecostal fundamentalists are pressuring Kenya's national museum to backstage its world-famous collection of hominid bones that apparently point to man's evolution from ape to human. Again, the church looks foolish and insecure, as if we have something to hide. If creation is true there is no need to hide a fossil or muzzle science, which is the lazy response.
Very few Christians are willing to invest the time necessary to properly “be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have”, 1 Peter 3:15, or even have enough accurate information to answer honest inner doubts and therefore protect their own faith. Most people I talk to have derived the sum total of their evolutionary information from nature shows or the bits they remember taught in school, which for the most part had more to do with propaganda than hard science. “Being prepared to give an answer,” in the 21 Century means turning off the TV and exercising the brain. Satan cannot take away the capacity for great thought but he can dummy us down through empty, addictive media.
One may say, you never win a soul by winning an argument. That’s simply not true. There are genuine stumbling blocks people have, real questions that with a little afford, can be easily answered. Paul did this in Athens with the Greeks, and argued effectively with Jewish teachers of the law. Stumbling blocks were removed and those who were honestly seeking God came to faith.
Although born a thinker, when I first came to faith I felt a great insecurity delving into the study of man’s origins. Christ rescued me from a chaos of drug addiction and self-destruction, if it was all a lie, I had everything to lose. He came in like a lover and swept me off my feet. I felt everyone in my life had failed me, Jesus promised to never fail and I bought it unconditionally. I feared to risk an unbiased look at scientific fact, petrified that I might find that, that which saved my life was only a well contrived shared dilution created by those who were too weak to face their own mortality. I decided to cash in my brain and surround myself with frothy rhetoric, safe generalizations and Christian cliché. I created a disconnect between science and faith, the brain and the heart. I withdrew from talking about my faith with nonbelievers, hid in the Church and edited my reading and watching to only those things which agreed with my belief system. My faith become fragile, the outside world was dark and threatening. Of course this kind of disconnect can never endure the rigors of daily living. An unshared, unchallenged faith mutates into subjectivity like mold growing in the dark.
It took years of battling insecurity before I had the courage to venture out into hostile territory and look hard at contradictory teachings, and now I am the better for it. Although I have a lifetime of glorious learning ahead of me I now feel well-muscled to match wits with any who would dare challenge the scientific truthfulness of the Genesis story.
When Freedomyou first went live, most health and fasting websites were owned by the New Age. That made me angry. God is being robbed of His glory. Who created the microscopic marvels of the bioflavonoid, antioxidant and phytochemical? It became my passion that Freedomyou would develop into the largest free information Christian website on fasting, health and nutrition, all proudly pointing to the God of Health as Creator. When someone Google’s Juice fasting, compulsive eating, bioflavonoids, flax oil, quinoa recipes, antioxidants, inner healing, etc., they may arrive here and discover not a silly New Age spiritual potpourri pointing in all directions, or cold lifeless humanism pointing to despair—instead they will be introduced to the God of Creation.
It’s time to work hard and take back what belongs to God! With a little study, the Christian seeker will quickly discover there is no need to be insecure about faith in the Genesis story.
Check out these Resources: http://www.discovery.org/, http://www.reasons.org/, http://www.answersingenesis.org. I’m a busy guy so one of the ways I get some convenient education is to listen to their podcasts while driving to work, grocery shopping, or any other mundane activity.
Related Article: Creation vs. Evolution Debate – Five Learning Points at a Glance