Kalen Malueg is a friend who ministers to students at Adams State University in Alamosa, Colorado. He is currently sharing a series of thoughts on Worldviews, particularly theism. I will try to gather these posts together at least weekly.
June 7, 2023
Origins.
How we view origins is foundational to the other pieces of our worldview. Christianity: In the beginning God… Atheism: In the beginning Nothing…
Biblical Christianity gives a basis for human value. Genesis 1:27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
The Christian worldview also accounts for what we see: Complexity, Design, Order, Beauty, Life, Consciousness, Logic… And it has plenty of evidence to support it!Atheists look at origins through the lens of naturalism: a philosophical belief that everything arises from natural properties and causes, and supernatural or spiritual explanations are excluded or discounted (Definition from Oxford Languages).
If Atheism is correct about origins, we are mere products of time & chance with no inherent value, no ultimate design, no ultimate meaning, and we cease to exist at death. But if the bible is correct, we are unique, infinitely valuable creations of God made for ultimate purpose and we need to understand our purpose and prepare for the eternity that awaits us.What does biblical Christianity assert about origins?
From Genesis to Revelation (See Genesis 1:1 and Revelation 4:11) and for more than a thousand years in between scripture gives a unified view that God (an immaterial, almighty, infinite, intelligent being) brought time, space, and matter into existence according to His will and design. This matches what we know about causality as stated by the cosmological argument:
1. Everything that begins to exist has a cause.
2. The universe began to exist.
3. Therefore, the universe must have a cause.
The Bible reveals the identity of what philosophers would call “the uncaused first cause”. This cause is God, God in a sense that goes beyond the mythologies and religions of most cultures in biblical times. While other “creation” accounts tell of powerful beings bringing order to or dominating already existing worlds the Bible asserts creation ex nihilo (out of nothing), something confirmed by modern science.