The Origin of Our Origins
A Summary of Godly Origins: Worldviews Collide
by
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The Book of Genesis in the Bible presents God, Elohim, and a history of our origins. One has to believe in God and whether the Bible is true. There is poetry and allegory in the Bible, but Genesis is history. It is written as a historical narrative, not as poetry or allegory.
Jesus and others in the New Testament confirmed that Genesis is the history of our origins. For example, Jesus, speaking to the Pharisees, quoted from both Genesis, Chapter One, and Genesis, Chapter Two. He replied, “And he answered and said, Have ye not read, that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh?” (Matthew 19:4-5, ASV.)
Discussions about our origins come down to faith in a basic belief, or beliefs, about the world in which we live. For example, some major worldviews start with belief in:
1 The infinite/personal God of the Bible (Elohim/Jesus), Creator and Redeemer.
2 The gods of Chance (Tyche, The Big Bang, Ebisu, Evolution, Fortuna, Gad, etc.).
3 The personified gods (Dagon, Jupiter, Nature, P'an Ku, Odin, Vishnu, etc.).
4 The gods of Destiny (Ananke, Determinism, Necessitas Fate, Natural Law, etc.).
5 The indefinite, mystical gods (Brahman, Life Force, The Great Spirit, etc.).
The Biblical Worldview
The Christian worldview starts with the God Who reveals Himself in the Bible, which consists of the Old and New Testaments. The Bible presupposes an infinite/personal God, Elohim/Jesus. It reveals Elohim’s character, describes His power, and His interactions with His creation, especially with mankind.
From the start, the Biblical Worldview makes historical and universal claims. For instance, one outworking of the Biblical Worldview is that Elohim made mankind in His image, separate from the animals. Another scientific and historical claim is that there was a worldwide flood.
God commands that we “love the Lord thy God” and then to “love thy neighbor as thyself” as Jesus states in (Mark 12:30-31, KJV). All other worldviews, with their own historical and universal claims, oppose the Biblical Worldview in whole or in part. Hence, we have collisions of worldviews, often using scientific words.
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About the Book
There is no conflict between the Bible and science that is evidence-based. The conflict is between belief in the Biblical Worldview and belief in a non-biblical worldview. If a claim about nature is not testable or observable and then confirmable, it is not science.
Evolution requires belief. In his On the Origin of Species (1859), Charles Darwin wrote about his “belief in the transmutation of species” (p302), that “The theory of natural selection is grounded on . . . belief” (p320), and that he believed we descended from one common ancestor (p484).
Darwin believed in evolution because he had no evidence. He admitted that “the whole volume is one long argument” (p459). Observations show that biological change is limited and research indicates that evolution is/was not by chance mutations. Additionally, chance does not cause anything. It is a philosophical term and may not even exist.
Finally, experiments have repeatedly shown that life does not arise from non-life. Similarly, we did not descend from stardust either. Besides violating the principle of cause and effect, astronomical discoveries are proving that the Big Bang is science fiction. Like evolution, chance, and life from non-life, the Big Bang has to be believed.
About the Author
By God’s grace, Dr. McMullen earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering at Washington State University, a Master of Science degree at Southern Methodist University, and a Master of Arts and a Ph.D. in the History and Philosophy of Science at Indiana University with minors in History and Religious Studies.
He conducted research at the now Air Force Rocket Laboratory, Edwards Air Force Base, California; the then Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, Livermore, California; and the then Aerospace Research Laboratories, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. He has taught at four different universities, including the Air Force Institute of Technology, Air University; Indiana University, Bloomington campus: and the University of Oklahoma, Norman campus.
He and his wife Sharon met at the then Air Force Rocket Propulsion Laboratory in 1964 and married a year and a half later. Their son was born at Edwards AFB, and they adopted a daughter in Dallas. Two grandchildren were born in California, two in Virginia, and one in Pennsylvania. At the moment, they have four great-grandchildren. The author was raised in the church, but in college, went his own way. God called him back to Himself through Jesus Christ in 1969. He has striven to live more biblically since then.