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Epilogue
- Johns Hopkins University Press
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103 There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. albert einstein m y time spent as a youth worker in the Presbyterian Church has been one of the most enjoyable and rewarding experiences of my life. Students ask some very challenging questions. One that has come up fairly regularly is: Where is the evidence of God in the world today? We read about his works and his miracles in the Old and New Testaments, and they sound amazing and wonderful, but these miracles—from the burning bush and plagues of Egypt to Jesus’s turning water into wine, healing the sick, raising the dead—all happened 2,000 or more years ago. What proof do we have that God is alive and with us now? Epilogue 104 the prism and the rainbow Perhaps one way to look at evolution is as the answer to that vexing question. What more tangible, palpable evidence could a Christian ask for than to know that the earth’s species—ourselves included—are still changing, still being modified, still evolving? To know, in other words, that God’s work is still being done? And that the evidence is right here in front of us, staring us in the face, in the form of clear, unambiguous biological, physiological, geological, physical, chemical, astronomical, and paleontological data, easily available to us through the lens of science? The “random chance” part of life that is so frightening to the creationists and ID advocates should be seen in a far different light: Despite the incredible odds against it happening, despite the fragility of life, despite the vagaries of biological evolution, occurring as it did over millions of years, with all the attendant mutation, recombination, luck (chance), selection, and more—we are here. And surely, in anyone’s book, that should fall under the heading of miraculous.1 Rather than looking at evolution as a conspiracy or invention of evil scientists, which it clearly is not, or as a threat to your faith, which it also is not, look at it as you look at everything else that is part of this wonderful, incredible world around you, a world waiting to be discovered, a world that we are instructed to appreciate and understand repeatedly in Holy Scripture: look at it as part of God’s world. [52.23.201.145] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 15:23 GMT) This page intentionally left blank This page intentionally left blank ...