Author : Wayne S. Walker
“For in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.'” (Acts 17:28).
As the “offspring” of God, man has a unique relationship to the Creator as His children in a sense that nothing else on this earth has. In this article, I want to look at some more reasons why I believe in God that relate to the mind of man which God gave to His offspring.
Man has an aesthetic nature. He has the capacity to appreciate and enjoy that which is beautiful and lovely. This is one basis for David’s argument in Psalm 19:1-6. “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork…” Such a concept is based on the existence of beauty and sublimity in the universe. Would animals want us “…To give them beauty for ashes” (Isaiah 61:3)? There is not a cow nor a monkey who could be moved by a gorgeous sunset, a fine painting, or an exquisite orchid. Animals simply do not possess this capacity. Man alone is capable of defining and describing beauty.
Again, man is inherently religious. He must regard something higher than himself. Indeed, history and anthropology demonstrate that all nations on the face of the earth have a seemingly inborn desire to do some kind of service to a higher being or power. Of course, some worship the one true God (Deuteronomy 6:4-5). Others choose to worship someone or something else (Joshua 24:14-15). Men may not always worship Jehovah, but worship they will. Again, the most primitive societies worship a god or gods or something they consider supreme. Even the atheistic evolutionist regards a higher power. He acknowledges “science” as supreme. But animals have no concept of religion. Ants do not build altars. Fish do not offer sacrifices. Birds do not hold religious services. Horses do not have religious rites. So where did man obtain this religious nature and these other qualities which the animals just do not have?
According to evolution, plants and animals are supposed to represent life forms that are lower on the evolutionary scale than man, with all present-day forms having descended from earlier forms. But again we must ask, if none of these qualities is found even in animals, who are supposedly related to us by common ancestry, then where did we get them? The evolutionists’ answer for years with the Lamarkian theory of acquired, inherited characteristics. It was alleged that our ancestors developed them in response to their environment and then passed them on to their offspring through heredity. However, there are a couple of problems with this explanation. First, it is now known that characteristics received from the environment are not passed on through reproduction. Life Magazine, March 16, 1947, reported that “Modern genetics has proven the theory of acquired characteristics false.” The reason is that such changes are only somatic or related to the outer body, not genetic.
Second, there is nothing in the environment to necessitate such characteristics in man to begin with. If there were, why did not at least one other life form also develop at least one of these characteristics somewhere along the way? Other theories such as natural selection, genetic mutation, orthogenesis, and polyploidy have similar holes in them as well and just cannot explain the differences in men and other life forms. The fact is that evolution cannot even explain the origin of man’s existence, let alone his unique human nature. The law of reproduction says that of human beings (and for that matter how did a pair happen to evolve?) come from and obtain these characteristics to pass them on their offspring?
Since evolution cannot answer these questions, what is left? The Bible’s answer is God. The Bible tells how man came into being and received those characteristics which set him apart from the plants and animals. “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:27). Certain traits of God — morality, rationality, aesthetics, and spirituality — were given to man when God created him as an immortal spirit. Thus with David we can exclaim, “I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made…” (Psalm 139:14).
