Ask the right question
Editorial
Recently, a friend invited me to his farm in an area where hundreds of volcanoes once erupted. We visited a quarry, looked at some ash and lava, drove to the top of a volcanic cone, and surveyed the vast, rich farmlands across the volcanic-soil landscape.
For a long time, he had been fascinated and puzzled by the rocks on his property. “From what I have learned there is no way this world formed in six days just six thousand years ago.” As we looked around his farm, we discussed questions that had bothered him for years. I explained how the landscape was formed by the events of Noah’s Flood, and how the volcanoes had erupted after the Flood finished. The questions kept coming, “But the earth can’t be that young because … .”
Eventually I said, “We need to look at the bigger picture. That will help us ask the right questions.” Then I explained, “It’s a radically different way of looking at the world. The wrong approach is to treat each problem in isolation and say, ‘The Bible can’t be right because of xyz.’ Rather, we need to consider the broad view and ask, ‘How do we explain xyz from a biblical perspective?’ When we do that, it gives us clues as to the sorts of areas we need to investigate.” As we chatted about how this approach helps answer questions, he seemed quite encouraged.
Some will think this is being biased, but everyone works this way, whether they realize it or not. Those who believe in evolution over millions of years do not abandon their belief because of contradictory evidence. They just ask the question, “How does this problem fit into the evolution story?” They will shelve a problem for years believing that one day someone will find a solution.
For example, the article about dwarf galaxies (p. 40) reports a discovery that contradicts the long-age big-bang cosmology. These galaxies should have random orbits, but they don’t. But the researchers do not speak about abandoning belief in the big bang. They just keep working on ways of explaining the contradiction, within the big bang.
When we use the biblical perspective, we work the same way. For example, if animals and people were created at the beginning as the Bible says, then dinosaurs and people would have lived at the same time. We would expect to find evidence of this, but such evidence is not widely known. However, we don’t dismiss the Bible. We look, and we find there is lots of evidence. Vance Nelson (pp. 12–15) has been documenting how, for years, ancient people have been depicting dinosaurs, e.g. in carvings, etchings, pottery, and embroidery.
As another example, what are we to think, when we see displays in museums and textbooks detailing human evolution? To think people were created fully human six thousand years ago would seem absurd. But, when we do our own investigations, as Peter Line has done (pp. 22–25), we find that the evidence supports Adam and Eve as our ancestors, not apes.
The message is clear. Don’t accept something because the TV says so, or because you read it on an official sign somewhere. Do your own investigation. Creation magazine will greatly help. Learn how every aspect of your world makes sense when viewed through the lens of biblical history—rocks, fossils, genes, animals, people, culture, plants, stars, geography—and you. Enjoy this, your latest issue, and, when you have finished, share it with someone you know, and care about.
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