A Helpful Question to Raise in the Creation/Evolution Debate

When a Christian tries to witness in today's culture, one option is to quote the Bible as the answer to any and all questions that may be raised about the Christian faith and related topics. While the words of the Bible may have power in them, we live in a culture where many people have called all truth into question. "Even if there may be something called truth, we are not able to discover it," is the general answer to any claims that the believer has the truth that a particular person needs to hear. That comment is often followed by the statement that "Your truth may work for you, but it's irrelevant to me."

There are times when the more helpful procedure may be to raise a question and allow the other person to deal with it. In the area of origins, and the creation versus evolution debate, one such question is attributed to the philosopher Martin Heidegger, who called the question "the most fundamental issue of philosophy." His question was, "Why is there something rather than nothing?"

When I was teaching Bible courses in a Christian high school, I came across something called, "A Few Good Answers." It was a list of basic questions and the possible answers to them. One question was, "Where did the universe come from?" Three possible answers were given: (1) It has always existed. (2) It came about through evolution. (3) It was created.

The late astronomer and scientist, Carl Saga, in his book, Cosmos, wrote that "the cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be." (page 4). One is tempted to ask, "Well, okay, but where did it come from?" Has it always existed? Was there a time when there was nothing and then came the cosmos? Sagan had no way to prove his assertion; it was a statement of "faith."