THE BIG CREATION MYTH. The Bible tells the story of how God, a personal agent, created man from inorganic matter (the dust of the earth). Many today reject this creation story as myth. They’ve opted for a newer account. In this new story man still ultimately arises from inorganic matter, but not directly. Only one creature did this originally—some one-celled organism—and that creature set off a whole chain of events ultimately leading to man. I would be inclined to believe this newer creation myth, if it did not require so much faith. Let me explain. I don’t know much about microbiology. But I do know more about the cell than Charles Darwin did. I know that most eukaryote cells have a cell membrane that encloses fluid (cytosol) containing a variety of organelles, including, ribosomes, lysosomes, golgi bodies, mitochondria, smooth and rough endoplasmic reticulum, vacuoles, nucleolus, nucleus, and, of course, DNA, among others. Now I’m told that the cell is like a factory where different tasks are performed by different machines within the walls of the building. And I know this about factories: When one part fails or is missing, the whole operation grinds to a halt. The factory fails to produce what it’s supposed to produce. For me, I have no problem in believing in single self-replicating cells. It happens all the time with amoebas, paramecia, euglena, and the like. But where I start to doubt the new creation myth is how it all started. This myth requires I believe in a self-assembling factory that somehow (no one knows how) brought together all its components (the organelles) and wrote its own operating instructions (DNA) all without the help of any personal agency. Now that takes a lot of faith! Every believer, Christian or materialist, has his or her own creation story. But once you remove personal agency from the mix, you end up with a pretty fanciful story—the big creation myth!
Posted on: Fri, 25 Apr 2014 23:55:09 +0000