Genesis Challenges Naturalism
by Terry Wane Benton
The opening chapters of this revelation to Moses defied the premises of naturalism and superstitious paganism. Genesis announced to the Israelites who saw the Red Sea open for them and close on the Egyptians that the same God was the One who originally created the heavens, earth, and all manner of life. Moses writes Genesis to get the Israelites, who had been slaves in Egypt for a long time, to begin separating from their thoughts the phony and superstitious gods of Egypt and understand the Almighty Creator God who also delivered them. There has always been one Almighty Invisible Creator, and all the gods made by human hands were no gods at all.
One thing we can realize from the claim that God created all things is that it makes as much sense as the fact that “every house is built by someone” (Hebrews 3:4). Observational knowledge makes us aware that no house builds itself. Every house is built by someone, and from that we can easily discern that this universe did not build itself, and life did not build itself.
Put all the parts of a house in close proximity, nails, boards, electric wire, fixtures, plumbing, sockets, shingles, etc. Just watch “nature” work to build that house on its own. Well wait! In time, it will assemble itself, won’t it? Give it a million years! Surely we could see a house in a million years? Well, no! What we have now is the wood rotted away, the nails rusted away, and nature did nothing but destroy the parts. No house ever builds itself. You will need an intelligent designer and worker to build the material into a functioning house. Naturalism is not an argument for a house, and a house is not nearly as complex as a living cell.
Genesis postulates that only God could have started our universe of space, time, and matter, as He is outside of space, time, and matter, and only He is living and eternal, the two qualities that must be eternally self-existing in order to create our universe and life.
Genesis is a testimonial declaration that nature itself had a start, but nature could not and did not start itself. The claim of God is not the proof of God, but the claim with the evident design and functionality of the house (our heaven and earth with intelligent life) is proof of the claim: “every house is built by someone” (Hebrews 3:4), and naturalism is but an empty claim with no proof.
We don’t have to see or know who built the house to know that the order and design show a living intelligence was at work, and naturalism wasn’t.
