by Ruth Olujobi
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.”
Genesis 1:1-4, 26-27, 31 NIV
I’m sitting in my Biology class on the second day of the semester and while my professor introduced the class and all we’d be covering, he got to evolution and made a brief remark that alluded to creationism. “Some people say they don’t believe in evolution. Well, do they believe in an atom?”
Huh? Really? “Well, what a way to start off this class”, I thought.
Since that remark, I haven’t stopped thinking about the intersection of creationism, God, and science. I was pretty sure there was a connecting thread, but finding all the ways it connected was where I hadn’t found a way to properly articulate.
In another class, we were discussing the intersection between “religion” and science in our world today. I’m emphasizing religion because I think when it’s mentioned in these kinds of classes, it’s not usually mentioned as a way of life, like how we Christians see it, but like some foreign concept that only ignorant people believe. Being in both classes in the same semester meant that I had to intentionally choose to stand firm on my Christian beliefs, regardless of our discussions in class, as well as reflect on how God has been teaching me to see his hands in science.
I grew up in a religious community where you were either a Christian or Muslim. To help you understand the depth, I could almost always tell a person’s religion by their name. So, finding people who identified as not belonging under those two (umbrella) religious branches was certainly not common. As a result, I don’t recall any time in my childhood where I had to “defend” creationism. Everyone in my closest circle kinda agreed on it, something like an unspoken rule. I recall conversations with my immediate older brother where he would tell me how he had these kinds of conversations with non-believers at his university. I knew that I would eventually have these conversations as I grew older, but I didn’t know where or at what scale. Coming to Bowdoin’s definitely meant that I would have to engage in these kinds of discussions in and out of class. It’s been almost two years now and although I still have a lot to understand, I have learned so much about how our world is a masterpiece created by the greatest scientist Himself- GOD!
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). This verse stands at the beginning of the Bible – simple, direct, and powerful, and constantly resurfaces in a similar manner throughout the entire book. Isaiah 45:12 says “I made earth and created man on it”; Jeremiah 10:12 says “But God made the earth by his power; he founded the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by his understanding”; and even Revelation, the last book of the Bible, says in the 11th verse of its fourth chapter “You are worthy, our Lord… for you created all things and by your will they were created and have their being”. All these verses are a testament to the fact that God, the master scientist, created the world.
Sometimes I ask myself whether I believe this because I grew up believing it, but no, I believe this because I can feel God’s presence all around me in nature, I see him when I look at the way the waves of the ocean move so powerfully, I hear him when I hear the melodious singing of the birds or the rhythmic movement of the branches on thousands of trees in a forest, I feel him when I feel the tingle on my skin from the warmth of the sun. I see him everywhere! The Bible succinctly captured this when it said “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities —his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made so that people are without excuse” (Romans 1:20) With my academic interests in STEM, God has been helping me see how he himself is the “brain” behind that field. From the incredible details in a DNA strand to the sheer precision with which every cell, tissue, organ, and system in our bodies work, it almost feels too clear that there had to be an intentional design.
For me as a Christian, knowing that I was created, and did not just appear randomly, gives my life so much meaning. The Bible tells me that I am created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26), I am “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalms 139:14) and that I am “God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10).
Even in the midst of extreme pain and agony, Job testified that “the Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life” (Job 33:4). Isn’t it great to know that we were created with such care and attention, and not mass produced like some robots? This realization gives me a sense of purpose, a reminder that I was created by God to fulfill specific tasks here on earth. But I recognize that this entire concept of creation might just be too hard to grasp. We truly can not do this on our own, we need God’s help. The Bible tells us that “by faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible” (Hebrews 11:3). Without this faith, we simply would struggle with understanding that there is a being, far bigger and majestic, that our human minds can simply comprehend. And how do we get this faith? – it “comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). This means that growing our faith means we’ll have to take active steps in reading and learning from God’s word.
There honestly is no better way to grow our faith except by going to the one who is the giver of all faith. And so, I know that I don’t have to choose one over the other, it’s not God or Science, God vs. Science, but God AND Science, as a sticker from a conference I attended earlier this year rightly put. I walk proudly in the acceptance that I am a created being, not an afterthought or a random appearance in the universe. I sit proudly in my labs, knowing that God is the greatest scientist of all times, and that I can come to him when I need help. I stand proudly in the midst of nature, basking in the fact that God created the trees, the birds, the ocean, the ants, the caterpillars, the sun, and everything we can and cannot see. God’s spirit takes expression in my life and I feel absolutely blessed to be made in his image. Have you accepted this reality and His place in your life yet?