Running head: IN THE BEGINNING

In the Beginning

Clarice Hester

Arizona State University

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Abstract

In this paper I will discussion the different beliefs/theories surrounding the creation of the

universe and everything in it. I will define creationism, evolution, and intelligent design. I will

discuss my own personal beliefs and why I believe to have ideas about something no one was

there to witness requires a leap of faith.

Keywords: Intelligent design, creationism, evolution, God, Christianity, science, religion,

leap of faith
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In the Beginning

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, (Genesis 1:1) or maybe he

didnt. There are a lot of beliefs and theories and people who think they have all the answers to

questions like: ho are we? How did we get here? And why are we here? Everyday all of us are

faced with these questions. Most people make the executive decision to ignore them, put them

off until you cant sleep and need something to think about. Some people look to religion to

solve these problems. They put their trust in a higher power and believe that that thing or person

or whatever, created them and gave them a purpose and a place to live. Others take a more

scientific route. They say to hell with God and trust only what they can see, what they can prove.

They believe in the Big Bang and evolution. And then there are those of us, myself included, that

fall somewhere in the middle. Were called subscribers of intelligent design.

Creationism is the believe that God (most often the Christian god) created the universe

and everything in it. I would consider these people to be the most devout Christians; the ones

who truly believe God hates gays and burn chairs after menstruating women sit on them. They

are the Christians like Pastor Clay Gentry who say that Genesis 1:1 is the first test of faith in the

Bible and that to deny it is to deny God himself (Gentry, 2013).

Evolution/the Big Bang are the theories that say an anomaly created the universe. By

chance, all the galaxies, all the solar systems, and all the planets suddenly came into existence. A

single cell organism on a planet with just the right atmosphere, with just the right amount of

water on a planet just the right distance from just the right sun divided and evolved again and

again until we got all the plants, animals, and people that ever were and ever will be.
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Let me give a name to the followers of the above theory, just as the followers of

creationism have a few: atheists. I wont get into a sweat about the details of atheism and

agnosticism and even further into the details of global versus local atheism...or perhaps I should:

agnostics are pretty much just skeptics; they dont think there is a God, but they arent totally

discounting Him either. Local atheism was a concept a tad too convoluted for me to grasp and

global atheism is the complete and total absence of any sort of religion (Draper, 2017).

Intelligent design is a sort of middle ground between the two classic beliefs. Intelligent

design is the belief that attempts to combine science and religion and says that a supreme being,

God, higher power, whatever you want to call it, got the ball rolling, so to speak, and evolution

took care of the rest. This is a very controversial belief for a plethora of reasons. According to

the University of Berkeley intelligent design cannot be considered a scientific theory because no

one was there to witness the beginning of the universe and the results cannot be replicated (N.A,

N.D). The Bible itself even has something to say about so called lukewarm Christians: I know

your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because

you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth (Revelation

3:15-16). This essentially means that God looks down upon the lesser devout. This poses quite

the dilemma for Christians such as myself who consider ourselves to be very devout, but simply

cannot deny the overwhelming evidence against the story of the seven days and Adam and Eve.

I have this very vivid memory of watching a documentary where several scientists were

interviewed about their take on religion. Now I either made this up entirely or it is just extremely

difficult to find, but I remember one of the scientists saying something to the effect of, I am a

woman of science and a child of God. That quote really stuck out to me and is something I have
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always identified with. And then I did the research for this essay and I really had to look inward

and question the beliefs I was brought up with.

In the end, whatever I chose to believe, whatever anyone chooses to believe, whether it

be science or religion, it all takes a leap of faith. It takes a leap of faith to read the testimonies

from the five hundred women who claimed to have seen Jesus Christ, alive and well, after he had

been crucified and buried in his tomb and chose to chalk it all up as hogwash. It takes a leap of

faith to look at the mounting evidence of evolution and the missing links between primates and

humans and chalk all that up as fake news.

I guess what Im trying to say is the next time you find yourself in a heated debate with

your atheist senior English teacher, or the next time you find yourself trying explain mitosis to

someone sporting a What Would Jesus Do? tee shirt, try and remember that were all just

making one big guess. And whatever someone wants to think about how we got here and what

happens to us after we die, it is their own Goddamn business...pun heavily intended.

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References

Draper, Paul. Atheism and Agnosticism. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2017

Gentry, Clay. In the Beginning God. Sermoncentral, 2013.