Creation in Missouri
Prof. Andy McIntosh corresponds on his recent visit to the USA
600-700 people, mainly students, came to the Castleman Hall of the University of Missouri in Rolla for a meeting on Design in Creation. Randy Dudik (the campus minister) and Diane his wife looked after the arrangements well. Randy had specifically asked me to address thermodynamics, so I spent time getting this woven into the talk.
It was so encouraging to have many students still talking up to an hour afterwards. There were a good many believers present, some of whom had been undecided on evolution. Others I think were sympathetic – perhaps from Christian homes – but had come to find out more.
One lad thanked me. He was studying biology and now realised he had answers for his teacher (I hope he puts them graciously!). I stressed that new machinery never arises from mutations of old; you only get a subset of the original.
The book I kept stressing was John Sanford’s brilliant book Genetic entropy and the mystery of the genome. He shows that beneficial mutations are so rare as to be effectively non-existent.
Roots
Another group present was anti- the message I was giving, but I was surprised with the paucity of their arguments. One public question was: ‘OK, who made this designer [God]?’
This is a weak debating position, since it invokes either infinite cause and effect or an infinite, transcendent God (as in the Bible). The latter is of course the answer.
The evening closed with emphasising that Christ is not only the Creator, but also our great Redeemer. They listened attentively and many evangelistic booklets went at the end.
A fellow Brit, Rod Butterworth, then kindly drove me to Bolivar Southern Baptist Church, where Gary Urich is pastor. I received a most kind Southern welcome; and they suffered my colonial jokes, like, ‘Where is the tea from Boston Harbour?’
It was a joy to share six sessions with them over the weekend. The connection of Creation with evangelism was particularly appreciated. The Bible is the basis for a correct understanding of all subjects – ethics, law, history, art, everything. ‘Of him, through him and to him are all things’ (Romans 11:36).
I flew back to the UK realising that though we in Europe may think North America doesn’t need the Creation message, there is a spiritual battle going on across that nation and the importance of awakening the church to its scriptural roots is essential.
