St Paternus Parish Church North Petherwin

The how, when and why of life.

If you ignore the opinion of modern-day scientists, who consider that life on Earth is the work of pure chance encounters of a sub-atomic kind (such as in Quantum Physics), then we must consider the overriding alternative; that God created everything, from the tiniest sub-atomic element to the ever-expanding Universe. Within that spectrum, God created planet Earth; a perfect place to live, for vegetation, wildlife and human beings. Without the bountiful produce that God ensured Earth would supply, there would be no life; there would be no us.

Despite the huge amount of time and money spent on stellar observation, no evidence has yet been found of any planetary body that is anything like Earth. This points to the distinct possibility that Earth, with all its life forms, including us, is unique.

But when was this fantastic creation brought about by God? This is difficult to answer. The Bible is not clear, but it certainly gives the impression of it being a long time ago, but nowhere near as far off as science indicates, saying that Earth was formed approximately 4.5 billion years ago, whilst the point of creation, the Big Bang, occurred 13.8 billion years ago, out of a VERY tiny explosion . Science cannot say what caused this tiny explosion. I have also read a hypothesis which suggests that the Universe was formed out of nothing at all. Surely that is not possible, unless God was the creator.

When writing about Adam and Eve, the Scribes of the Bible tell us that, first of all, God created the heavens (I should say 'Universe', to be clear, since Heaven is not out there in Space). How he did this is, is way beyond my comprehension but, if you follow the Bing Bang idea, it could well be by a form of catalytic reaction, with one cosmic event leading to another. All this, of course, is still going on and will probably last forever. At some point though, he set about making our planet Earth the paradise that it is today. Whether he created the fundamental structure of our planet and its perfect position in the Solar System by design, or whether he searched around for such a planet, is a point worth serious contemplation, but either way he had an ideal planet to work with. Once he was satisfied that it had developed well enough to provide support, he created the life that is all around us, both on land, in the air and in the sea. But the pinnacle of all this creation is humankind, God's ultimate reason for creating Earth.

But why?

It may be that only God knows the full answer to this question. Perhaps, to us mere mortals, it can only be answered by interpretation and conjecture. Even so, let's give it a try.

In Genesis (Chapter 1 Verses 26-28), we are told that God created us, in his own image, to rule over the land and the sea. But does this tell us why? To me, it just says, and I paraphrase, "There you are. I've created you and your environment. Now enjoy life, be fruitful and make sure you look after the beautiful home I've given you."

So, let's keep on asking. Delving deeper and much further on into the Bible, we come across Psalm 139. This wonderful psalm tells us that God knows everything about us; what we are thinking, what we are doing and going to do, that he knew us even before we were conceived and that he knows a myriad of other things about us, many of which we probably don't know ourselves. I must admit that I find this extremely unsettling but also, paradoxically, extremely comforting.

Moving on into New Testament territory, we read in John, Chapter 3 Verse 16, that "God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life". As wonderful and deep-meaning this statement is, it still doesn't tell me why we were created.

In the book of Mark, in Chapter 12 Verse 17, we come across something Jesus said to a group of Pharisees and Herodians when they asked him if it was right that they should pay taxes to Caesar. Mark tells us that Jesus's answer was very clear. Using a coin as an example, he points out that it has the image of Caesar on it, so it is rightly owned by him and so should be given back to him when asked to do so. Likewise with God, Jesus said. Since we are created in God's image, we should give back to him what is his; this being ourselves and everything we do.

This last sentence is profound. It tells us exactly what we are. We belong to God, every one of us, and that everything we do is for him. Jesus couldn't have made it clearer.

But, to me, this still doesn't answer the question why God created us.

But do we need to know why? Indeed, are we meant to know why?

Ken.

PLEASE NOTE . This and all other entries in 'News and Notices' are usually listed in order of date published or amended.

St Paternus Parish Church North Petherwin

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