http://www.godtube.com/grannysue1/blog/view/20787 Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 at 12:32PM.
You know, on paper sometimes the theory of evolution makes pretty good sense. But dont you find theres this nagging doubt in your heart that tells you this place couldnt have possibly come into existence all by accident? How in the world does a cosmic accident develop to the point where we can generate nuclear power? What can we learn from a literal piece of Einsteins brain? Albert Einstein continues to hold an incredible fascination for the rest of us mere mortals. Each year, scholarly books are written about his theories. Professional conferences are held to discuss his achievements. And new technical works are presented that debate the unanswered questions Einstein raised about the nature of space and time. Not only has Einstein enjoyed considerable popularity in scientific circles, but he has also been the subject of popular media, as well. In 2005, Jean-Claude Carriere wrote a novel called Einstein, Sil Vous Plait (or in English, Please, Mr. Einstein). Walter Matthau played Einstein in the film I.Q. Alan Lightman wrote a novel called Einsteins Dreams. And comedian Steve Martin did a whole play about Einstein. Einstein was the subject of Philip Glass 1976 opera Einstein on the Beach. And an Australian filmmaker named Yahoo Serious (no kidding, thats his real name) made a movie called Young Einstein. You know, at last count, if you type in Albert Einstein on Amazon.com, more than 27,000 titles will come up, everything from Einsteins Universe and Relativity Made Plain to a book called 365 days of Baby Einstein. And by the time you hear me say this and check the website for yourself, I guess there will be even more. Every year TIME magazine has its annual Man of the Year award. But in 1999, it did something unusual. It named Albert Einstein Man of the Century. And of course, I didn�t even need to tell you that in order for you to know that Einstein is basically a household name. But few people know much about him, except for the fact that he came up with E=mc2. If you dig into it, there are all sorts of fascinating stories around his life, especially his early years. For example, few people realize that Einstein was a very late talker. Even at nine years of age, he wasnt fluent in his native German, and his parents feared that he might be mentally deficient. He wasnt a particularly good student, either. According to Einstein biographer, Ronald W. Clark, when his father asked Alberts schoolmaster what profession his son should pursue, the schoolmaster replied, Well, it doesnt matter. Hell never make a success of anything. Imagine that Albert Einstein destined to be a failure. In 1895, at the age of 16, Albert Einstein took the entrance examination for the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. And he passed with flying colors, right? Wrong. He was a miserable failure. He flunked. But then this not especially good schoolteacher, who was serving as a minor civil servant in a patent office in Berne, Switzerland, wrote four papers on physics that literally changed the way we look at the universe. And back then, I somehow doubt that anybody could have grasped just how profoundly Einstein was about to change the world. In fact, in 1921, a young student approached Einstein, by then already world-renowned, and said that he believed that from Einstein�s formula, E=mc2, you could actually split the atom and create a nuclear weapon. Einstein just brushed him off told the young man it was foolishness and he didnt want to talk about it. But you and I know that about 24 years later, nuclear weapons were invented based on Einsteins formula, and we entered the nuclear age for better or for worse. Now, I�m not going to pretend to be able to explain all of Einstein�s theories in half an hour. But lets take a stab at the basics. Lets say we have a pair of twins, Hans and Louie. Now, Hans loves planes and rockets, and all his life he has wanted to be an astronaut. But Louie is different because he doesnt even like heights. In fact, he doesn�t even like looking out of a second-story window. These two brothers grow up. Hans becomes an astronaut and Louie becomes an accountant. When both boys turn 20, Hans takes off on a 30-year mission in a rocket that can travel near the speed of light, which as you might remember from high school, is a little more than 186,000 miles per second, which means that at that speed, you could go around the world seven times in one second. So the brothers say goodbye and Louie watches his brother Hans blast off in the rocket. The years go by, Louie gets married, he has kids, he gets gray hair and wrinkles and a little arthritis in his knee, and a little bit of a belly. And after 30 years, Hans returns from space. Louie runs outside to meet him, but he cant believe what he sees. Louie is 50-years-old, but Hans doesn�t look any older than the day he left. In fact, according to Hanss calendar, hes only been gone two years. Now how can that be? Well, I cant exactly explain how, except that Einstein taught that when you get close to the speed of light, time slows down. And so, what was 30 years for Louie only felt like two years for Hans. Now I know thats hard to wrap our minds around, but that�s the way a lot of people interpret the theory of relativity. And that theory gave us explanations for the universe that filled in some of the gaps in Newtons discovery of the laws of gravity. Now try to picture this scene. Heres young Einstein in the midst of looking at other peoples patents for things like mousetraps or dog collars. And while he�s working, he figures out that the faster you move, the slower time goes. And, according to the math, Einstein appears to be right. So no wonder people are obsessed with his brain. What a brain it was! A few years later, Einstein�s brain came up with another theory even more complicated than the one we just looked at. The only problem was that this new theory needed experimental verification. And because of World War I, it was going to be a few years before it could be done. In the meantime, someone asked Einstein, Suppose the experiment proves your theory wrong? And Einstein said, So much worse for the experiment. The theory is right. You know something? It was right, and our understanding of the world has never been the same ever since. Now, of course, Einsteins story has its flipside, too. One woman tells the story of Einstein at a fancy black-tie party given in his honor. All these people were there, tuxedos and gowns, a very formal thing. And, at one point, the woman saw Einstein sitting there in his tuxedo. When he crossed his legs she noticed something strange. Einstein, the genius, wasn�t wearing any socks. On another occasion, a person who lived in the same town as Einstein said that someone wearing a hat and sunglasses approached him on the street and asked for directions to a house. Now, that wouldnt be strange except for the fact that the house was Einsteins, and the person asking was also Einstein. In spite of his genius, he couldnt find his own house. No wonder the fascination with Einstein and Einsteins brain such genius and eccentricities all rolled up into one. And the fascination with Einsteins brain took a ghoulish twist soon after he died. The doctor who did the autopsy actually stole Einsteins brain. Thats right. He stole it and supposedly kept it for medical research. And rumor also has it that an ophthalmologist got Einsteins eyes, and would occasionally bring them out at parties to amuse his guests. I know its hard to imagine, but sometimes people do some pretty strange things. Anyway, the doctor who stole the brain never did any real research on it. Supposedly, over the next 30 years, he gave out pieces to his friends and other researchers. But toward the end of his life, the doctor�now probably feeling just a little bit guilty got in touch with Einsteins closest relative, a granddaughter living in California, and decided to return what was left of the brain. A journalist named Michael Paterniti heard about it and offered to drive the doctor, living on the East Coast, all the way to California. The doctor accepted the offer and Paterniti wrote a book called Driving Mr. Albert, all about this cross-country trip with the remains of Albert Einsteins brains sloshing around in a Tupperware container filled with formaldehyde in the trunk of a Buick Skylark. But the most interesting part of this story is when Paterniti sat in the car with Einsteins granddaughter in front of her apartment building. They opened the Tupperware container and she picked up a few of the pieces of the brain. And, with her grandfathers brain in her hand, she commented how they could perhaps make some nice jewelry out of it. And then she said something very interesting. With the greatest brain of the modern era right there in her hand, she said, So this is what all the fuss is about? Here they were holding in their hands the literal place where some of the most profound and world-changing ideas in history were formed. And you just have to ask, Could Einstein, with all of his genius, all of his ideas, and his passions, really be limited to this simple brain matter? Those rills and crevices of neurons and fibers that were sitting in their hands; is that really what all the fuss was about?In the end, was Albert Einstein nothing but a bit of physical matter, a body of flesh and bones, a lump of gray brain matter and nothing more? For that matter, is that what we are? Purely physical beings existing only because of purely physical laws that give off emotions, ideas, art and creativity�kind of the way a stomach gives off peptic acid? Are we just a physical phenomenon, the motion of atoms, the synthesis of proteins, and the flow of blood and hormones? Is that all Albert Einsteins genius was the flow of chemicals and atoms? Could you find the secret of Einsteins genius just in the physical structure of his brain? Well, if you want the answer to that question, you have to answer the question of human origins. If were just the chance products of physical forces alone, as many scientists and philosophers are telling us, then I guess thats all we could be, just physical beings living in a physical world with nothing transcendent above or beyond us. And if modern science is right, I am afraid thats the conclusion we have to come to. Just think about what your high school textbooks told you about the origins of human life. Billions of years ago, they say, there was this massive explosion. Hot globules of matter formed all over the universe. Some of those globules, including the stuff that made our Earth, cooled down and condensed. Over time, warm pools of water formed, and in them simple proteins and amino acids mysteriously emerged. And over time, somehow, they turned into primitive life. Over millions and millions of years, this primitive life evolved in a vicious battle of survival of the fittest, and eventually, among other things, they turned into Einsteins brain. Now, of course, that kind of thinking leaves you feeling just a little bit empty. I like how socialist Peter Burger phrased it. Theres really nothing very funny about finding oneself stranded, alone, in a remote corner of a universe bereft of human meaning. Theres also nothing funny about the idea that this fate is the outcome of the mindless massacre that Darwin, rather euphemistically, called natural selection.You know, I have to agree. It is not very funny, not at all. French biologist and atheist Jacques Minot wrote: The ancient covenant is in pieces. Man knows at last that he is alone in the universes unfeeling immensity, out of which he emerged only by chance. His destiny is nowhere spelled out, nor is his duty. The kingdom above or the darkest below, it is for him to choose.I am not quite sure just where Mr. Minot thinks hes going to find a kingdom above in a godless universe where we all emerge by chance. But all that aside, if I accept his idea that if we are, indeed, alone in the universe, I think Id start to feel a little pessimistic myself. But I dont accept that view, not at all. I have a totally different and totally incompatible view of human origins. I believe were here because of a loving Creator the God revealed in the pages of the Bible. He created us and breathed into us what the Bible calls, in Genesis 2, The breath of life. I believe were here not because, In the beginning, cold, mindless, uncaring forces created the heavens and the earth I am here because, as the Bible says (Genesis 1:1): In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.I believe that were here not because of evolution or natural selection or genetic mutation, but because God said in Genesis, chapter one (Genesis 1:26-28):Let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.It is the only thing that really makes sense. It gives us that meaning in life that we all crave so badly. There is a reason for our existence. Somebody wanted us here. And because that someone is our Creator, I worship Him. Now, directly tied in with this idea of a God who created us is the question of morality. If we accept the atheist view of our origins, then we have to admit that ideas like good and evil or right and wrong are nothing but human concoctions; the products of our culture. And if you accept that morality as something invented by human beings, you run into a pretty big problem. If one culture says it is okay to throw young virgins into an active volcano in order to appease the gods of the underworld, then who is allowed to say that it is wrong? By what authority can they possibly critique that behavior? What gives one culture the right to judge the moral codes and traditions of another culture, especially if we all came into existence by random chance? What basis do you really have for morality? The answer, it seems, is none at all.But again, I dont buy it. Not only do I believe in a Creator God, but I also believe in a moral God, a great lawgiver who gave us a perfect moral code and it is far from being an outdated set of dos and donts its from some ancient outmoded religion. The Ten Commandments still remain Gods standard for right and wrong today. There are laws that make sense. I mean, think about the first commandment, because it fits right in with what weve been talking about. It says very simply, You shall have no other gods before me. And why would that be the first commandment? It is really simple. It is because there are no other gods. The Creator God is the one who made us, and so, logically, Hes the one we should worship. Right from the start, with the first commandment, God sets the foundation for everything that follows. He has to come first in our lives because everything we have comes from Him. The famous political activist, Bertrand Russell, spent time in jail back in 1918 for his opposition to World War I. During a regular prison routine, his jailer, just wanting to strike up idle conversation, asked Russell what his religion was. He replied that he was an agnostic. So the jailer, who wasnt the brightest bulb on the tree, looked a little bit puzzled and then brightened up saying, Well, I guess it is all right. We all worship the same god, dont we?Well, to be honest, we dont. Now, I know that flies in the face of popular thinking, and maybe its not cool to say that kind of stuff in a global village. But there really is only one God, the God who created the world. And because Hes the Creator, He has the right to be first in our lives. Thats why, when asked about the greatest commandment, Jesus said (Matthew 22:37-38): You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment.And, of course, thats something you just cant do if you have other gods that come ahead of Him. Youll notice, too, that Jesus said this was the first commandment. But doesn�t the first commandment say, you shall have no other gods before me? Well, yes, and that�s exactly the point. Jesus is basically interpreting the first commandment, saying that it means you will love the Lord your God with everything you have. I know this man no need to name him. I know this man who has been married for a number of years. On the surface, it all seemed fine a nice family man with a wife and children. Well, it turns out, much to our shock, that over the years the man had a series of lovers on the side. And, of course, when his wife found out, she was angry and devastated. So you can imagine how she felt when he tried to explain that in spite of all those other women, he still loved her with all his heart, soul and mind. And, of course, she rejected that kind of thinking, because when you love someone with everything you have, theres no room for someone else. And that�s kind of the way it is with God. It is an exclusive relationship. And it is a relationship that makes really good sense. Just listen to this passage found in Daniel, chapter five (Daniel 5:23): The God who holds your breath in His hand and owns all your ways.I hope you caught that, the God who holds your breath. That means God didnt just make you, He actually keeps you alive. He is the God described in the New Testament like this (Acts 17:28-29): For in Him we live, and move, and have our being.In this God we live, we move, we have our being our very existence and thats why He has to come first. He has to be loved with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. And thats the first great commandment in Gods moral law. So, of course, if you�re a natural human being, youre going to ask the question: Whats in it for me? It might seem like a selfish question, even an inappropriate one, but I know were still going to ask it. And the good news is that Gods law, from beginning to end, was actually written for your good. Just think about the logic in that first commandment. If there are no other gods, and the Creator God holds your life together, dont you think it makes pretty good sense to walk in step with Him? Everything you have, absolutely everything, comes from Him. And even after you threw it all away, He paid the ultimate price to give it back. And He wants to give you more. He wants to give you better things. In fact, He has a remarkable plan for better living. Go into any bookstore and check out the self-help section. Youll find hundreds, maybe thousands of books, and some of them are pretty good. But not one of them comes anywhere close to the kind of living youll enjoy when you mold your life to fit Gods moral guidelines. They were, after all, developed by the One who made you in the first place. The Ten Commandments paint a picture of a remarkably loving God. And to live by those principles, you dont need a brain like Einsteins. Your brain will do just fine. You want to know the really neat thing about your brain? You can use it to talk to God. So why dont we do that right now? PRAYER:Father in heaven, as we look at the way you formed us, and at the world you gave us, it is evident that youre a God of love. And today we want to give you our allegiance, our love. We want to worship the Creator God. Take our sinful lives, reshape them in the image of Christ, forgive our sins, we pray, and lead us into the kingdom of God. For we ask it in Jesus name, Amen. Scriptures Used in Einstein's BrainIn the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.Genesis 1:1 Let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.Genesis 1:26-28 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment.Matthew 22:37-38 The God who holds your breath in His hand and owns all your waysDaniel 5:23 For in Him we live, and move, and have our being.Acts 17:28-29
You know, on paper sometimes the theory of evolution makes pretty good sense. But dont you find theres this nagging doubt in your heart that tells you this place couldnt have possibly come into existence all by accident? How in the world does a cosmic accident develop to the point where we can generate nuclear power? What can we learn from a literal piece of Einsteins brain? Albert Einstein continues to hold an incredible fascination for the rest of us mere mortals. Each year, scholarly books are written about his theories. Professional conferences are held to discuss his achievements. And new technical works are presented that debate the unanswered questions Einstein raised about the nature of space and time. Not only has Einstein enjoyed considerable popularity in scientific circles, but he has also been the subject of popular media, as well. In 2005, Jean-Claude Carriere wrote a novel called Einstein, Sil Vous Plait (or in English, Please, Mr. Einstein). Walter Matthau played Einstein in the film I.Q. Alan Lightman wrote a novel called Einsteins Dreams. And comedian Steve Martin did a whole play about Einstein. Einstein was the subject of Philip Glass 1976 opera Einstein on the Beach. And an Australian filmmaker named Yahoo Serious (no kidding, thats his real name) made a movie called Young Einstein. You know, at last count, if you type in Albert Einstein on Amazon.com, more than 27,000 titles will come up, everything from Einsteins Universe and Relativity Made Plain to a book called 365 days of Baby Einstein. And by the time you hear me say this and check the website for yourself, I guess there will be even more. Every year TIME magazine has its annual Man of the Year award. But in 1999, it did something unusual. It named Albert Einstein Man of the Century. And of course, I didn�t even need to tell you that in order for you to know that Einstein is basically a household name. But few people know much about him, except for the fact that he came up with E=mc2. If you dig into it, there are all sorts of fascinating stories around his life, especially his early years. For example, few people realize that Einstein was a very late talker. Even at nine years of age, he wasnt fluent in his native German, and his parents feared that he might be mentally deficient. He wasnt a particularly good student, either. According to Einstein biographer, Ronald W. Clark, when his father asked Alberts schoolmaster what profession his son should pursue, the schoolmaster replied, Well, it doesnt matter. Hell never make a success of anything. Imagine that Albert Einstein destined to be a failure. In 1895, at the age of 16, Albert Einstein took the entrance examination for the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. And he passed with flying colors, right? Wrong. He was a miserable failure. He flunked. But then this not especially good schoolteacher, who was serving as a minor civil servant in a patent office in Berne, Switzerland, wrote four papers on physics that literally changed the way we look at the universe. And back then, I somehow doubt that anybody could have grasped just how profoundly Einstein was about to change the world. In fact, in 1921, a young student approached Einstein, by then already world-renowned, and said that he believed that from Einstein�s formula, E=mc2, you could actually split the atom and create a nuclear weapon. Einstein just brushed him off told the young man it was foolishness and he didnt want to talk about it. But you and I know that about 24 years later, nuclear weapons were invented based on Einsteins formula, and we entered the nuclear age for better or for worse. Now, I�m not going to pretend to be able to explain all of Einstein�s theories in half an hour. But lets take a stab at the basics. Lets say we have a pair of twins, Hans and Louie. Now, Hans loves planes and rockets, and all his life he has wanted to be an astronaut. But Louie is different because he doesnt even like heights. In fact, he doesn�t even like looking out of a second-story window. These two brothers grow up. Hans becomes an astronaut and Louie becomes an accountant. When both boys turn 20, Hans takes off on a 30-year mission in a rocket that can travel near the speed of light, which as you might remember from high school, is a little more than 186,000 miles per second, which means that at that speed, you could go around the world seven times in one second. So the brothers say goodbye and Louie watches his brother Hans blast off in the rocket. The years go by, Louie gets married, he has kids, he gets gray hair and wrinkles and a little arthritis in his knee, and a little bit of a belly. And after 30 years, Hans returns from space. Louie runs outside to meet him, but he cant believe what he sees. Louie is 50-years-old, but Hans doesn�t look any older than the day he left. In fact, according to Hanss calendar, hes only been gone two years. Now how can that be? Well, I cant exactly explain how, except that Einstein taught that when you get close to the speed of light, time slows down. And so, what was 30 years for Louie only felt like two years for Hans. Now I know thats hard to wrap our minds around, but that�s the way a lot of people interpret the theory of relativity. And that theory gave us explanations for the universe that filled in some of the gaps in Newtons discovery of the laws of gravity. Now try to picture this scene. Heres young Einstein in the midst of looking at other peoples patents for things like mousetraps or dog collars. And while he�s working, he figures out that the faster you move, the slower time goes. And, according to the math, Einstein appears to be right. So no wonder people are obsessed with his brain. What a brain it was! A few years later, Einstein�s brain came up with another theory even more complicated than the one we just looked at. The only problem was that this new theory needed experimental verification. And because of World War I, it was going to be a few years before it could be done. In the meantime, someone asked Einstein, Suppose the experiment proves your theory wrong? And Einstein said, So much worse for the experiment. The theory is right. You know something? It was right, and our understanding of the world has never been the same ever since. Now, of course, Einsteins story has its flipside, too. One woman tells the story of Einstein at a fancy black-tie party given in his honor. All these people were there, tuxedos and gowns, a very formal thing. And, at one point, the woman saw Einstein sitting there in his tuxedo. When he crossed his legs she noticed something strange. Einstein, the genius, wasn�t wearing any socks. On another occasion, a person who lived in the same town as Einstein said that someone wearing a hat and sunglasses approached him on the street and asked for directions to a house. Now, that wouldnt be strange except for the fact that the house was Einsteins, and the person asking was also Einstein. In spite of his genius, he couldnt find his own house. No wonder the fascination with Einstein and Einsteins brain such genius and eccentricities all rolled up into one. And the fascination with Einsteins brain took a ghoulish twist soon after he died. The doctor who did the autopsy actually stole Einsteins brain. Thats right. He stole it and supposedly kept it for medical research. And rumor also has it that an ophthalmologist got Einsteins eyes, and would occasionally bring them out at parties to amuse his guests. I know its hard to imagine, but sometimes people do some pretty strange things. Anyway, the doctor who stole the brain never did any real research on it. Supposedly, over the next 30 years, he gave out pieces to his friends and other researchers. But toward the end of his life, the doctor�now probably feeling just a little bit guilty got in touch with Einsteins closest relative, a granddaughter living in California, and decided to return what was left of the brain. A journalist named Michael Paterniti heard about it and offered to drive the doctor, living on the East Coast, all the way to California. The doctor accepted the offer and Paterniti wrote a book called Driving Mr. Albert, all about this cross-country trip with the remains of Albert Einsteins brains sloshing around in a Tupperware container filled with formaldehyde in the trunk of a Buick Skylark. But the most interesting part of this story is when Paterniti sat in the car with Einsteins granddaughter in front of her apartment building. They opened the Tupperware container and she picked up a few of the pieces of the brain. And, with her grandfathers brain in her hand, she commented how they could perhaps make some nice jewelry out of it. And then she said something very interesting. With the greatest brain of the modern era right there in her hand, she said, So this is what all the fuss is about? Here they were holding in their hands the literal place where some of the most profound and world-changing ideas in history were formed. And you just have to ask, Could Einstein, with all of his genius, all of his ideas, and his passions, really be limited to this simple brain matter? Those rills and crevices of neurons and fibers that were sitting in their hands; is that really what all the fuss was about?In the end, was Albert Einstein nothing but a bit of physical matter, a body of flesh and bones, a lump of gray brain matter and nothing more? For that matter, is that what we are? Purely physical beings existing only because of purely physical laws that give off emotions, ideas, art and creativity�kind of the way a stomach gives off peptic acid? Are we just a physical phenomenon, the motion of atoms, the synthesis of proteins, and the flow of blood and hormones? Is that all Albert Einsteins genius was the flow of chemicals and atoms? Could you find the secret of Einsteins genius just in the physical structure of his brain? Well, if you want the answer to that question, you have to answer the question of human origins. If were just the chance products of physical forces alone, as many scientists and philosophers are telling us, then I guess thats all we could be, just physical beings living in a physical world with nothing transcendent above or beyond us. And if modern science is right, I am afraid thats the conclusion we have to come to. Just think about what your high school textbooks told you about the origins of human life. Billions of years ago, they say, there was this massive explosion. Hot globules of matter formed all over the universe. Some of those globules, including the stuff that made our Earth, cooled down and condensed. Over time, warm pools of water formed, and in them simple proteins and amino acids mysteriously emerged. And over time, somehow, they turned into primitive life. Over millions and millions of years, this primitive life evolved in a vicious battle of survival of the fittest, and eventually, among other things, they turned into Einsteins brain. Now, of course, that kind of thinking leaves you feeling just a little bit empty. I like how socialist Peter Burger phrased it. Theres really nothing very funny about finding oneself stranded, alone, in a remote corner of a universe bereft of human meaning. Theres also nothing funny about the idea that this fate is the outcome of the mindless massacre that Darwin, rather euphemistically, called natural selection.You know, I have to agree. It is not very funny, not at all. French biologist and atheist Jacques Minot wrote: The ancient covenant is in pieces. Man knows at last that he is alone in the universes unfeeling immensity, out of which he emerged only by chance. His destiny is nowhere spelled out, nor is his duty. The kingdom above or the darkest below, it is for him to choose.I am not quite sure just where Mr. Minot thinks hes going to find a kingdom above in a godless universe where we all emerge by chance. But all that aside, if I accept his idea that if we are, indeed, alone in the universe, I think Id start to feel a little pessimistic myself. But I dont accept that view, not at all. I have a totally different and totally incompatible view of human origins. I believe were here because of a loving Creator the God revealed in the pages of the Bible. He created us and breathed into us what the Bible calls, in Genesis 2, The breath of life. I believe were here not because, In the beginning, cold, mindless, uncaring forces created the heavens and the earth I am here because, as the Bible says (Genesis 1:1): In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.I believe that were here not because of evolution or natural selection or genetic mutation, but because God said in Genesis, chapter one (Genesis 1:26-28):Let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.It is the only thing that really makes sense. It gives us that meaning in life that we all crave so badly. There is a reason for our existence. Somebody wanted us here. And because that someone is our Creator, I worship Him. Now, directly tied in with this idea of a God who created us is the question of morality. If we accept the atheist view of our origins, then we have to admit that ideas like good and evil or right and wrong are nothing but human concoctions; the products of our culture. And if you accept that morality as something invented by human beings, you run into a pretty big problem. If one culture says it is okay to throw young virgins into an active volcano in order to appease the gods of the underworld, then who is allowed to say that it is wrong? By what authority can they possibly critique that behavior? What gives one culture the right to judge the moral codes and traditions of another culture, especially if we all came into existence by random chance? What basis do you really have for morality? The answer, it seems, is none at all.But again, I dont buy it. Not only do I believe in a Creator God, but I also believe in a moral God, a great lawgiver who gave us a perfect moral code and it is far from being an outdated set of dos and donts its from some ancient outmoded religion. The Ten Commandments still remain Gods standard for right and wrong today. There are laws that make sense. I mean, think about the first commandment, because it fits right in with what weve been talking about. It says very simply, You shall have no other gods before me. And why would that be the first commandment? It is really simple. It is because there are no other gods. The Creator God is the one who made us, and so, logically, Hes the one we should worship. Right from the start, with the first commandment, God sets the foundation for everything that follows. He has to come first in our lives because everything we have comes from Him. The famous political activist, Bertrand Russell, spent time in jail back in 1918 for his opposition to World War I. During a regular prison routine, his jailer, just wanting to strike up idle conversation, asked Russell what his religion was. He replied that he was an agnostic. So the jailer, who wasnt the brightest bulb on the tree, looked a little bit puzzled and then brightened up saying, Well, I guess it is all right. We all worship the same god, dont we?Well, to be honest, we dont. Now, I know that flies in the face of popular thinking, and maybe its not cool to say that kind of stuff in a global village. But there really is only one God, the God who created the world. And because Hes the Creator, He has the right to be first in our lives. Thats why, when asked about the greatest commandment, Jesus said (Matthew 22:37-38): You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment.And, of course, thats something you just cant do if you have other gods that come ahead of Him. Youll notice, too, that Jesus said this was the first commandment. But doesn�t the first commandment say, you shall have no other gods before me? Well, yes, and that�s exactly the point. Jesus is basically interpreting the first commandment, saying that it means you will love the Lord your God with everything you have. I know this man no need to name him. I know this man who has been married for a number of years. On the surface, it all seemed fine a nice family man with a wife and children. Well, it turns out, much to our shock, that over the years the man had a series of lovers on the side. And, of course, when his wife found out, she was angry and devastated. So you can imagine how she felt when he tried to explain that in spite of all those other women, he still loved her with all his heart, soul and mind. And, of course, she rejected that kind of thinking, because when you love someone with everything you have, theres no room for someone else. And that�s kind of the way it is with God. It is an exclusive relationship. And it is a relationship that makes really good sense. Just listen to this passage found in Daniel, chapter five (Daniel 5:23): The God who holds your breath in His hand and owns all your ways.I hope you caught that, the God who holds your breath. That means God didnt just make you, He actually keeps you alive. He is the God described in the New Testament like this (Acts 17:28-29): For in Him we live, and move, and have our being.In this God we live, we move, we have our being our very existence and thats why He has to come first. He has to be loved with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. And thats the first great commandment in Gods moral law. So, of course, if you�re a natural human being, youre going to ask the question: Whats in it for me? It might seem like a selfish question, even an inappropriate one, but I know were still going to ask it. And the good news is that Gods law, from beginning to end, was actually written for your good. Just think about the logic in that first commandment. If there are no other gods, and the Creator God holds your life together, dont you think it makes pretty good sense to walk in step with Him? Everything you have, absolutely everything, comes from Him. And even after you threw it all away, He paid the ultimate price to give it back. And He wants to give you more. He wants to give you better things. In fact, He has a remarkable plan for better living. Go into any bookstore and check out the self-help section. Youll find hundreds, maybe thousands of books, and some of them are pretty good. But not one of them comes anywhere close to the kind of living youll enjoy when you mold your life to fit Gods moral guidelines. They were, after all, developed by the One who made you in the first place. The Ten Commandments paint a picture of a remarkably loving God. And to live by those principles, you dont need a brain like Einsteins. Your brain will do just fine. You want to know the really neat thing about your brain? You can use it to talk to God. So why dont we do that right now? PRAYER:Father in heaven, as we look at the way you formed us, and at the world you gave us, it is evident that youre a God of love. And today we want to give you our allegiance, our love. We want to worship the Creator God. Take our sinful lives, reshape them in the image of Christ, forgive our sins, we pray, and lead us into the kingdom of God. For we ask it in Jesus name, Amen. Scriptures Used in Einstein's BrainIn the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.Genesis 1:1 Let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.Genesis 1:26-28 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment.Matthew 22:37-38 The God who holds your breath in His hand and owns all your waysDaniel 5:23 For in Him we live, and move, and have our being.Acts 17:28-29
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