| Theologians give God credit for not only creating the universe, but doing it with a purpose--giving Glory to himself. Also, as can be seen here, many do not see a conflict between science and the Bible. | |
Quotes from well known theologians.... |
Pictures of what was created.... |
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The created universe is all about glory. The deepest longing of the human heart and the deepest meaning of heaven and earth are summed up in this: the glory of God. The universe was made to show it, and we were made to see it and savor it.
--John Piper -(From "Seeing and Saying Savoring Jesus Christ, page 13)
I don't think that there's any conflict at all between science today and the Scriptures. I think that we have misinterpreted the Scriptures many times and we've tried to make the Scriptures say things they weren't meant to say, I think that we have made a mistake by thinking the Bible is a scientific book. The Bible is not a book of science. The Bible is a book of Redemption, and of course I accept the Creation story. I believe that God did create the universe. I believe that God created man, and whether it came by an evolutionary process and at a certain point He took this person or being and made him a living soul or not, does not change the fact that God did create man. ...whichever way God did it makes no difference as to what man is and man's relationship to God.
--Billy Graham -(From "Personal Thoughts of a Public Man," Billy Graham, 1997, pp. 72-74) Even though the concept of warfare between science and religion still has much popular credence, we should disabuse ourselves of the notion that we have to choose between the two, or that if you want to be a Christian you will have to be in conflict with science. A majority of scientists consider themselves deeply or moderately religious--and those numbers have increased in recent decades. There is no necessary disjunction between science and devout faith. --Timothy Keller -(From "The Reason for God," Timothy Keller, 2008, p. 92) Some people, in order to discover God, read books. But there is a great book: the very appearance of created things. Look above you! Look below you! Read it. God, whom you want to discover, never wrote that book with ink. Instead He set before your eyes the things that He had made. Can you ask for a louder voice than that? --St. Augustine -(From http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/show/36421 ) [T]he Spirit has manifested the omnipotence of his power in creation works; for though not very frequently in Scripture, yet sometimes creation is ascribed to the Holy Ghost, as well as to the Father and the Son. The creation of the heavens above us, is said to be the work of God's Spirit. This you will see at once by referring to the sacred Scripture ,,,[I]f you look in the first chapter of Genesis, you will there see more particularly set forth that peculiar operation of power upon the universe which was put forth by the Holy Spirit; you will then discover what was his special work. In the 2d verse of the first chapter of Genesis, we read, "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." We know not how remote the period of the creation of this globe may be—certainly many millions of years before the time of Adam. Our planet has passed through various stages of existence, and different kinds of creatures have lived on its surface, all of which have been fashioned by God. --Charles H. Spurgeon -(From his sermon of June 17, 1855 at New Park Street Chapel, Southwark)
You cannot in one glance survey this most vast and beautiful system of the universe in all its wide expanse, without being completely overwhelmed by the boundless force of its brightness. --John Calvin -(From Institutes 1:5:1, as quoted at http://www.wonderofcreation.org/creation-quote-of-the-day/ ) [The] hidden premise in the statement "miracles cannot happen" is "there can't be a God who does miracles." If there is a creator God, there is nothing illogical at all about the possibility of miracles. After all, if he created everything out of nothing, it would hardly be a problem for him to rearrange parts of it as and when he wishes. To be sure that miracles cannot occur you would have to be sure beyond a doubt that God didn't exist, and that is an article of faith. The existence of God can be neither demonstrably proven or disproven. --Timothy Keller -(From "The Reason for God," Timothy Keller, 2008, p. 86) The story of the Bible is an amazing story. It begins with nothing and then nothing becomes something. That's the most amazing thing ever conceived of. Then, after nothing has become something, God makes the first inanimate creation. And then comes animate life. Then finally God makes man and woman in His own image. --Mark Dever -(From "9 Marks of a Healthy Church," Mark Dever, 2004, p. 60) If there is no God, and everything in this world is the product of (as Bertrand Russell famously put it) "an accidental collocation of atoms," then there is no actual purpose for which we were made--we are accidents. If we are the product of accidental natural forces, then what we call "beauty" is nothing but a neurological hardwired response to particular data. --Timothy Keller -(From "The Reason for God," Timothy Keller, 2008, p. 133) |
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