Did God Really Create People? - Part 2
The evolutionary theory of the origin of man--random chance and lots of time--has its problems, other than unbelievably low probability. As discussed in Part 1, there is no room for overall purpose or meaning in this theory of human origin to which humanity may aspire. The future of the human race degrades into a "game" of each people group (race, nationality, geo-political group, belief system, family, individual) strugglling to be the superior, surviving one. Self-preservation just doesn't rise to the level of an ultimate purpose for the human race. It doesn't even seem a good reason for the existence of lower life forms like birds and animals.
There's also the problem of altruism, "the belief in or practice of disinterested and selfless concern for the well-being of others." If self-preservation and survival is the "natural" purpose or goal of humans, why would altruistic behavior arise and survive down through the ages of mankind? This type of behavior should have ceased as those who practiced it became extinct because they lost out to the aggressive "takers." Acts of selfless giving, kindness and love are still around today.
Since humans and lower life forms wear the clear "fingerprint" of design, wouldn't it follow that the "Designer" would have built in some of His own character traits? In fact, the Bible, accepted by many as the "Operator's Manual" for humans given by the Designer, says exactly that in Genesis 1.
26 Then God said, “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.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
The attributes of God, His character, are on display throughout the Bible. For instance, when Moses requested God to reveal Himself. It's recorded in Exodus 34 like this:
6 And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth..."
At the other end of the Bible, John the Apostle explains the existance of selfless love this way.
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
Did God create people? Well, humans certainly bear the signature of a designer. Don't we inherently know that we were meant for a higher purpose than mere survival. And finally, we have character traits that match God's better than what evolved beings would have.
Since the odds that humans could have evolved from nothing are so extremely low and it seems more logical that we were designed and created by God, clearly the next step in this discussion is the question: "Why Did God Ccreate People?"
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