Evolution vs. Creation

I just finished reading Someone's Making a Monkey Out of You, which Tommy lent me (thanks Tommy!). It's a book about the theories of Evolution and Creation, and which one is right. I thought the book was rather biased in it's views, which is fair enough, but still, I prefer reading books that simply examine the facts of both arguments (wateva they might be) and discuss both without any bias. Although this book did do that, I just got the feeling, especially from the pictures, that it was a a tad bit biased. Nevertheless, it did help me realise a few important things, which I would like to share here.

Now I'm not in any position to say that everyone should stop believing in Evolution and should start believing in Creation, or vice versa. I can only speak for what I believe and why I believe it.

Both theories have their problems. Both sides have arguments against the other. You cannot fully prove that either one is true, or that the other is completely false. No one was alive a billion years ago to see animals evolving from one kind, to another. No one was alive to see God create mankind either! There is no solid proof to support either theory, so in the end, what we believe to be true (in this case) is based on exactly that: faith. The theories of Evolution and Creation cannot both be true. It's one or the other.

However, I do believe that natural selection does take place within a certain species of animals. There is proof for that: adaptations. However, I don't believe that one kind of animal, say for example apes, can evolve into a totally different kind of animal, for example, humans. If humans really did evolve from apes, then why are apes still around today? Wouldn't they all have evolved by now?

Another theory that I don't agree with, besides evolution, is that the world was created by sheer accident. The Big Bang is an example of this type of theory. One day, the universe was enjoying itself in a tight little ball, when it suddenly just decided to spontaneously combust and hey presto! somehow human beings ended up with logic and reason? Maybe part of this theory is true, but the part that I refuse to believe is that it all happened by accident, i.e. that a higher power was not involved. In the theories of both Evolution and the Big Bang, there's no room for God. He's discluded from the whole plot.
Creationists (i.e. people that believe in Creation), on the other hand, give full credit of the creation of the world to God and his masterful plan.

To reduce our very existence on Earth to mere chance, the result of an accident, would be a sad fate indeed. To think that after all is said and done, after all life is through, we will just return to the dust that we came from? No, I would much rather believe that an intangible, all powerful, all knowing, gracious, merciful, and loving God exists, and created the universe for a purpose.

Science cannot prove everything. What can science say about the intangible: human thought, logic, reason? What can it say about our emotions: love, hate, jealousy, joy? What proof can science offer to say that such things exist? Nothing! And yet, I know for a fact that they exist, I have experienced them. So then, who's to say that God, an intangible being like the above, does not exist? Science simply can't disprove that God exists.
Nonetheless, I'm sure that some people out there have searched for proof that God exists. "Seeing is believing" they say. Well, just look around you. Everything around us is a testimony to the very fact that God exists. How can one explain nature's beauty, the complexity of the human brain, the functioning of our bodies, except by saying that they are God's creation? None of these things, none of them, could have possibly come into being by accident or mere chance. Someone greater must have been behind it. God is the only explanation for our very existence, for everything that is good and pure.

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.
- Genesis 1:31

If anything. I think that science proves that God exists.

So what does that mean for me, and for others that believe that God created the world? The Bible says that faith and actions work together. I remember Darwin saying during Bible study at KYCKSTART something along the lines of, "I believe that this chair will support me, so therefore, I wouldn't hesitate to sit on it. My actions reflect what I believe".

Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did.
- James 2:21-22

Believing in God, means believing in the Bible. Beliving in the Bible, means believing that Jesus existed. Believing that Jesus existed, means believing that he died to save me from eternal separation from God as a punishment for my sin, that he took my punishment for me by dying on the cross, and that God raised him to life, so that one day, when the end comes, I too, will be raised to life, and spend eternity with God in Heaven. Not only will I be raised to life at the end of the world, but I have also faced a spiritual death, in which I died to my life of sin, and was given a second chance to live a new life, where the power of sin no longer enslaves me (Romans 6:1-14). So instead of continuing to live in disobedience to God, which is sin, I've made a commitment to follow God, and to live for Him. Not that I'm some super religious holy chick that cannot do wrong! Nope.. I still fail, a lot, we all do, but the important thing is to take God's hand of forgiveness, and keep perservering, to never stop trusting Him. No matter how many times I stumble, I know that God will never desert me. We don't have to be goody-to-shoes for God to save us, which is just as well because we could never be good enough. Mankind is evil, that, like the existence of God, is evident all around us. We all need to be saved, no matter how 'good' we think we are. No-one is perfect; no-one, except Jesus. God knows we are evil. He could've killed us all, I mean, He's done it before (The Flood). He could've scrapped us, thrown us into the bin like a bad first draft, but here's the amazing thing. God sent His perfect Son, to give us a way out, a way out that is available to anyone and everyone. There is only One Way that we can be saved, and that is by believing that out of His great love, God sent Jesus to die for us, and that he raised us to life with Christ.

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
- Ephesians 2:4-5

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
- Ephesians 2:8-10

The choice lies in whether you will accept this and believe it in your heart. I've made my choice, and having made it, I can't think of any better way to praise God for what He's done for me, then to see others, especially the people around me, come into a relationship with Him. There seriously is no greater joy, than the love of God in your heart. But in the end, I'm only responsible for my own choice, and my own actions. What you choose to believe and do, is entirely between you.. and God.