Once, there was a gigantic golden egg that floated in nothing. After drifting in this endless blackness for a year, it hatched. And that’s how the universe came to be.
Or there was a man with a thousand heads. The gods sacrificed him, transforming him into butter. This was then used to make all life.
Or several spiritual beings collaborated to make a man. Their first attempt was made of clay and simply fell apart. The second attempt was made of wood and turned out to be empty-headed. Finally, on the third try, they made a man out of corn and he was intelligent.
Mankind has come up with quite a variety of explanations. One thing about it, when it comes to describing creation, we are definitely creative.
Eventually, however, we’re like a kid determined to get past the stork and the cabbage patch. Where did I really come from? Even if you let the question settle into the back of your mind, the answer is an essential factor in how we live our lives. Whether we realize it or not, our point of origin matters. Where we come from determines where we go from here.
For the most part, all the legends have settled down. Most would argue there are only two real contenders. The Big Bang or the Genesis Account.
Once, there was an incredibly small point of energy that exploded. Over a vast amount of time, this chaos settled into patterns of matter that ultimately formed evolutionary life, which led to you.
Or God created everything, including you.
Your beliefs on this issue shouldn’t simply be a matter of picking the one you like best and then mocking the other one. The best approach is to consider the facts and then rationally reach a conclusion. Truth isn’t determined by preference.
Your verdict is significant. Your decision about your origin has a huge effect on your perception of who you are. And what might be expected of you.
If you are a product of evolution, your value is in question. If we are merely a result of cosmological accidents, then at best we are “grown-up germs.” This isn’t an insult. It’s poetic truth. When you take away the dignity of our beginning, you take away the dignity of who we are right now.
This can be seen in the confusion of our culture. The debate about abortion is a good example. People aren’t really arguing about life. An unborn child is undeniably life. The argument is about the value of the life in question.
Those who argue for the choice to end the life inside a human womb, argue with the same intensity to protect the life of an animal. The agenda is mostly driven by sexual compromise, but there is also the underlying concept that we are nothing more than sophisticated animals. Snow leopard, blue whale, giant panda, you. There’s nothing special about your existence unless you’re on the endangered list. And here’s some bad news: there’s over 8 billion of your kind.
The cultural contradictions are many. While we’re being told we are merely sophisticated animals—that we have no more privilege than a dolphin or an elephant—there is a great uproar over human rights and human dignity. Imagine grabbing the bullhorn and trying to turn the heartfelt concern toward the rights of the ocelot. You would quickly be treated with a lack of dignity.
But if we’re nothing more than the next link in a chain of accidents, all the shouting about rights and dignity is based on nothing substantial. You have to make a choice. Is it survival of the fittest or survival of the loudest? You can’t have your primordial soup and eat it too.
The cultural contradictions are there for a reason. Deep down, everyone knows there’s something different about a human being. Our inherent sense of value indicates all of us sense at least a flicker of profound origin.
According to the Genesis account, the human being was given exceptional value. And for important reasons.
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Genesis 1:26-28)
A human is not an animal. God gave humans certain godlike characteristics. He gave us certain advantages other living things do not have.
One of them is dominion. This doesn’t mean we can trash the place or foolishly wipe out a species. But it does mean God gave us a different value.
It’s worth mentioning that part of what makes us human is our compassion. We may dine on various kinds of creatures, but a lack of compassion for animals demonstrates a lack of something essentially human.
It comes down to this: our point of origin determines our value. But it also determines what is expected of us. Whereas an animal is driven by instinct, a human being has the potential for rational thinking. Everyone has to admit we have different expectations for a person as opposed to a grizzly bear. Both of them might kill a human, but only one of them has committed murder. The other is simply following his nature. Regardless of any wild manipulation of the judicial system, all of us have higher expectations for the decisions of a human. There’s no denying that we are moral beings.
God gave us responsibility. It’s tempting to assume that this word is a combination of response and ability, but the word has a different, but still significant origin. It actually comes from a Latin word that means “respond.” This still leads to significant conclusions.
God created us with a high value and has placed us in a position of privilege. Everything is balanced on how we respond to this.
The worldly confusion of what it means to be human is made all the more confusing because most people are in the process of giving up their humanity. When you live in a way that conflicts with your point of origin, there is an inevitable degradation. “But these, like unreasoning animals, born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed, reviling where they have no knowledge, will in the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed” (II Peter 2:12). You are not an animal, but you can certainly choose to live like one.
Humans were designed by God and as such, He is the one who determines our value. He is also the One who determines the expectations. And everything is balanced on how we respond.
