The Recent Creation: Human value is evidence for creationism
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I have found that in almost every conversation regarding any contentious issue, humility is rarely an ingredient. Often, opposing sides are tempted to talk more than they listen, and they tend to make claims that exceed their own areas of expertise.
As I write, I have a lot of tabs open in my web browser about radiocarbon dating, inconsistencies between the lead byproduct and helium diffusion of zircon decay, paleontological discoveries of soft tissue in the femur of a Tyrannosaurus Rex that could not survive millions of years, and recent geological discoveries that suggest a vast ocean of water between the upper and lower mantles that makes the biblical account of a global flood plausible. All have been written from both old- and young-earth perspectives. I wanted to write about all the science that informs my conviction that the earth and all of creation is not older than 10,000 years. I have, in fact, presented some of my evidence recently, but I now think scientific evidence for creation is better presented by creation scientists. I would encourage you to look up scientific organizations like the Institute of Creation Research (icr.org) and Answers in Genesis (answersingenesis.org).
I love science. I love to read about science. In my free time, I am passionate about biology, astronomy, cosmology, geology and physics. But, I am not a scientist. I am a pastor. My formal training and research is in theology, philosophy and human thinking.
This week, I was reminded of how important humility is, and that conviction has disqualified me from presenting a case based on the aforementioned scientific evidence. Instead, I would like to offer a case I am actually qualified to make, beginning with a single, almost universal assumption: people have value.
All the world screams about the mistreatment of people. We rightly condemn racism and sexism. We affirm equality and eschew discrimination. We oppose and protest genocide and war. The news is full of one person or group of people committing violence against another person or group of people. We read or watch it and say, "The news is so negative." We evaluate the ubiquitous mistreatment of people as bad.
In fact, our society identifies an individual who is not able to respect the "rights of others" as having a psychological disorder. The fifth edition of the Diagnostics and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders defines, in part, Anti-social Personality Disorder as "Lack of concern for feelings, needs, or suffering of others; lack of remorse after hurting or mistreating another." If people don't have objective value, the "lack of concern" described is a sign of clear thinking, not a mental defect.
Human value is inconsistent with the old-earth account of our origins. In that view, we are, as Neil deGrasse Tyson has famously said, only stardust. Nothing more. Our mental processes are purely chemical. Our personalities and consciousness are illusions. Our value is arbitrary. There is no good reason for us to continue to exist other than our own arbitrary, biological imperative to do so. But if we all die, so be it.
If we are just matter and energy, then we have no greater value than any other matter or energy.
If the beginning and end our lives and everything we know is truly the product of chance and time, the logical response is to despair. "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die" (1 Corinthians 15:32b). "All is vanity. What do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun?" (Ecclesiastes 1:2b-3). No death, human or otherwise, is logically lamentable.
Atheist existential pioneer Friedrich Nietzsche, having lived in a way consistent with his declaration that "God is dead," died in despair, insanity, disease and poverty.
Creationism — the view that God directly created humans on purpose and with value — makes sense of what you intuitively know about the value of life in general and human life in particular. This means that your existence and mine are fraught with objective purpose and meaning far greater than that which are arbitrarily produced by highly-evolved chemical reactions in our brains. You have objective value because you have and objective reason to exist. All of creation, in fact, is sacred, and Earth is worthy of our care and stewardship because it is not just an insignificant curiosity of the cosmos. It was given to us by its creator to care for; the earth and all of the life on it, especially other human lives.
It seems there are two philosophical options to choose from. Either humans are an accident and therefore indistinguishable in value from cosmic dust on the moon, or we are created with purpose and value and therefore should be regarded and treated respectfully.
We tend not to want to make the former choice. At least, we do not want to live out its logical consequences. I do not presume to claim that evolutionists do not care for the planet, the life on it or other people. Their actions clearly prove otherwise. My claim is that without a creator, there is no objective reason to care at all.