When I was in seventh grade, I was an overachiever. It was a joy for me to learn new things, but even a greater joy was to show off the things that I had learned. Whenever my Sunday school teacher would ask a question, I was the first to raise a hand. I remember a time when the Genesis story of creation was the topic of our Sunday school lesson. The teacher asked "who were the first two people that God created?" I would shout out "Adam and Eve". The teacher didn't always appreciate my enthusiasm. About that same I was taking my first biology class in the public school. I was learning big words like "Neanderthal" and "Australopithecus". In my biology class I would raise my hand and give answers like, "The first humans appeared during the Pleistocene". I was skilled at keeping my Sunday school understanding separate from my Public school understanding. The fact that these two sets of responses were incompatible did not occur to me until my college years. Many Christians still maintain separate compartments of knowledge: one for general revelation as revealed through science and another for special revelation as revealed through scripture. To become mature is to reconcile these revelations.

During this brief time I have to speak with you, I would like you consider human origins and whether you, as a human being, "was made or just happened". There is no doubt a variety of opinion in this room. I grant all of us latitude to speculate about the WHEN, WHY, WHAT, and especially the HOW questions of origins. However, if we take scripture to be authoritative we must agree on the WHO question. In the very first verse of our Bible, Genesis 1:1, we find an answer to the WHO question: "In the beginning, GOD created the heavens and the earth". The apostle John echoes this verse in John: 1:2: "All things were made by HIM and nothing exists that was not made by HIM". Scripture is clear about the author of our existence. The purpose of my sermon is present to you one solid example of intelligent design in our universe and then to propose three reasons why you should become familiar with scientific observations that point the way to our Intelligent Designer.

Does anyone know what the SETI project is? That's right. It is the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence. As I speak, the folks at SETI are scouring the stars and galaxies with telescopes and listening devices, hoping to discover signals from ET. You may ask the question, "How will they know when they have found a message. They can't speak ET, can they?" Actually, they will be looking for signs of intelligent design in the message. A signal from outer space can come in one of three forms: First it can be specified. This means the message may be like this: AAAA-BBBB-AAAA-BBBB and so on. A specified message does not point to an intelligent source. Second, a message my be complex. It may be like this: AWXCWZKLYMZA and so on. These are complex but random letters. Mere complexity does not point to intelligence. For a signal from outer space to convince astronomers that ET is real, it will have to be complex and specified. The word used to describe intelligence in a message is "specified complexity". All languages either terrestrial or extra-terrestrial must be specific and complex.

Let's now turn to a second scientific event in the news. This is the Human Genome Project. Has anyone heard of this one? OK. This is the effort by geneticists to map out the entire gene pool of human DNA. About a year ago, Dr. Francis Collins, who chairs this project, said "I think this is probably the most important scientific effort that mankind has ever mounted. That includes splitting the atom and going to the Moon." He went on to say, "This is the first time that we've had a complete chapter in the human instruction book, and that's pretty amazing," Please note the doctor's choice of words: "a chapter in a book". The human genetic code consists of three billion pairs of chemicals known as bases. We see in all these codes "specified complexity" with the chemical letters A, T, C and G combining and recombining in new and meaningful ways: just like letters in book. I believe that as SETI astronomers search for ET messages from outer space, they are overlooking the ET messages that are right under their noses. And I mean this literally. Look at what's under your nose right now. Each cell on your upper lip contains genetic code that points to an intelligent designer. Each cell contains letters, that form chapters, that make up an immense book. This intelligence is not ET the extra-terrestrial but SN the super-natural.

I am bringing up these two examples from science to demonstrate to you that belief in a creator God is not something unreasonable. There are in fact many scientists who conclude that the reasonable explanation for the universe that we can see is to postulate a God who we cannot see. The opening words of Genesis and John are authoritative and trustworthy. The fingerprints of God are all over his creation. Thomas Aquinas says that "there are no contradictions between general revelation and special revelation, when each is properly understood". I happen to agree with this great Schoolman. Now the question becomes, "so what? What does this have to do with me?" Allow me to describe three ways in which you can apply this question of origins to your Christian career, wherever it may lead. Establish, enquire and entertain.

First, establish your own position on origins. Read your Bible. Consider the science. Pray. Recognize God as the author of life, then figure out where you feel comfortable on the origins continuum. At the Creationist extreme, we find Bishop Ussher, who in 1658, worked out the generational years in Genesis and announced that the universe was created on October 23, 4004 B.C., at nine o'clock in the morning. Yes, he really did this. At the science extreme is a pure naturalist like Carl Sagan, the astronomer, whose disbelief became an article of faith. For him, to admit one miracle into the scheme of the universe would lead to the ruination of science. Which "A" do you tend toward: the A in Adam or toward the A in Australopithecus?

Second, enquire after scientific news in regard origins. Figure out for yourself the implications of scientific news. Here's an example from my own life. A few years ago, I read a newspaper article about scientists adding an occasional "leap second" to the atomic clock. They tell us that the earth is slowing on its axis and that our earth day is lengthening by about one second every one and a half years. The earth is winding down. This is an undeniable measurable fact. Now you do the math. One hundred years ago, the earth would be spinning about one minute faster. Right? Six thousand years ago, an earth day would only last 23 hours. Could the earth really be one million years old? You figure it out. Third, entertain questions about origins from your church members. Don't just smile and slough off the question. These are legitimate concerns. I have known several people who would not accept Christ as their Savior because they could not take seriously God as Creator. Paul writes to Titus in chapter 1, verse 9, that overseers of the church must "hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it." As preachers we have a two fold job: first to preach sound doctrine, and second to refute those who oppose it. Are you able to refute those who claim God is irrelevant to their life, based on their belief that the universe evolved on its own, without need of a creator?

I will close with a passage from the novel Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. In Chapter 19 we find Huck and the fugitive slave Jim traveling down the Mississippi River on a raft. They are traveling by night and hiding by day. I am picking up Huck's narration as they drift down the river: "Sometimes we'd have that whole river all to ourselves for the longest time. Yonder was the banks and the islands, across the water; and maybe a spark -- which was a candle in a cabin window; and sometimes on the water you could see a spark or two -- on a raft or a scow, you know; and maybe you could hear a fiddle or a song coming over from one of them crafts. It's lovely to live on a raft. We had the sky up there, all speckled with stars, and we used to lay on our backs and look up at them, and discuss about whether they was made or only just happened. Jim he allowed they was made, but I allowed they happened." The debate continues. People in your church will hold positions like Jim and Huck. They may come to you as their pastor and ask "was it made, or did it just happen"? Are you prepared to answer them? Please let us close in prayer. "Lord, we humbly ask you to reveal yourself to us, as both Savior of our souls and creator of our universe. Help each of us as we struggle to find balance between the wisdom of our age and in the wisdom in your word. Amen."

"Sometimes we'd have that whole river all to ourselves for the longest time. Yonder was the banks and the islands, across the water; and maybe a spark -- which was a candle in a cabin window; and sometimes on the water you could see a spark or two -- on a raft or a scow, you know; and maybe you could hear a fiddle or a song coming over from one of them crafts. It's lovely to live on a raft. We had the sky up there, all speckled with stars, and we used to lay on our backs and look up at them, and discuss about whether they was made or only just happened. Jim he allowed they was made, but I allowed they happened."