A Stolen Motto

In the children’s book _Berenstain Bear’s Nature Guide, _one page shows this famous bear family walking through the woods wondering at the beauty they see all around them.  Displayed across the page is a message that reads:

“Nature is all that IS, or WAS, or EVER WILL BE.”

As Dinesh D'Souza points out in his book _What's So Great about Christianity, _few adults and even fewer children would recognize that this is a form of the trademark slogan of atheist Carl Sagan, whose teachings the authors of these popular books undoubtedly followed.  In his famous program for PBS called Cosmos, Sagan stated “The cosmos is all there is or ever was or ever will be.”

From the scientific community to the public educational system of our nation, this phrase sums up the underlying belief held by those in positions of influence.  They believe that only what we can observe scientifically exists.  Therefore they reason that since we cannot examine God in a laboratory or through a telescope, He must not exist.  Only the material universe does.

Then to explain how everything came into being, modern science offers the “Big Bang Theory.”   This theory states that all the matter in the universe existed at one point as, well, one point.  According to scientists this point, called “the point of singularity,” was smaller than an atom.  Then, in a cosmic explosion that makes an atomic bomb look like a pop of a balloon, this point burst forth to give us the galaxies, stars, and planets, as well as the life and order, which we now see.

Beyond the obvious question “Where did this point of singularity come from?” another one needs to be asked.  Does scientific observation itself lead us to believe that unmanaged explosions bring forth order and life?

In December of 2004, the tectonic plates that form the floor of the Indian Ocean shifted.  This earthquake caused a force that scientists tell us was the equivalent of twenty atomic bombs.  It was so powerful that the earth developed a slight wobble in its rotation.  Did greater order and life result?  No, tragically this earthquake created the horrible tsunami waves that killed over two hundred thousand people and destroyed villages and cities in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and even thousands of miles away in Africa.  Scientific observations consistently show natural explosions result in chaos, not order.  Naturalistic scientists who reject the existence of God have adopted a theory of origin that is contradicted by the very rules of scientific observation they claim to uphold.

In contrast, the Bible states that the eternal God spoke and created the heavens and earth and all that they contain (Genesis 1:1).  The heavens declare His glory (Psalm 19:1-6).  He formed the seas and the dry land (Psalm 95:4-5).  All forms of life, especially man (Acts 17:25), were made by Him.   Not only did He create all things, but the Scriptures state that He rules and governs over all, be it sustaining the earth (Psalm 104), sending winds and rains to it (Psalm 148), or even bringing horrible judgments on it like tsunamis.  “I am the Lord, and there is no other, the One forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the Lord who does all these things” (Isaiah 45:6-7).  As Jesus’ disciples learned to say, “Even the wind and the waves obey Him!”

Interestingly, just as we can trace where the Berenstains took their motto, we can ask, “Where did Carl Sagan get his slogan of nature quoted above?”  Clearly he stole and twisted it from the Bible.  Speaking of God’s power over creation and the coming judgment, in Revelation 4:8 the angels declare:

**“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, **who WAS and who IS and who IS TO COME.”
That is why the Bible states that “The fool is saying in his heart, ‘There surely is no God.’”  Those who spend their life denying their Maker, be they prominent scientists or authors of children’s books, are like naughty children themselves who take the crayons their parents have provided and write on the walls of the house.  They take the life God has given them, the mind He blessed them to have, the orderliness of the universe He created, and use it to mock Him and His followers.

You have never seen Rembrandt, yet his paintings and the historical record testify to his creativity.  The next time you gaze upon the beauty of a winter snowfall or summer sunset, marvel over the birth of a child, or look up at the vastness of the space and stars overhead, consider which of the two featured statements above represents your view of the world.  The true one or the stolen one?  You may not see God under a microscope or through a telescope, but can you really not see His fingerprints everywhere you look?