"It is right that men should have houses, right that they should have land, right that they should have laws to protect the land; but all these things are only machinery to make leisure for the labouring soul. The house is only a stage set up by stage carpenters for the acting of what Mr. W.B. Yeats has called "the drama of the home." All the most dramatic things happen at home, from being born to being dead. What a man thinks about these things is his life: and to substitute for them a bustle of electioneering and legislation is to wander about the screens and pulleys on the wrong side of pasteboard scenery; and never to act the play. And that play is always a miracle play; and the name of its hero is Everyman." -G.K. Chesterton

My favorite activity on Free Republic is debating the issue of creationism vs. evolutionism. Not only does it impinge upon politics, but it is also an exciting challenge from the standpoint of this lone observer.

Yes, the “crevo” threads are heated. Yes, they devolve into mudslinging. I’ve dished out my share, so I must take it. That’s the way it should be. I am thankful the moderators of this forum grant some latitude where statements of personal import are concerned, and even more thankful that a thick skin has evolved on my person where the statements and opinions of others are concerned.

Let me say it point blank: I am what people would identify as a “Young Earth Creationist.” That means I take the words of Genesis literally (but not slavishly). It is of no concern or surprise to me, for example, that Galileo was raised up as an intellectual who could provide the tools to understand the universe in more detail. When he came on the scene he proposed what “natural reason” was incapable of perceiving: That the light (the sun) is more important than darkness. That is to say the light is at the center, and the earth is subject to its forces to such a degree that without it there would be no life.

It took a proud, arrogant, acerbic, fire-tongued scientist to discover and expound, under threat of censure and excommunication from the church (which funded his studies), that the light is in the middle. It was a revolution of incomprehensible magnitude where human knowledge is concerned, but it also pointed to the more important truth that God, the Light, the Creator, who has no beginning and no end, is to be the center of man’s attention and devotion, just as He is the Source of life itself.

The same goes for countless other people of an intellectual stature far beyond my own capacities who have discovered, explored, and expounded upon the creation. None of them have reduced my confidence in the pure and simple Word of God.

God made the heavens and the earth and placed man in the middle to check them out, contemplate them, and communicate as he wishes all those things his reason and senses were designed to comprehend. He remains present and active to this very moment, taking most especially a keen interest in the crown of His creation: mankind. And by “interest” I do not mean something like a hobby.

God’s interest in His creation is so compelling that He became human flesh and dwelt in our midst for a short time in order to fix everything that the first humans messed up when given their reason, senses, and perfect relationship with their Creator. It is the living Jesus Christ, who, with God and the Holy Spirit is the Creator and Preserver of all things, and who willingly shed His blood on behalf of a mankind gone crazy.

It is He who sustains the whole creation for a short time while science does its thing, and it is He who seeks out the people who dwell in darkness and lets them know there is no need to fear. He made us. He is on our side. He endured the death that people in darkness deserve, and for their sake He, being perfect substance of the Creator (Who made man in His own image), lives so that we may live with Him forever.

I am grateful for having the opportunity to debate with those hard-headed folks who have great difficulty in considering the notion that perhaps natural selection and random mutations fall flat in explaining where we came from and where we’re going. They are the ones whom the Creator yearns for more than my own sick self.

Lord, have mercy.