I had been brainwashed! Believe me, it was not a good feeling. It happened while in high school, and it happened in my favorite class—biology. Here is how it came about.

My father was a medical doctor in Murphy, North Carolina, and I wanted to follow in his footsteps. Seeing an obvious connection between being in this vocation and science, I couldn't get enough of biology. At that time, I had been taught evolution by my biology teachers, and it made sense. Besides, I had a church background that taught that God created the first cell and then evolution took over to create the rest of the species.

So you see, I had been brainwashed by my church as well. My focus was that God had created the cell and then all living things had evolved. Yet this belief indirectly undermined the Bible's teaching that God had created Adam and Eve as completely finished, and not as evolved beings. So I wasn't interested in the Bible at the time and believed my church was the ultimate authority—what it taught was to be believed. As a result, I started contemplating a loose moral lifestyle. After all, if I had evolved from a monkey, and evolution was true, why should I believe in biblical laws that limited me?

Confronting an evangelical

Then, in my last year of high school, I met Danny, an evangelical. He said he didn't believe in evolution. I thought that was such an unsophisticated belief and that it showed great ignorance.

So I brought out a host of evolutionary "proofs." I told him about fruit flies evolving after being exposed to radiation and having different colored eyes or more wings. I told him about the British moths that had turned a different color, from white to black, as the industrial revolution had spewed so much soot in the air that the white trunks of some trees had been darkened, making the moths change color as a camouflage. I told him about Darwin's finches, and how they had evolved different beak sizes in the Galapagos Islands. I told him about the fossil record, and how species went from simple to complex over time. I told him about the embryos of different species resembling each other, and about the fossils of ape-men. So I managed to convince him, after making him feel very ignorant.

A life-changing experience

Yet a few weeks later I met another fellow student, Sammy, who would change my life. We both liked to play chess, and one day while playing chess at his home I talked about my background. I had come from Cuba to the United States when I was 7. We had lost all our basic freedoms to communism and were exiled. I mentioned that after my father arrived in the United States, he once remarked, "If the U.S. falls, where will we go to keep these freedoms and be safe?"

Sammy said, "That's interesting. I have an article where it says, if WW III occurs, is there a place of safety?"

I borrowed the article and became acquainted with Bible prophecy for the first time. I was astounded to read that the Bible talks about today's issues and gives a warning as well as hope. I asked him to lend me a Bible, and I started reading it and biblical literature. I was amazed to find everything in the Bible was true—historically, and, more surprisingly, scientifically.

So, I reasoned, if the Bible was historically true, then evolution was wrong. As I read on, all my arguments about evolution crumbled and I realized I had been brainwashed. I had been shown only one side of the story—and a distorted side at that!

I proved God exists and that cells couldn't have evolved. I learned that God created animals and human beings in a perfect and complete way. I slowly realized each "fact" of evolution had been a clever lie! It seems some scientists had chosen not to acknowledge the possibility that there could be a Creator God, which led them, whether knowingly or not, to distort the evidence. Why? It turns out that some of the early proponents of Darwinism had pushed the theory to avoid giving account of their sinful deeds to a righteous God.

As Aldous Huxley, one of the most fierce defenders of evolution, once admitted. "I had motives for not wanting the world to have meaning, consequently assumed it had none… For myself, as no doubt for most of my contemporaries, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation. The liberation we desired was simultaneously liberation from a certain political and economic system and liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom… There was one admirably simple method of confuting these people and at the same time justifying ourselves in our political anderotic revolt: we could deny that the world had any meaning whatsoever" (Ends and Means, 1937, pp. 272-273, emphasis added).

An old argument

This idea that the creation doesn't need a Creator, but created itself or has always existed is not new. The Greeks of Paul's day had similar, although simpler, theories about the origin of life without God.

Paul, in his critique of Greek philosophy, showed the consequences of this type of reasoning.

He wrote in Romans 1:18-24: "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.

"For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

"Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves…"

This type of philosophy is certainly alive and well today.

Apologizing to Danny

So after I proved I was wrong about evolution, I went back to Danny and apologized to him, admitting I was mistaken. It left him speechless. It was only many years later that I again met him, and to my surprise, he had become a Church of God member! He had been so surprised by my complete about-face that he had looked into what I believed and came to the same conclusion.

In hindsight, I must say the biggest part of my conversion had been understanding and applying God's holy laws. As each of you mature, you will also face a world deeply prejudiced against God and the Bible. But since my high school days, I've made many additional discoveries that have gone against evolution and for a Creator.

As Stephen Meyer, an expert in physics, philosophy and molecular biology, wrote, "The major developments in science in the past five decades have been running in a strongly theistic direction. Science, done right, points toward God" (Lee Strobel, The Case for a Creator, 2004, p. 77).

The book of nature and the book of Scripture

Let's briefly look at some of these discoveries along with the Scriptures that support them.

In Psalm 19, God revealed to David that there are two books that witness to God's existence: the book of nature and the book of Scripture. In this Psalm, David says the majesty and the orderliness of the heavens declare the glory of God. He mentions the wonders of the spinning earth, the cycles of day and night, and our benign sun that emits light and heat.

The more scientists study our galaxy, the Milky Way, the more they see how perfectly arranged it is for life. It is a spiral galaxy, which is the most stable of galactic systems, and our solar system is situated between two spiral arms, which is one of the safe zones, away from the core of the galaxy, where supernovas explode and can decimate entire solar systems.

The earth's orbit keeps it at just the right distance from the sun. A bit farther away from the sun and it would be too cold, freezing the oceans, while a bit closer would make it too hot, melting the ice caps and flooding the whole globe.

Our moon is situated perfectly to protect the earth from many meteorite hits, and its gravitational pull regulates the tides, another essential part of our ecosystem. The tides keep the oceans oxygenated, allow currents to form and gently sweep the coastal beaches of any debris, not permitting the seas to stagnate.

The earth has the right spin, right size, right core, right chemicals and the right axis. Scientist call this anthropic fine-tuning, where all systems are fine-tuned to permit our fragile life system to exist. They have found that all the laws of nature and its physical constants combine in a mathematically incredible way to make life in the universe possible.

Another remarkable proof of this fine-tuning is what scientists call the big bang, the moment when the universe began. According to Nobel-prizewinning physicist Steven Weinberg, this was not a typical explosion that starts from a definite center and spreads out, but an explosion that occurred simultaneously everywhere, filling all of space from the beginning with every particle of matter rushing apart from every other particle.

"In three minutes," said Bill Bryson, "98% of all matter was produced. We have a universe. It is a place of the most wondrous and gratifying possibility, and beautiful too, and it was all done in about the time it takes to make a sandwich" (ibid., p. 94).

This is very hard to reconcile with evolutionary thought. Nobel-prizewinner Arno Penzias said about the big bang: "The best data we have are exactly what I would have predicted had I nothing to go on but the first five books of Moses, the Psalms and the Bible as a whole" (ibid., p. 77).

What is the conclusion? Dr. Meyer said, "When I look at the stars in the night sky, it is an occasion for me to worship the Creator who brought them into existence. So exploring the scientific and historical evidence for God is not only a cognitive exercise, but it's an act of worship for me. It's a way of giving the Creator the credit and honor and glory that are due to him" (ibid., p. 91).

This is exactly what David was saying in the first part of Psalm 19. In addition, as a lasting reminder that He is the Creator of the universe, God left us with the Fourth Commandment, the command to remember our Creator by resting and worshipping Him on the seventh day (Exodus 20:8-11).

The book of Scripture

Then, after David finished mentioning the wonders of the "book of nature" where we glorify God as our Creator, he turned to the marvels of the book of Scripture. He says we should also give God glory for having given us His Word.

In verses 7 to 11, he praised its power to restore the person to a healthy wholeness, by assuring forgiveness and cleansing. God's Word also gives wisdom to those who accept it, even to the "simple" or inexperienced.

By applying the Scriptures, David said, we learn what "the fear of the Lord" is all about—developing a deep respect for God and His way of life. As a result, we will have "joy," or the inner peace and tranquility that comes from loving God with all our heart. The Bible is also "trustworthy" because its laws are true and are verifiable by life's experiences.

As a result of studying God's "two books" that give witness to Him, our faith is strengthened. We read in Hebrews 11:1-3 about this type of faith: "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible." This is what scientists are discovering as well—the physical could not have invented itself, but must have come from some superior and invisible source.

We also learn we have a spiritual and moral responsibility to our Maker. Hebrews 11:6 says, "But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him." Yes, this is a God who is concerned about us and wants to bless us as we obey Him.

So, please, don't allow yourself to be brainwashed as I once was. Remember what Psalm 14:1 says, that only "the fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God.'" VT