Who is the Designer?
“I've had an unholy desire to invite some atheists to a dinner and then serve the most fabulous gourmet dinner that has ever been concocted and, after dinner, ask them if they believe there was a cook.”
– Ronald Reagan
Who or What created first Life on Earth?
Below, we briefly describe the 6 major theories on how life appeared on Earth. The first 2 require no designer. The remaining theories have intentional creation of life.
The 6 major theories
1. No designer
Multiple Theories of Random processes gathered and formed the complex building blocks needed for life and then randomly created the cell and stored information.
2. Panspermia
Life on other planets is distributed to earth by meteors after the planet is destroyed.
3. Directed/Intentional Panspermia
Advanced life forms in other galaxies intentionally transport life to seed our planet.
The Panspermia Hypothesis, Explained
Dr Dawkins - Directed Panspermia
4. Matrix
We are operating in a simulation designed by advanced life forms.
Elon Musk: We are Likely Living in Simulation
5. Intelligent Design
A supernatural being or entity designed/created the first life.
Stephen Meyer Investigates Scientific Evidence for Intelligent Design (Lecture 1)
Stephen Meyer on Intelligent Design and The Return of the God Hypothesis
By Design: Behe, Lennox, and Meyer on the Evidence for a Creator
6. Biblical Creation
God, a supreme supernatural being, intentionally created all life.
The Bible
Creation
“In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw the light, that it was good, and He divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” And God made the firmament, dividing the waters under the firmament from those above it: and it was so. God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
God said, “Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear,” and it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the gathered waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after its kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth,” and it was so. The earth brought forth grass, herbs yielding seed after their kind, and trees yielding fruit after their kind. And God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day.
God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night, and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years. Let them be lights in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth,” and it was so. God made two great lights—the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. God set them in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth, to rule over the day and night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
God said, “Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.” God created great whales and every living creature that moves, which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.” And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind—cattle, and creeping things, and beasts of the earth after his kind,” and it was so. God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps upon the earth after his kind. And God saw that it was good.
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the fowl of the air, the cattle, all the earth, and every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him—male and female He created them. God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the fowl of the air, and every living thing that moves upon the earth.”
God said, “Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree yielding fruit with seed in it—to you it shall be for food. And to every beast of the earth, every fowl of the air, and everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food.” And it was so.
God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.”
Genesis 1:2–31 KJV
Made in His Image
“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”
Genesis 1:26 KJV
“The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, And night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language Where their voice is not heard.”
Psalms 19:1–3 NKJV
“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:”
Matthew 7:7 KJV
“And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.”
Jeremiah 29:13 KJV
“And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”
Luke 11:9 KJV
What It Means to Be Made in God’s Image
Commentary from Nahum M. Sarna,
Genesis, The JPS Torah Commentary (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1989), p. 12
In Our Image, After Our Likeness
This unique combination of expressions, virtually identical in meaning, emphasizes the incomparable nature of human beings and their special relationship to God. The full import of these terms can be grasped only within the broader context of biblical literature and against the background of ancient Near Eastern analogues.
The continuation of verse 26 establishes an evident connection between resemblance to God and sovereignty over the earth’s resources, though it is not made clear whether man has power over nature as a result of his being like God or whether that power constitutes the very essence of the similarity.
A parallel passage in 9:6–7 tells of God’s renewed blessing on the human race after the Flood and declares murder to be the consummate crime precisely because “in His image did God make man.” In other words, the resemblance of man to God bespeaks the infinite worth of a human being and affirms the inviolability of the human person. The killing of any other creature, even wantonly, is not murder. Only a human being may be murdered. It would seem, then, that the phrase “in the image of God” conveys something about the nature of the human being as opposed to the animal kingdom; it also asserts human dominance over nature. But it is even more than this.
Ancient Royal Imagery and Biblical Transformation
The words used here to convey these ideas can be better understood in the light of a phenomenon registered in both Mesopotamia and Egypt, whereby the ruling monarch is described as “the image” or “the likeness” of a god. In Mesopotamia, we find the following salutations:
“The father of my lord the king is the very image of Bel (ṣalam bel) and the king, my lord, is the very image of Bel”;
“The king, lord of the lands, is the image of Shamash”;
“O king of the inhabited world, you are the image of Marduk.”
In Egypt, the same concept is expressed through the name Tutankhamen (Tutankh-amun), which means “the living image of (the god) Amun,” and in the designation of Thutmose IV as “the likeness of Re.”
Without doubt, the terminology employed in Genesis 1:26 is derived from regal vocabulary, which serves to elevate the king above the ordinary run of men. In the Bible, this idea has become democratized. All human beings are created “in the image of God”; each person bears the stamp of royalty. This was patently understood by the author of Psalm 8, cited above. His description of man in royal terms is his interpretation of the concept of the “image of God” introduced in verse 26.
Symbol of God’s Presence on Earth
It should be further pointed out that in Assyrian royal steles, the gods are generally depicted by their symbols: Ashshur by the winged disk, Shamash by the sun disk, and so forth. These depictions are called “the image (ṣalam) of the great gods.” In light of this, the characterization of man as “in the image of God” furnishes the added dimension of his being the symbol of God’s presence on earth. While he is not divine, his very existence bears witness to the activity of God in the life of the world. This awareness inevitably entails an awesome responsibility and imposes a code of living that conforms with the consciousness of that fact.
Linguistic and Cultural Parallels
It should be added that the pairing of the terms tselem and demut, “image” and “likeness,” is paralleled in a ninth-century B.C.E. Assyrian-Aramaic bilingual inscription on a statue at Tell Fekheriyeh in Syria. The two terms are used interchangeably and indiscriminately and obviously cannot be used as criteria for source differentiation.
Sources Referenced:
Genesis Rabbah 8:3; Rashi
“The Instruction for King Meri-ka-re,” ANET, p. 417
J. Maxwell Miller, “In the Image and Likeness of God,” JBL 91 (1972): 289–304
H. L. Creager, “The Divine Image,” in A Light Unto My Path (1974): 103–118
J. H. Tigay, “The Image of God and the Flood,” in Studies in Jewish Education and Judaica (1984): 143–156