What is creation?

We create things all the time: a meal, a painting, a tidy environment at home, or even a mess! We are always doing something which leaves the world slightly different. We take what we have and turn it into something that wasn't there before. We often say that the end result is more than the sum of its component parts. Even a meal as simple as bangers and mash with gravy is more than just sausages from the fridge put on the table next to raw potatoes with gravy powder sprinkled over them and water poured on top. We have to put something into it, the cooker has to put something into it, and the meal, if nicely presented, is not just food on a plate, but an experience to be enoyed with family or friends.

What, though, if you didn't have any starting materials? That then becomes Creation - with a big 'C'. Somehow the universe is here, with us as part of it for proof. Where that came from is Creation out of nothing - ex nihilo to give it it's fancy Latin name. Whatever your theory about the origin of the universe, it was created. For example, a book by the evolutionary geneticist Adam Rutherford, which was shortlisted for the Wellcome Book Prize, is called Creation: The Origin of Life/The Future of Life (Penguin Books, 2014). We all believe in Creation.

The currently standard scientific worldview, or paradigm, is that there was a period of inflation, followed by a hot big-bang, which then led ultimately to galaxies, the solar system, and the Earth; our planet had the right conditions for life to form spontaneously, which then evolved into all the plants, animals and other life forms around us. That, though, depends on conclusions drawn from theories which are known to be very incomplete, in a paradigm that is possibly creaking at the seams. We don't know what conclusions a new paradigm might bring.

So what about these people who call themselves Creationists? Is it fair to say that, since mainstream science isn't really giving us all the answers about origins that many people claim it is, we can use a different starting point and suggest that the Bible actually gives us a true account of the beginning of the world, mainly in Genesis 1? I think that the answer to that is 'to some extent' or, 'yes and no'.

Everyone believes in Creation; we just have different ways of looking at it.

Firstly, that question has to be asked. Genesis clearly gives a reasonably detailed account of the order of events at the time of Creation. The Bible also gives us a rough indication of timescale. Those who have put their trust in Jesus as their saviour and Lord gradually find that the Bible is actually right about so much that to dismiss other things it says out of hand becomes uncomfortable. So, yes, we have to ask, "Does the Bible give us a scientific account of our origins, or is it just a means of communicating spiritual truth?" If we ask the question, then we have to be open to either answer. Many people accept only the latter option without really giving any consideration to the former; that inevitably closes down the search for truth. Yes, look at the spiritual truth contained in the Bible, but let's also consider what scientific truth might be found there in parallel.

Secondly, are there scientific data which are better explained by creation and what do we do about that? Well, actually, there are loads of holes in both cosmic and biological evolution. The probability of humans existing, even taking evolution as a fact, is miniscule, so much so that there is a principle invoked by many scientists, the Anthropic Principle, to explain that improbability away without having to imply that there was a designer. Even the Professor of Public Engagement with Science at Birmingham University, Alice Roberts, herself an evolutionist and president of Humanists UK, wrote a book entitled The Incredible Unlikeliness of Being: Evolution and the Making of Us (Heron Books, 2015). I have yet to read that, but it is on my to do list. However, just the title gives away the fact that our existance without being brought about by God is totally incredible.

Some people think that that is wonderful, a miracle that it could happen by itself; others would say that if the evolution of the universe and life is so unlikely without a designer controlling the process, perhaps we should be looking elsewhere for the explanation (e.g. John Lennox, Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at Oxford University, in God's Undertaker: Has Science Buried God? Lion Books, 2009). There is, actually a huge amount left to be done with regard to sorting evolutionary theory, as evidenced by the opening in 2018 of the Milner Centre for Evolution at the University of Bath, contrary to popular belief that it's pretty much done, dusted and definite. That of course, doesn't mean that the scientists working there and elsewhere won't make progress within their own evolutionary paradigm - they clearly will.

There is much to write on this topic and I shall undoubtedly return to it again. However, for now I should like to leave you with the understanding that Creationists are generally asking valid questions, but that there is a way to go before a proper all encompassing Creationist paradigm has been developed. Equally, though, evolutionist scientists are asking valid questions within their own paradigm, but there is a way to go before they have a watertight theory either. There is room for both groups to pursue their own science and report the findings in the context of their (hopefully) stated preconceptions. That leads the way to an open scientific debate. Where it crosses a boundary is when each side of the debate accuses the other of coming up with their findings or conclusions on the basis of their bias. Then all hope of sensible debate is lost. We all believe in Creation one way or another. Let's admit that and work within our own paradigms to find what they tell us about our origins.

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You are not lesser

We can be so quick to judge. Which is more valuable - a handful of coins or a handful of notes? The notes have a higher monetary value, but the coins weigh more and last longer. The 'value' depends on the purpose. What makes someone a more important apostle? Some of Jesus' friends once had an argument about that and it doesn't seem to have gone away.

If you had been one of twelve people who started an organization that went global and turned the world upside down, how justified would you have felt if you'd known that you'd go down in history as 'The Lesser'. It doesn't quite seem fair, does it. James, son of Alphaeus was one of Jesus' first 12 apostles. He was on the first missionary trip that Jesus sent anyone out on, healing the sick, casting out demons and preaching about the Kingdom of God. He took part in sharing out a 12th of five loaves and two fish to feed something like 1,000 people, and later a 12th of seven loaves and a few fish to feed maybe 800 people. He was a guest at one of perhaps the most intimate times with Jesus ever - the last supper - as an equal with all the other 11 apostles. He was in the room when Jesus first appeared to his group of apostles after rising from the dead. He was in the room when the Holy Spirit was first poured out with tongues of fire and a mighty rushing wind, in fulfilment of Joel's prophecy. And so we could go on. Finally, like the other apostles, he almost certainly ended his life in some part of the world far from Jerusalem, having taken the gospel there and probably was killed in return for his message of love, although we don't know where.

Admittedly he wasn't in the core three of Jesus's team, who witnessed a few things that the others didn't, but he was one of 12 people chosen out of the whole world over all time to be one of the closest companions of the Son of God while he was on Earth as a human. I don't think that 'lesser' is a good description of anyone in that position. 'James, Son of Alphaeus' seems fine, doesn't it? It makes it perfectly clear whom we're talking about.

The problem arises because, in addition to mentions of this James in the lists of the 12 apostles, one of women who stayed with Jesus when he was on the cross and visited the tomb was called Mary the mother of James. In one account she is referred to simply as that, Mary the mother of James, in another the mother of James and Joseph, and in the third, the mother of James the younger and Joses. Now the wife of Zebedee, probably called Salome, was at the cross as well and she was the mother of the brothers James and John, who were apostles. So there's no reason to doubt that this Mary could have been the wife of Alphaeus and, therefore, the mother of the James who was one of the other apostles. Therefore, tradition has stuck with a lot of the church that James the son of Alphaeus is James the younger. This may well be true. 'Younger', though, is also sometimes translated 'shorter' or, more unfortunately, 'less' or 'lesser', which equally seems to have stuck but gives the wrong message.

Everyone is important in God's eyes: the man called 'The Lesser' by the Church helped turn the whole world upside down!

I'm sure Jesus didn't call him over by saying, "Oh, James the Lesser, could you come over here please?" Jesus doesn't think of any of us as lesser. Of course, now that he's in Heaven I'm sure that it doesn't make any difference to James if we call him lesser, greater, son of Alphaeus, or anything else for that matter. It seems, though, that somehow the church can feel justified in calling one of the greatest Church leaders of all time 'The Lesser'.

What do we know about him other than what he did collectively with the other apostles? Unhelpfully, nothing - we don't even really know if his mother was Mary. Interestingly, some people suggest that he is the same James who went on to lead the church in Jerusalem and write the New Testament letter of James, although that seems quite unlikely; in that case, though, 'lesser' would obviously be completely out of place. All that is certain is that he is listed as one of the 12 apostles and found towards the end of the list. That fact has led some people to say that he was less important - top of list, important, bottom of list, unimportant. So to continue our conversation above: "Oh, James the Lesser, could you come over here please?"

"Why do you always call me 'lesser', Jesus?

"Because you're less important than James the son of Zebedee; isn't that obvious?"

No, James the son of Alphaeus wasn't less important. He seems to be one of those who got his head down and did the job. He wasn't the one who was inspired to declare that Jesus was the Messiah. Equally, though, he didn't deny Jesus publicly, start an argument about if he was greater than any of the other apostles, end up being rebuked for wanting to call down fire on a Samaritan village or for trying to persuade Jesus not to let himself be killed. He just got on with preaching, healing, casting out demons and perfoming other miracles as required.

If you had chosen a team of just 12 people to start a global movement with you, do you think that it would be sensible to consider one of them less important? God has no favourites. He spends more time with some, if we give him more time, but do you think that the adulteress whom Jesus saved from being stoned felt that Jesus thought her less important, or Jairus whose daughter he healed, or the Samaritan women with whom he talked at a well and then stayed there for two days? The possible examples are endless, but no one who has an encounter with Jesus needs to feel less important than anyone else. Don't allow yourself to tell you that you are. Don't allow anyone else to do that. Don't let society imply it to you. You are as loved as James 'the greater'.

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The early adopter

When you start marketing a product, you're looking for the early adopters. They want to try out new things, get ahead of the game, are willing to pay that little bit higher price, before it might fall as sales increase, in order to be the ones who have what others don't. For the manufacturer, it's the early adopters who give the product credibility in the market by boosting early sales figures, writing the first reviews, and telling their friends and colleagues about it.

When I was a student, I decided to use a computer to control my main experiment. After a while, I upgraded to a mark I BBC microcomputer, which was amazing. However, to get it to control the apparatus, take measurements and do some preliminary analysis, it was still necessary to write in assembly language (the next level up from 1's and 0's), because the memory was so small. And, yes, I had to install and replace several chips myself. It did seem like a better option than moving the equiment by hand all the time and then writing down the results using pen and paper, but it turned out to be a project in itself. However, computerization has turned out to be the way to go!

John the Baptist had his own ministry, which was doing well. However, he was aways pointing to Jesus as the one to come. After Jesus had been proclaimed publicly as the Son of God by a voice from Heaven, just after his baptism, John started to tell other people that it was Jesus who was the Messiah. This was by the River Jordan. The first people that he told were two of his own disciples, one of whom was a man called Andrew, from Bethsaida on the coast of the Sea of Galillee. These two decided to check out Jesus for themselves and spent a day with him. Andrew, though, first went off to fetch his brother Simon, who was probably somewhere nearby, because they arrived back in time to spend the rest of the day with Jesus.

The next day, Jesus set out for Galilee, presumably with Andrew and Simon. We don't hear again of the other disciple of John who had spent that first day with Jesus; perhaps he went back to John. When Jesus and his two companions arrived in Galilee, they came across a man called Philip, also from Bethsaida. It doesn't seem that he had been at Jesus' baptism or that he had been a disciple of John. So we don't kow much about him, except that he might have known Andrew and Simon, at least by sight. Jesus, though, must have seen faith in him and recognized that this was someone who was going to be one of his apostles. "Follow me," Jesus said to him (John's Gospel, chapter 1, verse 43).

Philip might not have had the benefit of John's teaching about the one to come after him, although he might have been to the Jordan to be baptized earlier. He certainly had not had John specifically tell him who Jesus was, although Andrew might have got involved in the discussion with Jesus. However, something must have made him know inside that this was someone worth being with. So Philip followed him - just like that.

Philip saw something good that seemed to be of God and threw himself behind it with little but faith to justify the decision.

Some of the 12 apostles joined Jesus after he had become quite famous as an outstanding teacher and miracle worker; Philip was an early adopter who took a chance on limited evidence, a man of faith. He, like Andrew, decided to go and fetch someone as well, in his case a friend called Nathanael Bartholomew, and told him that he might have found the Messiah. Nathanael was skeptical, but Philip wasn't put off and persuaded his friend to come along (John 1:44-46). So once they had all returned, these seem to have formed the core of four men who were Jesus' first committed disciples.

We don't know vast amounts about Philip beyond that. He is the one whom Jesus asked where they could buy food for the thousands of people that Jesus had been preaching to one day, flummoxing him rather. In the end Jesus fed them with five loaves of bread and two fish (John 6:1-14). When some Greeks came to see Jesus, they approached Philip for an introduction, which he provided (John12:20-26). At one point when Jesus had been talking about his Father, Philip asked him to show them the Father, only to be told that that wasn't necessary, because if he'd seen Jesus he had seen the Father (John 14:7-11). As you can see, life with Jesus wasn't always easy: he was very unusual and expected an awful lot of his friends.

Of course, Philip was involved in everything that all the other apostles did, apart from the few occasions where Jesus took just Peter together with the brothers James and John, but we don't read anything else about him as an individual. After Jesus had gone back to Heaven and the Holy Spirit had arrived in power, it's possible that we see Philip preaching and teaching on a couple of occasions, but it's not clear if that's him or Philip the deacon. The Bible doesn't tell us what he did later, although the most likely account seems to be that he died in Hierapolis (in what is now western Turkey) around 80 AD. In that case, his apostolic duties had led him to preach the gospel far from home, like many other leaders in the early Church.

Although we don't know much about Philip, he had an important role to play. He was a man who, right at the beginning of Jesus' ministry, was willing to step out in faith, take Jesus at face value with little logical reason for doing so, and be faithful to him to the end, despite not having an easy ride and being embarrassed by Jesus from time to time by getting the wrong end of the stick. He also took the opportunity to introduce others to Jesus when presented to him.

How willing are we to step out in faith when we don't understand what's going on? Do we want to know all the answers and have the logic in place before following up on what we think that Jesus might be telling us? Do we miss, or even ignore, the promptings of the Holy Spirit because we are more attuned to the promptings of the rational world? Do we sometimes look back and see that someone stepped in when we didn't and now has a successful ministry or has received blessing from God in some other way? We mustn't be stupid or presumptuous, but we need to tune our spiritual ears to be able hear God in the midst of the cross-talk from everyone else. Philip took the plunge purely on faith and led one of the most exciting lives that anyone has ever lived.

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