Introducing God — Two Kinds of “God” and the Difference Between Them
Kia ora! Welcome along. I’m Hiro, the creator of this blog. “A Grain of Wheat” is a blog I write with one purpose in mind: to introduce the God of the Bible to you. I’m a Christian who places my trust in the God of the Bible, and I want to emphasise that phrase — “of the Bible” — because it matters. It’s not just any god I’m talking about. It’s the God revealed in the Bible.
The way I see it, what the world calls “god” can broadly be divided into two categories. The first is gods made “by” humans. Throughout history, when people have faced suffering — death, illness, famine, war — they’ve longed for something to hold on to, and so they’ve created gods out of whatever seemed good to them. Sometimes it was animals, sometimes stars, sometimes trees. All sorts of gods have been born from the human desire for comfort and meaning.
In contrast to these imaginary beings, there is the other kind: a God who actually exists — a God who made “us”. An all-knowing, all-powerful being who transcends time and space, far beyond anything we could ever imagine. This is the God I believe in. In English, of course, we already make this distinction — “God” with a capital G refers to this one unique Creator, while “god” with a lowercase g refers to the various gods of human invention. It’s a meaningful difference that’s built right into the language. In Japanese, though, there’s only one word — 「神」(kami) — so the distinction isn’t as clear, which is why I always make a point of explaining it.
To sum up: the God of the Bible is not an imaginary god made “by” humans, but the Creator who made “us” and designed the entire world. I believe 100% that this God is real. Now, I’m sure some of you are already thinking, “How can you be so sure? If it’s true, show me the evidence.” If that’s you, I’d love for you to keep reading this blog. I’m planning to share all kinds of evidence that points to this God’s existence. Let’s start by looking at how the world came to be, and explore together whether a Creator God is really out there.
Creationism — A View of the World’s Origins You Won’t Learn at School
Creationism is the idea that everything in this universe — the countless stars, the blazing sun, the clear sky, beautiful flowers, all the different kinds of animals, and ultimately us human beings — was made by a great Creator. According to this view, everything visible and invisible was designed, created, and is still sustained by the power of that Creator.
Where does this idea come from?
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” This is the very first verse of Genesis, the opening book of the Old Testament — the very first line of the Bible. I know that for some people, reading just this one sentence is enough to make them close the book and never pick it up again. I get it — it’s a pretty bold claim. I used to be an evolutionist myself, so I was completely sceptical at first. But the truth is, a great many people around the world genuinely believe this.
Globally speaking, people who believe in creationism are far from a minority
Among the world’s many religions, there are three major monotheistic faiths: Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Can you guess how many people follow these three religions combined?
There are roughly 2.5 billion Christians, 2 billion Muslims, and about 16 million Jews. Add those together, and you get approximately 4.516 billion people. Those who sincerely follow these faiths are all, in principle, creationists. Why? Because Christianity and Judaism both regard the Old Testament — which begins with “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” — as sacred scripture. And the Quran, the holy book of Islam, contains the same teaching. So fundamentally, all of these people hold to a creationist worldview.
In other words, more than half of the world’s roughly 8 billion people could be considered believers in creationism. If you’re someone who supports evolution, that might give you a bit of a jolt — “Am I actually in the minority?” But of course, this isn’t something we should settle by majority vote, and saying “more people believe it, so it must be right” isn’t exactly solid reasoning. History is full of cases where the less popular view turned out to be correct.
Three Reasons I Want You to Know About Creationism
I studied education at university, so creationism isn’t my area of expertise. I make mistakes and there are plenty of things I don’t fully understand. But I have a strong desire to share creationism with you. There are three main reasons for that.
First, it’s simply fascinating. Honestly, it’s just really interesting. You’ll see what I mean as we go along, but I’ve been studying creationism on my own for the past couple of years, and once I got into it, I kept discovering things that completely blew my mind. One eye-opening moment after another. I thought, “This is brilliant!” and started devouring books, websites, and YouTube videos. When I heard about a creationism study group at a local church, I even turned up on my own at a church I’d never been to before. I want to share that excitement with you through this blog.
Second, learning about creationism really matters. I’ll explain why in more detail in future posts, but when I first learnt about creationism, I thought, “I wish I’d known about this sooner. If I’d known when I was younger, my life might have been quite different — in a good way.” That’s why I’m writing this, especially with younger people in mind. I’d love for you to take an interest.
Third, hardly anyone knows about it. If you’re a Christian or you went to a church school, you probably know about creationism already. But for everyone else, you may never have even heard of it. I certainly hadn’t when I was living in Japan. The biggest reason is that it’s simply not taught in schools. At school, the origins of the world are explained through an evolutionary framework, and the possibility of a Creator is treated as though it’s essentially non-existent.
How It Relates to Evolution — The Story of Our Origins as Taught at School
Most of us were taught something like this at school about how the universe and the world came to be, weren’t we?
A long time ago, an infinitely small speck of matter in a void of nothingness suddenly exploded in what’s called the “Big Bang”, creating a universe full of matter. Over vast stretches of time, these bits of matter were drawn together by gravity, forming the Earth and countless other stars and planets. Then, on Earth, over even more time, molecules bonded together and — by pure chance — the building blocks of life emerged. At first, only simple organisms like bacteria existed, but as ages passed, more complex creatures arose by chance — fish-like animals, then amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals, eventually leading to the world as we know it today.
When I was a primary school teacher, this is exactly how I taught it. For the human part, I’d tell the kids something like: “We were originally part of the ape family, but at some point we started walking on two legs, which freed up our hands. We began making tools and using fire, and as a result, our brains developed more than other animals’, and eventually we became able to use language.” This kind of explanation isn’t just found in schools — it’s presented as established science on the internet, on TV, and in newspapers. It’s become common knowledge. In this blog, I’ll use the term “evolution” as a convenient shorthand for this whole framework, including the Big Bang theory.
So, to define “evolution” as I’ll be using the term in this blog: “The theory that our universe and world came into existence by chance over an immense period of time.”
Creation vs Evolution
Was the world made by a Creator, or did it come about by chance? Since there’s only one truth, both can’t be right. Over the years, researchers have argued passionately — “Because of X, creationism is correct and evolution is wrong” or “Because of Y, evolution is correct and creationism can’t be true” — and the debate has been fierce. More recently, I’ve been hearing postmodern-style opinions like: “Everyone should just pick whichever they prefer. If you think evolution is true, then it’s true for you. If you think creationism is right, then that’s your truth.” A kind of “to each their own” approach. But I can’t really get on board with that, because this isn’t a matter of personal preference. If it were about preference, then sure, each to their own. For instance, if someone asked you, “Which do you prefer, apples or bananas?”, you’d just pick one. (For the record — not that it matters — I’m a banana man myself, because I like things sweet.) But imagine that person then said, “No good! Everyone’s given a different answer! We need to discuss this until we all agree on one!” That’d be a bit daft, wouldn’t it? It’s a preference — just let people choose what they like. But the creation vs evolution debate asks a very different kind of question. It’s a question about an objective fact in the past — how did this world actually come to be? If someone points at a laptop and asks, “Is this a laptop or a television?”, you can’t just say either answer is fine. There’s only one correct answer: it’s a laptop. It’s the same as saying 1 + 1 can’t be both 2 and 3. And so, throughout history, people have put great effort into trying to answer those universal questions: “Where did we come from?” and “How did this world begin?” Yet here we are, with two opposing views — evolution and creation — still being debated among experts, and still unresolved.
Coming Up Next: Is Creation vs Evolution Really Religion vs Science?
Now, having read this far, I’m sure some of you have objections.
“Evolution is science and creationism is religion. Creationism is nothing but a fairy tale. Evolution has been scientifically proven and the matter is already settled. The idea that some Creator made the world is just a story people believed back when science hadn’t developed yet. Evolution was developed by scientists who gathered evidence through experiments and observations to replace the old, unsupported claims of creationism.”
Well then — is that really the case?
Next time, let’s start by thinking together about the question: “Is evolution really science?”
Thank you so much for reading to the end.
