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How It All Began​—Did It “Just Happen”?

PEOPLE have different ideas as to how humans and other living things that exist today began. Likely, you were taught some of these in school.

Some people believe that these things developed from lower forms of life by evolution. Others believe that they had a Designer and Maker who is greater and more intelligent than all that he made.

What do you think? Which seems reasonable to you? Can you tell for sure which is right?

Those who believe in evolution point out similarities in certain animals and birds. They say that this is evidence of evolution from one form to another. Look at these drawings of the skeletons of the forelimbs of some of these creatures. They are similar, aren’t they? Does that mean that one slowly changed into another?

Now look at these airplanes. You see certain similarities in them, don’t you? Does that make it reasonable to conclude that, on its own, the modern jet evolved from the others?

Birds could fly long before man made airplanes. They can also do something that airplanes cannot​—produce more of their own kind. No one doubts that airplanes are a product of intelligent design. Is it reasonable to believe that birds are not?

Those who say that one living thing evolved into another usually start off with things that already existed. They are talking about how they think things developed, not how they began.

Some who believe in evolution know that this is a weakness in their belief, so they try to show how life began all by itself in early times. They call it “spontaneous generation.” In other words, it just happened by some happy combination of circumstances at the right time. A single living cell, they say, came from nonliving matter. Of course, they are still starting with something that already existed​—matter.

It is true that scientists who believe in evolution have demonstrated that they can send electricity through certain gases and produce acids that are basic to life. Of course, such acids are not living cells that can pass on life to another cell. But look closely at what is being done. The scientist works with gases that already exist, and he uses these in just the right combination. He must also supply electricity. The entire experiment is carefully supervised.

What is proved is that intelligent direction is needed in order to produce just a few of the substances required for life. It does not “just happen.”

Someone may give you the parts for a bicycle​—all designed to fit together. But if no one puts them together, will you have a bicycle to ride? What if you wait for five years? Ten years? No, it won’t “just happen.” Someone with intelligence has to put it together.

No wonder that books teaching evolution have to admit: “Scientists can only guess how the first living things were born in the far, far distant past.” Yes, their belief is only a guess.

Then, how did it all begin? Well, where did you come from? If someone told you he didn’t have a mother or a father, would you believe him? You know he had to be born from living parents.

But where did the first parents come from? The Bible answers that they were made by God. “God proceeded to create the man in his image, in God’s image he created him; male and female he created them.”​—Gen. 1:27.

We did not make ourselves. “Know that Jehovah is God. It is he that has made us, and not we ourselves.” (Ps. 100:3) That same Creator produced the vast universe and all the things in it.

How did he do it? By his great power. The universe is made up of matter that had to come from a source of boundless energy. The Bible tells us that Jehovah is that Source. “I myself have made the earth, mankind and the beasts that are upon the surface of the earth by my great power.” (Jer. 27:5) He is also described as having an “abundance of dynamic energy, he also being vigorous in power.”​—Isa. 40:26.

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As we have seen, much argues that what exists today is the result of intelligent design. Thus the Bible reasons: “Of course, every house is constructed by someone, but he that constructed all things is God.”​—Heb. 3:4.

Science knows that our universe had a beginning. It did not always exist. The Bible is right when it says: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Gen. 1:1) That is how it all began.

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DID ONE EVOLVE INTO ANOTHER?

Bird

Whale

Man

AIRPLANES WERE DESIGNED. WHAT ABOUT BIRDS?

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A CAREFULLY SUPERVISED EXPERIMENT

SOMEONE HAS TO PUT IT TOGETHER

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YOU CAME FROM LIVING PARENTS

THE FIRST HUMAN PARENTS WERE MADE BY GOD