In school we studied axioms. In math and logic, an axiom is "a statement that needs no proof because its truth is obvious" (Webster’s New World Dictionary, p. 98). Euclid’s famous axiom was that "things equal to the same thing are equal to each other." An axiom is self-evident truth. We observed other axioms such as: "The shortest distance between two point is a straight line." Who hasn’t paraphrased this obvious truth by saying, "As the crow flies." Then there was the one, "The sum is equal to the total of its parts." We used this obvious truth to check our answers.

But there are more truths which men, both secular humanists and half-hearted believers, need reminded of today. They would be obvious even without a revelation from God, though many of them are alluded to in Scripture.

In all human experience no one has observed otherwise. A thing is universally accepted as true when no one can demonstrate that the opposite occasionally happens. It is on this basis that we conclude that the universe could not be self-existent, for it would have created itself from nothing. If there was ever a time when totally nothing existed, then that situation would be locked in forever. There would just be a constant eternity of nothingness, for something can’t come from nothing. But this leads to another axiom.

Left to itself, matter cannot choose to act on its own. Matter can be acted upon by mind (intelligence), but not the other way around. An enormous amount of planning and action (mind, intelligence and power) would have been necessary in order to bring this orderly universe and all life systems into being. We are forced to conclude that the First Cause was not lifeless matter, but a highly Intelligent Mind. "Mind over matter" is an axiom. "Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, why have you made me like this" (Romans 9.20).

"For every house was built by someone" (Hebrews 3.4). We can all agree about the house. Shouldn’t it be even more obvious that something which requires even more power and intelligence than a house was brought into existence by a more powerful and more Intelligent Being? The "logic" of unbelievers is woefully lacking at this point. The word "created" is a verb (an action word). But a verb cannot show action unless there is a noun to do the acting.

Something cannot give that which it does not have. No one has ever demonstrated the opposite. Scientists agree that "all life comes from existing life" (The Law of Biogenesis). This is one reason the "Big Bang Theory" is not a sufficient explanation for a universe that is filled with numberless forms of life. Whatever (actually, "Whoever") gave the abundance of life we see everywhere around us, had it to give and knows the secret of life that remains a mystery to man (Acts 17.25). —Dick Blackford