Think about this...

We went to see Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed Sunday afternoon. It's the Ben Stein documentary on the bias/witch hunt against members of the scientific community who give any sort of serious mention of Intelligent Design. Very good flick. We took our two oldest kids, Kelsey and Zane. (Zack entertained Gramma at her house. Somehow cookies got baked.)

At one point during the movie, I leaned over to Kelsey and said, "Have you noticed that every professor he interviews is sitting at an enormously messy desk?" To which she replied, "It's OK, Mom. They're waiting for it to evolve into something more organized. There'll be a spark any minute now. And then... boom... a new universe." I nearly busted trying to keep from laughing out loud. She gets it.

Expelled is a great movie for kids, if you want them to THINK about what they believe. It is not a "Christian" movie, per se. Ben Stein is Jewish. But what it does is back you right into a corner where you just can't deny that there HAS to be an Intelligent Designer behind the creation of the universe.

Ben Stein is relentlessly awesome. He even gets the current rock star of atheism, Richard Dawkins, to admit there MIGHT have been some sort of intelligent designer, maybe from another plant. The dude (Dawkins) can entertain alien visits (which are a topic unto themselves) but not the existence of God. He does say that even if more highly evolved life from another planet planted life here on earth, the life from THAT planet had to happen by some inexplicable non-God-originated shift of inorganic matter to organic. Of course, my question is: Where did the inorganic matter come from? The Energy? The Spark?

Hummm...

What a treasure to engage our kids in thought! There are so few opportunities to ponder the universe these days. It's nice to take a time-out from racing around and just think about our magnificent Creator and His creation.

My husband, Jimmy, used to teach biology. We call him Mr. Biology at homework time. With all he knows about life, from the single cell to complex organisms, he's always taught our children to be in awe of the meticulous design behind creation. As a result, the things they learn in school-science never go to undercut their faith, but always to bolster it. It all goes to the point of view from which they've been taught from the get-go.As parents, Jimmy and I are both humbled and thrilled at the opportunity to be our children's primary teachers.

It's pretty cool to see what happens when we think about the Creator. If we know Him personally, it's virtually impossible not to end up in a moment of praise and worship.

If you have children who are of the appropriate age, take them to see Expelled. It is PG. (There are scenes from WWII concentration camps that parents need to make a call about before taking younger kids to see the documentary.) Of course, I'm thinking everything should be PG, in that we as parents ought to seize every opportunity we have to encourage our children to evaluate what they watch in light of Scripture. We did that with Expelled.

And just for the record, here's our conclusion: There is an Intelligent Designer behind it all. His name is Jesus.

"In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was already with God in the beginning. Everything came into existence through him. Not one thing that exists was mad without him. He was the source of life, and that life was the light for humanity." John 1:1-4 (GWT)

He created all things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible.
Whether they are kings or lords,
rulers or powers---
everything has been created through him and for him.
He existed before everything
and holds everything together.

Colossians 1:16-17 (GWT)