As biblical creationists, we are often thought of by most Christians as purveyors of a “side bar” or less important doctrine. The criticism goes something like, “Why get so worked up about creation and the Flood? After all it’s only Genesis—it’s the Old Testament. The gospel is what’s really important. It’s all about Jesus, right? Besides, science disagrees with Genesis, and we don’t want to be seen as ignorant and anti-science! The really intelligent people won’t listen to the gospel and be saved if we say we believe Genesis.”

Well, if you’re a regular reader of creation science literature you’ll recognize the flaws in that argument. Biblical creationists are not anti-science. Most of the leaders in the creationist community are credentialed scientists with one or more advanced science degrees from secular universities. Yes, as creationists we do primarily discuss issues dealing with Genesis, and, yes, the focal point of Christianity is Jesus – His virgin conception and birth; His sinless life; His substitutionary, sacrificial death on the cross to pay for the sins of the entire world (1 John 2:2); and His physical resurrection from the tomb.

The creation/evolution debate is a critical battle ground for the hearts and minds of everyone. What we think about our origins impacts everything we think about the world and ourselves. If human beings are merely the result of natural law working over billions of years as materialists claim, then any action we “choose” can be justified since we become the arbiters of right and wrong. Our culture is becoming increasingly secular in its thinking and policies. Moral relativism, situation ethics, sexual permissiveness in all its forms, abortion, theft, senseless mass murders, tolerance and even justification for dishonesty, are on the rise. We are at a critical time, a tipping point, in the history of our nation.

Those who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s lived through a revolutionary transformation of Western culture from a Judea-Christian worldview to the prevailing secular views of today. The turbulent sixties saw the assassination of president Kennedy, the Vietnam war, the emergence of rock'n roll, the rise of radical feminism, the "sexual revolution," the emergence of the drug culture, the space race culminating with the landing of man on the moon, the Civil Rights movement, the "generation gap," Woodstock, the banning of school prayer, the assassination of Martin Luther King, the assassination of Robert Kennedy, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the nuclear arms race, the peace movement, hippies, the rise of the "counter culture," the rise of Eastern Mysticism, the rise of the ecology movement, founding of the "Great Society," mini-skirts, and so on. In the early 1970s we had the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision, which gave us mass murder via abortion. The mantras of the day were: "tune in, turn on, drop out," "if it feels good do it," "peace and love," "make love not war," etc. The prevailing ethic changed from "love thy neighbor as thyself" to "do what you want as long as you don't hurt anyone else." A generation turned its back on its parents and their culture to embrace a new and "better " way presumably free from materialism, greed, aggression, and hypocrisy.