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Over the years, atheists have mocked me for teaching children to ask the question “Were you there?” in regard to talking about origins, the age of the earth and so on. In fact, atheists have gone ballistic over me teaching children this because I’m teaching them how to think correctly about origins. And atheists hate that. They don’t want children to understand that evolution and millions of years are beliefs—all part of the religion of naturalism (atheism).

How can anyone know what happened in the beginning if none of us were there?

Now I’ve had atheists say to me, “Were you there?” in their efforts to mock me.

Well, the simple answer is “No, I was not there.” And I have never claimed to have been there.

This question, “Were you there?” is based on one that God asked Job, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding” (Job 38:4).

By asking a series of rhetorical questions, God demonstrated that Job’s knowledge was finite—compared to God, fallible humans know next to nothing!

Job responded correctly when he stated the following:

“I know that You can do everything, and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You. You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. Listen, please, and let me speak; You said, “I will question you, and you shall answer Me.’ I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:1–6)

Many people will recall one of the most horrific acts of school violence in America in 1999. Beginning at 11:19 AM at suburban Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, high school seniors Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 12 students and a teacher, and wounded 23 others. It was a massacre that shocked the United States—and the world.

Serial killer Eric Harris wore a T-shirt on the day of the Columbine massacre that simply declared “NATURAL SELECTION.”

Such acts as this—and numerous others since—sent a warning that something was happening in our culture—something many were perplexed about. Why would such situations occur?

From a biblical perspective and an understanding of a sovereign God, the ultimate answer of course is sin. The Bible makes it clear we live in a fallen world, and because of the effects of sin and the Curse, we now experience violence, suffering, disease, catastrophes, and so on.

But on the individual level—even understanding we are sinners in a fallen world—we ask what could lead persons like Harris and Klebold to kill their fellow students?

In 2007, Pekka-Eric Auvinen, a teen in Finland, shot and killed students at a high school in another shocking act of school violence. In a video posted on YouTube prior to the shooting, Auvinen stated:

“I am prepared to fight and die for my cause. . . . I, as a natural selector, will eliminate all who I see unfit, disgraces of human race and failures of natural selection. No, the truth is that I am just an animal, a human, an individual, a dissident . . . . It’s time to put NATURAL SELECTION & SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST back on tracks!”

We live in an era of history in which the idea of atheistic evolution is taught as fact in much of the education systems of the world. In the USA, it is claimed that by removing teaching about creation, Bible reading, and prayer from the classrooms in public schools, religion has been removed and students are only educated now in a “neutral” environment.

However, the science textbooks used in most public schools only explain things in terms of natural processes—the supernatural is not considered. That’s not neutral. Students are being taught the philosophy of naturalism, which is—in essence—the religion of atheism.