Here's the first: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." (Genesis 1:1). Granted, that's pretty basic. But it's also a pretty important place to start.
Why? Because if God is not the source of everything then the rest of what the Bible teaches doesn't matter a lick. Without God we are reduced to some sort of "cosmic hiccup"--an accident of evolution. In other words, we (the human race) are on our own.
For some people this feels like freedom--we are masters of our own destiny. For me it feels like utter foolishness (how did all of this "happen?" And how do you account for such order and beauty?).
There are a lot of arguments and debates about exactly how God created everything. For instance, was it a "big bang?" Maybe. I suppose if God spoke and entire galaxies were formed by the sheer power of the words that flew out of his mouth a "big bang" seems reasonable. The real issue behind the big-bang, or any other theory regarding the origins of life is "Who caused it?" Who or what is the uncaused cause?
The atheist says no one caused it--it just happened. I've examined the statistical probability of the five elements needed to form a dead molecule--one in 10 to the 17th power. That's a lot of zeroes.
The agnostic says, "I don't know and I don't know if you can know." It's okay to not know. It's not okay to shrug your shoulders and say, "Who cares?" One second after you die you will care...a lot.
The Christian says, "God, in his goodness, created the world."
You'll have to decide for yourself but I believe all the evidence points toward the latter. And that leads us to other issues, such as "What is this Creator God like?"
More later...
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