So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God created he him;
Genesis 1:27
"Dr. Charles Everett Koop (1916-2013) served as the Surgeon General of the United States from 1982 to 1989 under Ronald Reagan’s presidency.
For most of his career he was Surgeon-in-Chief at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Professor of Pediatric Surgery and Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
He wrote the textbook in his field and, thanks mostly to his work, some
His spiritual journey was fostered partly by the fact that he became pro-life when practicing medicine. Koop explained he was faced “with the pain and suffering of my patients and their parents”, and “needed the assurance that there was some greater plan—both for them and for myself.” His concern about the unborn followed his
“ … concern about the newly born. How could I ever accept the destruction of the unborn after a career devoted to the repair of imperfect newborns, knowing the joy and fulfilment they brought to their families?”
Likewise, his conclusions about creationism were based on careful research, such as noting that
“All the way back to the dawn of … history, we find that man is still man. Wherever we turn, to the caves of the Pyrenees, to the Sumerians in Mesopotamia, and even further back to Neanderthal man’s burying his dead in flower petals, it makes no difference: men everywhere show by their art and their accomplishments that they have been … unique. They were unique, and people today are unique. What is wrong is a world-view which fails to explain that uniqueness. All people are unique because they are made in the image of God.”Koop was very impressed with the design argument for God. He wrote in a letter to a fellow doctor, ABC News correspondent Timothy Johnson, that
“In Psalm 139 David writes about God’s role in his own life before birth: For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”Koop also wrote that “all healing is of the Lord” because God has intelligently designed humans with inbuilt systems that enable the body to heal itself.
Koop has also eloquently expressed his reservations about Darwinism. In a letter to Paul Humber, he wrote,
“It has been my conviction for many years that evolution is impossible. However, I haveKoop offered a reason for this, namely thatnever been able to convince anyone who held the opposite point of view.”
“I am of the firm conviction that until the scales are lifted from the eyes of those who oppose creation, no scientific evidence will be of value in proof.”Furthermore, “the theory of evolution, the idea that by chance there is an increasing advance” teaches that progress—up from the primeval slime and the amoeba, up through the evolutionary chain, with life developing by chance from the simple carbon molecule to the complex, right up to the pinnacle, mankind and he held this was impossible.
He concluded that
“ … the concept of evolutionary progress is an illusion. Only some form of mystical jump will allow us to accept that personality comes from impersonality. No one has … explained, let alone demonstrated it to be feasible, how the impersonal plus time plus chance can give personality.”Koop noted that evolutionists distract readers “by a flourish of words—and, lo, personality has appeared out of a hat”. He explained that one of his concerns is the moral implications of evolution:
“Unlike the evolutionary concept of an impersonal beginning plus time plus chance, the Bible gives an account of man’s origin as a finite person made in God’s image, that is, like God. We see then how man can have personality and dignity and value. Our uniqueness is guaranteed, something which is impossible in the materialistic system. If there is no qualitative distinction between man and other organic life (animals or plants), why should we feel greater concern over the death of a human being than over the death of a laboratory rat? Is man in the end any higher?" CMI
