"What kind of question is this?" you probably ask, "I am John, the son of James…" And who is James? "Well, James is the son of Peter." And Peter? Aaah! Peter is the son of Nicolas." And who is Nicolas?...This is where your problem lies, my atheistic friends: how far can you go back in your genealogy? Could you spot your Homo Sapiens ancestor? How about the Neanderthal one? What is your individual value? According to your faith you would get lost in the void of pre-pre-pre-history, in the primordial soup of euglenas and amoebas…
But you see, this is in direct contradiction with the desire that each individual has and with the effort we all spend to be SOMEBODY, for our lives to have meaning , to get respect and appreciation. It also contradicts the system of value we establish as we look up to people that are of success or of old nobility. "So and so comes from a noble family that's 400 years old !" But what are 400 years of nobility against millions of years of coelenterate and bugs and lizards and apes in the family? Even 10000 years of nobility could not make up for this kind of beastly heritage! No, dear friends! Our drive as men is to seek meaning. We strive our entire life to leave something behind us that could identify us, make us unique. Why? This is not some kind of instinct that could be inherited from animals. This is a special feature placed in us by our Designer. As each painting of Rembrandt, even though unique, it expresses Rembrandt, expresses his artistic genius, in the same way each man is uniquely made by God to uniquely express His glory. The fact that an all sufficient God took the time and spent the energy, so to speak , and made us gives us our real individual value and not by far the idea that we somehow, by endless series of accidents and coincidences managed to evolve from a bug to Homo Sapiens-Sapiens.
You see, for me it is very simple: bodily I am an offspring of Adam and of Noah, but concerning the spirit, the inner man as Paul calls it, I am a child of God, not by the will of man, nor by my own efforts, but born of God. (John 1:12, 13) And you can be too!
