How comfortable are you with the ideas ‘creature’ and ‘procreation’?

TV scientists (of whom there are plenty) and the public at large don’t use ‘creature’ much nowadays except in a secondary sense, e.g. ‘a creature of habit’, ‘a miserable critter’. Its primary sense, i.e. ‘something created, animate or inanimate’, makes TV scientists uneasy because the purpose of their teaching is to convey the message of Evolution, not Creation.

Churchgoers, by contrast, should not just be comfortable with the idea of ‘God, Creator of Heaven & Earth’, we must live by it — the idea that all people and all things animate and inanimate are ‘creatures’ remains central to our sense of reality.

“Praise God from whom all blessings flow, praise Him all creatures here below”, we sing lustily. And so we should: praising is second-nature to us who are, as the Genesis story puts it, the crown of God’s creation. That is the most profound implication of the idea of 'procreation' — God has granted us the privilege of creating on His behalf.

The tone was set centuries ago by the Psalmist who reminds us still (Ps.100): ‘it is He who has made us and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture.’

— Praise Him!