Oh, man, today has been such a dark day: Charlie Kirk assassinated on a Utah university campus. There are so many things to say about Kirk… the remarkable, self-giving courage to visit colleges around the country and take on all challenges posed to him, brilliantly and with grace, is how he met his end on this earth. Eric Metaxas says, “It’s not too soon to say it: Charlie Kirk is a martyr,” and the same word came to my mind.
Too Inward-Looking?
Is it too inward-looking to wonder what he said about issues that are close to our own hearts? I don’t think so. People will be talking about Charlie Kirk’s legacy for a long time. You could start anywhere. For myself, I was particularly grateful, in those often-contentious college discussions, for his frequent defense of Jews and of Israel. Kirk fascinated me, too, being as he was a Shabbat-observant Christian (“Shabbat” was his own word for it) who missed major news stories because he had turned off his phone on Friday night to honor creation. He agreed with the ironic statement that “Everything really big happens on Shabbat,” including the Trump assassination attempt in Pennsylvania. He has a new book on the Sabbath coming out in December. Amazing.
Well then, what about intelligent design? At a time of heartbreaking loss, it’s very natural to think of ultimate questions like whether there is objective evidence of a loving, intelligent mind behind the universe.
The God Hypothesis
“Loving” and “intelligent” are two qualities that don’t necessarily go together. After Return of the God Hypothesis came out, Kirk had Stephen Meyer on his podcast to talk about the book. Listen to it here. That was in September 2022. Kirk said that as a Christian he was intrigued to learn from Meyer that, contrary to Darwin, there is not only Scriptural but scientific confirmation of a design behind life. At the time, I was struck by a question from a listener, Paul from Massachusetts, at the very end of the conversation, who identified as an agnostic, not an atheist, “waiting for enough evidence to make me believe in God.” Paul wondered what kind of a God that design pointed to.
Dr. Meyer made an important distinction. There is the evidence from nature, which supports a “theistic notion of God,” “transcendent, intelligent, personal, and active.” Then, said Meyer, “to decide between the different theistic religions, I think you need what’s called special revelation, and that involves examining, for example, the historical reliability of the Bible, to decide whether it is in fact a communication of the God that we can infer by examining nature.” God’s care and love are what follow from that Scriptural evidence.
Kirk concluded the conversation by quoting C. S. Lewis: “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it but because by it, I see everything else.” That is a wonderful thought, and something like it applies whether you are a Christian or a Jew. May that loving God bless you, Charlie Kirk, as well as your shocked and mourning family. Thank you for sharing your far, far too short 31 years on earth with us.