In L.A. Lambert’s examination of a so-called Christmas sermon by the the famous agnostic Robert Ingersoll, Lambert said about creative genius, “genius depends for its development on favorable environments”. The evidence proves Lambert to be correct.

When God made man in His image, “In the image of God He made them male and female”, God
imbued man with characteristics like His including the mental and emotional faculties which characterize man over the beasts. The best an animal can do is a mimic or pseudo emotion which it does by instinct.

Being like God who created the world in 6 days, man is very creative. Man thinks up things, has ideas and then turns those thoughts into things. Sometimes the things man makes a physical gadgets and sometimes the things are words in the forms of poems, books, articles, treatises, etc. Man is very creative like God. This is from God and it is a gift to be utilized by man. The creativity man ought to be viewed as another means of glorifying God. When you make something, it’s because God made it possible and it ought always to be viewed as another testament to the glory of God.

Creativity and the making of things requires maximum freedom up to the point that it does not break God’s law. For this aspect of man’s nature to rise to its full potential requires freedom of thought and movement. Common sense dictates that if the hands are tied behind the back, there’s no creative “making” possible (slavery is unjust for this reason). If the tongue is cut out or the fingers are cut off, there is not creative “making” of words possible. Creativity can be stifled by the use of force. When free thought it outlawed, the creative genius of man to imagine and invent new things curtailed.

A society that respects maximum freedom (without breaking God’s law because breaking moral law is regressive) is a society that allows genius to flourish. Man is a creative, inventive machine just like the Almighty God who made him. Societies that control thinking and the speaking of words, is regressive and common sense tells you it cannot prosper. In a highly controlled regime like China or North Korea, for example, there is the want of food and services. When men are not allowed to think, to speak, to create, and to own those things, it stifles mankind’s creative genius. In these places there’s an abundance of food and wealth. But what holds it back from the potential is the repressive regimes that cannot maintain control of power without maintaining control of the most important aspects of man.

Universities have become repressive when it comes to thought. The thought police are reading to label speech as hate with punishments meted out. When over 90% of college professors are in the camp of liberal progressive, the conservative thinker is held back and fearful speak. A vocal Christian in a modern University will be under attack by students and professors. The ridicule and mocking alone are enough to make students to leave for a more favorable atmosphere where free thinking is allowed.1

Making babies is creating life. We hear about societies that are aging and dying because the birthrates have dropped below the “replacement rate”. It’s unnatural and extremely repressive for a society to have a one child policy as China has had for many decades. The problem it created in China is not only the out and out murder of unwanted girl babies but it has left the country of over a billion people with a 100 million deficit of females.2 Imagine how painful to know that statistically there isn’t a woman to marry. God made the numbers to be fairly even between males and females born. Man who seeks to repress freedom creates these kinds of problems. Planned Parenthood is a similar evil and the fruit of it is felt across our society. God said for man to be fruitful and multiply. God meant for the earth to be filled and that is not possible when men unnaturally control the rate to the replacement rate or lower. Yes, I said it, generally speaking and excluding extenuating circumstances, God intends for husbands and wives to have several children. “Blessed is the man whose quiver is full.” Having a baby is the most beautiful way of creating that God has provided. The child with a soul made in God’s image is one of the best examples of the beauty and glory of heaven. A baby is perfect and pure with an unstained soul that’s so very precious to God and His angels.

Irrational fear. Sometimes men don’t create, speak, or do because they are fearful. A lack of faith in God will also stifle the creativity God designed man to have. “For God has not given us a spirit of timidity; but of power and love and discipline.” 2 Tim. 1:7. Fear makes a person to stop speaking and stop creating. The devil is the ultimate controller of man because men give in to fear. Do not fear, Jesus says. “If you confess Me before men, I will confess you before My Father in heaven”, Mt 10. We must never let rational or irrational fear keep us from accomplishing our potential to the glory of God.

So I have to close by saying I’m in agreement with Lambert that creative “genius” requires an environment of freedom. Christians can be faithful to God in free or repressive societies, but the Gospel spreads more easily when a man has the freedom to think on God, speak on God, and to lead others to follow and conform their lives to God.

1. https://www.washingtonpost.com/…/the-dramatic-shift-among…/…

2. http://www.cnn.com/…/opi…/china-challenges-one-child-brooks/ [About the CNN citation, there are numerous online articles that cite this story, but because free thought is imposed, many of those cites are labeled too conservative and not worthy of consideration, so I cite CNN which the liberal thought police will accept as a source]