The Distinctiveness of the Doctrine of Creation

It is a simple and startling fact that no human mind on earth ever conceived the idea that the entire universe, visible and invisible, was created out of nothing, not just made or formed out of something, by a single all-powerful God -- not one except the Jews and those who later learned this idea from the Jews, namely, Christians and then Muslims.

The Jewish idea of the universe as something created was as unique in history as the Jewish idea of God the Creator -- the idea of a single all-perfect, all-powerful, all-wise, all-holy, all-just, and all-merciful God. The uniqueness of both ideas can be explained by the same fact: both came from God's revelation not man's imagination. (see Is 60:1-3).

The truth about our ultimate origin -- the doctrine of creation -- had the same supernatural source as the equally unique and startling doctrine about our ultimate destiny -- to be spiritually married to the one perfect God. That too is something "no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him" (I Cor 2:9).

Different human cultures imagined different ultimate destinies: Nirvana, the Happy Hunting Grounds, the Elysian Fields, the Return to Paradise -- but all these pale in comparison with the divinely revealed truth about our destiny. Similarly, different cultures also invented many different so-called creation myths, but none ever got as far as a Creator of the universe out of nothing.

Catholic Christianity:A Complete Catechism of Catholic Beliefs based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church by Peter Kreeft

How perfect that I read this just the other day. Yesterday our priest's homily was really amazing. He's always an amazing speaker but I have never heard anyone do such a wonderful job of saying that Christianity is the true religion while not saying anything bad about the other ones. He took the above concept as his starting point and then went further to talk about God stepping over the gap to meet us in humanity ... the humanity of Jesus Christ ... and about using that as a stepping stone for meeting each of us personally in our hearts and in our lives. The way to do that? Prayer, of course.