Tag Archives: Creation

Aplogetics, Reasons to Believe

What Did The First Heart Look Like?

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If you could go back in time and observe the first heart, what would you put in your notes? Would it be in a prehistoric dinosaur or a monkey, or a human? In all three, it does the same thing.

When did it arrive? It couldn’t appear by itself or will itself into existence nor slowly build itself into its purpose.

The purpose of the heart is to pump blood thru veins and arteries to supply life-giving nutrients and oxygen from the lungs for the entire body. For the heart to survive, it needs electrical currents to make it do its job.

The heart would be useless and dead if all of the above and more were not present simultaneously. This applies to all life. This has been termed irreducible complexity. It makes sense.

This is why I know with absolute certainty there is a Creator God. To think all this happened by blind unthinking chance slowly over millions of years requires faith greater than a belief in an intelligent Creator.

Therefore, I lack faith in being an evolutionist, atheist, or evolutionist theist.

The first heart likely looked much like it does it now. It was in the body of Adam, Eve, and the animals God created the 1st week of planet Earth. All were fully functional the moment God spoke it.

“I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well.” Psalm 139:14

Reasons to Believe

BELIEVING THE UNBELIEVABLE

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Anthony Bosman
A universe of miracles

If you have struggled to believe in the miraculous, you are not alone. Even the great heroes of faith wrestled with unbelief. Abraham was sensible enough to realize his barren wife would not produce offspring and questioned God’s promise to make a great nation out of him. Rather than rebuke Abraham’s doubt, God instructed him: “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them” (Gen. 15:5).1 

To the naked eye, several thousand stars are visible. If you have been privileged enough to escape the light pollution of the city and see the sky on a clear night, you know how breathtaking it can be. Yet the incredible images of the James Webb Space Telescope remind us that what we see with our naked eye is only the smallest glimpse of the richness of the cosmos. For instance, the first publicly released image of Webb, SMACS 0723, surveys a portion of sky that is about the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length.2 When Webb peered into that tiny dark region, it revealed the light of thousands of galaxies, each containing billions of stars. I like to imagine that when God commanded Abraham to number the stars, He took him on a similar visionary experience throughout the cosmos. 


Our best estimate is that there are around 200 billion trillion stars in the visible universe, though this is likely to increase. There are far too many stars for anyone to count, but that was the point of God’s exercise: Abraham needed to be reminded of God’s infinite creative power. As he looked to the heavens and tried to number the innumerable, Abraham’s objections subsided, and “he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness” (verse 6). Perhaps it is providential that at a time when it’s easy to doubt, we have been gifted images of the heavens through the Webb telescope to help us believe again. 

How Did We Get So Skeptical?


Our modern skepticism can be traced to the Enlightenment philosopher David Hume. Hume argued that “a miracle is a violation of the laws of nature,” but as “firm and unalterable experience has established these laws,” we should reject the miraculous. But this argument is circular, for it rules out miracles by defining them to be violations that cannot be violated, failing to account for the possibility that God can act in the world contrary to our ordinary experience. Indeed, in his two-volume work on miracles, Craig Keener documents the long history of well-attested miracles throughout the world.

Nevertheless, Hume’s skepticism was widely embraced. It fits with the popular myth that now that we are scientific, we know better than the ancients who superstitiously believed barren women could conceive and dead men rise from the dead. But of course, the ancients well knew old women did not become pregnant and dead men rotted away, which is why they made such a big deal when something so out of the ordinary occurred. 

Many scientists have recognized that the existence of the laws of nature is itself miraculous. In his essay “The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences,” the mathematical physicist and Nobel laureate Eugene Wigner observed: “It is not at all natural that ‘laws of nature’ exist, much less that man is able to discover them.”5 Wigner uses the word “miracle” to characterize the ability of mathematics to describe the natural world. The history of science testifies to the fact that people were bold enough to look for the laws of nature precisely because they believed in a divine lawgiver. Neither under polytheism, where the cosmos is ruled by many competing gods, nor atheism, which denies any Intelligence behind the universe, would one expect to be able to discover universal mathematics laws. 

A God Who Creates


Isaac Newton’s theory of universal gravitation, for example, naturally arose from his belief in a God who created the heavens and the earth. And rather than think that it explained away God, Newton saw it as evidencing “an intelligent and powerful Being”6 who created and actively sustains the universe, believing that behind the force of gravity was “an agent acting constantly according to certain laws.”7 Newton’s view is well reflected in Ellen White’s description of God’s relationship to the laws of nature: “God does not annul His laws, but He is continually working through them, using them as His instruments. They are not self-working. God is perpetually at work in nature. She is His servant, directed as He pleases. Nature in her work testifies to the intelligent presence and active agency of a being who moves in all His works according to His will. . . . The hand of infinite power is perpetually at work guiding this planet.”

Granted, Newton’s understanding of gravity was incomplete, and we continue to develop richer accounts—from Einstein’s vision of mass warping spacetime to hypothesized graviton particles that are conjectured to mediate the gravitational force. Yet as science advances, God’s power is not diminished. Every such theory is, after all, a mathematical model describing how the universe behaves, for equations have no creative or sustaining power. God alone governs the cosmos; “in Him, we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). 

As such, the Bible does not treat natural explanation and divine intervention as mutually exclusive. Rather, it often blends these two kinds of explanations, portraying God as sovereign over nature and free to use His laws to accomplish His purposes. During the plagues of Egypt, Scripture records that God brought locusts by a wind from the east, and when God relented, they were dispelled by a strong wind from the west. And when Israel was trapped by the Red Sea, “the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land” (Ex. 14:21). The strong wind explains Israel’s deliverance on one level, and God’s activity explains it on another. 

Thus we should not think that just because someone has offered a natural explanation of something, it rules out God’s hand in it. Nor is God constrained by what we deem the laws of nature. 

Ellen White forcefully made this point when she observed, “As commonly used, the term ‘laws of nature comprise what men have been able to discover with regard to the laws that govern the physical world; but how limited is their knowledge, and how vast the field in which the Creator can work in harmony with His own laws and yet wholly beyond the comprehension of finite beings!”9 

Events such as creation, the Incarnation, and resurrection are all singular occurrences that are exceptional to God’s typical governing of the world. Just as ordinary physics breaks down at singularities such as black holes and the first moments of the universe, we should not be surprised that God’s mighty acts are beyond our explanatory power. As Blaise Pascal reminds us: “The last proceeding of reason is to recognize that there is an infinity of things which are beyond it. It is but feeble if it does not see so far as to know this. But if natural things are beyond it, what will be said of supernatural?”10 

If there is one lesson we should take away from the stunning images of the James Webb Space Telescope, it is that the universe is a much bigger, grander, and more miraculous place than we often imagine. This ought to teach us that just because something is incomprehensible to us does not mean that it is impossible for God. Rather, as we struggle to comprehend the incomprehensible, might we learn once more to believe that which we had mistaken as unbelievable. 

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1 Bible texts are from the English Standard Version. 

2 https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webbdelivers-deepest-infrared-image-of-universe-yet 

3 David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, ed. L. A. Selby Bigge (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1902), p. 114. 

4 Craig S. Keener, Miracle: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2011). 

5 E. P. Wigner, “The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences. Richard Courant Lecture in Mathematical Sciences Delivered at New York University, May 11, 1959,” Communications on Pure and Applied Mathematics 13 (1960): 1-14. 

6 Isaac Newton, Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687); Scholium Generale (1713; 1726). 

7 I. Bernard Cohen, ed., Isaac Newton’s Papers and Letters on Natural Philosophy and Related Documents (Boston: Harvard University Press, 2014). 

8 Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1948), vol. 8, pp. 259, 260. 

9 Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets (Mountain View Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1890, 1908), p. 114. 

10 Blaise Pascal, Pensées, p. 267.

Read more at: https://adventistreview.org/magazine-article/believing-the-unbelievable/

What to Do With Doubt

Empathy for the Doubter- Part 2-Science, Creation, and Time

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Doubt for most people starts with the first statement in the Bible:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:1

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God does not take away reasons to doubt and if we choose that path, we will find reason to doubt.  However, if we choose to believe, we will find many reasons to believe.

“God never asks us to believe, without giving sufficient evidence upon which to base our faith. His existence, His character, the truthfulness of His word, are all established by testimony that appeals to our reason; and this testimony is abundant. Yet God has never removed the possibility of doubt. Our faith must rest upon evidence, not demonstration. Those who wish to doubt will have opportunity; while those who really desire to know the truth will find plenty of evidence on which to rest their faith.

Steps to Christ, Page 105

Faith in Jesus is based on substance and evidence much like science.  It is not blind faith with which nothing to rest its case:

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Hebrews 11: 1

Both the faith of the Atheist in evolution and the faith of the Christian in Creation is based on “evidence of things not seen.” None of us were there at the beginning of life.  We can’t observe it, put it in a bottle or test it in the lab.  All we can do is interpret the evidence as one would a crime scene.

The atheist and the unbeliever have assumptions regarding passage of time, the fossils, structure of animals, plants, etc, and their own reasoning powers, but it is evidence of things unseen.

In the end, the unbelieving scientists ask us to believe that order, complexity, and designed came from chaos and disorder.

The believer has evidence in the complexity of life; the claims of men who wrote the Bible; and their own reasoning powers.  There are intelligent men on both sides.  For every scientist that believes in evolution, there are many who do not. There are many who think by things they observe in nature that a 6 day creation is not only possible, but it is the only explanation for the beginning and  survival of life.

The unbeliever does not like to include a creator God as a possibility because of the other implications and responsibilities that come with it.

“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind…”

Romans 1: 28

Men choose to be willingly ignorant of things they don’t want to accept.

 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:

Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:

But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

2 Peter 3:5-7

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Many scientists try to separate faith in a Creator God with Science.  They set them up as opposing each other exclusively.  They try to show that science trumps anything spiritual or Biblical.  To believe in a literal 6 day creation defies science and therefore falls into the arena of faith.  But,  there are many very intelligent and accomplished scientists who believe in a literal 6 day creation.  There is a book you can read called,

In Six Days: Why Fifty Scientists Choose to Believe in Creation

There is a idea proposed by Michael Behe, a creation scientist, that makes a lot of sense.  It is called Irreducible Complexity.  Some scientist dismiss it, because it is a theory just like their grand theory of evolution.

The premise is that life is so complex that it could not evolved slowly and added parts along the way.  I once heard the story about the evolution of the porcupine.  It quills are reported to have “evolved” over millions of years as they were needed to protect itself from enemies.  But, how about all those years it did not have the quills?  How did it survive?  Why are they not extinct?

Irreducible Complexity states that the porcupine had to have  all the elements for life and  the quills at the same time.

Another example is your circulatory system of blood, heart, and vessels to carry the blood.  Which came first?  If the heart, then what did it pump?  If the blood, how did it move?  If the vessels, what was in it?

All had to be present at once in a body for life to work. The idea of parts being added as needed makes no sense.

Nature is probably the best place to look for the fingerprints of a grand Designer we call God. Paul wrote:

 “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse…”

Romans 1:20

We can learn a lot about God by simply observing nature. The verse above says because of God’s creation, we have no excuse for not believing in Him.

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Self defeating statements and the law on non-contradiction.  

What does this mean?  Often people in haste to minimize or attempt to eliminate truth will say something that is self-defeating and contradicts their statement.  Here is an example:  Have you ever heard someone say, “There is no absolute truth.”

That is a contradictory statement.  To prove it, just ask the person, “Is your statement absolute truth?”  If they answer, “yes” then they confirm there is absolute truth.  If they answer “no” then they acknowledge that their statement is false and to be ignored.

The world is full of absolute truths.  We depend on these to fly planes, drive cars, and complete activities of living.  It is an absolute truth that taking all the blood out of body will kill me.  It is absolute truth that gravity keeps me from floating away.

Jesus absolute truth statements like this:

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

John 14:6

Jesus claims exclusive right to being the only way, the only truth.  He can do this because it is true and He has demonstrated the truth through God’s word and His resurrection.

There is logic behind belief in a Creator God and the power of absolute truth…even in spiritual things.  If you would like to learn more on this topic, I recommend the book,

“I Don’t Have Enough Faith To Be an Atheist” 

by Norman L. Geisler, Frank Turek

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The Routine and Passage of Time Leads to Doubt

The routine and passage of time is difficult for many to wrap their heads around. Billions of people before you were born, enjoyed their youth, lived, dreamed, took on a responsibility of a family and watched their own children grow old.  Then they died.  This cycle has continued for thousands of years.

It has been about 3,500 years since the opening verse of the Bible was penned.  The continuous cycle of life and death creates doubt about the promises of Jesus’ return, and the validity of God’s word.  In fact, this exact feeling is held by not only many Christians  today, but it was also in the thoughts of those only a few decades after Jesus left earth.  Peter wrote these words:

“First of all, you must understand that in the last days some people will appear whose lives are controlled by their own lusts. They will make fun of you  and will ask, “He promised to come, didn’t he? Where is he? Our ancestors have already died, but everything is still the same as it was since the creation of the world!””

2 Peter 3: 3-4

This is a direct reference to the promise Jesus made to his disciples and all who would hear their message:

I am going to prepare a place for you. I would not tell you this if it were not so. And after I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to myself, so that you will be where I am.

John 14: 2-3

Paul wrote words of encouragement to those who thought Jesus was coming during their own life times.  But, they watched as fellow believers, friends, and family began to die.   It is one of my favorite passages of the Bible, because so much can be learned about the events of the 2nd coming and those who have died, particularly for those who “die in Christ.”

Our friends, we want you to know the truth about those who have died, so that you will not be sad, as are those who have no hope.

1 Thessalonians 4:13

However, today we hear a different sort of hope being offered that does not include the resurrection.

Today’s words of encouragement would be something like this, “Don’t worry, he is in heaven enjoying eternal bliss.” or “He is in heaven with his family now.”

But, this is not the words Paul used:

 We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will take back with Jesus those who have died believing in him.

What we are teaching you now is the Lord’s teaching: we who are alive on the day the Lord comes will not go ahead of those who have died. There will be the shout of command, the archangel’s voice, the sound of God’s trumpet, and the Lord himself will come down from heaven. Those who have died believing in Christ will rise to life first; then we who are living at that time will be gathered up along with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. So then, ENCOURAGE ONE ANOTHER WITH THESE WORDS.

1 Thessalonians 4: 13-18

The words of Paul, an apostle of Christ, used the Lord’s own teachings to give us hope that one day Jesus would return to the sound of loud trumpets. Then those believers who died years ago will be resurrected and if we are alive then, we will rise with them in the air and we will ever be with the Lord.  He will take us to where He is now.  Those are the words we are to use to encourage one another.

For those who don’t have this hope, life is simply reduced to what they can do in the time allotted to them, whether good, bad, or both.

A sovereign God does not view things or time as we do:

For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.

Isaiah 55:8

do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

2 Peter 3: 8

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 Conclusion:

There will always be reason to doubt, but this does not mean that you can’t have faith that moves mountains.  This faith comes first by searching and wanting to know the truth about Jesus.  Next, searching for truth in the book that claims to have have it will build a strong foundation upon which to rest your faith. Finally, by searching for Jesus you will find Him.

And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

Jeremiah 29:13

But, let us never forget, that there are mysteries we might never know this side of eternity.

The word of God, like the character of its divine Author, presents mysteries that can never be fully comprehended by finite beings. The entrance of sin into the world, the incarnation of Christ, regeneration, the resurrection, and many other subjects presented in the Bible, are mysteries too deep for the human mind to explain, or even fully to comprehend. But we have no reason to doubt God’s word because we cannot understand the mysteries of His providence. In the natural world we are constantly surrounded with mysteries that we cannot fathom. The very humblest forms of life present a problem that the wisest of philosophers is powerless to explain. Everywhere are wonders beyond our ken. Should we then be surprised to find that in the spiritual world also there are mysteries that we cannot fathom? The difficulty lies solely in the weakness and narrowness of the human mind. God has given us in the Scriptures sufficient evidence of their divine character, and we are not to doubt His word because we cannot understand all the mysteries of His providence.

Steps to Christ, p. 106 and 107

Essential Christian Beliefs

28 Fundamental Christian Beliefs-#2-Creation

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Creation

Proof Each Week

God has revealed in Scripture the authentic and historical account of His creative activity.  He created the universe, and in a recent six-day creation the Lord made “the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them” and rested on the seventh day. Thus He established the Sabbath as a perpetual memorial of the work He performed and completed during six literal days that together with the Sabbath constituted the same unit of time that we call a week today.  The first man and woman were made in the image of God as the crowning work of Creation, given dominion over the world, and charged with responsibility to care for it. When the world was finished it was “very good,” declaring the glory of God.

(Gen. 1-2; 5; 11; Exod. 20:8-11; Ps. 19:1-6; 33:6, 9; 104; Isa. 45:12, 18; Acts 17:24; Col. 1:16; Heb. 1:2; 11:3; Rev. 10:6; 14:7.)

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A 7-Day week.  The Creator’s Signature

By the cycle of a 7-day week, we are reminded at least 52 times a year that God is the great Creator.  The 7-day week shouts loudly the we did not make ourselves and that the Lord  is responsible for our existence:

Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves;

Psalm 100:3

The movements of the observable and measurable tracks of heavenly bodies such as the sun, the moon, and the stars mark reliable length of days, months, and years. But, the weekly cycle has no other basis for its length other than the words of a powerful Creator. God said, “and the evening and the morning was the first day…the second day…the third day…the fourth day…the fifth day… the sixth day.  Then He rested on the 7th day and proclaimed it holy.

beautiful-earth-original-212

This memorial of rest and remembrance of the works of His hand was so important to our Creator that He enshrined the last day of the week as the 4th commandment. The seventh-day Sabbath  was instituted long before there was a Jew or Moses. It is not just a law to be obeyed, it is a point in the week designed to remind man, woman, and child of His existence and creative powers.  Additionally, Jesus (The Lord of the Sabbath) said it was made for man…A blessing often overlooked by His creation.

The Sabbath was made for mankind.  

Mark 2:27

Yes,  even in our modern society, this ancient proclamation of rest by God is meant to bless and restore those who take time to see that all God has made is good.  Only the unbeliever and the religion of legalism miss out on the benefits of remembering the Sabbath each week.

If mankind, from the beginning, had remembered the Sabbath and took time to consider the works of the Creators hand, man would be changed by it.  One writer said this,

“The Sabbath enjoined by the fourth commandment was instituted to commemorate the work of creation, thus to keep the minds of men ever directed to the true and living God. Had the Sabbath always been kept, there would never have been an idolater, an atheist, or an infidel.”

Signs of the Times, November 1, 1899 E. G. White

God’s Creation Provides the Proof of His Existence and Character

Paul states, that God’s creation provides a path to help us understand the deep things about God. Further, it provides enough evidence of Himself that there is no excuse for anyone to disbelieve:

 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

Romans 1:20

fall-trees1

But, sadly, mankind is too busy to rest and observe.  Many are unbelievers because they forget rather than remember.  A great many fall into unbelief because they refuse to stop each week to observe the complexity and beauty of God’s wonderful creation. As a result, the bible tells us they take a path of error:

Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

Romans 1:21-23

Paul seems to be talking about our day where scientists disregard the obvious and diminish the glory of God’s creation to the error of evolution.   They want an answer for our existence outside of intelligent working even though God’s creative signature is all around us and in us every moment.  In effect, the theory of evolution reduces God’s image found in us all to our supposed ancestors of the animal world…”four-footed beasts,” etc.

evolution-of-man

Darwin and Transitional fossils.

There is no evidence of any of the four fictitious characters in the middle of the picture above.

Darwin said,

“ … the number of intermediate varieties, which have formerly existed on the earth, [must] be truly enormous. Why then is not every geological formation and every stratum full of such intermediate links? Geology assuredly does not reveal any such finely graduated organic chain; and this, perhaps, is the most obvious and gravest objection which can be urged against my theory. The explanation lies, as I believe, in the extreme imperfection of the geological record. … We should not forget that only a small portion of the world is known with accuracy.”

Darwin expected that once researchers looked for the in-between, transitional fossils they would find them. However, in 150 years they have not found any verifiable specimens. As Robert Carroll, well-known paleontologist, said:

“What is missing are the many intermediate forms hypothesized by Darwin …

Darwin’s appeal to the incompleteness of knowledge at the time (“fossils of the gaps”) has not been vindicated. He was wrong about the fossils.

Evolution. A Leap Of Faith

Science is a wonderful part of our lives.  The few who can claim to be legitimate scientists (doctorate in a field of science) have helped discover worlds small and large.  Without the scientific method of observation, research, measurement, experimentation, and testing of hypotheses, society would not have the conveniences, the medicine, and the knowledge we have today. But, man is not the creator of science, he is the discoverer of science and the laws already in place.

Evolution is not a science,  because  the theory builds a philosophy about beginnings  rather than concerning itself with ongoing research and testing as science gains more knowledge. Its claims are boldly stated as truth, but no other falsifying information is allowed.   Because no one was at the beginning of time and it cannot be observed or tested, they are left to surmise on what they think they see rather than what can be investigated in a laboratory.

Evolution is a beloved theory not because of the so-called proof, but because it takes God out of the picture and accounts for  our being and intelligence on the passing of large amount of times, accidents, and random acts of nature…a toss of the dice as it were.  While Darwinist claim we are evolving forward through evolution, it violates the law of thermodynamics, which is the proven idea of entropy. Entropy says we are winding down, not going forward.

 The obvious conclusion of evolution is mankind’s existence is meaningless and purposeless, which is a philosophical interpretation. To them, our existence is a mere wisp of progression towards perfection in the long travel of time. As one prominent scientists stated, “We are nothing more than star dust.”

However, as additional knowledge about life is learned and real science is applied, the theory of evolution becomes weaker and begins to fall apart.  Even to the point, that many scientists have forsaken its teaching. Those who hang on often do so due to pride.

The Pride of Evolution

 “Evolution is perhaps unique among major scientific theories in that the appeal for its acceptance is NOT there is EVIDENCE for it, but that any other proposed interpretation is wholly incredible.“

Charles Singer, A Short History of Science, Published by Oxford University Press

Statements like this demonstrate the desperation of scientists to protect it from testing and further research and/or modification.  Any other theory than their own is pronounced as “wholly incredible.”

Yet W. R. Thompson a well-known and respected Entomologist cites  Charles Singer’s hypocritical opinion and the danger to science of forcing it upon the unscientific community. He states,

“the evidence (for evolution) is unsatisfactory and does NOT permit any certain conclusion…attempting to maintain its credit with the public by the suppression of criticism and the elimination of difficulties, is abnormal and undesirable in science.”

Paul Ehrlich and L. C. Birch, Professors of Biology at Stanford University,

Another scientist states:

“Our theory of evolution…is thus outside of empirical science {verifiable observation}…No one can think of ways in which to TEST it. Ideas, either without basis or based on a few laboratory experiments carried out in extremely simplified systems, have attained currency far beyond their validity.  They have become part of an evolutionary DOGMA accepted by most of us as part of our training.”

Evolutionary History and Population Biology, Nature, Volume 214 (April 22, 1967), p. 352

Dogma is a religious word.  Indeed, evolution is a religion based on faith with followers, creed, the laboratory as their temple, and DOGMA (articles of faith).

The simple cell?

Evolutionists who say we started from the simple cell are way behind the time.  The cell and genetics were a mystery to Darwin and every other scientists during his time, but then came along the Electron Microscope allowing man to see even small components in the “simple cell.”

Darwin said,

“If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive slight modification my theory would absolutely break down.”

chapter 6 (p.189) of On the Origin of Species (1859, Murray: London)

As time has passed, science has been able to show that complex organs do exist and to be functional all their components must be up and running at the same time.

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The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”

Psalm 14:1 

Did life created itself? Irreducible Complexity

Consider the circulatory system made up primarily of the heart, blood, and blood vessels that transport oxygen to the cells.  This is going on right now as you read this.

Which came first in the long time of evolution?  The heart?  What did it pump if blood was not yet evolved?  How did the blood move if there was no heart?  How could it move the blood if there was no vessels?

This is known as irreducible complexity.  All components had to be present and functional at the same time for life to work.  The circulatory system is just one part of what it takes to have life.  What did life do while it waited on the eye to see? Legs to walk? How did it move its limbs if the brain had not yet evolve?

Circulatory system

 

The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”

Psalm 14:1

Indeed, it is foolish to say there is not God.  Evolutionist would have us believe this formula:

Nothing produced Everything

Chaos produced order

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Theistic Evolution-A valid compromise?

Image result for images of theistic evolution

Theistic evolution–as opposed to the Godless, atheistic variety–is man’s attempt to harmonize the Bible and evolutionary theory.  It’s a kind of half-way house midway between atheism and the settled faith of those honoring God as Creator.  It’s a philosophy which says there IS a God and He IS the Creator–but He uses evolution as His tool or method.  Theistic evolutionists think the Bible tells us WHO created, and evolution tells us How…

…(but) this miserable marriage is doomed to fail because too many irreconcilable differences exist between the two!

7 Mysteries Solved, Howard Peth P. 151

Here are a few reasons why Theistic Evolution does  not work:

  1. It attacks and undermines the Scriptures The Bible speaks out on Creation from page one.
  2. Evolution suggest that Homo sapiens are descended not from one set of parents but from many, thus making a literal Adam and Eve quite unlikely. But the Bible has a very accurate and precise accounting of the ancestry of well-known families including Jesus back to one set of parents–Adam, Eve. The New Testament writers also support and quote from these ancient prophets. (See Genesis 5 & 11)
  3. Contradicts Scripture’s “finished” creation. “Creation was not merely BEGUN at that time spoken of in the opening chapters of Genesis.  The inspired Record states that it was FINISHED, and the seventh day we set apart as a special day to commemorate the COMPLETION of God’s great work.” 7 Mysteries Solved, Howard Peth, p. 157
  4. Theorizes that death came at the wrong time. The Scriptures plainly teach that there was no suffering and death in the world before Adam sinned.  Death entered the world as a direct result of Man’s sin. In the closing paragraphs of his book The Origin of Species, Darwin wrote that “the production of the higher animals” was brought about by the “WAR of nature, from famine and DEATH.” In the first place, ask yourself: Does “the war of nature, from famine and death” sound like the means God would use to create a world He pronounced all “very good?”
  5. Overlooks or ignores the fall of man. It does away with the need for Jesus Christ as a Savior. The only “Fall” allowed in evolution is a fall UPWARD, for underlying evolutionary thought is the basic idea of PROGRESS. Evolution teach man is not a FALLEN creature in need of a Savior, but a DEVELOPING organism on the road to perfection.
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When I was an atheists and believed in evolution, I had a moment where I realized there must be a Creator.  On a cross country bicycle trip with some friends, I cycled ahead from the Grand Canyon to Flagstaff Arizona.  As I felt the strength in my legs and lungs and observed the beauty of the blinding blue skies and the majestic snow-covered mountains in the distant, I began to follow a different course of reason than before.  I imaged how I would feel if I found something  I had never seen before.  Let’s say, I was walking down the beach and found an old pocket watch made of Gold and engraved with beautiful markings.  As I observed it over a period of time, I would notice the little gears and springs that clicked along movement by moment.  After a while, I would notice that the little hands on the face of the object kept perfect time with the rising of the sun and the movement of time in my life.

How ridiculous it would be for me to say that the watch created itself or evolved gear by gear.  It must have all its components present and functional at once in order to be a viable useful object.  There must be a watchmaker who put all this together! So, how could I say that the  eye created itself.  The eye is more complex than any watch! And how about the lungs, the heart, the brain, arms, fingers, legs, the digestive system, etc.

That summer on that road to Flagstaff, I asked for God to reveal himself to me.  Later that year, I began to study the Bible on a dare from my wife.  As I studied, I became convinced there was someone named Jesus who worked with God (and was God)  to create life and all that we can observe.

mountain-and-road

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made…

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1: 1-3

God’s word has proven itself, Darwin has not.

The reliable word of God says,

The heavens declare the glory of God;
    the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
 Day after day they pour forth speech;
    night after night they reveal knowledge.
They have no speech, they use no words;
    no sound is heard from them.
Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
    their words to the ends of the world.

Psalm 19:1-4

Please consider this.  Evolution does not account for beauty, love and all the emotions we feel.  The theory of evolution is purely functional in nature. So why then the beauty of a delicate pink flower or the inspirational sunset?  Why colors? Why love? Why the beautiful markings on animals, birds, and fish? Why the soothing sound of birds waking up the start of a new day? It is because God has demonstrated and is love.  He loves His Creation.  It was very good at one time.  Now we have marred it and His voice is lost in the traffic and smoke of our doings.

We leave this short study with a reminder of the final warning from the angel in Revelation. It is at a moment in time when God is appealing to a generation of people who have forgotten God.  It is a plea to glorify God who created…..because judgment has come.

“Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.”

Revelation 14:7

Now is the time to put all our faith in what is obvious.  God is our Creator and we were made in his image for a purpose.  That purpose is fully realized when we escape the corruption of the world through a knowledge of our Lord and Savior. When we become familiar with God’s dealing with sinful man has found in scripture.

Our meaning, purpose, and peace will come from Jesus if we simply yield to the pull of the Holy Spirit to give ourselves to Him by faith.

He said,

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.

Revelation 3:20

man-in-dark

One last thing God has created:  Peace

For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.

Colossians 1:9

made-peace

If you hear the knock and his voice, let Him come in and change you.  You will find peace like a river. Evolution does not give peace, but Jesus does!

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

John 14:27

Reasons to Believe

Science Helps Confirm The Creator

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Thanks to my forever-friend, Charles Hays who posted this on Face Book this week.

Over 30 years ago, Charlie encouraged me to participate with him in a radio program he wanted to produce called, Answers From Scripture.  It was a wonderful journey of bringing Jesus and the Bible to the Middle Tennessee area.  We would talk on different Biblical topics, take phone calls, and interview great workers for God.  That experience blessed me in so many ways.

 This website is dedicated to keeping alive Charlie’s vision of finding answers to life’s toughest questions through Scripture and life God has created. Then sharing it with a world who are seeking.

Thank you Charlie.   I love you brother.

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The Wall Street Journal
HOUSES OF WORSHIP

Science Increasingly Makes the Case for God
By ERIC METAXA

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The odds of life existing on another planet grow ever longer. Intelligent design, anyone?

In 1966 Time magazine ran a cover story asking: Is God Dead? Many have accepted the cultural narrative that he’s obsolete—that as science progresses, there is less need for a “God” to explain the universe. Yet it turns out that the rumors of God’s death were premature. More amazing is that the relatively recent case for his existence comes from a surprising place—science itself.

Here’s the story: The same year Time featured the now-famous headline, the astronomer Carl Sagan announced that there were two important criteria for a planet to support life: The right kind of star, and a planet the right distance from that star. Given the roughly octillion—1 followed by 27 zeros—planets in the universe, there should have been about septillion—1 followed by 24 zeros—planets capable of supporting life.

With such spectacular odds, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, a large, expensive collection of private and publicly funded projects launched in the 1960s, was sure to turn up something soon. Scientists listened with a vast radio telescopic network for signals that resembled coded intelligence and were not merely random. But as years passed, the silence from the rest of the universe was deafening. Congress defunded SETI in 1993, but the search continues with private funds. As of 2014, researchers have discovered precisely bubkis—0 followed by nothing.

What happened? As our knowledge of the universe increased, it became clear that there were far more factors necessary for life than Sagan supposed. His two parameters grew to 10 and then 20 and then 50, and so the number of potentially life-supporting planets decreased accordingly. The number dropped to a few thousand planets and kept on plummeting.

Even SETI proponents acknowledged the problem. Peter Schenkel wrote in a 2006 piece for Skeptical Inquirer magazine: “In light of new findings and insights, it seems appropriate to put excessive euphoria to rest . . . . We should quietly admit that the early estimates . . . may no longer be tenable.”

As factors continued to be discovered, the number of possible planets hit zero, and kept going. In other words, the odds turned against any planet in the universe supporting life, including this one. Probability said that even we shouldn’t be here.

Today there are more than 200 known parameters necessary for a planet to support life—every single one of which must be perfectly met, or the whole thing falls apart. Without a massive planet like Jupiter nearby, whose gravity will draw away asteroids, a thousand times as many would hit Earth’s surface. The odds against life in the universe are simply astonishing.

Yet here we are, not only existing, but talking about existing. What can account for it? Can every one of those many parameters have been perfect by accident? At what point is it fair to admit that science suggests that we cannot be the result of random forces? Doesn’t assuming that an intelligence created these perfect conditions require far less faith than believing that a life-sustaining Earth just happened to beat the inconceivable odds to come into being?

There’s more. The fine-tuning necessary for life to exist on a planet is nothing compared with the fine-tuning required for the universe to exist at all. For example, astrophysicists now know that the values of the four fundamental forces—gravity, the electromagnetic force, and the “strong” and “weak” nuclear forces—were determined less than one millionth of a second after the big bang. Alter any one value and the universe could not exist. For instance, if the ratio between the nuclear strong force and the electromagnetic force had been off by the tiniest fraction of the tiniest fraction—by even one part in 100,000,000,000,000,000—then no stars could have ever formed at all. Feel free to gulp.

Multiply that single parameter by all the other necessary conditions, and the odds against the universe existing are so heart-stoppingly astronomical that the notion that it all “just happened” defies common sense. It would be like tossing a coin and having it come up heads 10 quintillion times in a row. Really?

Fred Hoyle, the astronomer who coined the term “big bang,” said that his atheism was “greatly shaken” at these developments. He later wrote that “a common-sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a super-intellect has monkeyed with the physics, as well as with chemistry and biology . . . . The numbers one calculates from the facts seem to me so overwhelming as to put this conclusion almost beyond question.”

Theoretical physicist Paul Davies has said that “the appearance of design is overwhelming” and Oxford professor Dr. John Lennox has said “the more we get to know about our universe, the more the hypothesis that there is a Creator . . . gains in credibility as the best explanation of why we are here.”

The greatest miracle of all time, without any close seconds, is the universe. It is the miracle of all miracles, one that ineluctably points with the combined brightness of every star to something—or Someone—beyond itself.

Mr. Metaxas is the author, most recently, of “Miracles: What They Are, Why They Happen, and How They Can Change Your Life” (Dutton Adult, 2014).

Correction

An earlier version understated the number of zeroes in an octillion and a septillion.