Posts Tagged ‘ Evolution ’

Revisiting – Real Life X-Men Stories … or Why Evolutionists Should Be Pro-Life

I originally wrote and recorded this nearly 6 years ago, but I recently had to share this idea with someone to demonstrate the lack of actual thought in some abortion arguments.

Me: "Why are you pro-abortion?"
Them: "I think it's more pro-life, protecting the mother and society. Why add another poor, suffering person or someone that could keep society held back?"

It led to the whole “keeping the fittest.” And I mentioned how this is eugenics.

We shouldn’t be afraid to confront presuppositions and poorly thought our arguments, even using “fun” thought experiments.

Here is my 6-year-old argument:

Welcome back, folks!

READY FOR SOME CONTROVERSY!


In my last video, we discussed the “unanswerable question” for “anti-abortionists” from Patrick Tomlinson.

Today, I am looking at something a little different. (And I am a little hesitant to share this theory, as I do not actually believe it but it could take hold …)

We know why Christians are pro-life. The biggest reason being we believe we were created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27, 5:1) and that we are fearfully and wonderfully made, knit together in the womb (Psalm 139:13-16).

Well, I want to argue for why atheists, or rather evolutionists, should be pro-life … or at the very least anti-abortion.

Seeing X-Men played out

In the X-Men comics, cartoons, and movies, we see an ongoing battle between regular, ol’ humans and mutants. The mutant humans are being fought because their mutant genes have given them super-human powers. They are the next evolutionary step, and the current strain of humanity is trying to keep them from taking over.

What if we are seeing this in real life?
The teaching on evolution is that there are missing links between different types of creatures. Such led to the rise of humans from an ancient ape-like creature (not to be confused with current monkeys and apes that would have come from the same ancestor). This takes several generations if not hundreds of thousands to millions of years.

There is a theory that the missing links may never be found, because perhaps evolution happens in bursts, virtually overnight (in the grand scheme).

Another theory running around is that perhaps human evolution has stalled or stopped.

What if that is not the case?

In Iceland, it is being claimed that they have nearly eradicated Down Syndrome.

In truth, they have not, instead they have been aborting pregnancies in which Down Syndrome is detected.

My question centers on this: What if Down Syndrome, Autism, and other such anomalies in humanity are not so much defects as the “missing link” in the next stage of evolution?

What if we are seeing the evidence of evolution, those hiccups that evolutionists tell us could happen, and as a people we are wiping them out …

… we are literally living out the X-Men solution?

Think about it: many of these people tend to be savants at something or many things. There could be a jump in intelligence and other qualities of humanity.

If this were true, evolution has stalled due to our own decisions.

If this were true, perhaps evolutionists should be just as pro-life as Christians … or at least anti-abortion!

What do you think?

Is my responding thought experiment a valid option?

Am I being just as silly as others?

While this is a very serious question and dialogue to have, this is a somewhat silly approach. But it is worth asking.

At the very least, I may help the pro-life cause just a touch.

What are your thoughts?

2023
09/02
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
Abortion
Apologetics
Birth Control
Evolution
Reblog
TAGS
















Leave a comment

Does God Exist? (Presentation at Truth Quest Youth Apologetics Conference Prescott 2023)

The second weekend of April, 2022, many of the youth pastors and leaders of the Prescott, AZ area came together to hold a youth apologetics conference. It was a lot of fun, and very impactful for everyone there. I spoke on the existence of God, but I did not have a good recording and felt it could have been better.

For 2023, Truth Quest took place on the evening of Friday, March 24 and all day Saturday, March 25, and the theme this year was “Truth & Unity”.

I was one of the workshop speakers. Here is my presentation, both video of my presentation and my less-than-rough notes (though I still went off script a few times. I borrowed quite a bit from the original presentation Ryan Lynn made, but I made my own adaptations and additions, especially to include the unity we are called to in Christ because of the unity found in the Trinity.

Presentation slideshow to follow along and see totally excellent graphics and videos: https://prezi.com/view/AID95OCLDgDzS6cPVDQe/

Notes to follow along with the words:

tnu-does-god-exist-1Download

Truth & Unity: Does God Exist?

“God does not exist.”

  • From etymology.com: from Latin – existere/exsistere = “to step out, stand forth, emerge appear”
    • Therefore, God does not exist
  • Just Kidding! It also means “to be”, and as we know God simply is.
    • Exodus 3:14: “I AM WHO I AM” or simply “I Am”
      • Not “I was” or “I will be” or “I can be” – God eternally is.

Proving God – Approaching Evidence

  • “You can’t prove God exists!”
    • “Your own God said He hides Himself, that He wants you to have blind faith!”
      • Yes, God hides Himself from sin and disobedience (Isaiah 45:15, 59:2; Deuteronomy 31-32; many others).
      • He never calls us to blind faith (Isaiah 1:18; Matthew 11:4-6; 1 Corinthians 15:1-10; Hebrews 11:1; 2 Peter 1:16-18)
  • We should only believe the evidence, right? Is it:
    • Reliable?
      • Can we trust the evidence?
    • Consistent?
      • Does it line up with reality and other evidences?
    • Unbiased?
      • What presuppositions are attached?
      • All worldviews, including atheistic naturalism, use both faith and reason.
  • For example:
    How does gravity work? No one really knows, but it is a Law of Nature
    “However, if we are to be honest, we do not know what gravity “is” in any fundamental way – we only know how it behaves. Gravity is a force of attraction that exists between any two masses, any two bodies, any two particles. Gravity is not just the attraction between objects and the Earth” (NASA.gov – Retrieved February 28, 2023 from https://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/questions/question30.html#:~:text=However%2C%20if%20we%20are%20to,only%20know%20how%20it%20behaves.&text=Gravity%20is%20a%20force%20of,between%20objects%20and%20the%20Earth.)
    No one really understands how a bicycle stays upright even without a rider [minutephysics video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZAc5t2lkvo%5D
    • Can we scientifically measure … science?
      • Science is a method used to study the physical realm, yet it is trusted by most people to find answers.
      • Many have come to say that we can only know things by science, a tool we can’t physically verify.
      • Thus, logic itself is unscientific while being used in science, but that is not a proof we are looking at today.
  • We must remember that no amount of evidence or argumentation can convert people:
    • “Christianity does not profess to convince the perverse and headstrong, to bring irresistible evidence to the daring and profane, to vanquish the proud scorner, and afford evidences from which the careless and perverse cannot possibly escape. This might go to destroy man’s responsibility. All that Christianity professes, is to propose such evidences as may satisfy the meek, the tractable, the candid, the serious inquirer.”  (Bishop Wilson, Evidences of Christianity, 1.38.)
    • “Christians do not claim that their faith gives them omniscience or absolute knowledge of reality. Only God has that. But they believe that the Christian account of things – creation, fall, redemption, and restoration – makes the most sense in the world.”           (Timothy Keller, The Reason for God, p. 127)

What Evidence?

  • The Box
    • Naturalism
      • Naturalism believes that nature is the only thing that has creative properties so
        they reject any creative force outside the box (the universe).
    • Theism
      • “That is, science is assumed to be, not only rational and causal and unified, but also naturalistic, banning by definition even the possibility of a supernatural First Cause of the rationality, causality, and unity of the universe with which science deals. But such an assumption is purely arbitrary (even emotional, as Isaac Asimov had admitted) and was certainly not held by the great scientists of the past, nor is it indicated by any actual scientific data.” Dr. Henry M. Morris, The Biblical Basis for Modern Science, p.23
  • Consider that virtually all of the first scientists were Christians wanting to know more about God and His Creation.
  • Bias: It is closed minded and unscientific to only believe in the material. We all have bias in our approach of discovery but which is the greater bias, naturalism or theism?
    • “The current bias of science arbitrarily eliminates certain answers before the game gets started. Many scientists and historians must come up with conclusions that leave the supernatural out of the picture because their philosophy demands it. A theist is not so encumbered. She believes in the laws of nature, but is also open to the possibility of supernatural intervention. Both are consistent with her worldview. She can judge the evidence on its own merits, unhindered by a philosophy that automatically eliminates supernatural options before the evidence receives a hearing. Ironically, Christians bias broadens her categories making her more open-minded, not less. She has a greater chance of discovering truth because she can follow the evidence wherever it leads.” Greg Koukl, Tactics, p.174-175
    • “For me it is more reasonable to believe, based on the laws of logic as well as the observable scientific evidence that God exists, rather than to believe what the atheist believes that nothing, times nobody, equals everything we see in the universe.” -Charlie Campbell, http://www.alwaysbeready.com/component/content/article?id=137
    • Romans 1:20
      • This is called General Revelation
      • We see the beauty of built things:
        • “Did a tornado blow through a junkyard and manage to build the Eiffel Tower? A thunderstorm shaped a mountain to have faces? That’s absurd.”
        • “But we believe a beautiful sunset, a spinning galaxy, or strands of DNA ‘just happened’?”
        • What is the evidence of a God?
      • We will look at three clues:
        • Cosmogony/Cosmology with …
        • Physics – Fine-tuning
        • Biology – Biological information
      • [“No Evidence for God” Debunked video]

“Fine Bodies Show God”

Fine – A finite, finely-tuned universe

  • Kalam Cosmological Argument
    • 1. Everything that exists has a cause2. The universe began to exist3. Therefore, the universe has a cause
      • The Universe Is Evidence That God Exists
        • 1. Something exists.2. Nothing does not produce something.3. Something must have always existed.
          • Now, there are only two options as to what that “something (No.3) [that] always existed” might be:
            • A. The universe, or B. Something outside the universe
          4. The universe has not always existed.
          • The Motion of the Galaxies and The Second Law of Thermodynamics
          5. There must be an eternal power beyond the universe that caused the universe to come into existence.
      We all know that nothing happens in isolation. When we try to trace an event to its cause, or causes, we find that we never seem to reach a stopping point. The cause of an event itself is caused by a prior cause, and so on back. Eventually we must face the question of a possible uncaused First Cause.
    • Why? As Dr. Henry Morris explained in The Biblical Basis for Modern Science:
      • An effect cannot be greater than it’s cause.
      • What does a First uncaused cause have to look like?
        • The first cause of limitless space must be infinite.
        • The first cause of endless time must be eternal.
        • The first cause of boundless energy must be eternal.
        • The first cause of infinite complexity must be omniscient.
        • The first cause of love must be all loving.
        • The first cause of life must be living.
  • Fine-Tuning of the Universe
    • [Fine-Tuning of the Universe video by Reasonable Faith]
      • Some even suggest we may live in a simulation … which means … created …
        • So, we have a universe that has a definitive beginning. (Even if arguments are being made saying otherwise.)
          • It is so finely tuned that a severely minor change would mean at best no life and at worst no universe.
          • And Christians get made fun of for discussing “elephants all the way down” (which is what a multiverse is) or something outside of the physical universe (showing they have faith in Science and human potential.)

Bodies – Biology is an expression of information, i.e. DNA, and information only comes from a mind.

  • Creation is getting so loud that we have to cover our ears and close our eyes to not see what is plain before us.
    • “Biology is the study of complicated things that give the appearance of having been designed for a purpose.” -Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker
    • “Biologists must constantly keep in mind that what they see was not designed, but rather evolved.” -Francis Crick, cited in William Dembski, Science and Design
    • Could you imagine if the CSI came on the scene and said “It looks like arson but we cannot accept that.”
  • The eye is a ball with [Adapted from Hank Hanegraaff, Fatal Flaws, 2003, p. 43 and Geoffrey Simmons, What Darwin Didn’t Know, p. 283]:
    • a lens on one side
    • a light sensitive retina made up of rods and cones inside the other
    • The lens itself has a sturdy protective covering called a cornea
    • and sits over an iris designed to protect the eye from excessive light
    • The eye contains an amazing watery substance that is replaced every four hours
    • Tear glands continuously flush the outside clean
    • Tears bring oxygen to the cornea, carry chemicals that kill bacteria and proteins to coat the eyes, wash the eyes, and move debris toward a lower drain, or lacrimal duct 7
    • An eyelid sweeps secretions over the cornea to keep it moist
    • Eyelashes protect it from dust
    • And extraordinarily fine tuned muscles are attached to the eye that move the eye and shape the lens for the function of focus.
      • It’s all about perspective. The evolutionist has to assume that it is not designed because their bias does not allow for a designer
      • In his famous book, On The Origin of Species (1859), Charles Darwin said, “To suppose that the eye, with all its inimitable [matchless] contrivances [plans] for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest possible degree.” [p. 217]
      • “Now I will just run through some points in your letter. What you say about my book gratifies me most deeply, and I wish I could feel all was deserved by me. I quite think a review from a man, who is not an entire convert, if fair and moderately favourable, is in all respects the best kind of review. About the weak points I agree. The eye to this day gives me a cold shudder, but when I think of the fine known gradations, my reason tells me I ought to conquer the cold shudder.” -Francis Darwin, ed., The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, Vol. II (New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1899), p. 67.
  • DNA – The code of life – Is it all a happy accident?
    • Francis Crick, one of the two scientists who discovered DNA, having observed the complexity of DNA, estimated that the odds that intelligent life exists on the Earth as the result of non-directed processes to be around … 1:102,000,000,000 (That’s one with ten to the two billionth power.) – [Cited in Gary Habermas and Mike Licona, The Case for the Resurrection, 2004, p. 179]
      • 01000111 01001111 01000100 00100000 01100101 01111000 01101001 01110011 01110100 01110011   è “GOD exists”

Show – The ultimate proof of God is the death and resurrection of Jesus: He presented His physical body to His disciples.

  • Naturalism or Intelligent Design: both require faith because both cannot observe the past, but what is more probable? What is the most likely, reasonable reality?
  • Think 4th Dimensionally:
    • Hearing from an atheist …
      • What is the supernatural?
        • “But we need more than naturalistic sciences. We cannot derive meaning, human value, and equality from a laboratory.” -Abdu Murray, Saving Truth, p. 173D
      • Is there something outside of space and time?
        • The more we understand the cosmos the bigger and the more intricate the design is observed. We have to conclude that there is a God that is incredibly detailed, unfathomably large, and surpassing beautiful.
      • What would a higher being be like?
        • [Flatlanders video by Carl Sagan from Cosmos]
        • It is perfectly reasonable to believe in a more than probable God.
  • “For me it is more reasonable to believe, based on the laws of logic as well as the observable scientific evidence that God exists, rather than to believe what the atheist believes that nothing, times nobody, equals everything we see in the universe.” -Charlie Campbell, http://www.alwaysbeready.com/component/content/article?id=137
  • The Ultimate Proof: Jesus presented Himself as God and proved it!
    • The Hebrew Bible (what we call the Old Testament) made over 100 distinct prophecies about One who would come to save all people from sin.
    • Jesus of Nazareth was born the way prophesied, lived a life performing miracles and pointing people to God, and then He said He would be killed and raised to life again.
    • And Jesus did that. Evidence? John 20:19-20, 24-29
    • 1 Corinthians 15:17-19

God – God not only is, but He has been in community and unity for eternity.

  • There is enough evidence that God exists that is reliable and consistent, if we are willing to question our biases.
  • And this God has shown He has eternally been in community: unity with others, even though there is only one God:
    • Isaiah 48:16 and 61:1 (God is talking here)
    • Matthew 3:16-17; Mark 1:10-11; Luke 3:21-22
    • Matthew 28:19
    • 2 Corinthians 13:14
  • Community in Unity: The Trinity
    • Father
      • John 6:27; Romans 1:7; 1 Peter 1:2
    • Son
      • John 1:1,14; Romans 9:5; 1 John 5:20
    • Holy Spirit
      • Acts 5:3-4; 1 Corinthians 6:19; Ephesians 4:4-6
  • God exists. God is love (1 John 4:7-16) and invites us into His eternal unity through Jesus Christ.
  • John 17:20-21

Video sources:

2023
03/27
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
Apologetics
God
Trinity
TAGS
































































3 comments

Give Me Five: What Is Faith?

I did not do the silly high five at the end of this video! Am I a horrible person? (Theologically speaking, technically yes … apart from Christ …)

But it is addressing that tantalizing question: What is faith?

Give Me 5: What Is Faith?

Many people do not really understand faith.

In a recent book, “A Manual for Creating Atheists”, philosopher Peter Boghossian defined faith as belief without evidence, pretending to know things you don’t really know.

But is this right?

In a word: no.

How does the Bible explain faith?

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:1, ESV

Another way of explaining faith is putting your beliefs into action. If you believe something to be true, prove it! Prove you are faithful to those beliefs by acting on them.

The most used example of what faith is is a chair. You can say you believe a chair will hold you up, but faith is proving it by sitting on the chair. Typically, you are acting on evidence. (In this case, you have been told chairs are for sitting on, and you may have seen other people sit in chairs.)

As Christians, we do not have a blind faith. The Bible is our evidence for God and Jesus.

The Bible has several prophecies about the coming Messiah who would take away our sins, and Jesus claimed He was the fulfillment of those prophecies. He made many claims to His deity, as well, and He said that He would prove it all by dying and rising again.

The Apostles and early disciples did not just write about things they heard. They claimed to have heard these things and seen the crucified and risen Jesus with their own eyes.

And the Bible is the most reliable ancient set of documents we have from antiquity, by far. Few experts contest this. (Maybe the actual events, but not that at least the New Testament is reliably from people from the First Century.)

Who lives with and uses faith?

Everyone.

It is not only Christians and the overtly religious. My evidence for this?

How about evolutionary theory: How is it claimed life began? Several chemicals somehow combined in the right amounts at the right time to create the building blocks for RNA and DNA, creating the first living cells.

How do we know it happened this way?

We don’t. No one was there to see it, and no one as recreated it in the lab to test this hypothesis. People simply believe it is true.

This is more like blind faith than Christianity!

As said before, everyone lives by some form of faith in someone or something throughout their days and lives. Faith is putting beliefs into action.

What do you think? Am I way too far off the mark? (I think most others are.)

How about we talk about, either in the comments (on this blog post or on the YouTube channel) or through the e-mail: Together@asimplemanofgod.com, or even at the Facebook page: a simple man of God.

2019
03/28
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
Apologetics
Bible
Faith
TAGS





















1 comment

Genesis: Paradise Lost in 3-D … My Review

If you have followed my blog long, searched through my all of my posts, and/or know me personally, you know I do not subscribe to the modern teaching of evolution.

I have many reasons.

Therefore, it probably should not surprise anyone that last night my wife and I went to see the movie Genesis: Part 1 – Paradise Lost in 3-D.

Do I need to mention spoilers? I mean, if you have read Genesis chapter 1, you know how it goes. If you have ever looked into Answers in Genesis, you probably know what they think about Creation. And AiG supplied many of their scientists and speakers for this film.

The Film

Genesis: Paradise Lost in 3-D was created largely on a computer to show an idea of what the creation of everything looked like based on the Bible – specifically Genesis 1. The stylized rendition was punctuated with “live commentary” of scientists and speakers about what the Bible and science have to say about the origins of everything and, especially, us – humans. Much of this cast consisted of people who work for AiG, but it included other scientists, professors, evangelists, and pastors. While focused on Genesis chapter one, other passages were included, and a lot of science was included throughout.

And, yes, dinosaurs make appearances!

My thoughts

Overall, I really enjoyed the film. The imagery was awe inspiring, and the science was clearly explained mixed in with good theology.

I do not completely agree with everything that AiG teaches (I differ slightly on the age of the Earth and therefore the historical timeline of humanity, but only slightly), but by and large the science and logic seems reasonable from them and those associated with this film.

They make fairly solid arguments against evolutionary theory, with some humor and compassion thrown in, and it is presented in a compelling way.

My biggest complaint against the film is with the 3-D. There are times that effect is not as accurately applied, causing some blurriness and/or ghosting (double-imaging). On a smaller screen, it might not be as noticeable, but when 30 feet tall it is jarring.

However, when you consider that this was not a James Cameron or major Disney production (the filmmaker, Ralph Strean, did work for Disney at one time, though) with a relatively small, crowdsourced budget, and only a few dozen people working on it, it is amazing what they did accomplish.

There are many elements of this film that the 3-D makes amazingly beautiful and engaging. At one point, I even felt the impulse to attempt to wipe water off of my glasses! And when you consider that

Therefore, if you easily suffer from motion sickness or get headaches from 3-D movies, avoid the 3-D showing.

That being said, I would suggest checking this movie out, if you get the chance.

Even if you completely disagree with their premise, the imagery alone makes it worth it.

2017
11/14
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
Apologetics
Bible
Evolution
Genesis 3D
Movie Review
Science
TAGS















Leave a comment

Real Life X-Men Stories … or Why Evolutionists Should Be Pro-Life

Welcome back, folks!

READY FOR SOME CONTROVERSY!

In my last video, we discussed the “unanswerable question” for “anti-abortionists” from Patrick Tomlinson.

Today, I am looking at something a little different. (And I am a little hesitant to share this theory, as I do not actually believe it but it could take hold …)

We know why Christians are pro-life. The biggest reason being we believe we were created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27, 5:1) and that we are fearfully and wonderfully made, knit together in the womb (Psalm 139:13-16).

Well, I want to argue for why atheists, or rather evolutionists, should be pro-life … or at the very least anti-abortion.

Seeing X-Men played out

In the X-Men comics, cartoons, and movies, we see an ongoing battle between regular, ol’ humans and mutants. The mutant humans are being fought because their mutant genes have given them super-human powers. They are the next evolutionary step, and the current strain of humanity is trying to keep them from taking over.

What if we are seeing this in real life?

The teaching on evolution is that there are missing links between different types of creatures. Such led to the rise of humans from an ancient ape-like creature (not to be confused with current monkeys and apes that would have come from the same ancestor). This takes several generations if not hundreds of thousands to millions of years.

There is a theory that the missing links may never be found, because perhaps evolution happens in bursts, virtually overnight (in the grand scheme).

Another theory running around is that perhaps human evolution has stalled or stopped.

What if that is not the case?

In Iceland, it is being claimed that they have nearly eradicated Down Syndrome. In truth, they have not, instead they have been aborting pregnancies in which Down Syndrome is detected.

My question centers on this: What if Down Syndrome, Autism, and other such anomalies in humanity are not so much defects as the “missing link” in the next stage of evolution?

What if we are seeing the evidence of evolution, those hiccups that evolutionists tell us could happen, and as a people we are wiping them out …

… we are literally living out the X-Men solution?

Think about it: many of these people tend to be savants at something or many things. There could be a jump in intelligence and other qualities of humanity.

If this were true, evolution has stalled due to our own decisions.

If this were true, perhaps evolutionists should be just as pro-life as Christians … or at least anti-abortion!

What do you think?

Is my responding thought experiment a valid option?

Am I being just as silly as others?

While this is a very serious question and dialogue to have, this is a somewhat silly approach. But it is worth asking.

At the very least, I may help the pro-life cause just a touch.

What are your thoughts?

2017
11/09
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
Abortion
Evolution
TAGS










1 comment

Myths and Endless Genealogies?

Discover the everlasting wisdom of God through some of the thoughts at Proverbial Thought!

If you have followed my blog for a while, or read up recently, you probably know that I fall under the category of “Young-Earth Creationist”. I have plenty of scientific, philosophical, and biblical reasons for holding this view.

Today I want to focus for a brief moment on something that is more of a theological food for thought.

Science, Myth, or Something Else?

The funny thing about Evolution, specifically Darwinian evolution, is that we are generally taught as fact that the Universe is about 14 billion years old, the earth is about 4 billions years old, life on earth has existed and been evolving for about 2 billion years, we evolved from an ape-like creature which evolved from something else that evolved from something else that evolved all the way back to the first single-celled organism.

Yet, we have no definitive proof of any of this. There is a lot of evidence for a lot of things, but since a lot of it has not been and currently can not be directly observed (i.e. how the Universe came to be, the origin of life, one animal kind becoming another animal kind) it all comes down to worldview and faith.

On all sides.

The thing Christians have is a book (or, technically, a collection of books) with the claim that God inspired the very words (a debate for another time) in which He claims to have not only seen how all things happened but caused them to happen and in which He made claims about the future, most of which have come true and the rest are yet to happen.

Instead, we find many churches and Christians listening to atheistic scientific theories full endless cosmological and biological connections with little or no need for a Creator.

It might sound like a call to blind faith, but I encourage you to study the evidence and the arguments. Then look again at this question:

Who do you trust: men who were not there and have to keep changing their theories, or a God who claims to have been their and caused it all and does not change?

. . . so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.
1 Timothy 1:3b-7

2014
11/18
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
Evolution
Faith
Religion
Science
TAGS







Leave a comment

Destroying [Atheist] Arguments

Build up your knowledge and wisdom with some of the thoughts from Proverbial Thought!

I recently saw a talk given by Eric Hovind. He is a biblical Creation apologist with Creation Today and the face of Creation Minute.

His talk was simply titled “Proof of God”. In it, he laid out four questions to destroy an atheist’s argument while building a bridge to the Christian worldview. I will briefly discuss those questions here!

Question #1: Is it impossible for the God of the bible to exist?

Here is why an atheist must answer “No, it is not impossible that the God of the Bible exists”: To follow science and reason, it must be concluded that in a Universe (or even multiverse) of possibly infinite possibilities, that would mean it is possible that the God of the Bible could exist.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
Romans 1:18-19, ESV

Question #2: Is it impossible for the Bible to be what it claims to be?

This is also a “No” because if it is possible that the God of the Bible exists, then it must be possible that the Bible could be His written revelation to us.

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
Romans 1:20

Question #3: Could the God of the Bible reveal Himself to us so that we can be absolutely certain of His existence?

Again, the answer to this question is a “Yes” because if it is possible that God exists and if it is possible that the Bible is His written revelation to us, then it is possible that He could reveal Himself to us so that we could be certain He exists.

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Romans 1:21

Question #4: Could you be wrong about everything you think you know?

Scientists the world over admit that we know, probably, less than 1% of what can be known about the Universe. If you look at what was believed about our own Solar System just a decade ago (let alone the entire Universe), things have changed (on a small scale, just look at the status of Pluto going from “Planet” to “Dwarf Planet” … keeping in mind we did not even know Pluto existed 100 years ago!).

An atheist, therefore, must admit that with the constant changing of our understanding of the Universe it is possible that everything he or she knows about everything could be wrong.

Therefore, atheists have no rational foundation for their worldview.

Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
Romans 1:22-23

The reason I feel it is so important to share this, other than that I do subscribe to the idea of a literal 6-day Creation of the heavens and the Earth, is this little tidbit from Paul:

For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ …
2 Corinthians 10:3-5

But we must always remember to do it with love, respect, and compassion, for all humans were created in the image of the God of the Bible, regardless of their beliefs:

but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.
1 Peter 3:15-16

Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.
Genesis 9:6

I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments.
Colossians 2:4

2014
10/07
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
Apologetics
TAGS









Leave a comment