Creation.com has a nifty little feature: A “surprise me” link. Try it out! If nothing on the front page interests you or you think you’ve seen it all, the surprise me feature usually comes up with something fascinating!
Posts Tagged ‘creation’
Creation.com – A surprising link
Thursday, June 24th, 2010Most people believe what they hear most
Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010Readers will know I talk about creation and evolution quite a bit. I also read Slashdot, which is populated by large numbers of well educated individuals from which, it appears, most do not have a Christian faith or up-bringing. I’ve come to realize something in my back-and-forths on slashdot about creation and evolution: People believe what they hear most.
Evolution gets a huge amount of media coverage. It’s what everybody has been hearing about in classrooms, books, television, radio, music and movies for decades. Consider that one hundred to two hundred years ago, children were being brought up on the Genesis account of creation. They heard it at home. They heard it in school. They heard it in books. They heard it in church. You get the picture. Atheists have long claimed Christians are unthinking believers – believing only what they have heard. And, you know, they’re probably right in a lot of cases, but, as it turns out, the shoe is on the other foot and what do we see? We see the exact same behaviour.
For the past hundred years or so, Christian families and up-bringings have been less and less the norm, evolution has been taught in our schools, it is taught in our books, movies, music, television, radio and in a myriad of other content. And look what has come of this? Most people doubt, at the very least, the Genesis creation account and, more than likely, just simply believe evolution.
The circle has come full turn and this is the final analysis: People believe what they hear most.
Don’t be one of those people. Read contrarian content. That’s right, read about evolution, read about scientology, read about Buddha, read the Qur’an.
God’s Word is not brittle, it will not fail you at the first mention of controversy. God made us after his own image, intelligent, made to reason and to comprehend. God is not scared that you will find the truth if you read Richard Dawkins or some evolution book. Christianity and its apologetics are stronger and more secure than they’ve ever been, and their information is quicker to access than ever before.
Remember your Christian guides, however, because you are a fallible, insecure human, just like all of us. Remember to pray, read your bible, maintain strong Christian friends, and remember resources like Creation.com.
Go forth, then, in the light and in the strength of the solid foundation of God’s Word and believe not what you hear most but believe instead what is true.
Pride Toronto – Why Christians can not support it.
Monday, June 21st, 2010Pride Week Toronto is an annual event in Toronto (Ontario, Canada) celebrating the lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender community in the Greater Toronto Area. Over the past decade, this event has become huge. It is one of the largest such events in the world. More and more, it is becoming very accepted, very common-place, and has become an event which people of all groups, even if they don’t identify with the Pride groups, will go to celebrate at events. The celebration, however, can not be accepted by a Christian for one very simple reason: When all is said and done, Pride Toronto is an event celebrating sin.
Speaking to a Christian about Pride Toronto, it would be just as absurd to ask him if he’ll be going down to the Stealing Parade or the Adultery Parade or the Murdering Parade or the Idolatry Parade. Remember, it’s not the severity of the action, it’s that the action is an affront to the Christian God. It would be ridiculous, in the highest degree, to support the celebration of sin.
Why can’t a Christian support it?
Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. (Lev 18:22)
For some other reading on the topic, see the wikipedia article on “The Bible and homosexuality“.
The problem today is that the majority of people now accept the Pride Toronto event as not just “healthy” for that community but also as an event in which they can join in, celebrate and participate in. It is as if the event has lost all sense of immorality about it which, no doubt, it has with non-Christians as they don’t have any absolute moral ruleset to argue against it.
I hope it’s clear why a Christian can not support the Pride event. It is as simple and clear as if that Christian were to be in support of stealing or murdering or any other act that the majority still recognize as immoral.
For more in-depth reading, see Creation.com’s Q&A on Morality and Ethics.
Six Evidences of a Young Earth
Monday, May 10th, 2010Here’s a quick and enlightening read: Six Evidences of a Young Earth
For more information on creation, some of the best, most well researched and most well written, ares being published by these folks:
Apollo 8 – In the beginning God…
Sunday, April 25th, 2010I had no idea the Apollo 8 crew read more than just “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” but, lo, they did…
The foundations of the Building are only as strong as the foundations of the Builders
Monday, March 1st, 2010My mother past away last month and since then we’ve had a number of occasions to reflect on her passion for creation – the literal intepretation of the Book of Genesis as it relates to the six-day creation of the heavens and the earth.
All her stuff in the basement which she’d gather together to put on exhibits at churches or in classes. At her funeral where we setup these things so that visitors could know about her passion. And a creation seminar weekend at Cannington Baptist Church where gifted speaker Calvin Smith taught us many fascinating truths of science regarding the history of the earth. The weekend was lovingly dedicated to Donna in light of her passion for creation. We wholeheartedly thank them for their thoughtfulness and kindness towards us.
Because of all this exposure, though, I’ve really been hit a number of times just how serious it is for believers to doubt the creation account in Genesis. Doubt and skepticism are healthy but only when they lead to uncovering the truth.
Each creation organization that I’m aware of has the same reason for doing what they do: They believe that to contradict Genesis, being the inspired Word of God, is to erode the very foundation of the totality of the faith. Creation Ministries International, for example, entitle their writing on this issue “Genesis—the seedbed of all Christian doctrine.”
According to stats, most Christian youth who go to secular post-secondary institutions will lose their faith because of the onslaught of ideas contradictory to their faith. If their faith can’t stand against apparent flaws, than what good is the faith? Who can blame them for leaving their faith behind. At best, who can blame them for compartmentalizing or halfheartedly living out their faith.
But there are answers. Answers In Genesis is another organization dedicated to teaching the truths of the creation account. Their article regarding the need for teaching creation is entitled “Creation: Why it matters.”
Creation absolutely matters. God has Genesis right. He really did create the heavens and the earth in six days. If he said so and he really didn’t, then what else is really true in the bible? Your entire faith’s foundation begins at Genesis 1:1:
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Starlight, Time and the New Physics
Sunday, February 21st, 2010Dr. John Hartnett’s 2007 book, Starlight, Time and thew New Physics, extends on Russel Humphrey’s intriquing Starlight and Time attempting to solve the problems of the original proposition. He does so with fascinating results.
The problem that both books try to do solve is that of a young creation being able to see the stars when they were created. Because even light from the nearest star, not our own, takes years to reach earth, it is not possible for the biblical account of creation to be correct: in that account, Adam, the first man, could already see the stars. If, in fact, they could see the stars that would imply creation is not young but very old and thus contradictory to the young creation the bible appears to talk about.
The question then is: How did Adam see starlight in the first week of creation?
As a poignant aside, note how christians differ from others when given a contradiction in their bible. The one who doesn’t believe the bible already sees an apparent contradiction and dismisses the entire thing. The one who does believe knows their bible and trusts it because they know it has told the truth a vast number of times before. Therefore, they give the bible the benefit of the doubt and go out and see if they can brainstorm how it might have come about according to God’s word. Many times in the past we’ve doubted the bible and then some years later it turns out it was quite right after all.
Christian cosmology effectively came out of nowhere to some pretty good ideas in the past 30 years. Humphrey gave us all a kick in the rear by thinking outside the box and using Einstein’s theory of relativity to explain that time on earth may have proceeded slower than time out in the universe. It might sound like crazy talk but Einstein’s theory has been tested and found quite valid for a long time now. The key is a catalyst that would alter the time of clocks locally and remote.
Humphrey’s model was a good starting point but had problems. Hartnett attempts to solve those problems and he makes some decent sense of it. Definitely worth a read. Harnett’s writing is necessarily dense but not overladen beyond what the uninitiated can handle. I highly recommend this read.
Wooly mammoth may have gone extinct more recently than thought
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009Wooly Mammoth DNA Yields Surprising Secret
This is a relatively minor change in understanding of wooly mammoth’s extinction from 12,500 years ago to around 7500 years ago.
This is just another one of those discoveries that catch my eye in the media because ever more and more we’re discovering the long time frames of evolution are being reconsidered. Wooly mammoths nearly within recorded history, you say? I’m confident we’ll soon discover man did indeed walk with dinosaurs.
Mediterranean Might Have Filled In Months
Monday, December 14th, 2009Slashdot is carrying the story. As it turns out, large-scale flood theories are not uncommon. The Black Sea deluge theory is well supported. Discussion, on the slashdot story, have some suggesting that these large-scale floods are most likely the source of the many flood myths around the world.
The problem with theories that try to avoid the global flood idea is that most flood myths explain that it was a global flood and the survivors had to repopulate the earth. One would expect large-scale yet localized floods to produce myths of mass migrations.
No large-scale flood theory appears to propose a situation where the flow of water would exceed the inhabitants ability to escape. These are not flash-floods which are very difficult to escape. They are theorized large-scale, sea-flooding events, which just don’t happen that quickly.
Whenever I see a headline like this in the news, about a new discovery or theory that is purely and naturally sound, I think back to the bible and wonder how it could apply to the tremendous events in the bible. How does Noah’s Flood relate to this theory that the Mediterranean could have filled in months?
The way I see it, these discoveries lend credence, ever more and more, to the biblical account of human history. Things we said in the past were absolutely impossible and out of the question we slowly begin to see they weren’t so far fetched. Still supernatural, yes, but impossible.
The reason it’s important is because it solidifies the bible’s foundation (in our minds) and requires more thought before one can dismiss the bible as simply anti-science. One must begin to consider the bible a little more deeply before dismissing it. And that is critical for those considering the faith, or those young in the faith, to have a solid foundation to believe in.
This is not Religion versus Science
Wednesday, November 4th, 2009My recent and, likely, typical posts on this blog have obviously been with a bias toward Christianity. As to this blatant bias I hold no shame. The requirement I hold up for myself is truth. Bias may sway to one end or another, but bias is altogether a wholly different thing than truth, and the man who holds a bias and yet holds truth, that man is to be envied. I may not be that man but that is my goal.
As to the bent of writing, the astute mind will immediately recognize that these things we speak on are not about sides. There is no us and them. There is no religion/faith/belief on one side and science/reason/logic on another. The intelligent individual will realize that the Christian is not anti-science, as I have been labeled in the past and will certainly be labeled in the future. Christianity is not anti-science. Nothing could be further from the truth.
That truth is this: The Christian has learned that, as Chesterton put it, God is a truth teller and we have learned to give him the benefit of the doubt. As we grow in the faith we see that God tells us the truth of things. Not because he says so and that’s that, but because he says so and, behold, we find it out to have been true. This benefit of the doubt is key. We give God the benefit of the doubt. We see His Word say one thing and creation tell us another. Yet time and again, given time, we see that He was right all along and it just took some time for modern research to see it.
I will take one example. In the story of Jonah and his preaching to Ninevah, the Bible makes the city sound great. In the past hundred years scholars have said it couldn’t possibly have been very big at all. Yet archaeologists come along and find the foundations of that city and see that it was easily as big as written about. This is just one example and there are more, some larger and some smaller.
This, though, is the crux of the resistance of Christianity to modern thought that contradicts what we know the bible to say. We know the track record of the bible is to come out right in the end. Therefore we resist. We do not resist beyond all reason, though. Prove something, such as the earth orbiting around the sun, and it will be considered and we will understand our own misunderstanding of the bible and we will correct ourselves.
Christianity has, time and again, resisted and then accepted new ideas but there are some ideas which, no matter how much time passes, can not be proven and can not be accepted. I write on a number of these, including creation and evolution, origins, and more. It is critical to understand than when an idea is resisted and then later accepted it is not because it still contradicts the bible yet we accept it because it is the “truth.” In actuality, we realize our own misunderstanding of what the bible was saying and come to see the truth in light of another truth. This has not occurred with evolution, however. We do not yet see that evolution is proven nor that there is any possibility of the scriptures writing it and we simply lacked the understanding before. We also do not foresee this changing. Evolution is not proven and, as much as we look, the scriptures do not speak to it. In fact, the scriptures speak to the opposite of it. That is why it is resisted.
I hope it is clear to all that religion and science are not adverse. Science has its tools of proof. So too does religion. Each requires that a thing pass the test before it is accepted as truth. We must all hold up rationality instead of dogmas. We must all bridge divides instead of creating them. Any given side can be accused of these things.