Answering for your Faith

 

How could so many scientists be wrong about evolution?

1. For the same reason that the so called experts missed the tech bubble, the housing bubble, and couldn’t anticipate the affect artificially low interest rates and financial discount rates would have on the world economy. After the fact, all the so called experts denied responsibility and were not held accountable for their actions. So it is with a lot of the so called experts in the scientific community who claim that you can justify science without God.
2. It’s not just me that disagrees with the current world view on evolution. Thousands of scientists disagree, and you can see a list of some of them at A SCIENTIFIC DISSENT FROM DARWINISM –http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/filesDB-download.php?command=download&id=660 .
3. Most scientists and their students (past and present) have been brought up in an education system that teaches Darwin’s theory of evolution exclusively. The education system does not allow the supernatural (God) to be considered as an explanation for the observations of science, even if the evidence points in that direction. As a result, most scientists are indoctrinated to believe that evolution theory explains all things. Far too many scientists miss the fact that there thinking is locked inside the evolutionary box. If they would look beyond the evolutionary box, they would see a world of observable evidence pointing to God. Unfortunately for our world, they don’t look, finding it easier to merely reject God. Further, most scientists today are not Christian and knowing little about the bible, they look on it as being non-scientific. Often scientists are simply unfamiliar with the basic assumptions behind the theory of evolution that they so eagerly align themselves with.
4. Many of our most famous scientists were guided by the Bible and unlike today, they had no problem believing in the bible and being scientists. Kepler (astronomy), Galileo (astronomy), Sir Issac Newton (gravity, light & color, calculus, reflective telescope) Maury (oceanography), Samuel Morse (telegraph), Leonardo Da Vinci (physics), Francis Bacon (scientific method), Faraday (electromagnetic induction), Blaise Pascal (hydrodynamics, differential calculus, theory of probability) to name just a few. The Bible is filled with scientific information, not discovered by scientists for centuries after its writing. Evolution lacks real observable evidence, so it takes on the character of a faith based belief, not real science.

 

Why do we not hear more about the evidence for creation, especially from the churches?

That’s a very good question.

1. It seems that the more educated we become, the more we rely on our own understanding. That would be good if we were being properly educated. However, one of the key directives of evolution theory is that all understanding of our existence and the universe around us, must be explained without God. That is the path the public educators are on. Most schools are required to teach evolution theory only, so students are being indoctrinated, not educated. The evolutionists argue that students are not being indoctrinated, because it is the responsibility of the church to teach Creation. I would agree if the churches were teaching the observable evidence of Creation, but most are not. Most churches have done a pathetic job of explaining the evidence for its foundational beliefs based on the biblical account of Creation. Despite mountains of observable evidence for Creation, the church has become irrelevant in the discussion by leaving the issue up to the public school system. If the church is not prepared to defend the very foundation of its faith, then the church, not the bible, becomes irrelevant.
2. Evolutionists want the public to believe the issue is Science Vs Religion, but that is not the case. Both evolution and Creation are theories, backed up by physical evidence. The actual scientific research is the same, but the perspective in its interpretation is defined differently based on whether you put God in the equation, or leave Him out.
3. Today our media, education system, churches, and seminaries, have been permeated with the evolution theory. Most churches lack even a basic understanding of the evidences for Creation. That’s why they rarely teach the fundamentals of Creationism. Instead, they compromise of the very foundations of the Christian faith, then stand amazed by the churches decline. Adolf Hitler once said, The greater the lie, the greater the chance that it will be believed. That is where we stand today.
4. Yet more and more organizations like Answers in Genesis (AIG), Institute for Creation Research (ICR), the Creation Data Institute (CDI), and others, are being created to fill the vacuum left by the traditional church. These organizations are doing the research that provides the observable evidence supporting the biblical account of Creation by God.

Hasn’t science proven the Bible is wrong? After all the earth is millions of years old, yet the Bible says it is less than 10,000 years old? Why should I believe anything in the Bible if the stories in Genesis don’t make sense?

You have actually asked 3 questions, so let me address all 3.

First, science has not proven the Bible is wrong.  In fact, I would argue that the opposite is actually true. Science most often confirms the truth in the Bible.

1. Thousands upon thousands of people have set out to prove the bible wrong. No book in the history has withstood such a direct and fierce assault. Many of those who set out to destroy the credibility of the Bible have become Christians in the process. That is a solid testimony for the truth held within its pages.
2. The Bible’s historical record of archaeology has been challenged many times, and each time the Bible account has proven accurate.
3. Ray Comfort wrote a book, Scientific Facts in the Bible. 2500 years ago on a clear night, about 1100 stars would have been visible to the naked eye. Each star was a bright white dot in the sky. Telescopes had not been invented. Jeremiah 33:22 said the host of heaven (stars) cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured. We now know there are billions of galaxies, each with billions of stars in them. How did Jeremiah know to compare the stars to grains of sand, which would have been ridiculous thinking in his time?
4. In addition, 1Corinthians 15:41 tells us and even the stars differ from each other in their beauty and brightness, yet to the naked eye this would not be so. Today the stars light spectra confirms that indeed each star is unique.
5. The Bible’s Old Testament predicted so many events in history, that were fulfilled in the New Testament. The fulfilled prophecies in the Bible are evidence of the storehouse of truth in the world’s most amazing book. It is a mathematical miracle in itself.

Second, millions of years Vs. thousands of years.

1. Evolutionists believe that evolution theory can only exist based on long periods of time. Creationists believe it can’t exist given any amount of time. There is a vast field of information which supports an earth of less than 10,000 years old. However, you have to seek it out, because it is not taught in our schools or universities. You are prevented from seeing the evidence, for the same reason you are taught evolution only in the classrooms. Evolution theory can only exist by faith, and by millions of years. If evolution theory were to be challenged in the classrooms then the entire theory could easily collapse. This is why creationists are painted with a religious brush.
2. Carbon 14 and Radiometric Dating are flawed methods that give bad results when the actual dates are known. If life requires millions of years to transition then where are these transition fossils in the fossil record?  
3. Why can a caterpillar dissolve all its body parts except its tiny heart and transform into a beautiful butterfly in a matter of days?
4. If life requires millions of years to evolve, then why is it that almost all species require male and female to procreate just as it stated in the Bible. What force besides God would be require to see that the male and female of all these species would evolve at the same time, place, and maturity in order to procreate?
5. Why is it that procreation exists only within animal kinds, just as the Bible tells us?
6. Why does the observable fossil evidence demonstrate that fossils came into existence rapidly in the so called Cambrian period?
7. Why do organs like the eye exist at all, if through an evolutionary process they would have no purpose until fully formed.? There are many examples of irreducible complexity with no evolutionary explanation.

Third, just because something doesn’t make sense to you, doesn’t make it untrue.

1. Some of the stories in Genesis are what we would consider miracles requiring supernatural intervention. It is not easy to accept these things based on our own understanding. The Bible reminds us that Gods ways are not our ways and when it comes to miracles that is so true. Step back and consider what we are talking about – a God that in the beginning created everything out of nothing, complete with billions of galaxies containing billions of unique stars, physical laws, and dynamics like sound, colour, and so much more that we havent even discovered. The God I just described is not too small to demonstrate His power by way of miracles or what we might consider the supernatural?
2. Not believing there is a God behind the creation of the universe and life itself requires far more faith than does Creation.

 

If the story of Noah’s Flood is true, then where did all the water come from? How would Noah get all those animals on the arc? Seems to me that it was probably only a local flood, wouldn’t that explain everything better?

Lets look at this as 3 questions about the Flood.

Where did the water for a world wide flood come from?

1. Genesis describes the earth’s surface as being relatively smooth in topographical terms. There are scientific theories which suggest that there is more water in the mantel of the earth than in all the oceans, lakes and rivers of the world combined. Refer to National Geographic website: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/03/0307_0307_waterworld.html  The Bible describes the springs of the deep opening up in Genesis 8:2, and again refers to the deep springs in Job 38:16. In recent years scientists have found springs on the ocean floor, miles under the ocean’s surface.
2. Creationists maintain that deep valleys and high mountains were a result of the shifting of the earth’s crust during the catastrophic flood event. Assuming this was the case, it would not have required as much water to cover the earth as one might otherwise think.

How did all the animals fit on the Ark?

1. Based on the ark’s dimensions, the ark was large enough to hold all the animals needed to repopulate the world. Considering our knowledge of genetics today, not all the breeds of animals would have to be saved. Within their kinds, animals tend to breed and adapt to their surroundings. That is why, for example, we have such a wide variety of dogs in our world today. However, dogs do not breed with cats, nor do horses breed with cows, nor do deer breed with bears. The point here is to demonstrate that you would only have to save a limited number of each kind of animal in order to have the DNA to repopulate the world. Genesis 1:25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds…...

Global Vs Regional Flood.

A catastrophic global flood is the most logical conclusion to the observations we see.

1. There is evidence for a global flood in the stories of the flood handed down through the generations in every part of the world. There are cave drawings depicting a great flood all over the world.
2. There are sedimentation layers covering 70-75% of the earth’s surface. Interestingly, there is rock sedimentation in the southwestern regions of the United States, originating from formations only found in the eastern United States.
3. There is catastrophic global flood evidence in sea fossils at the top of the Grand Canyon, in limestone deposits, in oil deposits, and in large tracts of coal formations, scattered all over the globe. These deposits and the fossils we observe all have the characteristics of rapid burial of plant vegetation and animals in sedimentation laid down across the globe.
4. We find vast tunnels in every part of the world that were the product of fast flows of underground water. 

Why don’t religious people stay out of Science?

1. Most of the great historical scientists were people great faith. They had no problem visualizing that a Creator God could be the very foundation of science. Today, atheists of all descriptions go to great lengths to remove God from scientific discussion, using religion as their scapegoat. They paint religious people as unworthy of scientific thought, as radicals, as forcing their religion upon the masses. It is all manipulative nonsense. 

2. Belief in the Bible and in a creator is no less scientific than belief that first there was nothing then it exploded, or life arising from non-life on its own. In actuality, it is the biblical explanation that makes the most scientific sense of the world we observe around us.

3. We often hear the phrase, lets keep religion out of the classroom. If we really believe this statement then we must remove the theory of evolution from the classroom. Let me explain. Evolution is a theory based on the following assumptions: a) Whether the evidence points to a supernatural being or not, even the possibility that there may be a God must be ignored, b) The earth must be millions or billions of years old, c) Man has ascended from lower forms of life probably apes, d) The cosmos and everything in it was brought into being by a Big Bang, often referred to as a singularity, and was created out of nothing, e) Life began in a primordial soup and evolved in small steps over great lengths of time, through beneficial mutation, and through survival of the fittest. This is not science it is a belief system based on a lot of assumptions. Evolution is a faith based belief system, and not a particularly good one.

4. Creationists and evolutionists both agree with observable science that is testable in the present and allows us to draw conclusions.  Historical science considers the past, but can’t be similarly checked out.  Although important, historical science is speculative.  Evolutionists begin with a theory that excludes God, and only acknowledges conclusionsthat support their theory.  If the data logically supports God, the data must be discarded.  This is not real science, this is pseudo-science masquerading as real science.   To remove one possibility from the education system, and only teach the other, results in INDOCTRINATION, not education.

How can you look at the Grand Canyon and then say that the earth is less than 10,000 years old? You just have to look at the river carving out that canyon sometimes a mile deep, through all those layers, to know it just didn’t happen in a few thousand years?

There are two theories of how the Grand Canyon formed. First, by a little water over a long period of time (evolutionary description), or second, by a lot of water over a short period of time (biblical description).

1. Evolutionary description – The observable evidence does not strongly support the evolution theory. Rivers do not usually cut downward through solid rock. If they did, there should be mini Grand Canyons everywhere there are longstanding rivers. That is not what we observe.

2. Biblical description – There is strong observable evidence supporting the biblical description.

   a) If the Grand Canyon formed by a lot of water over a short period of time, we would expect to see a huge delta far out into the ocean starting at the base of the Colorado River. That is exactly what we observe.

   b) There are 3 very large lake basins at the beginning of the Grand Canyon Hopi, Canyonlands, and Vernal Lakes. These lakes would have not formed if the canyon had been open to them below. It is likely these lakes broke though the soft sediment laid down by the flood, and created the Grand Canyon in a process similar to what we have observed only 30 years ago at Mt. Saint Helens. Spirit lake, just below Mt. Saint Helens, broke through the sediment layer around it and created a canyon very similar to the Grand Canyon except 1/40^th the size.

   c) Fossils of the earliest evolutionary period are found in the top layers of the Grand Canyon.

   d) Various layers of sediment exposed by the canyon walls characterize a catastrophic flood. The layers are of different sediments laid down one on top of the other. This would characterize sediment carried by ocean currents from different locations in the world and then being laid down one on top of the other. An example of this is where the Rio Negro river flows into the Amazon, the flows don’t mix. Then as the sediments are carried into the ocean, they don’t mix with the salt water for many months and float with the ocean currents.

The other evening on NOVA they were talking about galaxies which were millions of light years away. If it takes light millions of year to travel from point a to point b in our universe, then how can our universe be less than 10,000 years old?

1. These distances and time lines are so far beyond evolutionary estimates that it is as huge problem for evolutionists. On the other hand, it is not a problem for a creator God who is eternal and outside of time and space.

Scientists have sophisticated dating technology today, so why do you continue to believe the earth is not millions or billions of years old?

1. There is lots of evidence for a young earth, but the theory of evolution can only exist if the earth and universe is very, very old; so you don’t hear about the evidence for a young earth. Evolution tries to rely on having enough time to justify everything, whether it makes sense of not. there is not enough time in the evolutionary model to justify its claims. 

2. All dating methods are based on assumptions like everything changes very slowly over time, and over that time everything remains relatively consistent. Dr. William Libby the founder of C-14 dating noticed the atmosphere was 25% out of equilibrium, but because he believed in billions of years, he ignored the evidence. In the 1960’s other scientists repeated Libby’s experiment and confirmed his original calculations were not in error as Libby had assumed. To reach equilibrium from zero should only take 30,000 years. Since we probably didn’t start from zero and are 25% off the mark, the earth appears to be very young. We have known this for 40 years, yet we are still teaching a flawed science in our classrooms. C-14 should only be detectable up to about 60,000 years, yet we find detectible amounts of C-14 in ancient fossils, coal and diamonds.

3. Radiometric dating is based on many assumptions as well. It’s results are dependent on these assumptions and are dismal. Here is the record for known dates:

• Hualalai basalt, Hawaii – Potassium-argon date 1.4-22 million, Reality: AD 1801

• Mt. Etna basalt, Sicily – Potassium-argon date 140,000-350,000, Reality 1972

• Mt. St. Helens – Potassium-argon date 2.8 million years, Reality 1980.

• Grand Canyon – Precambrian layer at bottom of canyon dated by Rb-Sr isochron age of 1070 million years old, then took rocks from top layer (youngest rocks) same method produced age of 1340 million years old. 300 million years older than the oldest rocks.

Why should I believe that Jesus was anything but a good person, and good Teacher? Son of God……come-on, get real!

1. It is widely accepted that Jesus was a wise teacher, and many would like the story to end there, but it doesn’t. Ancient prophecy from the Old Testament like Isaiah 53:3-6 points clearly to Jesus as the Messiah. In Psalm 22, David tells us, 300 years before crucifixion is known, that the Messiah will have his hands and feet pierced for our iniquities. This is not done just because Jesus is a martyr, but also a substitute for sin. Over and over again, Jesus fulfilled prophecies written centuries earlier until the mathematical probability of his doing so, overwhelmingly points to his being the Messiah predicted in the Old Testament.

2. Jesus claims to be the Son of God when he tells Philip, The one who has seen me has seen the Father.  He claimed to be the Messiah and Son of God even when Caiaphas, the high priest, threatens him with death.

3. Jesus performed over 40 different miracles in his life time, sometimes under the watchful eye of thousands of witnesses.

4. By far the biggest evidence that Jesus was who he says he was is that he was crucified and rose from the dead 3 days later.  Evidence – Guards would have never let Jesus’ body be removed. Jesus was seen by over 500 people after his resurrection. Most of Jesus’ followers died a violent death proclaiming his resurrection. Nobody would do this to further something they knew was not true. Out of the resurrection, despite enormous persecution of Christians, came the world’s largest religion.

5. It is a miracle that Jesus fulfilled the prophesies of the Torah/Old Testament beyond all mathematical probability. It is a miracle that the Bible records facts in the fields of astronomy, medicine, biology, physics, geology, etc. not discovered by scientists until centuries later.  Reference – Scientific Facts in the Bible written by Ray Comfort.Tens of thousands of early Christians died for their beliefs at the hands of the Romans in the coliseums.

6. Many of the Jews knew about the Messiah who was to come; but, they expected a great and powerful leader, the stereotype seen throughout history. Most did not accept Jesus, as many people do not today. Who was Jesus? Jesus suffered a most violent death. He was not a man protecting His material wealth or oppressing people for some ulterior motive. He shared His knowledge with all those that would listen regardless of the consequences to His own personal being. He lived what He preached with perfection. He performed miracles as evidence of the greatness of God, not for His own benefit. He taught life’s lessons in simplistic ways so they could be easily understood. His teachings are timeless. He washed the feet of his disciples to demonstrate servitude and humbleness. From recorded history in the Bible, Jesus died because He would not deny who He was, and what His mission was on this earth.

If the biblical story of Adam and Eve were true, where did Cain’s wife come from? If he married his sister wouldn’t Cain have committed incest?

1. Cain would have married one of his sisters; however, at that point in the early history of man it would not have been incest. This situation would have arisen out of necessity. According to the Bible, man was created perfect, however, after the fall everything began the slow process of degeneration. We see this degeneration in the 11,000+ negative mutations now documented in the human body. As a result of the genetic consequences today in marrying a close relative, we have correctly changed our position on the subject.

 

 

Exodus 20:5 says, You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me. Why would your loving God punish children and grandchildren for the sins of their parents and grandparents? In fact, why would your God be “jealously”?

1. I am not sure I can answer this to your satisfaction, but I trust God in matters of this nature, because so much else makes sense. This is a question I expect I won’t have the answer to until I reach heaven.

You talk about God creating, but my textbooks show evolution’s have always shown the “tree of life” produced by evolution from a single cell in the primordial soup, helped by lightening of course. Why should I believe your religious explanation?

1. Let me assure you my belief is not imagined, but based on a great deal of evidence. Your textbooks do not educate you based on the evidence, but rather based on an assumption that God does not exist. It assumes millions of years because that is the only way to drum up support for the evolutionary model. None of this is enough to hide the truth, from those who truly seek the truth. The current public education system indoctrinates you, rather than educates you, by keeping information from you. You need to search for truth beyond your classroom.

2. The observable evidence does not support the tree of life. The evidence supports the biblical model in that everything was created after its kind, both male and female. The fossil record shows life coming in to existence all at once during what is known to be the Cambrian explosion., not slowly over millions of years.

3. The simple cell theory doesn’t hold up to the observable evidence either. First, it was never “simple”, but highly complex in design and function. However, until recently followers of Darwin didn’t know that and made great claims without supporting evidence. Unfortunately, they are still doing that, and they are absolutely wrong.

There are many religions, why should I believe in the religion and God of the Bible?

1. There are many religions and good people do believe many things that are not consistent with Christian teachings. There are many good people in Japan that are laying food at the base of little stone statues of Buddha lining the streets of the Ginza in Tokyo. The 3 top religions are Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism. Of these 3, only Christianity’s claims are unique. Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, taught with amazing wisdom, healed people with disease, performed miraculous things in front of thousands of witnesses, predicted his crucifixion and resurrection, after this was fulfilled he was seen by more than 500 witnesses.

2. Many of Jesus’ followers were devastated by his crucifixion.  After the resurrection, these same people gave their lives for Jesus to the point of violent persecution and death. Nobody would do that for a lie.

3. In addition, the Old Testament foretold of the coming Messiah in prophetic and detailed description. Jesus fulfilled these prophesies against all mathematical odds.

We have bred many different dogs and cats in only a few hundred years; so why couldn’t everything have evolved? Don’t we see evolution evidence all around us?

1. The observable evidence does not support the evolution theory. There are many “kinds” of animals in the world just as the bible describes. There are many breeds of dogs and cats, but dogs and cats can’t breed together.  thjey only breed among their kind. Neither can horses and cows, deer and bears, or snakes and turtles breed outside their own kind. What we observe is variations within a kind of animal species. This is the result of  adaptation to their environment, and in some cases, genetic variation due to a “loss” of DNA information in their genome. There has never been a recorded increase in DNA information cause by mutation, only loss. 
2. The primary assumption of evolution is that we all originated from a single cell organism and branched off leaving the so-called tree of life behind. There is no credible science which supports this belief. What we observe is that in almost every species, it takes both male and female to procreate, just as the Bible describes in Genesis. The fossil record does not support the tree of life, it supports life coming into existence rapidly in what is called by evolutionists as the Cambrian Era. This event has been called the Cambrian explosion, and is totally contrary to evolution’s description of life forming slowly over long periods of time. The Bible had it right from the beginning.