Hello
Just another note to let you know it was great to see you at the CDS conference in Cincinnati. I always appreciate our shared history and friends, your insights about what is happening in the world of community development, and your sense of humor. I also appreciate our spirited discussion about matters temporal and eternal.
I wanted to follow up our discussion about origins, specifically the evolution / creation issue. A few key points always seem to arise in these kinds of discussion:
The fossil record: Some religions, like Hinduism, are based on evolution. And yet there are 10,000 scientists in this country who see evolution as an unproven theory, with stronger evidence for creation than evolution, such as the fossil record, within which the missing links are still missing. The missing links are exactly what is predicted from the creation science perspective. Darwin even said that the validity of his theory depended on the fossil record, and yet the gaps are still missing.
Macro-evolution vs. micro-evolution: By the way, both creation scientists and evolutions embrace micro-evolution, such as changes in moths or birds. It is on macro-evolution – the notion that a whale can evolve to a bear – where they disagree. There is even an emerging Intelligent Design movement of evolutionary scientists who have abandoned evolution because the evidence of intelligence in design is too compelling to ignore. They just don’t take it to the next logical conclusion, which is that the designer is really the God of the Bible.
Speaking of the Bible, it was written by 40 authors with widely differing occupations from 3 continents over 1,500 years, telling an integrated story that is woven together in a progressive story of human life (starting with the creation), of God’s involvement over the centuries, and dozens of prophecies that are fulfilled. This unity is evidence of a common author (the Holy Spirit), who inspired and guided the writing of the books of the Bible, in contrast to other religions.
Stories within cultures: Over 130 cultures have stories / myths in their history that they are descendants of a family who was saved in a boat from a world-wide flood. Could this possibly come about by chance? This phenomena is best explained by the story of Noah – that he really did build an ark, the Bible story is true, and these stories/myths are exactly what we would expect. This is in contrast to evolution, which claims that a fish can turn into a bear if we just wait long enough.
Evolution lacks face validity: The theory of evolution claims:
* if we wait long enough, something can come from nothing,
* that the 100 billion galaxies in the observable universe were contained in a volume smaller than the size of a single atom prior to the “Big Bang” 13.7 billion years ago,
* that something can come to life,
* that great order can come from a big explosion (like a tornado blowing through a large junkyard and producing a Boeing 747),
* that people can evolve from primordial soup, and
* that all of this is scientific. (Science depends on observation, and yet no person was around at the origin of the universe except God, who revealed these truths for us in the Bible.)
Mount Rushmore – If we were hiking through the Black Hills of South Dakota and came upon Mount Rushmore, no one would say: “Wow – look what has evolved over centuries”. We would be more likely to remark that this is a sign of great skill and intelligence. And yet the human brain is thousands of times more complex than Mount Rushmore, and evolutionists claim it evolved from simpler forms.
Who gets the prize – Evolutionists claim that creation science is religion, a matter of blind faith. But the prize really belongs to the evolutionists – it takes a much greater leap of faith to believe in evolution than to believe that the incredible complexity and design of the universe reflects intelligence – that of the sovereign, living God – the creator of the universe. By the way, an excellent source on this issue is the Institute for Creation Science http://www.icr.org.
Finally, the relevance of all this is that severe times are coming to our nation; some refer to this as a perfect storm. I believe those who know the Lord will be best able to weather the storm.
Best regards,
Life in the Spirit 