By the Numbers

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Nature Could Never Design Man

Nature Could Never Design Man


Scientists tell us a living cell has enough genetic information to fill a set of encyclopedias—it’s a virtual city of compact complex machines working in harmony. And molecules would have a number of impossibly difficult hurtles to even form a cell. But we don’t have to take the scientists word for it. Just perceptive observation can show how utterly impossible this is for unconscious mindless nature to create man in any amount of time. Take the human body as an example.

Consider the external design shown only in a person’s head. Eyes in the head on top of the body give maximum distance of vision—why aren’t they at the waist or feet? Eyes are recessed and proper distance apart for depth of vision and protection with eyebrows to obstruct drips, eyelashes to retard dust, tears to clarify vision. Ears located on sides of the head for expanded range of sound and shaped to trap sound. Nose juts out with double nostrils to insure breathing if a nostril is clogged. Mouth is in the head for food intake designed to take food downward and out of the body. It has biting teeth in front where needed to bite and  teeth behind to crush what’s bit, a tongue to move food around and internal acids to digest food. Can we suppose blind nature knew how to fix things this way even in billions of years?

Eyes, ears, nose, mouth all have many essential functioning parts to carry messages to the brain. Man’s brain is encased in a hard protective shell surrounded by hair to keep in warmth. The human brain is so compact and so complex with connections sending chemical and electrical messages in a split second and it would take a large library to match the information it can contain. Further, it’s believed we use only a small part of our brain capacity. Doesn’t all this suggest fiat creation rather than evolutionary process?

Science knows nothing can’t produce something and life doesn’t come from nonlife--that suggests an eternal self-existing living cause, namely God. Further, life forms show specified complexity not found in nature—compare arrowheads with creek stones, sand castles with sand dunes, the four known presidents faces of Mount Rushmore with natural mountains. Further, life forms are irreducibly complete and functional at the outset—no partially developed heart or reproductive system can survive.

Evolutionists make counter claims. They say human embryos go through animal stages such as a worm and fish, and the fetus’ backbone looks like an animal’s tail—they even base abortion on it. But life forms are programmed at the outset. They say bodily appendages such as tonsils, appendix and thymus gland are useless evolutionary carryovers. Over a hundred such vestigial organs were once claimed, but uses are now known for all but a disputed few. It’s said both animal and human genetic material are composed of four letters and 99% identical. But it’s not identical material but different arrangement that counts.

Could evolutionist arguments be based upon ignorance or just blind prejudice? Does true investigative science have to exempt God at the outset? Do we know so much as to say no God exists? Aren’t we supposed to follow the evidence wherever it leads? Doesn’t experimental science have its limits? Could the “gaps” in our knowledge be filled in by a naturalistic bias? Weren’t modern experimental scientists’ believers in God, creation and many even Christians? Aren’t many scientists’ Christian believers even today? And isn’t it the rational order of the Christian worldview that is the very basis for experimental science? All these questions deserve honest answers from honest open-minded people.

Inherited adaptability to environment does occur such as the changing length of the finches’ beak. But mutations are usually destructive, not passed on, and millions are required in conjunction to make a significant change—it’s not a sufficient mechanism to change one life form into another. The universe is running down, not building up as evolution suggests. A genetic plan must come from an informer, a mind. Randomness never arranges itself into order—red, white and blue confetti dropped from an airplane doesn’t form itself into the American flag on the ground. Life forms look designed simply because they really are designed by their great Designer.

The probably of this all coming together by unconscious mindless nature in an evolution of time and chance is infinitely improbable, not even in 15 billion years. Consult a textbook explaining the complexity, intricacy and compatibility of the human body. Surely, common sense compels us to admit all this marvelous design cannot be due to a common ancestor but attributed only to a common intelligent self-existing Designer or God. A love-trust relationship with our Maker may be the plan and purpose of life. We won’t know until we sinners trust in the loving Savior who died to pay for our sins.

Maybe it’s Darwinists’ and not the Bible that’s in denial—see Psalms 14:1; 19:1-2; 139:14; Romans 1:20-21. Rose Publishing puts out pamphlets with much good easy to understand information. For college students the 5 Minute Apologist, by Dr. Rick Cornish gives maximum answers in minimum time. It’s covers most subjects at a reasonably price. See book list below.
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Ape-man or God-man?

Ape-man or God-man?

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#Science   #Naturalism   #God-man
Two opposing worldviews compete for the lives and souls of men. One is naturalistic science. Evolutionists claim man is purely a product of nature, claimed up from the clime, is dispensable, and will become food for worms. The other is biblical Christianity. Bible believers affirm Jesus is the God-man who taught God created us and we’re responsible to choose eternal life with God.     
Darwin’s followers, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, believed God a hindrance and man only a more evolved animal. They murdered their countrymen and millions of others they claimed inferior or who disagreed with them. Their ‘survival of the fittest mentality’ justified their actions.   
Evolutionists destroy everything Christians uphold. Evolutionists kill human dignity and human rights saying we’re just dispensable animals. Evolutionists deny the world has meaning and life ultimate purpose. Evolutionists disaffirm absolute truth and ethics. Evolutionists bury hope of life beyond the grave. Secular humanist countries demonstrate this: “those who hate him (God), love death”. Proverbs 8:36.
Christians uphold Creation and Christ as our loving Lord and Savior. This inspires us to found great universities, create great literature and art, established science on an experimental basis, build hospitals, and establish humane organizations. Believing the world created by a rational God who loves us, we’re assured it’s a rational world to be nurtured and developed. The Christian church is imperfect, yet provides the basis for everything good evolution destroys.
To decide which worldview is the truth two questions require our utmost attention. One, is Darwin right that we evolved from the apes or something lower? The other question, could Jesus be the God-man and only hope of the world?  
First, Question: Is Man Just an Animal Ascended from Slime?      
 Consider these three lines of argument. First, in science observable, repeatable experiments are what establish a theory as fact. And it’s believed that given enough time unconscious nature can arrange mindless molecules into men.
Evolutionists made this experiment with fruit flies. Since they have a short lifespan, many generations can be examined. Radiation experiments conducted on multiple generations showed they can develop long or short legs or wings and various deformities. As England became industrialized, black smoke covered the trees. People noticed black moths replaced white moths birds could see to eat. Darwin observed birds called Finches had longer beaks in the dry season.

Now fruit flies were the only experiment and it clearly showed they don’t evolve into anything else. The moths and Finches were observations, but not experiments. And they proved only that creatures can adapt to their environments. No experiments establish evolution.
 We know various kinds of dogs, horses, monkeys, and men exist. But we don’t know that dogs can change into horses or monkeys evolve into men. That’s theory, not fact. Furthermore, we know animals and plants have a genetically programmed limit that they cannot pass. The fossil record confirms the Bible that plants and animals reproduce only their own kind (Gen.1:21-25). And God made man in his image--a rational, moral, immortal person like himself (Gen. 1:27; Psalm 8:5; Ephesians 4:23-24).
Second, evolutionists argue transitional forms or bones called fossils can demonstrate evolution to be fact. Fossils showing transitional steps from ameba to Adam would without doubt show evolution is fact. Museums overflow with fossils. Some show unusual characteristics of animals that died out such as the duckbilled platypus. But no bones discovered show one animal evolved into another.
Paleontologists dig up bones and announce to the world they have found the missing link. So we’ve told about the missing link called Piltdown Man, Java Man, Peking Man, Lucy and Nebraska Man.  Neanderthal Man was a real robust person who may have had a much longer lifespan than people today. All supposed extinct races of people that turn out to be hoaxes, just lies.
The famous Tennessee Scopes trial convinced America science discovered the missing link, Nebraska Man. Science proved man evolved from the monkey. Science then is fact, religion mere faith. Textbooks should teach science, not religion. Scientists are learned authorities, Christian’s ignorant dummies. Nebraska Man, however, turned out to be an extinct pig’s tooth. Who then is the real dummies?
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Don’t believe the sensational artist’s drawings, journalist’s articles and cave man models shown in newspapers and science textbooks. All are reconstructions not based upon proof but upon evolutionist bias.
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Third, evolutionists argue that similarities between man and animals prove evolution. Both man and animals have similar limb structure, organs, bodily fluids, and DNA. They classify animal complexity in an ascending order then say this confirms man and the animals evolved from a common ancestor.
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But there’s no rule God has to make life forms of entirely different patterns. Life and mobility require similar legs, arms, organs, fluids, DNA. The differences are more significant. Besides, creatures can’t live with partially developed digestive or reproductive systems or heart, eyes, ears, legs, arms. Built-in genetic limitations allow varieties within kinds but not change to a different kind of creature. Similarities don’t prove a common ancestor—more likely, they show a Common Designer. But couldn’t the Bible account of man’s creation be myth or fable to allow for evolution as naturalistic science claims?
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No! The text is clear that God created animals to reproduce after their own kinds. But God made man directly from the ground in his image and dominant over animals. With no suitable helpmate among animals, God made Eve (mother of all living) from Adam. These first people had intelligent speech, named the animals, kept sheep, farmed the ground, make offerings to God, and build cities.
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Further, the Bible always assumes the creation account is literal history. Jesus affirmed God made man beginning at creation (Mark 10:6). Paul said God made man’s flesh different from animals, that Adam  was made direct from dirt and formed before Eve (1 Cor. 15:39, 48; 1Tim. 2:13). All this precludes both naturalistic evolution and theistic evolution as God’s means of creation. Moreover, unless the Fall is literal, the Bible becomes nonsense and there’s no need of a Savior (Gen. 3; John 3:16; Rom. 5:12-21). It all boils down to belief or unbelief in the Bible’s God.
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The sacred writer’s intent was not an imaginative entertaining story but a historical account to show our origin in God’s image. Moreover, because archaeologists have no collaborative data and aren’t likely to find any doesn’t mean it can’t be true. Critics are wrong multiple times.
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Second question: Could Jesus be the God-man and Only Way to Heaven?
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Do we know God is required to have many ways to heaven? Could there be something about God or about us that we haven’t considered? Do we know God must follow our thinking and we can’t be wrong? How can we even know there is a heaven or what it’s like?
Would the mere word of Buddha, Confucius, Zoroaster, Hindus, Mohammad, or Jesus prove their religion to be true? Don’t crazy persons claim to be God or talk with God? How can we know God is more than just a thought in their head, their imagination, invention, or philosophy? What would demonstrate their God is real and acts in our material world?
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As we mentioned, true science confirms or discredits their theories by repeated empirical tests and observations. So which of the just mentioned religions exceeds mere words with repeatable public proofs?
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Consider this. I announce that this year the snow will melt off Mt Everest and the volcano in Yellowstone National Park will erupt and it occurred. Wouldn’t that get attention and suggest I have super human knowledge? And what if I could do incredible things like walk on water, heal open sores immediately, and ascend into the sky? Wouldn’t that suggest I have greater knowledge than men ordinarily have?
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Well, Jewish prophets made hundreds of specific predictions about their Messiah that only Jesus Christ could fulfil. Consider these: claimed  be God, virgin born, in Bethlehem, live without sin, fulfill prophecies, perform miracles, die for people’s sins and rise from the dead. Also, over three years before astonished disciples and hostile critics in open daylight wherever he went, Jesus performed miracles, probably hundreds. Moreover, Jesus’ life doesn’t need repeating for every generation since greater historical evidence exists for Jesus than for Aristotle or Julius Caesar. Check it out -The Historical Jesus by Gary R. Habermas.
What can we conclude with regard to world religions? Jesus gave us repeated, public, eyewitness, evidences confirming his claims to be God. Founders of non-Christian religions give only teachings, no objective visible evidence of God. Can’t we then conclude, based upon good evidence, that Jesus is God?
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What can we conclude with regard to the naturalist’s claim that mindless molecules arranged themselves into men? No experiment has shown this. A Common Designer explains arguments of similarities better than a common ancestor does. Bones showing each transitional step would conclusively demonstrate evolution. But all we have are a few supposed missing links exposed as hoaxes. Can’t we also conclude that the repeated, eyewitness evidence Jesus gave to show he is God is far more scientific than all the missing links and hoaxes that fail to demonstrate evolution? Aren’t we wise to trust Jesus to save us sinners when our eternal well-being is at stake? A naturalist assumption may send us to the eternal darkness, torment and weeping of Hell.

Jesus Is The Only Way to Heaven!

Jesus Is The Only Way to Heaven!

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Does everything begun require a beginner? Can time backtrack eternally? Can nothing explode into everything? Can molecules arrange themselves into men? Can we even be rational if all is chance?
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Christians believe it’s most reasonable that a Creator sustains and explains every particle of matter. There’s no rational basis to deny an intelligent God, creation, miracles, divine revelation, and that the Creator can take on a human nature, body, and tell us all we need to know. Skeptics can only make negative assumptions and derogatory accusations--they are just as dogmatic and exclusivist as anyone else. If there’s any possibility of Heaven, it’s terribly foolish to ignore that possibility. There may even be a Hell—skeptics can only hope there isn’t! And anyone arguing there’s no absolute truth assumes his argument true—thus his arguments mean nothing. Now consider arguments for entrance into Heaven.  
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Only God Can Set the Entrance Requirements to His Heaven.
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Ancient peoples believed in some ideal form of life after death. American Indians have their happy hunting grounds. Vikings dying with sword in hand have their Valhalla. Greeks have their Elysian Fields. Egyptians believed that at least their Pharaohs would have an ideal life after death. Of course, we can have different opinions as to what Heaven is like, who can enter Heaven and under what conditions. We all have a right to our own opinions and we have them regardless of what others may think or say. But apart from logical factual evidence, claims about God and the afterlife are mere opinions and guesses unworthy of belief.   
If God were the Creator of Heaven, that would make him its Owner, Lawgiver and Judge. Ownership conveys rights and excludes other opinions and claims. God alone then has the right to say what his Heaven must be like, and what its entrance requirements must be. And if God created man in his image for relationship with him, then it’s reasonable that Heaven exists. So then, no person has any right to tell God he can’t have just one way to enter his Heaven.
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Only God Can Tell Us His Entrance Requirements to His Heaven.
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If we can be opened-minded, there’s biblical evidence a God-man walked among us and told us about the afterlife and Heaven. Since I’ve discussed this evidence in other articles, I won’t discuss it here. It includes fulfillment of hundreds of ancient promises and prophecies about individuals, Israel and other nations. It records supernatural occurrences through angels, miracles, and most specifically the Lord Jesus Christ. Honest examination will show there’s simply nothing like these historical events in other sacred literature. Further, the Bible with all its diversity written over fifteen centuries shows an amazing unity of teaching from creation to recreation not found in other secret literature. Without such actions of God, we have no visible assurance and authority about Heaven, its rightful occupants, and entrance requirements.
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God Has Told Us Moral Perfection Is Required to Enter His Perfect Heaven.
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Almighty God was under no obligation to create a universe but did create one good for his purposes (Gen. 1:1, 4, 10, 12, 18, 25, 31). God made a paradise for man meeting man’s every need. God gave man the choice of eternal life in a love-trust relationship with him in paradise or of a world of good and evil. Man chose to eat from the tree representing a world of good and evil. Thus, all persons are born with a natural tendency to put self above all else including their Lifegiver.
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God expelling man from paradise showed mercy to keep man from eating from the tree of life and being eternally condemned in sin (selfishness, rebellion and eternal loss). Man’s choice brought the consequences of a cursed world and sinful posterity. Theologians call it the Fall of man. Even then, God gave humanity the promise of redemption (Gen. 3:15; 1 Jn. 3:8). Reason then requires that a morally perfect God find corrupt rebellious persons unfit and unacceptable to enter and maintain his perfect Heaven.
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Jesus, the God-man said, “You shall be perfect, just as you Father in heaven is perfect” (Matt. 5:48).
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“Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 6:9-10). See also Rev. 21:27.
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God’s Entrance Requirement Is Trust in the Lamb Slain as a Substitute for Our Sin.
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Only God’s way is acceptable to him and can maintain a 100% perfect Heaven. It must be a humble trust in God’s gift of salvation since we can never achieve perfection or cleanse past sins. It is the greatest expression of love known to man, as the just (Christ) died for the unjust (us sinners). Only the sinless Christ could be the perfect sacrifice for sin and satisfy God’s justice. We can never understand it all; we can only trust God’s way is right and the only way.
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“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Eph. 2:8-9).
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“God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten (unique) Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (Jn. 3:16-17).
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Now back to First Corinthians 6:11 speaking to believers, “And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified (set apart for God’s service), but you were justified (declared just) in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
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Jesus death and resurrection proved he is Lord over death; he is God as he claimed, all he said is God’s absolute truth, and we are not just soulless dirt but created in God’s image with dignity, rights, freedom and responsibility. Will you trust him now for forgiveness of sin and eternal service with and for him who gave his life to save you? Pray, Lord I trust You now to forgive my sin, and make me Your child now  and forever. Thank You Lord.
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