Tag: creation

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Alleged Errors Authority Evangelism False Religions Salvation Teachings The Bible The Christian The Savior The World Theology

10 Apologetics Videos That Get Straight to the Point (and Right to the Heart)

What is truth

After absorbing over 50 hours of apologetics lectures and debates on topics as simple as an overview of Genesis and as minute as cave formation in New Mexico, my friend and I had an idea.  We seriously considered condensing the information in our vast, overpriced DVD library into a series of short video clips to deliver the key points in a way that would be more engaging to our generation and easy to share online.

We never got past the first script, but I am happy to report that several ministries with superior skills and funding have had the same idea in recent years.  Answers in Genesis now has Check This Out, The Institute for Creation Research produces That’s a Fact, and Creation Today has my personal favorite: Creation Minute.  These video series focus on foundational issues surrounding science and the Bible, but what about the other important questions of life?

Now, Mark Spence of Living Waters teaches on these broader topics in a series of apologetics videos taken from the Way of the Master TV Show.  I was blown away by the quality of not only the teaching but also the production that goes with it.  Unlike those old lectures, these videos get right to the heart of some of the most-asked questions about Christianity or religious beliefs in general.  Everyone has time to watch three minutes (or less) of non-stop, hard-hitting apologetics on the questions that matter most.

You can watch all 10 videos below or click a link to jump to a specific clip.

  1. Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?
  2. Does Christianity Cause Wars?
  3. Is It Wrong to Judge?
  4. Can We Trust the Bible?
  5. Is Reincarnation True?
  6. Why Would a God of LOVE Send Someone to Hell?
  7. Is Sin God’s Fault?
  8. Which Jesus do you Follow?
  9. What is Truth?
  10. Why is There Evil in the World?

Categories
Astronomy Biology Genealogy General Science Geology The First Days

Top Scientists’ Quotes on God and Creation

Many scientists today argue that a  belief in God as the Creator is detrimental to the advancement of our knowledge.  Today’s most-quoted scientists, especially in the field of Biology, directly attack religion in large public forums.  Richard Dawkins, a prominent evolutionary biologist, had this to say in his book, The Blind Watchmaker:

It is absolutely safe to say that if you meet somebody who claims not to believe in evolution, that person is ignorant, stupid or insane (or wicked, but I’d rather not consider that).

And it’s not limited to biology.  World-renowned physicist Stephen Hawking is on record as saying:

I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark

But, has it always been this way? Is it necessarily true that the Bible’s history of our origins is at odds with the practice of scientific inquiry?  To the contrary, many (if not most) of the scientists who either founded their field of study or at least are credited with its most important advancements routinely saw their work as seeking to better understand God through his Creation.  The quotes below are a sample of what these men who were profoundly influential in a wide array of fields said years ago.

 There are two books laid before us to study, to prevent our falling into error: first, the volume of the Scriptures, which reveal the will of God; then the volume of the Creatures, which express His power.

-Francis Bacon, Scientific Method

Atheism is so senseless. When I look at the solar system, I see the earth at the right distance from the sun to receive the proper amounts of heat and light. This did not happen by chance.

 -Isaac Newton, Physics, Mathematics

 Atheism is so senseless & odious to mankind that it never had many professors.

-Isaac Newton

O God, I am thinking Thy thoughts after Thee.

-Johannes Kepler, Astronomy

 The more I study nature, the more I stand amazed at the work of the Creator.

-Louis Pasteur, Medicine

Finite man cannot begin to comprehend an omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, and infinite God … I find it best to accept God through faith, as an intelligent will, perfect in goodness and wisdom, revealing Himself through His creation.

-Werner Von Braun, Rocket Science

The conduct of God, who disposes all things kindly, is to put religion into the mind by reason, and into the heart by grace. But to will to put it into the mind and heart by force and threats is not to put religion there, but terror.

-Blaise Pascal, Hydraulics

When with bold telescopes I survey the old and newly discovered stars and planets when with excellent microscopes I discern the unimitable subtility of nature’s curious workmanship; and when, in a word, by the help of anatomical knives, and the light of chemical furnaces, I study the book of nature I find myself oftentimes reduced to exclaim with the Psalmist, How manifold are Thy works, O Lord! In wisdom hast Thou made them all!

-Robert Boyle, Chemistry

The flowers’ leaves… serve as bridal beds which the Creator has so gloriously arranged, adorned with such noble bed curtains, and perfumed with so many soft scents that the bridegroom with his bride might there celebrate their nuptials with so much the greater solemnity.

-Carl Linnaeus, Taxonomy

It is His work,” he reminded them; “and He alone carried me thus far through all my trials and enabled me to triumph over the obstacles, physical and moral, which opposed me.  ‘Not unto us, not unto us, by to Thy name, O Lord, be all the praise.’

-Samuel Morse, Inventor

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Anthropology Biology Design General Science The First Days

Evolution Refuted

Is it irrational to disbelieve evolution? It depends on the kind of evolution you’re talking about. Obviously we see creatures changing and adapting all the time. Yet, can we extend that deep into the past to infer molecules-to-man evolution? Science tells us we cannot.

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Anthropology Biology Politics The First Days The World

The Origin of Races

Our nation still suffers from racial tensions on a daily basis. A better understanding of the Bible tells us that we are all really just one race – the human race! This video, part of the excellent “Check This Out” series also explains why we see so many different skin colors.

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Age of the Earth The First Days

Creation Minute Episode 6: Age of the Earth

Skeptics claim there is zero evidence beyond the biblical record that Earth is relatively young (approximately 6,000 years old). In fact, there is far more evidence than could fully be explained in this 1-minute video from Creation Science Evangelism.

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General Science Hermeneutics/ Exegesis Interpretation The Bible The First Days

Creation Seminar 6 – Hovind Theory

If our universe and life on Earth didn’t evolve through natural forces, what did happen? Kent Hovind explains the Bible’s historical account and backs up his faith with sound reason.

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General Science The First Days

Creation Seminar 4 – Lies In The Textbooks

Did you know that modern science textbooks present known frauds as scientific truth? Creation Science Evangelism exposes these deceptions and calls for their removal.

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Biology General Science The First Days

Upside-Down: Science Stoppers

Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?
-Isaiah 29:16

Atheists often claim that belief in supernatural creation is a science-stopper. Christians explain everything in nature by claiming “God did it,” or so the argument goes. As usual, those that reject God’s wisdom have turned the truth upside-down. Evolutionism, not creationism, has slowed scientific progress in some areas and stopped it altogether in others. In the area of biology, one scientist starts with the premise that every part of an organism is there for a purpose and seeks to discover each one’s function. Another scientist expects to find structures which have no useful function and turns away from further investigation.

In the 1925 Scopes trial, “The trial of the Century,” the defense argued that the presence of 180 vestigial organs in the human body is evidence of Darwinism. “Vestigial” organs are those believed to have no useful function because they are “leftovers” from an earlier stage of evolution. Among the organs presented during the trial were the: appendix, pituitary gland, and coccyx (tail bone). Since then, scientists have discovered useful functions for nearly all organs once considered vestiges of our past development. The appendix plays a role in early development and immunity. The pituitary glandcontrols several other glands and produces a growth hormone. The coccyx has many muscles attached to it, making it something like a structural “keystone.” These discoveries have forced evolutionary biologists to modify their definition of “vestigial” to allow for some level of functionality, but they have not abandoned the concept altogether.

The modern version of this argument is something called “junk DNA,” formally known aspseudogenes. These are sections of DNA that currently appear to have no purpose and therefore are presumed to be left over from past mutations. In contradiction to this perspective shaped by the naturalistic paradigm, some scientists are investigating these genetic regions and are beginning to discover functions for them. For instance, a University of Michigan study suggests that some pseudogenes assist in repairing broken strands of DNA.

If more scientists today were devising experiments to discover the uses of pseudogenes rather than drawing branches on an imaginary ancestral tree, how much more might we know today about the building blocks of life? If those in 1925 had not proclaimed the appendix and other organs as vestigial, how much sooner might we have learned of their importance and applied that knowledge to modern medicine?

When we begin with a different viewpoint that every living thing and every part within it is intricately designed by a mindful Creator, we have good reasons to perform scientific investigations to determine the logic behind constructs that we do not yet understand. In fact, one might even argue that this principle of design is the basis for modern science. The real science-stopper is evolutionism or any other belief system that denies that there is any purpose behind the beauty we observe, leaving us with less reason to experiment, to wonder, to study, or to know anything more.

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Authority The Bible The Father The Holy Spirit The Savior Theology

How Do You Prove God Exists?

In this first of a 4-part series, Eric Hovind interviews a presuppositional apologist about a most unique tool to avoid the meaningless arguing, and cut to the heart of the matter. Must Christians argue about God and His creation without using the Bible? No! The Bible is our sword, and we must not lay it down. The unbeliever certainly won’t lay his weapon down.

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Geology The First Days The Flood

Grand Canyon Flood

Watch Eric Hovind from Creation Science Evangelism demonstrate why the Grand Canyon could not have formed according to the “accepted” view.

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General Science Teachings The First Days The Savior Theology

Where Science and Religion Overlap

I keep coming across the idea that belief in evolution doesn’t matter to Christians because (supposedly) evolution is “science,” and Genesis is a religious “myth.” People then say that science and religion answer different questions. Religion answers “why” and science answers “how.” So, what does it matter if God used evolution to create us or whether it was by divine fiat?

This whole idea goes back a long way, but was popularized by an evolutionary biologist (and noted Marxist) named Stephen Jay Gould. He called it Non-Overlapping Magisteria, or NOMA. This is an attempt to separate science and religion as being totally different entities and two different ways of discovering truth. Religion deals with spiritual truths while science deals with natural truths.

If that’s the case, then there should be no conflict whatsoever between science and religion, right? Not so fast. When it comes to creation and evolution, there’s quite a conflict. When we talk about origins, science and religion fully overlap and thus the NOMA idea doesn’t apply. Both means of discovering the truth arrive at fundamentally different answers with regards to where everything comes from. Science is trying to tell us that the creation of everything is due to natural causes. Religion tells us that “God created.”

You see, it does us no good to wonder why God created us, or what His purpose for us is if we don’t even believe he created us in the first place. Furthermore, knowing how he created us tells us a lot about God’s nature. Evolution, at its core, is entirely purposeless and directionless. Its foundational concepts include random variations preserved through selection (death). Notice the word “random”. If God used evolution to create us, what does that say about our purpose? What does it say about death? If we’re mere accidents on an evolutionary tree, then we’re not created in God’s image according to His will. If death is part of the creative process of God, then it was not a punishment for Adam’s sin. Religion and “science” (if evolution can even be classified as science) are in a great deal of conflict with the biblical description of God.

Christians see Jesus as the Son of God. On several occasions, Jesus referenced parts of Genesis in defense of his teachings. In particular, he used the creation story to defend marriage between one man and one woman, saying that the two are one flesh and man shall “cleave unto his wife.” Furthermore, Matthew and Luke include Adam in Jesus’ direct lineage. But, if evolution is true, then Adam and Eve didn’t exist. So, what does that mean about Jesus’ statements on marriage? Which people in the Bible’s genealogies are real if the first ones aren’t? How arrogant are we as humans to say that we know the history of life on Earth better than the Son of God?

As I will show in other articles, we have every reason to scoff at man-made myths about swirling balls of gases that formed stars, then planets, then goo, and eventually …you. The Bible is an important book of history that starts at the very beginning, as written by an eyewitness. In the story of creation, this eyewitness is God Himself, who spoke to the first man and inspired the writers of the Bible. It is this witness which gives us observations which we can begin with in conducting scientific investigations to discover more about our wondrous habitation.

I leave you with this thought from Romans 1:20-25:

“For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the creator, who is blessed forever, Amen.”