Purpose and Meaning Without God? Part 1

I would like to break from my traditional format of facts, evidence and logic and approach this blog at a philosophical angle. Atheism claims to be about science and facts. I have already talked about the flaws of their arguments against God and the Bible. Now I want to point out the problem with their worldview as it pertains to every day life.

Atheism is much more widely accepted in just about every facet of society today. Prominent atheists such as Richard Dawkins, Stephen Hawking and the late Christopher Hitchens pride themselves on being self-sufficient, moral people without the help of a God or crutch called religion. They are aggressively, even evangelistically, teaching their doctrine of godlessness in institutions across the world.

They bring to bear an interesting supposition; there is nothing a Christian can do that an atheist can't.

I agree whole-heartedly. Just as Christians can (and often do) an atheist can see a need in society, have compassion and work to fulfill that need. An atheist can feed a hungry person, comfort a sad person, care for a child, dig a well in Africa to provide clean drinking water, clothe the homeless, etc. An atheist can seek justice for a crime committed or rally for a worthy cause. An atheist can love their neighbor, do good things in a community and be a bright spot in someone's day.

What an atheist can't do is provide a logical explanation based on their world view for the inherent moral compass of humanity. Everyone is born with a conscience. Yes, it can be seared, but initially every human being feels inside of them things like justice, compassion, and a desire to be better as well as guilt, shame and unworthiness.

Let's follow the logic of atheism to its end. An atheist says "there is no God." If there is no God, there is no divine creator of life. Evolution explains how we got here. We're all just cosmic accidents. The only thing that separates us from an ape is a few mutations and a few million years of evolution. We have no soul. We have no eternality. We have no purpose.

What hopelessness!

To make matters worse, if we are simply intelligent animals with no soul, then who's to say that we have some moral code to follow. Can't we live how we want? If we see something we like, can we not simply take it. Even if it belongs to someone else? If someone annoys us or makes our life painful or difficult, why not just kill them.

Or, if we cannot find satisfaction, love or fulfillment in this life, why not just commit suicide and cease to exist?

When followed to its end, atheism provides no hope, no answers, no meaning to life. An atheist cannot say things like love, justice, hope and purpose. At least, they can't say these things and remain honest, consistent atheists.

The truth is that we are created in the image of God. A Christian can say "I love you" because he/she knows the love of God. A Christian can say "don't lie" because he/she has been commanded be God not to lie and knows the negative ramifications of disobeying that command. A Christian can get out of bed every morning with a smile on his/her face regardless of circumstances because they know that "all things work together for good to them that love Him and are called according to His purpose."

Did you catch that? Purpose! What a wonderful word.

Here's another one: hope.

A Christian who is filled with God's spirit has experienced "Christ in you, the hope of glory."

Friedrich Nietzche was an atheist who understood the ramifications of a godless society. He was honest and consistent with his beliefs. He penned the “Parable of the Madman.” (Link posted below) In this parable the madman (Nietzche) explains to a group of bystanders in the marketplace that God had died and that they (the onlookers and the madman) were responsible for His death. He then speaks in great detail of the consequences of such an action. At the end of his rant he realizes and states that he was too early and that the people were not ready to hear what he had to say. He says “This tremendous event is still on its way, still wandering; it has not yet reached the ears of men…deeds, though done, still require time to be seen and heard. This deed is still more distant from them than most distant stars---and yet they have done it themselves.” (emphasis in original)

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/nietzsche-madman.asp

We are now seeing and have seen what Neitzche was talking about. Vicious dictators who were atheists and haters of Christianity have killed millions and millions of people in this past century. Hitler is just one example. 

The atheist worldview is just not livable. People cannot live without hope, purpose and meaning in their lives. God created us with a desire for relationship but even the most fulfilling relationships with other people cannot completely satisfy. Someone said that we are all created with a “God-shaped hole” in our lives. True fulfillment, true hope, true purpose and meaning only comes through living life as He intended it to be lived. And that’s why we have the Bible. It instructs us on how to align our lives with His will. 

C.S. Lewis explains a universal truth about human nature. People are often baffled at the simplistic notion of the passing of time. "Has it really been 5 years?" "You've grown up so much!" We say silly things sometimes. Of course time passes. It's a reality we have all been familiar with since we were old enough to comprehend it. So why does it surprise us so much? Lewis compares this peculiarity to a fish being constantly surprised by the wetness of water. The only explanation, he proceeds to explain, is that we were made for another world. We were made for eternity.

There’s so much more here that I could talk about, but once again, time restrains me. I hope this series of blogs has been a blessing. I hope you have learned something, or that I at least provoked you to think about some things on a deeper level. 

At any rate, it’s finals week and I’m extremely busy. God bless and have a wonderful holiday season! Don’t forget the reason!

Science Confirms the Bible: Additional Evidence (Part 2)

(Continued from previous post...)

A popular verse used by atheists to show "error" in the Bible is the story of Joshua commanding the sun to stand still. The Bible says that for about the space of another day the sun remained stationary and Israel was able to win the battle they were fighting.

 

Firstly there is the issue of the language of Joshua commanding the sun to "stand still." We know now that the sun does not revolve around the earth, but that the earth revolves around the sun. Atheism says "Aha! You poor Christians! The Bible says that the earth is the center of the universe-not the sun! The Bible is wrong!" Actually, if you listen to the news on the radio in the early morning, often the announcer will say that the sun rose at such and such a time. It is written from the human perspective and is perfectly allowable language.

 

Secondly, there is the issue of the Biblical account of a long day. How can that be? Ancient civilizations everywhere have their own accounts of an extraordinarily long day.

 

The last thing I want to talk about is Noah's Flood. The global flood is another phenomenon in scripture that is confirmed by accounts from ancient civilizations everywhere. In the Biblical story, only eight people were saved from world wide destruction. Those eight people were then commanded to repopulate the earth. If those eight people were the ancestors of the entire world's population, then it makes complete sense that every civilization would have their own account (accurate or not) of a global flood.

 

I'm going to post a link for a video explaining the Hydroplate Theory. This theory follows the Biblical account of the flood of Noah's day. The Hydroplate theory provides for us an alternate (and, I believe, correct) explanation for many things including the fossil record, the "ice age", the formation of mountains, the loss of the original firmament dividing the "waters above" from the "waters beneath", the break up of Pangea, the parallel mountain ranges of the world, the ocean trenches and mountains, the legendary tales of entire civilizations lost to the ocean (Atlantis?), etc...

http://youtu.be/cKsEPVDbymc

Enjoy and God bless!

 

Science Confirms the Bible: Additional Evidence (Part 1)

A few posts ago, I went through the Genesis account of creation and pointed out several areas in which it agrees with modern science. I want to now go through and point out many other places where scientific fact is sited Biblically and even treat a few so called "contradictions."

One argument that atheists employ against Christianity and the Bible is that the early church taught that the earth was flat and is therefore uneducated and must submit to the all-knowingness of science. Interestingly enough, there is scripture that teaches otherwise. Isaiah 40:22 says "It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth..." The Hebrew word for "circle" in this verse can also be translated "sphere." How would the prophet know that the earth was spherical? Perhaps he was inspired to write this line by an all-knowing God.

Astronomy has informed us that the universe is expanding. In that same verse (Isaiah 40:22) the prophet writes that He (God) "stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in."

The ceremonial law given to Moses by God in the Old Testament is full of rituals of cleansing. The people of God are instructed how to properly handle the dead, how to wash themselves after touching an "unclean" thing, how to avoid touching certain things, how to dispose of carcasses, etc. In those days, they knew nothing of bacteria and microbes. Yet they had this law that kept them safe from all kinds of diseases and sickness. In the middle ages, when the Bubonic Plague struck Europe, the Jews living there were not getting sick because they still followed the ceremonial law. It hasn't been until recently that the microscopic world has been discovered and understood by scientists, and yet for millennia, God's people have avoided sickness and disease because of this Law.

In Judges 13, an angel appears to an Israelite woman and tells her that although she had previously been barren, she would conceive and give birth to a son. He goes on to explain that her son will be a Nazarite, committed to the service of the Lord. He then instructs her to "drink not wine nor strong drink..." It hasn't been until recent years that science has shown us that what a mother drinks affects the child she carries. Of course, a writer inspired by an omniscient Creator would know.

(To be continued...)

Evolution: a scientific view (Part 2)

(Continued from previous post)

Those who argue that the earth is billions of years old (instead of the approximately 6,000 years that the Bible teaches) would be interested to know that the earth's magnetic field is depleting at a steady rate. If the earth were indeed billions of years old the magnetic field would have been too strong to sustain life. And if it was not too strong at the time when life on earth supposedly began, by now it would have ceased to exist.

 

The final point I would like to make concerning evolution is this: It defies what has come to be known as the argument of Design, or Intelligent Design. If you were walking through the woods and you came upon a clearing in which was a neat pile of ashes still smoldering in a small circle, what would be the logical conclusion? Surely not that the wind blew several logs into a circular pile which the lightening then struck causing it to burst into flames. You would know that someone placed those logs together on that pile and lit them with a lighter or a match. That fire was intentional. Similarly, if you were walking down the street and you glanced down a saw a watch with its polished gold sectioned band and the tiny little screws holding it together and each perfectly crafted gear working together to produce the rhythmic tick-tock that keeps the proper time, you would know that there had been a designer. All the time and all the chance in the world could not have produced that perfectly crafted watch and then set it into motion.

 

As complicated and complex and intricate as that watch is, how much more intricate and complex are we as human beings. The deeper science delves into our cellular structure, the more complex our bodies prove to be.

 

I present to you that we were created with intention, with purpose and with great care by one Master Creator. You are not a cosmic accident. You are a person with an individual personality, intelligence, and a soul. When you view yourself in that way-as a person who was created with love-you begin to realize that that only logical response is to want to know more about the Creator who created you.

 

And that's why He gave us His Word. In it is not only the revelation of who He is, but also of who we are in Him. :)




So do your own research. Don’t simply take my word for it, but find it out for yourself. And may God bless your efforts and confirm to you what He says in His Word:

 

Jeremiah 1:5 Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee…

 

Jeremiah 29:13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

 

 

Evolution: A scientific view (Part 1)

Science defined (by Google) - The intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment.

Through observation and experiment. In other words, in order for information to be scientifically knowable, it must be observable, measurable and repeatable.

Having established a fixed definition of science, let's subject the theories of Darwinian Evolution and the Big Bang as well as the general consensus of the scientific community that the earth is billions of years old to the very discipline from which these theories were born.

First, a disclaimer. From now on, when I use the term "evolution," I am referring to what is known as macroevolution. Macroevolution is the transformation of one species into another, or, transmutation. Microevolution on the other hand is the ability of a species to adapt to minor changes in the environment and is completely scientific (it has been observed, measured and repeated in numerous situations)

So, what is wrong with evolution?

Well, for starters, it's completely unscientific in that it has never been observed, much less repeated. No lower life form has ever changed into a higher life form. Anytime there has ever been a genetic mutation observed, it has always been a negative one, causing a defect or problem. Never has a mutation been beneficial.

Evolution violates the scientific law of Biogenesis. This law states that living things can come only from other living things. It cannot scientifically be argued that life came from some soupy, primordial substance in which there was previously no life.

The evolutionary formula states that Time + Chance = Everything; however, this formula makes no scientific sense because we know (from observation and repetition of results) that outside forces never enhance, they always degrade. Take, for example, an egg. If you crack it and leave it on the ground, it will never come back together or turn into a chicken or any other life form. It will rot and biodegrade. When a tornado goes through a junk yard it does not leave in its path a perfectly crafted airplane. It leaves behind even more destruction than before.

As I mentioned in my previous blog, symbiosis (organisms living together in codependent relationships) throws a wrench into the machine of evolution. In order for us to have flowers and bees, both would have had to evolve at exactly the same moment in history, in the exact same location. What are the odds of that happening? Of course, flowers and bees are just one example. There are numerous symbiotic organisms that we know (and probably many that we don't yet know).

Geneticists have discovered that human DNA is getting weaker and weaker as generations pass. According to the Darwinian notion of "survival of the fittest", this makes no sense. The weaker genes should be dying out and mutations should be making us stronger. Interestingly enough, this discovery supports the biblical account of creation. Adam and Eve were created in physical perfection. Through the fall of mankind and the entrance of sin into the world, sickness, disease and death also entered. Humanity began with long lives which became shorter and shorter. Food for thought...


(This post will be continued in the following blog)

Science Confirms the Bible

The title of this blog is no doubt a controversial subject in this modern day. I hope to show you just a few ways that this statement is indeed a true one.

 

First, we will look at some of the claims of the creation account.

 

Did you know that the Bible supports the existence of the supercontinent Pangea? Genesis 1:9 says “And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.”

 

In the Genesis account, the entire creation process took only six days. Because of this, animals and plants that are symbiotic would have been created within days of each other. The Evolutionary theory postulates that symbiotic (codependent) animals and plants would have had to evolve at exactly the same time in history. (For example, flowers and bees) A much more believable explanation would be that they were created within a single week.

 

Genesis 1:26 says “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let him have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”

 

The first part of that verse, “Let us make man in our image,” provides explanation for why man was created with an inherent sense of morality and justice as well as a desire for love and relationship—because he was created in the image of a just, loving God.

 

The second part, “and let him have dominion...” explains why humanity has superior intelligence over all animals. God created humanity to have dominion.

 

Genesis 2:6 says “But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.” Earlier, in chapter 1, Genesis talks about the firmament dividing the waters above from the waters beneath. Some Christian scientists have explained that the earth used to be under a thick layer of clouds, creating a greenhouse effect like the ozone layer, only much thicker. The “waters beneath”  would have made the earth completely saturated with moisture and would have shielded plants, animals and humans from harmful UV rays, which would have played a large part in allowing people to live longer lives.

 

Genesis 2:7 gives a more detailed account of the creation of man. “And the Lord formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” This verse is consistent with the fact that the human body is carbon based and decays after death.

 

In Genesis 3, after Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit, Eve blamed her sin on the serpent. God then cursed the serpent (snake) saying “…upon thy belly shalt thou go…” indicating that before the snake got around some other way. Science tells us that snakes used to have feet. Of course, evolutionists say that they evolved out of them but the Biblical record provides an answer for us that, in my opinion, is more believable. (We will talk a little more in depth about the faults and flaws of evolution in a later blog.)

 

Not only do these few highlights of the creation account in Genesis 1-3 support well-known scientific fact, but if read carefully, there is nothing in these chapters that denies or conflicts with well known scientific fact. These chapters do, however, directly conflict with the theory of Evolution.

 

How do we know which one is correct? In the next blog I will be discussing how Evolution cannot be considered fact when subjected to science.

Fulfilled Prophecy in Jesus' Life & Death

Last blog we dealt with Jesus' claims about himself. For this one we will be talking about what the rest of the Bible days about Him.

Josh McDowell points out in his book "The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict," that Jesus had three main credentials. They are: 1) The impact of His life through miracles and teachings, 2)Fullfilled prophecy in His life and 3) His resurrection.

First, let's talk about the prophecies of the Old Testament fullfilled in Jesus' life. 

The Old Testament, the first 75% of the Bible, was written over a period of a thousand years. It gives the history of God's creation of mankind and his promise to the nation of Israel. Throughout the Old Testament, there are nearly 300 references to the the Messiah- or the Anointed One-who would lead Israel. Every one of these prophecies were fulfilled in Jesus Christ. 

In this short video clip, Lee Strobel, a journalist who was converted from atheism to Christianity and has written many books on the subject, including "The Case for Christ" shows us the probability of Christ fulfilling not all, but only 48 of these prophecies.

http://www.wingclips.com/movie-clips/case-for-christ/fulfilling-prophecies

In case you didn't couldn't watch the video, the probability of Jesus fulfilling 8 major prophecies as determined by Professor Stoner in his book Science Speaks is 1 in 10^17. The probability of him fulfilling 48 of the approximately 300 prophecies is even higher. Astronomically so. It's more than improbable. It is basically a statistical impossibility.

Unless there is something bigger at play here. Unless He is more than just a man.

Of course, I am working off of my belief that the Bible is true and 100% infallible. Not everyone holds that belief. If you are skeptical, please stay tuned for the next few blogs. I hope to change your mind.

The final thing I would like to talk about in this installment is the Resurrection of Jesus. 

The Resurrection sets Christianity apart from every other religion in the world. No other religion claims resurrection from the dead for its originator. 

The resurrection is the major belief on which Christianity is hinged. If there is no resurrection, there is no Christianity.

I'm going to insert here a couple of links that will provide more extensive research on the subject and then summarize them. 

The first is a series of videos on Josh McDowell's website. I've mentioned him earlier as well as his book The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict. Here he gives a more detailed account of the way Jesus died, how we know that he was really dead, how he was buried and evidence that his resurrection is a historical fact. 

http://www.josh.org/video-2/evidence-for-the-resurrection/

Secondly we have an interview conducted by Lee Strobel, who I have also mentioned earlier. He is the author of the book The Case for Christ as well as many others. In this interview, the timeline of the Resurrection accounts in the Bible is being discussed. Dr. Gary Habermas of Liberty University is making the case that Paul has the earliest written account of the resurrection and what that means for historians looking for evidence of the resurrection.

http://www.leestrobel.com/videoserver/video.php?clip=strobelT1116

Stay tuned for the next installment. I'll be discussing the Bible as a whole and what sets it apart from every other holy book in the world.