A FEW QUESTIONS FOR EVOLUTIONISTS
Job 5:13
"He taketh the wise in their own craftiness: and the counsel of the froward is carried headlong."
Why do giraffes have long necks or kangaroos have pouches? Evolutionists answer that natural selection has favored the development of certain characteristics while discouraging and eliminating other features. But if this is what happened, we who believe in creation have a few questions.
Giraffes have long necks, say evolutionists, because conditions favored the development of long-necked creatures that could feed on higher parts of the tree. But then many other grazing animals live side by side with giraffes and manage to get by. The horse, according to evolutionary explanations, has crowned teeth in order to survive in its environment. And yet the cow, with its uncrowned teeth, survives quite well in the same environment.
Some evolutionists say that plants developed berries so that their seeds, inside the berries, would be carried far and wide by hungry birds, thus ensuring the plants' survival. Why then did some plants develop poisonous berries? And if the maternal instinct evolved to preserve the next generation, why do creatures like the stickleback fish, seahorse, and midwife toad, to name a few, leave total care of the young to the male?
The truth is that natural selection does not offer a clear and consistent explanation for the living world. The diversity of the created world does not bear witness to evolutionary principles, but to the artistry of our Creator God.
Dear Father, You confound those who are wise in their own hearts and give wisdom and clear vision to those Whom You have made pure through the blood of Christ. Let the wisdom and vision I seek be that which You provide. In Jesus' Name. Amen.
Photo: Giraffe skeleton on exhibit at The Museum of Osteology, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. (PD)
Job 5:13
"He taketh the wise in their own craftiness: and the counsel of the froward is carried headlong."
Why do giraffes have long necks or kangaroos have pouches? Evolutionists answer that natural selection has favored the development of certain characteristics while discouraging and eliminating other features. But if this is what happened, we who believe in creation have a few questions.
Giraffes have long necks, say evolutionists, because conditions favored the development of long-necked creatures that could feed on higher parts of the tree. But then many other grazing animals live side by side with giraffes and manage to get by. The horse, according to evolutionary explanations, has crowned teeth in order to survive in its environment. And yet the cow, with its uncrowned teeth, survives quite well in the same environment.
Some evolutionists say that plants developed berries so that their seeds, inside the berries, would be carried far and wide by hungry birds, thus ensuring the plants' survival. Why then did some plants develop poisonous berries? And if the maternal instinct evolved to preserve the next generation, why do creatures like the stickleback fish, seahorse, and midwife toad, to name a few, leave total care of the young to the male?
The truth is that natural selection does not offer a clear and consistent explanation for the living world. The diversity of the created world does not bear witness to evolutionary principles, but to the artistry of our Creator God.
Dear Father, You confound those who are wise in their own hearts and give wisdom and clear vision to those Whom You have made pure through the blood of Christ. Let the wisdom and vision I seek be that which You provide. In Jesus' Name. Amen.
Photo: Giraffe skeleton on exhibit at The Museum of Osteology, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. (PD)
NOT A BLANK SLATE
John 1:1
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
The French philosopher René Descartes argued that anything that cannot be investigated by human reason must be assumed not to exist. He applied this to animals, calling them "automata" and, while he was careful not to say so, the argument also applies to the human soul and the existence of God.
Over three centuries later, science makes no bones about dismissing the human soul. We are told that human beings come into the world as a blank slate upon which experience writes. This thinking has led to the idea that language, for example, is no more than simply sounds without inherent value. On the other hand, Scripture teaches that language is a God-given universal to man. New research is supporting the biblical view.
Researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle studied the response of six-month-old infants to certain sounds. The infants were trained to look for a reward when they heard vowel or consonant sounds that are part of human speech. The researchers discovered that infants do recognize and categorize basic human vowel and consonant sounds, as well as their variations, right from the start.
These findings have no evolutionary explanation but do support the Bible's claim that we have a soul passed on to us by our parents, while the original soul in Adam was created by God who is referred to as the "Word."
Dear Lord, You are the Word through Whom I and everything else was created, and through Whom I am saved from my sin. Let the written Word, the Holy Bible, be my guide and instructor, that I may know You better and love You more. Amen.
WHITE DEATH
1 Corinthians 15:54
"So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory."
Should we ever find ourselves in his environment, the great white shark is the most dangerous man-eating creature on earth.
The Australians call the great white shark the "white death." Its favorite food is not necessarily man, but any mammal it finds in the water. It has been recorded up to 21 feet in length and weighs over 7,000 pounds.
The great white shark's mode of attack is different from other sharks. Instead of swimming around its prey and poking it, the great white shark spots its prey and darts straight toward it. As it reaches its prey, it rolls its eyes backward, opens its mouth, and takes a bite. The attack can last less than a second. Then it moves away and waits for its victim to bleed to death. This last habit has saved more than one diver who was rescued by companions while a great white shark was waiting for him to die.
God has given all of us a will to live and a sense that death is our enemy. But Christians also know that even death has been conquered by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He rose victorious over death so that all who would come to Him may have that victory too. In Christ, we have been saved from the jaws of death for a new life!
Dear Lord, I thank You that You endured the consequences of my sin and the pain of death in my place. Because of what You have done for me, make me more willing to tell others about it so that they, too, may be snatched from the jaws of eternal death. Amen.
Photo: Great white shark scavenging on whale carcass. Courtesy of Fallows C, Gallagher AJ, Hammerschlag N. (CC-BY-SA 2.5 GENERIC)
John 1:1
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
The French philosopher René Descartes argued that anything that cannot be investigated by human reason must be assumed not to exist. He applied this to animals, calling them "automata" and, while he was careful not to say so, the argument also applies to the human soul and the existence of God.
Over three centuries later, science makes no bones about dismissing the human soul. We are told that human beings come into the world as a blank slate upon which experience writes. This thinking has led to the idea that language, for example, is no more than simply sounds without inherent value. On the other hand, Scripture teaches that language is a God-given universal to man. New research is supporting the biblical view.
Researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle studied the response of six-month-old infants to certain sounds. The infants were trained to look for a reward when they heard vowel or consonant sounds that are part of human speech. The researchers discovered that infants do recognize and categorize basic human vowel and consonant sounds, as well as their variations, right from the start.
These findings have no evolutionary explanation but do support the Bible's claim that we have a soul passed on to us by our parents, while the original soul in Adam was created by God who is referred to as the "Word."
Dear Lord, You are the Word through Whom I and everything else was created, and through Whom I am saved from my sin. Let the written Word, the Holy Bible, be my guide and instructor, that I may know You better and love You more. Amen.
WHITE DEATH
1 Corinthians 15:54
"So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory."
Should we ever find ourselves in his environment, the great white shark is the most dangerous man-eating creature on earth.
The Australians call the great white shark the "white death." Its favorite food is not necessarily man, but any mammal it finds in the water. It has been recorded up to 21 feet in length and weighs over 7,000 pounds.
The great white shark's mode of attack is different from other sharks. Instead of swimming around its prey and poking it, the great white shark spots its prey and darts straight toward it. As it reaches its prey, it rolls its eyes backward, opens its mouth, and takes a bite. The attack can last less than a second. Then it moves away and waits for its victim to bleed to death. This last habit has saved more than one diver who was rescued by companions while a great white shark was waiting for him to die.
God has given all of us a will to live and a sense that death is our enemy. But Christians also know that even death has been conquered by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He rose victorious over death so that all who would come to Him may have that victory too. In Christ, we have been saved from the jaws of death for a new life!
Dear Lord, I thank You that You endured the consequences of my sin and the pain of death in my place. Because of what You have done for me, make me more willing to tell others about it so that they, too, may be snatched from the jaws of eternal death. Amen.
Photo: Great white shark scavenging on whale carcass. Courtesy of Fallows C, Gallagher AJ, Hammerschlag N. (CC-BY-SA 2.5 GENERIC)
WAS NOAH'S ARK SEEN IN 1989?
Genesis 8:4
"And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat."
As they rose toward the 15,000-foot plateau on the west side of Mount Ararat, they spotted a familiar looking dark form. It looked almost like the drawing of Noah's Ark developed from the descriptions provided by others who had seen what they thought was the Ark in this area. The year was 1989.
Chuck Aaron and Bob Garbe, both seasoned creationists, estimated that the visible portion of the dark object was about 60 feet wide, 30 feet high, with about 225 feet of it extending out of the ice and snow. The next morning they returned to the site and shot more video and photographs. With a storm moving in, working time was limited.
The following year, other researchers returned to the site in a helicopter. While they could not land, they were able to get much closer to the site to get better pictures. From their vantage point, they concluded that the object was simply an unusual rock formation - a typical story in the search for Noah's Ark.
It's a good thing that our faith in the truth of God's Word does not depend on physical evidence. Many creationists feel that even if the Ark were discovered and moved to Times Square in New York, unbelievers would eventually concoct their own explanation to discredit the story of God's judgment in the Flood.
Dear Heavenly Father, You sent the Flood as a judgment upon a willfully disobedient generation. Our generation, too, wishes to deny their moral accountability by denying that You acted as Judge of the whole world in the Flood. Help me to take comfort in the fact that, like Noah, I shall be saved by grace through faith. Amen.
Photo: Little Ararat (left) and Mt. Ararat (right). (PD)
Genesis 8:4
"And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat."
As they rose toward the 15,000-foot plateau on the west side of Mount Ararat, they spotted a familiar looking dark form. It looked almost like the drawing of Noah's Ark developed from the descriptions provided by others who had seen what they thought was the Ark in this area. The year was 1989.
Chuck Aaron and Bob Garbe, both seasoned creationists, estimated that the visible portion of the dark object was about 60 feet wide, 30 feet high, with about 225 feet of it extending out of the ice and snow. The next morning they returned to the site and shot more video and photographs. With a storm moving in, working time was limited.
The following year, other researchers returned to the site in a helicopter. While they could not land, they were able to get much closer to the site to get better pictures. From their vantage point, they concluded that the object was simply an unusual rock formation - a typical story in the search for Noah's Ark.
It's a good thing that our faith in the truth of God's Word does not depend on physical evidence. Many creationists feel that even if the Ark were discovered and moved to Times Square in New York, unbelievers would eventually concoct their own explanation to discredit the story of God's judgment in the Flood.
Dear Heavenly Father, You sent the Flood as a judgment upon a willfully disobedient generation. Our generation, too, wishes to deny their moral accountability by denying that You acted as Judge of the whole world in the Flood. Help me to take comfort in the fact that, like Noah, I shall be saved by grace through faith. Amen.
Photo: Little Ararat (left) and Mt. Ararat (right). (PD)
WHAT WOULD THE SIGHTING OF NOAH'S ARK MEAN?
Luke 16:31
"And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead."
In our previous program we heard how two creationists had scaled Mount Ararat and had filmed an object projecting from the ice near the summit. That object looked very much like Noah's Ark. The year was 1989 and other creationists at the time could have reported with great fanfare that Noah's Ark had indeed been discovered.
But that's not how science works. Confirmation of the discovery was necessary, and the following year, other creationists, using a helicopter, found that the object was simply a rock formation. Some Christians think that confirmation of Noah's Ark will cause millions to come to Christ. However, this is unlikely to be the case. We are reminded of the rich man in hell who asked that Lazarus be sent back from the grave to warn his brothers about the judgment. Jesus said, "Even though the dead be raised, still they will not believe!"
There is something else: Confirmation of the Ark, resting too high on the mountain to be explained by a local flood, would instantly make thousands of liberal theology books good for nothing more than heating fuel. Even liberal scholars would be forced to accept what they now consider to be ignorant myths of a pre-scientific age. They would be forced to deal with our message that the Word of God is true in every subject that it mentions!
Dear Father, Your Word is true and can be trusted. Help that fact move me to spend more time with You in Your Word, reading it, studying it, and inwardly digesting it. In Jesus' Name. Amen.
Photo: View of Mt. Ararat from Turkey. Courtesy of Henri Nissen. (CC-BY-SA 3.0)
Luke 16:31
"And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead."
In our previous program we heard how two creationists had scaled Mount Ararat and had filmed an object projecting from the ice near the summit. That object looked very much like Noah's Ark. The year was 1989 and other creationists at the time could have reported with great fanfare that Noah's Ark had indeed been discovered.
But that's not how science works. Confirmation of the discovery was necessary, and the following year, other creationists, using a helicopter, found that the object was simply a rock formation. Some Christians think that confirmation of Noah's Ark will cause millions to come to Christ. However, this is unlikely to be the case. We are reminded of the rich man in hell who asked that Lazarus be sent back from the grave to warn his brothers about the judgment. Jesus said, "Even though the dead be raised, still they will not believe!"
There is something else: Confirmation of the Ark, resting too high on the mountain to be explained by a local flood, would instantly make thousands of liberal theology books good for nothing more than heating fuel. Even liberal scholars would be forced to accept what they now consider to be ignorant myths of a pre-scientific age. They would be forced to deal with our message that the Word of God is true in every subject that it mentions!
Dear Father, Your Word is true and can be trusted. Help that fact move me to spend more time with You in Your Word, reading it, studying it, and inwardly digesting it. In Jesus' Name. Amen.
Photo: View of Mt. Ararat from Turkey. Courtesy of Henri Nissen. (CC-BY-SA 3.0)
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