Category: Evolution/Creation


THE END OF JURASSIC WORLD

Filed under: APOLOGETICS, Evolution/Creation, FAITH — Leave a comment
June 11, 2018

Creationists freely recognize the past existence of dinosaurs, and their extinction, just as evolutionists do. The difference in the two views is how, when and why the extinction occurred, but even the “how” part of the story has become increasingly similar in many ways…

Image result for dinosaur graveyard

Articles in the “Institute for Creation Research” monthly magazine “Acts and Facts” have helped fuel my interest in and understanding of the demise of the dinosaurs. The articles relate to secular theories for past mass extinctions,  which these days involve cataclysmic events, supposedly millions of years ago. Evolutionists, like creationists, believe that at some time in the past some colossal and profound event or events radically affected life on earth.

Along with stories of earth-changing events are smaller-scale attempts to account for the rich fossil record, such as “dinosaurs falling into swamps” stories which I’ve written about before. I’m referring to fossil evidence demonstrating how dinosaurs, sometimes entire herds of them, drowned in mud together, and how entire schools of whales ended up in the middle of continents. Other extinction theories include such titles as “fatal gene transfer”, and, as I’ve noted before, Gary Larson’s humorous suggestion that they smoked too much.

There are a number of different theories these days as to why the dinosaur died out completely. Perhaps the most well-known is the one in which a huge asteroid, supposedly evidenced by the Chicxulub crater in the Gulf of Mexico, caused large scale devastation and global poisoning of certain prone species, including the dinosaur. Brian Thomas summarizes the evidence against the theory (note 1).

Smithsonian.com discusses some of the theories which have been proposed in the past in an article titled “THE TOP TEN WEIRDEST DINOSAUR EXTINCTION IDEAS” (see note 4). They then assert that there’s now a short list of generally accepted causes for the demise of the dinosaur:

Today, paleontologists have discerned that most dinosaur lineages disappeared by about 66 million years ago after intense volcanic activity, climate change and a catastrophic asteroid impact triggered one of the worst mass extinctions in our planet’s history.

When I was a small boy (in the dark ages) I had an encyclopedia which contained an “artist’s impression” of dinosaurs fleeing from enormous volcanoes erupting all around them, clearly just about to be buried in lava and rocks. At the same time my science teachers were telling me all about “uniformitarianism”- the popular secular understanding of earth’s history since the time of Charles Lyell until just a few decades ago- perhaps still persisting.It’s also described as “The present is the key to past”. According to this view all processes on earth have always continued at the same pace as we see them happening now, so that f it takes a year for one millimetre of silt to settle in a lake bed, it must have taken an awfully long time for hundreds of feet of it to form-certainly more than the Bible gives it, right?

Image result for dinosaur graveyard

Uniformitarianism has been all but debunked in many ways. In my own part of the world there is abundant evidence of past rapid super-eruptions of lava over thousands of square  miles: not the sort of thing you see every day. More than that, in 1923 geologist  J Harlem Bretz published a paper claiming that the area I now live in was inundated by enormous sudden floods at the end of the last ice-age. He said that the waters were up to 1000 feet deep. and rushed at high speeds down to the ocean, dramatically altering the landscape. You can see the results of rapid and large-scale water erosion for thousands of square miles all around here.

Bretz’ peers were unwilling to accept his proposal for some time, because it smacked too much of the Biblical Flood. Again, it’s not every day you see a thousand feet of water engulfing thousands of square miles of land, so perhaps the present is not always the key to the past.

ICR has noted that evolutionists believe five major catastrophic events have occurred during earth’s history. Some now claim a sixth, while others insist there were three: so much for hard scientific facts (note 3). Incredibly, according to evolutionary scientists, the worlds worst extinction event, the “Permian Extinction”, said bye-bye to 70% of land species and 95% of marine species! (note 2).

Picture Credit: Royal Tyrrell Museum.

CATCHING UP WITH THE BIBLE

What amazes me is that it’s taken this long for our would-be intellectual masters to arrive at the conclusion that enormous, cataclysmic events have transformed our world, because as long as three thousand years ago the Bible already had an explanation for worldwide mass extinctions and rearrangement of the surface of the earth: the global Flood. The reason for the demise of the dinosaurs has always been there for everyone to see. That is, everyone who wanted to see it.

 And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all mankind…(Genesis 7:21 ESV).

Physical evidence for the Flood is abundant in rock layers all around the world, where billions of creatures (and colossal amounts of vegetation) are found  to have been rapidly buried, sometimes exquisitely preserved, and in some locations in mass graveyards. Billions-yes, billions of tracks of dinosaurs and many other animals have been found all over the world-tracks made in mud and then buried and fossilized. Interestingly, the tracks commonly appear in straight lines as though these creatures were on their way somewhere in a hurry, not foraging, mating or just living out their lives peacefully in swampy terrain. At the same time, the earth is covered in layers of sediments up to continent size. They are claimed by evolutionists to be the deposits of ancient oceans. Instead, they lend themselves, as does the fossil evidence, far more obviously to the Biblical Flood.

I want to repeat a reference I found on a secular site-not written by a creationist or a believer, which is not uncommon in its descriptions, but is very provocative in relation to the Bible’s Flood account. It’s from an article titled “World’s Largest Dinosaur Graveyard Linked to Mass Death”:

“Scientists have revealed what may be the world’s largest dinosaur graveyard. The dinosaurs may have been part of a mass die-off resulting from a monster storm, comparable to today’s hurricanes, which struck what was then a coastal area.  The findings could help solve a mystery concerning why the badlands of western Canada are so rich in dinosaur fossils.“ (note 5).

 

The Flood is recorded not just in the Bible as a catastrophe in earth’s history, but also in various forms in many cultures around the world, including the Mesopotamian culture-the oldest known civilization on earth.

\NOTES

1 http://www.icr.org/article/did-dinosaurs-die-from-impact

2 http://www.icr.org/article/worlds-most-catastrophic-extinction/

3 http://www.icr.org/article/newly-discovered-sixth-extinction-rewrites/

and

https://www.icr.org/article/3973

4 https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-top-ten-weirdest-dinosaur-extinction-ideas-23642539/#SVFlLJT2gFsMWZlY.99

5 http://www.livescience.com/8340-world-largest-dinosaur-graveyard-linked-mass-death.html

 

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WHEN IGNORANCE IS INTENTIONAL

Filed under: APOLOGETICS, Evolution/Creation, FAITH, Philosophy, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS — Leave a comment
April 22, 2018

How do you lead people to conclude that there’s only one truth, without showing them any real evidence to support it? Answer: you keep them from all dissenting alternatives…

blindfold

I was listening to a BBC radio discussion on the subject of parasitism recently (1), the panel being a gathering of very learned and highly credentialed evolutionary scientists. One of the comments which stood out to me was from Steve Jones, Emeritus Professor of Genetics at University College, London. In the course of the discussion host Melvyn Bragg asked the Prof:

So you’re definitely saying that sometimes parasites can have a positive and good effect?

The answer:

Well the trouble is that words like “positive” and “good” don’t really belong in biology-it turns into “theology” then.

In Nick Fisher-ese, the answer was, Hey, lay off of that filthy religious language, and stay well away from that “God” thing: we’re talking “science” now, and the two things  are and must remain separate…

We can sum this up in one word: bias. Or we could call it “intentional ignorance”. Or we could call it the language of propaganda.

I went to school: I was taught the state-sponsored view of our origins. I’ve seen all those glossy, realistic TV specials promoting and pushing the pill of evolution ex-nihilo down our throats with the sugar of awesome special effects and incredible extinct animals . But I’ve also been fortunate and blessed enough to see the other side, and in my view, God is the master-scientist. No God-no science. In fact, no God, no universe. Great scientists of the past such as Isaac Newton had no mind to censor or hide their beliefs, and no motive to do so.

Don’t forget that according to honest evolutionary philosophy you are just another animal, no more important in the universe than a tape-worm, a tadpole, a tomato, a tree or a tic.

In science-if we really want to see science and evolution as being synonymous-there’s no such thing as “good” or “bad” in any absolute sense. Remember, according to the learned Prof quoted above, words like “positive” and “good” don’t really belong in science. At least he’s being consistent with his beliefs. So all this whining about who colluded with who and who gassed who and who shot who is superfluous and unnecessary, since there is no such thing as “good” or “bad” but only what we decide is good or bad at any given time in history. Hitler and Stalin were no more “wrong” than we are. Death is not a “bad” thing, since it weeds out the weak.

FISH

Picture Copyright © by Nick Fisher

We’re led to believe that scientists have disproved the existence of God-which is actually impossible-and instead they’ve scientifically shown that everything came into existence by itself and evolved all on its own. The truth is that scientists, including those who may quietly be questioning the politically correct view of origins and evolution (and there are some) are all but forbidden to even suggest the possibility that there could be the remotest chance that there may just be something to that “God” thing, for fear of loss of employment, of tenure, of recognition, or of funding.

Stephen Meyer, a leader in the Intelligent Design movement, with a PhD in the philosophy of science from the University of Cambridge, writes about a principle of evolutionary science in his book, “Darwin’s Doubt” (2). “Methodological naturalism”, aka “methodological materialism” is a presumed rule of science, he says. It asserts that to qualify as scientific, a theory must explain phenomena and events in nature…by reference to strictly material causes only:

“According to this principle, scientists may not invoke the activity of a mind or, as one philosopher of science puts it, any “creative intelligence”.

Evolutionary science intentionally dismisses the remotest suggestion of Creation and possibility of intelligent design. No researcher or professor who wants to keep his job or his funding can factor any hint of divinity or design into his work or his pronouncements. The most polite designation by evolutionists for these two views of science and anything like them, held by many fine scientists and scientifically trained individuals in the Creation and Intelligent Design movements, is that they are “unscientific”.

Evolutionists, who hold the political and legal upper hand in all areas of education and the media, intentionally bar the slightest hint of any evidence, opinion, interpretation or line of inquiry which points towards a designer or a creator. In other words, you-and your children, with the help of your tax money, are purposely kept from considering any alternative interpretation of science to the politically correct one which may lead you to conclude that there is a Designer, unless it’s a controlled exposure designed (!) to ridicule and belittle.

Meyer relates a now famous (or infamous) quote by Harvard geneticist Richard Lewontin, laying out his own version of the “ban God” rule:

“We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs…because we have a prior commitment, a commitment to materialism…for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door”

Over nineteen hundred years ago the apostle Peter described this blinkered attitude by saying that people are “willingly ignorant” (KJV): they “deliberately overlook” (ESV) the facts of creation…and the judgment to come (2 Peter 3:5-7).

Thanks for reading. This post is an edited version of one I wrote last year.

NOTES

1: BBC Radio 4 “In Our Time”: “Parasitism”-broadcast January 26th 2017.

2: DARWIN’S DOUBT: The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design. See also the follow-up, “Debating Darwin’s Doubt” in which Meyer answers his critics.

 

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HOW TO SEE GOD

Filed under: APOLOGETICS, EASTER, Evolution/Creation, FAITH, JESUS CHRIST, The Meaning of Life — Leave a comment
March 23, 2018

Atheists mock Christians for worshiping a God who can’t be seen. He isn’t peeping out from behind the clouds, he isn’t sitting on the church roof, he’s never been to university and he doesn’t stop people stealing from little old ladies. August 2013 010

He isn’t hob-nobbing in the White House or even in the Vatican, and you can’t put a piece of him under a scanning electron microscope. He refuses to show up at the lab to be examined or interviewed. Therefore, according to the wisdom of man, God obviously does not exist.

While the world’s atheists tell us how clever they are and how moronic anyone who believes in an invisible Creator is, secular scientists tell us that most of the matter and energy in the universe is “dark”: it can’t be seen, felt, bottled or analyzed, and nobody knows what it’s made of. They “know” it’s there somewhere-they just haven’t seen it yet. According to NASA:

“It turns out that roughly 68% of the Universe is dark energy. Dark matter makes up about 27%. The rest – everything on Earth, everything ever observed with all of our instruments, all normal matter – adds up to less than 5% of the Universe.” (note 1).

While no one’s ever yet seen any dark matter, scientists believe it exists because of the behavior of visible objects in its vicinity.

11043126-dramatic-background--dark-sky-bright-light

Similarly, the “singularity”-that initial blob of mass and energy which evolutionists believe brought our universe into being-was not observed or filmed by anyone at all, and you wouldn’t even be able to see it if you were there to…ah…not see it:

“It is impossible to see the singularity or the actual Big Bang itself, as time and space did not exist inside the singularity” (NOTE 2).

If time and space didn’t exist, exactly where did this object exist, and where did it come from?

Many things which are believed by secular scientists and by atheists-and I use that word “believe” intentionally-have not been observed by any of them. I recently reported on the theory that chloroplasts-vital for all life on earth-came into existence when a large molecule enslaved a “simple” bacterium. This event, confessed the scientist, has never been observed, and neither is there any fossil evidence of the transformation. It’s believed because the chloroplast had to come from somewhere, right?

The_Sun_by_the_Atmospheric_Imaging_Assembly_of_NASA's_Solar_Dynamics_Observatory_-_20100819

Similarly, a scientist I heard speaking about the origin of the sun, admitted that the generally accepted theory is “conjecture” because it was not observed, although they think they can surmise its beginnings from what they are convinced (not know) is going on in other parts of the universe now.

We draw valid conclusions about many properties of nature from their affects or just from reason alone. The problem for us is that atheists and evolutionists, with the help of nominal Christians, have led the majority of people to think that any scientifically sound fact disproves God. Science and “religion” are incompatible, they say. This view assumes that a universe-creator would not have any practical, scientific or mathematical mind-rather like saying that a world-class soccer player obviously doesn’t have any idea how to kick a ball.

Evolutionists and scientists draw conclusions about nature using observation driven by what they prefer to believe and what they’ve been taught to believe, and by their own set of pre-conceived notions, all of which intentionally exclude God. We who believe in an invisible creator do so and draw conclusions about him from what we prefer to believe, from our own world-view, and from what we see and experience in our tangible universe. To us the evidence for God is all around us, and in us. As Paul wrote:

…what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse (Romans 1:19-20 ESV).

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You can read some of my own observations in this regard in my “Acronyms” posts (note 3).

SEEING GOD

In the New Testament we read that John said, “No one has ever seen God” (1 John 4:12).

So if there’s a God, why is it that no one has seen him? Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that:

“God is spirit” (John 4:24), and that

“…what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18).

One good reason no one has seen God is that we are physical, mortal, finite, three-dimensional beings (four counting time) in a fixed and very limited existence, whereas the God who created this physical universe is an immortal, eternal, infinite, multi-dimensional and pan-dimensional being. We cannot see him with our very finite and limited physical eyes, but we can see what he has made, and how amazingly intelligent and powerful he is.

More than that, we can “see” in our mind’s eye, or in our soul, what God is like from what he’s told us in his Word. We can see from Scripture that he is a loving and merciful God. We can see that he has incredible power and unfathomable aesthetic creativity. We can also see what his character is like when we think about Jesus. The apostle John said:

“No one has ever seen God, but God the one and only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known” (John 1:18).

534px-Bloch-SermonOnTheMount

 

It’s clear who this “one and only” is that John spoke of, because the entire gospel is about Jesus, and John, in the same passage, said:

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).

Jesus Christ came to earth as a man to show the world what God is like. Paul said that Jesus Christ is:

“The image of the invisible God…” (Colossians 1:15).

When you look at Jesus, you see as much of God as any human can see.

We don’t have the privilege of seeing Jesus physically, yet. But we can “see” him in the scriptures, thanks to men like John and Paul who gave their lives to tell us about him. Philip, one of the twelve disciples, said to Jesus one evening:

“Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

Jesus’ answer also speaks to us, nineteen hundred years later. He said:

“Don’t you know me Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:8-9).

Not only can we see the witness of nature all around us, but when we read about Jesus-about his nature, his character and his attributes, we get a glimpse of God himself.

NOTES

1: http://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/what-is-dark-energy/

2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initial_singularity

3: https://nickyfisher.com/2015/05/25/a-spiritual-defense-strategy/

https://nickyfisher.com/2015/06/14/a-spiritual-defense-strategy-acronym-2/

https://nickyfisher.com/2015/07/06/a-spiritual-defense-strategy-66-jell-wast-mush/

 

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TO EVERYTHING THERE IS A PURPOSE

Filed under: APOLOGETICS, Evolution/Creation, FAITH, The Meaning of Life — Leave a comment
March 16, 2018

Looking into the amazing blue sky today, with its white and light-grey cumulus suspended all around, a truth struck me for the first time: there’s a purpose for everything in nature…

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Butterflies and bees pollinate; birds spread seed over the land; rock keeps us…on the surface…and clouds transport water. Bacteria and enzymes break things down; worms and insects aerate and irrigate the soil; electro-magnetism transports photons enabling us to live and to see our world in all its incredible glory, and gravity stops us all from floating away.

The moon keeps our oceans, and so us, alive. Our very own star provides energy for the growth of plants, which feed us and expel as a by-product…oxygen. And so it goes on, endlessly.

Everything is here for a reason…including us.

Glory to God!

 

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THE UNPREPARED PILGRIMS

Filed under: APOLOGETICS, BIBLE PROPHECY, Evolution/Creation, FAITH, JESUS CHRIST, MUSIC, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS, Politics — Leave a comment
March 3, 2018

I’ll confess I’m not an authority on churchy affairs, but perhaps that’s a good thing. Perhaps it’s time political correctness within the church faced a little more opposition from those who aren’t under its power…

220px-Pilgrim's_Progress_first_edition_1678

I’ve no doubt that many or most church ministers are working hard and doing their best for their congregations and for their God. But my experience and my observation of today’s church world, overall, is that the flock is not being prepared for what it already faces, or for what may be coming…

We don’t have to go any further than our television or our web-based news feeds to see the direction our world is heading in. Here in the US we’re becoming more and more polarized as the haters crawl out of the closet and make their intentions clear. Our culture is being torn because those who are most intent on changing it have the power of most of the media on their side.

POLITICS AND RELIGION

Of those who take a Biblical view of culture and politics in the Church how many are talking about it? Alright, we don’t have to side openly with either major political party, but we absolutely should be discussing the issues, because they affect all of us and all our children. We don’t live in a theocracy or a church state, and I wouldn’t want to. But we all, in a so-called “democracy” or “republic” or “democratic republic” have a right and a duty to shape it, rather than just handing it over to those who want to tear down all the principles our Creator created us to live by, and even the obvious principles of nature itself.

 

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SEX

Another but not unrelated subject is sex and romance. Without these none of us would be here, right? But how many churches and their ministers discuss the hows and the whys of love: the principles God expects us to live by? How many discuss that stuff which the Bible calls “sin”? “Sin” is such a little word, but it’s so profoundly important. How many young people are being told what sin is and what its consequences are? How many are being told that the things now being forced onto the Western world regarding morality and sexuality are enough to bring eternal consequences?

…those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God (Galatians 5:19-21 NIV).

ORIGINS

Some in the Church regard the subject of our origins as being insignificant. Where we came from isn’t important, they say. What did Jesus say about origins? He said:

If you believed Moses, you would believe me…but if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words? (John 5:46).

The writing of Moses, and the prophets, and the apostles, all speak of our creation: not our evolution. We’re made by God in the image of God, not by chance, random mutations and billions of years of time in the image of a lemur or an ape-like creature. Calling into question our creation is calling into question our salvation from sin, and our eternal destiny. If all the writers are wrong about creation, so are they wrong about salvation.

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Our kids are being taught that they evolved from soup. The church which is not working to correct this view is not, I repeat not, caring for its flock.

WHERE THE RUBBER MEETS THE ROAD

I believe in the rapture of the Church. However, what many ministers in churches and on the radio and internet are teaching is that before all that’s foretold in Revelation and elsewhere occurs we’re all going to be taken to heaven…

Armageddon-out-of-here..!

Bury-your-Head-in-the-sand

Why did our God go to so much trouble to foretell last days events if we aren’t going to see them or experience them? Why do so many prophecy “experts” make a living at what they do if all the time we’re going to disappear before it all happens? Why are so many in the Church sticking their heads in the sands of rapture, when half way across the world many of their believing brothers and sisters are already being martyred for their faith? We are not all going to escape what is to come. We are not all going to get out of here, without some very serious opposition first. So why are the churches passing out buckets full of sand when they should be equipping the saints for what may come and for what has already come in many parts of the world?

FELLOWSHIP AND WORSHIP

One powerful way to prepare the Church for what it has to deal with and for what it may have to face is through fellowship and worship. Sadly, I see very little. I see cliques and little groups who like each other and turn their noses up at the rest. I see very few Bible studies where the  Bible is studied and where it’s not just another opportunity for someone to give a sermon rather than openly discuss Scripture in relation to today’s world. And I see a kind of worship where if you don’t like or accept a very specific genre of music, i.e. Christian “contemporary” music-an innocuous and generic form of pop-you’re out of luck and probably out of any possibility of fellowship.

APOLOGIES

We all get bombarded with lies from every direction. And who did Jesus say was the father of all lies? The devil.

Our history is being revised and scrubbed out by our education establishments and our media. Our “news” feeds are not giving us news at all any more but propaganda, gossip, slander and fakery. Our schools and universities are teaching that we all evolved out of nothing, that there’s no truth to Christian “myths”, and that the Christian Church is the cause of all that’s wrong in the world. Our entertainment world is stuffing gross immorality and extreme violence down our throats, sometimes dressed in special effects, and always with attractive people, to get our attention. Our politicians are (generally) out of touch with reality, with their own voters, and with any sense of Godly wisdom, and our judges are making laws and ignoring others to suit their own agendas.

So how is the Church countering all the lies and deceit we all face every day? I’ll rephrase that last question. Is the Church countering all the lies and deceit?

 

 

 

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