Evidence for God from Science Newsletter April, 2001

Greetings in the name of the Lord! This is the latest edition of the update for the Evidence for God from Science website. There are many new additions to the site, in both the apologetics and doctrine/theology departments..

They Shoot Scouts, Don't They

The recent arrest in France of James C. Kopp on charges of the 1998 murder of Buffalo, N.Y. abortionist Barnett Slepian reminds me of how the news media distorts the reality of positions and people whose views are not their own. For example, the prolife movement, 99% of the people of which are peaceful and law-abiding, is blamed for the shooting of abortionists. Recently, there was a scary event that occurred at one of our evening Cub Scout den meetings. Some of the Scouts were playing outside, when they came running in saying that a man in a nearby apartment had threatened to "shoot and kill" them, and was pointing a long object through the window. We called the police, who came with guns drawn, and arrested an 18-year old man in that apartment. No weapon was found and the man was not charged with any crime. However, given the current state of random shootings, we did not want our Scouts to be the next mass-murder story on the eleven o'clock news. My concern about the media is that their negative reporting of Scouting is promoting an atmosphere of hatred of Scouts because of our "discrimination" policy against gays and atheists. Will the media take the blame when someone decides to help eliminate the Scouting "discrimination" problem by shooting a few Scouts and/or their leaders?

Messianic Passover Seder. The Deems will be holding their annual Seder celebration this Saturday night, April 7, 2001. If you are in the Southern California area and wish to attend, please e-mail me and I will provide directions and details. Children are welcome. More information about Messianic Passover celebrations can be found at:

How the Passover Reveals Jesus Christ
http://www.GodAndScience.org/apologetics/passover.html
A Messianic Passover Seder
http://www.GodAndScience.org/apologetics/seder.html
A MESSIANIC PASSOVER HAGGADAH
http://www.GodAndScience.org/apologetics/haggadah.html

Apologetics

The Power of Atheism to Change Lives - Yes, the title is a teaser. Even atheists can recognize that atheism has no power to change behaviors. The page examines the differences between atheism and Christianity in terms of their effects upon moral behavior. It also includes a list of links to testimonies of people whose lives have been changed by the power of Jesus Christ. If your testimony is on the web or if you would like to have GodAndScience.org host it, let me know. Thanks!

The Power of Atheism to Change Lives
http://www.GodAndScience.org/apologetics/power.html

Missing the Obvious - This is a fun piece that contains a humorous example of how someone can miss something that is very obvious. Atheists and agnostics are so blinded by their reliance upon naturalistic explanations that they miss the obvious theistic explanation for the origin of the universe. Have you checked your tent lately?

Missing the Obvious
http://www.GodAndScience.org/apologetics/obvious.html

In the Beginning... Biblical Creation Models is a new page that describes the major creation models (day-age, framework, gap, and young-earth) along with their strengths and weaknesses. A second new page describes the gap creation model and why it fails biblically and scientifically:

In the Beginning... Biblical Creation Models
http://www.GodAndScience.org/apologetics/creation.html
The 'Gap' Creation Model
http://www.GodAndScience.org/apologetics/gap.html

In God We Trust examines some of the common ways in which American society and government acknowledge the existence of God:

In God We Trust
http://www.GodAndScience.org/apologetics/ingodwetrust.html

God Invented in the Image of Man? This page examines the claim that God is merely an invention of the mind of man. Although the claim probably has some truth in regard to the pagan polytheistic religions, it does not apply to Christianity. This page examines how Christianity is different from every religion and how the God of Christianity is so different from humans that He could not be an invention of an ancient culture:

God Invented in the Image of Man?
http://www.GodAndScience.org/apologetics/invented.html

Did God Commit Atrocities by Ordering the Killing of Entire Cities of People? This page examines why God ordered the Israelites to destroy complete cultures. Why would God order the murder of all those "innocent" people so that the Israelites would have a place to live? It turns out that those people were far from innocent, as the atheists claim. In fact, the Bible says that they were sacrificing their own children by burning them on altars to their gods. Even atheists might agree that killing your children is not a good thing. Another "Answer for Atheists":

Did God Commit Atrocities by Ordering the Killing of Entire Cities of People?
http://www.GodAndScience.org/apologetics/killergod.html

A Loving God Would Not Send Billions of People to Hell, Would He? This page examines why God must send people who oppose Him to hell. In addition, the page explains why people prefer to go to hell instead of spending eternity with God in heaven.

A Loving God Would Not Send Billions of People to Hell, Would He?
http://www.GodAndScience.org/apologetics/hell.html

I Can Design a Better Universe Than God Did! This page gives atheists the opportunity to design a superior universe than the one that we live in. It is a way to get atheists to think deeply about love, free will, sin and the laws of physics and why the universe is designed the way it is. The page has been online for about a month, with no takers thus far:

I Can Design a Better Universe Than God Did!
http://www.GodAndScience.org/apologetics/icandobetter.html

Evolution/Creation

A new study puts even more constraints on the rapid appearance of life on earth. The rapid appearance of liquid water on the earth (at least 4.4 billion years ago) is a puzzle to astronomers and geophysicists. However, the Bible describes the original earth as a water-covered planet (Genesis 1:2). A recent finding of oxidized banded iron deposits at least 3.8 billion years old is also a big problem, since it demonstrates that free oxygen was present on the earth at the time that prebiotic soup was supposed to have formed. Of course, such an organic soup cannot form in the presence of free oxygen. Find out the reasons why evolution fails to explain the origin of life:

Is the Chemical Origin of Life a Realistic Scenario?
http://www.GodAndScience.org/evolution/chemlife.html

Doctrine

What Will Heaven be Like? examines what the Bible says about heaven and how it (and we) will be different compared to this universe. If you think that heaven will just be a return to the garden of Eden, you will be in for quite a surprise when you get there:

What Will Heaven be Like?
http://www.GodAndScience.org/doctrine/heaven.html

What Will Hell be Like? a companion page to the one about heaven. Since we will go to either one place or the other when we die, it would be good to make a choice based upon which we might prefer:

What Will Hell be Like?
http://www.GodAndScience.org/doctrine/hell.html

WWJD - What Would Jesus Do? Is that what we should do? The popular phrase "What Would Jesus Do?" is used very often to suggest that we should do the same as Jesus, whatever we do. However, there are quite a few examples of things that Jesus did do that we shouldn't and a number of things that Jesus did not do that we should do. For example, Jesus never apologized to anyone. Since He was perfect, He had no need to do so. This character trait obviously does not belong to us, so we should apologize when we err (which Jesus told us to do), even though Jesus never did so Himself. So rather than doing what Jesus did, we should do what Jesus told us to do.

WWJD - What Would Jesus Do?
http://www.GodAndScience.org/doctrine/wwjd.html

A new page by Wes Ringer, a former Seventh-Day Adventist, examines from the scriptures the claim that Christians should worship Jesus only on the Sabbath (Saturday). Examine the biblical teaching about this question:

Matthew 5-17-19; Too Slender of a Reed to Support Seventh-Day Sabbatarianism by Wes Ringer
http://www.GodAndScience.org/doctrine/seventhday.html

Prolife Signs by Matt Evans. Matt Evens, a law school student at Harvard University Law School has been putting up prolife signs all over campus, trying to get people to think about abortion. He considers himself to be a modern abolitionist, which is reflected in his signs. Take a look at his message and print some up to post in your school or work (if allowed). We will be wearing the "slavery" sign as a T-shirt as we march this Sunday against a Planned Parenthood facility contemplated for a local community.

Prolife Signs
http://www.GodAndScience.org/doctrine/prolifesigns.html

Information about GodAndScience.org has been added to the site, in addition to a page about what we believe. If you would like to become involved in the ministry, please check the page, Volunteer Ministry at GodAndScience.org.
About GodAndScience.org
http://www.GodAndScience.org/about.html
What We Believe
http://www.GodAndScience.org/beliefs.html
What We Believe (the non-essentials)
http://www.GodAndScience.org/morebeliefs.html
Volunteer Ministry at GodAndScience.org
http://www.GodAndScience.org/helpwanted.html

Newsletter Info

This and previous newsletters are now available online. Go to the URL below to read the current and past e-mail newsletters:

http://www.GodAndScience.org/newsletter.html

Projects being worked on:

"All ways lead to God" - An examination of this popular belief is shown to be logically impossible.

The Incredible Genetics of "". A popular young earth ministry of has some rather remarkable science and theology regarding the ability of organism to evolve through genetic recombination. In essence, they believe that all the "kinds" of organisms of Genesis were born with multiple alleles of Functional and physical units of heredity passed from parent to offspring. Genes are pieces of DNA, and most genes contain the information for making a specific protein.genes that were highly diverse. For some reason, these Functional and physical units of heredity passed from parent to offspring. Genes are pieces of DNA, and most genes contain the information for making a specific protein.genes never segregated during the first couple thousand years of the history of life on earth. However, after the flood, these same Functional and physical units of heredity passed from parent to offspring. Genes are pieces of DNA, and most genes contain the information for making a specific protein.genes suddenly formed all the species we see on the earth, along with those found only in the fossil record.

Long Life Spans- "Adam Lived 930 Years and Then He Died" will examine how humans could have lived for hundreds of years and how God could have altered human physiology and genetics to shorten human life spans. This is a piece co-authored with Fuz Rana and Hugh Ross of Reasons To Believe, which will appear in a upcoming issue of Facts for Faith magazine.

Those are the most recent updates and changes since the last e-mail update. If you would like to see anything in particular at Evidence for God from Science, let me know. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD.

In Christ,
Rich Deem

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