Evidence for God from Science Newsletter September, 2003

Greetings in the name of the Lord! This is the latest edition of the update for the Evidence for God website. Welcome to our new subscribers. This newsletter is a little longer than usual, due to the addition of many new pages to the site.

Book Review - Darrick Dean's new book
Answers for atheists and agnostics
Design vs. Evolution
- Origin of Man and the Races
Aberrant theology
- Is it Fair for Christians to Criticize and Attack the Mormon Religion?
- Spiritual Warfare at the Redlands LDS Temple

Book Review

My Internet buddy Darrick Dean has just published his new book, Is The Truth Out There?: A Journey Through Critical Thinking that Spans Man’s History, Origin and Place in the Universe. The book primarily examines how one should critically examine worldviews through science and logic and is targeted at the thinking skeptic. Since it covers many topics related to diverse disciplines of science, several of us have had the opportunity to provide input and suggestions regarding content. The result is a great book to give to your skeptical friend. The book will challenge your friend to examine his worldview logically and compare the assumptions of his worldview in light of the Christian worldview and contemporary science. You can get more information (and read much of the text) at the link below:

Is The Truth Out There?
http://www.lulu.com/content/2255256

Answers for atheists

Most of the additions in this newsletter update fall into the Answers department. E-mails from skeptics continue to come in almost every day. The following pages are some of the answers to questions that skeptics are asking.

Skeptics love to speculate about what a good God would or would not do (usually based upon their own wisdom). The reasoning goes that a benevolent God, if He existed, would answer any sincere prayer that fell within His will. A proposed test of this idea is that prayers for world peace would be a good thing that God should automatically grant, if He existed. The only problem is that world peace is NOT the will of God! Jesus said that His coming would destroy peace and cause division. Only when Jesus returns will there be world peace.

If God Existed, Prayer Would Have Brought World Peace?
http://www.GodAndScience.org/apologetics/worldpeace.html

Why should people of other religions be sent to hell because they happened to be born into a non-Christian home? On the surface, it seems a valid criticism of Christianity that it would be unfair of God to judge those born into other religions on the basis of their acceptance of Christianity. However, the criticism fails because the Christian God never claims to be fair! Since all people have sinned and violated their God-given conscience, the fair thing to do would have been to condemn all people to hell. Atheists may prefer fairness, but personally, I prefer mercy!

It Isn't Fair That God Judges People Who are Born Into Buddhist, Hindu or Other Non-Christian Homes
http://www.GodAndScience.org/apologetics/unfairgod.html

Occasionally, I get e-mails that make really stupid claims about what science has "shown to be true." A very common atheistic myth is that the universe is more than the matter, energy, space and time we can detect. According to the e-mail, "you will never find a scientist that believes the big bang represents the start of the universe." Well, I took up the challenge and and in short order found several dozen scientists who stated quite emphatically that the Big Bang does represent the beginning of the universe. Atheists really hate the idea that the universe had a beginning, since it implies that something or Someone created the universe.

The Universe is Not Eternal, But Had A Beginning
http://www.GodAndScience.org/apologetics/beginning.html

The King James translation continues to haunt Christian apologetics. Atheists love to cite the archaic words of the King James translation to point out problems with Christian theology. The latest I was confronted with was the issue of God "needing" to rest after six days of creation. Would an omnipotent God really get tired after only six days of work? The simple answer is that the Hebrew word translated "rest" in King James translation of Genesis 2:3 has nothing to do with resting due to weariness. The word really means to "cease" or "stop." Other Hebrew words would have been used in the verse if God really to take a nap.

If God is Omnipotent (All Powerful) Why Did He Need to Rest on the Seventh Day?
http://www.GodAndScience.org/apologetics/rest.html

People are fascinated with dinosaurs. In fact, modern society is obsessed with these extinct creatures and their bizarre appearances. Our fascination with these creatures has led to the idea that they should have been included in the biblical creation account. A recent e-mail from a skeptic made this very claim - that the Bible couldn't have been written by an all-knowing God, since He would have not left out of the account a description of dinosaurs. Find out how to answer this charge:

Why aren't Dinosaurs Mentioned in the Biblical Creation Account?
http://www.GodAndScience.org/apologetics/dinosaurs.html

Design vs. Evolution

The Origin of Man and the Races PowerPoint presentation has been converted to HTML format. In addition to the slide text and images, each slides has a detailed description of the concepts, definitions, and documentation of references. The entire presentation is over 100 slides, so plan on a couple hours if you intend to read each page.

Origin of Man and the Races
http://www.GodAndScience.org/evolution/originman.html

Aberrant theology

This year for my lecture at the Center for Research in the Sciences (CRIS) at Azusa Pacific University, I will be presenting Testing the Mormon Creation Model. The preparation for this lecture has resulted in the writing of several new pages.

Is it "fair" to criticize other religions. Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) often claim that Christians unfairly pick on their religion. Are Mormons an innocent victim? This page shows that the LDS church has in the past and continues the accusation that all Christian creeds are an "abomination" in the sight of God and are "apostate." In presenting the truth of scripture, we Christians are merely "contending earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints." (Jude 1:3)

Is it Fair for Christians to Criticize and Attack the Mormon Religion?
http://www.GodAndScience.org/cults/fair.html

Is it "fair" to criticize other religions. Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) often claim that Christians unfairly pick on their religion. Are Mormons an innocent victim? This page shows that the LDS church has in the past and continues the accusation that all Christian creeds are an " abomination" in the sight of God and are "apostate." In presenting the truth of scripture, we Christians are merely "contending earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints." (Jude 1:3)

Spiritual Warfare at the Redlands LDS Temple
http://www.GodAndScience.org/cults/warfare.html

If you live in Southern California, come to the talk, Testing the Mormon Creation Model on October 22, 2003 at 7:30 p.m. For more information see the page below.

Biblical creation

Some updates have been made to the Biblical Defense of Long Creation Days page. One common criticism of the day-age interpretation is that the Hebrew word yom combined with an ordinal (number) always refers to a 24 hour day. The claim is nullified by a passage from the prophet Zechariah, who refers to the day of the Lord using the ordinal "one" with yom in a context that indicates a period of time no less than six months long. Another claim is that Jesus believed in 24 hour creation days, since "He said that marriage began at the beginning of the creation according to Mark 10:6." An examination of the passage indicates that Jesus was not referring to the beginning of the creation at all, but to the beginning of the creatures Adam and Eve.

Biblical Defense of Long Creation Days
http://www.GodAndScience.org/youngearth/dayagedefense.html

Newsletter Info

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

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

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. "For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse." (Romans 1:20)

In Christ,
Rich Deem

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Last Modified September 13, 2003

Evidence for God from Science: Christian Apologetics