Friday, October 30, 2015

WHY?

It seems Creationists are the ones spending MOST of the time and resources on refuting evolution instead of spending the time and resources on bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a hurting planet!  Evolution vs Creationism saves no one.....Jesus is the ONLY way that man can be restored to God's Family.

Creationists claim to believe in "Intelligent Design."  They have no clue what it is anymore than Scientists do!

REAL..."Intelligent Design" cannot be understood until you understand the God revealed in the
"flesh" 2000 years in the Incarnation of Yeshua ben Joseph...Jesus the Christ of God.

Should believers even bother address evolution?  Science has it wrong anyway!



Exactly...why bother?   READ SECOND POST

Thursday, October 29, 2015

Why bother?

 Argue about Evolution?




Exactly...why bother?   


Man did not evolve from apes because the only source of natural "new" genetic codes that may result in a "new trait" that would give an organism an advantage in surviving in a changing environment of "selection agents" is via DNA mutation and 99% of them are "lethal" and less than 1% of any possible "positive" mutations occur in "germ tissue"..the ONLY ones that are passed on for Natural Slection to act on.  Simply stated....there was no where near enough "time" for evolution from Simians to Homo sapiens.  There has to be another explanation for the 90% common genome. 

The "clue" is found in the Bible.   God Created man in His Image from the "dust" of the Earth.  It is rather strange that the  Word for God in the Hebrew in Genesis is the plural Word 'Elohim"......Why "plural?"  Is Judaism a polytheistic religion?  ABSOLUTELY NOT...there is ONE God....YHWH..."IAM."  The Scripture translated in the Creation of Adam....the first Homo sapiens.... is   "Let Us Create Man in OUR Image."  Again...MORE than One God?"   God forbid!   Christianity attempts to resolves this "plural" problem with the Doctrine of the "Trinity"....."Three" Persons in ONE....Father , Son and Holy Spirit.  This is NOT a Hebrew concept so it certainly does not "solve" the problem for Jews!  Plural means MORE than one of separate entities.   The Bible reveals that God is Spirit and it was clariifed in  the Incarnation in the "flesh"  of Yeshua ben Joseph 2000 years ago...."Jesus the Christ" of God.   The "Three" are MORE than just ONE in Spirit.... they are "consubstantial".....in other words....they are three  MANIFESTATIONS of the same thing...God.  God. God the Father IS God...God the Son , Jesus,  IS God and God the Holy Spirit IS God.  How does this resolve the "plural" problem?  We have to understand God the Spirit and the following Scriptures reveal this "Spirit Nature" of God.....(  Psalm 82:3-6, John 14:8-23, Galatians 3:26-28, Colossians 1:27, 2:9-10, 1 Corinthians:3:16-17, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, 1 John 4:11-16)

Because most of Christianity does not fully comprehend the Spirit of God...they are "forced" to explain the Creation of Adam as a "violation of God's PERFECT laws...in other words.."magic" or the "supernatural." Violation of that which is PERFECT is a non-sequitur.   When we understand the Spirit of God we realize God Created Adam THROUGH His PERFECT Laws.   SInce the "supernatural" explanation of Adam's Creation is an illusion (in my humble opinion)  and Science is just plain WRONG that man evolved from apes.....it is obvious to me that God's Biological Laws were involved in the
"Intelligent Design" of Adam...namely...Recombinant DNA......"dust" of the Earth. (C,H.O,N,and P the elements of DNA sure seem to qualify as "dust!)"

I believe that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God and final authority on man's destiny and that the real "message" of Scripture is revealed through God's "gift" of Science.  All Scripture is "inspired" by God and the Scientific interpretation of those Scripture proves it.  The literal, fundamental interpretation was the beginning of wisdom for early mankind but through Science....the ABSOLUTE Truth is revealed for those who will serve Jesus as King of Kings when Jesus returns. (very soon I suspect!)
.

In Christ...David Brown (retired Biology teacher)

NOTE: I believe the Scripture revealing the Creation of Eve is  supported by the Science as well......God knew that Adam needed a "helpmate" so He placed Adam into a "deep sleep"..... removed a "rib" and covered it in "flesh and bone" Creating Eve. When God presented her to Adam he exclaimed..."At last.... this is flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone..I will call her 'women' because she COMES FROM MAN."

The Science...... The "rib" marrow is an easily accessable rich source of adult stem cells which can be easily "reset" to an earlier embryonic state. (Induced Pluripotency)  Two IPS cells are required. The "Y" chromosome of one is removed and discarded...the cell is saved.  The "X" chromosome of the second is removed and inserted into the nucleus of the first. The second cell is discarded. The "modified clone cell" is induced to begin cleavage and form a blastocyst which is placed into a surrogate uterus. (in vitro) After nine months of gestation...."little Eve is born."   Ii appears that the "deep sleep" was not a "surgical anesthesia" but possibly a form of "temporary suspension" because Eve was a mature young women when presented to Adam.   "Eve definately came from man!"  God is PERFECT therefore His Laws are PERFECT.










Argue about Evolution?
October 29, 2015
By Dr. Fazale Rana

Is debating about the validity of the evolutionary paradigm a waste of time? My Facebook friend Deb, an atheist, thinks so. After I posted a brief critique about human evolution, she left this comment out of frustration:

    Instead of hitting each other over the head about evolution, maybe we could work together to solve some of this planet’s pressing problems (climate change, poverty, war, environmental degradation, wealth inequality, lack of health care and educational resources, prejudice, discrimination and so forth).

Does Deb have a point? Does the creation-evolution controversy detract us from more weighty concerns?

I would say no. In fact, I assert that our concern about humanity’s social ills and our planet’s environmental catastrophes—and our motivation to act—are deeply connected to what we think about human origins.

Let me explain.

Scripture teaches that God created human beings to bear His image (Genesis 1:26–27; 9:6). Accordingly, all human beings have intrinsic worth and dignity. All human beings are equal. The way we treat image bearers equates to the way we treat God. Serving others likens to serving God. These ideas—so clearly taught in Scripture—inspire Christians to good works. They rouse Christians to action against the injustices in our world.

On the other hand, while individual atheists are as capable of good deeds as Christians, atheism itself provides no genuine motivation for such acts. If human beings are the product of unguided evolutionary processes, then we are one among countless species that have existed on Earth. From an evolutionary standpoint, human beings are a historically contingent accident of an indiscriminate, natural process. Human life has no intrinsic value; there is no ultimate meaning or purpose to human life.

From an atheistic perspective, why should we care what happens to other human beings? In an atheistic framework, it really makes no difference if human beings suffer from poverty, lack of health care, or injustice. In fact, one could argue that an atheist showing compassion to the sick and weak is “immoral” because it disrupts the evolutionary process, in which survival of the fittest serves as the engine for evolutionary advance.

I’m not saying that atheists can’t be good or aren’t good. Many nonbelievers do good works, and I deeply admire and applaud the caring things that they do. It is wonderful to see people of different worldviews lock arms and work together to confront injustice.

But what features of an atheistic worldview justify good works? Deb explains that atheists “feel it’s the compassionate thing to do....We’re not doing this because we expect any reward in the afterlife, as we do not believe in anything beyond death. We do it because we love life in the here and now so much.” However, an atheistic worldview doesn’t require compassion or kindness or acknowledgement of human dignity. It is just as valid for an atheist to reject good works as it is to embrace them. In an atheistic framework, it is not clear what justice actually looks like; it is not clear what distinguishes a “right” action from a “wrong” one. There is no objective standard for good and evil in atheism. Without that standard, what is wrong for one society (or even one person) could be right for another.

In contrast, the biblical God, through scriptural teachings, clearly defines how and why we should live and how we should treat each other.

In my view, the reason that atheists can extend compassion toward others and place high value on human life arises from the fact that all human beings bear God’s image. We inherently know that all people have dignity and worth. We have a “law written on our hearts” that guides our behavior if we let it. The moral code many atheists adopt is designed into their DNA, as it is in all humans. Atheists are, unwittingly, borrowing from a Judeo-Christian worldview, when they express a commitment to combat poverty, end war, provide health care, and end discrimination. That is why believers and nonbelievers can work together to improve our world.

When atheists do good works, they are defying the logical outworking of their worldview. As a case in point, in The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins states emphatically:

    Be warned that if you wish, as I do, to build a society in which individuals cooperate generously and unselfishly towards a common good, you can expect little help from biological nature. Let us try to teach generosity and altruism, because we are born selfish. Let us understand what our own selfish genes are up to, because we may then at least have the chance to upset their designs, something that no other species has ever aspired to do.1


Again, if atheism is true, we should ask why we would want to “upset the designs” of our selfish genes, because to do so, would be to upset the evolutionary process. Why should we stand in opposition to biological nature? Like all atheists, Dawkins’ morality is at war with his worldview.

In the end, it is only the Christian worldview that provides the necessary framework to truly justify addressing the evils of this world.

And that is why it is important to “hit each other over the head about evolution.” What we think about human origins really matters. And the good news is that a scientific case can be made for credibility of the biblical account of human origins.

Subjects: Ethics
Dr. Fazale Rana

In 1999, I left my position in R&D at a Fortune 500 company to join Reasons to Believe because I felt the most important thing I could do as a scientist is to communicate to skeptics and believers alike the powerful scientific evidence—evidence that is being uncovered day after day—for God’s existence and the reliability of Scripture. Read more about Dr. Fazale Rana

Notes:

    Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 3.

Related Articles
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Monday, October 26, 2015

ARTIFICIAL LIFE......ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE


ARTICLE AFTER MY COMMENT

My Comment.......

Artificial life...artificial intelligence?   Stephen Hawking is worried about it......


Don't lose any sleep over it!

......Man is Created in the image of a PERFECT God whose Laws are PERFECT. If man could create an artificial intelligence greater than himself or create artificial life....it would be something created in the image of an IMPERFECT being.....man.     142 years ago...French Chemist Louis Pasteur performed a very simple "S" shaped flask experiment that disproved "spontaneous generation" of life once and for all and revealed God's PERFECT Law of Biogenesis..."All life MUST come from pre-existing life."   Science celebrates Pasteur's contribution then illogically claims that "spontaneous generation" of the biomolecules occurred at least once....in violation of God's PERFECT Laws of Thermodynamics I might add!  The "spontaneous" formation of amino acids in the Miller/Urey experiment does NOT extrapolate... like many believe... to the evolutionof the polymers of  enzyme proteins and the  "genetic data" memory polymers of DNA and RNA ....BECAUSE.... enzyme protein polymers are REQUIRED to "lower activation energy" in order to form "stable" products from the molecular substrates according to the Laws of Thermodynamics. It's the "molecular" version of the "age old question"...."What came first...the chicken or the egg?"  I believe the "Scientific" interpretation of the Bible reveals that the ANSWER (without climbing up the mountain to ask the Guru!) is obvious....NEITHER!  ALL LIFE COMES FROM PRE-EXISTING LIFE.

NOTE:  They may try to place all the organelles and all the active biochemicals into an "active plasma membrane bubble" and "create life"  but this is futile..BECAUSE  man can't put God into his "home made cell." ONLY God can Create life and propagate life.  The stories that they have already done this is disinformation...all they have done is REPROGRAM with synthetic rDNA  the genetic information in a "preexisting cell!"  Creating "designer" genetic information codes in synthetic DNA.....  (btw....DNA polymerase enzymes are still needed!) ..... is NOT "creating" life from "scratch"...it is merely "modifying" life...which is scary in itself because man is IMPERFECT!   Some atheistic Scientists claim the fact that RNA can act as an enzyme like catalyst.....they are CORRECT...HOWEVER..that does not resolve the "claim" that the biochemical polymers formed by molecular evolution BECAUSE you "need" enzymes to make enzymes...protein or otherwise.

The reason why "atheistic" Science needs a "starting point of the living process" as well as Space-Time-Matter and Energy..... (AND for believers as well)  IS because man is a "mortal beng" and cannot comprehend the simple Truth that Existence is Eternal because God is Eternal..."no beginning and no end."   Genesis does not tell us that "Existence" was Created out of nothing...in fact the Gospel of John merely tells us that "In the BEGINNING was the Word."  The implcation is that God always Existed and always will. The Genesis Creation is about the Creation of "our" planet and what man PERCEIVED to be "ALL" of Reality.   In other words....CREATION is NOT an EVENT...it is an Eternal Process and Astrophysicists today suspect that the Inflation of Space-Time-Matter and Energy in the "Big Bang Theory" just ONE of an Infinite number of Eternal "Creations"....the Multiverse "Bubble Theory." I believe that Pasteur's Biogenesis of Life verifies the Truth that EXISTENCE ...life and non-life has "no beginning or end". 

Stephen Hawking believes that the Laws Physics  (Existence) are so constituted that there is no "need"  for a God to do the Creating therefore there is no "God".....the "math" does it's own creating!   The Bible tells us God is Spirit and this Spirit is manifested in  LOVE, COMPASSION, FORGIVENESS, PATIENCE,HOLINESS etc. AND this LOVE Incarnated in the "flesh" 2000 years ago in the Person of Yeshua ben Joseph..."Jesus the Christ" of God the Father.  This Jesus has revealed to mankind that God is NOT an "External Anthropomorphic Superman" God.  Hawking is CORRECT about this "man made" God because God is Spirit and "NOT a man that He should lie."  I believe the following Scriptures reveal the Truth that God is Spirit......(Psalm 82:3-6, John 14:8-23, Galatians 3:26-28, Colossians 1:27, 2:9-10, 1 Corinthians:3:16-17, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, 1 John 4:11-16)   "In the beginning was the word"......LANGUAGE......the purest form of language is MATHEMATICS.  This said...I suggest that Hawking has unwittingly and unknowingly has repeated what Pasteur did....PROVED the Existence of God!

In Jesus Name...David Brown






Synthetic Life and the Image of God
October 26, 2015
By Guest Writer

If synthetic biologists succeed in creating synthetic life, does this accomplishment prove the theory of naturalistic evolution—that life arose via undirected random processes? Does it make humans like God? The answers to these questions might be found in the creation of humankind in the image of God (imago Dei in Latin).

The Bible says that “God created man in His own image” (Genesis 1:27, NASB), but what does it mean to be created in the image of God? A clue is found in the next verse: “God blessed them; and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth’” (Genesis 1:28, NASB). We have argued elsewhere that a logical interpretation of Genesis 1:28 is that men and women are formed in the image of God to continue God’s work of bringing order out of chaos.

Humans are the only life-forms on Earth who have the ability to understand and experiment in science. Science has made agriculture much more productive than in biblical times and has developed electricity and machinery, which have vastly improved our quality of life. We believe that this is part of subduing and ruling creation and, thus, is a manifestation of the image of God.

But do we ever become like God? Consider the practice of medicine. According to James, prayer is always a prescription for healing: “Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord” (James 5:14, NASB).

Prayer acknowledges that humankind is dependent upon God for our lives and our existence. Moreover, statistical studies seem to indicate that patients who are prayed over experience better healing and/or fewer complications than patients who are not.1

Yet throughout history, humans have also benefitted from medical science. Ancient healers crafted natural remedies, and modern physics and chemistry have developed diagnostic scanners and pharmaceuticals to address a variety of medical issues. Such improvements in medical science have alleviated human suffering and extended human life. But does that make us like God? Such advances have not created anything conceptually new and do not lessen humankind’s dependence on God. Instead, humans are acting as God’s image bearers when we make things better. As the old DuPont advertising slogan stated: “Better things for better living...through chemistry.”

But consider in vitro fertilization. This process has been a boon for couples who have been unable to produce children the natural way. But is this an example of science creating life? Life is not really being created; instead, we are only creating an environment in which God’s natural processes toward life can proceed. Humans might be acting godlike, but humans are not being like God.2 We are acting as God’s agents to improve the lives of childless couples.

That brings us to the question of artificial life. One of the biggest obstacles to the naturalistic creation model is its theory for the origin of life. The earliest life-forms appeared quite soon (in geological time) after the formation of Earth. Probability calculations suggest spontaneous generation of life via random natural processes is virtually impossible within the time frame allowed.3

Synthetic biologists are striving to create synthetic life. Based on a detailed review of their progress in 2011, biochemist Fazale Rana says it is “just a matter of time” before they succeed in creating a “minimal life-form,” and he speculates that thereafter “new life-forms will soon become ‘old hat.’”4 Supporters of naturalistic evolution are elated about this progress because they seem to believe artificial life will prove their explanation of the origin of life.

But they are wrong—such an accomplishment says nothing about naturalistic evolution. If and when artificial life is created, it will be made possible only by teams of experienced and creative scientists with sophisticated equipment. Rana summarizes: “Only by deliberate effort, inordinate ingenuity, and astonishing skill can synthetic biologists even begin the process of making artificial life. Their work empirically demonstrates that even the simplest life-form cannot arise without the involvement of an intelligent agent.”5

The notable work of synthetic biologists is simply a derivative of God’s work. Once again, although scientists may be acting godlike, they are not being like God:

    They are using their God-given intelligence and creativity, which is unique to humans.
    They are working within a framework of natural laws created by God, without which their accomplishments would be impossible.
    They are merely repeating something God has already done. They are not creating something conceptually new (as described by the Hebrew word bārā’ in Genesis 1).

As Isaac Newton said, “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” Artificial biologists not only stand on the shoulders of scientists who went before them, but as God’s image bearers they also stand metaphorically on the shoulders of God.

Furthermore, if science succeeds in creating artificial life, it will actually provide further proof of the implausibility that life could have emerged spontaneously via random natural processes. The creation of life still seems to require an intelligent agent. The probabilities of naturalistic evolution remain vanishingly small, and the summary analysis of astrophysicist Sir Fred Hoyle seems just as true today as it was in 1982:

    If there were some deep principle that drove organic systems towards living systems, the operation of the principle should easily be demonstrable in a test tube in half a morning. Needless to say, no such demonstration has ever been given. Nothing happens when organic materials are subjected to the usual prescription of showers of electrical sparks or drenched in ultraviolet light, except the eventual production of a tarry sludge.6

We believe the intelligent agent who created life on Earth is the Judeo-Christian God. This is a faith statement, but it seems more plausible than naturalistic evolution. As synthetic biologists attempt to create artificial life, we believe they will merely scratch the surface in discerning the natural processes that God might have used to bring about the hypernatural miracle of life.

Daniel J. Dyke, MDiv, MTh

Mr. Daniel J. Dyke received his Master of Theology from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1981 and currently serves as a professor of Old Testament at Cincinnati Christian University in Cincinnati, OH.

Dr. Hugh Henry, PhD

Dr. Hugh Henry received his PhD in physics from the University of Virginia in 1971, retired after 26 years at Varian Medical Systems, and currently serves as lecturer in physics at Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights, KY.

Saturday, October 24, 2015

The Fastest Path to Tyranny

True Freedom is impossible unless both sides of an issue can be politically incorrect to each other and can be free to insult each other with speech. As soon as one side can silence the other....freedom is lost to the state that will eventually lead to total tyranny. (ie; the negative religion of islam)    We need to get back to the old adage'....."Sticks and stones may break my bones bit names will never hurt me."   Our philosophy should. be..."I may not agree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it." Evelyn Beatrice Hall (1868-1956)

The fastest path to tyranny is to silence each other!