DOES GOD EXIST? TODAY - Evidence for God In the Things He Has Made

October 14, 2024October 13, 2024

Low-Cost Ways to Improve Your Health

Who doesn’t want better health? What if you could achieve better physical and mental health without spending money? At a time when people are facing depression and anxiety about inflation, wars, and even elections, here are some suggestions for easy, low-cost ways to improve your health.

The first suggestion is to move your body. Studies have shown that physical activity can sometimes do more to reduce mild to moderate depression, anxiety, and stress than medications can. Medications also have their side effects. Sitting in a chair for many hours each day can lead to various health problems, but even a small amount of exercise can make us feel better. Physical activity strengthens your bones and muscles, including your heart, while brightening your outlook on life. Gardening or housework can be rewarding. Bicycle riding or walking can allow you to see things you won’t see while sitting at home.

The next suggestion for easy, low-cost ways to improve your health is to go outdoors. Seeing the beauty of God’s creation can be very soothing. Walking in the woods, away from traffic and noise, is stress-relieving. Oceans, lakes, and rivers bring a soothing calm and relief from everyday pressures. Our daily postings on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) show design and beauty in God’s creation. Watching animals and birds in the wild can inspire you with their various activities. Bird songs and the sounds of nature can be soothing. The beauty of plants and trees, especially in the fall and spring, reminds us that God created beauty for us to enjoy. Studies have shown that exposure to nature can improve cognitive function, blood pressure, and sleep.

While considering easy, low-cost ways to improve your health, we must recognize the value of connecting with others. God designed us to be together and support each other, and living in isolation can lead to mental depression and anxiety. First and foremost, families are important, but family members are often far away or estranged. It is also essential to have friends outside of family members. In a church congregation, you can find friends who will give you love and support. Clubs and community groups can provide fellowship with others, but there is nothing as close as sharing life and faith in the fellowship of a solid biblical church.

We encourage you to try these suggestions and see what positive changes they can make in your life and health.

October 11, 2024October 9, 2024

The Beauty of Fall Colors

Fall is my favorite time of year. It is fascinating to watch the wildlife preparing for winter while the biting and stinging insects are suppressed and the night sky is delightfully clear. Here in Michigan, the coming of fall is heralded by a constant flow of colors. We begin with brilliant red sumac followed by crimson poison ivy wrapping itself around the still-green oaks and maples. As fall progresses, the maples and other species gradually change their colors, then the leaves begin to fall, and frost starts showing up. The beauty of fall colors in Michigan is astounding.

From a scientific perspective, we know how this system works. The chemical that gives green color to plants in the summer is chlorophyll-A. Chlorophyll allows plants to absorb energy mainly in the red and blue parts of the spectrum but very little in the green. Green is the highest energy of sunlight reaching Earth’s surface, and the leaves reflect green, preventing them from being burned by the summer sunlight. As the Sun’s angle becomes less, the green wavelengths are refracted away from Earth’s surface, reducing the chloroplasts in plant cells. In short, that means the chlorophyll is gone, and the green color goes away. We see the beauty of fall colors in the true colors of the leaves. Since each plant has a different chemical makeup in its leaves, each has its own color.

The chemistry of chlorophyll is highly complex, but the bottom line is that in the fall, chlorophyll no longer gives leaves their green color. Why is the system designed like this? Why is sumac different from hard maples, which are different from sugar maples, which are different from oaks? It seems that one chemical formula would work for all plants, making such a complex system unnecessary.

As I sit here writing this and admiring the beauty of fall colors, it seems that in spite of my science background, I feel I am looking at a wonderful painting by an artist applying a palette of colors with an eye for beauty. “Survival of the fittest” does not explain beauty and color, especially when other alternatives are available. It is also essential to understand that seeing the beautiful color of fall is something our eyes are designed to do.

Most animals do not see color and those that do use color as a survival device. Human eyes are designed to perceive color, and we are designed to appreciate and enjoy beauty. Take time to look for the colors around you, and know that they speak of God’s handiwork to bring something good into our lives.

October 10, 2024October 9, 2024

Should Humans Eat Meat?

One of the questions we face today is, “Should humans eat meat?” Genesis 9:1-3 tells us, “Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands. Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.’”

The atheist view is that we are just animals and nothing special. One issue of Skeptic magazine centered around animal rights and whether animals have the same rights as humans. The issue showed the impressive intelligence of ants, crows, octopuses, dolphins, goats, and turtles. Atheists typically jump from intelligence to animal rights and conclude that it is unethical for humans to eat animals and that we should consider the rights that animals have. One authority used in the atheist view is Peter Singer at Princeton University. He wrote “Animal Liberation,” often called “the bible of the animal rights movement.” Animal rights advocates argue that all human foods should be plant-based and that killing animals for food is a barbaric tradition that needs to stop.

There are major logical and factual problems with this view. Should humans eat meat? Is the intelligent behaior of animals the result of their thinking things out and acting on their thoughts, or is instinct the driving force? Is it a thought process or copying an observed behavior? Do crows, for example, take the lid off of a bottle because they figured out how to do it, or are they copying what they have seen humans do?

Another vital question is the result of restrictive diets: How will the human population survive if eating meat is no longer allowed? Getting enough protein and other crucial nutrients from plants for the world’s population is a significant challenge today. The problem would greatly increase without meat in the diet. We cannot overemphasize the importance of not causing pain to any of God’s creatures, but removing meat from everyone’s diet will cause more problems than it will solve.

“Should humans eat meat?” becomes a question because the atheist view fails to recognize that humans are unique because we are created in God’s image.

— John N. Clayton © 2024
Reference: Skeptic magazine (Volume 29 #3) “Animal Minds – What do they think?”

October 9, 2024October 8, 2024

Unhealthy Foods and God

Skeptics challenge that the Christian system allowed unhealthy foods that would not be condoned or promoted by an all-wise God. The Bible passage referred to is Acts 10:9-15 where Peter has a vision and is told to eat any meat, including animals that had been forbidden to the Jews. When Peter objects, a voice says, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”

We must take the Bible literally. We must look at who said what is in the passage, to whom it was said, why it was said, and how the people who heard it would have understood it. In this case, God’s message for Peter is clear if you read the rest of the chapter and on into chapter 11. This event was not about eating unhealthy foods but about taking the gospel of Jesus Christ to all people, not just the Jews.

Another method of understanding the meaning of a passage is to compare it to the rest of the Bible. You don’t have to be a scholar to know that the Bible cannot contradict itself. The New Testament has many statements that show it is not a book about eating. For example, in Matthew 15:17-20, Jesus says that what you eat doesn’t defile you, but rather what you think. In 1 Corinthians 10:27-32, Paul tells the Christians not to worry about what foods they can eat but rather be concerned about offending others and driving them away from Christ. In Romans 14, Paul tells Christians that the Church is “not about meat and drink” and then talks about not offending others.

This does not mean the Bible doesn’t care about unhealthy foods and practices. In Acts 15:19-20 the Church was told to avoid drinking blood or meat secured by strangling. However, even in that passage, the message was not about food. In Jesus’ time, having meat to eat was rare, and grains, fruit, and fish were the primary food sources. Also, life expectancy was short due to a lack of hygiene, the spreading of disease by immoral choices, and the lack of modern medicine.

God is not the cause of the often unhealthy foods we place in our diets today. Christian morality and attention to our health and the needs of others testify to the validity of the Christian system as taught in the New Testament.

October 8, 2024October 8, 2024

Life in Balance is Good

When God created and populated the Earth, he ensured everything was balanced. Genesis 1 describes the creation. After referencing the formation of life forms in verse 24, verse 25 concludes with “..and God saw that it was good.” Verses 26-31 describe the creation of humans and their relationship to vegetation and animal life. The chapter concludes by saying, “And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was VERY good.” God’s design in the natural world keeps life in balance.

Herbivores eat plants, keeping them in balance by spreading the seeds for more plants to grow. Carnivores keep the herbivore life in balance by feeding on the weak and old ones, preventing plants from being over-eaten. This simplified description of balance is evident in wild places worldwide. We have too often seen humans upset that balance. Selfishness, greed, ignorance, and power struggles have contaminated what was “very good” when God turned it over to humans to care for (Genesis 2:15).

Natural life in balance is excellent evidence of God’s design and wisdom in the creation. We can see what happens when humans upset that balance in these examples:

1) In the 1980s, Pablo Escobar, a Columbian drug lord, brought four hippos into the ecosystem. With no predators to control them, that number is 130 in 2024 and estimated to become 1400 by 2034. The estimated cost of removing the hippos is some 24 million dollars. With no natural enemies, the hippos have become a hazard to the people of Columbia.

2) In 1946, Argentina imported ten breeding pairs of beavers from North America, hoping to establish a fur industry. There are now roughly 100,000 beavers in Argentina, and they have decimated the native trees and built dams that have flooded forests and killed many native animal species.

3) In the 1970s, having a pet Burmese python was popular in Florida and became a raging business in Miami. When Hurricane Andrew ripped through Florida in 1992, hundreds of Burmese pythons escaped a reptile breeding facility. Today, tens of thousands of these snakes inhabit the Everglades. They can reach 20 feet long, weigh 200 pounds, eat just about anything, and spread parasites

These are just three examples of what happens when humans upset the balance that God built into the ecosystems of planet Earth. Finding a way to return the planet to life in balance as God made it is a massive challenge to biologists and wildlife managers. Human knowledge and understanding are very limited compared to God’s creative wisdom, which we see everywhere. To deny God’s existence and design requires more faith than any religious belief system.

— John N. Clayton © 2024
References: National Wildlife Federation, Fall 2024, pp 22-39, The Week, October 4, 2024, page 16, and Wikipedia.

October 7, 2024October 6, 2024

Hostility Toward Christianity

We recently received a very hostile phone call from a person who went so far as to threaten us. This has happened many times in the past, and the hostility toward Christianity is excellent evidence for its validity. “So you think you are the only people going to heaven?” is a misguided challenge we get in response to the messages we post on this site.

Skeptics frequently refer to the Crusades and the horrible violence that people who called themselves Christians have done against those who were not Christians. Their actions violate what Jesus taught and contradict what those who follow the Bible do in relationship to others. Please do not confuse the misguided teachings of the past with what the Bible tells Christians to do. The Crusades violated everything Jesus taught, as did the inquisitions.

Jesus told His followers in Matthew 7:1, “Judge not, that you be not judged.” This concept is repeated over and over in the New Testament. Judging is up to God, and the New Testament commands Christians to be peacemakers. Acts 2:47 tells us that the first-century Christians “had favor with ALL the people.” At the same time, it is essential to understand that Jesus told His followers they could recognize false religions and their teachings by their results. (See Matthew 7:16-20 and John 15:2-16).

It’s a fact of life that we have to make judgments every day. As we look at world religions, we see the results of their teaching. We must ask, “What are the results of following the teachings of those religious systems?” We can read the historical results and see them in the news today. The hostility toward Christianity and the very fact that our ministry is attacked is an indication of the violence and destructive nature of most world religions. Over the history of humanity, religion has caused a considerable number of wars, and it continues to do so today. Biblical Christianity (not human creeds) teaches the opposite of all this, but other religions and religious leaders reject the Bible’s teachings.

As we analyze each religious system, we must question the hostility toward Christianity. How many hospitals, nursing homes, orphanages, educational institutions, etc., have resulted from the beliefs of each religious system? You can kill me, but you cannot destroy the good that Christianity has brought to the world. If men and women study the evidence, they will see that religious systems are not all the same. This ministry is dedicated to providing evidence, but if someone rejects it, that is their prerogative. They will have to answer, as will we, to the perfect judge who created the cosmos and us.

October 4, 2024October 1, 2024

To Understand the Godhead

Both believers and skeptics ask the question, “What is the godhead?” While I don’t pretend to understand the Godhead, I have spent years trying to explain it.

Passages like John 14:26 bother a lot of folks. That passage has Jesus saying, “But the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, who the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.” The word “godhead” is found three times in the King James version of the New Testament, each time translating a different Greek word. In Acts 17:29 (theios), Paul was talking to the philosophers in Athens. Romans 1:20 (theiotes) deals with evidence for God’s existence. Colossians 2:9 (theotes) was dealing with philosophy and human deceit.

An analogy that may help us understand the Godhead is that humans have three parts that makeup one individual. We all have intellect, which allows us to be creative and have ideas of a spiritual nature. God’s intellect is seen in the creation and design we see all around us.

We all have a personality that allows us to express our spiritual nature and to love in a way that is not just survival. Jesus taught His followers to be known by their love (See John 13:34-35) and demonstrated it in His life. He used the Greek word “agape” and referred to caring about all of humanity – even our enemies.

We all have spirit, which is the action that we do, and the Bible consistently uses that word with a verb. (“The Spirit MOVED upon the face of the waters.” “He will TEACH you.” My spirit will not always “STRIVE” with man.) We are all just one individual, but we all have intellect, personality, and spirit.

When the disciples questioned how they could see God, Jesus gave an answer that involved one part of the Godhead while referencing the other parts. (See John 14:9-10.) John 1:1 and 1:14 and 1 Timothy 3:16 show that Jesus was God in the flesh. It is impossible for us to understand the Godhead. St. Augustine wrote, “If you understand God, what you understand isn’t God.” J.B. Phillips wrote a book titled “Your God is Too Small,” in which he pointed out how the human mind limits God.

We humans will never understand everything there is to know about God, creation, or God’s purpose in creating us, but we can understand enough to make our lives meaningful and productive.

October 3, 2024October 1, 2024

Neurons in Your Brain and AI

You can see an obvious example of God’s creation design by looking in a mirror. Everything you see and experience is due to neurons in your brain, messengers that use electrical and chemical signals to convey information, allowing you to live. Neurons carry data to different parts of your brain, spinal cord, and your whole body. Just trying to grasp the number and functional complexity of neurons is beyond human thinking. In one cubic millimeter of the human brain, a single neuron connects with 5600 nerve fibers, and our whole body contains 86 billion neurons that form 100 trillion connections.

Julie Polter, writing in Sojourners magazine (August 2024, pages 9-10), calls our attention to the fact that when we hold a baby and look into those sparkling eyes, “we become acquainted with tiny beings who are also full, unique people.” She goes on to say that “the neural pathways in a baby or toddler’s brain multiply when given loving attention and interaction from the people around them.”

We hear all the concerns about robots and artificial intelligence (AI), which is intelligence exhibited by computer systems. How can AI exist? Would anyone suggest it is some accident and just a product of chance? AI is limited in what it can do because it is relatively simple compared to the neurons in your brain. You are not an accident and not the product of blind chance.

Looking in the mirror and thinking about how special and unique every human being is, we see God’s design in an undeniable form. Jesus called His followers to recognize this special creation and love (agape) our enemies. Even though we may struggle to understand what others do, we know they are a product of God’s design. They can do wonderful things if they allow God to use them for the purpose He created them to accomplish.

— John N. Clayton © 2024
References: Harvard Medical School and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke on their websites

October 2, 2024October 1, 2024

Suicide Prevention Services

September 2024 was “National Suicide Prevention and Awareness Month.” Data on suicides among young people ages 15 to 24 is alarming. A group called Samaritans has provided suicide prevention services in Massachusetts for 50 years, and they released data for that state. They reported 596 suicide deaths in 2021, but since March of 2022, 3800 young people have accessed the Samaritan’s “Hey Sam” text line. They have volunteers in the 15 to 24 age bracket trained to dialogue with their peers struggling with thoughts of suicide.

It is good that individuals and organizations are attempting to provide suicide prevention services, but the Church needs to pay more attention to the needs of young people. Too many congregations assume that their role is entertaining young people rather than opening dialogues about our purpose in life and the importance of faith when life is rough. The “Does God Exist?” ministry offers free videos online, free postage-paid correspondence courses, and class teaching materials to assist the Church in providing answers to questions young people ask. We also welcome questions that we answer privately and online.

As the world plunges deeper into naturalism, greed, humanism, atheism, the break up of family, and denial of purpose for our existence, we can expect more frustration in the minds of young people. Some kids survive in spite of us, but suicide prevention services can’t address the needs of all kids. Jesus gave a pattern for life in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7, and His teachings make sense to thinking young people. What they see in world leaders does not.

— John N. Clayton © 2024
Information from USA Today Network-New England. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and the National Alliance on Mental Health provide phone and online help. You can dial 988 or online chat988lifeline.org. The Samaritans phone number, 877-870-4673, is available 24/7 for calls or text messages.