Evidence for God in the Bible Archives

February 5, 2022February 5, 2022

Christianity and the Origin of Science

Stephen C. Meyer and the origin of science — Stephen C. Meyer

One of the most prolific writers in the field of apologetics is Stephen C. Meyer of the Discovery Institute. His book Return of the God Hypothesis has stirred up a great deal of discussion in academic circles, and Prager University has been promoting his work on the web. One of his interesting points relates to the origin of science.

Stephen Meyer points out that science began in western Europe, and he attributes that to the tenants of Christianity. However, all cultures have made significant contributions to human progress and technology. For example, the Chinese perfected the use of gunpowder and rockets. Islam contributed to the field of mathematics and applications of math to astronomy. The Incas and various Central and South American native populations made significant progress in agriculture, irrigation, and land use. Egyptian and African cultures built marvelous pyramids and employed incredible engineering techniques to build great memorials.

In all of these cases, there was no advancement of science as occurred in western Europe. The science of western Europe culminated in enormous progress in chemistry, physics, biology, and medicine. It resulted in industrialization and the high standard of living that we enjoy in America today. While ignorance, greed, and selfishness may have contaminated that progress in modern times, the origin of science is in the belief system of Christianity.

The biblical concept of the natural world shows us that it is intelligible. If you believe there is design and order in nature that we can understand, we can study that design and use it. The great heroes of western science saw that there was order and planning in what they were investigating. The “Scientists and God” column in our quarterly journal contains quotes from the great minds in western science expressing that the universe is orderly because the Creator made it that way, and we can understand it. The Christian system was the basis of their work. The Bible condemns witchcraft, spiritualism, sorcery, and multiple gods and goddesses fighting each other, resulting in chaos.

The orderliness of the universe is based on laws such as the laws of thermodynamics. Fixed laws guide the fields of astrophysics, geology, and oceanography. The whole basis of Darwin’s understanding of biology was that there is an order to life that depends on the environments in which living things find themselves.

Webster defines science as “knowledge,” and modern knowledge has come from the biblical beliefs of a creation that can be understood and has order and design. The origin of science did not come from a chaotic belief system that embraced mysticism and spirits.

February 3, 2022February 2, 2022

The Biblical Description of God

It is amazing to see the level of ignorance of the nature of God displayed in the media and cartoons and by prominent entertainment figures. It is no wonder young people are turned off by religion. People need to see the Biblical description of God.

It’s easy to see the poor understanding of God in statements about where God is, when He does things, if He is dead, what sex God is, what race God is, what politics God has, what nation God supports, or who created God. A good part of this comes from religious systems outside of Christianity that portray God in nationalistic, racial, or pantheistic terms.

The biblical description of God is radically different from what you may hear. The biblical concept of God is not physical in any way. God created time and space, so He must be outside of time and space. Jeremiah 23:23-24 talks about God “filling heaven (space) and Earth.” Acts 17:28 describes God as an entity “in whom we live and move and have our being.” In 2 Peter 3:8, Psalms 90:4, and Palms 102:27, we read that God is outside of time. Numerous passages talk about things that God did before time began. (See Proverbs 8:22-23, John 1:1-3, Revelation 1:8, etc.)

God has created our three-dimensional world from an existence outside of the three dimensions in which we live. It is no longer possible for skeptics to deny the existence of dimensions beyond our familiar X, Y, and Z cartesian coordinates. Quantum mechanics clearly shows dimensions beyond our own, and theories like string theory propose up to eleven spatial dimensions. The only way we can even remotely comprehend these dimensions is to study their properties.

That is precisely what we see in the biblical description of God. The Bible explains God by His properties. For example, the Bible says God is light (1 John 1:5), God is the Word (John 1:1), God is unseen (1 John 4:12), God is not a man (Numbers 23:19), God is not flesh and blood (Matthew 16:17), God is love (1 John 4:8 & 16), and God is spirit (John 4:24).

In the same way that the Bible gives properties of God, it also gives properties of heaven and hell. Hell is not a hole in the ground or a big cave with little men in red suits running around jabbing people. The Bible symbolically describes hell as darkness and flaming sulfur (brimstone). Hell is a spiritual condition separated from God and all of His properties. Unfortunately, cartoon pictures of hell are steeped in ignorance and often mock the concept of spiritual responsibility.

How would you describe what you see to a man who has been blind from birth? How would you explain color? How can you talk about music to a person totally deaf from birth? This is the kind of problem the Bible writers have in describing God, heaven, hell, and the whole concept of spiritual awareness.

If you reject God, that is your prerogative, but at least do so on the level He claims to exist. Don’t reject God based on your own concept or the false concept of someone else. Instead, examine the biblical description of God. For more on this, go to our doesgodexist.org website and read the two booklets titled “A Help In Understanding What God Is” and “Who Created God?”

January 31, 2022January 29, 2022

The Burden of Alzheimer’s Disease

One of the great scourges today is Alzheimer’s. At present, over six million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s. That is 1 in 9 people age 65 and older and 11.3% of the senior population. Since 2000, deaths from Alzheimer’s have increased by 145%. The burden of Alzheimer’s disease affects many of us in various ways – financially, emotionally, and spiritually.

Medical science is still looking for the causes of Alzheimer’s. There is a genetic connection, and Alzheimer’s also seems to be a product of environmental factors. God does not cause it, and so far, it appears to be untreatable. One of the blessings of Alzheimer’s is that the afflicted person is not aware of what is happening to them. In most cases, they do not recognize family or friends or what has taken place, good or bad, in the past.

I have seen that when we apply Christian principles, people with Alzheimer’s respond positively. First Thessalonians 5: 14 tells us to “comfort the feebleminded, support the weak and be patient with all men.” Alzheimer’s patients respond to kindness and love. As Christians, we have the unique perspective of putting the past behind us and accepting people where they are – not where they were 25 years ago.

If your view of life is “survival of the fittest,” you will have very little empathy for someone living with Alzheimer’s. That person is no longer among the fittest and may be a burden. On the other hand, if your view is that all humans have value and God will bless us for serving those in need, the burden of Alzheimer’s disease becomes an opportunity.

Matthew 25:21-40 finds Jesus talking about the blessing of serving others. Verse 36 speaks of Christians reaching out to help someone who is sick or in prison. Alzheimer’s is a kind of prison and is certainly a sickness. The need for us to bring love, care, and relief applies as much to an Alzheimer’s patient as to anyone else.

Data from Alzheimer’s Association (alz.org) 1-800-272-3900.

January 29, 2022January 26, 2022

Christianity Brings Freedom from Ceremonial Laws

People must decide how to live and how to treat one another. The atheistic evolutionary system suggests that the only governing law is “survival of the fittest.” Writers like Ayn Rand espoused the idea that if we do what benefits us personally, the world will become a utopia. From a biblical standpoint, there are three systems of laws that answer the question of how we should live, and Christianity brings freedom from ceremonial laws.

Christianity is not a set of “thou shalt not” rules, but misconceptions abound because people don’t understand the difference between the Old and New testaments. The Old Testament emphasized ceremonial laws. Leviticus describes a rigid set of laws to follow. (See the first 13 verses of chapter 1.)

In the New Testament, Galatians 3:10-25 refers to this system as a “curse” because breaking one ceremonial law invalidates the whole system. Many people believe those ceremonial laws are binding today. However, Colossians 2:13-17 points out that Christ did away with the ceremonial laws. The New Testament does urge Christians to pray while allowing tremendous freedom as to how and when. Only communion and baptism could be considered ceremonial activities.

The second kind of law we all have to deal with is civil law. Deuteronomy 24 is an example of applying laws of that kind at the time of Moses. Civil laws have changed as culture has changed. Romans 13:1-7 tells Christians to obey civil law, but those laws can sometimes conflict with the third kind of law, which is moral law.

The moral laws of the Old Testament were all repeated in the New Testament, but Christ gave us a way to successfully follow laws that benefit humans. The teachings of Christ deal with attitudes. Rather than just saying “do not murder,” Christ says “do not be angry” (Matthew 5:22). Rather than saying “do not commit adultery,” Christ says not to look on a person with sexual intent (Matthew 5:28).

Christianity brings freedom in many ways. That includes freedom from ceremony, power struggles, violence, racism, and gender issues. Christian faith also frees us from arranged marriages, religious taxes, and spending money on extravagant buildings, idols, or shrines. Yet, tragically, some have encumbered people with ceremonial laws and destructive civil laws in the name of Christianity. Jesus said, “You shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32).

January 25, 2022January 24, 2022

The Question of Euthanasia

Technological advances bring new issues for society to face. Near the top of the list is the question of euthanasia. Medical advances now allow people to live a very long time with health issues that would have resulted in early death in the past.

On January 7, 2022, Victor Escobar became the first person in Colombia without a terminal illness to legally end his life by injection. The country removed the penalty for euthanasia in 1997, but only for people considered to have less than six months to live. In Escobar’s case, he had several physical problems, including two strokes, obstructive pulmonary disease, hypertension, diabetes, and pain. However, he was not considered terminal by the medical profession.

Escobar’s case was the first in Latin America, and it got attention because the Catholic Church issued a statement. The church said that “any action or omission with the intention of provoking death to overcome pain constitutes homicide.”

The question of euthanasia is fundamental to Christians. In 1 Corinthians 3:16, we read that the body is the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. Passages such as 1 Corinthians 6:15-20 make it clear that the body has a special relationship to God’s Spirit. The other issue involved in euthanasia is what constitutes justification for killing a person. Is mental or spiritual pain a valid justification? There is a “slippery slope” concern in euthanasia where a correctable or temporary mental problem can be used to justify taking a life.

Many states in the U.S. have legalized so-called “death with dignity,” and organizations are working to make it nationwide. Several other countries have enacted such laws, and in a few cases, a physician has euthanized a patient without their permission.

While we can understand Escobar’s situation and the growing push to make euthanasia an accepted part of life’s journey, human life is not the same as animal life. Euthanizing a dog is not the same as killing a human. I have known Christians with chronic conditions who used their pain to minister to others, heal old emotional wounds, bring peace, and correct previous mistakes.

Rather than treating humans as highly evolved animals with no more value than a frog, we need to work to relieve all pain. The same technology that allows people to live despite a chronic illness should also be able to ease the pain caused by the condition. In addition, we can provide alternatives to ending life by caring for all people on their spiritual journey. The question of euthanasia should lead us toward allowing God to determine when the end of life should be.

Reference: liveaction.org

January 24, 2022January 23, 2022

The Whole Earth Sings

One of the fun units in physics is the study of vibrations and resonance. A simple demonstration of sympathetic vibration is an apparatus that consists of a tuning fork mounted on a wooden box. If you place near it a second box with a tuning fork of the same frequency, you can hear the effect called “resonance” or “sympathetic vibration.” Striking the tuning fork on one box will cause the tuning fork on the second box to start “singing” without being touched. A second tuning fork with a different vibration frequency will not respond. The amazing thing is that the whole earth sings.

When building a guitar or violin, a craftsman has to be very careful not to allow any part of the instrument’s box to naturally vibrate at the same frequency as the strings. If it does, that frequency will be louder than all other frequencies, and the sound will be distorted.

This effect is not confined to tuning forks and musical instruments. Resonance is all around us and in us. For example, your inner ear has hairs of varying lengths and thicknesses, resulting in specific vibration frequencies. If a sound at that frequency reaches your ear, the hair will vibrate and signal the brain to identify the pitch. Not having some of those hairs produces tone-deafness.

Taking a fine glass goblet and running a moistened finger around the edge will produce a tone at a specific frequency. That is the natural frequency of the goblet. You can produce a sound at the resonant frequency of a glass that will cause it to shatter, but probably not with any human voice.

Amazingly, researchers have found that everything in the natural world has a resonant frequency. For example, recent research on the Matterhorn near Zermatt, Switzerland, shows that it vibrates with a resonant frequency. The mountain actually vibrates about once every two seconds (.42 cycles per second.). Our ears hear sound frequencies between about 20 and 20,000 cycles per second, so we need instruments to detect the Matterhorn’s frequency.

You could say that the whole earth sings. Interestingly, the Bible refers to mountains, and even stars, singing. (See Isaiah 44:23, 49:13 and Job 38:7). Isaiah and Job certainly didn’t understand their statements to refer to mountain resonance. However, our understanding of what happens in nature gives new meaning to this poetry describing how the whole earth sings praise to God.

Reference: National Science Foundation research report for January 19, 2022

January 22, 2022January 21, 2022

Tiny Frogs and Large Tarantulas

Researchers constantly find things in the natural world that show special arrangements, allowing life to exist. For example, tiny frogs called dotted humming frogs (Chiasmocleis ventrimaculata) share a home with large tarantulas in a mutualistic relationship.

Large tarantulas eat frogs, but these tiny frogs have toxins in their skin that make them unpalatable to the tarantulas. Scientists studying this arrangement have seen young spiders pick up a dotted humming frog, taste it, and then quickly put it back down. However, these frogs have a symbiotic relationship with large tarantulas known as Columbian lesserblacks (Xenesthis immanis). The tarantulas share their burrows with the frogs. As a result, the spider protects the frog and its eggs from predators, while the frog protects the spider’s eggs from ants and other insects by eating them.

As biologists study the natural world, they find many cases where an animal lives in a symbiotic relationship with another animal or plant. For example, having a burrow to shield from exposure to the Sun and large tarantulas as bodyguards for protection from predators is an ideal situation for the tiny frogs and an example of the wisdom and design built into the natural world.

Life that endures requires thinking and planning, and everywhere we look, we see wisdom at work, allowing our planet to teem with living things. Proverbs 8 finds Wisdom challenging us to understand: “Does not wisdom cry out and understanding put forth her voice? … Unto you O men I call… Oh, you simple ones, understand wisdom, and you foolish ones have an understanding heart…” We can learn from the animals as we find ways to protect our food supply rather than saturating our world with toxic chemicals.

— John N. Clayton 2022

References: Popular Science Newsletter (January 19, 2022) and Wikipedia

January 18, 2022January 17, 2022

When the First Humans Lived and How they Looked

Those who maintain that humans have been on Earth for less than 10,000 years face many evidence problems. This website has consistently pointed out that the Bible does not tell us when the first humans lived and how they looked.

The word “Adam” in Hebrew simply means “of the ground,” and Genesis tells us that God made Adam of “the dust (aphar) of the ground” (see Genesis 2:7 and 3:19). Genesis 1:29 and 2:9-16 tell us that the first humans began as vegetarians. The Bible does not tell us how long humans existed as “gatherers,” but Genesis 3:17-19 portrays humans becoming farmers securing food “by the sweat of your face.”

Some in the religious community view all of this as happening within the past 6,000 years. They may also view Adam as a white European with blue eyes and brown hair. Genesis 5:5 tells us that Adam lived for 930 years. If James 4:14 is correct, and human life “is a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away,” there is an obvious biblical disconnect. The truth is that the Bible does not tell us when the first humans lived and how they looked.

Discover magazine’s January/February 2022 issue has an article about what they call “2021’s hottest fossil.” Discovered in northeast China, this specimen was named “Homo longi.” Some scientists think it may be a Denisovan or a Neanderthal. Neanderthals, Denisovans, Homo sapiens, and possibly Homo longi all seem to have interbred and contributed DNA to you and me. They may have looked different from us, and their living styles were undoubtedly different. However, while they were primitive by modern standards, the discoveries show ornamental beads, primitive tools, and funerary ritual materials, indicating an awareness of the spiritual and a concept of life after death.

More to the point, the scientific evidence indicates that the first humans lived far more than 6,000 years ago and looked different from the average caucasian today. Many believers in God try to discredit the dating methods or deny the interpretation or even the existence of the fossils. That is becoming increasingly difficult as science gathers more evidence and improves dating and reconstruction techniques.

Our stereotypical views of when the first humans lived and how they looked are tainted by racism and tradition and don’t change the evidence. Adam lived long ago, was created in God’s image, began as a gatherer, and eventually became a farmer. We create conflict when we depict Adam living 6,000 years ago.

Reference: Discover magazine January/February 2022

January 16, 2022January 12, 2022

What Christianity Is Not

It is interesting to read atheist websites and realize the basis for their atheism. In many cases, atheists say the reasons they don’t believe in God are the same reasons I had when I was an atheist. If those reasons were valid, I would still be an atheist today. Let’s consider what Christianity is not:

JUDAIZED CHRISTIANITY: Many of us do not care for ritual or ceremony. We also have little or no use for those who claim their position in life makes them of greater importance than others. The biblical concept of Christianity also rejects those things. In Acts 15:5, some wanted to force religious rituals on the gentile Christians. Verse 10 tells us the leaders rejected that idea. In Matthew 15:1-9, Christ soundly rejected human caste systems and traditions. In 1 Corinthians 7:17-24, we read that God takes us wherever we are in life. Galatians 3:26-28 makes it clear that in authentic Christianity, everyone is equal no matter what their race, sex, or ethnicity.

LEGALIZED CHRISTIANITY: As an atheist, I saw Christianity as a long list of “don’ts.” Everything I wanted to do was a “no no,” and if you engaged in it, you had massive piles of guilt heaped upon you. It took me a long time to understand that you don’t earn salvation in the Christian system. It is a gift of God (Ephesians 2:8). In 1 Corinthians 13, we find that there are three things a Christian should have – “faith, hope, and love but the greatest of these is love.” Legalism is what Christianity is not.

LAWLESS CHRISTIANITY: Closely related to legalized Christianity is “lawless Christianity,” in which a person or a group of persons spell out what is okay and what is not okay. There is no written authority in lawless Christianity. Instead, the rules are laid down and interpreted by a religious leader. The “clergy/laity” system is not logical or biblical. Humans are not only selfish and ignorant, but they are prone to power struggles. In many cases, lawless Christianity has turned the Christian system into an entertainment business. I can get better entertainment in the secular world than any human or group of humans can produce in a church building.

Don’t reject God because of what Christianity is not. Read James 1:27, Matthew 25:31-40 ,and Acts 2:38-47. There you will see that Christianity changes people, makes the world a better place to live, and fulfills one of the most important needs we all have. That is the need for a reliable and functional spiritual experience, because we are created in the spiritual image of God.

January 11, 2022January 11, 2022

Deliberate Denial of Evidence

One characteristic of many people today is the deliberate denial of evidence. In a recent discussion with a big-name pro-abortion politician, I asked when he believed a fetus became a human – conception, birth, or somewhere in between. He responded that he had not considered the question. I asked if he would be willing to consider scientific evidence that could answer the question. Again, he responded that he would not.

Some of my female friends who are loud proponents of “a woman’s right to choose” have given me a similar response. How can you make a decision about abortion if you don’t know when a fetus is a human?

This deliberate denial of evidence is not new. People in Jesus’ day watched Him perform miracles, but still rejected and even killed Him. I have presented many atheists with credible evidence that the God of the Bible is real. In a recent discussion with a young college student, she proudly declared she was an atheist. When I presented a series of facts to show there is a God, she jumped up and screamed at me, “I just don’t want to believe!” There was a deafening silence, and I saw tears streaming down her face. She was desperate to justify her disbelief.

Jesus was aware of the human tendency toward deliberate denial of evidence that we don’t want to accept. Mark 9:17-24 tells the story of a man who brought to Jesus, his son who had a convulsive spirit. The man said that Jesus’ disciples could not drive out the spirit, and Jesus indicated the reason was a lack of faith. The father said to Jesus, “If you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.” Jesus responded by repeating the man’s words, “If you can?” Then he told the father that he needed to have faith, to which the father replied, “I do believe, help me overcome my unbelief.”

Humans want to maintain control over what they believe, even if it requires a deliberate denial of evidence. Like the father who brought his son to Jesus, a person must be open to the evidence and willing to accept it, rather than denying the evidence and even refusing to hear or see it.