DOES GOD EXIST? TODAY - Page 2 of 249 - Evidence for God In the Things He Has Made

July 12, 2024July 8, 2024

The Futility Of Atheism

One of our co-workers, Douglas Jacobi, is far more educated and articulate than I am and works with atheists and skeptics daily. We have reviewed his books and worked with him in various settings over the years. Douglas presented an interesting set of quotes from atheists and believers about the futility of atheism. I would encourage you to think about the implications of these statements:

ATHEISTS-
Julian Barnes – “I don’t believe in God, but I miss Him.” Many atheists grew up in a home whose parents tried to instill faith in them but failed. Barnes points out that the existence of a standard for morality that works and a guide that gives purpose to life is missing from the belief system of an atheist.

Thomas Nagel – “I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers … I don’t want there to be a God; I don’t want the universe to be like that.” The idea that intelligent people are atheists and religious people are not is a bogus belief. See the “Scientists and God” section of our quarterly journal.

BELIEVERS-
G.K. Chesterton – “If there were no God, there would be no atheists.” This was tried in Liberal Mo, where all religious beliefs were forced out of the city. The city collapsed in less than three years, and the leading promoters of the godless city stated that he never wanted to live in a town with no churches again. Immorality and selfish abuse ruled, and the atheists left town.

Os Guinness—Many of the Church’s defectors are not atheists or even agnostics but in limbo between the characteristic halfway houses of “believing without belonging” or still “belonging without believing.” The Church is not immune to human weakness, but letting human failures drive you away is no answer to hypocrisy.

ATHEIST EPITAPH –
“Here lies an atheist: all dressed up and no place to go.” The futility of atheism is because, for an atheist, there is no purpose in living and no hope when he dies.

Reference: DouglasJacoby.com

July 11, 2024July 8, 2024

Genetics Dictate Biological Gender

A significant issue in America today is what to do with young people who have decided to change their gender. Without getting into the theological issues, the scientific fact is that a person’s genetics dictate biological gender. Men and women are biologically different.

One of several demonstrations I used in my physics class was to have a boy and a girl stand with their heels against the wall and lean over to pick up something. Another demonstration is to have a man and woman of equal height kneel with their head in their hands and then put their hands behind their backs. Women can do that easily, while a man will fall on his face. This is due to the anatomical makeup of women compared to men. A woman’s pelvis is typically larger than a man’s pelvis. Thus, women tend to have a lower center of gravity. The position of the center of gravity in women is 55% of the total height, while in men it is 57%. Women’s center of gravity is vertically lower than men’s because their bodies are larger in the pelvis, but their shoulders are narrower.

The point of this is that genetics dictate biological gender. Changing your gender does not change the anatomical makeup given to you at birth. In practical terms, what does that mean for young people today?

1) In athletics, the birth gender will dictate the competence in certain sports. You won’t see trans males playing in the NBA. In swimming and track, there will be striking differences in performance with trans females who have a male body.
2) The long-term effect of hormones used to maintain a gender change is unknown, but most medical experts say it will not last for more than a decade, if that. The probability that a trans person will have a shortened life expectancy is very high.
3) Surgical procedures to accommodate trans changes cannot be reversed.
4) Some will use the whole trans agenda to take advantage of others. Allowing a transgender student to use bathrooms and locker rooms of their choice is going to lead to abuse by typical non-trans teenage students. Boys who want to go into a girl’s restroom and ogle females can do so by simply declaring they are trans.
5) Private colleges will not be able to have dormitories that are only for one sex. This is a massive problem with conservative Christian colleges who, for religious reasons, wish to remain able to offer boys’ dorms and girls’ dorms free of the opposing gender.

A U.S. appeals court rejected the Biden administration’s effort to allow transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms and join sports teams that align with their chosen gender. The Biden administration was trying to protect the rights of LGBTQ students, but the question is whether they were violating the rights of non-LGBTQ students.

Genetics dictate biological gender. We suggest that from a Christian apologetics standpoint, the result will be catastrophic whenever humans try to change God’s plan and design for anything. This is just one more example of that.

Reference: “Biden administration loses bid to revive legal protections for LGBTQ students” by Daniel Wiessner on Reuters news service (June 14, 2024).

July 10, 2024July 8, 2024

The Issue of Mindsets

Both believers and non-believers are affected by their mindsets. In the 55 years our ministry has existed, we have found that the mindset of people on both sides of issues is the source of conflict between atheists and believers, evolutionists and creationists. Dr. Katherine Beals, an education expert, wrote an excellent article on the issue of mindsets. She distinguishes between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset.

The fixed mindset leads to the following ways of thinking: I know best – This is good enough – I’ll never be that smart – I want to avoid making mistakes – I give up. As you read those five statements, consider what you hear from older people in established congregations today. They reject any proposal to do things differently even though there is no scriptural reason for not using another method. The same problem exists with evolutionists who are so fixed in their mindset that they refuse to listen to any attempt to harmonize belief in God with their evolutionary theories.

On the other hand, the growth mindset leads to these ways of thinking: Is this my best work? – Mistakes help me learn – Feedback is valuable – I improve with practice – I won’t give up. Jesus commonly used the phrase, “What do you think?” The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7 is full of admonitions to the people of His day to think with a growth mindset.

Interestingly, Jesus Christ ran into the issue of mindsets as He dealt with people in matters of faith. The Pharisees and Sadducees had fixed mindsets, and they crucified Jesus because He didn’t fit their mindset. At the same time, gentiles had a growth mindset, wanting to know more and being willing to change. For example, the story of Cornelius in Acts 10 shows that he had a growth mindset and was willing to change. In Paul’s missionary journies, he found that Jews had a fixed mindset while the Gentiles had a growth mindset.

The Church today is struggling with the issue of mindsets. Young people have a growth mindset, and the older congregations have a fixed mindset. This is manifested in many ways. The real problem is that congregations with a fixed mindset will eventually die out. From the beginning, Christianity, with its growth mindset, grew and is still growing. Fixed-mindset congregations will die when the fixed-mindset members die, but the Lord’s Chuch will continue to grow and expand. Our ministry is about growth and learning. Won’t you join us?

Reference: Skeptical Inquirer for July/August 2024, pages 49-51

July 9, 2024July 8, 2024

Negatives of Marijuana Use

We live in Buchanan, Michigan, which some have called “The Marijuana Capitol of the Midwest.” Others have dubbed the town “Bucannabis.” I have lost count of how many marijuana outlets there are between Buchanan and Niles, Michigan, but there must be at least a dozen. It has been interesting to see the proponents pushing the supposed benefits while ignoring the negatives of marijuana use.

It is true that the number of drug arrests in our area hasn’t changed much since the legalization was instituted. However, we see a high percentage of out-of-state license plates on cars at these establishments, so our local data may not be meaningful. Commercial sales of marijuana have exceeded 48 million users in the United States, while medical issues are the most disturbing aspect of the negatives of marijuana use.

Medical information is now available in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the British Medical Journal, and from studies done at Columbia University. We know that cannabis has a very negative influence on the outcomes of pregnancy. Recent studies have linked marijuana to bad health outcomes involving the lungs, hearts, brains, and gonads of users. Smoking weed increases the risk of clogged arteries and heart failure. It has also been linked to chronic bronchitis, and cannabis plants bring metal pollutants such as lead into the user’s bloodstream.

The biblical teaching that our bodies are the “temple of the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 3:16) tells us the importance of caring for our bodies. That includes not engaging in the use of recreational drugs as we learn the harm they can cause to our bodies. As the negatives of marijuana use become apparent, we see the wisdom of God’s instructions.

Reference: Scientific American for March 2024, pages 20-21.

July 8, 2024July 7, 2024

Just Right for Life to Exist

Since astronomers have discovered more than 5,000 exoplanets orbiting stars other than our Sun, many insist there must be life elsewhere in the cosmos. For those of us who believe in God, that isn’t really an issue. If there is life out there, God created it, but the Bible only speaks to our planet. However, the evidence is growing that our planet is more unique than most people realize. A “Goldilocks” planet is at the proper distance from its star so that the temperature is “just right” for liquid water to exist on the surface. Some exoplanets appear to be in the habitable zones of their stars, but many other factors must also be just right for life to exist there.

Most known exoplanets are like Jupiter, having no terrestrial surface. To support life, a planet must be the right size, have a stable orbit inside the habitable zone of a stable star, and have the right atmosphere. It must also have working plate tectonics and a large moon to maintain a stable axis tilt. To be just right for life to exist, a planet must also be in the habitable zone of its galaxy – not near the center, exposing it to lethal gamma-ray bursts.

Our Sun is a G spectral star, but only 9% of the stars in our galaxy are that type. M-class dwarf stars are the most common and long-lived stars, but they emit large amounts of radiation that would cook any life on their planets. Also, planets around such a star would become tidal-locked, with one side facing the star being excessively hot while the other remains cold.

Another star system requirement for life would be having outer planets large enough and in the correct position to sweep away asteroids and comets that would bombard an inner planet. To support life, a planet also needs a strong magnetic field to shield the surface from the star’s radiation and cosmic rays.

Our Earth is just right for life to exist. We are defining life as the biology books do: being able to move, breathe, respond to outside stimuli, and reproduce. Any conjecture about fire people or rock people is in science fiction – not scientific fact. The bottom line is that Earth is a special place created by God for a special purpose and is unique among all other objects in the cosmos.

Reference: “Is Earth the Only Goldilocks Panet?” in Discover magazine, July/August 2024, pages 54 -57.

July 5, 2024July 2, 2024

Displaying the Ten Commandments in Schools

A strange collection of special interest groups has challenged a Louisiana law that requires displaying the Ten Commandments in schools. Atheist groups would be expected, and they include Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation. More surprising is that Jewish families have joined in the lawsuit.

The Jewish parents against the new law maintain that it is based on Christianity. The law specifies the required text of the Ten Commandments. They say that in the Jewish version, the first commandment contains a section about God bringing the Israelites out of Egypt. There is also a Jewish complaint that the law’s spelling of the word “God” should be “G-D,” leaving out the “o” to avoid taking the name in vain. Also, Protestants and Catholics number the commandments differently.

Similar laws calling for displaying the Ten Commandments in schools are proposed in Texas, Utah, and Oklahoma. The complaints raised by parents on all sides of the issue show a failure to do what Jesus told His followers to do. In Matthew 22:21, Jesus said, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” Public education aims to develop secular skills in our young people. That is the work of the state (Caesar). The religious teaching of children is the responsibility God gave to parents.

The real issue here is that people who claim to be Christians want someone else to provide their children’s religious education rather than doing what God told parents to do. The suit argues that the law violates the First Amendment, which prohibits the state from “respecting an establishment of religion” because it specifies a religious text for displaying the Ten Commandments in Schools.

Reference: JTA for June 25, 2024, by Jackie Hajdenberg.

July 4, 2024July 2, 2024

Corn Growing in America

God has blessed us with many different plants for food. In Genesis 3:17-19 we read, “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil, you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow, you will eat your food until you return to the ground since from it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you will return.” If you have ever had a large garden or a farm, you know how true these words are. Plants provide food and essential materials for people worldwide, and corn growing is dominant in the United States.

One bushel of corn requires 50 to 60 plants, yielding 91 ears. That boils down to 80,000 kernels, which will produce corn syrup for 400 cans of soda or 2.8 gallons of ethanol. In the United States, farmers use 90 million acres to grow corn, and 40% of it is used to make ethanol. Corn is also used to make sweeteners, starches, oils, medicines, cosmetics, bioplastics, crayons, toothpaste, and salad dressings.

Corn growing is a major farming activity in Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, and neighboring states. The history of corn cultivation is fascinating. A wild grass called teosinte produced small ears of a material called maize. Through selective breeding, Mexican farmers produced some 250 kinds of corn. Modern agricultural science has continued to produce larger ears with greater nutritional content. Corn, as we know it, was not available to the ancient Hebrews, but other grains were.

Today, many are rightfully concerned about the increasing conversion of grasslands into cornfields. Corn cultivation, with its substantial water requirements and potential impact on climate and water pollution, raises important environmental issues. As stewards of God’s creation, we are entrusted with the responsibility to ‘take care of the garden’ (Genesis 2:15). We possess the tools and resources to fulfill this duty and must use them wisely, ensuring that we are good stewards of God’s gifts.

Reference: worldwildlife.org

July 3, 2024July 2, 2024

Firefly Frequencies at Work

There are 56 species of flying lightning bugs, or fireflies, and each emits light of a different frequency. The different firefly frequencies cause different colors, such as green, yellow, or red, but science has found that the frequencies are far more precise than the color. The fact that each species has a particular wavelength allows fireflies to find mates, even in an area where other life forms use bioluminescence.

Fireflies have four stages. They begin as eggs but spend most of their 61-day existence as larvae, eating snails, slugs, and worms. They have a pupa stage just before becoming adults. Bioluminescence serves mainly as a way for males and females to find each other, and having the right frequency is essential in that process. Research is continuing on how the frequencies are specified, but 56 species means that the frequency variation has to be carefully created and controlled.

Most living things have methods of communication that serve multiple purposes. Communication allowing males and females to find each other is always risky because it exposes them to predators. Because fireflies’ flashing is sporadic and not a steady glow, they are less likely to be eaten. If you have tried to catch these flying lightning bugs, you know how hard it is because they flash and run, making them hard to locate.

We can learn many things by studying the natrual world, including the chemistry that allows various firefly frequencies of bioluminescence. In the firefly we see another demonstration of God’s wisdom and intelligence.

Reference: PBS “Nature” program on May 16, 2024.

July 2, 2024July 1, 2024

Animal Memory Capacity

One of the most interesting areas of study in living things is animal memory capacity. Memory is designed into animals to benefit both them and other forms of life in their ecosystem. We see a good example of partial memory in squirrels who bury massive numbers of seeds, such as acorns, but only remember where they put a fraction of them. What that means is that the squirrels have enough to eat, but they plant trees over a huge geographic area. There are many forms of life where partial memory serves a similar purpose.

On the other hand, some life forms remember virtually 100%. A good example of this is Clark’s Nutcrackers. They survive on pinion seeds, and a single bird may hide as many as 30,000 seeds, placing 4 or 5 seeds in each spot. Throughout the winter, the Nutcracker, when hungry, will return to each hiding place to get food. By the time spring arrives, this bird will have consumed almost all of the seeds hidden in thousands of different places.

It is interesting that different forms of life have different memory capacities that benefit not only themselves but also their environment. You could compare it to thumb drives for your computer, having different memory capacities depending on the thumb drive’s design. God has placed different storage in the memory of the brain of each creature He created. In humans, that storage capacity is huge and can be accessed in many ways. In the animal world, there is an interaction with the environment that is beneficial to the animals and the environment.

Trying to explain this animal memory capacity by evolutionary reasoning is incredibly difficult and is full of assumptions. Those of us who believe in God as the creator understand why this kind of thing occurs over and over. It speaks of God and His wisdom and design in the world around us.

Reference: Our Fascinating Earth: Strange, True Stories of Nature’s Oddities, Bizarre Phenomena, and Scientific Curiosities by Dr. Philip Seff, Ph.D.

July 1, 2024June 29, 2024

One of the Natural World’s Most Amazing Things

The hummingbird is one of the natural world’s most amazing things. Researchers have compiled new hummingbird data using modern methods, including high-speed photography. An adult hummingbird weighs roughly 4 grams, and to get a handle on that, a penny weighs about 2.5 grams. There are 21 species of hummingbirds in North America, and one species, called the bee hummingbird, weighs less than a penny.

Hummingbirds don’t beat their wings as most birds do; instead, they rotate them in a figure-eight pattern. That allows them to hover and fly backward or even upside down. The rate of wing motion is up to 80 cycles per second. That is within the range of human hearing and explains the humming sound that gives these birds their name. The metabolic rates of hummingbirds are amazing, as their heart rate is around 1,260 beats, and their breathing rate is 250 breaths per minute. These rapid rates mean hummingbirds may find a place to rest as often as every 15 minutes.

One of the natural world’s most amazing things is that hummingbirds can travel non-stop across the Gulf of Mexico in spring and autumn. Before embarking on that trip, they double their body weight with nectar and insects. When the temperature is low, they go into hypothermic torpor to survive.

The hummingbird’s eyes have a dense concentration of cones in their retinas containing pigments that act as filters to heighten color sensitivity to red while muting blue. Pollination is a major purpose of hummingbirds. Ruby-throated hummingbirds deposit ten times as much pollen as bumblebees, and their life expectancy is 3 to 6 years.

It is with great joy that I watch hummingbirds come to the feeder outside my office window. Their various characteristics speak of the wonder of God’s creation, defying chance explanation. Once again, we “can know there is a God through the things He has made” (Romans 1:20). The hummingbird is one of the natural world’s most amazing things.

Reference: “Fascinating Hummingbird Facts” by Tom Warren on Almanac.com