John N Clayton Archives

July 21, 2025July 20, 2025

Trial of the Century?

In July 1925, what is known as the “Scopes Monkey Trial” was held in Dayton, Tennessee. Now, 100 years later, the battle over evolution continues. USA TODAY ran a 12-page special edition on July 13, 2025, giving an excellent historical exposé and claiming that what was at stake was “modern science versus religion.” The article also addresses current issues, including the representation of LGBTQ+ books in schools today. The paper claims that the so-called “trial of the century” was America’s first major culture war battle.

In an era when American education is undergoing massive change, there are many questions: Do schools have the right to ban certain books? Who should write the curriculum? Can the Bible be displayed in public schools? Should school prayer be allowed? Are vouchers the answer for school choice? Should schools be involved in sex education? Should the 10 commandments be displayed? Should schools have chaplains? These issues are being battled in courts, school board meetings, PTA presentations, and churches.

Many churches have established their own schools, and private schools are increasingly replacing public schools in various locations. One side effect is that money and teachers are being pulled away from the public schools. How do you teach a lab course when you have no funds to purchase equipment for students to use?

The sad part of all of this is that most of the conflict is unnecessary. The “Does God Exist?” ministry is based on the simple fact that science and faith are friends, not enemies. Modern science may disagree with some denominational teachings, but it does not contradict the Bible. If you read the Bible carefully, you will see that it consistently deals with evidence. Science is knowledge, and if God is the source of knowledge, the two MUST BE SYMBIOTIC – mutually supportive of each other.

The Scopes “trial of the century” centered on the topic of evolution. It is foolish to think that change does not occur in living things. How many different breeds of dogs, cats, chickens, cattle, and corn exist today? How did they come into being? The answer is “evolution,” but this was guided evolution. This is not to be confused with naturalism, which holds that blind chance can explain all that we observe in the natural world. Evolution is simply unfolding change, and it is undeniable, as evidenced by adaptive changes within species.

We urge our readers to go to our website doesgodexist.org or watch our video series on doesgodexist.tv for more information. Enroll in our correspondence course or read our free books. None of this requires any money – it is all free. It is essential to understand why you believe what you believe and be able to support it with evidence. We are here to help as you wade through the “trial of the century” media presentations.

July 15, 2025July 14, 2025

Radical Sea Level Changes

Scientific American magazine reported that if the entire Greenland ice sheet melted, global sea levels would rise by 24 feet. The article clarified by saying, “The sheet won’t melt all at once, of course…” What articles like this fail to convey is that Earth has experienced radical sea level changes throughout both geologic and human history.

Geologic history shows marine deposits in places you wouldn’t expect. When I taught earth science, I took my classes to Thornton Reef on the south edge of Chicago, Illinois. I am told that the gravel pit now occupying the reef is the largest in the United States. On one trip there, a student found the tube of a cephalopod, an ancient giant octopus-like creature. Clam shells, snail shells, and brachiopods filled buckets that my students took home. This reef is similar to modern ocean reefs, except it winds through the south side of Chicago with a major interstate highway running right through it.

Other examples of historic radical sea level changes are abundant. Oolitic limestone in southern Indiana consists of tiny ocean creatures called oolites. The limestone in the Grand Canyon contains marine deposits. On the other end of the scale, canyons are cut into continental shelves along the U.S. East Coast of the United States. Those canyons were cut when the shelf was out of water. Scuba divers have reported signs of ancient human-made structures and fire pits in those canyons.

Was the Red Sea at the same level when Moses led the Israelites across? Are people searching for Egyptian armor and chariot remains in the wrong spots? The “Sea of Reeds” was likely dry land at that time, so efforts there are probably doomed to fail. We still have much to learn about climate history, radical sea level changes, and ancient peoples. As our technology improves, discoveries will increase, and we look forward to uncovering more evidence of Earth’s history.

Reference: “Greenland’s Frozen Secret” in the July/August 2025 issue of Scientific American, pages 26-36.

John Cooper explores dry land evidence for the credibility of the biblical account in a series of videos produced by Does God Exist?

July 11, 2025July 8, 2025

The Evolution of the Bobtail Squid

Since the Scopes trial took place 100 years ago, numerous books and articles have been written in scientific journals, popular media, and other outlets regarding evolution and the biblical concept of God’s creation. We have attempted to clarify that the word “evolution” refers to an unfolding change and that it is a design feature of life on Earth. We have also pointed out that many features of living things are so complex that evolution cannot provide a reasonable explanation for their emergence through unguided gradualism. Today, we consider the evolution of the bobtail squid.

We are familiar with large animals, but often remain unaware of the intricate designs of smaller creatures that are essential for the natural world to exist. An example of this is the bobtail squid, a small creature in the coastal waters of most of the world’s oceans. They rarely reach three inches long but have eight sucker arms and two tentacles. They swim by using fins or by jet propulsion.

Bobtail Squid have a symbiotic relationship with bioluminescent bacteria. The squid supplies a sugar and amino acid solution to the bacteria, which emit light that hides the squid from predators below. Are the bobtail squid a special creation of God, or are they a product of evolution? The answer is that they are a product of unfolding change from cuttlefish.

Bobtail squid are classified in the class of cephalopods, sharing a subclass with squid and cuttlefish. Unlike modern taxonomic rankings, the groupings of animals in the Bible are very broad. Birds, for example, are just identified as fowl that fly, not robins, crows, sparrows, hawks, etc. Flightless birds such as penguins and ostriches have evolved through unfolding change over time. The waters bringing forth “every living thing with which the water teems” is another broad example from the Bible.

Humans benefit by learning about the interactions of living things on Earth. The evolution of the bobtail squid is an excellent example of what we can learn from God’s creatures and their history. God saw that His creation was “good” (Genesis 1:10, 12, 18, 21, and 25), but after He created the first humans, He declared it “very good” (Genesis 1:31). We can rejoice that we are the product of that goodness.

Reference: Wikipedia

July 10, 2025July 8, 2025

Unloved Animals that Have Hidden Talents

National Geographic published a list of ten animals that you would not like to see in your backyard. They are unloved animals with hidden talents. Their ugliness or repulsive behavior keeps them from being displayed on cereal boxes or featured in animated movies. However, these unloved animals play essential roles, and many of them are endangered.

Vultures are bald, so when they plunge their head into a dead animal, they get no residue on their feathers. They have specialized stomach acid that neutralizes harmful bacteria in what they eat. These birds help prevent the spread of pathogens that cause diseases such as bubonic plague and anthrax.

Other unloved animals include leopard slugs, which consume decomposing plants and insects, thereby returning nutrients to the soil. The three-toed sloth’s fur supports a variety of insects and moths. The proboscis monkey’s huge nose may be unappealing to humans, but it attracts females and serves as a means of communication, much like a bullhorn. The African bullfrog can weigh as much as four pounds and digs burrows that hold water, allowing it to survive dry seasons.

The ferocious honey badgers have a fearsome reputation. Still, they pose virtually no threat to humans and can withstand snakebites, including those from venomous snakes such as cobras and black mambas. They are also unaffected by bee stings and can defend themselves against wild dogs and hyenas. Indian flying foxes are large bats with sharp teeth that live in large colonies. They are one of the world’s largest pollinators, eating fruits and nectar.

Tongan scrub fowl in Australia have large feet with claws that enable them to dig burrows, which can be five feet deep. Aye-ayes are primates found in Madagascar whose diet consists of grubs and insects in trees. Although people have killed them thinking they bring bad luck, they are essential predators of destructive insects and beetles.

Even in the ocean, we see unloved animals. The hairy frogfish has an appendage that resembles a worm, which it wiggles to attract small fish. This fish resembles an amphibian, covered with stringy spines for camouflage.

It seems that all of these “unloved” animals are designed to fit into a specific environment. Evolutionary models fail to trace a gradualism in any of these cases, but the balance of life in the natural world depends on them. These unloved animals demonstrate the truth of Romans 1:20 that we can “know there is a God through the things He has made.”

Reference: “The astonishing superpowers of nature’s most unloved animals” in National Geographic magazine, July 2025, pages 50-71, provides more details, including pictures, of these animals.

July 9, 2025July 8, 2025

History of Religious Freedom

One of the things young people won’t learn in any public school class is the history of religious freedom and Christian persecution. At the time of the American Revolution, Virginia was the most populous colony, and in 1784, the legislature sought to pass a bill supporting the Anglican Church. It was rejected primarily due to the influence of James Madison and Thomas Jefferson. Madison argued that religion will flourish only if supported by voluntary contributions.

Moral issues became part of the history of religious freedom. Evolutionists justified slavery by claiming that black people were less evolved and closer to apes. Ignorance of what the Bible teaches caused even church members to embrace slavery. At the time of the Civil War, a common argument for slavery used the biblical story of Ham, which in Hebrew means dark-skinned. Genesis 9:22-27 describes a curse placed on Ham’s descendants, saying they would be slaves of Shem and Japheth. Religious people joined in the enslavement of blacks by quoting those verses.

Slavery was wrong on both religious and evolutionary grounds. First, interracial marriage scrambled the human genome since the time of Ham, making such a claim genetically wrong. More to the point is the fact that the New Testament did away with all racial profiling. Galatians 3:26-29 tells Christians that in Christ, there are no distinctions between individuals. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Both political parties in America today attack what the Bible teaches us about moral choices. The history of religious freedom and Christian persecution shows that this is not new. The first-century Romans persecuted Christians. Anyone who teaches biblical principles of moral behavior will likely endure persecution. Jesus said, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first (John 15:18).”

Reference: “Public Funding of Religious Activity in 18th-Century America” pewresearch.org

July 8, 2025July 7, 2025

The Power to Change

One of the greatest barriers to improving things in our world today is resistance to change. Without needed change, situations deteriorate and human misery increases. This is true on every level, from moral to political. Racism of the past must be abandoned, as does anti-Christian and anti-Jewish hatred. What society needs is the power to change.

The Bible’s key concept on this subject is “repentance.” Repentance is not confessing everything you did that was wrong. Repentance means changing the way you think. In Acts 2:38, Peter gave the key to having God’s Spirit work in our lives. Many preachers emphasized the baptism part of what Peter said, and the result is that people got wet with no change in their lives. They totally missed the power to change.

Peter’s message was, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” The Holy Spirit is God living in us and giving us the power to change. The first step to achieving a meaningful life change is to change the way you think. If you don’t change how you think, baptism is meaningless.

The Bible is full of stories about men who changed their way of thinking. Moses changed from a weak Egyptian prince to a leader of Israel. Jonah changed from a man running from God to a spokesman to Nineveh. Peter changed from a denier to a proclaimer, and Paul changed from a persecutor to a preacher. Change is not easy, and it can take time to change old habits.

The journey to change begins with thinking differently, allowing the Holy Spirit to work within us, and then acting on what God has called you to do. Those Biblical examples are beyond most of us, but God has a purpose for everyone. God doesn’t create any junk, but He also doesn’t force us to accept the ministry He calls us to. Your calling may be in agriculture or industry. It may be helping someone with physical, mental, or emotional needs. It may be raising or teaching children.

God gives us the power to change, but it doesn’t happen until we change our thinking.

July 3, 2025July 1, 2025

Punishment for Praying in Australia

If you live in New South Wales, Australia, and if you pray for someone to live a moral life according to biblical standards, you can go to jail. The “Conversion Practices Ban Act 2024” took effect on April 4, 2025, and it bans any speech, including prayer, that is “directed to changing or suppressing an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity.” The punishment for praying holds even if a person “has asked you to pray for them to be able to change or suppress their sexuality or gender identity.”

As the world rejects God and atheism and secularism force their beliefs into the political realm, we can expect more laws like this. The Australian law says that a person praying for another person could face a prison term of up to five years, so this isn’t just a public relations ploy but a serious assault by anti-Christian militants.

The potential for abuse in this situation is obvious. If I don’t like you, I can claim you prayed for me and have you thrown in jail. It is interesting that “gender identity” is included in this law. It is a medical fact that the drugs used to maintain a gender change are not effective after 25 years or so, and many young people who undergo sex change are not aware of that. How the medical and educational professions will deal with the counseling of young people remains to be seen.

Christian preachers have been punished for public sermons promoting Christianity, but this is the first time we have seen punishment for praying or personal religious activity. Americans need to be aware of where the movement away from faith may lead.

References: Touchstone magazine for July/August 2025, page 9, and lawandreligionaustralia.blog

July 2, 2025July 1, 2025

A Salamander’s Toes

A fascinating mystery in the natural world is how various forms of life can adhere to vertical or inverted surfaces. A recent report by researchers at Washington State University explains how a salamander’s toes allow it to climb, jump, and glide from limb to limb in the forests from California to British Columbia. The wandering salamander (Aneides vagrans) in this study can control the blood flow to its square-shaped toes.

The toes of these salamanders have blood vessels all the way to the tips. They can control the blood flow in the vessels to expand or contract the surface area of the toes. In this way, these salamanders can attach or detach from tree surfaces. They can release from one limb, glide to another, and instantly attach as they wander through the coastal redwood forests.

Everywhere we look in the natural world, we see that a wonder-working hand has gone before. Many special adaptations in living things enable them to live in challenging environments. God has endowed each living creature with the features necessary to survive and adapt to changing environments. This mechanism in a salamander’s toes could inspire human innovators in the areas of prosthetics and robotics.

References: Discover magazine for July 2025, page 10, and the Journal of Morphology for January 2025

July 1, 2025June 30, 2025

Evolution Nonsense and the Scopes Anniversary

A century ago, in July of 1925, John Scopes was tried in Dayton, Tennessee. He was accused of teaching human evolution in a public school in defiance of a Tennessee law. One hundred years later, there is still no intelligent approach to the issue of teaching evolution. Instead, skeptics and atheists have used evolution as a club against the Bible and Christianity in general. At the same time, poorly informed religious figures have said foolish things about evolution, leading many well-educated young people to assume that belief in God is a barbaric relic of the past. Both sides are guilty of spreading evolution nonsense.

The fact is that everyone believes in evolution. Evolution is defined as “change over time,” and God has built into all life the ability to change and adapt to environmental situations. With the intelligent guidance of horticulturalists, crop plants and farm animals have changed to provide food for humanity. Any farmer can tell you how selective breeding and hybridization provide improvements in corn, grain, or animals. Look at the many varieties of dogs or cattle. God’s design of living things allows changes in animals and plants, enabling them to survive while also providing food to sustain a growing population.

A careful reading of the Genesis account can eliminate the evolution nonsense that creates a conflict between science and faith in the Bible. What separates humans from all other forms of life on our planet is not our physical bodies. The Bible tells us that the human body came from the dust of the Earth. All life is chemically the same. What separates humans from animals is that we are created in the image of God. The Bible uses the Hebrew word “bara” (create), uniquely referring to what God can do. It is used only three times in Genesis chapter one. The first instance is in verse one, referring to the cosmos. It is used in verse 21 when God created the first life. The final time is in verse 27, where it describes the creation of man and woman in the image of God. It is the spiritual makeup of humans, not our physical body, that makes us unique.

As the 100th anniversary of the Scopes trial approaches this month, major newspapers and magazines will publish articles ridiculing the Bible. We will be addressing this subject further, and we urge our readers to be informed and proactive in helping others avoid evolution nonsense, whether it comes from skeptics or religious figures. God calls us to a faith that is intelligent and discerning.