John N Clayton Archives

April 11, 2022April 10, 2022

Disney World People Watching

The first week of April, my wife and I took her grandson Deacon and his parents to Disney World for a one-week vacation. I had done that with my grandkids many years ago when my wife Phyllis was alive, and it was a great family time. Like the first time, Cynthia (my second wife after Phyllis passed away) saved up some money so we could repeat the trip, but this time I did more Disney World people watching.

Much of Disney World has not changed. Animal planet added a ride based on Avatar, but the emphasis on taking care of the planet was the same. Star Wars dominated Astro World with the same old “shoot-em-up” fantasy theme. Epcot and the Magic Kingdom had a few additions, but both were relatively the same as in the past.

What was not the same was the people in attendance. While there were some nuclear families in the park, the lack of males was painfully obvious. Some that were there were gay couples where one partner identified himself as the mother and the other as the father. Disney’s workers are well trained to make sure all feel welcome no matter what their lifestyle or sexual orientation. In today’s entertainment business, such a posture is absolutely necessary and required by law.

Because of my age and my arthritis, I often parked in a wheelchair along a concourse where I could watch people go by. It was apparent that many families there were like mine; grandparents bring grandkids to Disney. Some also had the children’s parents, but many didn’t. One rather distraught mother with three small children sat next to me. I asked where her husband was as the six-year-old boy crawled up in my nap to tell me about ants. “Oh, he’s doing his usual thing on the golf course,” she replied. Indeed Disney has built several beautiful golf courses with expensive greens fees. Many affluent men were playing while their wives fought the battle of Disney with their children.

The Disney corporation is a well-oiled business. They handle transportation very well. A “lightning pass” system allows you to check in on your computer and not wait in line for a ride. I saw people carrying a considerable amount of merchandise from the park, and the prices were astronomical. You could buy a “hopper” pass for extra money to go to a park of your choosing anytime. Otherwise, you were confined to the park you signed up for each day. The number of people in the parks requires a system like that, and it works well.

Disney World people watching shows a picture of today’s culture in the United States. The emphasis on making Mickey Mouse a business tycoon is huge. The latest scientific theories are pushed with beautiful animation, a great deal of violence, and more attention to art than to fact. History is slanted toward the secular, with all religious systems presented as equals.

One mother who sat next to me as her four children rode a roller coaster told me that she brought her kids here about every five years. She said it gave her a whole new set of issues to deal with in teaching her children. She wants them to know the teachings of Jesus and the problems with the secular presentations they see in a place like Disney World. As our discussion continued, I learned that she is a preacher’s wife. When she found out about my Does God Exist? ministry, she was fascinated that it is older the Disney World’s 50-year celebration. Disney World people watching can be very interesting.

April 9, 2022April 9, 2022

Jonah’s Icefish and Animals of the Cold

Animals of the Cold include Jonah's Icefish and Ooligans

Deep-sea biologists from Germany accidentally discovered a massive colony of icefish nests under the ice in Antarctica’s Weddell Sea. The fish known as Jonah’s icefish have formed a colony the researchers estimate to contain 60 million nests 500 meters below the sea ice. The animals of the cold always amaze us.

Jonah’s icefish are nesting fish that carve out circular nests with rocky centers on the seafloor, where they lay over 1,000 eggs. Other ocean and freshwater fish species form nests, including bluegills that nest in the lakes of the midwestern United States. However, bluegill breeding colonies are limited to a few hundred individuals, not millions. Like bluegills that feed on small aquatic life and are food for larger fish, Jonah’s icefish play an essential role as food for the Weddell seals, and they feed on the abundant plankton in the Antarctic waters.

When it comes to animals of the cold, Jonah’s icefish are like the ooligan (eulachon) fish of Alaskan waters in that their blood is full of antifreeze compounds. Ooligans have so much oil in their bodies that if you dry the fish and put a wick in its mouth, it will burn like a candle. In Alaska, a nickname for the ooligan is the “candlefish.”

Many animals are specially designed to live in very cold conditions. For example, one of the books in our children’s book collection is titled Animals of the Cold, written by Charlsey Ford. As well as the ooligan, that book discusses the musk ox, ice worms, and the Kermode bear. All of these animals are specially designed to live in the extreme cold.

We see God’s design in every ecological system on our planet. Each time we find a new example, we are amazed at God’s creative design of life. Romans 1:19-22 reminds us that “We can know there is a God through the things He has made.” Jonah’s icefish is another excellent example of that truth.

— John N. Clayton 2022

References: Science News February 12, 2022, pages 12-13, and Current Biology volume 32, issue 4.

The complete set of our children’s books is available HERE.

April 2, 2022March 30, 2022

Archaeology in Jerusalem Today

The work of archaeology in Jerusalem is changing with the current national political situation and the use of new scientific tools. Three religions have an interest in Jerusalem. Judaism has great interest in the Western Wall. Islam is very concerned about the Dome of the Rock. Various Christian sects express interest in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

The obstacles to progress in archaeological excavations in Jerusalem are many and quite complex. First, the Israel Antiquities Authority controls all Jerusalem excavations. They will not give any permits to Palestinian teams and rarely grant permits to foreigners.

In Jerusalem, the chief building stone was a relatively soft limestone that was easy to quarry and got harder when exposed to the air. This stone was reused over the centuries by tearing down the remains of an ancient culture and using the limestone for new construction, leaving little evidence of the past. There was virtually no wood in the area, so standard dating methods like dendrochronology and carbon 14 were impossible.

Another problem with archaeology in Jerusalem is that treasure seekers used violent and unscientific methods as these untrained people pillaged the area. They were often looking for an item claimed to have mystical powers, such as the Ark of the Covenant. Dreams of wealth and notoriety were their goals.

Still complicating the situation is that while early archaeologists were Christian believers who saw archaeology as a means to verify the integrity of scripture, modern archaeologists are “overwhelmingly made up of agnostics and atheists.” They have often allowed their personal beliefs to attach a negative bias to whatever artifacts they find.

Despite these challenges to archaeology in Jerusalem, researchers are progressing in understanding the city’s history thanks to new scientific tools. Geomagnetic instruments with great sensitivity allow researchers to use changes in the Earth’s magnetic field to date some artifacts accurately. New laboratory techniques enable researchers to learn from tiny bone fragments and detritus that reveal the diets and diseases of people in the past. Much of archaeology in this century is going on in the laboratory, where scientists analyze the uncovered artifacts.

Archaeological work is hard, but Webster defines “science” as “knowledge,” and new scientific techniques provide us with knowledge. That knowledge continues to support the accuracy of the biblical narrative. While nationalism, politics, and Zionism complicate archaeology in Jerusalem, the unfolding story supports the accuracy of the Bible. The science of archaeology must be supported by the facts, not the opinions of archaeologists.

Reference: Article on Jerusalem Archaeology by Andrew Lawler in the April 2022 issue of Scientific American.

The Does God Exist? ministry has produced a series of videos on archaeology and the Bible available on DVDs with a study guide HERE. Or you can view them for free HERE.

April 1, 2022April 1, 2022

Separation of Church and State

The teachings of Jesus Christ show incredible intelligence and wisdom of design, including the separation of church and state. In Matthew 22:15-21, Jesus responded to a question about this issue by saying, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” Romans 13:1-7 instructs Christians to submit to and honor local authority, but there is no command for the Church to get involved in political activity. The Roman government was one of the most brutal and abusive political systems to ever exist on this planet, but Christians did not attempt to change it politically.

The Russian war on Ukraine has shown the consequences when churches get involved in politics. The Russian Orthodox Church has 260 million adherents, half of them living in Ukraine and half in Russia. The Russian leader of the Orthodox Church is Patriarch Kirill, who has supported Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine. As a result, 350 Russian Orthodox priests have rebelled against Kirill, and the Orthodox Churches in Ukraine have left the control of Kirill to form the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

The fundamental problem is that the Orthodox Church has moved away from the Bible as a source of authority, replacing it with human patriarchs who dictate doctrine and follow traditions. Relying on human wisdom and politics instead of God’s Word has resulted in the Orthodox Church’s present situation.

Jesus taught a message of peace, love, and service to fellow human beings no matter their politics or national identity. When humans depend on human values instead of God’s Word, the result is conflict at all levels. The situation in Ukraine is a lesson for Christians throughout the world. Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). The separation of church and state is not only biblical but essential to the well-being of the followers of Jesus.

Reference: The Week for April 1, 2022, page 14.

March 31, 2022March 30, 2022

Creeks and Streams Are Designed for Life

No matter where you live, you have a small flow of water called a stream or creek somewhere nearby. Unfortunately, urbanization coupled with greed has caused the destruction or severe alteration of many of those creeks. In 1999, the United States Department of the Interior listed Chinook salmon as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. That required the city of Seattle, Washington, to consider the salmon when making capital improvements. But, under the leadership of biologist Katherine Lynch, people came to realize that creeks and streams are designed for life.

Thornton Creek runs through an area of the city, and it had formerly been the spawning grounds for the Chinook salmon. Two streams entering Thornton Creek had originally been floodplains, and the city leaders decided to revitalize them. Unfortunately, not realizing that creeks and streams are designed for life, people had altered the small streams so that they could not support salmon spawning and other functions.

Creeks and streams are highly complex systems, not just water coursing between banks. Under the creek bed is a layer of wet sediment, small stones, and tiny creatures called the hyporheic zone. Water flows into and through this zone just like the creek above, but much more slowly.

The hyporheic zone can spread laterally for a considerable distance beyond the creek banks. In this zone, many good things happen, including aeration, oxygenation, temperature moderation, pollution cleanup, and food creation. In addition, the hyporheic zone is full of living things, including crustaceans, worms, and aquatic insects. They dig passages allowing water to mix with oxygen and nutrients to not only nurture the salmon eggs but to solve a variety of other problems, including flooding.

Straightening a stream, bulldozing it, covering it with concrete, running it through tubes, and burying it have wiped out the hyporheic zone in many creeks. The result is flash floods, pollution, and an area sterile of life, including the salmon. In addition to Seattle, Philadelphia has destroyed 73% of its streams, and Baltimore has buried 66% of its creeks.

Cities experience flooding and other problems because of the destruction of streams. When we pollute creeks and streams, that pollution goes into our rivers. We pay a high price for not respecting God’s design in the world and failing to realize that creeks and streams are designed for life.

You can read much more about this in Scientific American magazine for April 2022.

March 29, 2022March 28, 2022

Magnetosphere Display Protecting Life on Earth

As the Sun approaches an eleven-year maximum of its magnetic cycle, solar flares and eruptions occur with increasing frequency and violence. That means the Sun is blasting out a massive cloud of fast-moving electrons, protons, and ions in all directions. To see the magnetosphere display this creates on Earth, go to apod.nasa.gov for March 22, 2022. There you will see what NASA calls “A Whale of an Aurora over Swedish Forest.”

The cloud of particles from the Sun would cause huge damage to life if it reached us unobstructed by Earth’s magnetic field and atmosphere. Earth’s magnetosphere deflects the charged particles coming toward us from the Sun. As Earth’s magnetic field moves the particles toward the poles, they hit molecules in our atmosphere, causing them to glow in a magnetosphere display that we call an auroral corona.

Most people in the higher latitudes of North America can go outside late at night and away from the city lights and see the aurora borealis or “northern lights.” Here in Michigan, the glow in the north was yellow and orange. In a northern city like Östersund, Sweden, the aurora was blue-green and high in the sky. The APOD picture may look like a whale to some, but I think it looks like an eagle. The color of the aurora depends on what elements are being hit by the solar emissions. The green is from oxygen, but orange and red come from hydrogen higher up in the atmosphere.

Earth’s magnetic field is essential as a shield to prevent radiation damage to all life. Scientists don’t fully understand what causes the magnetic field, but it is just right to allow life on this planet. Life would have to be underground for protection on planets with no magnetic field. When God created Earth, He gave it a magnetic field of just the right strength and geographic distribution to allow life to exist. This is another great testimony to the wisdom built into the creation process that formed our planet.

March 28, 2022March 27, 2022

The Hardest Words to Say

The “Does God Exist?” ministry is about life. We maintain that a successful life full of meaning and value is a life lived according to what God has told us in His Word. Our secular world tries to tell us that believing in God and following the Bible and its teaching are foolish and irrelevant to life. However, the evidence doesn’t support that view. Avoiding the things that bring heartache, misery, alienation, and frustration is often a matter of speaking a few of the hardest words to say.

One of the things that we fail to say is the simple phrase “I love you.” The Bible tells us that God is love, and 1 Corinthians 13 devotes a whole chapter to emphasizing the importance of love. It is difficult for us to express love because it puts us at risk. The biblical concept of love uses the word “agape,” a self-sacrificing kind of love. Being able to say “I love you” is essential for family relationships. Saying it to a child when there is a conflict or to a spouse when there is disagreement is vital to a rich relationship. Saying “I love you” with agape sincerity shows that we value the person and is fundamental to building and enriching relationships.

Another phrase that is hard for us to say is, “I have sinned.” No one likes to admit they were wrong. We want to blame others when we make a mistake. This started with Adam saying, “the woman you gave me, she gave it to me” (Genesis 3:12). Eve carried it on with “the snake deceived me” (Genesis 3:13). We also try to distance ourselves from the situation, as Cain did with “am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9). Admitting sin is difficult because it means we are imperfect and needy, shattering our claim of independence.

The Christian system advocates admitting our mistakes. James 5:16 tells us to “Confess your faults to one another.” A marriage in which one partner can never admit they made a mistake is a marriage that misses the joy and love God intends for it to have. When was the last time you admitted to your mate or your children that you have made a mistake or told them “I love you”? God expects us to be humble enough to speak words that enrich our relationships, even though they may be the hardest words to say.

March 27, 2022March 26, 2022

Wild and Impossible Bible Stories

I recently received an email from a preacher struggling with his faith. One of his main stumbling blocks is believing what he calls “the wild and impossible Bible stories.” Here are some questions which challenged his faith:
“Can you really believe a guy could live inside a whale for three days?”
“Do you believe that a guy could build a boat, put in two of every species of life on the planet, and sail around for a long time?”
“I can’t believe God stopped the Earth from rotating to allow a battle to continue.”
These are the same challenges that atheists have made against the Bible, but it is unusual to have a preacher raising these questions. So we need to make three points about these Bible stories.

#1) Many times, people make invalid assumptions about Bible stories. An example of that is the flood of Genesis 6-8. The point of the story is clear. Humans rebelled against God, and God caused/allowed a catastrophe to wipe out those who rejected Him. The Bible does not say the waters were level over the Earth and flooded uninhabited places. Questions about where the waters came from or where they went after the flood are a problem only if you assume the waters were level over the entire globe. The flood had natural causes and not miraculous ones.

#2) The occurrence of unusual phenomena does not discredit the Biblical account. For example, one of the “wild and impossible Bible stories” is found in Joshua 10:10-14, which says the Sun and Moon provided light for Joshua and his army to defeat the Amorites. If you assume that the Earth stopped rotating, that would have disastrous consequences for the whole planet. The passage’s context shows that various unusual astronomical things were going on. Verse 11 tells of great stones falling and killing people, perhaps hailstones. This is rare, but it can happen.

God could act to provide sunlight and moonlight to continue for the length of the battle. The Bible speaks in everyday, non-technical language describing this incident from the viewpoint of Joshua. Perhaps God provided a way to refract or reflect sunlight and moonlight to the battle scene. If only the Sun were involved, there would have been no need to mention the Moon in verse 12. (We have suggested some other possible explanations before.) Verse 14 tells us the event was a most unusual one and identifies it as God using a process.

#3) Is God capable of performing miracles? If you don’t believe He can, then you have to reject the resurrection of Christ. A few stories from the Bible are identified as miracles. The story of Jonah is a miracle of God equivalent to raising Lazarus from the dead. The Bible does not say that a whale swallowed Jonah. Jonah 1:17 tells us, “Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah.” That was a miracle, not a whale, shark, or plesiosaur.

Even if you reject all Biblical miracles, not all Bible stories are miracles. A man killing another man with a stone and a sling is entirely possible and does not require a miracle. Rising from the dead after three days is not possible and has to be a miracle. You can reject it if you choose, but if God is God, He can perform miracles. That makes the resurrection of Christ a matter of faith. God acted miraculously in some biblical accounts, but in other cases, He used natural processes–even unusual ones. The so-called “wild and impossible Bible stories” are not a valid reason to discard the Bible as a collection of fairy tales.

March 26, 2022March 25, 2022

Seniors Using Alcohol – Health Effects

We tend to think that drinking and the effects of alcohol are a problem for young people and middle-aged adults. There is no question that alcohol is the most destructive drug in today’s world. However, the view that young people need to avoid distilled alcoholic drinks but it is okay for seniors is dead wrong. We see much pain and suffering in our world today from different sources, but there is no reason for seniors using alcohol and adding to the problems that come with age.

Starting at about age 50, the average adult loses muscle, gains fat, and carries less water in the bloodstream. That means that seniors using alcohol may be more affected because it is less diluted than in younger people. In addition, the stomach and liver don’t produce as much of the enzyme called ADH, which processes alcohol. As a result, a person may not be aware that the alcohol content in their body is higher than in the past, and they may not realize the damaging effects. Our ability to perceive the effects of alcohol also diminishes after age 50, so we may ignore changes in vision, balance, and hearing caused by alcohol.

For seniors using alcohol, the aging process can be accelerated because it pulls water from your body. It also causes the shrinking of the brain, especially the cortex, which controls our executive function. In addition, Dr. George Koob, director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, says that over 200 medical conditions are made worse by the consumption of alcohol. These include but are not limited to cancer, immune system disorders, liver problems, stroke, and diabetes.

There is a lot of literature blaming God for the age-related disabilities inflicting our world. While not drinking at all doesn’t guarantee a person won’t have health issues, a very high percentage of age-related diseases are impacted by the abuse we tend to heap on our bodies. That abuse includes not only alcohol but recreational drugs and nicotine. For Christians, our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16), and we need to take care of that temple. Learning how to do that is vital for all of us.

Reference: AARP Bulletin for March 2022, pages 18-19.

March 24, 2022March 21, 2022

Resistance to Change

Jesus Christ preached a message of change. However, people had a resistance to change from the religious system they were in, even though it was impossible to follow completely. One had to keep many rules, and no person was justified by the law no matter how well they kept the requirements. In Acts 15:10, Paul referred to it as a ”yoke which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear.” In Galatians 3:10-11, Paul referred to it as a curse.

The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 – 7 finds Jesus talking about the old way of doing things and teaching people to change. Despite that, in Acts 6:14, the religious leaders objected to the teachings of Jesus by which He attempted to change their religious practice. We all know that led to them crucifying Jesus.

Christianity opposes racism, and Jesus demonstrated that (John 4:1-29). Christianity opposed sexism and prejudice (Galatians 3:27-28 ), but even today, we have people who refuse to accept what Jesus taught. They refuse because of their resistance to change, so racism and misogynistic practices still exist. A major reason why people refuse to become Christians is because they oppose change, even when they know their current way of living is negative.

The “Does God Exist?” ministry is based on evidence. The evidence is massive that Jesus lived, was the Son of God, and taught a new way of life. The evidence shows that alternative lifestyles opposed to Christianity don’t work. The evidence is that worship does not work when confined to buildings and rituals and certain times of the day.

People tend to be comfortable with the status quo, but Christianity calls us to something better. Read 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 and realize that change needs to begin now by our choice because ultimately change will happen, and resistance to change will not stop it.