Man can't even understand himself

Sometimes I file articles away and stew on them for a while. In the middle of July CNN posted an article titled, "How can a smart species be so dumb?". Richard Galant reflects on a couple of questions asked by Laurie Santos in Oxford, England.

Was last year's financial crisis a chance event? Or was it the product of 35 million years of evolution?

These questions are posed in an either or type of presentation. Yet the answer to both of these questions from the perspective of a Christian would be decidedly different from the author of the article. First of all, "Was last year's financial crisis a chance event?" No, it was brought about by God for the sake of His glory.

Was it the product of 35 million years of evolution? No, it was part of God's plan and we have yet to see how it will play out entirely. You see man makes bad decisions because man has a fallen nature. He is prone to do evil (Genesis 6:5). Secondly there is no 35 million years of evolution Genesis 1:1 clearly tells us that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. We serve a God who has the entire world in His hands. He has made plans that will bring about the establishment of His kingdom and the glorification of Jesus. Because these plans are certain, the things leading up to these plans are orchestrated and certain as well. The financial crisis should not shake a God fearing God focused Christian. Why? Because the God focused Christian will see the financial crisis as a means of depending on God more and as one more step toward the final revealing of Jesus Christ. For the questions raised by CNN there really ought to be one more, "Was last years financial crisis an act of God?" If they asked this they might be getting a little closer to the truth.

Middle finger musings

Several times over the years I have witnessed someone cutting someone off with their car and receiving the reaction of a hand extended with only the middle finger pointing upwards. I have seen the same reaction when bikes cut off cars or when cars cut dangerously close to pedestrians. This gesture is used with the intention of causing great emotional stress in retaliation for the stress that someone else's actions have caused. 
What makes a person think that flipping someone off is going to elicit any sort of agitating feelings in the object of the gesture? Further what causes the person who is flipped off to take offense at the gesture? There is no animal that takes offense at the motions of other animals. If we are nothing more than higher animals you would think that we would surely have evolved past this silly self destructive behavior. Survival of the fittest would require it. But for some reason we seem offended by this waving of a limb in a mean spirited manner perhaps accompanied by an expletive or two. Why? I believe that this action and response is an assault on man's dignity. Which begs the question where does this dignity come from? It assumes that man has intrinsic value. But if he is just another animal why does he have intrinsic value? Why does the individual matter? I believe that without realizing it that every time man makes an assault on another persons dignity they are giving an acknowledgment that man has dignity and value. I believe that if you look hard you will be hard pressed to find a reference point for man's dignity and value in nature. Certainly the animals do not exhibit anything even close to this. So where does it come from except God. I believe that the fact that God created man in His own image is the answer and true reference point for man's dignity and why he has dignity at all. Ultimately when you see someone flipping someone off remember that unintentionally they are acknowledging that man has dignity derived from His creator that he can effectively assault. Once again we see that pagan man cannot get away from admitting he has a creator no matter how much he may want to. As we seek to live a God focused life things like this should strike us more and more with the constant reality that God truly is with us (Romans 1:20). Every day all men every where live before His face. Sometimes pagans end up pointing to God in a way that they never intended.

Evolutionist depend on science which depends on God

On any given day you can do a quick search of most news websites and find a variety of articles with an evolutionary mindset. Today on FoxNews you will find the following articles

• Prehistoric Creatures off Australia Provide Clues to Deep Sea Life
• How Neanderthal Are You? Buy This Kit and See
• Sperm Hasn't Changed in 600 Million Years

What is interesting about all of these articles is that they depend on science. As a matter of fact all evolution depends on science. You might be saying, "Yea...so what?" Think about this with me for just a moment and I think you will get the point. Science by its very nature exist because things are repeatable, observable and testable. If every time you went to flip a light switch something different happened or every time you tried to use a hammer you might hit a nail on the head or the hammer might fall apart you would soon be locked in a life of uncertainty. There would be no cars, no houses, no certain jobs to do because nothing would be certain. But everything is certain. We live in a mathematical world of absolutes where 2+2 always equals 4 in the concrete reality of life. Science by its very nature depends for its existence upon a world of order and laws. Evolution postulates that everything is in a state of change or flux. They talk about animals making evolutionary leaps, of life spontaneously appearing 60 billion years ago. Yet all of their proofs are based on observations in a real world that does not change. This world is ruled by so called laws of nature. It is orderly and filled with beauty and life. There is something within us that loves to see and observe all the amazing and miraculous things that exist. We see them and observe patterns and similarities that point to an order that point to a creator of that order. You see evolution by its nature depends on chaos. If it truly is an evolutionary model that we live in then it should be impossible for science as a practice to even exist. Science and the evolutionist that so populate it depend on our God in order to be able to make the statements they make and practice the work of science they have come to idolize. God told us through Paul to expect this kind of thing from natural man (Romans 1:18-23). Because of man's foolishness and rejection of God he will someday face God's wrath. May this cause us more than ever to turn our eyes to our Lord Jesus the creator and sustainer of all things (1 Corinthians 8:6).

The threat of prayer

As I reflected on yesterdays post, it occurred to me that those who oppose prayer have a real problem on their hands. First of all many of those that oppose Christian prayer claim to be atheist. That is they do not believe in any God. Now I do not believe in the tooth fairy or the easter bunny or celebrating halloween, but I do not go around trying every legal thing within my power to shut those things down. Why because they have no power over me. Interestingly enough the atheist involved in bringing lawsuits and the ACLU have overlooked on multiple occasions Muslim prayers or Hindu prayers. Why? These prayer hold no threat for them. They are no threat because they do not have any power over them or over anyone for that matter. But Christian prayer is a different story. Romans 1:18-20 tells us that something within them recognizes God. They suppress their recognition of God. One of the ways that they do this is by squelching Christian prayer any time they can. This action by the atheist of our world to try and squelch Christian prayer no matter what else they may say is an admission that these prayers are a threat to them. By opposing Christian prayer they make a tacit admission that the God of Christianity is real and that He threatens the life and existence without God that they desire. So take heart when the world opposes you. It is not so much you they oppose but Jesus Christ who indwells you by the Holy Spirit. Rejoice when the pagan opposes you because what they recognize within you is God's image. You have been counted worthy to face opposition for living a God focused life (Acts 5:40-41).

What makes something morally important?

Continuing the Sam Harris response (See previous post for more details). Sam claims that the following are real problems: nuclear proliferation, genocide, poverty and the crisis in education. He claims that these are issues that tremendous swings in human well being depend on. Then he goes on to state that, "Religion causes people to fixate on issues of less moral importance."
First of all I would like to know how he arrives at any value for Human life at all. His concern here is, "human" well being. What could possibly be valuable about humans over any other animal on a planet that in his mind has simply evolved. Man becomes little more than a happy accident, or unhappy as the case may be. You see Sam makes the case that man has value and all the people listening to him comprehend the argument without elaboration. For that statement to make any sense without explanation Sam is appealing to an unstated dignity that is resident in man. Something that all men see and understand. That resident dignity is the image of God in man. However corrupted that image may be man still sees and values it. He nurtures it because it is an echo of the lie that man betrayed God for. The lie that man would be like god. Sam wants to play God but never explains on what basis he can play god. No Sam appeals to the image of God in man from creation. Sam depends on the very tenants of the Christian religion to make his case.
I would argue that the true foundation of the Christian faith in the God of the Bible does indeed deal with issues that, "tremendous swings in human well being depend on." The Bible tells us that God the Father sent His only begotten Son to die in our place and satisfy His holy wrath against our sin. This was done to reconcile us back to God. In the transaction Jesus also conquered death and has given us eternal life that we might spend it with Him. We must repent of our sin and turn to Jesus as our Lord. If we reject the Christ our choice will leave us to pay the penalty for our own sin as we face a Holy God. Jonathan Edwards once said in a sermon that when a man has been in hell suffering torment for 10,000 years he will not be one day closer to the end then the first day that he entered hell. I would like to know from Sam what is more important: nuclear proliferation or eternity in hell, genocide or standing to face God's wrath unrepentant, poverty or eternal damnation, the crisis in education or the crisis in education about our eternal state. As a Christian I would love to see these inequities rectified. But I also want to see the people who are suffering them have the chance to hear about Jesus. Sam would like to wipe out the ability to know the truth of God. The only truth that can really set a person free is found in Jesus. I hope that Jesus changes Sam's heart. In the meantime I will continue to pursue a God focused life.

Is Sam Harris religion better than others?

CNN has an article by John D. Sutter called, "Philosopher: Why we should ditch religion." In the article he draws comments from Sam Harris trying to make the case on why we should ditch religion. I will be examining some of the comments by Harris over the next couple of days. Tonight I want to look at the opening comment in the article. Sam Harris says, "For the world to tackle truly important problems, people have to stop looking to religion to guide their moral compasses." This is a fascinating statement. Essentially, Sam wants us to get rid of the only foundation for morality that man can reference that is unwavering. And he wants us to ditch this moral compass for what??? Sam Harris is one of the outspoken athiest of our day. So we know that his ditching of spiritual forms of religion is to be replaced by a dependence on science and evolutionary thought. It fascinates me because I grew up being taught that the goal of good science is that it is testable, observable and repeatable. Most scientist would call this a good definition of science. Evolution one of the main things Sam wants us to rely on by this definition is a total failure. The macro evolution that Sam is talking about happens over millions of years. It is not observable. We take our best guess based on what we see. Now your preconceived notion will have a great deal of influence on how you interpret the data you discover. This is where Sam and many other scientist begin to rely on faith in their opinions about the data. But macro evolution fails the testable part of good science as well. Once again we look at the data and based on what our notion is about the outcome we come up with what must have happened. For committed evolutionist like Sam it is a forgone conclusion what the data must mean. Finally evolution fails on the repeatable side as well. But that really does not matter to the evolutionist because it all adds up based on what their assumptions are about the data we find. So you see what Sam has is a lot of faith in man's ability to peer into the past with absolute accuracy and determine that there is no God. Sam's faith ultimately is not in hard empirical data. His faith is in man's understanding of the data. Very highly educated Christian scientist looking at the same data will come away affirming that the data points to God and disproves evolution. Once again the person's predicate notions influence the way they see the data. What strikes me here about the statement is that Sam wants to replace the Christian religion with a religion that roots its faith in man. Romans 1:20-23 tells us how men who reject God even though they perceive the invisible things of God, like morality, become futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts are darkened. Where will morality come from without Christian religion? Who will be the arbiter of what is right and wrong? Will there even be such a thing as right and wrong in a world like that? The answer is yes there will be right and wrong. The right and wrong will be determined by God's law which is written on the hearts of men. Sam Harris will borrow the capital of morality from the Christian religion and use it with impunity while at the same time decrying that religion. Sam there is no moral compass for anyone without a righteous and Holy God to whom we can look for that direction. Sam can have his religion of man, I will continue to pursue a God focused life.