Many people think they know about Christianity. The truth is that about the essentials of this faith little is known. Why a man claiming to be divine and the Creator of all things should go to such extremes of suffering, for you and me, knowing full well that we may ignore it, even despise it as an unnecessary act of self immolation. This is difficult to process, but to throw it out with the garbage, which is what most have done is an act of unspeakable folly. Please, think again! This is not mysticism it is one of the most verified facts of history with a tonnage of supporting evidence.
“It is finished” were the last three words spoken before Jesus died. This is the greatest event in history. The only door to eternal life, long since shut is now opened up to every one of us. Its full purpose awaited the moment of resurrection. Only then could we know for sure that death had finally been defeated. We who are made in the image of God could at last come to realise the full potential of our human spirit: one created by God for a life to come. An impossibility until it was emptied of our innate tendency towards sin and rebellion against our Maker. All this was accomplished by the universal effects of the only sacrifice that really mattered. We remain sinners but in Christ are a new creation, capable of living a life pleasing to God.
About the image above, you may well ask why paint the figure of Christ fully naked when this goes against all artistic convention? The answer: historians state this is how crucifixions were carried out in the Roman Empire. Its purpose? Unimaginable prolonged pain and to expose the victim to public shame and humiliation. This is something we should never forget. He bore not just our sin but also our shame and humiliation so that we could be free of it, both in this world and the next. Jesus was stripped naked. The soldiers who crucified him then cast lots for his clothing. This detail along with many others were prophesied hundreds of years before it happened. No reputable biblical scholar or historian, whether believer or unbeliever, doubts that Jesus was executed by the Romans. If Jesus bore all this for us then in my view it is more shameful to cover up than to expose the reality. If he could bear it then who are we to shield ourselves from what he did for our sake. I believe we place what was not there, a modesty covering loin cloth in order to protect ourselves from embarrassment. So we can lessen the full extent of the horrors and humiliations he endured on that awful cross.
My full understanding of this painting and why it looks so bleak came to me a few hours after it was finished. I had painted it very fast, it took only two hours from getting the impulse to do it, find and unwrap a canvass, formulate the idea, make a mistake and change it from portrait shape to landscape and then on to completion. The original thought was to make it dark and empty of everything but this terrible drama. I was left with nothing to paint other than the crucified figure and leaving nothing for the viewer other than to fix their gaze on the tortured figure. We must deal with him and him only, everything else is secondary. Jesus came to save us and if any other way had been possible I am convinced God would have chosen it. Only with Jesus do we have a choice. Stark choices certainly, belief or unbelief, life or death. With God there is no coercion. He values faith freely given. He will not strap us to a bed, shove a tube down our throat and force feed us his gospel. He gives many reasons to accept him, but they are not so overwhelming we are compelled to believe.
Having finished and while looking at the painting I realised that the cross, a stake driven into the black, lifeless, featureless ground represents Satan’s kingdom of death. As I looked at what I had done its impact hit me. The cross was a weapon formed by God. Satan was the chosen target and this rough wooden stake was now sunk deep into his flesh and spirit. I also realised that Jesus was no helpless victim but was measuring his last few words which are a victory cry.
“It is finished”
And it was finished. Death had lost its sting and been defeated. Satan’s kingdom suffered a mortal blow. His greatest weapon which had been death now forever lost and turned against him. Within three days Jesus had made a way for us: a way to become like him, resurrected and granted the gift of eternal life. His work was to make a way home for us. We call it Heaven. In Christ you are made clean and worthy of heaven, not though your worthiness but through his. He died so that you and I may live. God your Father wants you to find your way back to him though His Son. There is no other way. No likeness to him. No Allah, no Buddha, no Shiva or Isis, no salvation though works and ceremonial, or ritual cleansing or hours of repetitive prayer and meditation. Jesus is not only The Way, he is your way. How can you be sure? Because Jesus, uniquely was resurrected from the dead. Large numbers saw him afterwards, spoke with him, spent time with him, touched him, ate with him, watched his ascension into the clouds. The video speaks of this reality, one which changes everything. If Jesus is still alive then all his claims and those made on his behalf by his followers are very difficult to deny. To miss hearing the evidence laid out for you by a world respected biblical scholar means you do not want to hear evidence, not because there is no evidence. An hour or so of your time is not wasted if as a result you find your God and Saviour.
What follows was a famous but flawed example of evolution at work through the process of directionless natural selection.
Any functioning device like a typewriter is made for a purpose. Primarily so an author can put thoughts into writing. The typewriter was made by and for humans. Every man made item on the planet was first an idea before it was anything else. And remember that a thought is a product of intelligence. Animals clearly think but not like us. They are enabled to do things we cannot do. Birds and fish can migrate across continents to specific breeding grounds. That ability, which can only have been caused by intelligence has been hard wired into their minds. The incredible navigation was not worked out as you and I would have to do. The need to migrate and knowledge of the route to be taken is just there for them. How? There is no other way than by design?
This is where the typewriter come into play. Produced by Richard Dawkins to prove that evolution can solve the problems of apparent design. There had to be another way and Dawkins came up with a solution. He used the old idea that thousands of monkeys pummelling away at typewriter keys over a period of millions of years would eventually randomly produce something intelligible or useful. Chance will have its day one day if given enough time. He chose a line from the works of Shakespeare. And he achieved his aim, at least to his satisfaction. He wrote a computer programme which quickly and apparently randomly produced the Shakespearean phrase: methinks it is like a weasel. There you are he proclaimed, random processes without direction can easily achieve the finished article with nothing more than a Darwinian type of selection. No design or designer required. Voila!
After a brief glow in the limelight his proof of evolution via a contrived process of random selection faded into a deserved black hole. He had cheated in every way. Nothing about the experiment was genuinely random, nothing about it replicated what would have had to happen in nature. It was a fix which was enlightening. It helped prove that evolution via natural selection was pushing the outer limits of credulity. In fact way beyond its extremity and into the realms of posturing, even pseudoscience. Dawkins often makes play with the absurdities of the design argument, as if design being attributed to organisms that give the appearance of design is by definition certifiable. So let’s for a moment compare a believer in God as Creator with the reasoned and rational Richard Dawkins. The believer is Isaac Newton and here is his quote.
Atheism is so senseless. When I look at the solar system, I see the earth at the right distance from the sun to receive the proper amounts of heat and light. This did not happen by chance.
Note that Newton, a scientist orders of magnitude more significant to science than Richard Dawkins does not argue from theology or scripture, but on the basis of rationality. Reason based on evidence leads to his conclusion. This did not happen by chance, states Newton; but according to Dawkins it did. Does the writer of the God Delusion not realise that his belief, which is that something out of nothing was put into order by forces and processes unknown, is gambler’s dream: conferring a chance upon chance throw of the dice ad infinitum. A sequence which must constitute the greatest act of faith and the biggest leap in the dark ever given credence by a highly evolved, big brained primate.
Media productions relating to evolution and nature often refer to what the Darwinian theory would predict and how these predictions have been fulfilled. The proof is as bogus as the Dawkins experiment and it goes like this: a humming bird is unique due to its ability to hover. Because it is assumed to have gained this advantage through its evolution from a very distant common ancestor it is therefore a product of and a proof of the evolutionary process. Once you have assumed the certainty of Darwin’s theory, and its viability is always assumed, every creature known to us is by definition another proof of evolution through selective adaptation over millions of years. Evolution caused nature’s diversity, nature’s diversity proves evolution. This is a circular argument, devoid of evidence and therefore worthless. However, credit where credit is due, it has proved extremely persuasive. Conjuring tricks fool most of us.
If you made the same argument for a typewriter self forming and replicating without an intelligent designer and maker then imagine the uproar and laughter. You really think that this machine evolved via a selective process? Without an idea being formed and worked upon, perhaps over generations until it came to fruition and fit for purpose. Dawkins will tell you time was the magic ingredient. Billions of years of time. He makes this argument in his book The Greatest Show on Earth. He does so while being fully aware that time, unless intelligently used to bring an idea through the design and engineering stages is useless. The effect of time is proved when the typewriter is left alone to the care and attention of time. It will rot and rust and decay until nothing is left. I look at my 74 year old body and despite efforts to keep it functioning, by eating sleeping, mild exercise etc, see it do everything stated above, apart from rust. My body is falling into ruin and will conclude as a small pile of dust. The miracle worker time is certainly long-lasting, but only intelligent design and constant repairs and renewal will keep it useful. To use time, which has no interest in anything in the context of producing exquisite examples of what appears to have been designed for a purpose is plain crazy, as you will see. The nectar to which the hovering humming bird is attracted and the flower that produces it would, according to evolutionary theory have coincided with the evolution of the humming bird. Another lucky coincidence or a designed feature? One replicated millions of time over in nature over a vast variety of circumstances and many different environments.
All of nature exists in a universe hostile to life. It occurs, as far as we know only on this planet. However, thankfully and blessedly this universe is wonderfully aligned to the interests of life and bizarrely explicable in terms of beautiful mathematical equations. It is so fine tuned that it permits the creation of incredibly sophisticated molecular nano motors, seen only by electron microscopes, which powers and energises every function in every living unit: from humans to bacteria. We are all put together in a manner that requires billions of units like these to align themselves correctly all the time, every time, if we are to remain healthy. We are as the Bible so accurately predicts and states: fearfully and wonderfully made. Your body is proof of a biblical prediction.
One final point; if you are male and attracted to a female you might apply the same reasoning. Take note that each of you is beautifully adapted to the cause of having sexual intercourse and as a by product contributing to the propagation of the species. A cause which rules out any other possibility beyond male and female, unless you seek out a solution via a donor, a surrogate and probably a laboratory or a medical practitioner. A fact which underlines the truth that nature has provided only one simple and direct route to the continuance of higher life forms; male and female. A thought which in the post modern world is extremely unwelcome.
The following video is a full length Christian defence of the Faith. It is entertaining, provocative, annoying sometimes because to a British audience American productions often seem over slick; but nevertheless questions are asked of the most basic type, first base questions and they leave people who have clearly never really thought about their atheism with a puzzle to solve.
I was born in 1944. Respect for those who suffered and gave their lives so that we could be free was a matter of giving honour where honour was due. This we still do and annually commemorate their sacrifices. I am old enough to recall other ways in which respect was given. An age when youth were subject to their parents. You were not entertained and distraction via media was not on tap. You were taught that your elders were to be respected at every level. You did not make demands. There was order in society. You knew right from wrong, natural from unnatural, you listened and learned and waited for your turn. Growing up was a process that took a long time. Choices and freedoms such as those set before young children today would have been seen as child abuse. There was a largely accepted rule based order that was understood and only rarely challenged. Punishment was expected for doing wrong, breaking rules, being impolite and challenging those in authority. You knew your place and waited for the day when you became an adult in the eyes of those around you. For the great majority whether you came from a poor or more privileged background you knew without being aware of it what it was to be a member of society. You had a place and in most cases this was accepted by those around you. It was a modest, slow, disciplined entrance into the adult world. There were of course those who did not conform. Some of these would do well, others not so well. The non-conforming eccentric was either celebrated or tolerated. There was a place for rule benders and breakers. This was British society as I experienced it while growing up. And I had an unhappy unsuccessful school career and never really found my place at home. A person who did not quite fit. Consequently my description of this period, between 1944 and 1964 is not based on a comfortable life. It was safe in many ways but in others far from secure.
Now, I look back and fear for the life that is being prepared for modern children and adolescents. In all probability there has never been a generation so cherished and provided for in some areas and so lost in others. My generation experienced few choices, this one has choices beyond imagination. Some of them so dangerous to their well-being it is difficult to comprehend what may result. As a child growing up I experienced a life of very little choice, thinking more would have been wonderful. But now, seeing the choices on offer, the open access to the world of adults through technology being put into the hands of near infants, I fear for them and for our future society. The present is scary enough, the future I do not like to contemplate. Natural and normal have lost their classic dictionary meanings. The most fundamental of these is gender recognition. To take that certainty away by casting doubt over the entire subject is to shake the foundations of society. To my generation an unfathomable error. It used to be the rule that to base laws on hard cases made bad law. At present this is exactly what is happening right across the spectrum. Movements advocating change are driven by very small but vociferous and relentless pressure groups. And the State capitulates before them on almost every occasion. This has had the effect of maximising their influence. Many of these are backed by loud, colourful celebrities whose influence is remarkable, particularly on the young and impressionable. To stand against highly politicised issues being used as levers to change society and its laws is becoming dangerous. It is not just that minority views are getting great coverage and being received by legislators as worthy of support. They are being included as protected characteristics, giving them top billing when it comes to law enforcement.
British Values are now replete with laws reinforced by positive propaganda. Opponents can be both vilified and brought to a court of law accused of phobic reactions to cherished sexual or social innovations. A further effect of this change to our society is that free speech is being eroded. Formerly respected sections of the population are now being cowered or silenced. To publicly stand in opposition, even when done politely is to risk becoming a pariah, an outcast. There are many straws in the wind, people pulled down from high office, some of whom are mentioned in these articles. they are I think set up as warnings to others. Even people at the bottom of the scale feel the pressure. I feel it while writing these articles. In a free society that anxiety would not exist.
It seems there are two groups of extremists that hate the sacrifices of our military forces recalled by our nation on Remembrance Day. Extreme left wing activists and Marxists, and Muslim extremists who may well have always supported ISIS. This video is one of the most horrific I have seen. But having taken a interest in the Christian woman Asia Bibi held in Pakistan for years on a charge of blasphemy, and following her acquittal to watch the hatred of huge mobs directed not just towards the woman to be released, but also against their own judiciary and government makes you wonder about these countries. Is this a hate that can never be lessened by any kind of conciliation process or appeals to mercy and kindness? Where is forgiveness? Where is love? Above all on such a day as Remembrance Day, where is respect.
Here is some history which puts the second video in context. Islam is not a religion of peace.
There is at this time a noticeable hostility towards the Christian Faith. A demonstration of this was realised at the last General Election. The then leader of the Liberal Democrats Tim Farron found himself under unbearable pressure to compromise his Christian principles. Having first given way to this pressure he later repented that decision, choosing instead to follow his conscience and resign from his leadership role. He is an honourable man who chose Christ over his political ambitions and cares about his reputation. He made a stand for his faith when he could have lived the lie and fulfilled his political ambitions. Tim Farron has made many remarks since and a speech. Here are a few extracts which are hard-hitting and to the point. The speech was made to an audience at the Theos Think Tank. It was titled: What Kind of Liberal Society Do We Want?
“….Christianity is disliked by the public. If you actively hold a faith that is more than an expression of cultural identity … you are deemed to be far worse than eccentric. You are dangerous. You are offensive.”
“People talk about shared values today. “But when they do, what they mean is ‘These are my values – and I’m going to act as though they are also yours and will demonstrate contempt for you if you depart from them’…
“John Stuart Mill is the father of modern liberalism. He spoke of many threats to liberty. Amongst the greatest that he identified, is the tyranny of opinion. In ‘on Liberty’, he says the following. In this age, the mere example of nonconformity, the mere refusal to bend the knee to custom, is itself a service. Precisely because the tyranny of opinion is such as to make eccentricity a reproach, it is desirable, in order to break through that tyranny, that people should be eccentric. Eccentricity has always abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigour and moral courage which it contained. That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the time.’
Written in 1859. Spine–tinglingly relevant to 2017.
Mill says that the quality of our ideas and of our society is enhanced by free expression of competing world views. Society is stale without that. He is clear that our liberty is at risk when we all feel a pressure to start thinking the same things. Even more at risk when it is the express intention of those who hold those views to encourage this universal assimilation. Social media feeds this. Maybe ten years ago we thought social media would lead to a greater democracy, greater individual empowerment, the flowering of thousands of unmediated, unfiltered, unspun viewpoints and opinions. How naïve does that sound now? Today social media fuels groupthink, pack mentality and depressing conformity – not to mention a disgraceful lack of civility and decency. The tyrants of opinion have their secret police behind millions of keyboards.’ “Christians have more reason than most to be alarmed.”
The above is quoted with the kind permission of Tim Farron MP. That permission does not mean that he agrees with all that is written on this blog site, or even in this article. But in regard to this matter of how the Christian faith is seen we are I believe united in the conviction that Christianity is under sustained attack.
That last paragraph of the passage quoted by Farron is as neat and accurate a description of what is faced today by dissident voices as I have ever heard or read. No free society should feel comfortable in the face of such a testimony. And in case you suspect otherwise, I am not a supporter of the Liberal Democrats nor have I ever voted for them. But we ought I think consider what kind of society is content to see this happen; and then shrug it off as if it matters not at all. Why should a conscientious objector to those who seek to impose their mindset on others be pulled down because of their beliefs? These comments and quotes from a top liberal politician give some idea of the level of threat there is to Christians brave enough to speak out. Tim Farron may not be a Thomas Cranmer, a true martyr. An archbishop who was executed for his faith in the 16th century, having recanted of previous remarks spoken against his conscience. I tend to believe that sometime not so very far advanced someone in a Western country will be called upon to fulfil a similar destiny, although under current laws, not capital punishment. Unless at some future point Sharia Law is imposed upon some sufficiently weakened European country.
Tim Farron has shown the courage to stand up for his faith in a land hostile to evangelical Christianity. That lone act has ensured that high office will never be his. In the present age he is a rarity in this country, a man who sacrificed his reputation and ambitions for his faith. On the basis of this evidence he upholds the truth that God created this world and set commandments, statutes and decrees in place to ensure its safekeeping, very much like a manufacturer’s terms and conditions. Break them and any guarantees associated with that product working well, safely, or at all, become null and void. I believe we have broken many if not most of these conditions. So, the threat of the consequences, even retribution becomes real. God is not mocked without consequences.
Farron was asked a question, caught off guard and made a reply he regretted. We Christians are not so far removed from persecution. The West is the only part of the world where Christians are free to speak and live out our faith. But those freedoms are becoming narrowed down in one sphere after another. There is something called a tipping point when an expression of disfavour becomes something else. While writing this my thoughts turned to the Jewish girl Anne Frank. She was born in Frankfurt Germany in 1929 and grew up a happy child full of life. In 1933 Hitler became leader of Germany. Anne’s family realising the threat moved to the Netherlands in 1934, and she continued her contented life. She made new friends, was speaking Dutch and going to school in her new country. Anne and her family felt safe once again. In 1940 Hitler invaded the Netherlands. Anne who had written her famous diary while in hiding was discovered and eventually died of typhus in a concentration camp. This was in March 1945. Sixteen years passed between her birth and and a life filled with reasonable expectations, and her tragic death. That is a measure of how fast change can happen. History seems to meander slowly along until suddenly, without much warning you get a violent acceleration and everything changes. We are experiencing an accelerating change towards whatever the future holds. But if Post Modernism is a form of Marxism, which some people think it is, then realise that persecutions from the extremes on the left of politics have in the past created gulags, labour camps, and mass killings on a scale which dwarf Hitler’s fascism. We rarely hear about the atrocities of the left; of Stalin, Mao Tse Tung and Pol Pot in Cambodia. Stalin caused the deaths by starvation of between 5.7 to perhaps to 7 million people in the 1932–1933 Ukrainian famine caused by the collectivisation of agriculture policy. And that was just the beginning of the horrors.
It might be a good idea if these regimes were highlighted in our schools and universities as a warning to a generation such as ours. We are totally unprepared for such a change. Why? Because we are for the most part clueless about history, which makes the present all the more scary. Look around you and see what is happening. We have a care for refugees, and rightly so, but what about others who are for the most part starved of notice. Please watch the video below.
How many times have you thrown out things you believe are no longer relevant to your life or failed to really understand a person who has passed away, and then lived to regret the loss? Regret is a horrible feeling made worse with the realisation you can never recover what was once held dear to you. Many of you will have walked away from a belief in Jesus without ever really knowing who He is.
It was a miracle that the Western world was first attracted to and then took into itself a Middle Eastern religion that was at the time, nearly two thousand years ago, entirely new. Christianity was at odds with almost everything that defined the world into which it made its home. It was a world filled with god’s and religions. The Greeks were the most sophisticated people on the Earth at this time. The intelligentsia, because they loved discussing and debating were open to hearing new ideas. However accepting one god as being dominant over the others, including their own pantheon of gods with Zeus at its head was another matter altogether. St Paul was clearly struck by the sheer diversity of gods in Athens; multi faith was welcomed up to a point which is why they had an altar to a unknown god, just in case they had somehow overlooked an important divinity. It is the nature of philosophy to take an interest in novel ideas and the Greeks majored on philosophy. The problem with people of this mindset is that while discussion may be welcomed, making a life changing choice to follow one god to the exclusion of all others was not part of the game. So when Paul stood upon Mars Hill, the site of the Areopagus near the Acropolis in Athens and made his pitch, their response was probably typical: interested but sceptical. My hope is that even if you are sceptical your interest will have been aroused.
We live in a Post Christian society which means this faith is seen by many as irrelevant, out of date, dull, worn out and no longer of interest. A little like Samson following the loss of his extraordinary strength, the church today has become a shadow of its former self. A little over two thousand years ago the Christian faith was a powerhouse, and one of its leading lights was the apostle Paul. Famously at Mars Hill in Athens Paul began speaking to a people who had never before heard the gospel message. Athens was filled with images of their gods and Paul had noticed among them the statue to the unknown god. He chose to base his pitch to the Athenians on this deity without history or name. Paul’s proclamation was of a God far above all others, a God who would make all the philosophies of the Greeks redundant. He was an orator with a message that could, if accepted do to the sophisticates of Athens what Samson did to the Philistines: bring the temple crashing down on their heads and bury all their suppositions under the ensuing rubble. That is what Christianity did to the Roman Empire. The Gospel has that power, and however pitiable its present condition appears it is still undiminished in its authority. Nothing has changed other than one thing. We, unlike the Athenians are not listening at all. The message I am giving you is that the power and authority of the gospel is no less today than it was in the ages during which the Western world became believers in the God made man Jesus Christ. Our present weakness is down to lack of faith in the Word of God, both the scriptures and its Lord, who is Jesus. We Christians have grown weak and compromised and if God does not seem present among us then it is unsurprising. Without faith we cannot please God or do anything pleasing to him in his name. Rather than blame our largely secular and pagan society we Christians ought to apologise to those who see nothing of value to attract them to Jesus. Christianity is intended to be a light set on a hill, like a lighthouse. The fact that we are not such a light to the world is a shame and a disgrace, and I am no better than the rest. It is my hope and intention and prayer to become a better witness to my God. I hope this blog site will contribute to following that call on my life, which is to witness to my faith.
Jesus Christ is real, he lived in history, he died as described, he rose from the dead as eye witnesses testified and he lives in the hearts of those that believe.
There is a design intuition about the natural kingdom sensed and believed by children, but unseen and disregarded by most adults.
Here is the result of two scientific studies into how children discern between what is purposely designed and what is not. It was found that children have an innate appreciation of design and purpose and a tendency to accept creationist (a Designer or God) explanations of origins. In other words they think in terms of design when confronted with nature and natural phenomenon. This applies across the board irrespective of the influences that have formed their thinking. They naturally think in teleological terms. Teleological means exhibiting or relating to design or purpose, especially in nature.
This information came from a study called: Intuitions About Origins: Purpose and Intelligent Design in Children’s Reasoning About Nature. Deborah Kelemen & Cara Di Yanni / Boston University. From that study alone, it is logical to deduce that the design intuition is a natural response to observed data. Why then and how would children lose this inference? They lose it later in life when brainwashed; not by parents or through church attendance, but through focused programmes and authority figures in schools, colleges and universities who uniformly and constantly teach the opposite. Taught a science curriculum based on no purpose no design and believe it because we have proved it! This is then reinforced by media productions which speak of, and wonderfully illustrate the evolutionary story. ‘Millions of years of evolution’, ‘evolution and millions of years’. Repeat the mantra every day like a religious duty and get the flags ready for the next Darwin celebration. Indoctrinated adults teaching those who by nature would deny this story line. If institutional authority did not impose this view it would not be believed by children. Apparently designed natural features formed through a process of chance and selection is not therefore a natural inference, it is an aberration.
Another report from a British source came to the same conclusions. This research is from a senior researcher at the University of Oxford’s Centre for Anthropology and Mind. Dr Justin Barrett noted that children are predisposed to believe in a God. They naturally assume that all the world and what it contains was created and done so with a purpose in mind. This has nothing to do with any teaching received from school or parents. It is just obvious to them. Research over a decade has led to the conclusion that children have an inbuilt predisposition towards intelligent design.
This is amazing since people like Richard Dawkins have always maintained the belief that this creation nonsense has to be the result of religious indoctrination. He has stated that teaching Creationism to children is “child abuse”. It is not taught in any state schools by decree from above. It has been removed root and branch. How wrong is this? Scientific research from both sides of the Atlantic show that children intuitively accept what is natural to them and consequently, if left to themselves believe the design inference. A forecast based on the creation accounts found in the bible would have expected that result. The creation of conscious creatures (humans) taught from the beginning that God made everything. A Designer who designed and a Creator who created.
A good scientific theory is supposed to make accurate predictions. Evolutionary theory would never ever have predicted that result. The report goes on to crush evolutionary expectations. Dr Barrett noted that children at the age of four years old understand the difference between Man-made objects and those from nature. He concludes that children are more likely to believe Creationist accounts than evolutionary. And that contrary to belief, children hold these beliefs even after being taught the opposite. He even goes so far as to state that evolution is unnatural to them and hard to believe. Child abuse surely is this, forcing humanist thinking into impressionable minds that naturally turn towards their Creator.
If it were true that we had evolved in some primeval pond from bacterial life upwards towards mammalian life and then through primates to human then how could this creation belief have implanted itself so powerfully in the unrehearsed minds of young children? And why would the reverse be so unconvincing and the supposedly true and natural account appear as alien to them? Maybe because we humans are hardwired to believe in a Creator God. We who believe it do so because we listened to that implanted design intuition. Dawkins and his cohorts are guilty of indoctrination and perhaps worse. Denying to children a fundamental birthright, which is to believe what their intuition leads them to believe. That anything which gives the appearance of having been designed was designed. If you are open to hearing another way of looking thing at things presented by someone qualified to speak on matters of science then I recommend this talk by a world class scientist: James Tour.
James Tour was inducted into the National Academy of Inventors in 2015. He was named among “The 50 most Influential Scientists in the World Today” by TheBestSchools.org in 2014. Tour was named “Scientist of the Year” by R&D Magazine in 2013. Tour won the ACS Nano Lectureship Award from the American Chemical Society in 2012. Tour was ranked one of the top 10 chemists in the world over the past decade by Thomson Reuters in 2009. That year, he was also made a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Other notable awards won by Tour include the 2008 Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology, the NASA Space Act Award in 2008 for his development of carbon nanotube reinforced elastomers, the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award from the American Chemical Society (ACS) for his achievements in organic chemistry in 2007, the Small Times magazine’s Innovator of the Year Award in 2006, the Southern Chemist of the Year Award from ACS in 2005, the Honda Innovation Award for Nanocars in 2005, the NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award in 1990, and the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award in 1989. In 2005, Tour’s journal article “Directional Control in Thermally Driven Single-Molecule Nanocars” was ranked the Most Accessed Journal Article by the American Chemical Society. Tour has twice won the George R. Brown Award for Superior Teaching at Rice University in 2007 and 2012.
There can be few scientists who know more about the real life difficulties in explaining, let alone demonstrating, how the origins of cellular life arose without design. James Tour has spent his career in the specialist areas of nanotechnology. Using molecules to build functioning nano-machines on a scale so minute it beggars belief.
In this video, which he describes as painfully technical, he sets himself the task of exposing the hypocrisy underlying all attempts to explain the origins of life without design. If you believe that life arose without a designer through the process of time and chance and are open to another possibility, please watch this video. Because the supposition just referred to underpins every attempt to avoid a Creator God who designed it all. If the only way you can maintain that position is to hold to something that could never happen under any circumstances then you have placed yourself under the power of a delusion. Tour proves that the explanations you have absorbed cannot under any real life circumstances be true.
Children do not need science to prove what is obvious to them. James Tour is a Christian, a child of God, and he knows, even though he does not say it, that nothing other than God could have produced the wonders of cellular life: yours and mine.
Islam is one of three religions, Judaism and Christianity being the other two which believe there is only one God. It was founded in the 7th century AD by Muhammad. The first recorded comment about Islam and its prophet from a Christian source was the following, roughly a century after Muhammad’s death.
‘From that time to the present a false prophet named Mohammed has appeared in their midst. This man, after having chanced upon the Old and New Testaments and likewise, it seems, having conversed with an Arian monk, devised his own heresy. Then, having insinuated himself into the good graces of the people by a show of seeming piety, he gave out that a certain book had been sent down to him from heaven… and he gave it to them as an object of veneration… But when we ask: ‘And who is there to testify that God gave him the book? And which of the prophets foretold that such a prophet would rise up?’ – they are at a loss. And we remark that Moses received the Law on Mount Sinai, with God appearing in the sight of all the people in cloud, and fire, and darkness, and storm. And we say that all the Prophets from Moses on down foretold the coming of Christ and how Christ (the incarnate Son of God) was to come and to be crucified and die and rise again, and how He was to be the judge of the living and dead. Then, when we say: ‘How is it that this prophet of yours did not come in the same way, with others bearing witness to him? And how is it that God did not in your presence present this man with the book to which you refer, even as He gave the Law to Moses, with the people looking on and the mountain smoking, so that you, too, might have certainty?’ They answer that God does as He pleases. ‘This,’ we say, ‘We know, but we are asking how the book came down to your prophet.’ Then they reply that the book came down to him while he was asleep.’
John of Damascus.
It seems obvious that the first impressions of Islam from a Christian perspective were dismissive and entirely negative. And John was a man who would have known that Muhammad was advancing his religion by force and conquest. Jesus Christ, spoke and acted in peace. He did not strike out at or hurt or kill anyone. He died for us and his kingdom while Mohammad initiated centuries and arguably a millennia of warfare. The Islamic empire at various times encompassed most of North Africa, Arabia, the Middle East including Jerusalem. His forces over the succeeding centuries invaded huge parts of Europe which at one time included all of Spain, parts of France, Sicily, parts of southern Italy, the Balkans, Anatolia (modern Turkey, once a Christian country) and all of the old Byzantine Empire (the eastern Roman Empire including Constantinople). Look up Wikipedia, and you find it concentrates on the first couple of hundred years following Muhammad’s death. But these conquests endured remorselessly, century after century and even into relatively recent times up to the demise of the Ottoman empire. This was not accomplished by peaceful evangalisation. It was an often brutal, convert or die policy moderated by a third alternative, demonstrate your submission to Islam by paying the Jizya or jizyah; an annual tax levied on non-Muslim subjects permanently residing in Muslim lands governed by Islamic Law.
It is strange that if this were the history of Britain then the liberals and the left would be demanding we denounced our imperial history with a modern equivalent of sackcloth and ashes. But no, there is nothing but silence because this history belongs to a favoured group and an oppressed minority. We are nevertheless expected to acknowledge shame about our imperial history.
If you were to accept the traditional accounts of Muhammad’s life then in the early days he was a man of peace. The story of Islam’s early roots may well be fundamentally untrue at the historical level. Nevertheless the accounts state that while at Mecca Muhammad had respected and honoured the people of the Book; Jews and Christians. This is unsurprising, since as John of Damascus stated he used the Old and New Testaments repeatedly to substantiate his teachings. But in Mecca Muhammad’s words fell on a largely uninterested audience. He moved to Medina and once there he began preaching with more success. It was during this period that he became a warlord and his revelations turned from a message of peace to one of jihad: either a struggle or fight against the enemies of Islam: “he declared a jihad against the infidels, or the spiritual struggle within oneself against sin.
This is why teachings devoted to peace which originated from Mecca, became warlike and expansionist following his attack on the people at Medina. This led to the doctrine of Jihad. Holy war against those that did not submit. Jews, Christians and others became enemies of the truth: infidels. You may say, but surely things are very different now? Well they may appear to be so in the West, if you are prepared to put aside occasional acts of terrorism by small groups of fanatics. There is no reason to doubt that the vast majority of Muslims who have come to the West have done so primarily to improve their lives and prospects, and live in peace. But the teachings of Muhammad are Islam, and Islam is a paradox.
For a start Islam is a faith whose teachings and practises directly conflict with British Values. A few examples: the subordination of women to the rule of men, anti-Semitism, polygamy, honour killing, forced marriages, the killing of apostates, female genital mutilation and a hatred of homosexuals. This list makes Christian concerns about behaviour and moral standards seem more like a benediction. Whenever Islam is mentioned the main fear among the non-Muslim population is terrorism. However, the perpetrators of these acts are a tiny minority. I tend to think the litany of oppression against so many individuals and groups, when gathered together under a semi legal umbrella like Sharia law could be of greater concern. It is remarkable that even though it is known that Sharia Law is part of Islam little is said in opposition to this list of what can only be described as hate crimes. If these were part of Christian creeds all hell would break loose in opposition to a faith that endorsed such a racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic and misogynistic agenda. But scare a whisper of protest is heard. And the greatest victims of these laws? Muslim women and their female children! The fact so few publicly complain is perhaps a measure of male dominance and the culture that permits it to continue largely unchallenged.
Often forgotten or ignored are the well justified fears of what is most likely the great majority of Muslims. Mostly peace seeking moderates who perhaps hoped for protection from western democracies. Longing for British values to be applied and upheld across the board without fear or favour. In other words, freedom from the forms of Sharia Law condoned or enforced in the countries from which they emigrated. In our blind rush to abandon the guidance of our former religion, Christianity, we have fallen foul of another much more legalistic and dictatorial. A religion at odds with all our natural instincts and culture. Protections for one religion to follow religious laws abhorrent to even our secular law books, and open season, like a non stop grouse shoot on the one that defined those moral virtues our nation once lived by. If you disliked historic Christian views on homosexuality then at least face the reality that they were, even at their most extreme, mild in comparison to those that apply under Sharia law in Islamic states. They were not for instance thrown off tower blocks with the approval of clerics or hung until dead from cranes in public squares. Those really are hate crimes. The video is one of many much longer and more graphic which can be found on YouTube.
In a multi-faith environment we are all supposed to get on. That sentiment is very British, but in this case wilfully naive. What follows is a Christian view that many, possibly most Christians would not support. Certainly not the current head of the Church of England: Archbishop Welby.
The god of Islam, Allah, has no link to the God of the Jews and Christians. Muhammad is not a prophet known to either Judaism or Christianity. I realise nothing I am saying in defence of Christianity would not be in some manner thrown back at us by devout Muslims. They believe in their faith and in its doctrines. To them Christianity is a false and corrupted religion, following corrupted scriptures. Many Christians think Islam and Christianity share the same God. Nothing could be further from the truth. In Islam Jesus (Isa) is subordinate to Muhammad. Jesus is not God’s Son because Allah has no Son. There is no Trinity. Jesus did not die on the cross. Neither did he rise from the dead via resurrection three days after his crucifixion. St Paul said that if Jesus did not rise from the dead then our Christian faith is in vain. So if Muhammad is correct and the Quran is true Christianity has lost its entire foundation, which is the death and resurrection of Jesus. If you are Christian and think there can be fellowship in doctrine then you are terribly deceived. Archbishop Welby pleads for peace, which is a noble and Christian ambition; but not in all cases, as he must know from the teachings and prophecies found in the Bible.
The fact that Islam and Christianity are two faiths set up as equals by our state machinery does not mean that the enmity between them ceases or that peace breaks out. No such peace exists when it comes to the salvation of souls, and if that objective does not drive a Christian like the archbishop as much as it does a Muslim, then what are we about? Truth used to matter, truth divides as did Jesus who is the truth. But truth so defined has all but vanished into clouds of mist arising from the social and religious cohesion preached by British values. We must, so the state informs us always remember to make every effort to embrace the multi-faith agenda. I am afraid to write or comment on this topic. It would be safer to say nothing and preach social and religious cohesion. But I cannot take that pledge. I should not feel fear in expressing a view held in good conscience in a country that avowedly supports free speech, but I do.
I regret that much this will be hurtful to many good people, but what is evidence based should not be ignored because it hurts. And never because it offends against that most ill thought through of all laws: hate crime. These miss some targets altogether while hitting those entirely innocent of intending harm. As stated in an earlier article on this subject, not to face problems solves nothing and can lead to greater injury. Sadly, Islam is in my estimation deserving that part of the definition of a phobia which states: an extreme fear of or aversion to something. That I believe is fully justified. Islam is a religion and a culture with a political dimension. You could argue that political and religious Islam are one and the same. Islam unlike early Christianity won its ground by conquest, a warfare that some historians believe has continued unabated in one form or another for close to 1400 years. The Western civilisation under Christianity has been under almost continual attack because Islam has a call based on the words of its prophet Muhammad to jihad and the mission to create a global caliphate. In this caliphate non Muslims, as inferiors, infidels or kaffirs must pay an annual tax which symbolises their submission. Failure to pay this had very serious consequences. The Quran says terrible things about how this category of human is to be treated. Sharia law is harsh almost beyond measure to those who fall short of Allah’s standards. These laws are the outworking of Muhammad’s revelations.
These factors now play out in Western societies and the effects are there to be seen and documented. It is undeniable that a major effort to minimise the mounting evidence pointing towards the negative impact of Islam in the West is happening all over Europe. Read the book titled: The Strange Death of Europe by Douglas Murray and you will find it difficult to deny either his research or his conclusions.
There is much more to be said, and it concerns how the religion of Islam draws its inspiration from the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. Three hundred years after Christianity had become the dominant faith in the Roman Empire, and six hundred years after the ministry of Jesus and close to three thousand years after Abraham, Mohammad concluded that the biblical scriptures were corrupted. The proof being that he, a prophet greater than Jesus, is not clearly foreshadowed in the Bible due to these corruptions. These missing confirmations of the coming prophet of Islam had presumably been mischievously removed by Jews and Christians from the original scripts. Mohammad is chosen by Allah to be the last prophet of God, the one who will set things right and straight. His corrections and revelations led to the birth of the Quran and Islam. He probably had no idea that the ways Jewish scribes copied their scriptures was just about the most foolproof and scrupulous method ever devised by man. Mistakes other than of the most insignificant kind, like a small error in punctuation, caused an entire manuscript to be rewritten. Jewish scribes had supervisors who checked their work. Errors on the scale required by Muhammad were inconceivable. Where that leaves Islam is for you to judge, I have long since made my decision.
Below is the testimony of two young women whose accounts are very difficult to ignore.
Choice is almost a catch word nowadays; normality, stability, the natural order, do they matter anymore? Oh yes, every part and bit matters because norms are what stabilise societies. Men and women are different in ways that have only become apparent since the 1990’s. A lot has changed since then and not only by way of choice, medicine has moved on. Much more is known about the human body. Medical treatments for males and females used to be, other than in obvious cases more or less the same. It is now known that gender specific medicine is very important, especially for women. Treatment helpful to a male patient may be detrimental to a female. So please tell me how a trans-gendered female who has made the choice to become male should be treated? To treat this person as the chosen gender or as the genetics decided at conception? At this point the issue of who or what I am becomes very real. It could be a matter of wrecking your health through inappropriate drugs being used in treatments and maybe even worse. The European Molecular Biology Organisation has stated that the prevention, management and therapeutic treatments of common diseases fails to note the most important factors relating to the needs of the patient. and those factors? They are sex and gender. We cannot safely meddle in areas fixed by nature and genetics. This new movement which demands that choice be at the forefront of decision making is ignoring the real world. And this insistence that our changeable inner feelings about ourselves are reliable guides to our well-being is a fantasy.
If you decree that what has for millennia been called normal and natural does not define normality or nature, then can normality exist, and what does natural mean? Can we just legislate for a new reality, a new good, a new right and enforce it with Draconian laws? The answer to that question is yes. We have been moving in that direction for the last few decades. And for some unknown reason it has been lit by green lights all the way. The natural order, once accepted as the way God had put it all together has seemingly had its day. Mankind has done a lot of damaging things to disturb the natural order over the last few centuries. Done so while rearranging the world for our own purposes; sometimes like a teenager at a party trashing the family home. But nevertheless, somehow the place always remained more or less intact, still repairable, still habitable, and still recognisable. Now though it is difficult to be certain that we have not broken away from the past altogether and are entering a new realm, where it is not the natural world forming and controlling us but rather the reverse. Headlong and reckless pursuits tend to end in disaster.
My belief is that this recklessness is apparent in many areas of life, including our brains and bodies and even our ability to distinguish between madness and sanity, between sense and nonsense. The kinds of debate that go on are extraordinary; beyond anything that would have once been thought possible. To argue the matter of sex and gender apart from biology and genetics by making these matters of established science a side issue, is madness. To emphasise a feeling about gender as being equivalent or superior to the reality governing sexuality, which tells us that every cell in our body is either male or female, is to reclassify the most basic understandings we have about everything. This is a disorder of the mind that has infected a large percentage of our population. And this is not just the loony left, or self absorbed celebrities, it is our leaders, our governments and even large swathes of our religious denominations. LGBT has become the driving force for a so called reform of society, a progression. And yet it has no basis in science and rides on a wave of euphoria enforced upon us all by the laws of the land. In my view this is technically certifiable.
As the bible states in 2 Thessalonians: ch 2 v 11-12
“And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” We choose our delusions just as we choose good and evil and right and wrong. God created us male and female and in those identities we were created to live and learn and come to know the God who made us.
Here is information from an expert source. Dr John Sanford, A Cornell University Professor for more than 25 years and has been semi-retired since 1998. He is of the opinion that the genetic load we carry, which is measured by mutations accruing in our genome increases from generation to generation. The effect is like the inexorable progress of rust on an ageing car. If the genome is being pulled in a downwards direction then the results will become increasingly obvious. I cannot help but wonder if the world in which we live is testimony that we are becoming lost to what is real and true.
Shutting your eyes and singing la la la to yourself in the face of an evil threat, thinking that if you cannot see or hear what threatens you then it may not actually exist is to live in la la land. I believe that is exactly where we are at the present time. A threat looms close and we will not acknowledge its existence.
To a prophet in the first century AD, the modern world would appear as miraculous and quite probably satanic. The Internet, space probes far into the universe, entertainment and media, robotics, skyscrapers far higher than anything imagined at Babel. The arms race, intercontinental missiles, nuclear bombs and drones for every possible requirement. How far seeing could a prophet be? The prophet John in the book of Revelation described the entire world viewing an event happening on earth, all at the same time. A hint of 24 hour satellite news coverage? He also spoke of every individual being required to have a mark which would enable those with it to buy and sell, shutting out those who refused to take the mark. A sight of a future globalized dictatorship and microchip technology perhaps. The separation of the signed up to the new reality and those who refuse to be coerced. If the scripture, speaking of a “strong delusion” and the old saying about “those the gods want to destroy they first make mad” are true then we can, in my opinion, see the expected results of that happening all around us. I can easily imagine laughter being the response to all this, but ridicule is a price worth bearing if it makes some people think. The Bible has never shied away from the who and what is behind it all. Jesus knows him and has faced him. After the coming period, called the end times, there will come the hour when Satan having for a moment reached the pinnacle of his ambitions will be utterly and finally destroyed. The second coming of Jesus is clearly prophesied, as is the presence of the character of the devil incarnate: the man claiming to be divine, the anti-Christ, the last of his kind. The following is also from 2 Thessalonians Ch. 2.
“Concerning the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us, whether be a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter, asserting that the day of the Lord has already come. Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshipped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.”
Is the prophesied “rebellion” underway on a continent once devoted to the God of the Bible? Is the world gone mad and under a delusion which blinds it to the truth it once held fast? If you have to come to the point of thinking this could be true then you can break free from the delusion, all you need is humility and faith. Humble enough to bend your knee and bow your head before your Lord and King and faith enough to trust this God to see you through to what he has prepared for you. It is an ever-present invitation for as long as the present remains. There is however an impediment and it has a name: sin! God shows us who he is in a myriad of different ways: and one way is through the creation of the world and the wonders of nature and the universe. Although fallen and spoiled it still proclaims his glory and goodness. So, we are without excuse. A painting like Rembrandt’s Prodigal Son does not need a signature to tell us it is both beautiful and sad and created for a purpose, to touch the heart and move our spirit. To attract and to demonstrate the painter’s insights and skill. To deny this is to deliberately blindside your intellect. A deliberate act, turning away from what you know to be true. In relation to God this is called sin, and in this case, sin is a death sentence. Only one hope is laid before us, and that hope is a person and that person is the Son of God Jesus Christ, God made Man. If we are shielded from seeing him as he fully is then realise it is for mercy’s sake and for our good. If we saw perfection we would not be able to deal with it, we are part of what is fallen and spoilt. A creation poisoned shortly after it began. We have an idea that it is not right but no idea how to correct it; or indeed us, humankind. We who are at both the root and summit of that fall. Sin blinds us to truth, even when it is laid bare before us. Every instinct and inclination leads us into sin, each sin causing us to suppress the truth and love the lie. Satan will be dealt with and it will be Jesus who ends the long reign of death.
But surely, even if we were to believe such an event, we are still a long way from it? Just look at us and all that has been achieved. We can see the world that way and take comfort since at one level this world is alluring: diverse, entertaining, free, without rigid structure. On another it is doctrinaire, imposing on your freedoms of speech and action. If the contention that a kind of madness has fallen upon us is accurate, then it should be apparent in every sphere of human life. We should see it going on around us and if we do not wonder at in amazement, and most will not, then we may have drifted with the tide and become part of it: anaesthetised. If this is the case we will not know if we are in danger, even if every unnoticed sign is warning us. In former times people were selected to be watchmen, or in PC themed speech, watch-people. Their primary job was to keep lookout and inform their superiors about anything appearing on the horizon that may be a threat. Such a person must be prepared to wake up everyone with the sound of a trumpet or a bellowed shout. The message would not necessarily be welcomed. But it was their sole purpose. To be alert and brave enough to warn a town or a ship’s captain and crew of the reality. Like the shout of “iceberg ahead” by the watchman on the Titanic.
There is a comment from the world of fiction which describes our situation as accurately as I can imagine. It is the comment of the small boy that broke the spell on a crowd taken in by a magnificently contrived confidence trick. He saw what the indoctrinated masses could not see. It was plainly obvious and the boy shouted it out. “The Emperor has no clothes!”
The Post Modern deceit that truth is just a matter of opinion is I believe of this type. And you do not need to be clever to see it. Just open your eyes and unblock your ears and heed the warning. Here is a man giving a warning. We live in a society watching for any signs of extreme right wing activity but seem utterly blind to the threat from the extreme left. We know huge amounts about Nazism and its consequence but are largely ignorant about the much greater harm that has arisen from left wing totalitarian regimes: Communism under Stalin, Mao Tse Tung and Pol Pot of Cambodia. The bloodshed, disasters and indoctrination under these dictators dwarf even the atrocities committed by Hitler and his ideology based on the super race. To state the deaths at 100.000.000 may well be an understatement. If what is coming via Postmodernism and Political Correctness is Cultural Marxism then wake up, listen to whats going on and dare to speak against it.
Darwin knew as well as anyone else that Creation cannot pass unnoticed, an explanation is required. There are only three possible options. The division is between those believing there could be a Creator of some kind and those holding that a natural process caused it all. The final one includes those believing a combination of the two above. In the Western world the battle lines are usually drawn by those who care, and these divide between the two positive assertions: God did it, or a form of Darwinian evolution did it, maybe with some initial supernatural help to start it off. As things stand it is atheistic Darwinism which holds much the more powerful position, at least among the educated classes. This happens to include the great majority of those that understand or practise science. But every now and then a big juicy apple is heard falling to the ground from the tree of life.
The tree of life with its trunk, branches and twigs demonstrating the linked relationships between bacteria, fish and mammals up to mankind is still assumed by many, but evidence does not support its existence. The transitional fossils are speculative at best and non existent at worst. Many evolutionary palaeontologists, some of the greatest admit the failure of the fossil record. As for the Tree of Life, Craig Venter, a world-renowned scientist implied it was a nonevent, calling it in effect an artefact of history. Venter was on a panel of guests including two Nobel Prize winners and Richard Dawkins. The latter was visibly shocked to hear such a heresy coming from a well-respected source. This little disagreement is an indication that not every scientist is signed up to classic Darwinism. Nevertheless, the majority of those who support evolutionary theory will contend that all necessary proofs have been supplied in abundance.
I want to ask a simple question. Is the creation we see and know what Darwinism would have predicted? Darwin’s theory should produce nothing beyond what is baseline functional at the very best. A process like evolution, directed on the basis of survival, reproduction and immediate rather than future need is not likely to produce either exquisite novelties or boundless beauty. And certainly not on the scale of what is demonstrated throughout nature. If the only processes permitted to evolutionists are without direction and any thought or foresight as to how plant and animal life survive in any given or changing environment, then there is simply no chance of seeing what nature demonstrates. Not without miracle upon miracle, and miracles are precisely what Darwinism does not have. If you want miracles you need God not a process whose only mechanism for change and development is genetic mutation. The problem is that mutations do not cause Marvel Comic mutants. They mostly produce errors and some of these can be damaging, even fatal. Mutations are not good news. Every example in films of mutant improvements and super heroes are fictions. That should tell you something. Mutations cause disease, death and the breakdown of genomes. They represent a process comprising a faulty copy of a code or set of instructions via DNA. Corrupted copies, causing wonder upon wonder, all fully functioning from the get go. That is Darwinism. Is it an argument you would want to defend? A faulty possibly damaging mutation causing an advanced type of that which preceded it. Man to superman or Dr Jekyll into Mr Hyde. The latter is the more likely. If it all seems unlikely then live with it, because there is nothing else. You are quite safe since this theory, titled Neo-Darwinism, is supported without question by many of the most intelligent people on earth.
The following video shows how our bodies deal with the problem. The Bible informs us we live in a fallen world in which God is still its Sovereign Lord. You will see that the body is consumed with activity devoted to keep us well, but the invasions of damaging mutations do get through. The systems of repair are incredible, they look after us just as good parents look after their children, but damage from the world gets through to them as well. We all live in this fallen world. The wonder is that so much goes so well. Watch, listen and be amazed. You might also ask yourself how such systems evolved without thought, engineering and know how? Intelligent design perhaps!
