Woody Hayes and Preaching

I remember the inimitable Woody Hayes. Back in the middle sixties, the Ohio State coaches taught courses. They probably still have to do that. Majors and minors in physical education took a pretty heavy schedule of sports training. This included intense participation and testing on the specific skills as well as testing on the knowledge base for each sport. We took tennis, canoeing, track and field, wrestling, fencing, swimming, gymnastics, basketball, volleyball, baseball, handball, racquetball, squash, golf, football ,and a raft of other courses suitable for teaching physical education at all levels of public education. Some of us worked at it pretty hard and were in better physical condition than we had ever been before or since. At that time, OSU had about the best physical education programs in America. Perhaps there is a bit of bias in this last statement.

We had classroom work and suited-up for football and drills as part of Mr. Hayes' program. I also recall having to diagram plays for a notebook that constituted a good part of our final grade. The guys on OSUs football team didn't have much trouble with that requirement. Some of the rest of us simply endured it.

Woody Hayes and his coaching staff handled the different parts of the course, but I remember best my first meeting with the great coach and his manner of instruction. Bull neck, compact body, a way of lowering his chin just a bit and looking like he was about to put a spear block on you, that was my first impression of the coach. He didn't speak in frilly italics. It was boldfaced, fourteen point font all the way. Underline that. Its not that he raised his voice and bellowed, either. None of that; just a carved in brass with a heavy stylus emphasis on things dictated atop Mt. Parnassus. We never heard the first word of equivocation in Woody's voice. He didn't fumble for words like an inexperienced freshman halfback lilyfingering the ball as he ran into the line of scrimmage. He never dropped the ball once he began his lectures. Miss a word or line for your notes and you just had to figure your grade was going to drop a letter. That was Woody Hayes!

The man spoke from an authority based on long gruelling football experience. Back to that spear block. As an offensive lineman, we learned you set your bull neck--a football player has a bull neck--back into your thickset shoulders, raise your elbows like a cowcatcher and you spear the defense right in the numbers. You stand him up. Keep your feet under you and moving; do the quarter eagle. Thats why you've gotta have a bull neck. Woody said he once saw a man tackled in the end zone. He saw his head twist all the way around. Woody made it graphic to make it stick in our heads. You see all this has stuck in mine for almost forty years. He spoke with authority. He repeated himself to make us know it wasn't just important. It was the essence of football, distilled, compressed and injected into our neurons. He didn't instruct or test on opinions and, though I only met the man once after the course, I'm sure he didn't think our poorly informed opinions about football or life amounted to diddlysquat.

He surely knew football. Life? Surely not all he needed to know. Otherwise he would not have made that singular mistake which finished his coaching career. One might say Woody "lost it" when he struck a player on the field. Well, we all make mistakes and pay the consequences.

Woody Hayes preached what he knew. Let me say again, he did it with authority. That makes the transition to what this article is all really about. Football games, heroes, coaches and fans come and go, but the Word of God lasts forever. For those who need that engraved in stone: "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but God's Word will never pass away." Bold-faced type, fourteen point font, engraved in brass, and heavily underlined, not one word merely an opinion. The Woody Hayes style of preaching (with love added) is what is needed in America's pulpits today. No more fumbling for the ball, dropping it beneath a pile of enemy bodies, or crawfishing back way behind the line of scrimmage to be pounced upon by a pile of milksops. The Lord spoke with authority. His apostles spoke the same because they received it pure and sincere from the mouth of God. Such preaching will never grow old and lives will certainly change under its influence.

My homely analogy of football at Ohio State was all flesh, but we have something more enduring in the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. Jesus Christ yesterday, today, tomorrow and forever. Genesis to Revelation unequivocally, completely, passionately preached is still what the world needs now. Preachers need to stop trying to out-psyche the enemy and the world and get on with what they are commissioned to do. Build with the right tools! Not little social programs, not card houses, but the Gospel which is the power unto salvation for those who will believe. Same for the sustaining power of God's Word for the redeemed. One cannot exhaust the scriptures. They are living and breathing. Though we've heard much about the spiritual gingerbread needed to build a sweet and loving fellowship, and we've heard about all the other nice books we need in our arsenal, not so!

Ministers, when you think the Word is exhausted, or its beginning to sound boring in your own ears, then move on.There are fleshly occupations that bring creature comforts to people. Try selling food or clothing or selling insurance. But if you are going to stay and minister to needy people, give them what they need. The disciples were asked if they would also leave the Savior. They responded, "Where can we go? You have the words of eternal life." Woody did not have the unction or knowledge to preach such truths, but you have. Remember! Head up, feet moving, tight grip on the ball, out of my way world, and straight to the end zone! The Lord will block downfield.

God With Us

God With Us (free in Christ verse)

Lord, I did it again.
Why You still stay by me, I just don’t know.
Its amazing You can stand to be near me!
I try and try again and fail; I see no failure in You.
You just don’t think the way my other friends do.
They want strength in a friend; You want weakness.
You say, "Humble yourself and I will raise you up."
My friends say, "Hang tough and don’t be a loser.
They don’t want to see me weak when they need someone to lean on,
But I can’t show them me and do them any good.
I can try to show them You.
Since You say you will never leave me or forsake me.
Maybe then, I’m my friends’ best hope
When from time to time I show them where I am You are.
This last thing I said limits you, Lord.
I know where they are You are also.
They cannot run from Your hands
Which reach out to them in the heights and depths
And in-between places of their lives.


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Humility Exemplified

Humility (From Discussions With Sr. Saints at Faith Assembly)


Humility in Relationships with Others

Consider others’ gifts as important as our own.
Easily surrender the best seat or parking place.
Be open and honest.
Build others around us.
Bear one another’s burdens.
Pray for others’ welfare.
Be all things to all people so some might be saved.
Listen carefully to what other’s have to say.
Be a servant to all and not a respecter of persons.
Encourage others to join our group (Bible study etc.).
Pray that our love for other people may increase.
Take an interest in the lives of other people.
Love our neighbors from the heart.
Let others go first.
Pray for those who make themselves our enemies.
In conversation refrain from being an authority on every subject.
Maintain confidentiality; keep secrets rather than carrying tales to impress other people.
Let others praise us instead of us ourselves.
Practice true humility rather than obsequiousness.
Use sincere praise and encouragement to edify rather than flatter.

Humility in my Relationship with God

Praise and worship God every day.
Read and study God’s Word.
Acknowledge our weaknesses and depend upon Him in all things and at all times.
Give God all the glory for our victories.
Worship the Creator and not the created things.
Put God first in everything.

Humility and my Possessions

Share.
Hold on loosely to what God has given us.
Desire nothing that someone else has.
Consider every person on earth more important than our pet.
Boast in the Lord and not in our stuff.
Do not compete with others to have more.
Pray for others’ prosperity.
Give to those in need.
Be content with little; be content with such things as we have.
Provide everything honest in the sight of all people.
Never use people to increase our possessions.
Talk about ideas rather than things.
Value time with people over time simply cultivating things.
Do our jobs as unto God and for his purposes rather than with a view to accumulating wealth.
Downscale and decrease unneeded possessions.
Treasure other people and do not make such a big thing out of "my family, " or my way of doing things.

Cataclysm by Flood and Fire

Be prepared! It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark!

2 Peter 3:1 (NIV) Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking.

2. I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Saviour through your apostles.

3. First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.

4. They will say, "Where is this 'coming' he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation."

5. But they deliberately forget that long ago by God's word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water.

6. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed.

7. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

8. But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.

9. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but every0ne to come to repentance.

10. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.

11. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives.

12. as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat.

13. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.

14. So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless, and at peace with him.


Coming again, coming again.
May be morning, may be noon,
May be evening, and may be soon.
Coming again, coming again.
Oh what a wonderful day that will be.
Jesus is coming again.

Peter tells us the second coming of Jesus Christ is a sure thing. The apostles who watched him ascend into the air were told by the angels that he would come in the same manner they saw him leave them. The Bible makes it very clear: Old Testament prophets predicted it; Jesus emphasized it and so did his apostles. Christians are to live as if that day were today.

Scoffers go about denying the prophecies of Christ's return as if they think their talk can alter the future. In verse four it seems these same scoffers acknowledge the creation. Even that has changed. Evolutionists throw out God, creation, the Bible, the Great Flood, Christ's redemption plan, and ridicule all the other promises God has given to us.

Peter tries to jog the memories of the scoffers. He reminds them that God destroyed the world by a deluge. Notice the use of that word "destroyed." Some of the people who believe in the flood picture it as a long mild rain that descends, covers the earth, and then recedes, leaving everything pretty much intact. Not so. It was a seething, swirling, exploding, world-shattering cauldron that completely changed the surface of the earth. There can be no such thing as a gentle worldwide flood. The idea is ludicrous. If only the floodgates of heaven opened up, there would have been a cataclysm so powerful, so scouring of this planet that it would indeed be accurate to say the earth was "destroyed" by a flood. Just picture the power of hurricanes, tsunamis, the breaching of dams, the power of mighty rivers such as the Amazon, the Mississippi, the Nile and all that and more happening over the entire face of the earth inside one year.

The Bible, though, doesn't tell us only the windows of heaven opened up. Genesis records that the fountains of the deep burst open. This world spewed out water, earth and rock? God doesn't say it was a local thing. It was a global event. What flew from beneath the crust of the earth alone could have wrecked the entire face of earth.

The apostle Peter reports that scoffers deliberately forget what happened. They don't care to think about God's absolute power over them and the rest of his creation. Do they think he will simply go away to accommodate their forgetfulness? No! They arouse the mighty anger of our omnipotent God when they suppress the truth in unrighteousness. They will pay for their evil forgetfulness and lies. Romans 1 says the scoffers should be persuaded by the things that God has made that he exists. It says they did not see fit to retain God in their minds. They deliberately went about forgetting who made them and who controls the universe. There is that word "deliberate" again. That means premeditated rebellion against our Holy God. Does this sound like atheism, agnosticism, humanism, Darwinian evolution?

It happened once by water and it will happen again by fire. The significant difference is that the heavens are also reserved for destruction. We don't fully know what that means, but the earth beneath the burned-up heavens will be unrecognizable. Verse ten says the earth will be laid bare. Why? The judgment and destruction of ungodly people (scoffers included.) The old saying goes, "Forewarned is forearmed." That might work with a fleshly enemy we might once have engaged in a skirmish, but no-one defies God. No weapon formed against him or his children shall prosper. God may do whatever he chooses to do as many times as he chooses to do it. All God's enemies are puny upstarts.

Another wise saying goes, "Those who will not learn from history are doomed to repeat it (their mistakes)." We've had a few thousand years to mull over Noah's Flood. We see the evidence of "Billions and Billions of dead things buried in rock layers laid down by water all over the earth." The Bible tells us it happened. The evidence of our senses agrees with the Bible. Our response should be to bow before the Creator and Lord of all the universe, to worship him in spirit and in truth. Problem is, most people want to believe a lie. Having itching ears they heap unto themselves false teachers, false scientists, gurus of ape-to-man theology who shrink from the cross like demons fleeing at the name of Jesus, or like the demons who would rather go into pigs and drown in the sea rather than tarry in the presence of the Holy Savior. The flooded earth was a monumental object lesson that many early cultures tried to mythologize away, and latter day scientists still try to purge from every domain of human knowledge.

God does not want anyone to suffer eternal separation from him. A thousand years means nothing to God. In fact, a million years would be but a moment, but he loves all of us. He waits. Some trust him and others mock him. Those who refuse to repent are without excuse, because God is patient and "the way is so clear that even a fool should not miss it." It is as clear as the perfect God/man coming to earth to be born as a baby in a manger, living a sinless life, showing forth the glory and power of his Father here on earth; earth-shaking as the miracles of raising people from the dead and healing all manner of infirmities; wonderful as dying a terrible death by crucifixion; awesome as rising from the grave and ascending back to Heaven so we too might follow Him; loving as sending us a comforter, the Holy Spirit, to live inside of us and guide us into all truth. Between the flood and the fire is every opportunity to be reconciled to God through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Rebels won't find the way. The proud will fumble around in their self-righteousness and miss the door. But blessed are the poor spirit for they shall see God.

We are told in verses eleven through fourteen that we should look forward to the day of Christ's coming. We ought to live in eager anticipation of him breaking through the clouds, coming as the lightening flashes from the east to the west, coming like a thief in the night to usher in his eternal kingdom. We must be about our Father's business. Although many of us believe in the rapture preceding the seven years of tribulation on earth, and believe that Christ's second coming will occur at the end of that seven years, we have a mandate to carry out Christ's great commission before both events, to go throughout the world and preach the gospel so people might join us in Heaven. Nevertheless, we who desire his appearing can cry out alongside John the Revelator : "Even so, Lord, come quickly."

We make plans for many things. We plan retirement. We plan vacations-- sometimes years in advance. Some people have their funeral arrangements finalized, though not scheduled. Wills are made and beneficiaries designated. Second Peter 3:11, 12 (KJV) says something to all of us who name Christ as our Lord and Saviour: "Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?" We who live in this brief time between the flood and the fire know in our hearts how we should be. Verse 14 (KJV) reminds us again: "Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him (God) in peace, without spot, and blameless."

The Distributary Fans of Mars

The first two photos are enlarged from the white-traced rectangles in the third picture. They reveal unusual patterns traced in the sediment by what may have been tremendous amounts of flowing water. The bottom two photos look much like distributary fans we find at the mouth of the Nile, the Atchafalaya Basin in Louisiana, and other river deltas and alluvial fans photographed from the air around the world. Those of us who believe in but a mere few thousand years since God created everything, will find the pictures consonant with the effects of flowing water over a relatively short period of time. The mechanics of such erosion have been seen at Mt. St. Helens, The Washington State scablands, the Grand Canyon, and innumerable other sites where water has carved through sediment and solid rock.

It takes little imagination to see riverbeds and lakebeds in the pictures. Indeed, though, one does not see such evidence of fluid movement all over Mars. Only in a select few of the many pictures taken of the Martian landscape. The perennial question remains. Where did all that water come from and where did it go? Could it have been spewed out from a neighboring planet? Could there be great reservoirs of subterranian water on this fourth planet from the sun?

Water on Mars or What?

This picture, taken by Viking Explorer, reveals erosional channels in the northern lowlands of Mars. One article on this topography said the erosion was similar to that found in the scablands of Washington State. We know the scablands were formed by water. Where did this Martian "water" come from?

A further note on Martian features: It seems that the canals once "discovered" on Mars that gave rise to so much speculation about a long-gone civilization were simply artifacts of the telescopes used at the time. In other words, the canals never existed. What does this say about the nature of scientific investigation? Extrapolation on the basis of conjecture or enthusiastic guesses often leads the unwary public astray. Happily, in this example of the nonexistent canals, scientists have acknowledged their error. This is honesty that should be commended. One of the main problem is, however, we laity of science may go for decades without checking up on what is true and what has been debunked. Science has the obligation to inform us as fervently about errors as it misinforms us in the first place.

Far as we know, based on our trust that the above is a real picture of the northern lowlands of Mars, an enormous area has been guttered by some liquid substance, perhaps water.

Water on Mars?

Within Newton Crater we see a bizarre formation, the north wall of a small crater. This crater measures about 4.4 miles across. The north wall of this depression has a great many narrow gullies leading down into its depths. Did water emerge from beneath the Martian surface, or did it originate in meteors striking Mars? That which looks like a great smooth lake with lobes and fingers at the bottom is obviously not water because of the climate of this planet, but it certainly l0oks like a liquid flowed from above and left features water might make.

In Walt Brown's Book, In the Beginning: Compelling Evidence for the Creation and the Flood, he theorizes that enormous amounts of rock and water were expelled from beneath the surface of the earth at supersonic speeds during the Great Flood. Some of this material escaped the earth's atmosphere and some fell back. That which escaped became comets, asteroids and meteors. Some of this material impacted other bodies in our solar system. We weren't there to see this happen ( if this is the way it all actually came about), but this strange event in the Newton Crater on Mars may well have occured at the time of meteor impacts. There seems little reason to interpret this phenomenon in terms of millions or billions of years when the craters produce cataclysm. This evidence seems to agree well with a young age for our solar system.

President Clinton once spoke enthusiastically about a chunk of (presumeably) Martian rock found on earth. Some scientists felt the rock contained evidence of life on Mars. Evidently opinion has swung the other way about the "life" idea, but the Martian origen is still upheld. Doesn't it seem logical that if we could receive material from Mars, then Mars might also receive material from the earth.

Water on Mars? Maybe. Maybe it resulted from God opening the fountains of the deep (worldwide) on earth a few thousand years ago. To explore the mechanics of how this might have happened, read Brown's book. Whether you agree or disagree with the hydroplate theory, the evidence Brown examines and interprets is intensely fascinating.



Images Credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

Daughter of Eve

Sons of Adam

The Brothers

Ethan and Aaron seem a little camera shy. Don't believe it. They are just wiggly and mischievous like we once were.

Most of us adults can't remember how it was to be so full of life as these brothers. We chase fun and excitement, but they live it. And it doesn't take them any special props like it does for us. We hanker after owning one thing after another to bring us the good life, but each new thing acquired soon loses its lustre. We work harder and harder for what we think is success. Meanwhile we grow older and colder to all God has placed on earth to bring us happiness.

I believe every child knows there is a God. A sinful world soon blunts those nerve-end connections, buries those intimations of immortality beneath loads of materialism and anti-God propaganda. Vachel Lindsey, the poet, wrote "It is the world's one crime that its babes grow dull. Its poor are oxlike, limp, and leaden-eyed." Well, one doesn't have to be poor to take on these negative qualities. Rich and poor are plagued alike in respect to their separation from God and their neglect to enjoy those natural things He has placed here for them.

Does it have to be this way for us adults? Does life have to be a continuous yawn from boring sunrise to boring sunset? Another poet wrote, "Little do we hold in nature that is ours . . . we have given our hearts away . . . . The sad truth is, many people rarely stop long enough in their frenetic pace of working and pursuing fun to enjoy the change of the seasons, the "splendor in the grass," the music of the birds, the peace of the magic hour just before dusk. How many people rush to town for a movie, fighting the traffic, when a cup of tea, a bed of flowers, and a spring breeze to soothe away the cares of the day are waiting in their own back yards. Now, that's something to thank God for! There is the key: to enjoy the simplest things with a heart of gratitude for our Creator who knows what will truly bless our souls.

Is it surprising that the other part of Adam's and Eve's job description was to take care of the garden the Lord gave them? Still, more than simply partaking of the things He has created, we were placed here on earth to commune with Him, to enjoy Him forever. Adam and Eve walked in the garden with God in the cool of the evening.

A professor of education at Wittenberg once said to our class, "A good teacher needs to be a kid watcher." My grandkids are fun to watch. Could be, though, they are teaching me something of enduring value. May the Lord bless them and protect them all the days of their years.

Jesus told the disciples to allow the little children to come unto Him. Any religion, educational system, theory of origins, judicial system, government, political system, entity of any kind, or any individual who comes between God and His little ones is an especial enemy of God. It is no small thing to subvert little ones into beliefs or lifestyles that confuse their relationship with the Lord. It were better for these entities and individuals to have "a millstone tied around their necks and to be thrown into the depths of the sea." The condemnation of such people is just.

Jesus loves the little children;
All the children of the world.
Red, and yellow, black, and white,
They are precious in His sight.
Jesus loves the little children of the world.

Jesus loves us adults, too. Jesus knew how each of us who once were little children would grow up to be. We have done great wickedness. In spite of that, He loves every one of us enough to have offered Himself on that cruel cross on Golgotha Hill, just outside Jerusalem, nearly 2000 years ago. He gives eternal life to all of us who trust in Him, who believe He is the Son of God Who took upon himself the sins of the world so God would not hold our sins against us.

The Christian Bible tells clearly how this happens.It is a wonderful thing to have one's sins forgiven. I remember when it happened to me. I felt like a little child again. It was a miracle of change. A heavy weight of sin lifted off me when Christ came to live in the body he had created through Adam, and then redeemed from sin through the second Adam, Jesus Christ.

I was a slave to sin, but now I have a new Master. He loves me. He died on the cross to pay the penalty for my sins, and resurrected from the grave to purchase a place for me in Heaven. The best Father of all adopted me into His family. He chose me. It is a wonderful thing to be an adopted son or daughter of God.

Monique Proves Creation

My granddaughter confounds the foolishness of the simple who believe science disproves God originated the universe. Who needs science to prove anything? In the pictures of children we have a more powerful proof of God's power than any fancy arguments seen on the internet, in books, magazines or in so-called "science." When we stand before God, He will challenge us on the evidence of our senses. God lives.

Invictus Redeemed (A Poem)

Invictus Redeemed

Mightiest Light that reaches me,
Purest Love, You are my Goal.
Thank You, God, Whom soon I'll see,
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance,
You've seen me wince and cry aloud.
Under bludgeonings common to man
My head is bloody, but to You I'm bowed.

Beyond this place of sorrow and tears
Looms a joy that will never fade.
Short-lived griefs of present years
You have foretold. I'm not afraid.

It matters not what's on my slate;
I know my Lord is in control.
You are the Master of my fate.
You are the Captain of my soul.


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Why Search for the Living Among the Dead?

A doctor named Melvin Morse followed in the path of NDE (Near Death Experience) doctor and author, Raymond Moody, who wrote a bestselling book entitled, Life After Death. That came out in 1975. Dr. Morse, however, focused on the NDEs of children.

Dr. Morse studied 26 children at Children' Hospital in Seattle who nearly died. Twenty-four (24) of these kids had NDEs similar to those described by Moody in his 1975 book. Serenity, separation from their bodies, and light seemed to be the norm, even though the experiences were quite idiosyncratic in their particulars. One child entered into an "animal tunnel" where a bee gave him some honey and took him to heaven. Another story appearing in the February 2006 issue of the Readers Digest was a NDE in which the child rode a noisy schoolbus. Two tall doctors showed her a green button she could push to wake up.

Dr. Morse didn't receive the applause of his colleagues when he published his and his fellow researcher's findings in The American Journal for Diseases of Children. Just the opposite, according to the article; they scorned him.

How he dealt with his study and his peers' response to it is the subject of this post. Dr. Ian Stevenson, a professor at the University of Virginia, a man who studied children from India who "recalled past lives," told Morse that his research was a gray area as it related to reincarnation. Dr. Stevenson had evidently studied reincarnation for about twenty-five years. Why did Morse inquire of him?

Dr. Morse also reported something Carl Sagan had said about the NDEs being a replay of people passing through the birth canal. (Melvin Morse discounted Sagan's answer for NDEs because many of the children who had nearly died were born by C-section.)
Why did (or does) Dr. Melvin Morse seek for living truth among the dead? The Bible says the unsaved know nothing as they ought to know it. Sagan and Stevenson did not spiritually qualify as the living. What kind of counsel can one expect to get from the unquickened? The angel at Christ's empty tomb told Jesus's disciples they should not seek for the living among the dead. They shouldn't look into tombs to find the living Christ. However interesting NDE episodes may be, we, too, cannot hope to find truth through examining such experiences.

The Readers Digest article does not end well for Dr. Morse. Towards the end of the piece, it says of him, "At times it seems as if the universe itself is preventing him from finding the answers he seeks."

"I tell you, there's a mind at work here," he says. "One that is perversely skewed toward keeping us from ever proving its existence."

Did anyone ever hold a Bible before Dr. Melvin Morse's eyes and say, "My friend, read this and you will have a different opinion about God? Will Dr. Morse ever look for truth in the right places? Any Christian reading this post who can contact this doctor, please let me know. He too can know the Truth that will set him free. He can experience the Truth and the Life when he kneels before the Lord of all the living.

Evidence for a Young Earth and Universe

Here are evidences for a young earth paraphrased from another website. They were taken from various creationist sources:

1.The sun shrinks at a known rate. If it were more than a million years old--at the most--it would have been too big and too close for life to exist on earth.
2.Cosmic dust on the moon amounts to less than 10,000 years of accumulation.
3.The moon recedes a few inches a year. Even a few million years of being closer to here would have produced tides that would have destroyed all life on earth.
4.Spiral-shaped galaxies wind themselves up. Inner stars move faster than the outer stars so they would have become a homogeneous mass if they were billions of years old.
5.The present rate of decay of the earth's magnetic field means the earth cannot be over 25,000 years.
6.Short-lived comets indicate a universe of less than 10,000 years.
7.Tremendous pressure in oil and gas wells would have dissipated through the permeable rock that houses them if the earth were more than 10,000 to 100,000 years old.
8.Our continents would have eroded to sea level in less than 14,000,00 years at the current rate of erosion.
9.The internal temperature of the earth would be much cooler if it were 4.6 billion years old.
10.Polonium halos inside granite indicate the rocks formed rapidly. Polonium has a very short half-life, and the halos only form in solid rock.
11.Helium is too abundant in air and in rocks today. The rate of dissipation from rocks is known, so this indicates a young earth rather than an old earth.
12.Only a few thousand years depth of sediment lies on the ocean floor.
13.Billions or even millions of years would make the oceans much saltier than they are now.
14.No problem for our current world population to come from eight men and women since Noah's flood about 4000 years ago (approximately 5.5 billion souls).
15.The oldest living tree is about 4300 years old.
16.Historical records only go back about 6000 years.
17.The Bible only covers about 6000 years.

This is only a partial list of natural "clocks" used to gauge the age of the earth. More will be discovered. We must assume evolutionists have either ignored these indicators or they have alternative explanations. In such explanations, neither creationists nor evolutionists will probably deny the second law of thermodynamics that says that the rate of decay increases instead of decreases. It is hard to imagine sound evidence-based arguments against the seventeen items above.

We Christians live by faith, but it is a faith that fits the facts. We need have no fear of new discoveries. The Bible is always vindicated and it always will be so.

My wife and I recently collected fossils in two of our Ohio parks. As we were driving home from our last trip, we discussed names to replace those evolution-based ones adding millions and billions of years to earth's history. Since we all go back to Adam and then Noah's family, we don't require as much memory work as our evolutionist friends. We coined the Predelugioscene, and Postdelugioscene ages. That seemed a little too simple to appeal to scientists who are really into classifying everything animate, inanimate, and antique, so we added Floodoscene Era and the Highawatta Age.

There'll be no tests on that.

Why The Bible and Evolution Don't Mix

This article will have to begin with a disclaimer. Christians who do science and still hold to an old-earth theory very often do solid research opposing evolution.
Although many young-earth creationists disagree with them strongly, most of them would not deny theistic evolutionists the right hand of fellowship. This post definitely doesn't intend to demean followers of Christ who are still sincerely working through the significance of Genesis as it relates to origins.

With all that said . . . the Bible does not allow for millions and billions of years, evolution, or ongoing evolution. God said for the organisms to reproduce organisms of their own kind. There is no allowance for a fish turning into a reptile or a reptile turning into a bird. It just didn't happen that way. Not only do we not see this going on now, but evidence is not found for such transitioning and change of species anywhere in the world. A century and a half searching has not turned up anything (except for a few hoaxes and misrepresentations) to support such outlandish changes.

Let's look at Genesis, the place a believer goes before visiting science to see how creation took place. Between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 is the time period theistic evolutionists use for the millions and billions of years needed for gradualism and uniformitarianism, natural selection and mutation to account for micro changes to translate into macro or species changes. Where the purpose or plan comes into play for evolutionists is a whole another question, but we will deal with the space between these first two verses in Genesis. We recognize very quickly that the earth has no light shining on it at this point. There are no plants or animals. There has been no mention of micro-organisms which can live in such darkness and cold, or which can live in the darkness and in the water which covers the earth. Add to this the fact that pain and death through predation or natural causes couldn't have happened yet because this all came into existence after Eve and then Adam disobeyed God and humanity inherited the consequences. Partially formed organisms dying awful deaths also couldn't come under the heading of "good." We remember that God declared his creation of life as just that.

Then comes the listing of what God made on each day of creation. We see that the first day originated before the sun, the moon and the stars were created. I believe the order is very precise. God intended it that way. If we cannot trust Him with the order of creation events, then why do we trust Him in the plan of redemption and all the details of the virgin birth, Christ's sinlessness, His sacrifice and the resurrection? In fact, the salvation plan goes back to what happened in Genesis chapters 1-11. God said, before the sun, moon, and stars were created, "The evening and the morning was the first day." Also, for those who would stretch that day out in what is called the day/age theory, what does the evening refer to if not to nightfall to dawn beneath whatever light God used before putting in the celestial objects to rule the day and the night? Isn't it interesting that God will not use the sun to brighten our future days in Heaven? He will be the light eternally. God did not have to have the sun and moon to mark time for us. Our finite minds might see that as a necessity, but the God who spoke all things into existence doesn't see things as we see them.

On the second day of creation, God separated the waters from the waters by placing a firmament in between (the nature of that firmament has been much debated). Confirmation, however, of a vast amount of water on or above the earth and water on or below the earth has been made. This accounts for the vast quantity of water that would abide above all the mountaintops of the earth at the time of the Great Deluge in Noah's day. We notice that God defines the length of the day. It seems He doesn't want us to misconstrue His meaning. The evening and the morning was the second day!

At this point, God places the water within boundaries and makes the dry land appear. Next, we can envision the plants appearing all over the world. The One who brought Lazarus out of the tomb with a shout in an instant could have called all creation into existence in less time. After all, He is altogether "Other." He made time. He exists outside of time. He had some other reason to use a regular earth week for this project.

Now that the salad is served up and everything has the propagation principle intact, it is time for the things that like their fruit and veggies. They are also producing oxygen beneath the light of their first sunless day. God is their light. By the way, biologists notice today that many plants actually depend on insects and animals for their existence. They can't live very long without that symbiotic relationship. Neither can the organisms that live on them. They can't wait even thousands of years for the animal life to begin. The evening and the morning was the third day.

To further reveal His power and the fact that He is the Great Provider, God created the sun, the moon and the stars. These were made to further demonstrate His glory and care. (Too bad so many missed the point and turned to worshipping these heavenly bodies instead of the One who made them.) The plants thrived for a day under God's beneficent light, but on that next day God put in place those big lights to rule the day and night, and in case we still haven't understood what "yom" means, the evening and the morning was the fourth day.

Only up to two regular earth days before, God had created the plants. The bodies of water, rivers and so on are staying in their boundaries so the next part of the creation may drink and bathe but not be drowned. Now God made the water creatures and those that fly in the heavens. Less poetically put, God made the fish and the birds. Evidently, though, there were other organisms living in the sea we would not call fish. Both the waters of the world and the skies teemed with creatures which--like the plants--could reproduce from seed of their own kind and beget creatures only of their own kind. This is written in stone. We go most anywhere in the world and this is exactly what we see written in the fossil record. Nothing has changed. God said reproduce yourselves and everything followed orders. After all, even the dumb plants and animals know how to get it right. Man? Now that is a different story!

Notice that the birds came on this day of creation. Every type of bird that was to ever inhabit the earth. Not a single solitary bird would ever turn into some other type of animal, and no-one who knows the Bible should ever doubt that! The evolutionary idea that reptiles or mammals turned into birds violates the order of creation. Birds were created before land animals. (Incidentally, the archaeoptyrix--or however you spell it--never existed. Just another hoax of the evolution religion). And the evening and morning was the fifth day. Why does God keep reminding us of this? Did He know that people in the last days would learn to love a lie more than the Lord? Did He know that the same rebellious mentality that caused the haters of Christ to reject and crucify Him, even after knowing He had done all manner of wonderful miracles, reigns supreme in other atheists and agnostics? Did He know that scientists can deceive people into thinking that science is above deceit? The evening and the morning was the fifth day.

If day six hadn't happened, Moses couldn't have recorded Genesis from the records of bygone years since the beginning. Evolution would certainly never have produced Adam, Eve, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob or any of the writers or people of the Bible, and we wouldn't have been here to read it. God created the land creatures in all their fantastic variety. They would change a bit according to how they paired. God allowed for this variability in their genetic makeup, but they would only produce offspring within God's ordained limits.They began munching on their salad and fruit and didn't even think about eating each other. There was no bloodshed before the fall of Adam and Eve.

God affirmed that all He had made up to this point was good, but He created something He would call "very good" since made in His own image. He made Adam from the dust of the ground. Then He made Eve. Their job was to take care of the earth and commune with God. Adam named all the animals. Some task, but we are talking about perfect man with an incredible intellect! It is a myth of evolution that our first ancestors dragged their knuckles in the dust and grunted at each other. Utterly foolish! Only haters of God could even imagine such a thing. Oh, we find peoples around the world who have degenerated after the beginning. Romans 1 tells us they grew depraved because they decided to dismiss God from their minds and go after false idols. God gave them over to a reprobate mind. White paper should never hold such ugly print as describes how far man has fallen since his perfect beginning. Cain's murder of his brother,Abel,is mother's cherry pie compared to how beastly Godless beings can behave when they put their minds to it. The Bible says "The thoughts or their hearts (are) evil continually." To get to sleep, they count the evil deeds they will do instead of sheep.

Everything was declared good. The creation of man was declared very good! God had completed his work in six days. It all had to follow in the exact order in which he performed it. The evening and the morning was the sixth day.

Adam's birthday was on the sixth day. God rested on the seventh day. Adam lived 930 years. The generations from Adam continues as recorded in Genesis and elsewhere in the Bible, including the New Testament. That leaves absolutely no room for the millions and billions of years--none, no way theistic evolutionists can succeed in their attempts to put in a shoehorn and shove. It won't work. The old earth theory and the young earth theory shouldn't try to live in the same house.

Atheistic evolutionists won't care enough to try to harmonize scripture and evolution. Some of them recognize the absurdity of us Christians trying to do so. They say our faith is dead when we compromise with them.

In Exodus 20, God confirms His reason for using six literal days for creation and then resting on the seventh. The Jews keep that seventh day according to God's law. Most every people on earth follow the seven day week pattern. Who institued this? That has been the subject of this article: Our Great Provider, God.


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Fifty (50) scientists relate why each of them believes in six (6) literal days of creation. These are not unheralded neophytes, either, but scientist with credentials and high honors. Really a worthwhile book.

This book by Don Boys takes the gloves off and goes at it bare knuckles. He agrees with Ken Ham that Darwinian evolution is a religion. He also emphasizes how much of the evidence is faked. Those sick of seeing our schoolchildren filled with made-up science will like this book. It may also make them angry to see how the world has been duped by this religion, this pseudo-science. Lots of information here in a very readable style!

Above we see the front and back covers of Ken Ham's book, The Lie of Evolution. We notice Ken doesn't mince words. He is the Australian import who heads up the Answers in Genesis ministry (AIG). At this site, you will also find many other books, The Creation Ex-Nihilo magazine, and a wealth of information on creationism.

The Lie of Evolution argues against Christians' surrender to evolution. He explains why theistic evolution is merely unbelief with evolution added. He insists that evolution is not at all an area of science, not even poor science. Instead, he insists evolution is a religion. If we take a strict definition of science, he has to be correct.

The author also dwells on the six literal days of creation. He removes any keyway into the millions and billions of years dogma evolution must have to survive. Ken nails the absurdity of trying to hold on to both the Christian faith and evolution at the same time, and does it with very straightforward logic in his exegesis of Genesis 1-11 and supporting scriptures.

Another powerful feature of this book is the explanation of doctrines that originate in Genesis 1-11.

Sadly, I have noticed in the footnotes of my New Living Translation Bible just the sort of compromise Mr. Ham describes. Even some of our reknowned theologians and their Christian universities and seminaries either insist on ignoring elements of Genesis because it can't be reconciled with the so-called "science" of evolution, or they add evolution to God's Word. Ken Ham says these people do more harm to the Christian program than the pagans.

The Lie of Evolution is quite readable. The second time through, it still revealed to me insights missed on a first reading. The pictures helped,too.

"The Eye of God?"

According to an e-mail we received, the Hubble telescope took this a while back. They dubbed it The Eye of God.

We know from scipture that in the last days there will be signs and wonders in the heavens. Although we can't base our faith on such signs and wonders, we can be in awe of what God has wrought.

A Nebulous Religion

Too bad we can't blow up this gaseous article and read it more easily, but I have the paper copy in front of me. According to the report out of Ohio University, there is a big, whomper, gas bubble only 23,000 light years from here. Lo and behold, though nobody was there to see it form, the experts insist it formed from ten-million to thirty-million years ago from something called a supernova, the explosion of a star. Although we weren't there to see this happen either, it is interesting to see the extrapolation done by old-earth theorists. They say the explosion equaled an amount of hydrogen equal to one million times the mass of the same sun we see a few times in our winters here in Ohio. It equaled trillions of our nuclear bombs.
Astounding! Incredible! They say our galaxy burped.

An OU doctoral student recently presented these findings to the American Astronomical Society meeting in Washington, D.C.

All this, so far, means that at some point after God created everything that is, science tells us about a great cataclysm in outer space. We are sort of used to this. It fits into the second law of thermodynamics which states that everything is decaying (losing heat, exploding, growing more simple, wearing away, growing feeble, dying, turning back into dust, losing our minds, mutating, and so on. Some scientists won't trouble themselves to travel around the globe and examine the consistent evidence from Noah's flood, but they get prickles of the scalp to see a monstrous gas bubble (if we can trust them) 23,000 X 186,000 X the number of seconds in a year away off somewhere in the universe. That is quite a number.

Of course, we are at the mercy of scientists who see tiny things through multi-million dollar instruments. We get the representation in the press, in magazines, or on the web. That carnation instant drink sort of makes a nice spiral, doesn't it? Cut out the caption and the girl in the way and we could palm off a cocoa-colored gas bubble on unsuspecting folks. We'll tell them it came from Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory and they have the winning ticket to fly across the galaxy and see it. The point is, the age of the bubble is a religious statement since ungrounded in evidence. No-one can even go back a thousand years and state what the universe was like, how big it was, how fast exactly the speed of light was, or whether God created the whole thing with the semblance of age (just as he did Adam and Eve). Oh, the numbers look good to other evolutionist believers, but where is the proof? None. Just big numbers. Supposing a city clerk told the city leaders they had somewhere between ten-million and thirty-million dollars in the treasury at the present time? Hey, somebody is going to audit the books. Well, we should not accept just any numbers thrown out by people who weren't there. I'll bank on God. He has no real competition, just some weak protests from fantasyland.

Supposing we did trust the visual "evidence" that this blue thing is a big old cloud of hydrogen gas and debris, and that the little white dot to the left is our sun-- but we remain leery of the big numbers padding the whole story? There is still a major problem with the article. Who has seen a cloud like this one turn into a solid heavenly body such as a star or a planet(It actually looks much like a button on grandma's blue wool overcoat)? The evolutionists' answer is obvious when we present this nice knockdown argument: They'll say, "You'd just have to hang around a few million or billion years doing time-lapse photography to see a star or a galaxy form from such a gas bubble." Aaargh! Don't hold your breath, my evolutionist friends. It seems like yours would be the first religion to take the job.

Levity aside, the article states, "Gas bubbles are thought to be important in how galaxies evolve . . . . The same paragraph ends with "This dust literally is the stuff that forms stars, including our own! It starts honest enough. Almost looks like a theory a scientist could research, then turns into the same old foundationless hype. No! Let's make that stronger. Some have learned to love a lie.

Inspirational Literature

Two Tin Lizzies, written by D.R. Daniels (namely me) is not about cars. The subtitle--which doesn't show up in the picture--is Redemption in Atchafalaya.If you like futuristic inspirational novels set in the not too distant future so as not to be "far out," I think you will like this novel. Christians should be gratified to find a non-formula Christian novel that offers a bit of challenge. Most of the leading Christian publishing houses are more interested in high sales based on name recognition rather than in literary works. They will even inform prospective writers of this low standard.

To obtain a copy of Two Tin Lizzies, published by Xulon Press, contact Amazon.com and look for the book by name. After you have read it, contact me and let me know what you think. I'd be happy to dialogue with you. Who knows? With a little encouragement I might want to publish the other manuscripts (Gigglesofte, In Search of a Eulogy, The Fish Medallion, Love is Kind).

For any other novelists out there, or artists, poets, photographers, musicians etc., God didn't give you your gifts to lie dormant. This concurs with the scripture about not hiding your light under a bushel, but setting it on a hill so the world may be drawn to Christ. Take courage. God does have a plan for your life, and it includes using those gifts and talents with which you have been endowed.

One word of warning though. We cannot serve both God and Mammon. It were better that we hid our gifts than to turn chameleon on the Lord and use his good things to merely bless our own fleshly lusts. God is looking for sold out people who can't be bought by the world.

Religions, Presuppositions and Biases

A perusal of articles and comments at blogs, and in books, newspapers, and magazines reveals the biases of individuals who feel they have no biases. Unfortunately, that can't be true.

Scientists cannot be excluded from this discussion. Scientific method implies that scientists cooly and rationally develop hypotheses and go about testing them without the slightest concern about how it all turns out. Not so! Give a scientist at one of our universities the government funding to supply a lab towards discovering causation between cancer and bacteria and it is no surprise to see favorable results. This is not to say cynically that microbiologists and others are in the pocket of those who endow them, but it acknowledges human nature.

Same for us Christians. We approach science as something originated by a creating and sustaining God. Some of us even believe, according to scripture, that He takes a very lively interest in everything we do. "In Him we live and move and have our being." What could state our bias more than that? And why shouldn't we have the right to take what we believe into every area of human endeavor? We believe that a person's eternal destiny has to do with whether people will admit their sins before a loving and righteous God, will believe Jesus Christ came to save from eternal death whomsoever will have Him,and will commit him or herself to serving Christ.

Some of us will opt to share God's Word full strength as it comes from the Bible. This is, of course, opposed on every hand. It seems that many of our courts, public education and other institutions such as the ACLU take a dim view of this God-given right to free speech and freedom of religion. They deny they are also religious. That is a shame because this replaces one religion, one which has a foundation in God's Word, with one that has a foundation built on a past filled with dead things--the presumption of unbiased evolution.

What we really have are competing religions. One can't simply use the authority appeal and say, "Evolution is not a religion." Try proving that! No-one but God was around to see what He spoke into existence, but evolutionists will spill out their millions and billions of years in nice round numbers without an eyeblink. We say, "But you weren't there." They will say,"Science proves it," or "Carbon dating proves it." No it doesn't. We cannot use the scientific method on things that have occured in the past. We don't know how these dating methods operate back through time through different environmental conditions, not can we say God didn't create things with varying radiation levels. After all, he made Adam and Eve fully grown and capable of producing children. Same goes for the light emanating from distant stars. 186,000 miles per second, the current speed of light, is only a scientific given, not a sacred one.

The evolutionist may say, "But look at all our science; look at all our great men and women of science and think about all they have discovered. Problem is they have not discovered anything to support evolution: absolutely no transitional forms, no evidence to contradict the second law of thermodynamics etc. All the evolutionists have discovered is the same complexity in nature that creationists and intelligent design scientists have discovered.

So we have the same evidence and differing pre-suppositions. All three types of scientists are working with what is at hand. All three types have strong underlying convictions that guide their research.

I believe that creation science is a better choice than evolution or intelligent design. I believe it because I trust in a God Who is not only Creator, but One Who sustains all He made. Why shouldn't we use the Word of Him who created everything that scientists investigates? Holding the Christian perspective doesn't stifle science. If we discover apparent chaos we will pursue the question to find out why, or we will discover God's ways are higher than our ways.

Let me interject a homely commonplace evidence for an intelligent Creator. Only a fool should say the acorn is an accident of nature. That little nut wears a cap to shed water off its head. If we plant it in the ground it can produce--ultimately-- upon successive seeding, all the forests of the world. That means all the furniture, all the building materials, all the oak we need. You might call this a solid fact.
Where did it all come from? Just an accident, you say? Nuts! Multiply that little acorn by all the lifeforms in existence and add the ones which are extinct back through the ages since the "cambrian" explosion of creation (said to be over 90% more than we have today) and you will begin to get a handle on God's provision for his people. We don't even need to know "science" to see God's care for us.

Einstein was not a Christian or even a deist, according to the two biographies I've read, but he was disposed to believe God didn't play dice with the universe. Despite this, many of our evolutionary gurus of the Darwinian or Dawkins stamp use random processes as a key tenet of their faith, hence the millions and billions of years for chance to make things. Ongoing discovery of complexity at the micro and macro levels is scuttling their religion, however. Trillions of years will not make inanimate stuff form all that we can perceive through our senses and ever improving tools. Many of us have more faith in our intelligent Creator than we do in stuff begetting stuff. We haven't observed it in our closed-system laboratories and we haven't observed it in nature. No. It takes a deep faith to believe in integration and synthesis of inanimate material devoid of a plan or purpose. No wonder the highest wisdom of man is utter foolishness to God. The blueprint was in His head and He called it forth.

For those Christians buying into evolution, does God sanction you leaving Him out of your studies? God is not dead, nor does He sleep. His love and care is in the present. Denying Him and His agency in all you do must finally play into the enemy's hands. Remember. As Christians we believe God goes before us in all we do. If we deny that we are biased in favor of Him, that He is our most cherished father and best friend, where will His blessing be. I know some may say that they are to be "wise as a serpent and innocent as a dove" in their dealing with humankind so that God's work will be best forwarded, but to be ashamed of the Gospel in anything we do, to not acknowledge him in all our ways, is to deny His help. Denying God as the catalyst of true science means science will continue to be degraded.

The challenge of this blogsite is to embrace Christ in all we say and do. Christ is for us, so who can stand against us. We know who wins in the end. In truth we are already winners if we honor God in all we do. People are watching to see if we dilute our witness. Some of them will realize our Master has dominion over the universe. We are the witnesses sent throughout the earth. We need to speak with the authority God gives us. God says . . . "Fear not little children. I have overcome the world."

Walt Brown's Book, In the Beginning . . . is online

Read Walt Brown's book entitled In the Beginning: Compelling Evidence for Creation and the Flood

It is available in its entirety on the web http://www.creationscience.com

The Quill and the Crowbar

The Quill and the Crowbar

More Questions About Creation vs Evolution (53-104)

Evolution Takes an Exam (Continued)

Answer True or False.

53. A lunar orbit, earth orbit, movements of electrons around an atomic nucleus all speak of design and a designer.

54. Almost all, if not all, living organisms are linked int0 a giant solar-energy-utilizing network.

55. The Bible denies in Exodus 20:11 that God made the heavens, the earth, the sea and everything in six days.

56. In Exodus 20:11, God demanded that Israel observe a literal 24 hour day Sabbath rest.

57. Formation of genes requires that all conditions for existence must be met simultaneously.

58. A traditional mousetrap without a base couldn't catch mice.

59. Both the functioning mousetrap and a viable gene are examples of irreducible complexity (cannot lose components or they would either not exist or not function).

60. Few advances have been made in biochemistry since Darwin wrote his Origin of the Species.

61. The irreducible complexity of organisms challenges macro-evolution with its "hopeful monster" speculation.

62. Probability favors macro-evolution.

63. Probability favors the Biblical position that life forms have remained pretty much as they first came into existence.

64. According to the Bible, close marriages between relatives was outlawed from the beginning.

65. According to the Bible, close marriage between relatives was outlawed by God during the time of Moses.

66. The Bible reveals that Cain sinned by marrying a sister or other close relative.

67. According to the second law of thermodynamics, there should have been fewer aggregate mutations in the gene pool of mankind the further we go back in history.

68. The living or recently dead organism must be rapidly buried in sediment that can harden and exclude oxygen if it is to become a preserved fossil.

69. Dozens of flood stories from different cultures means that Noah's flood story had to be a myth.

70. Dozens of flood stories from many cultures may mean that some or many of them may have derived from historical fact.

71. Ruling out God and the supernatural is always good science.

72. There is no known exception to the second law of thermodynamics.

73. Upholding evolution despite a lack of evidence in nature would either imply great faith or great deceit.

74. A diminishing amount of energy available for useful work in a closed system is called entropy.

75. We can observe entropy (decay) steadily increasing in all closed systems.

76. Jesus Christ apparently violated the second law of thermodynamics when he fed thousands of people with loaves and fishes, raised Lazareus from the dead, and healed blindness.

77. Random process without new information will produce sustained auto-organization (ongoing organization towards heightened complexity by inanimate particles or things).

78. Information can exist without an initial mental source.

79. The formation of molecules, cells and organisms requires only simple process and organization (utilizing current biochemical analysis).

80. It is statistically impossible to form such complex structures by random processes (chance) even given four and a half billion years.

81. The act of creation is an unrepeatable event (has not and cannot be replicated by scientists in either closed or open systems).

82. The fact that God can do all things is a scientific proof that he originated everything.

83. The best translation in context for "yom" in Genesis is a 24 hour day.

84. Creation is not in disagreement with what is truly scientific.

85. Scientists (both creationists and evolutionists) must rule out all pre-suppositions when interpreting evidence.

86. Natural laws under which scientists work are adequate to explain
origins.

87. In a closed system, the second law of thermodynamics (which incorporates and describes entropy) rules out the possibility of inventing perpetual motion machines.

88. Evolution requires organization of the simple to the complex using random process, but entropy requires moving from the complex to the simple through heat loss, loss of movement, disintegration, and loss of information.

89. Murphy's law is a humorous version of the "second law."

90. The most obvious feature of the fossil record is upward synthesis.

91. The most obvious feature of the fossil record is death and decay.

92. The fossil record reveals a steady loss of species ever since the Cambrian level.

93. Language/symbolic information is a form of matter and energy.

94. Forms of non-matter and non-energy exist.

95. God is altogether "Other." He is not matter and He is not energy in any way that we can presently understand these terms.

96. If we do not see time gaps or erosion in strata, we might logically conclude sedimentation occured in a relatively short period of time.

97. Verticle continuity in strata of the Grand Canyon could be evidence in favor of rapid sedimentation possibly occuring through the mechanism of a local or a global flood.

98. Unmineralized dinosaur bone containing identifiable bone protein exists in many locations around the world.

99. The evolutionary assumption that certain human organs are vestigial and therefore unnecessary has delayed research into their functions.

100. Tonsils, adenoids, and the vermiform appendix have been proven to have no viable function in the human body. (This is not saying the human body cannot survive without these organs.)

101. If life can be synthesized by a scientist in a laboratory, it proves that no intelligence was needed to create life in the beginning.

102. The imperfections we see in nature necessarily means that--if we acknowledge that God may exist--He is imperfect.

103. The imperfections we see in nature point clearly to evolution.

104. The Bible explains that observed decay (imperfections) is caused by sin producing disharmony in what was from the beginning declared to be good.


*Examiner's note: Test items are derived from a variety of books and articles espousing intelligent design, creationism, and evolution. The examiner hopes that those perusing the exams will take notice of specific elements in the items and do personal research into these extremely important issues. Where we stand may well effect our culture, especially if we see ourselves as change agents rather than passive onlookers.

Please mail a comment or question and the directors of this site will make every effort to respond. Anything decent and focused will be published.


Answers (54-104)

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Hominid Formation

The Quill and the Crowbar


Hominid Formation

Harry the hollow-eyed hominid
Lives in a place of fevered dreams
Down deep in a central sulcus
Haunted with post-deluvian schemes

Where wise men go wandering
For the tooth of an extinct pig,
While others rest their laurels
On a casket of fossil digs.

Tired of inventing what is, but ain't,
One brain hatches a thought:
Let's have dinosaur lay an egg,
A bird from a birdbrain brought.

Punctuated equilibrium
In place of the missing links.
Voila! The hopeful monster!
Another idea that _____.

That idea, like the great big bang,
Drove unbelievers ape.
If a dino can hatch a chick,
Two monkeys a child can make.

They chewed on this a day
In their anti-God style.
Since micro-changes failed
They had lived on their bile.

They easily dismissed God
And laughed at the curse
And replaced Him with "science,"
The bright sun, and mother earth.

The coffin of treasured scraps
Contained some quaint pieces
Of clay, plaster paris, skull shards,
Shanks, and teeth to make species,

A nice orangutang,
A few victims of beriberi,
Sundry chips to chink them in,
And a neanderthal named Larry.

Well, they fragged and defragged
Till all the fragments fit in,
Then plastered and puttied them
For the Smithsonian.

Artists evolved them further
With pencil, brush and knife,
Adding chins, necks and pectorals
For a semblance of life.

Now toddlers enjoy them
In cartoons and coloring books
While teachers test others
On their ages and looks.

But . . .

In spite of sins these verses deride,
Romans I to the author applies,
Who, too, followed the way of a fool
Till the Lord opened his eyes.