“Virtually every element in this construction has been questioned and rejected by some or even most scholars.  Many of these criticisms are rooted in the much better and fuller information that is now available about the way oral traditions operate in predominantly oral societies.”  Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses, 2006  page 246

 “The works of our Savior were always present, for they were true: those who were healed, those who rose from the dead, those who were not only seen in the act of being healed or raised, but were also always present, not merely when the Savior was living on the earth, but also for a considerable time after his departure, so that some of them survived even to our own times.”  Eusebius quoting from Quadratus, Eusebius, Hist. Eccl., p. 4.3.2

“It is a curious fact that nearly all the contentions of the early form critics have by now been convincingly refuted, but the general picture of the process of oral transmission that form critics pioneered still governs the way most New Testament scholars think.”  Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses, 2006

1 Samuel 1:1-11,20 NKJV

“Now there was a certain man of Ramathaim Zophim, of the mountains of Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. [2] And he had two wives: the name of one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children. [3] This man went up from his city yearly to worship and sacrifice to the LORD of hosts in Shiloh. Also the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the priests of the LORD, were there. [4] And whenever the time came for Elkanah to make an offering, he would give portions to Peninnah his wife and to all her sons and daughters. [5] But to Hannah he would give a double portion, for he loved Hannah, although the LORD had closed her womb. [6] And her rival also provoked her severely, to make her miserable, because the LORD had closed her womb. [7] So it was, year by year, when she went up to the house of the LORD, that she provoked her; therefore she wept and did not eat. [8] Then Elkanah her husband said to her, "Hannah, why do you weep? Why do you not eat? And why is your heart grieved? Am I not better to you than ten sons?" [9] So Hannah arose after they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat by the doorpost of the tabernacle of the LORD. [10] And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed to the LORD and wept in anguish. [11] Then she made a vow and said, "O LORD of hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me, and not forget Your maidservant, but will give Your maidservant a male child, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life, and no razor shall come upon his head."….[20] So it came to pass in the process of time that Hannah conceived and bore a son, and called his name Samuel, saying, "Because I have asked for him from the LORD."  

 1 Samuel 2:18-21 NKJV

 [21] And the LORD visited Hannah, so that she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters. Meanwhile the child Samuel grew before the LORD.

Matthew 7:7-11 NKJV

"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. [8] For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. [9] Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? [10] Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? [11] If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

Hebrews 4:14—17 NKJV

14 Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

1st Corinthians 15, “3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. 6 After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. 7 After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. 8 Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.”  NKJV, 1982

“Trusting testimony is not an irrational act of faith that leaves critical rationality aside; it is on the contrary, the rationally appropriate way of responding to authentic testimony.”  Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses, 2006  

“The works of our Savior were always present, for they were true: those who were healed, those who rose from the dead, those who were not only seen in the act of being healed or raised, but were also always present, not merely when the Savior was living on the earth, but also for a considerable time after his departure, so that some of them survived even to our own times.”  Eusebius quoting from Quadratus, Eusebius, Hist. Eccl., p. 4.3.2

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, [4] just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, [5] having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, [6] to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. [7] In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace [8] which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, [9] having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, [10] that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth-in Him.”  Ephesians 1:3-10 NKJV, Nelson, 1982

“This subversive belief in Jesus’ Lordship, over against that of Caesar, was held in the teeth of the fact that Caesar had demonstrated his superior power in an obvious way, by having Jesus crucified.  But the truly extraordinary thing is that this belief was held by a tiny group who, for the first two or three generations at least, could hardly have mounted a riot in a village, let alone a revolution in an empire.  And yet they persisted against all the odds, attracting the unwelcome notice of authorities because of the power of the message and the worldview and lifestyle it generated and sustained.  And whenever we go back to the key texts for evidence of why they persisted in such an improbable and dangerous belief they answer: it is because Jesus of Nazareth was raised from the dead.  And this provokes us to ask once more: why did they make this claim?”  N.T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God, 2003

“In a universe of electrons and selfish genes, blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won't find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice. The universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference.  DNA neither knows, nor cares.  DNA just is, and we dance to its music.” Richard Dawkins, River Out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life, 1994  

“My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust.  But how had I got this idea of just and unjust?  A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line.  What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust?  If the whole show was bad and senseless from A to Z, so to speak, why did I, who was supposed to be part of the show, find myself in such violent reaction against it?  A man feels wet when he falls into water, because man is not a water animal; a fish would not feel wet.  Of course I could have given up my idea of justice by saying it was nothing but a private idea of my own.  But if I did that, then my argument against God collapsed too – for the argument depended on saying that the world was really unjust, not simply that it did not happen to please my fancies.  Thus in the very act of trying to prove that God did not exist – in other words, that the whole of reality was senseless – I found I was forced to assume that one part of reality – namely my idea of justice – was full of sense.  Consequently atheism turns out to be too simple.”  C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 1952

“But feeling a desire to help is quite different from feeling that you ought to help whether you want to or not.  Supposing you hear a cry for help from a man in danger.  You will probably feel two desires – one a desire to give help (due to your herd instinct), the other a desire to keep out of danger (due to the instinct for self-preservation).  But you will find inside you, in addition to these two impulses, a third thing which tells you that you ought to follow the impulse to help, and suppress the impulse to run away.  Now this thing that judges between the two instincts, that decides which should be encouraged, cannot be either of them.” C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 1952

 “The moment you say that one set of moral ideas can be better than another, you are, in fact, measuring both of them by a standard, saying that one of them conforms to that standard more nearly than the other.  But the standard that measures two things is something different from either.  You are, in fact, comparing them both with some Real Morality, admitting that there is such a thing as real Right, independent of what people think, and that some people’s ideas get nearer to that real Right than others.  Or put it this way.  If your moral ideas can be truer, and those of the Nazis less true, there must be something – some Real Morality – for them to be true about.” C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 1952  

“ 1.    If God does not exist, objective moral values and duties do not exist.

2.    Objective moral values and duties do exist.

3.    Therefore, God exists.”  William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith, 1984

Definition – “To say that there are objective moral values is to say that something is good or evil independently of whether any human being believes it to be so.”  William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith, 1984

“Many philosophers have argued that if God does not exist, then morality is ultimately subjective and non-binding.  We might act in precisely the same way that we do in fact act, but in the absence of God such actions would no longer count as good or evil, right or wrong, since in the absence of God, objective moral values and duties do not exist.”  William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith, 1984

“The moment you say that one set of moral ideas can be better than another, you are, in fact, measuring both of them by a standard, saying that one of them conforms to that standard more nearly than the other.  But the standard that measures two things is something different from either.  You are, in fact, comparing them both with some Real Morality, admitting that there is such a thing as real Right, independent of what people think, and that some people’s ideas get nearer to that real Right than others.  Or put it this way.  If your moral ideas can be truer, and those of the Nazis less true, there must be something – some Real Morality – for them to be true about.” C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 1952  

“For example, to say that the Holocaust was objectively wrong is to say that it was wrong even though the Nazis who carried it out thought it was right, and it would still have been wrong even if the Nazis had won World War II and succeeded in exterminating or brainwashing everybody who disagreed with them so that it was believed that the Holocaust was right.”  William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith, 1984

“What was the sense in saying the enemy were in the wrong unless Right is a real thing which the Nazis at bottom knew as well as we did and ought to have practiced?  If they had no notion of what we meant by right, then, though we might still have had to fight them, we could no more have blamed them for that than for the color of their hair.” C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 1952  

Genesis 9, “5 Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man’s brother I will require the life of man. 6 “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man.” The Holy Bible, New King James Version, 1982

Jeremiah 1, “4 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.” The Holy Bible, New King James Version, 1982

Psalm 139, “14 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well.” The Holy Bible, New King James Version, 1982

“The Declaration of Independence dogmatically bases all rights on the fact that God created all men equal; and it is right; for if they were not created equal, they were certainly evolved unequal. There is no basis for democracy except in a dogma about the divine origin of man.” –G.K. Chesterton, What I Saw In America, 1922

“ 1.    If God does not exist, objective moral values and duties do not exist.

2.    Objective moral values and duties do exist.

3.    Therefore, God exists.”  William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith, 1984

“Religion is an insult to human dignity.  With or without it, you’d have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things.” Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, 2006

“Fortunately, however, morals do not have to be absolute.” Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, 2006

“Not all absolutism is derived from religion.  Nevertheless, it is pretty hard to defend absolute morals on grounds other than religious ones.” Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, 2006

“How, then, do we decide what is right and what is wrong?  No matter how we answer that question, there is a consensus about what we do as a matter of fact consider right and wrong: a consensus that prevails surprisingly widely.” Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, 2006

Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, 2006 quoting from the website Patheos  https://www.patheos.com/blogs/daylightatheism/essays/the-new-ten-commandments/    

3.    Do not overlook evil or shrink from administering justice, but always be ready to forgive wrongdoing freely admitted and honestly regretted.

 Matt 5, “43You have heard it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy,’  44But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you.”  The Holy Bible, New King James Version, 1982  

Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, 2006 quoting from the website Patheos  https://www.patheos.com/blogs/daylightatheism/essays/the-new-ten-commandments/    

9. Form independent opinions on the basis of your own reason and experience; do not allow yourself to be led blindly by others. 

·       Joseph Stalin & Other Soviet Communist Leaders – Atheist/Communist – murdered approximately 61 million of their own people. (Rummel, 1997)

·       Mao Zedong – Atheist/Communist – murdered through his policies or directly killed approximately 78 million of his own people. (Rummel, 1997)

·       Various North Korean Dictators – Atheist/Communist – murdered millions of their own people.

·       Khmer Rouge – Atheist/Communist – murdered millions of their own people.

Rummel, R. - Death By Government,  Routledge, 1997

“What matters is not whether Hitler and Stalin were atheists, but whether atheism systematically influences people to do bad things.  There is not the smallest evidence that it does…Individual atheists may do evil things but they don’t do evil things in the name of atheism.” Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, 2006

“The humanness of an embryo’s cells cannot confer upon it any absolute discontinuous moral status.  It cannot, because of our evolutionary continuity with chimpanzees and, more distantly, with every species on the planet.” Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, 2006

 “In the previous chapter, when trying to explain the shifting moral Zeitgeist, I invoked a widespread consensus of liberal, enlightened, decent people.” Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, 2006

Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, 2006 quoting from the website Patheos  https://www.patheos.com/blogs/daylightatheism/essays/the-new-ten-commandments/    

Do not do to others what you would not want them to do to you

Matt 7, “7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? 11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! 12 Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”  The Holy Bible, New King James Version, 1982  

Matthew 5: 43-44, “You have heard it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy,’  But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you.”  The Holy Bible, New King James Version, 1982

Matt 22, “37 Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”  The Holy Bible, New King James Version, 1982  

These are a few examples of a naturalistic 10 commandments that Richard Dawkins quoted from an atheist’s website Patheos on The New 10 Commandments.  https://www.patheos.com/blogs/daylightatheism/essays/the-new-ten-commandments/   in The God Delusion.  

 “Do not do to others what you would not want them to do to you.”  Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, 2006 – quoting from the website Patheos

“Treat your fellow human beings, your fellow living things, and the world in general with love, honesty, faithfulness and respect.”  Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, 2006 – quoting from the website Patheos

 Jesus commanded, John 13:34, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”  NKJV, Thomas Nelson, Inc, 1982

Matthew 5:43-44, “You have heard it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy,’  But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you.”  NKJV, Thomas Nelson, Inc, 1982

“Of course, dyed-in-the-wool faith-heads are immune to argument, their resistance built up over years of childhood indoctrination using methods that took centuries to mature (whether by evolution or design).”  Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, 2006

“There might be someone who says that’s so, but it would not be I think discernible by anyone here that I for example who do believe that we have evolved by random mutation combined with natural selection for success in certain genes, believes that someone who is born blind or deaf should simply be left by the way side.  There is no such corrobory[sic]...”  D'Souza, Dinesh; Hitchens, Christopher, 2008, Does God Exist, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZ_WGb8X3L8, Christopher Hitchens vs Dinesh D'Souza | God on Trial Debate

“The Declaration of Independence dogmatically bases all rights on the fact that God created all men equal; and it is right; for if they were not created equal, they were certainly evolved unequal. There is no basis for democracy except in a dogma about the divine origin of man.” – G.K. Chesterton, What I Saw In America, 1922 

 “With savages, the weak in body or mind are soon eliminated…We civilized men, on the other hand, do our utmost to check the process of elimination; we build asylums for the imbecile, the maimed, and the sick; we institute poor-laws; and our medical men exert their utmost skill to save the life of every one to the last moment. There is reason to believe that vaccination has preserved thousands, who from a weak constitution would formerly have succumbed to small-pox. Thus the weak members of civilized societies propagate their kind. No one who has attended to the breeding of domestic animals will doubt that this must be highly injurious to the race of man…. hardly anyone is so ignorant as to allow his worst animals to breed.” Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex, 1871

 “Early embryos that have no nervous system most certainly do not suffer.  And if late-aborted embryos with nervous systems suffer – though all suffering is deplorable – it is not because they are human that they suffer.  There is no general reason to suppose that human embryos at any age suffer more than cow or sheep embryos at the same developmental stage…Suffering is hard to measure, and the details might be disputed…The evolutionary point is very simple.  The humanness of an embryo’s cells cannot confer upon it any absolute discontinuous moral status.  It cannot, because of our evolutionary continuity with chimpanzees and, more distantly, with every species on the planet.” Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, 2006

“I am suggesting that the same is true of the urge to kindness – to altruism, to generosity, to empathy, to pity.  In ancestral times, we had the opportunity to be altruistic only towards close kin and potentially reciprocators.  Nowadays that restriction is no longer there, but the rule of thumb persists.  Why would it not?  It is just like sexual desire.  We can no more help ourselves feeling pity when we see a weeping unfortunate (who is unrelated and unable to reciprocate) than we can help ourselves feeling lust for a member of the opposite sex (who may be infertile or otherwise unable to reproduce).  Both are misfirings, Darwinian mistakes: blessed, precious mistakes.” Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, 2006

“But feeling a desire to help is quite different from feeling that you ought to help whether you want to or not.  Supposing you hear a cry for help from a man in danger.  You will probably feel two desires – one a desire to give help (due to your herd instinct), the other a desire to keep out of danger (due to the instinct for self-preservation).  But you will find inside you, in addition to these two impulses, a third thing which tells you that you ought to follow the impulse to help, and suppress the impulse to run away.  Now this thing that judges between the two instincts, that decides which should be encouraged, cannot be either of them…Another way of seeing that the Moral Law is not simply one of our instincts is this.  If two instincts are in conflict, and there is nothing in a creature’s mind except those two instincts, obviously the stronger of the two must win.  But at those moments when we are most conscious of the Moral Law, it usually seems to be telling us to side with the weaker of the two impulses.  You probably want to be safe much more than you want to help the man who is drowning; but the Moral Law tells you to help him all the same.  And surely it often tells us to try to make the right impulse stronger than it naturally is?  I mean, we often feel it our duty to stimulate the herd instinct, by waking up our imaginations and arousing our pity and so on, so as to get up enough steam for doing the right thing.  But clearly we are not acting from instinct when we set about making an instinct stronger than it is.  The thing that says to you, ‘Your herd instinct is asleep.  Wake it up,’ cannot itself be the heard instinct.” C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 1952

“The aid we feel impelled to give to the helpless is mainly an incidental result of the instinct of sympathy, which was originally acquired as part of the social instincts, but subsequently rendered, in the manner previously indicated, more tender and more widely diffused. Nor could we check our sympathy, even at the urging of hard reason, without deterioration in the noblest part of our nature. The surgeon may harden himself whilst performing an operation, for he knows that he is acting for the good of his patient; but if we were intentionally to neglect the weak and helpless, it could only be for a contingent benefit, with an overwhelming present evil. We must therefore bear the undoubtedly bad effects of the weak surviving and propagating their kind; but there appears to be at least one check in steady action, namely that the weaker and inferior members of society do not marry so freely as the sound; and this check might be indefinitely increased by the weak in body or mind refraining from marriage, though this is more to be hoped for than expected.” Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex, 1871

“In a universe of electrons and selfish genes, blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won't find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice. The universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference.  DNA neither knows, nor cares.  DNA just is, and we dance to its music.”  Richard Dawkins, River Out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life, 1994

“My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust.  But how had I got this idea of just and unjust?  A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line.  What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust?  If the whole show was bad and senseless from A to Z, so to speak, why did I, who was supposed to be part of the show, find myself in such violent reaction against it?  A man feels wet when he falls into water, because man is not a water animal; a fish would not feel wet.  Of course I could have given up my idea of justice by saying it was nothing but a private idea of my own.  But if I did that, then my argument against God collapsed too – for the argument depended on saying that the world was really unjust, not simply that it did not happen to please my fancies.  Thus in the very act of trying to prove that God did not exist – in other words, that the whole of reality was senseless – I found I was forced to assume that one part of reality – namely my idea of justice – was full of sense.  Consequently atheism turns out to be too simple.” C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 1952

Moral Values – The values I choose to live my life by.  

Definition – “To say that there are objective moral values is to say that something is good or evil independently of whether any human being believes it to be so.”  William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith, 1984

William Lane Craig states the moral argument this way in Reasonable Faith:

“

1.    If God does not exist, objective moral values and duties do not exist.

2.    Objective moral values and duties do exist.

3.    Therefore, God exists.”  William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith, 1984

“Many philosophers have argued that if God does not exist, then morality is ultimately subjective and non-binding.  We might act in precisely the same way that we do in fact act, but in the absence of God such actions would no longer count as good or evil, right or wrong, since in the absence of God, objective moral values and duties do not exist.”  William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith, 1984

References:

Lee Strobel, The Case for a Creator, 2004 – Interview with J.P Moreland

Michael Egnor and Denyse O’Leary, The Immortal Mind, 2025, **Ref1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1YWy5SQPhg

 “Suppose everybody who lacked a certain part of the brain was disabled in a very specific way.  The brain would be like a machine.  Take out a part and it just doesn’t work or work right.  Then the idea that the mind is merely the physical functions of the brain – the materialist view – would be hard to argue with.  But that’s not at all what we see.”  **Ref1

 “Of course, if a brain is seriously damaged, intellect and will can be impaired.  But that is because the brain damage impairs memory or perception areas that are needed for the mind to understand what has happened or is happening.”  **Ref1

 “Here’s the conundrum that these cases pose: On the one hand, a neurosurgeon must be very careful about removing brain tissue that is doing something important.  On the other hand, people with very dramatic natural brain losses or absences can have normally functioning minds.  If the mind were merely the activities of the brain, that would not be happening.”  **Ref1

 “If the mind is completely a product of the material functions of the brain, then:

1. There will be no mental phenomena without brain functions.

2. As brain function is altered, the mind will be altered.

3. If the brain is damaged, then mental function will be damaged.

4. Brain development will correlate with mental development.

5. We will be able to correlate brain activity with mental activity – no matter how we choose to look at it.”  **Ref1

 “As Steve Taylor has pointed out in Psychology Today, “NDE’s have never been satisfactorily explained in neurobiological terms…All of these theories have been found to be problematic.”  One weakness of such explanations is that they try to account specifically for selected aspects of the near-death experiences.  But they fail to account for the complete experience.  The ways they account for the narrow aspect of the NDEs that they focus on invariably conflict with all the other evidence.  That is why no skeptical explanation provides a credible account of NDEs.”  **Ref1

 “That includes a subjective sense of being dead, a feeling of peace, painlessness, pleasantness, and so on, a sense of bodily separation, perhaps a sense of entering a dark region or tunnel, encountering a presence or hearing a voice.  That may include taking stock of one’s life (a life review), seeing a bright and often beautiful light or being enveloped in it, seeing beautiful colors, entering the light, and encountering visible spirits.  Near-death experiencers frequently report mental conversations with a Being in the light or with deceased persons, especially relatives.  Those who report undergoing a life review may also report a sense of forgiveness as well as profound understanding in a world of beauty beyond nature.”  **Ref1

 “As Steve Taylor has pointed out in Psychology Today, “NDE’s have never been satisfactorily explained in neurobiological terms…All of these theories have been found to be problematic.”  One weakness of such explanations is that they try to account specifically for selected aspects of the near-death experiences.  But they fail to account for the complete experience.  The ways they account for the narrow aspect of the NDEs that they focus on invariably conflict with all the other evidence.  That is why no skeptical explanation provides a credible account of NDEs.”  **Ref1

This week we continue with part three of a four part series looking at how the best explanation of our consciousness is an intelligent Creator.

Resources:

Lee Strobel, The Case for a Creator, 2004 – Interview with J.P Moreland

Michael Egnor and Denyse O’Leary, The Immortal Mind, 2025, **Ref1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1YWy5SQPhg

“Thus he concluded that abstract thought is a function of something other than or beyond the physical brain.  He came to define the mind as the element in an individual “that feels, perceives, thinks, wills, and especially reasons.”  **Ref1

“Well, a simple definition is that consciousness is what you’re aware of when you introspect.  When you pay attention to what’s going on inside of you, that’s consciousness.”  Lee Strobel, The Case for a Creator, 2004

Webster's Online Def:

1  a: the quality or state of being aware especially of something within oneself

    b : the state or fact of being conscious of an external object, state, or fact

2  : the state of being characterized by sensation, emotion, volition, and thought

“This surgery led to truly remarkable neuroscience research in the twentieth century.  Here’s the most radical thing it tells us:  Even when the brain is split in half, many important aspects of the mind remain unified.  Thus, the mind is something that the brain isn’t.  **Ref1

“Thirty years later, in 2017, neuroscientist Yair Pinto and his colleagues concluded, after reviewing decades of brain-splitting research, that the most accurate summary of the research is this: Split-brain patients have split perception but unified consciousness.”  **Ref1

“Reflecting on questions like these, he shed light on the overall mind-brain relationship.  That is, Penfield observed that the mind has an existence independent of the brain, and that the mind uses the brain to interact with the world, in a way analogous to the way a computer programmer uses a computer to accomplish tasks.”  **Ref1

“Again and again, Penfield found a duality in consciousness – some thoughts (such as experiences from childhood) could be evoked by stimulation of the brain itself, while others (awareness of one’s current circumstances and the capacity for reflection and reason) could not.”  **Ref1

“But there was a key exception to what Penfield could stimulate in the brain.  He was never able to stimulate abstract thought – that is, the sense of self, the capacity to reason, and the exercise of free will.” **Ref1

“He could evoke movements, sensations, memories, and emotions.  But he could not evoke what he called the “mind,” which corresponds to the capacity for abstract thought and free will (or, in philosophical terms, the immaterial spiritual powers of the soul”.  Penfield thought this exclusion of a whole class of thoughts – abstract conceptual thought and free will – was remarkable, and it is.”  **Ref1

“For example, when I write a mathematical equation on a piece of paper, the area of my brain that generates the movement of my right hand can be localized to millimeter accuracy on the precentral gyrus of my left frontal lobe.  But my understanding of the equation cannot be localized at all.”  **Ref1

References: New King James Bible, 1982

Luke 2: 1-24; 39-40

Matthew 2: 1-23

A Charlie Brown Christmas, Charles Shultz, Bill Melendez, 1965

References: New King James Bible, 1982

 Luke 1: 26-38

Matthew 1: 18-25

Isaiah 7: 10-14

 Starting with Mom…

Luke 1, “26 Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!” 29 But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. 30 Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. 32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. 33 And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”

34 Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?” 35 And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. 37 For with God nothing will be impossible.” 38 Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

What does Joseph think of all this?

Matthew 1:  18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. 19 Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. 20 But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21 And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

22 So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.” 24 Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife, 25 and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name Jesus.

Isaiah 7, 10 Moreover the Lord spoke again to Ahaz, saying, 11 “Ask a sign for yourself from the Lord your God; ask it either in the depth or in the height above.” 12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, nor will I test the Lord!” 13 Then he said, “Hear now, O house of David! Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.

“Reality, in fact, is usually something you could not have guessed.  That is one of the reasons I believe Christianity.  It is a religion you could not have guessed.  If it offered us just the kind of universe we had always expected, I should feel we were making it up.  But, in fact, it is not the sort of thing anyone would have made up.”  C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 1952

Eph 1, “3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, 9 having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, 10 that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him. 11 In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will…”  New King James, 1982

Resources:

Lee Strobel, The Case for a Creator, 2004 -*Ref1

Michael Egnor and Denyse O’Leary, The Immortal Mind, 2025 -*Ref2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1YWy5SQPhg

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity,1952

G.K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man,1925

I'm afraid the quotations are too long to fit this week in the space allowed.  Please look for a quotations page on our website:  prooftograce.com

Lee Strobel, The Case for a Creator, 2004–Interview with J.P Moreland**Ref 1

Michael Egnor and Denyse O’Leary, The Immortal Mind, 2025**Ref 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1YWy5SQPhg

“Nevertheless, it may be that the origin of life is not the only major gap in the evolutionary story that is bridged by sheer luck, anthropically justified. For example, my colleague, Mark Ridley in Mendel’s Demon…has suggested that the origin of the eukaryotic cell…was an even more momentous, difficult and statistically improbable step than the origin of life. The origin of consciousness might be another major gap whose bridging was of the same order of improbability.Richard Dawkins,The God Delusion,2006

“I think therefore I am.” Renea Descartes,Discourse on the Method,1637

“We often hear that chimpanzee and human DNA differ by a mere 1 percent. But humans are radically different from chimpanzees–intellectually, morally, and culturally. Well then, we can be sure that some very important things about us are not found in our DNA. Human exceptionalism is the difference between a clever ape’s mind and Einstein’s mind.”**Ref 2

 “We humans are the only living creatures on the planet who think about mathematics, science, literature, philosophy, religion, and the whole range of abstract ideas.”**Ref 2

 “Thus he concluded that abstract thought is a function of something other than or beyond the physical brain. He came to define the mind as the element in an individual “that feels, perceives, thinks, wills, and especially reasons.”**Ref 2

Referencing artiicle by Sarah Tippit,“Science Says Mind Continues After the Brain Dies” of a study by Sam Parnia and Peter Fenwick,“He speculated that the brain might serve as a mechanism to manifest the mind, much in the same way a television set manifests pictures and sounds from waves in the air.”**Ref 1

www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/consciousness

1 a:the quality or state of being aware especially of something within oneself

b :the state or fact of being conscious of an external object,state,or fact

2 :the state of being characterized by sensation,emotion,volition,and thought

 “Well, a simple definition is that consciousness is what you’re aware of when you introspect. When you pay attention to what’s going on inside of you, that’s consciousness.”**Ref 1

 “Self-consciousness implies not only awareness, but also awareness that one is aware–an awareness of self.”**Ref 2

 “The point is this, Lee: I am a soul, and I have a body. We don’t learn about people by studying their bodies. We learn about people by finding out how they feel, what they think, what they’re passionate about, what their worldview is, and so forth.”**Ref 1

 “That is, Penfield observed that the mind has an existence independent of the brain, and that the mind uses the brain to interact with the world, in a way analogous to the way a computer programmer uses a computer to accomplish tasks.”**Ref 2

“The failure to find a “material center of consciousness” in the brain should be taken seriously–it’s not a failure of science; it’s a success of science. It’s strong scientific evidence that points to the truth about the human soul. We haven’t found the material center of consciousness in the brain because the human soul isn’t in the brain.  Consciousness has no location. The human soul is spiritual. But now another question arises. The human soul has an immaterial and immortal element that cannot just be explained away, so how could it have evolved from an animal mind?”**Ref 2

Lyrics from The Truth, Megan Woods, 2025:

 I know who I am
 'Cause I know who You are
 And I hold Your truth inside of my heart…

The truth is I am my Father's child
 I make Him proud and I make Him smile
 I was made in the image of a perfect King
 He looks at me and wouldn't change a thing
 The truth is I am truly loved
 By a God who's good when I'm not good enough 

I don't belong to the lies, I belong to You 
 And that's the truth

“As long as a man is thinking of God as an examiner who has set him a sort of paper to do, or as the opposite party in a sort of bargain – as long as he is thinking of claims and counter-claims between himself and God – he is not yet in the right relation to Him.  He is misunderstanding what he is and what God is.  And he cannot get into the right relation until he has discovered that fact of our bankruptcy.” C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 1952

“But the great thing to remember is that, though our feelings come and go, His love for us does not.  It is not wearied by our sins, or our indifference; and, therefore, it is quite relentless in its determination that we shall be cured of those sins, at whatever cost to us, at whatever cost to Him.” C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 1952

“Nevertheless, it may be that the origin of life is not the only major gap in the evolutionary story that is bridged by sheer luck, anthropically justified.  For example, my colleague, Mark Ridley in Mendel’s Demon…has suggested that the origin of the eukaryotic cell (our kind of cell, with a nucleus and various other complicated features such as mitochondria, which are not present in bacteria) was an even more momentous, difficult and statistically improbable step than the origin of life.  The origin of consciousness might be another major gap whose bridging was of the same order of improbability.  One-off events like this might be explained by the anthropic principle, along the following lines.  There are billions of planets that have developed life at the level of bacteria…” Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, 2006 

“Once the initial stroke of luck has been granted – and the anthropic principle most decisively grants it to us – natural selection takes over: and natural selection is emphatically not a matter of luck… Nevertheless, it may be that the origin of life is not the only major gap in the evolutionary story that is bridged by sheer luck, anthropically justified.  For example, my colleague, Mark Ridley in Mendel’s Demon…has suggested that the origin of the eukaryotic cell (our kind of cell, with a nucleus and various other complicated features such as mitochondria, which are not present in bacteria) was an even more momentous, difficult and statistically improbable step than the origin of life.  The origin of consciousness might be another major gap whose bridging was of the same order of improbability.  One-off events like this might be explained by the anthropic principle, along the following lines…”  Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, 2006, pp. 168-169

Stephen Meyer - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/@DrStephenMeyer

The Fatal Flaw in Origin-of-Life Experiments

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVygGzykHHg

Our DNA Proves We Were Designed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5gKoyDtI9Q

Return of the God Hypothesis: Three Scientific Discoveries That Reveal the Mind Behind the Universe: Meyer, Stephen C.: 9780062071507: Amazon.com: Books

Improbable Planet: How Earth Became Humanity's Home: Hugh Ross: 9780801075438: Amazon.com: Books

Amazon.com: A Fortunate Universe: Life in a Finely Tuned Cosmos: 9781107156616: Lewis, Geraint F., Barnes, Luke A.: Books

To the listener: I made a terrible Casablanca error while recording.  I said Rick told the man to put his chips on 42, when it should have been 22.  Sorry about that.  Yikes!

 “The [anthropic-design argument] and what it points to is of such an order of certainty that in any other sphere of science, it would be regarded as settled.  To insist otherwise is like insisting that Shakespeare was not written by Shakespeare because it might have been written by a billion monkeys sitting at a billion keyboards typing for a billion years.  So it might.  But the sight of scientific atheists clutching at such desperate straws has put new spring in the step of theists.”  Longley, C. (1989). Focusing on Theism. London Times, 10.

 “In its most popular form, the Infinite Monkeys Theorem states that if you had an infinite number of monkeys and/or an infinitely long-time period, then a monkey pressing keys at random on a typewriter would eventually be certain to reproduce the works of William Shakespeare…”  A numerical evaluation of the Finite Monkeys Theorem,  Stephen Woodcock, Jay Falletta, University of Technology Sydney in Australia, 2025

 “We take a chimpanzee's working lifespan to be 109 s (just over 30 years) and the heat death of the universe to occur 10100 years after the experiment begins. Assuming that the current population of around 200,000 chimpanzees remains constant until the end of the universe...”  A numerical evaluation of the Finite Monkeys Theorem,  Stephen Woodcock, Jay Falletta, University of Technology Sydney in Australia, 2025

 “It is not plausible that, even with possible improved typing speeds or an increase in chimpanzee populations, these orders of magnitude can be spanned to the point that monkey labor will ever be a viable tool for developing written works of anything beyond the trivial. As such, we reject the conclusions from the Infinite Monkeys Theorem as potentially misleading within our finite universe.”  A numerical evaluation of the Finite Monkeys Theorem,  Stephen Woodcock, Jay Falletta, University of Technology Sydney in Australia, 2025

 “Once the initial stroke of luck has been granted – and the anthropic principle most decisively grants it to us – natural selection takes over: and natural selection is emphatically not a matter of luck.  Nevertheless, it may be that the origin of life is not the only major gap in the evolutionary story that is bridged by sheer luck, anthropically justified.  For example, my colleague, Mark Ridley in Mendel’s Demon…has suggested that the origin of the eukaryotic cell (our kind of cell, with a nucleus and various other complicated features such as mitochondria, which are not present in bacteria) was an even more momentous, difficult and statistically improbable step than the origin of life.  The origin of consciousness might be another major gap whose bridging was of the same order of improbability.”  Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, 2006

 “Life is one of the strangest phenomena known.  In my opinion it shows that the universe is capable of almost anything.  Yet it amazes me that we know so much about how the universe began many billions of years ago, but we have yet to discover how life itself began.  The most likely explanation is probably that we are an accident.  Just by chance, some molecules bumped into each other at random, until finally one formed that could copy itself.  Then began the slow process of evolution that led to all the extraordinary diversity of life on earth.  Life seems to be simply what matter does given the right conditions and enough time.” Stephen Hawking, Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking: The Story of Everything, 2011              

In his book, Darwin’s Black Box, he really opens up problems with Darwin’s theory at the cellular level.  Dr. Behe puts it this way, “You see, a system or device is irreducibly complex if it has a number of different components that all work together to accomplish the task of the system, and if you were to remove one of the components, the system would no longer function.  An irreducibly complex system is highly unlikely to be built piece-by-piece through Darwinian processes, because the system has to be fully present in order for it to function.”  Lee Strobel, The Case for a Creator, 2004

“If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down.  But I can find out no such case.”  Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species, 1859

“Searching for particular examples of irreducible complexity is a fundamentally unscientific way to proceed: a special case of arguing from present ignorance…gaps shrink as science advances…”  Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, 2006 

Schoolhouse Rock – The Central Nervous System

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivk_irrH1WY&list=RDivk_irrH1WY&start_radio=1

“The balance is controlled by something called the semicircular canals in your ear, and these are 3 different tubes basically pointed in X, Y and Z axis.  And each of these tubes is filled with a fluid, a very thick fluid.  When the fluid moves within the tube it actually pushes the different hair-like nerve cells in the tube in different directions.  And that sends signals to your brain telling you that you are moving in a certain direction.  And so, when you get off the carousel those nerve cells are all still pointed in the direction they were pointed before.  They tell you, you are still going around in a circle, but your eyes see that you are not moving so there is a conflict there, and that is what causes dizziness.” Adam Ruben, Outrageous Acts of Science, Moped Merry-Go-Round

Picture credit to https://www.aboutkidshealth.ca/middle-ear-effusion

“If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down.  But I can find out no such case.”  Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species, 1859

“The simplest organ which can be called an eye consists of an optic nerve, surrounded by pigment-cells and covered by translucent skin, but without any lens or other refractive body.”  Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species, 1859

“…How a nerve comes to be sensitive to light, hardly concerns us more than how life itself originated…”  Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species, 1859

“You see, a system or device is irreducibly complex if it has a number of different components that all work together to accomplish the task of the system, and if you were to remove one of the components, the system would no longer function.  An irreducibly complex system is highly unlikely to be built piece-by-piece through Darwinian processes, because the system has to be fully present in order for it to function.” Lee Strobel, The Case for a Creator, 2004, quoting Michael Behe

“Searching for particular examples of irreducible complexity is a fundamentally unscientific way to proceed: a special case of arguing from present ignorance…gaps shrink as science advances…”  Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, 2006

“To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree…”  Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species, 1859

“It has been objected that in order to modify the eye and still preserve it as a perfect instrument, many changes would have to be effected simultaneously, which, it is assumed, could not be done through natural selection; but as I have attempted to show in my work on the variation of domestic animals, it is not necessary to suppose that the modifications were all simultaneous, if they were extremely slight and gradual.”  Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species, 1859

“The simplest organ which can be called an eye consists of an optic nerve, surrounded by pigment-cells and covered by translucent skin, but without any lens or other refractive body.”  Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species, 1859

This week we look at some problematic conclusions Darwin reaches when looking at his theory. Can his unguided process start the journey up Mount Improbable, or do we need the guiding hand of intelligence?

“The abrupt manner in which whole groups of species suddenly appear in certain formations, has been urged by several paleontologists…as a fatal objection to the belief in the transmutation of the species.  If numerous species, belonging to the same genera or families, have really started into life at once, the fact would be fatal to the theory of evolution through natural selection.  For the development by this means of a group of forms, all of which are descended from some one progenitor, must have been an extremely slow process, and the progenitors must have lived long before their modified descendants.  But we continually overrate the perfection of the geological record, and falsely infer, because of certain genera or families have not been found beneath a certain stage, that they did not exist before that stage.  In all cases, positive paleontological evidence may be implicitly trusted; negative evidence is worthless, as experience has so often shown.  Charles Darwin,The Origin of Species,1859  

“If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down.  But I can find out no such case.”  Charles Darwin,The Origin of Species,1859

“To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree.  Reason tells me, that if numerous graduations from a simple and imperfect eye to one complex and perfect can be shown to exist, each grade being useful to its possessor, as is certainly the case; if further, the eye ever varies and the variations be inherited, as is likewise certainly the case: and if such variations should be useful to any animal under changing conditions of life, then the difficulty of believing that a perfect and complex eye could be formed by natural selection, though inseparable by our imagination, should not be considered as subversive of the theory.  How a nerve comes to be sensitive to light, hardly concerns us more than how life itself originated; but I may remark that, as some of the lowest organisms, in which nerves cannot be detected, are capable of perceiving light, it does not seem impossible that certain sensitive elements in their sarcode should become aggregated and developed into nerves, endowed with this special sensibility.”  Charles Darwin,The Origin of Species,1859

“The simplest organ which can be called an eye consists of an optic nerve, surrounded by pigment-cells and covered by translucent skin, but without any lens or other refractive body.”  Charles Darwin,The Origin of Species,1859

“…the difficulty ceases to be very great in believing that natural selection may have converted the simple apparatus of an optic nerve, coated with a pigment and invested by transparent membrane, into an optical instrument as perfect as possessed by a member of the Articulate Class.”  Charles Darwin,The Origin of Species,1859

“It has been objected that in order to modify the eye and still preserve it as a perfect instrument, many changes would have to be effected simultaneously, which, it is assumed, could not be done through natural selection; but as I have attempted to show in my work on the variation of domestic animals, it is not necessary to suppose that the modifications were all simultaneous, if they were extremely slight and gradual.”  Charles Darwin,The Origin of Species,1859

“In Climbing Mount Improbable, I expressed the point in a parable.  One side of a mountain is a sheer cliff, impossible to climb, but on the other side is a gentile slope to the summit.  On the summit sits a complex device such as an eye or a bacterial flagellar motor.  The absurd notion that such complexity could spontaneously self-assemble is symbolized by leaping from the foot of the cliff to the top in one bound.  Evolution, by contrast, goes around the back of the mountain and creeps up the gentle slope to the summit: easy!” Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, 2006

Matthew 6, “27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?”   The Holy Bible, New King James Version, 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc 

“It has been said that I speak of natural selection as an active power or Deity; but who objects to an author speaking of the attraction of gravity as ruling the movements of the planets?”  Charles Darwin, The Origin of the Species, 1859

“First, why, if species have descended from other species by fine graduations, do we not everywhere see innumerable transitional forms? Why is not all nature in confusion, instead of the species being, as we see them, well defined?” Charles Darwin, The Origin of the Species,1859

“I believe that species come to be tolerably well-defined objects and do not at any one period present an inextricable chaos of and intermediate links.” Charles Darwin, The Origin of the Species,1859

“Origin-of-life researchers now know that Miller’s simulation experiment has little, if any, relevance to explaining how amino acids–let alone their precise sequencing, necessary to produce proteins–could have arisen in the actual atmosphere of the early earth.” The Return of the God Hypothesis, Stephen Meyer,2021

“Life cannot have had a random beginning…The trouble is that there are about two thousand enzymes, and the chance of obtaining them all in a random trial is only one part in 10^40,000, an outrageously small probability that could not be faced even if the whole universe consisted of organic soup.” Fred Hoyle and N. Chandra Wickramasinghe, Evolution from Space (London: J.M. Dent & Sons,1981)

“What happens if you replay the experiment using an accurate atmosphere?”…“I’ll tell you this: you do not get amino acids, that’s for sure,” he replied “Some textbooks fudge by saying, well, even if you use a realistic atmosphere, you still get organic molecules, as if that solves the problem. ”He goes on later to identify the molecules: Formaldehyde and cyanide. “The idea that using a realistic atmosphere gets you the first step in the origin of life is just laughable. ”The Case for a Creator, Lee Strobel, 2004

“I myself am convinced that the theory of evolution, especially to the extent to which it has been applied, will be one of the greatest jokes in the history books of the future. Posterity will marvel that so very flimsy and dubious an hypothesis could be accepted with the incredible credulity it has.” Malcolm Muggeridge, Pascal Lectures, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Resources:

Lee Strobel, The Case for a Creator, 2004

Stephen Meyer, The Return of the God Hypothesis, 2021

Hugh Ross, Improbable Planet, 2016

Jay Richards and Guillermo Gonzales, The Privileged Planet, 2004

I realized while preparing the last two episodes that they are in many ways a summary of the interview Lee Strobel conducts in the Case for a Creator.  I want to give full credit to Lee Strobel for doing an amazing job introducing this topic into my awareness and helping encourage me to dig deeper with some of the other resources listed.

“First, why, if species have descended from other species by fine graduations, do we not everywhere see innumerable transitional forms?  Why is not all nature in confusion, instead of the species being, as we see them, well defined?” Charles Darwin, The Origin of the Species, 1859

“Experimental evidence of such an evolution being impossible, the professor is not content to say (as most of us would be ready to say) that such an evolution is likely enough anyhow.  He produces his little bone, or little collection of bones, and deduces the most marvelous things from it.  He found in Java a piece of a skull, seeming by its contour to be smaller than the human.  Somewhere near it he found an upright thighbone and in the same scattered fashion some teeth that were not human…If they all form part of one creature, which is doubtful, our conception of the creature would be almost equally doubtful.  But the effect on popular science was to produce a complete and even complex figure, finished down to the last details of hair and habits.  He was given a name as if he were an ordinary historical character…Popular histories published portraits of him like the portraits of Charles the First or George the Fourth…A detailed drawing was reproduced, carefully shaded, to show that the very hairs of his head were all numbered.  No uninformed person looking at its carefully lined face and wistful eyes would imagine for a moment that this was the portrait of a thighbone, or of a few teeth and a fragment of a cranium.”  G.K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man, 1925

“Nevertheless, it may be that the origin of life is not the only major gap in the evolutionary story that is bridged by sheer luck, anthropically justified.  For example, my colleague, Mark Ridley in Mendel’s Demon has suggested that the origin of the eukaryotic cell (our kind of cell, with a nucleus and various other complicated features such as mitochondria, which are not present in bacteria) was an even more momentous, difficult and statistically improbable step than the origin of life…Natural selection works because it is a cumulative one-way street to improvement.  It needs some luck to get it started, and the ‘billions of planets’ anthropic principle grants it that luck.  Maybe a few later gaps in the evolutionary story also need major infusions of luck, with anthropic justification.  Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, 2008

“Firstly, life – even a single, ‘simple’ cell – is a miracle of complexity.  Every cell in your body, for example, has molecular machines for moving itself, tagging and transporting molecules, processing food, defending against invaders, DNA duplication and repair, producing proteins and receiving and processing outside signals.  On top of all that, this entire machine can tear itself in half and produce a complete working copy in about 20 minutes.  Lewis and Barnes, A Fortunate Universe, 2016

“The cell can be thought of as a colossal factory, a city even, a Rube Goldberg contraption of interconnected assembly lines, machines, highways, transporters, blueprints, and more.  It would be extremely surprising if life on Earth went to all that bother if life is easy to make.” Lewis and Barnes, A Fortunate Universe, 2016

“The chance that higher life forms might have emerged in this way is comparable with the chance that a tornado sweeping through a junk-yard might assemble a Boeing 747 from the materials therein.”  Fred Hoyle, Hoyle on evolution, Nature, Vol. 294, No. 5837 (November 12, 1981), p. 105

“…Tompa and Rose have demonstrated mathematically that even having all the requisite parts for a cell will not ensure that those ingredients will self-organize into a living system.  Instead, the cell, like the individual genes or proteins, faces an extreme combinational problem.  Tompa and Rose calculate, building on the work of protein scientist Cyrus Levinthal, that there are a whopping 10^79,000,000,000 different ways of combining just the proteins in a relatively simple unicellular yeast.  That number only grows exponentially larger when biologists attempt to calculate the number of possible ways of combining all the proteins and all the other large molecular components necessary for that one-celled organism, including DNA and RNA molecules, ribosomes, lipids and glycolipid molecules, and others.  The number of possible combinations of these cellular components vastly exceeds the number of elementary particles in the universe (10^80) and even the number of events since the big bang (10^139).”  Stephen Meyer, The Return of the God Hypothesis, 2021

Resources:

Lee Strobel, The Case for a Creator, 2004

Stephen Meyer, The Return of the God Hypothesis, 2021

Hugh Ross, Improbable Planet, 2016

Jay Richards and Guillermo Gonzales, The Privileged Planet, 2004

I realized while preparing the next two episodes that they are in many ways a summary of the interview Lee Strobel conducts in the Case for a Creator.  I want to give full credit to Lee Strobel for doing an amazing job introducing this topic into my awareness and helping encourage me to dig deeper with some of the other resources listed.

“The abrupt manner in which whole groups of species suddenly appear in certain formations, has been urged by several paleontologists…as a fatal objection to the belief in the transmutation of the species.  If numerous species, belonging to the same genera or families, have really started into life at once, the fact would be fatal to the theory of evolution through natural selection...But we continually overrate the perfection of the geological record, and falsely infer, because of certain genera or families have not been found beneath a certain stage, that they did not exist before that stage.  In all cases, positive paleontological evidence may be implicitly trusted; negative evidence is worthless, as experience has so often shown.  Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species, 1859 

“To the question why we do not find rich fossiliferous deposits belonging to those assumed earliest periods prior to the Cambrian system, I can give no satisfactory answer.”  Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species, 1859

“The Cambrian strata of rocks, vintage about 600 million years, are the oldest ones in which we find most of the major invertebrate groups.  And we find many of them already in an advanced state of evolution, the very first time they appear.  It is as though they were just planted there, without any evolutionary history.”  Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design, 1987  

“Although the Cambrian explosion of animals is especially striking, it is far from the only “explosion” of new living forms.  The first winged insects, birds, flowering plants, mammals, and many other groups also appear abruptly in the fossil record, with no apparent connection to putative ancestors in the lower, older layers of fossil-bearing sedimentary rock."  Stephen Meyer, Return of the God Hypothesis, 2021

“These first skeletal animals arrived not in just one or two phyla (basic body plans).  Fossils unearthed in southern China and in the Canadian Rockies reveal that 50-80 percent of the animal phyla known to exist at any time in Earth’s history appeared within no more than a few million years of one another, as the Cambrian geological period began, 542-543 million years ago…A team of geologists at Franklin and Marshall College showed that of the 182 animal skeletal designs theoretically permitted by the laws of physics, 146 appear in the Burgess Shale (Canadian Rockies) fossils.”  Hugh Ross, Improbable Planet, 2016

“..mutation and natural selection can account for “the survival of the fittest, but not the arrival of the fittest.”  Stephen Meyer, Return of the God Hypothesis, 2021

“Life is one of the strangest phenomena known.  In my opinion it shows that the universe is capable of almost anything.  Yet it amazes me that we know so much about how the universe began many billions of years ago, but we have yet to discover how life itself began.  The most likely explanation is probably that we are an accident.  Just by chance, some molecules bumped into each other at random, until finally one formed that could copy itself.  Then began the slow process of evolution that led to all the extraordinary diversity of life on earth.  Life seems to be simply what matter does given the right conditions and enough time.”  Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking: The Story of Everything, Discovery Channel

“Life cannot have had a random beginning … The trouble is that there are about two thousand enzymes, and the chance of obtaining them all in a random trial is only one part in 10^40,000, an outrageously small probability that could not be faced even if the whole universe consisted of organic soup.”   Fred Hoyle and N. Chandra Wickramasinghe, Evolution from Space (London: J.M. Dent & Sons, 1981)

In my book Signature in the Cell, I perform updated calculations of the probability of the origin of even a single functional protein or corresponding functional gene (the section of a DNA molecule that directs the synthesis of a particular protein) by chance alone…I show that the probability of producing even a single functional protein of modest length (150 amino acids) by chance alone in a prebiotic environment stands at no better than a “vanishingly small” 1 chance in 10^164, and inconceivably small probability.  Return of the God Hypothesis, Stephen Meyer, 2021  Page 175

“…Tompa and Rose have demonstrated mathematically that even having all the requisite parts for a cell will not ensure that those ingredients will self-organize into a living system.  Instead, the cell, like the individual genes or proteins, faces an extreme combinational problem.  Tompa and Rose calculate, building on the work of protein scientist Cyrus Levinthal, that there are a whopping 10^79,000,000,000 different ways of combining just the proteins in a relatively simple unicellular yeast.  That number only grows exponentially larger when biologists attempt to calculate the number of possible ways of combining all the proteins and all the other large molecular components necessary for that one-celled organism, including DNA and RNA molecules, ribosomes, lipids and glycolipid molecules, and others.”  Return of the God Hypothesis, Stephen Meyer, 2021  Page 291

“Nevertheless, it may be that the origin of life is not the only major gap in the evolutionary story that is bridged by sheer luck, anthropically justified.  For example, my colleague, Mark Ridley in Mendel’s Demon…has suggested that the origin of the eukaryotic cell (our kind of cell, with a nucleus and various other complicated features such as mitochondria, which are not present in bacteria) was an even more momentous, difficult and statistically improbable step than the origin of life.  The origin of consciousness might be another major gap whose bridging was of the same order of improbability.  One-off events like this might be explained by the anthropic principle, along the following lines.  There are billions of planets that have developed life at the level of bacteria…Natural selection works because it is a cumulative one-way street to improvement.  It needs some luck to get it started, and the ‘billions of planets’ anthropic principle grants it that

God loves you.  Enjoy and grow the relationship with your Heavenly Father.  You have been adopted into His family.  You are a child of the One True King!!  Welcome to the family!!!!!

You don't have to earn God's love.  He can't love you more than He already does and He will never love you less!

1.     Forgiven is forever – let’s talk about the finished work of Christ on the cross:

a.      Are we clean?

·        Acts 10:15, Acts 11:9, 1st John 1:7

b.      Are we spotless?

·        Eph. 5:27, Heb 9:13-15, Heb 9:24-28, 1st Peter 1:22-23

c.      Are we redeemed?

·        Eph 1:7, Eph 4:30, Romans 3:23-24

d.      Are we justified?

·        Romans 3:23-24, Romans 4:1-5, Romans 5:1-2

e.      Are we reconciled?

·        Romans 5:9-10

f.       Are we saved?

·        Romans 1:16-17, Romans 6:14, Romans 10:9-11

2.     Get a good Bible – you want a literal translation, not someone else’s opinion and then get a good study guide to dig deeper

a.     New King James Version

b.     Christian Standard Bible (CSB)

c.      English Standard Version (ESV)

3.     Get into your Bible.  This is one of the most important parts.  Start with Matthew and move forward into the New Testament.  Romans is an amazing walk through of Christian theology.  Ephesians is my favorite book in the entire Bible (God’s plan and God’s love).  DON’T listen to what the internet says about God’s word.  Get into God’s word yourself.

4.     Then get a good Study Guide to let a study guide help answer questions with the guidance of someone with a bit more background.  There are two types: verse by verse and major topics.  Both have their benefits.  Verse by verse is a great companion as you read through the Bible, while it really helps to cover major topics that may appear over larger sections of the Bible (topics like eternal security or the Trinity).  I would recommend the following: 

a.     Vernon McGee’s Through the Bible is a seven book set that goes verse by verse through the entire Old and New Testaments.  It is Old King James translation, but Dr. McGee does a great job walking through what various scriptures mean.  

b.     Grounded in Truth by Adrian Rodgers two book series is a great discipleship tool that looks at important topics rather than individual verses.

c.      Journey Discipleship by John Honeycutt is also a great discipleship tool that looks at important topics rather than individual verses.

5.     Find a good church – what to look for

a.     Christian church

b.     Do they use a standard Bible translation, or something really out there?  God’s word is not negotiable

1.     It’s okay if the Bible challenges you sometimes

c.      Look for God’s peace

6.     The tomb is forever empty – Jesus is on the throne!!  Rejoice in the hope that is yours!!

1st Cor 15, “Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. 6 After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. 7 After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. 8 Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.” NKJV - 1982 Thomas Nelson

“I have described atonement, the central doctrine of Christianity, as vicious, sado-masochistic and repellent.  We should also dismiss it as barking mad, but for its ubiquitous familiarity which has dulled our objectivity.  If God wanted to forgive our sins, why not just forgive them, without having himself tortured and executed in payment…”  The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins, 2006, pg 287

Eph 1, “3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, 9 having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, 10 that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him. 11 In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, 12 that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.”  NKJV - 1982 Thomas Nelson

“But supposing God became a man – suppose our human nature which can suffer and die was amalgamated with God’s nature in one person – then that person could help us.  He could surrender His will, and suffer and die, because He was man; and He could do it perfectly because He was God.  You and I can go through this process only if God does it in us; but God can do it only if He becomes man.”  Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis, 1953 - Pg 58

“There is such a thing as the momentary power to remember that we forget.  And the most ignorant of humanity know by the very look of earth that they have forgotten heaven.”  G.K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man, 1925 Page 85

“DNA is like a computer program, but far, far more advanced than any software we’ve ever created.”  Bill Gates, The Road Ahead, 1996, Boulder

“What is it about these two patterns that indicates the activity of an intelligence, whereas other patterns…do not?  The key concept is that of “independence”.  I define a specification as a match between an event and an independently given pattern.  Events that are both highly complex and specified (that is, that match an independently given pattern) indicate design.”  Science and Evidence for Design in the Universe – page 29 – William Dembski

“When Watson and Crick discovered the structure of DNA, they made a shocking discovery.  DNA could store information in the form of a four-character digital code.  Their structural model of DNA showed that strings of precisely sequenced chemical subunits called “nucleotide bases” – affixed along the interior of the DNA double-helix backbone – could store and transmit information.”  The Return of the God Hypothesis, Stephen Meyer, Pg 165

“The [anthropic-design argument] and what it points to is of such an order of certainty that in any other sphere of science, it would be regarded as settled.  To insist otherwise is like insisting that Shakespeare was not written by Shakespeare because it might have been written by a billion monkeys sitting at a billion keyboards typing for a billion years.  So it might.  But the sight of scientific athesists clutching at such desperate straws has put new spring in the step of theists.”  Clifford Longley, Focusing pg 10

“The standard neo-Darwinian evolutionary mechanism comprises (1) natural selection and/or (2) genetic drift acting on (3) adaptively random genetic variations and mutations.  As conceived from Darwin to the present, natural selection “selects,” or acts to preserve, those random variations that confer a fitness or functional advantage upon the organisms that possess them.  But it “selects” only after such advantageous variations or mutations have arisen.  Thus, selection does not cause novel variations; rather it sifts what is delivered to it by the random changes (i.e. mutations) that do cause variations…All this means that natural selection does nothing to help generate functional DNA base (or amino-acid) sequences, that is, new genetic information.  It can only preserve such sequences (if they confer a functional advantage) once they have originated.”  Return of the God Hypothesis, Stephen Meyer, Page 323

“The origin of life was the chemical event, or series of events, whereby the vital conditions for natural selection first came about.  The major ingredient was heredity, either DNA or (more probably) something that copies like DNA but less accurately, perhaps the related molecule RNA.  Once the vital ingredient – some kind of genetic molecule – is in place, true Darwinian natural selection can follow, and complex life emerges as the eventual consequence.  But the spontaneous arising by chance of the first hereditary molecule strikes many as improbable.  Maybe it is – very very improbable…”  Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion

“In Climbing Mount Improbable, I expressed the point in a parable.  One side of a mountain is a sheer cliff, impossible to climb, but on the other side is a gentile slope to the summit.  On the summit sits a complex device such as an eye or a bacterial flagellar motor.  The absurd notion that such complexity could spontaneously self-assemble is symbolized by leaping from the foot of the cliff to the top in one bound.  Evolution, by contrast, goes around the back of the mountain and creeps up the gentle slope to the summit: easy!” Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, 2006 pg 147

“Religion is so wasteful, so extravagant; and Darwinian selection habitually targets and eliminates waste.  Nature is a miserly accountant, grudging the pennies, watching the clock, punishing the smallest extravagance.” Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, 2006 pg 190

“On the other hand, we may feel sure that any variation in the least degree injurious would be rigidly destroyed.  This preservation of favorable individual differences and variations, and the destruction of those which are injurious, I have called Natural Selection, or the Survival of the Fittest.” Charles Darwin, The Origin of the Species, 1859, Page 77

“Life is one of the strangest phenomena known.  In my opinion it shows that the universe is capable of almost anything.  Yet it amazes me that we know so much about how the universe began many billions of years ago, but we have yet to discover how life itself began.  The most likely explanation is probably that we are an accident.  Just by chance, some molecules bumped into each other at random, until finally one formed that could copy itself.  Then began the slow process of evolution that led to all the extraordinary diversity of life on earth.  Life seems to be simply what matter does given the right conditions and enough time.” (Hawking, Into the Universe with Sephen Hawking:The Story of Everything, 2011)  

“As many more individuals of each species are born than can possibly survive; and as, consequently, there is a frequently recurring struggle for existence, it follows that any being, if it vary however slightly in any manner profitable to itself, under the complex and sometimes varying conditions of life, will have a better chance of surviving, and thus be naturally selected.  From the strong principle of inheritance, any selected variety will tend to propagate its new and modified form.”  Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species, 1859, Page 6

“Owing to this struggle, variations, however slight and from whatever cause proceeding, if they be in any degree profitable to the individuals of a species, in their infinitely complex relations to other organic beings and to their physical conditions of life, will tend to the preservation of such individuals, and will generally be inherited by the offspring…I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term Natural Selection, in order to mark its relation to, man’s power of selection.”  Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species, 1859, Page 61

“It has been said that I speak of natural selection as an active power or Deity; but who objects to an author speaking of the attraction of gravity as ruling the movements of the planets?” Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species, 1859, p. 77

“In living bodies, variation will cause the slight alterations, generation will multiply them almost infinitely, and natural selection will pick out with unerring skill each improvement.” (Darwin, The Origin of Species, 1859, p. 176)

John 3:16 NKJV “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” 

Ephesians 1:3-4,7,10 NKJV “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, [4] just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love…[7] In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace… [10] that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth-in Him.”

“But supposing God became a man – suppose our human nature which can suffer and die was amalgamated with God’s nature in one person – then that person could help us.  He could surrender His will, and suffer and die, because He was man; and He could do it perfectly because He was God.  You and I can go through this process only if God does it in us; but God can do it only if He becomes man.”  C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 1952

 Matthew 20:28 NKJV, “just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

Luke 2:1-20 NKJV, “And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. [2] This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. [3] So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city. [4] Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, [5] to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child. [6] So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. [7] And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. [8] Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. [9] And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. [10] Then the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. [11] For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord [12] And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger." [13] And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: [14] "Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!" [15] So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, "Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us." [16] And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger. [17] Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. [18] And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds. [19] But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. [20] Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them.”

The major parts of our journey and the deal breakers:

1.      The initial conditions of the early universe from the first to second generation of stars (3 items)

2.      Our very special Milky Way Galaxy (6 items)

3.      Our Solar System’s formation and configuration (Newton’s Delima - 7 items)

·        Solar System’s move from interior to exterior

·        All the steps needed to get the final orbit of the planets

4.      Our special Moon (7 items)

·        Lunar impact for both planets

·        The perfect exchange of materials

5.      Our Sun (5 items)

6.      Earth’s perfect zones (7 items)

7.      Earth’s special conditions (9 items)

“Though these bodies may, indeed, persevere in their orbits by the mere laws of gravity, yet they could by no means have at first derived the regular position of the orbits themselves from those laws…[Thus] this most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful being.”  Isaac Newton, Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, 1687

“The near-ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared spectra – the light most useful to life and sight – are a razor-thin sliver of the universe’s natural, electromagnetic emissions: about one part in 1025.  That is much smaller than one star out of all the stars in the entire visible universe: about 1022.  As it happens, our atmosphere strikes a nearly perfect balance, transmitting most of the radiation that is useful for life while blocking most of the lethal energy.”  The Privileged Planet, Gonzales & Richards, 2004

“Suppose a prolonged period of large volcanic eruptions rapidly increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.  Through the greenhouse effect, the upsurge in carbon dioxide would raise the global temperature.  The higher temperature and carbon dioxide level, would in turn, speed up chemical weathering, and thus the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.  Eventually, the carbon dioxide and temperature would return to their pre-eruption levels.” The Privileged Planet, Gonzales & Richards, 2004

“Many elements besides carbon also exist in highly atypical abundances on Earth.  These unusual quantities result from the solar system’s unique birth and the extraordinary transformations during its youth.  The 32 elements that are essential for the existence of advanced life and for sustaining advanced civilization are present on Earth in especially atypical abundances.”  Improbable Planet, Huge Ross, 2016

“Size, age, type, and metallicity all conspire to drastically reduce the number of galaxies capable of harboring not only life but even terrestrial planets.  Our Milky Way is among the 2 percent most luminous and, hence, most metal-rich galaxies in the local universe, putting it way ahead on the scale of habitability.”  Gonzales and Richards, The Privileged Planet, 2004 pg 289-290

“Only in a spiral galaxy is a long history of life possible.  A spiral galaxy of the just-right size and the just-right structure can yield adequate heavy elements for life as well as a possible location where a planetary system can reside for billions of years without being exposed to deadly radiation and without gravitational disruptions from adjacent stars and molecular clouds.”  Ross, Improbable Planet, 2016 pg 31

“For a long history of life to be possible, life’s host galaxy must reside within a grouping of galaxies that includes no supergiant galaxies and remains distant from any dense cluster.  The group must contain a sufficiently high availability of dwarf galaxies to ensure that this one special spiral galaxy can accrete enough gas (from the dwarf galaxies) to sustain it’s spiral structure for many billions of years.  The number and density of dwarf galaxies must not be so high, however, as to generate any significant disturbance or warping of the host galaxy’s spiral arms.  Also the group must be sufficiently dispersed that large and medium-sized galaxies cause no disruption to the symmetry, size, or shape of the host galaxy.”  Improbable Planet, 2016, pg 30 

“Even with so much still to discover and learn about the way the world is and how it came to be this way, an abundance of evidence suggests an answer to the why question: we are here to seek and to find God and then to use all the resources he has so painstakingly and generously provided, within the amazingly stable and optimal climate epoch he established, to encourage people from every ethnic and cultural group in the world to receive God’s redemptive offer.  God’s desire to bring redemption to a vast and variegated population explains why the history of the Milky Way Galaxy, the solar system, Earth, and life looks as it does.”  Hugh Ross, Improbable Planet, 2016

“A common-sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a super-intellect has monkeyed with the physics, as well as with chemistry and biology, and there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature.  The numbers one calculates from the facts seem to me so overwhelming as to put the conclusion almost beyond question.”  Hoyle, The Universe: Past and Present Reflections, 1982

“All galaxies in the early history of the universe, and low-mass galaxies forming right now, are metal-poor, making them unlikely habitats for life.  Similar problems attach to globular clusters and irregular galaxies. We now have reason to suppose that large spiral galaxies like the Milky Way that formed at about the same time are substantially more habitable than galaxies of different ages and types.  The metal content of a galaxy is highly dependent not just upon its age but also on its mass.  Without enough metals, there aren’t enough materials for building terrestrial planets. And without terrestrial planets, there are no environments suitable for life.  Our very massive, spiral galaxy, then, is an especially suitable home for a habitable planet and solar system, while providing an optimal position for viewing and discovering both our own galaxy and the wider universe.”  Gonzales and Richards, The Privileged Planet, 2004

Discovery Channel, Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking: The Story of Everything, 2011

“In the first few minutes of the Universe, gravity’s cooling effect doesn’t much care whether nuclear reactions are taking place.  The Universe will expand and cool regardless.  Thus, the nuclear reactions have one and only one chance: there is one short period of time when the Universe has the right temperature to power a certain reaction, and if the right ingredients aren’t ready, then too bad.  The temperature isn’t going back up.”  Lewis and Barnes, A Fortunate Universe, 2016, Cambridge University Press

“A common-sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a super-intellect has monkeyed with the physics, as well as with chemistry and biology, and there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature.  The numbers one calculates from the facts seem to me so overwhelming as to put the conclusion almost beyond question.”  Hoyle, The Universe: Past and Present Reflections, 1982

“In its modest form, the Copernican Principle states that we should assume that there’s nothing special or exceptional about the time or place of Earth in the cosmos.  This assertion has a certain plausibility, since without any other information, it’s reasonable to suppose that our location is a random sample of the universe as a whole.” The Privileged Planet, Gonzales and Richards, 2004, Regnery Publishing, pg 248

“What, for instance would count against the Copernican Principle…If human beings, Earth, or our immediate environment were highly unusual or unique in some important ways, then we would have reason to doubt it.  If the cosmos seemed specifically fitted for our existence, or the existence of life, then that would also count against it.  Conversely, evidence that confirmed the mediocrity of our surroundings, or the cosmos itself, would count in its favor.”  The Privileged Planet, Gonzales and Richards, 2004, Regnery Publishing, pg 249

Luke 2, “And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. 3 So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city. 4 Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, 5 to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child.”  NKJV 1982 Thomas Nelson

Harold W. Hoehner, Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1977), 15

Matt 1, “20 But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21 And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. 22 So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”  NKJV 1982 Thomas Nelson

Isaiah 7, “[10] Moreover the LORD spoke again to Ahaz, saying, [11] "Ask a sign for yourself from the LORD your God; ask it either in the depth or in the height above." [12] But Ahaz said, "I will not ask, nor will I test the LORD!" [13] Then he said, "Hear now, O house of David! Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also? [14] Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” NKJV 1982 Thomas Nelson

Bauckham, R. (2017). Jesus and the Eyewitnesses. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

New King James translation of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1982

Luke chapters 1-2 and Matthew chapters 1-2

“The works of our Savior were always present, for they were true: those who were healed, those who rose from the dead, those who were not only seen in the act of being healed or raised, but were also always present, not merely when the Savior was living on the earth, but also for a considerable time after his departure, so that some of them survived even to our own times.” (Eusebius, Hist. Eccl., p. 4.3.2)

Bauckham, R. (2017). Jesus and the Eyewitnesses. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

1st Corinthians 15, “Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.  3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. 6 After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. 7 After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. 8 Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.” (The Holy Bible, New King James Version, 1982)

“Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so he assembled the Sanhedrin of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others…and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law he delivered them to be stoned…” 20.9.1 (Flavius, Antiquities of the Jews, 2010)

Is Christmas PAGAN? In defense of Christmas - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugxJBb0lPXQ&list=PLZ3iRMLYFlHtenB8U2zaFeNvAFPbb5-LO

Come Let Us Reason, Editors Paul Copan and William Lane Craig, 2012:

-        Mary Jo Sharp (Does the Story of Jesus Mimic Pagan Mystery Stories)  

-        Mark Foreman (Challenging the Zeitgeist Movie)

“The bishops at Nicaea were more accustomed to persecution rather than pampering.  Many of them had lived through the injustices of Emperors Diocletian (ruling c. 284-305) and Maximin (ruling c. 286-305).  Diocletian was eager to confiscate Christian writings, burn Christian buildings, and arrest Christian clergy.  Maximin didn’t hesitate to execute, disable, or exile those who refused to renounce Christ.  At least one of the bishops at Nicaea had personally experienced Maximin’s cruelty.  Paphnutius lost his right eye and gained a limp in his left leg – before being banished to the mines – as a result of confessing his faith.  There were more victims of persecution at the hands of others.  Some lost use of their fingers because their nerves had been seared with hot pokers.  Still others lost limbs altogether.  The marks of persecution were so prevalent that one ancient writer said, “The council looked like an assembled army of martyrs”!  Of course, men who suffered such physical injuries for the sake of spiritual integrity were not about to be told what they should believe about Christ – imperial pressure or not.”  Reinventing Jesus, Komoszewski, Sawyer, & Wallace, 2006 

“It might be suggested, in a somewhat violent image, that nothing had happened in that fold or crack in the great grey hills except that the whole universe had been turned inside out.  I mean that all the eyes of wonder and worship which had been turned outwards to the largest thing were now turned inward to the smallest…It would be vain to attempt to say anything adequate, or anything new, about the change which this conception of a deity born like an outcast or even an outlaw had upon the whole conception of law and its duties to the poor and outcast.  It is profoundly true to say that after that moment there could be no slaves…Individuals became important, in a sense in which no instruments can be important.”  Everlasting Man, G.K. Chesterton, 1925, Page 162-163 

“But supposing God became a man – suppose our human nature which can suffer and die was amalgamated with God’s nature in one person – then that person could help us.  He could surrender His will, and suffer and die, because He was man; and He could do it perfectly because He was God.  You and I can go through this process only if God does it in us; but God can do it only if He becomes man.”  Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis, 1942, Pg 58

Psalm 136, “1 Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!  For His mercy endures forever…4 To Him who alone does great wonders, for His mercy endures forever; 5 To Him who by wisdom made the heavens, for His mercy endures forever…”

Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be-- That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks--for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country...

https://www.mountvernon.org/education/primary-source-collections/primary-source-collections/article/thanksgiving-proclamation-of-1789/

“The [anthropic-design argument] and what it points to is of such an order of certainty that in any other sphere of science, it would be regarded as settled.  To insist otherwise is like insisting that Shakespeare was not written by Shakespeare because it might have been written by a billion monkeys sitting at a billion keyboards typing for a billion years.  So it might.  But the sight of scientific atheists clutching at such desperate straws has put new spring in the step of theists.”  Longley, C. (1989). Focusing on Theism. London Times, 10.

“A common-sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a super-intellect has monkeyed with the physics, as well as with chemistry and biology, and there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature.  The numbers one calculates from the facts seem to me so overwhelming as to put the conclusion almost beyond question.”  Hoyle, The Universe: Past and Present Reflections, 1982

“If all the evidence in the universe turned in favor of creationism, I would be the first to admit it, and I would immediately change my mind.  As things stand, however, all available evidence (and there is a vast amount of it) favors evolution.  It is for this reason and this reason alone that I argue for evolution with a passion that matches the passion of those who argue against it.  My passion is based on evidence.  Theirs, flying in the face of evidence as it does, is truly fundamentalist.”  Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, 2006

Problems with the multiverse:

1.      Where did the universal generator come from

2.      Fine tuning of the universal generator to get around fine tuning?

3.      Energy to feed the universal generator 

4.      The universal generator can’t be past eternal

5.      The lottery problem of actually getting an infinite number of different universes rather than an infinite number of universes where the same characteristics are repeated

“The physical constants, things like the speed of light, the gravitational constant, the strong and weak force things, physicists agree, most physicists agree, that if you change any of those constants by even a very, very small amount, than we don’t come into existence.  The universe doesn’t come into existence.  They have to be like that in order for galaxies to form, for stars to form, for chemistry to form actually.  And then for the prerequisite for life to evolve, need that as well.  So that is the nearest approach to a good argument.”  Richard Dawkins, Fine-tuning is a good argument for God - Richard Dawkins - YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apWOkC7krfQ

“The [anthropic-design argument] and what it points to is of such an order of certainty that in any other sphere of science, it would be regarded as settled.  To insist otherwise is like insisting that Shakespeare was not written by Shakespeare because it might have been written by a billion monkeys sitting at a billion keyboards typing for a billion years.  So it might.  But the sight of scientific atheists clutching at such desperate straws has put new spring in the step of theists.”  Longley, C. (1989). Focusing on Theism. London Times, 10.

Gonzales, G., & Richards, J. W. (2004). The Privileged Planet. Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing

“Beginning in the 1960’s, physicists unveiled a universe apparently fine- tuned for the possibility of human life.  They discovered that the existence of life in the universe depends upon a highly improbable but precise balance of physical factors.  The constants of physics, the initial conditions of the universe, and many other of its features appear delicately balanced to allow for the possibility of life.  Even very slight alterations in the values of many factors, such as the expansion rate of the universe, the strength of gravitational or electromagnetic attraction, or the value of Planck’s constant, would render life impossible.  Physicists now refer to these factors as “anthropic coincidences” (because they make life possible for man) and to the fortunate convergence of all these coincidences as the “fine tuning of the universe”.  Given the improbability of the precise ensemble of values represented by these constants, and their specificity relative to the requirements of a life-sustaining universe, many physicists have noted that the fine tuning strongly suggests design by a preexistent intelligence.”  Science and Evidence for Design in the Universe – Behe, Dembski & Meyer

"Why did the universe start out with so nearly the critical rate of expansion that separates models that recollapse from those that go on expanding forever, that even now, 10 thousand million years later, it is still expanding at nearly the critical rate? If the rate of expansion one second after the Big Bang had been smaller by even one part in 100 thousand million, million, the universe would have collapsed before it ever reached its present size."  (Hawking, A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes, 1988)  

Partial Fine Tuning List:

1.      Hoyle’s discovery of carbon production

2.      Initial phase-space volume of the universe – 10,000,000,000^123

3.      Expansion rate of the universe – 10^16

4.      Mass of quarks – 10^21

5.      Gravity 10^35

6.      Cosmological constant 10^90

7.      Universal density 

8.      Mass of neutrinos

9.      Electromagnetic force

10.   Strong nuclear force – 200^38

“If we modify the value of one of the fundamental constants, something invariably goes wrong, leading to a universe that is inhospitable to life as we know it.  When we adjust a second constant in an attempt to fix the problem(s), the result, generally, is to create three new problems for every one that we “solve”.  The conditions in our universe really do seem to be uniquely suitable for life forms like ourselves, and perhaps even for any life form of organic chemistry.”  J Gribbon and M. Rees, Cosmic Coincidences (New York: Bantam Books, 1989)

Psalm 136:4-5 NKJV

[4] To Him who alone does great wonders, For His mercy endures forever; [5] To Him who by wisdom made the heavens, For His mercy endures forever;

Is God’s love for us starting to come into view.

Strobel, L. (2004). The Case for a Creator. Zondervan

Craig, W. L. (2008). Reasonable Faith. Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway.

Meyer, S. (2021), The Return of the God Hypothesis. HarperCollins

Lewis, G. F., & Barnes, L. A. (2016). A Fortunate Universe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

“The anthropic answer, in its most general form, is that we could only be discussing the question in the kind of universe that was capable producing us.”  Dawkins, The God Delusion, 2008

“In a universe of electrons and selfish genes, blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won't find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice. The universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference.  DNA neither knows, nor cares.  DNA just is, and we dance to its music.” (Dawkins, River Out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life, 1994)  

“The fine-tuning of the Universe for life is the realization that if the laws of physics were different, even just by a little bit, life would not exist.”  Lewis and Barnes, A Fortunate Universe, 2016

“What if?  What if the laws of physics were different?  What if the building blocks, atoms and molecules, had different masses…What if we messed with the stage, playing around with the very space and time underlying the cosmos?  What would change in the Universe? And what would it mean for life?”  Lewis and Barnes, A Fortunate Universe, 2016

“A common-sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a super-intellect has monkeyed with the physics, as well as with chemistry and biology, and there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature.  The numbers one calculates from the facts seem to me so overwhelming as to put the conclusion almost beyond question.”  Hoyle, The Universe: Past and Present Reflections, 1982

“The anthropic answer, in its most general form, is that we could only be discussing the question in the kind of universe that was capable producing us.  Our existence therefore determines that the fundamental constants of physics had to be in their respective Goldilocks zones.”  Richard Dawkins, 2006, The God Delusion, Bantam Press

“Nevertheless, it may be that the origin of life is not the only major gap in the evolutionary story that is bridged by sheer luck, anthropically justified.  For example, my collegue, Mark Ridley in Mendel’s Demon has suggested that the origin of the eukaryotic cell (our kind of cell, with a nucleus and various other complicated features such as mitochondria, which are not present in bacteria) was an even more momentous, difficult and statistically improbable step than the origin of life.  The origin of consciousness might be another major gap whose bridging was of the same order of improbability.”  Richard Dawkins, 2006, The God Delusion, Bantam Press

“One-off events like this might be explained by the anthropic principle, along the following lines.  There are billions of planets that have developed life at the level of bacteria, but only a fraction of these life forms ever made it across the gap to something like a eukaryotic cell.  And of these, a yet smaller fraction managed to cross the later Rubicon to consciousness.  If both of these are one-off events, we are not dealing with a ubiquitous and all-pervading process, as we are with ordinary, run-of-the-mill biological adaptation.  The anthropic principle states that, since we are alive, eucaryotic and conscious, our planet has to be one of the intensely rare planets that has bridged all three gaps.”  Richard Dawkins, 2006, The God Delusion, Bantam Press

“Once the initial stroke of luck has been granted – and the anthropic principle most decisively grants it to us – natural selection takes over: and natural selection is emphatically not a matter of luck.”  Richard Dawkins, 2006, The God Delusion, Bantam Press

“As ever, the thiest’s answer is deeply unsatisfying, because it leaves the existence of God unexplained…A God capable of calculating the Goldilocks values for the six numbers would have to be at least as improbable as the finely tuned combination of numbers itself, and that’s the very improbable indeed.  This is exactly the premise of the whole discussion we are having.  It follows that the theist’s answer has utterly failed to make any headway towards solving the problem at hand.  I see no alternative but to dismiss it, while at the same time marveling at the number of people who can’t see the problem and seem genuinely satisfied by the Divine Knob-Twiddler argument.” Richard Dawkins, 2006, The God Delusion, Bantam Press

 “…many people have not had their consciousness raised, as biologists have, by natural selection and its power to tame improbability…Biologists, with their raised consciousness of the power of natural selection to explain the rise of improbable things, are unlikely to be satisfied with any theory that evades the problem of improbability altogether…Let’s turn, then, to the anthropic alternative.”  Richard Dawkins, 2006, The God Delusion, Bantam Press

“Naturalism, in contrast, is not agnostic.  Rather, it is the claim that there is nothing that explains the ultimate laws of nature…Theism’s rival is naturalism, not science, and theism offers and explanation where naturalism offers none.  If naturalism turns out to be more likely than theism, it will be because theism unwisely tried to explain the unexplainable, not because naturalism offered a better, or indeed any, explanation of the ultimate laws of nature.  And certainly not because of any scientific theory.”  Lewis and Barnes, A Fortunate Universe, 2016

“The role played by time at the beginning of the Universe is, I believe, the final key to removing the need for a grand designer and revealing how the Universe created itself.”  Stephen Hawking’s Grand Design: Did God Create the Universe?, Discovery Channel, 2011

“They tell us that here too, time itself must come to a stop.   You can’t get to a time before the Big Bang because there was no before the Big Bang.  We have finally found something that doesn’t have a cause, because there was no time for a cause to exist in.  For me this means there is no possibility of a creator because there is no time for a creator to have existed.  Since time itself began at the moment of the Big Bang, it was an event that couldn’t have been caused or created by anyone or anything.  So science has given us the answer that we set out to discover.”  Stephen Hawking’s Grand Design: Did God Create the Universe?, Discovery Channel, 2011

Eph 1 - 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, 9 having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, 10 that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him.   (The Holy Bible, New King James Version, 1982)

John 3 - 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.   (The Holy Bible, New King James Version, 1982)

 “The intended subtext, of course, is that one will be scientific only to the extent that one is nonreligious.  To be “religious,” in the narrow sense intended here, is to believe that there is something unique, special, or intentional about our existence and the existence of the cosmos.  “Science” here has a special definition as well.  Rather than a search for the truth (scientia means knowledge) about nature – based on the evidence, systematic study, and the like – science becomes applied naturalism: the conviction that the material world is all there is, and that chance and impersonal natural law alone explain, indeed must explain, its existence.”  Gonzales and Richards, The Privileged Planet, 2004

“Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing.  Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist.”  Hawking, The Grand Design, 2010

 John 10:9 NKJV

[9] I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.

Revelation 12:3-6 NKJV

[3] And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. [4] His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born. [5] She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne. [6] Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days.

Job 38:6-7 [6] To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone, [7] When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

Genesis 1: [1] In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  [2] The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. [3] Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. [4] And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. [5] God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.

 Genesis 1:2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

“What justifies the elimination of chance is not just the occurrence of a highly improbable event, but the occurrence of a very improbable event that also conforms to an independently given or discernible pattern.”  Science and Evidence for Design in the Universe, Behe, Dembski & Meyer, 1999, pg 77  

“What is it about these two patterns that indicates the activity of an intelligence, whereas other patterns…do not?  The key concept is that of “independence”.  I define a specification as a match between an event and an independently given pattern.  Events that are both highly complex and specified (that is, that match an independently given pattern) indicate design.” Science and Evidence for Design in the Universe, Behe, Dembski & Meyer, 1999, pg 29  

“If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down.  But I can find out no such case.”  Darwin, The Origin of Species, 1859, pg 176

“It has been said that I speak of natural selection as an active power or Deity; but who objects to an author speaking of the attraction of gravity as ruling the movements of the planets?”  Darwin, The Origin of Species, 1859, pg 77

“In living bodies, variation will cause the slight alterations, generation will multiply them almost infinitely, and natural selection will pick out with unerring skill each improvement.”  Darwin, The Origin of Species, 1859, pg 176

“Natural selection not only explains the whole of life, it also raises our consciousness to the power of science to explain how organized complexity can emerge from simple beginnings without any deliberate guidance.”  Dawkins, The God Delusion, 2008, pg 141

Dr. William Lane Craig vs Dr. Peter Atkins (April 3, 1998 - HQ) – 50 minute mark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEoznzPSguI&t=40s

“It has been said that I speak of natural selection as an active power or Deity; but who objects to an author speaking of the attraction of gravity as ruling the movements of the planets?” (Darwin, The Origin of the Species, 1859, p. 77)

“Naturalism, in contrast, is not agnostic.  Rather, it is the claim that there is nothing that explains the ultimate laws of nature…Theism’s rival is naturalism, not science, and theism offers and explanation where naturalism offers none.  If naturalism turns out to be more likely than theism, it will be because theism unwisely tried to explain the unexplainable, not because naturalism offered a better, or indeed any, explanation of the ultimate laws of nature.  And certainly not because of any scientific theory.”  Lewis and Barnes, A Fortunate Universe, 2016 page 335-336

Romans 3, "23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…”  (The Holy Bible, New King James Version, 1982)

 
Romans 6, "23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord…”  (The Holy Bible, New King James Version, 1982)

Romans 10, "9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation…”  (The Holy Bible, New King James Version, 1982)

John 14, "6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."  (The Holy Bible, New King James Version, 1982)

 
If a thing is free to be good it is also free to be bad.  And free will is what has made evil possible.  Why, then, did God give them free will?  Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having.” (Lewis, 1952, p. 48)

Exodus 19, “[17] And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. [18] Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly. [19] And when the blast of the trumpet sounded long and became louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by voice. [20] Then the LORD came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the mountain. And the LORD called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up…”  (The Holy Bible, New King James Version, 1982)

Exodus 20:18-19 NKJV [18] Now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off. [19] Then they said to Moses, "You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die."  (The Holy Bible, New King James Version, 1982)

Judges 2:8,10-12, “[8] Now Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died when he was one hundred and ten years old. [10] When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the LORD nor the work which He had done for Israel. [11] Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served the Baals; [12] and they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; and they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them, and they bowed down to them; and they provoked the LORD to anger.”  (The Holy Bible, New King James Version, 1982)

Phil 2, “5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. 9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”  (The Holy Bible, New King James Version, 1982)

What are the events in question? 

 1. Jesus was a real person who was crucified and killed by the Romans. 

2. Jesus' tomb was found empty by His female followers 3 days after His burial. 

3. Jesus' disciples went from cowards, hiding from the religious leadership to being ready to take on the whole Roman empire. What changed? They claimed to have seen the physically risen, completed healed Jesus 3 days after His death. 

4. Saul, the persecutor of the Church, conversion to Paul the greatest missionary in history.

5. Jesus’ skeptic step brother James’ conversion to James the Just, leader in the early Church after Jesus’ crucifixion, death and burial. 

1st Cor, 15 Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. 6 After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. 7 After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. 8 Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. 11 Therefore, whether it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.  (The Holy Bible, New King James Version, 1982)

Events we cover this week:
 1.  Jesus was a real person who was crucified and killed by the Romans.
 2. Jesus' tomb was found empty by His female followers 3 days after His burial.
 3. Jesus' disciples went from cowards, hiding from the religious leadership to being ready to take on the whole Roman empire.  What changed?  They claimed to have seen the physically risen, completed healed Jesus 3 days after His death.  

-        Next week we tackle the last 2

“This subversive belief in Jesus’ Lordship, over against that of Caesar, was held in the teeth of the fact that Caesar had demonstrated his superior power in an obvious way, by having Jesus crucified.  But the truly extraordinary thing is that this belief was held by a tiny group who, for the first two or three generations at least, could hardly have mounted a riot in a village, let alone a revolution in an empire.  And yet they persisted against all the odds, attracting the unwelcome notice of authorities because of the power of the message and the worldview and lifestyle it generated and sustained.  And whenever we go back to the key texts for evidence of why they persisted in such an improbable and dangerous belief they answer: it is because Jesus of Nazareth was raised from the dead.  And this provokes us to ask once more: why did they make this claim?” The Resurrection of the Son of God; N.T. Wright, 2003, page 570

Thomas A Miller's book, Did Jesus Really Raise from the Dead: A Surgeon-Scientist Examines the Evidence, 2013 – This book is an excellent read from a medical perspective of what happened to Jesus in His final hours.

Matthew 28, “11 Now while they were going, behold, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all the things that had happened. 12 When they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, 13 saying, “Tell them, ‘His disciples came at night and stole Him away while we slept.’ 14 And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will appease him and make you secure.” 15 So they took the money and did as they were instructed; and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day.”  (The Holy Bible, New King James Version, 1982)

Acts 1 “The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, 2 until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, 3 to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.”  (The Holy Bible, New King James Version, 1982)

John 21, “24 Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” So he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”26 And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!” 27 Then He said to Thoma

Here is a link to the Hitchen’s – D’Souza debate:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZ_WGb8X3L8,  quote at the 34 minute mark

Hitchen’s issues:

1.    God threw the sins of all of mankind on someone else, Jesus.

2.    After God threw the sins of mankind on Jesus, He had Jesus tortured to death, somehow against Jesus’ will, to pay for them (that is the implication after all).

3.    God cannot relieve you and I of the responsibility for the debt that the sins we have committed have generated.

4.    God is attempting to deny that we have committed the sins that generated the sin debt in question.

5.    God is attempting to say that we are not guilty of the sin we have committed.

6.    God cannot take all of this from us, the promise to do so is immoral.

7.    This is an evil and bloodthirsty act committed against a victim’s will.

Psalm 103, “2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: 3Who forgives all your iniquities…6 The Lord executes righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed…10 He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities. 11For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; 12 As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.” (The Holy Bible, New King James Version, 1982)

Hebrews 10, “14 For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. 15 But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before, 16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,” 17 then He adds, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”  (The Holy Bible, New King James Version, 1982)

“I have described atonement, the central doctrine of Christianity, as vicious, sado-masochistic and repellent.  We should also dismiss it as barking mad, but for its ubiquitous familiarity which has dulled our objectivity.  If God wanted to forgive our sins, why not just forgive them, without having himself tortured and executed in payment…” (Dawkins, The God Delusion, 2008, p. 287)