When Oh When Will The Evidence Appear?

“Faith is the great cope out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and to evaluate evidence.”

Richard Dawkins

“Live Science” says of Darwinian evolution, it can turn dinosaurs into birds, apes into humans and amphibious mammals into whales.”

And yet there is not one iota of observable evidence of one “kind” of animal changing or evolving into another “kind” of animal. There is lots of evidence for adaptation within a kind (micro evolution) but zero evidence of evolution of one kind of species developing into a new kind, as described in “Live Science.”

It is only the atheist presupposition, the unsupported and anti scientific presupposition that takes adaptation (micro evolution) and forces upon us a conclusion of macro evolution.

The scientific method is based upon observation, testing and verification. It allows us to draw conclusions that don't have to accepted by faith. Evolution simply cannot be observed, tested or verified.

“We see nothing of these slow changes in progress.”

Charles Darwin.

In other words we have to accept the conclusion of evolution by faith. Much like believing that matter has always existed even though science and Big Bang cosmology says otherwise.

Of course atheists say, they must say, they have no choice BUT to say that there are “missing links out there. We just haven't found them yet.” Much as they say that they believe that an explanation that this is a material universe only will some day be found. Till then they believe it on blind faith. It's exactly like those atheist leaders who will grudgingly admit that it's impossible to make even one grain of sand out of nothing (let alone a whole universe). Yet they then say, unless you have “millions and billions of years. Then somehow the obviously impossible becomes possible.

When you can think of any observable, testable, verifiable (science) evidence for Darwinian evolution, i.e. a change of one kind into another kind, then you can believe in evolution based on something other than blind faith.

“Faith is the great cope out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and to evaluate evidence.”

Richard Dawkins

Absolutely bizarre coming from a man who believes, on blind faith and contrary to all scientific evidence that matter can create itself. He also believes that inanimate and inorganic chemicals "evolved" into life. Now that, like all of atheism, takes some faith.

What is Faith?

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for. The evidence of things not yet seen.”

That of course is what “Christian” faith is.

Atheist faith is something else altogether. Atheist faith is the belief in something unproven, unseen, untested, unverified, but which is believed anyway. Those who hold to atheism live by faith even to the point of being willing to believe until one's dying day that at some point in the future, science will reverse what it knows today, and the world-view of atheism will be proven correct.

Atheism's faith is blind faith.

What's worse is that atheists base their beliefs not only on that which is unproven, but on those things that the scientific method of knowing itself says cannot happen. Atheists persist in holding their faith in the teeth of evidence that goes against what they want to believe.

As I've said in my post, Why I'm Not an Atheist, “Except for epistemic, experiential, logical, coherent and reasonable evidence for the existence of God, I could be an atheist.”

Christians on the other hand possess a confidence, based in experience and reality, that we will receive what we hope for. Our faith is an unshakeable confidence that comes to us by the Spirit of the living Creator. 

Yes, science supports our beliefs. It can't not support what we believe because Creator God is the origin and founder of the scientific laws that we observe acting upon matter; matter that was brought into being out of literally nothing material. 

However, even without scientific knowledge we could not deny what we know. We could not deny what we know because we are indwelt by the Spirit of the living and true God Who has convinced us that Jesus will do what He has promised to do.

God's has made His existence so undeniable, indisputable, irrefutable – to us - that to deny His reality would be similar to denying that my wife and children exist. It can't be done.

Hebrews 11:1 can be translated, “Now faith is the assurance, the substance, the reality, the confirmation, the being sure of, the substantiating, the confidence, the solid ground, the evidence of, the trust in God, the only guarantee of things hoped for.” 

The Gift of Faith

Atheists laugh at the credulity they imagine Christians to possess. 

Ya, atheists, 

. The same people who believe that everything material came from nothing material un caused by anything. 

 . The same people who have invented more than a dozen Atheist Origin of the Universe Mythologies. Eg. Multi verse>

“A tiny minority of those billions and billions of universes have their constants set in such a way as to give rise to a universe that lasts long enough to give rise to galaxies, stars, planets, chemistry and hence the process of evolution.”

Richard Dawkins

Dawkins also defines and ridicules faith as believing something in the complete absence of evidence. 

. The same people who say, "I don't know how the material universe came into being from literally nothing material without contradicting half a dozen known and accepted laws of physics, but I'm going to believe it happened that way regardless, because the alternative is not acceptable to me."

. The same people who believe that inanimate, inorganic gases evolved into life. Hmm.

While I'm one of the most sceptical people I know, the best and most precious gift I've ever been given is the gift of faith. Taking the same evidence that is before every person on the planet, the gift of faith has allowed me to agree with the conclusion that is presented in the Bible regarding this evidence. I do not however, have enough faith to believe the world-view of atheism. 

The ability to believe God's Word, to trust my Lord and my Saviour, nothing compares in value to me.

Thank you Father for the gift of faith. 

“Faith is perhaps the worst human trait”

That was a comment on an atheist blog. Once again this person who thinks that he is a rational, logical thinker completely missed the fact that we all, to one degree or another, live by faith.

“See you later.”

Have you ever said that? Of course you have.

It's a statement based upon faith.

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“I'll fix that for you.”

Faith.

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“I'll love you forever.”

A LOT of faith.

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Even though atheists say that they don't believe anything without it having been proven by the scientific method of “knowing,” (observed, tested, verified) and even though they say they eschew faith, they still believe:

The beginning of the material universe didn't need an external cause – (observed, tested, verified?)

Nope – Faith.

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The beginning of matter didn't need a non material cause – (observed, tested, verified?)

Nope – Faith.

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Matter created itself - (observed, tested, verified?)

Nope - Faith
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Matter has always existed – (observed, tested, verified?)

Nope – Faith.

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We can have an infinite regress of cause – (observed, tested, verified?)

Nope – Faith.

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Life evolved from inanimate, inorganic chemicals – (observed, tested, verified?)

Nope – Faith.

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Our universe is just one of an infinite number of universes – (observed, tested, verified?)

Nope – Faith. 

On faith - on nothing but faith - atheists believe that material things than just pop into existence, uncaused from literally nothing.

Where Your Faith Lies Determines Your Priorities

“They soon forgot His works; they did not wait for His counsel, but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tested God in the desert. He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul.” Psalm 106:13-15

O my, I've known that leanness of the soul. I've had a soul that's been turned to ice. If we are persistent enough, God will allow us to have what we want, even when it’s not good for us.

. You’re determined to marry again after leaving your spouse? Okay, God will let you.

. You think a dating relationship without sex will cause you to lose that person? Okay, God will let you.

. You won’t have enough money to support your family without being dishonest? Okay, God will let you.

We get what we want only to find fear is rampant and self-doubt rules the day.

On the other hand, those who refuse to be controlled by the world, those who are determined to be free (“You will know the Truth and it is this Truth that will set you free”), those who live in obedience by faith do not have those struggles. Faith that waits upon God our Creator produces in us a peace and joy that truly is beyond human understanding.

By faith we come to a place where we live and die without fear, and without uncertainty because the One who leads us never causes us to stumble. Living by faith creates joy and exhilaration and a deep and abiding rest.

Christian faith can be described as “Choosing to believe the conclusion that the Bible has presented regarding the evidence that we have before us.”

Faith in our Creator turns everything - hard or difficult, scary or peaceful into something awesome. Even our needs and struggles become blessings when by faith we follow Jesus.

Faith or Grace?

Christianity makes much of both concepts but is one more important than the other?

Not really.

On the other hand, without the giving of God’s grace there is no faith.

If you have a strong faith in Jesus, it’s only because of God’s grace.

John 6:44 tells us that no one comes to Jesus unless God Himself draws us.

We receive salvation by faith but salvation is only by God’s grace.

“God can, in fact, use his saints’ failures to strengthen their faith, which, like a tree, stands stronger for the shaking . . . and here is all that evil gets: Instead of destroying the saint’s faith, he is the means of refining it, thereby making it stronger and more precious.”
William Gurnall

Faith and Works

Dear friends, do you think you'll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, "Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!" and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup — where does that get you? Isn't it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?
I can already hear one of you agreeing by saying, "Sounds good. You take care of the faith department, I'll handle the works department."
Not so fast. You can no more show me your works apart from your faith than I can show you my faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove.
James 2:14-18

Admit That I Have Faith?

I’m off to the lake so this will be the last post till Saturday - anyhow >

That’s what Hugo asked. “Why do you still refuse to admit that you have faith in Jesus?” And I’m thinking, What the heck are you talking about?

In my post, “Why I’m Not An Atheist” http://thesauros-store.blogspot.com/2010/03/why-im-not-atheist.html

a substantial portion of the post talks about the aspect of faith - my faith. It might not hurt to remind at this point that atheists define faith as "believing something in the absence of any evidence.” Well, that may be what atheists think but I don't know of any Christians who think that way. For that reason I’m going to post some of the thoughts that have helped to shape my understanding of faith over the years.

For the record, Hugo, I have no trouble at all “admitting” that faith plays a role in what I believe. Faith is not some kind of dirty word. In fact faith plays a huge role even in what you believe. There’s a fairly recent book out, almost five hundred pages long documenting things that atheists have no choice but to believe by faith. None of us knows everything for sure. Not even regarding the most important things in life. Faith is a common factor for every single one of us. As I’ve said before, it would seem that agnostics are the ones who could call themselves the most scientifically minded. For they are the ones who only go as far as the evidence will take them. Christians and atheists, on the other hand, use inductive reasoning to take them part way, and then bring about a deductive conclusion based upon that evidence in combination with their pre-set or desired world-view.

Below is some of the information that I’ve collected over the years that has helped to shape my own understanding of faith.

“God is supremely rational, and the human being is also a rational being created in the image and likeness of God. Hence religion, which is the expression of the deep relationship between God and human kind cannot be but rational.” Johannes Kepler, “What if the Bible had never been written.”

“Now I define faith as the power of continuing to believe what we once honestly thought to be true until cogent reasons for honestly changing our minds are brought before us.” C. S. Lewis, “The Seeing Eye”

“Faith is a trust in what we have reason to believe is true. Understood in this way we see that faith is built on reason. We should have good reasons for thinking that Christianity is true before we dedicate ourselves completely to it.” J. P. Mooreland

“Belief, in the Christian sense, seems to be assent to a proposition which we think so overwhelmingly probable that there is a psychological exclusion of doubt though not a logical exclusion of dispute.” C. S. Lewis, “Obstinacy of Belief”

“Reason directs those who are truly pious and philosophical to honour and love what is true. Justin Martyr, “The first Apology.”

“Philosophy is a kind of preparatory training to those who attain to faith through demonstration. So also here I call him truly learned who brings everything to bear on the truth, so that from geometry and music and grammar and philosophy itself, culling what is useful, he guards the faith against assault. ”Clement of Alexandria, “The Stromata”

“Creation itself reveals Him who created it, and the work made is suggestive of Him who made it, and the world manifests Him that arranged it.” Irenaeous of Lyon, “Barr 13"

“We must first be instructed by reason and then we share and understand the sacred and mystical teachings.” Basil of Caesarea “Christianity and Classical Culture”

“Faith is what gives fullness to our reasoning,” Gregory of Nazianzus

“Reason is a thing of God, inasmuch as God, the maker of all has not provided, disposed, ordained by reason, nothing which He has not willed should be handled and understood by reason.” Stark, “For the Glory of God.”

“Heaven forbid that we should believe in such a way as not to accept or seek reasons for our belief since we could not even believe if we did not possess rational souls. But they are much deceived, who think that we believe in Christ without any proofs concerning Christ.” Augustine, “Concerning Faith In Things Not Seen”

“I believe in order to understand.” Anselm

“While faith comes first in time, knowledge comes first in importance. Faith and reason do not conflict but instead compliment each other.” St Anselm, “Credo, ut inttigam”

“It was necessary for man’s salvation that there should be a knowledge revealed by God, besides the philosophical sciences investigated by human reason.” Anselm, “Summa Theologica”

“The principles of any science are either themselves self-evident or reducible to the knowledge of a higher science. Individual facts establish the authority of those men through whom the divine revelation has come down to us. Hence the fact that some happen to doubt about the articles of faith is not due to the uncertain nature of the truths, but to the weakness of the human intellect.” Thomas Aquinas

“The existence of God and other like truths about God, which can be known by natural reason, are not articles of faith for faith presupposes natural knowledge” Thomas Aquinas

“Thought constitutes the greatness of man.” Blaise Pascal “Section 12 “Proofs of Jesus.””

“Unreasonable and absurd ways of life are truly an offence to God.” William Law, “Love God With All Your Mind.”

“Ignorance is the mother not of devotion but of heresy.” Cotton Mather

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not yet seen." Hebrews 11:1