Hugo, I’m not going to get into the whole abiogenesis thing. I’ve spoken at length on it, you’ve read it, I’m done. However, the man who you say refutes Jonathan Wells uses slight of hand and outright lies.
The early earth atmosphere DOES NOT produce amino acids - period. They might have thought so in 1927 or even in 1998 but today they know otherwise.
Creating “Special Circumstances” in the lab is like having an intelligent designer at every step of the way and saying that we’ve proven RNA replication bla, bla, bla.
And that is not the point of the post in question. The point of the post is - If there is better evidence for macro evolution, why is it not given to our children? Why are they still using “evidence” now known to be false, unworkable, out of date?
The list of excuses that he gives are laughable, disingenuous and / or outright false.
Comment all you like. I’m not saying any more.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
The apparent frustrations of circumstances, seen or unforeseen, of illness, of misunderstanding, even of our own sins, do not thwart the final fulfilment of our lives hidden with Christ in God.
The awareness of present risenness effects the integration of intuition and will, emotion and reason. Less preoccupied with appearances, we are less inclined to change costumes to win approval with each shift of company and circumstance. We are not one person at home, another in the office; one person at Church, another in traffic.
We do not pass rudderless from one episode to another, idly seeking some distraction to pass the time, remaining stoic to each new emotion, enduring with a shrug of our shoulders when something irks or irritates.
Now circumstances feed us, not we them; we use them, not they us. Gradually we become whole and mature persons whose faculties and energies are harmonized and integrated.”
Brennan Manning
The awareness of present risenness effects the integration of intuition and will, emotion and reason. Less preoccupied with appearances, we are less inclined to change costumes to win approval with each shift of company and circumstance. We are not one person at home, another in the office; one person at Church, another in traffic.
We do not pass rudderless from one episode to another, idly seeking some distraction to pass the time, remaining stoic to each new emotion, enduring with a shrug of our shoulders when something irks or irritates.
Now circumstances feed us, not we them; we use them, not they us. Gradually we become whole and mature persons whose faculties and energies are harmonized and integrated.”
Brennan Manning
Monday, May 30, 2011
Oh to be like Caleb!
In the book of Joshua we have the story of a man named Caleb. The Israelites we moving into the Promised Land. To the herders and farmers the valley with it’s conquered territory seemed a logical choice.
For the domesticated, maybe.
A man named Caleb, an old man named Caleb said to Joshua, “Give me the highland with its fortified and walled cities. I will destroy them with my men. I may be eighty-five but I’m as strong as I was when I was forty-five.”
No retirement for Caleb. Life had purpose until the day he died.
I hope to model his attitude sans the killing. I’m sixty and stronger and healthier than when I was forty-five. What’s more, I have the most important work of my life ahead of me. Five kids that have been rescued by God. Five kids who were destined for the dump, prison, drugs, welfare.
For myself, retired at age fifty-one, I was headed for winters in Mexico and Aruba and God said, “Are you kidding Me? You were destined to do something important with your life. Now get to it.”
Oh to be like Caleb!
For the domesticated, maybe.
A man named Caleb, an old man named Caleb said to Joshua, “Give me the highland with its fortified and walled cities. I will destroy them with my men. I may be eighty-five but I’m as strong as I was when I was forty-five.”
No retirement for Caleb. Life had purpose until the day he died.
I hope to model his attitude sans the killing. I’m sixty and stronger and healthier than when I was forty-five. What’s more, I have the most important work of my life ahead of me. Five kids that have been rescued by God. Five kids who were destined for the dump, prison, drugs, welfare.
For myself, retired at age fifty-one, I was headed for winters in Mexico and Aruba and God said, “Are you kidding Me? You were destined to do something important with your life. Now get to it.”
Oh to be like Caleb!
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.
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.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
This We Believe
I gave a quote from Jonathan Wells a week or so ago. Hugo didn’t like this one bit. It goes against what he desperately wants to believe. You can see his comments @
http://thesauros-store.blogspot.com/2011/05/philosophy-of-evolution.html
If you haven’t read that post, it would be helpful for you to do so now.
Hugo hated the quote from that post so much he pointed me to what he calls a “refutation” of Wells’ book. In this refutation we find the following comments:
“. . . no textbook presents the "icons" as a list of our "best evidence" for evolution,”
Right, let’s give students our worst evidence, false evidence, deception and outright lies. We have much better evidence but we’re not going to let anyone know what it is.
=====
“The Miller-Urey experiment isn't considered "evidence for evolution;" it is considered part of our experimental research about the origin of life and is discussed in chapters and sections on the "history of life."”
Funny how the refutation doesn’t mention that the experiment in question had nothing to do with early earth atmosphere. In fact these atheists chose the chemicals they did because those chemicals were the ones known to produce the results desired. Let’s not tell the student THAT!
This “refutation” contains another lie because if one can believe current atheist scientists, then the “evolution” of inanimate and inorganic gases (snerk) most certainly does have to do with evolution.
=====
“Darwin's finches are used as examples of an evolutionary process (natural selection), not as evidence for evolution.”
“And the prize for attempted obfuscation goes to - may I have the envelope please!” Hey, they’re only kids, they won’t notice our deception.
=====
“Archaeopteryx is frequently presented in discussions of the origin of birds, not as evidence for evolution itself.”
Mm, hmm because going from one species into birds wouldn’t be evidence of evolution.
=====
Then we’re told why we can’t expect to understand why falsehood, deception, outright lies and substandard evidence is shown to our children. It’s because we aren’t educated enough - you know, like those who teach evolution. Take a listen.
“To understand the depth of any scientific field fully requires many years of study.”
So they dumb it down for lessor mortals.
=====
“It is the goal of elementary and secondary education to give students a basic understanding of the "world as we know it," which includes teaching students the paradigms of a number of fields of science. In order to do this, teaching examples must be found. It is this need to find simple, easy-to-explain, dynamic, and visual examples to introduce a complex topic to students that has led to the common use of a few examples — the "icons."
Ya, “teaching examples must be found.” So we’ll just make something up.
Along with the Miller / Urey fiasco,
. Darwin’s Tree of Life - purporting to show common ancestry is now completely unsupported by the fossil record, but still present in our children’s textbooks as proof for biological evolution;
. Haeckel’s Embryos - purporting a common ancestor - is known (since 1860) to be fraudulent and misleading, but is still present in our children’s textbooks as proof for biological evolution;
. Gill slits / pouches in human embryos - purported as evidence for a common ancestor - now known to be simple skin folds but presented in a knowingly misleading fashion (even fish don’t have gills at that stage of development) while empirically false, are still present in our children’s textbooks as proof for biological evolution;
. Archaeopteryx as a the half-bird / half-reptile - NOT - missing link with thousands of transitional forms soon to be discovered - NOT - but is still present in our children’s textbooks as proof for common ancestry and biological evolution.
. Java and Piltdown Man, both now known to be glaring examples of shoddy and speculative science - at best - yet still present in our textbooks as examples of common ancestry.
It doesn't matter if what we are telling your children is a lie, a deliberate deception. We're atheists. They should just trust us.
=====
“Yet, with our knowledge of the natural world expanding at near-exponential rates, the volume of new information facing a textbook writer is daunting.”
What he’s telling you is that “In one hundred years you can’t expect us to throw out what’s false and include all this great new compelling evidence.”
=====
“it should not be surprising that introductory textbooks are frequently simplified and may be somewhat out-of-date.”
It’s beyond words.
=====
“In Icons of Evolution, Wells says: "Students and the public are being systematically misinformed about the evidence for evolution" through biology textbooks (Wells 2000: xii). This is a serious charge; to support it demands the highest level of scholarship on the part of the author.”
We’ve come full circle. We’re back to, you can’t expect to understand that fraud isn’t fraud unless you have exactly the same level of education that I have.
http://thesauros-store.blogspot.com/2011/05/philosophy-of-evolution.html
If you haven’t read that post, it would be helpful for you to do so now.
Hugo hated the quote from that post so much he pointed me to what he calls a “refutation” of Wells’ book. In this refutation we find the following comments:
“. . . no textbook presents the "icons" as a list of our "best evidence" for evolution,”
Right, let’s give students our worst evidence, false evidence, deception and outright lies. We have much better evidence but we’re not going to let anyone know what it is.
=====
“The Miller-Urey experiment isn't considered "evidence for evolution;" it is considered part of our experimental research about the origin of life and is discussed in chapters and sections on the "history of life."”
Funny how the refutation doesn’t mention that the experiment in question had nothing to do with early earth atmosphere. In fact these atheists chose the chemicals they did because those chemicals were the ones known to produce the results desired. Let’s not tell the student THAT!
This “refutation” contains another lie because if one can believe current atheist scientists, then the “evolution” of inanimate and inorganic gases (snerk) most certainly does have to do with evolution.
=====
“Darwin's finches are used as examples of an evolutionary process (natural selection), not as evidence for evolution.”
“And the prize for attempted obfuscation goes to - may I have the envelope please!” Hey, they’re only kids, they won’t notice our deception.
=====
“Archaeopteryx is frequently presented in discussions of the origin of birds, not as evidence for evolution itself.”
Mm, hmm because going from one species into birds wouldn’t be evidence of evolution.
=====
Then we’re told why we can’t expect to understand why falsehood, deception, outright lies and substandard evidence is shown to our children. It’s because we aren’t educated enough - you know, like those who teach evolution. Take a listen.
“To understand the depth of any scientific field fully requires many years of study.”
So they dumb it down for lessor mortals.
=====
“It is the goal of elementary and secondary education to give students a basic understanding of the "world as we know it," which includes teaching students the paradigms of a number of fields of science. In order to do this, teaching examples must be found. It is this need to find simple, easy-to-explain, dynamic, and visual examples to introduce a complex topic to students that has led to the common use of a few examples — the "icons."
Ya, “teaching examples must be found.” So we’ll just make something up.
Along with the Miller / Urey fiasco,
. Darwin’s Tree of Life - purporting to show common ancestry is now completely unsupported by the fossil record, but still present in our children’s textbooks as proof for biological evolution;
. Haeckel’s Embryos - purporting a common ancestor - is known (since 1860) to be fraudulent and misleading, but is still present in our children’s textbooks as proof for biological evolution;
. Gill slits / pouches in human embryos - purported as evidence for a common ancestor - now known to be simple skin folds but presented in a knowingly misleading fashion (even fish don’t have gills at that stage of development) while empirically false, are still present in our children’s textbooks as proof for biological evolution;
. Archaeopteryx as a the half-bird / half-reptile - NOT - missing link with thousands of transitional forms soon to be discovered - NOT - but is still present in our children’s textbooks as proof for common ancestry and biological evolution.
. Java and Piltdown Man, both now known to be glaring examples of shoddy and speculative science - at best - yet still present in our textbooks as examples of common ancestry.
It doesn't matter if what we are telling your children is a lie, a deliberate deception. We're atheists. They should just trust us.
=====
“Yet, with our knowledge of the natural world expanding at near-exponential rates, the volume of new information facing a textbook writer is daunting.”
What he’s telling you is that “In one hundred years you can’t expect us to throw out what’s false and include all this great new compelling evidence.”
=====
“it should not be surprising that introductory textbooks are frequently simplified and may be somewhat out-of-date.”
It’s beyond words.
=====
“In Icons of Evolution, Wells says: "Students and the public are being systematically misinformed about the evidence for evolution" through biology textbooks (Wells 2000: xii). This is a serious charge; to support it demands the highest level of scholarship on the part of the author.”
We’ve come full circle. We’re back to, you can’t expect to understand that fraud isn’t fraud unless you have exactly the same level of education that I have.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
“The universal experience of palaeontology is that while the rocks have continually yielded new and exciting and even bizarre forms of life, what they have never yielded is any of Darwin’s myriads of transitional forms. Despite the tremendous increase in geological activity in every corner of the globe and despite the discovery of many strange and hitherto unknown forms, the infinitude of connecting links has still not been discovered and the fossil record is as discontinuous as it was when Darwin was writing the Origin. The intermediates have remained as elusive as ever and their absence remains one of the most striking characteristics of the fossil record.”
Michael Denton - Evolution: A Theory in Crisis.
Michael Denton - Evolution: A Theory in Crisis.
Friday, May 27, 2011
Unbelievable
I remember reading about when C.S. Lewis had his eyes opened to the true reality of his nature. He was taken aback, as we all are when this happens to us, to have to admit how hard his heart was. In his atheist days he truly believed that he didn’t need God in order to be a good person. After he came alive Lewis was shocked by a self-will that was almost infinitely obstinate. His passions were beyond control as were his volatile thoughts and imagination. As Lewis describes us all, we are a den of wild beasts barely able to be governed.
What Lewis is describing can be summed up in the line, “Dog’s don’t bark at parked cars.” Both Jesus and satan pretty much leave the self-righteous alone. Those who think they are good people, both the religious and the non religious, don’t draw satan’s attention because they already belong to him. Neither do they draw Jesus’ attention for He said, “I have come to save, not the self-righteous but those who know and admit they are sinners.” And it is these sinners, those who grieve over their sinful nature that satan attacks / tempts most diligently. Repentance is the last thing that satan wants to see happen.
Until one tries to be good - especially as it pertains to pure motives - we simply can’t comprehend the extent of the overhaul that is required. On the journey to salvation we are forced to accept that even our “good” behaviours are “old nature” tools geared to manipulate and control our environment and our image of ourselves. We even use “good” behaviours to get from God what we want OR to con God into protecting us from what we don’t want.
Sin invades every corner of our being.
Of course after we’ve allowed God to show us the way out of this mess - everything changes. It strikes us as truly unbelievable that we once thought both we and the world were pretty decent places.
As we watch the transformation into a “new creation” unfold, the new nature staggers under the fact that either the world has dramatically changed or it is we who have changed.
I thank you Lord for showing us the true state of our being.
What Lewis is describing can be summed up in the line, “Dog’s don’t bark at parked cars.” Both Jesus and satan pretty much leave the self-righteous alone. Those who think they are good people, both the religious and the non religious, don’t draw satan’s attention because they already belong to him. Neither do they draw Jesus’ attention for He said, “I have come to save, not the self-righteous but those who know and admit they are sinners.” And it is these sinners, those who grieve over their sinful nature that satan attacks / tempts most diligently. Repentance is the last thing that satan wants to see happen.
Until one tries to be good - especially as it pertains to pure motives - we simply can’t comprehend the extent of the overhaul that is required. On the journey to salvation we are forced to accept that even our “good” behaviours are “old nature” tools geared to manipulate and control our environment and our image of ourselves. We even use “good” behaviours to get from God what we want OR to con God into protecting us from what we don’t want.
Sin invades every corner of our being.
Of course after we’ve allowed God to show us the way out of this mess - everything changes. It strikes us as truly unbelievable that we once thought both we and the world were pretty decent places.
As we watch the transformation into a “new creation” unfold, the new nature staggers under the fact that either the world has dramatically changed or it is we who have changed.
I thank you Lord for showing us the true state of our being.
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