Piltdown Superman

Stevia Dolce, the baker at the Darwin Ranch, made one of her stealth visits to my place. (This is because she does not dare show doubts about evolution for fear of her job.) As I chewed on a croissant she brought, Stevia said that her questions may have been tolerated by foreman Rusty Swingset, but she was not sure. The first question is quite reasonable for believers and unbelievers alike: In the Genesis Flood scenario creationists describe, how could the Ark avoid capsizing? Second, why were the animals punished and called "corrupted?" Ark Encounter, Pixabay /  Michael Wysmiersk Those are  good questions. After complimenting Stevia about her thinking (and baking), I admitted that I had a bit of work to do because I had not considered either question very much. Now, I don't think the Ark was the very first ship built, ever; Noah and his sons would have had shipbuilding skills . Also, while the Flood and many aspects of it were miraculous, not everything involved was . Co...

Many people grew up knowing about (and possibly playing with) crèche scenes of the Nativity of Jesus, which are useful to communicate the birth of Jesus. There are many traditions in Christianity that have little to do with the Bible. Do not disunderstand me, there is nothing wrong with such images. But they are not quite right. One wrong detail is that Jesus was born in a stable because there was "no room in the inn," and another has the three wise men or magi with the family, shepherds, and animals all together. Magi yard decoration, Pixabay / Michelle Raponi Don't be using this knowledge to show off and annoy people, pilgrim. The "wise men" probably did not reach Bethlehem for a couple of years after all the excitement of the birth of Jesus. The Bible tells us of three gifts , but there was probably a sizeable group of people that made the trek. The magi were important people, which is one reason Herod got all agitated by them. It is interesting to note that...

When dealing with professing atheists — I have to pull on the reins right away and stop this pony before it even gets going. My use of  professing  here indicates that I believe the Bible. Romans 1:18-23 says that everyone knows God exists, but they suppress the truth so they can continue claiming that there is no God. (More foolish is that they "lack belief.") There are been many professing atheists I have encountered who ridicule theists for denying "reality" or some such. However, atheism cannot be lived on a consistent basis. Darwin dollars image made with PhotoFunia Atheists (adding professing  in every instance gets tedious) are materialists. That is, they only believe in matter; atoms, molecules, and all that good stuff. To be consistent, they cannot believe in immaterial things such as love, beauty, consciousness, morality, and other things that cannot be measured. But they do believe in most of those things, so they are standing on the biblical worldview. F...

In some ways, professing Christians give aid and comfort to enemies of the gospel message. Many liberal theologians do not believe that the Bible is the Word of God and try to find flaws with it. After their scoffing is published, atheists and others use their words as ammunition against God. Scoffing can be seen with studies of Ancient Near East (ANE) cultures and mythologies that are used against the Bible. Since biblical creation and the Genesis Flood are primary targets of skeptics, its cosmology comes under fire. Pond off Sawkill Road, Kingston, NY, Unsplash /  Cowboy Bob Sorensen , modified with  FotoSketcher Numerous assumptions are made. One is that the Hebrews were just like their ANE neighbors, so why not incorporate their mythologies into sacred texts? Not only does that show profound ignorance of what they taught and believed, but rejects how the Hebrews knew that they belonged to Yahweh the Creator. Also, the greater context is ignored, including passage throughou...

As stated before, when comparing worldviews it is necessary to see if they are consistent within their own frameworks. Christians claim to believe that the Bible is the written Word of God. Biblical creationists go further by declaring that Genesis is a record of recent creation, so written details are accurate. Many people know that the people at Answers in Genesis have the Ark Encounter , which is a theme park featuring a full-sized replica of Noah's Ark built according to biblical specifications. This raises questions about the Bible and the Ark itself. AI-generated Noah's Ark image, Pixabay / dlsdkcgl For the Ark Encounter, Answers in Genesis has conducted a great deal of research. In this first of two articles, the feasibility of the number of animals on the Ark is considered. They did not use the easiest or safest numbers. Mockers will say something like, "The Ark couldn't have held all those animals. Because atheism," or words to that effect. They don't...

A spell back, we examined characteristics of Noah's Ark and saw that the entire process was not just an series of miracles (see " Noah's Ark and the Miraculous " for those article links). Answers in Genesis has spent considerable time on the logistics of the Ark. Here are two more articles of interest. It has been a dogma of Darwinism that early humans swung down from the trees but had not yet evolved intelligence. Numerous examples of their genius ruins evolutionary presuppositions. That is because humans were created with intelligence from the beginning. Grinding peanuts with ox power, Wikimedia Commons / Michael Gunther ( CC BY-SA 4.0 ) Indeed, the Bible mentions skills of people before the Genesis Flood which included metalworking and the like. (Some people speculate that Noah and family could have hired people to help build the Ark, even though they would have thought it was foolishness.) They lived a mighty long time, and after the Flood, Noah reached a total o...

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen  Although I am not fond of trends, I like a new one on my radar. "Beware of Smartphone Zombies" can be seen on T-shirts, possibly  real road signs , and many places on the internet. People do not watch where they are walking, forcing others to go around them — if possible. It illustrates a deeper problem related to the stupidification of society, especially younger people. Our Creator gave people minds to use, but their attention is on electronic entertainment and getting dopamine from a sort of electronic culture . They miss out on true beauty. Rondout Creek joining the Hudson River, several things happening, Unsplash / Cowboy Bob Sorensen I'll allow that people want their entertainment and don't want to be interrupted. For instance, I was uninterested in going on "color tours" to see the autumn leaves changing because I had things I preferred to do. We all have some entertainment priorities or some things just have no appeal. However...

Mockers of Christians and the Bible frequently make inane statements that Christians and creationists do not understand science, or worse, that we are " science deniers ." Some claim that creation scientists are not "real" scientists, as if instead of getting their degrees from actual universities, they came from Billy Joe's Bible Church Academy and Bait Shop. Some take a different tack, ignoring the fact that Christians founded many of the major sciences, then making false statements about history. One is that the Reformation led to attacks on science. Actually, the Reformation accelerated science. Wittenberg church door, Wikimedia Commons /  AlterVista  ( CC BY-SA 3.0 ) Remember what has been discussed before: Movements rarely happen overnight, nor are they triggered by one individual. Martin Luther nailed ninety-five theses to the Wittenberg church door on October 31, 1517, and many people consider that the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. It was an i...

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen  There was a story told some time ago about a salesman who came across a man cutting trees in the forest, and he was using just an axe. The sales rep said the man could cut down many more trees if he used the chainsaw he was selling. Sold! A couple of days later, the salesman came back and asked how things were going. "Lousy!" replied the man. "All day yesterday with that blasted chainsaw, and I only cut down two trees . I want my money back!" "Easy, friend," replied the salesman. "Let's see what's wrong with it." He pulled the starter and there was a loud vroooom. "Whoa, what is that noise? " cried the man. Car in the woods, Unsplash / Cowboy Bob Sorensen Amazing that he got any  trees cut when he didn't even know how to start up the chainsaw. Every once in a while, someone makes news for having lived an amazing number of years. People ask, "What's your secret to a long life?" Answers va...

With " Inner Knowledge of the Creator ," we examined how people who claim to have no evidence of God are unrighteously suppressing that knowledge because it is all around them. Also, there is inner knowledge and our consciences. A term for all that is general revelation . Knowledge of the Creator comes from revelation. There is another kind, called special revelation , where God has made himself known in more direct ways, especially Scripture. We have word pictures to consider, but secularists present their geologic time scale picture to corrupt the divine revelations. View of Rondout Valley and mountains, Unsplash / Cowboy Bob Sorensen When people put on their Darwin or Deep Time spectacles, their view of both general and special revelations is corrupted. They "see" millions of years, evolution through death, and evidence for the divine judgment of the Genesis Flood is degraded to uniformitarianism (slow and gradual processes over many years). People need the guida...

A common claim among misotheists is that atheism is a "lack of belief" in God, which is intellectually lazy and self refuting. Rocks lack belief in God . Christians who believe the Bible presuppose it is true, and people have all the evidence they need but suppress it (Romans 1:18-22). This inner knowledge is seen in children and adults. A common argument for design is that a building has a builder, a painting has a painter, and the far more complex human body must also have a designer. That would be the Master Engineer of the Bible. Tracks on algae in pond, Unsplash / Cowboy Bob Sorensen In the picture of a pond, something made tracks in the algae. I wonder what did it. People watch animals go through the motions to build something that seems like they are being creative, but they are really just acting upon what they were designed to do. This points back to the Creator. Indeed, it goes beyond reasoning things out. Sometimes there are emotional reactions like a sense of wond...

It is not news that people throughout history have hated the Jews, and many want to eradicate them from their land. Especially Mohammedans, who have thugs working toward that end who murder men, women, and children. Modern Israel is a small strip land that most people would find unappealing. Yet the Hebrew people have survived persecutions and attempted genocide for millennia. The state of Israel testifies of fulfilled prophecy , which in turn indicates that the Word of God is true. The hand of God can be seen keeping Israel in existence. Israel Flag, Unsplash / Stanislav Vdovin Other peoples in the area inhabit historic lands, but modern Jews are genetically who they claim to be. Fanatical Islamic groups like Hamas and others want to join with the Palestinians (who have a flag but never had a country ) in destroying the Jews. Hatred for Israel seems to have been increasing in recent years, with the American Democrat party supporting terrorists! Hebrews have survived for thousands of y...

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen  We saw that scoffers play a "Gotcha!" game by pretending they found contradictions in the Bible . Another version of this game is to use ad hominem  attacks against creation scientists, such as claiming they did not graduate from credentialed colleges or Duane Gish used the "Gish Gallop" ( a falsehood that I refuted ). One creationist was apparently involved in wrongdoing. Biblical creationists must tread carefully so they do not give skeptics reasons to mock. More importantly, we want to glorify God by living and acting biblically in daily and professional lives. Here is an exception. Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge over Hudson River from Poet's Walk, Unsplash / Cowboy Bob Sorensen In 1989, Russian creationist Dr. Dmitri Kouznetsov wrote a peer-reviewed paper for  International Journal of Neuroscience . There were some people who checked the references Kouznetsov used but several were not found. (Do the peers who review check references or ju...

When scoffers play what I call the "Gotcha!" game (where they seek alleged errors and contradictions in the Bible), their efforts are pathetic. Indeed, the Skeptic's Annotated Bible  is an ambitious project but done without knowledge and logic. One pastor has refuted 300 of the alleged contradictions all by his lonesome. Some alleged errors are resolved with some basic thinking. Many can be defeated by considering the contexts of the passages under attack. Other questions need knowledgeable folks who know how to dig deeper into the languages and cultures of the periods. Bible open to Deuteronomy, RGBStock / Billy Frank Alexander People have wondered about the ending of Deuteronomy, as Moses was the author of that and the other four books of the Pentateuch — but it ends with his death. Naturally, the question arises as to how he wrote about his own death. Some with Atheism Spectrum Disorder act like the Bible authors and biblical scholars over thousands of years somehow m...

Atheists and other unbelievers often attempt to find ways of negating the importance of the Bible. It is extremely common for them to say that the creation account is wrong because it is out of keeping with secular origins stories. Another attempt to negate the Bible by stating, "Your holy book condones slavery!" Restrain your equines, Erika. There is a great deal happening here, not the least of which is conflating slavery in the culture of the ancient Near East with the very different slave trade of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Woman in chains, PxHere Yes, slavery is discussed in the Bible, but manstealing was forbidden. Ancient Israel wanted to be like neighboring nations, so God gave strict guidelines for the treatment of slaves. Those slaves were given better treatment in Israel than elsewhere. Also, conquered people were often taken as slaves by Israel. If you study on it a spell, this is actually merciful because the men were killed in battle — women and ch...

As anyone who pays attention to the origins controversy is probably aware, atoms-to-atheist evolution is far more famous than biblical creation science. Evolution is not simply a biological discussion, but a worldview that is diametrically opposed to biblical creation . Scientists are not ethical monoliths. Some have cheated and committed fraud to advance their careers and profit. Atheists have no consistent moral foundation, and some even appeal to evolution for morality . Humans want some kind of freedom outside of the Creator's boundaries like a goldfish desires freedom outside the tank. Girl and cyborg, Pixabay /  Gerd Altmann (geralt) Christians hear the word doctrine  quite often, but it is not a "religious" word. A doctrine is a set of principles in a framework that is given for belief or practice. There are military, political, and other doctrines. Although it is not likely to be found in a book of Christian doctrines, we need to consider the doctrine of creaturel...

Every once in a while, there will be news about a gospel, Bible fragment, or other ancient text that purports to provide special insight. People get all a-twitter about these things, thinking that knowledge can be gained from texts that were omitted from the Bible. Here is an expensive word that may impress your friends if you use it: pseudepigrapha . Essentially, it is an ancient text that is falsely attributed to a famous person. There are quite of few of those things. An infancy gospel is credited to Thomas, and I doubt he would approve of it. Apostle St. Thomas / El Greco, ca. 1612 One of my suspicions as to why people like rejected writings is that people want to feel special, and having what appears to be knowledge that others don't have may give them that imagined superiority. Indeed, that also fits with Gnosticism . While Gnosticism does not really have one definition and has changed over the centuries, essentially it means special esoteric knowledge. Also, they tend to b...

So, how about those Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, huh? Really impressive things worth writing home about... Except for one, all we have are stories and historical records. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon have been misnamed for more than one reason. According to traditional accounts, the gardens did not exactly hang, but were grown on roofs and things in the palace of Babylon. But the moniker did not get corrected. History is sketchy about them, and not written by eyewitnesses. Checking more closely, they were probably in a different location altogether. Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Wikimedia Commons / 19th century illustration (PD) People who bother to read their Bibles should recognize the name of Assyria. It was a kingdom. Vicious, nasty people at times. That was a reason Jonah did not want to obey God and call Nineveh, the capital, to repentance. He wanted God to punish them, and was disappointed that they did repent for a while. Later on, they went back to being bad dudes. Ass...

Trevor "Red" Schnapper had just come back from fishing. We talked a spell in the general store while I was waiting for my order to be picked. He said that while sitting in his boat, he commenced to pondering how atheists claim to be "good without God" but their thinking is as deep as a saucer. There are atheists who lead moral lives and can be decent folks. However, their standard of goodness is relative. They may compare themselves to famous bad people and look good. These folks are moral according to the society in which they live. Some professing atheists (Rom. 1:18-23) realize they have a dilemma in accounting for an ultimate foundation. Christians know that our ultimate foundation is God our Creator; he makes the rules and we need to get into the Bible to find out what he has to say. Some atheists appeal to evolution. That idea collapses under examination. C.O. from the US wrote: Hello CMI team, Thank you so much for your ministry. I have a quick question- is ...

Although is is often interesting to learn about archaeological discoveries, it must be a tough job. Study on it. Not only are things very old and fragile, but archaeologists must study history, false narratives, shifting borders, languages — and modern political situations that may bring their work to a screeching halt. The Bible contains accurate history; nothing in it has been contravened by archaeology. Those of us who believe the Bible are not rattled by fallacious arguments from silence (something has not been found), knowing it is inerrant. Archaeology helps clear up certain things. Tablet from Nuzi, Wikimedia Commons / Zunkir ( CC BY-SA 4.0 ) When reading the Genesis narrative around the time of Abraham, people may wonder, "What's that all about?" We know why Sarai told Abram to go in to her maidservant Hagar in Genesis 16, but it turns out that she is not the first person to suggest this. Also, why did Rachel steal her father's household gods in Genesis 31, a...