Professor Franklin Harold of Colorado State University, described as "one of the world's most respected microbiologists" has included some fascinating observations in his book The Way of the Cell on the subject of abiogenesis. The mini-reviews on his book's back cover lend some credibility to the claim about Dr. Harold's professional credentials, one being written by renowned biologist Lynn Margulis, who said, "Witty and erudite, this scientific book hails as a literary achievement.Comprehensive and up to date, Franklin Harold traces the roots--historical, thermodynamic, and biochemical--of today's biological revolution." His chapter titled "Searching for the beginning" is so remarkable, it seems prudent to start at the beginning. Dr. Franklin writes, "Of all the unsolved mysteries remaining in science, the most consequential may be the origin of life. This opinion is bound to strike many readers as overblown, to put it mildly. Should we not rank the Big Bang, life in the cosmos, and the nature of consciousness on at least an equal plane? My reason for placing the origin of life at the top of the agenda is that resolution of this question is required in order to anchor living organisms securely in the real world of matter and energy, and thus relieve the lingering anxiety as to whether we have read nature's book correctly. Creation myths lie at the heart of all human cultures, and science is no exception; until we know where we come from, we do not know who we are. The origin of life is a stubborn problem, with no solution in sight. There is indeed a large and … [Read more...]
Evolutionary Creation is for suckers
A friend of mine sent me this link at Biologos to an article titled "Evolutionary Creation is for Everyone", probably knowing full well the sort of reaction that provocative title would get from me, a reaction of the knee-jerk variety. While I hold no animus toward the Biologos organization, this sort of nonsense is what happens when Christians try to compromise with secular beliefs. Darwin's theory of shapeshifting is actually a very poor explanation for the complexity of life, and yes, I'm about to explain why. The reason I say that evolutionary creation is an attempt to compromise Christian beliefs with atheistic ones is because I've read the books by popular (atheist) biologists such as Richard Dawkins, Jerry Coyne, and P. Z. Myers, and these "experts" all preach that creationism is nonsense, and evolution is truth. It is an attempt to compromise with people uninterested in compromise. These secular scientists will acknowledge that people like Francis Collins and Ken Miller are good scientists, but imply they are mentally unstable for being Catholic and claiming evolution and creation is both true. Are evolution and creation both true, or are they mutually exclusive beliefs? It seems to depend on whom one asks. Advocates of evolution prefer to make arguments from authority, and have written books considered academic works, yet bearing ludicrous titles such as Evolution and the Myth of Creation. Author/Professor Tim Berra became famous for committing what has come to be known as "Berra's Blunder" because he used an obvious example of intelligent design in a … [Read more...]
Ancient Records and the Structure of Genesis
I have a new friend! Like the vast majority of friends and acquaintances encountered through the internet, we've never met in person, and we may never meet due to living on opposite sides of the country. My new friend is extremely intelligent and a physician, which means we may not have very much in common. However, we have both chosen to focus on our areas of common interests rather than where we might disagree, and in common we share a love of history, a faith in things we cannot see, and an intense desire to seek truth while documenting our efforts via the written word. Several years ago I wrote an article titled "Encouraging My Christian Friends to Think" in which I was touting the scholarship and content of a book called Who Wrote the Bible? That was my mistake, and I apologize. I am afraid I might have led some of my readers astray by citing bad scholarship in regard to the authorship of the first book in the Bible, the book of Genesis. The original theory of authorship regarding the Pentateuch was that Moses wrote those first five books of the Bible. Then the JEPD "documentary hypothesis" from the incredibly long-titled book Conjectures About the Original Memoirs Which It Appeared That Moses Used in Composing the Book of Genesis with Certain Remarks Which Help Clarify These Conjectures, attempted to identify the "real" authors of Genesis through literary analysis. That book was written by Jean Astruc, and his documentary hypothesis was later presented by Rabbi Friedmann in his book Who Wrote the Bible? as an alternate explanation for the … [Read more...]
Aron Ra, atheism’s rock star
If you've never heard of Aron Ra, you are probably not an atheist. Don't feel too bad. He's rather famous, but mostly limited to secular/humanist circles. If the "Four Horsemen" of atheism, meaning Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, and the late Christopher Hitchens, represent the creme of the crop of people who have become famous for evangelizing atheism, then Aron Ra ranks only one notch down on the totem pole, in the second tier of revered atheists with Seth Andrews and Matt Dillahunty who are collectively known as the "unholy Trinity." Mr. Ra is the host of the "RaMen" podcast, a frequent lecturer, and creator of the Phylogeny Explorer Project. These people have successfully turned their talent arguing for atheism into full-time jobs with career opportunities. They travel all over the world, giving lectures to crowds of adoring fans. Not a bad gig, if you can get it. No wonder he's smiling. photo by R. van Elst via Creative Commons Now before I write another word, I would like to acknowledge that Mr. "Ra" (obviously not his birth surname) is quite an intelligent man, and I'm delighted to say he possesses an ego that easily matches and possibly exceeds my own. I personally find the guy quite entertaining. Mr. Ra has a Wikipedia biography that claims he studied paleontology in Dallas, but does not mention a college degree. Don't let that fool you. He's very clever and bright, as well as apparently smart enough to run away from a fight he was unlikely to win--an argument with me about the relevance of creation. During the course of our recent … [Read more...]
The implied beliefs of atheism
[AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hat tip to TC and Emily for serving as inspiration for this article.] Atheists typically don't like organized religion, and many will seize just about any excuse to attack the beliefs of theists. Only yesterday a friend of mine posted a political comment on social media that mentioned abortion, yet somehow an atheist lurking in the shadows managed to bring religion into the conversation by claiming the Bible doesn't condemn abortion. In my response I pointed out that Scripture doesn't mention nuclear war or space travel either, because those things also didn't exist when the Bible was written. Elective surgery by a medical doctor to kill an unborn child in the womb wasn't simply available when Jesus walked the Earth. 13 weeks into pregnancy His argument was weak, but my new atheist acquaintance was just getting warmed up. Next this particular religion critic boldly claimed the Bible was a work of fiction, which is an odd statement for an atheist to make. Most of my atheist friends realize the best strategy is to remain on offense and attack religion while carefully avoiding any knowledge claims they might have to defend. For example, most atheists will say something safe like "I believe the Bible is fiction" instead of "the Bible is fiction" because the former is merely stating an opinion, but the latter is a knowledge claim that will ultimately need to be defended with empirical evidence. Everyone is entitled to have an opinion, but not their own independent set of facts. And the fact of the matter is, the claim the Bible is a work of fiction … [Read more...]
