Sin is doing something wrong in the mind of God. Richard Dawkins apparently doesn't think sin exists. He once wrote, "The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference." Is that true? Do good and evil not exist? Is sin only imaginary? What about stealing? What about having sex with someone else's wife or husband? What about murder? What about rape? Does wrong even exist in Dawkins's world? I confess I am a tad confused, but I don't think it's my fault. I think it's because Richard Dawkins tends to talk out of both sides of his mouth. Richard is famous for making sensational claims and writing books with provocative titles like The God Delusion. He also has the reputation for having this splendid scientific mind that he allegedly displayed while writing books such as The Selfish Gene, The Blind Watchmaker, and The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution, in which he wrote, "Evolution is a fact. Beyond reasonable doubt, beyond serious doubt, beyond sane, informed, intelligent doubt, beyond doubt evolution is a fact. The evidence for evolution is at least as strong as the evidence for the Holocaust, even allowing for eyewitnesses to the Holocaust. It is the plain truth that we are cousins of chimpanzee, somewhat more distant cousins of monkey, more distant cousins still of aardvarks and manatees, yet more distant cousins of bananas and turnips…continue the list as long as desired." According to Dawkins (paraphrased) … [Read more...]
The Hummingbird
[AUTHOR'S NOTE: This short story originally appeared in the first edition of the anthology God Makes Lemonade. It was the first time I received a check for something I wrote. A friend asked where he could find the story, which reminded me that I've never shared it on my blog. The story is very personal, emotional, and true. The "baby" in the story is now a gorgeous cheerleader in high school.] The Hummingbird Lisa heard a tapping sound but when she checked the front door, no one was there. It wasn’t the first time during the past year she’d thought she might be losing her mind. Given all that had happened, it was understandable. Her beautiful daughter Stephanie dropped out of high school during her senior year because of excessive absences for a mysterious illness that turned out to be morning sickness. A surreal sequence of events caused a rollercoaster of emotion through the course of her pregnancy. In the end a beautiful baby girl named Ava Grace was born, but months of pain and anguish preceded that happy delivery. The baby’s father was 21 year old Josh. Both Lisa and her husband liked the polite young man who seemed to calm their impulsive and unpredictable daughter. Stephanie and Josh met at church. Both families were cautious about their relationship given their age difference because a few years can make a big difference at their age. Although the young couple needed to complete their education, Lisa secretly thought Josh might be the right man for Stephanie one day. His tender and caring nature was demonstrated by the small things he did when he was … [Read more...]
The tilma of Juan Diego
[Author's note: this article was originally published several years ago when I wrote as the Atlanta Creationism Examiner at Examiner.com. The article's original contents have not been edited, requiring a correction: the tilma was not weaved from cotton, but agave plant fiber. As I say below, I'm not Catholic. I don't need for this story to be true; I merely find the alleged details fascinating. Strangely enough, my atheist friends seem to desperately need the story to be false.] I present the following information for your cogitation acknowledging that it is anecdotal in nature, but included there are some very interesting claims made by scientists involved in the story. In the spirit of full disclosure, I confess that I’ve never been to Mexico to personally examine the tilma of Juan Diego. Given the current climate and tendency of drug cartels to shoot or chop of the heads of people, I don’t consider it a tourist friendly travel destination. Therefore, I have planned no trips for the purposes of conducting a personal examination. Besides, we’ve firmly and cheerfully established my lack of credentials in certain natural sciences and my aversion to microscopes and lab coats. My primary source of information for this story of Juan Diego’s tilma came from a book titled Divine Interventions by Dan Millman and Doug Childers. Internet sources appear to confirm much of the information that I found in their book. Juan Diego’s story begins on Saturday, December 9th, 1531 -- the day Catholics celebrate as the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. It is believed to … [Read more...]
Your inner parakeet
I love reading books written by Richard Dawkins. Quite ironically, he provides some of the very best material I could ever hope to find for use in discussions with my atheist friends about God and His creation, as well as existential science and evolution theory. It turns out that virtually everything I might ever need for my argument in favor of a supernatural God can be found in his book The Greatest Show on Earth: the Evidence for Evolution, simply by following the advice of Dawkins and accepting many of his claims about the theory of evolution on face value. For example, in his book Richard Dawkins claimed that humans share a now-extinct ancestor with the budgerigar (another name for the common parakeet) that lived approximately 310 million years ago, writing that "Every species is a cousin of every other. Any two species are descended from an ancestral species, which split in two." (pg. 254) That would mean every modern living organism must be directly related to every other living organism on earth by descent -- with modifications, of course. Not only is your cousin a chimpanzee, but your slightly more distant cousin is allegedly the cucumber. The most obvious question coming to mind about this idea would seem to be "how?" Now my atheist friends have frequently suggested that I publish the evidence that disproves my cousinship to fruits and vegetables such as cucumbers and turnips so that I might earn fame, fortune, and even to win a Nobel Prize. However, the Nobel Prize does not honor a category for evolutionary biology, making the goal itself … [Read more...]
