Apologetics 101: Atheist and Christ 3/4

December 9, 2004 a world renowned atheist and chastiser of the Christian faith Antony Flew had an announcement to make. This atheist had several degrees and Phd’s in the field of Psychology and Philosophy. He tangled in apologetic debates with men like C.S. Lewis and wrote countless papers and books that most of the modern atheist community bases their reasoning on. He coined terms that described, classified, and minimized Christian beliefs and reinvented the way atheistic apologetics work. This man could be considered the most harmful person to the spread of Christianity and the most influential to the spread of Atheism. However, at the age of 76 he declared that he believed in a God and a sustainer of the universe. In his book titled “There Is a God” Antony Flew crushes his many new generation atheist’s about his claim.

Richard Dawkins, an aggressive biologist who presents his argument with so much satire and misquoting that it is confusing to think that he wrote a best seller book proclaiming atheism, is quoted in the book as saying, “We might be seeing something similar today in the over publicized tergiversation of the philosopher Antony Flew… [Antony then replies by presenting his point]… Tergiversation means apostasy. So Flew’s principal sin was that of apostatizing from the faith of the fathers. Dawkins has elsewhere confessed that his atheistic view of the universe is based on faith.” As the novel unfolds Antony laughs at the assumptions made by the new/old age atheists who say he converted in his old age in fear of not making it into heaven. Antony clearly states he does not believe in an afterlife at the moment but has simple looked at all of the facts and realized the truth. The most comforting and motivating news is that the religion that holds most truth and possibility for Antony is Christianity.

Before we jump into the core knowledge for this lesson [we are touching on biology/evolution.] I want to define what new/old age atheistic principles and ideas are.

New age atheism is a term that is used by the media and famous biologist Richard Dawkins [who authored the book God Delusion] and has caught fire in the atheist community. The reason I called new age atheism new/old age atheism before was due to the fact that it’s not that new. New/old age is an aggressive form of atheists who are, “popularizers that saw themselves not simply as scribes, but as high priests… they took on themselves the task not just of educating the public on the findings of science, but also of deciding what it is permissible for the scientific faithful to believe on matters metaphysical.” They declare the law and what is or is not blasphemous to the “faith”. It was the popular form of atheism before the 1950’s when the philosophy of considering all aspects became popular. Now that “new age atheism” is being popularized again we must be on our toes not to be as aggressive back.

The bible and biology:

God and Dinosaurs:

Job 40:15-19 –“¹⁵Behold, Behemoth, which I made as I made you;
    he eats grass like an ox.¹⁶ Behold, his strength in his loins,
    and his power in the muscles of his belly.¹⁷ He makes his tail stiff like a cedar;
    the sinews of his thighs are knit together.¹⁸ His bones are tubes of bronze,
    his limbs like bars of iron.¹⁹ “He is the first of the works of God;
    let him who made him bring near his sword!

God and the Stars:

Genesis 22:17 - ¹⁷ I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies,

In the past [after genesis was written] it was believed there were only a smaller number of stars. Only 3000 can be viewed with the naked eye. As time has gone on however scientists have realized there are more and more stars [current estimate is 10²¹ stars, and sand is 10²⁵] How interesting would it be that these numbers continue to grow closer to each other as scientists further their knowledge.

1 Corinthians 15:41 - ⁴¹ There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.

Scientists now know that each star is individual, like a finger print, and have their own chemical makeup. Not a single star has the same components as another!

The bible relates to biogenesis:

Genesis 1:21 - ²¹ So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:25 - ²⁵ And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

This reveals that the bible and “ancients” knew of the impossibility to pass genetic code down between animals of different species. “According to their kind” informs us that only them of that kind can carry that heritage.

Cave Men:

Job 30:5-6 - ⁵ They are driven out from human company; they shout after them as after a thief. ⁶ In the gullies of the torrents they must dwell, in holes of the earth and of the rocks.

This suggests that cave men were not products of previous “evolutionary characters” but rather de-evolved from lack of communication and exile for crimes. We have abundant evidence for cave people, and with the bible as our base it’s evident that they were a process of inbreeding and exile.

Evolution not supported by the bible:

And that’s a good thing. Evolution is the atheists go to for logical doubt in the bible. It’s really understandable when we look at the options of someone denying their natural beliefs. Follow creation and know that a God put everything into existence or believe that life is pure chance and everything developed from something else and there is no God. Someone running from the truth would obviously choose the one without God.

However Evolution is losing more and more steam as evidence erupts. Let’s be clear, Micro evolution is proven. Things adapt to environments and minimal changes occur. However, in these situations new information in our DNA is not added, rather old information is restricted or increased. For example all humans are born with melanin [the skin coloring agent], and the less restrictive the agent the darker your skin. This helps with heat adaption and sun burn. When pale people tan their body reduces the restriction via immediate mutation. This is a fact, what is fairy tale is macro evolution; organism’s changing and growing into new species. Many Genetic Physicists agree that DNA can only restrict information rather than add it. You get your code from your parents, if they have restricted or increased in certain areas you gain that trait and are born with a better DNA sequence for your situation. What cannot happen is a constant passing of down information until random mutation occurs. Human DNA mutation leads to diseases such as Down syndrome, XXY syndrome, Sickle Cell, and so on. The mutations may not kill immediately but they harm the host in their life time.

The bible supports a general idea of everything has been degrading since the sin of man. Diseases are spread, the earth is being consumed, and waters are tainted. Everything falls apart, including our DNA. Genetic Physicist also agree that our DNA over time is slowly degrading, becoming less and less pure and taking on improper functions. This also suggests that humans are not that old of a race, and that life itself is much shorter than carbon dating suggests. [Carbon dating having an error ration of 50,000 to roughly 500,000,000 years]. As said above we can restrict information but we cannot create it, with this restriction and the sin that has poisoned our flesh and souls it is easy to see how degradation occurs.

Take away:

Western culture is known for its logic based faith. We live in a time of instant access to knowledge, and this has made most of us confined thinkers, basing most of our knowledge off of what we find as logical. This is the Achilles of our culture, assuming we have all knowledge and make the final judgment for truth, and for what is fair. However, we will find that what we “logically” assume at one point of our lives, is tragically wrong later on. As fields like Biology, Psychology, Physics, and Philosophy evolve and change their theories, many “logical” arguments will change. However the word of God never changes, it is constant and through trail the argument is the same. Even when science seems to have the fabric of our faith on the ropes, new discoveries are found to further prove the existence of God and truth of Christ.

“God created science so that we have even less of an excuse to deny His deity. Satan takes science and twists it so that foolish minds find faith in the imaginary. In the end all truth will be revealed.”