Wow, what a week for the secular throng in their discussion of religion. These are some of the articles that were front-page stories in the press incredibly just before Easter.
√ A crawling fish called the Tiktaalik demonstrates a “missing link” between fish and land animals.
Some how this discovery was accompanied by broad swipes against those who have not embraced Darwinian evolution. √ Jesus’ walking on the water is explained to be Jesus walking on ice.
√ The Gnostic gospel of Judas is found contradicting many assumptions about Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus in the Bible.
There are others but I just don’t have that much time to blog!
The Walking Fish
Evolutionary researchers on the Canadian island of Ellesmere have discovered a fossil which shows a creature that appears to be a cross between a fish and a tetrapod. The evolutionist who predominate the science field were in rapture.
“As such, it will be a blow to proponents of intelligent design, who claim that the many gaps in the fossil record show evidence of some higher power.” (Guardian, 5 Apr 2006)
“Tick tock Tiktaalik. Time appears to be running out for the idea of Intelligent Design. Paleontologists have just reported a discovery that promises to be as significant to evolutionary theory as it will be damaging, if not fatal, to biblical literalism.” (PR Web, 9 Apr 2006)
If you can’t win the game change the rules. Paleontologists are suppose to be building records of innumerable links - species to species - all the way from the most simplistic form of life to the current homo homo sapiens. This is a very long chain according to the Big Daddy of Evolution, Charles Darwin.
"So that the number of intermediate and transitional links, between all living and extinct species, must have been inconceivably great. But assuredly, if this theory be true, such have lived upon the earth."
In other words, the transitional states between species should be 99.9% of what should be found in the geological record. According to his theory it should be very difficult to find independently two identical fossils. Instead, many fossils of the same species are found and precious few inter-species fossils. Where are these missing fossils which Darwin says must exist in great numbers if his theory is true? In exploring the Evolutionist sites on this topic, one finds lots of conjecture, speculation and non-species to species examples. With such poor explanations, you can understand the evolutionary adulation at just one singular possible link. What an incredible amount of self congratulations. Somehow this singular “link” is tantamount to a chain which goes around the world.
To help out my evolving friends, I have included two species of fish that can use their fins to walk. The Frogfish and the Red Handfish
It is easy to predict that given some time eventually evolutionists will move towards a more tenable scientific position like Harvard’s Dr. Gould’s Punctuated Equilibrium or other theories that better meet the literal fossil record that include the large groups of divergent animals that emerged during singular periods such as the Cambrian period. With all the fervent emotional activity among evolutionist on this subject, Gould and others have been treated more like traitors than people who are trying to move the debate back towards rational evidence and science. Give it time. Molecular Biology will eventually take away this field from the Paleontologists and place it closer to science.
Jesus Walking on the Water
Mark 6:51, tells the account of Jesus walking on the water. Almost 2,000 years later, writing in “The Journal of Paleolimnology,” Dr. Nof from Florida State University, has explained this incident. It is simple, Jesus was walking on ice based on a historical cold condition that sometimes happened over the Sea of Galilee. If ice had any history of forming in the Sea of Galilee during the time of Jesus, it is doubtful that experienced sailors of the lake like the Apostles would have been impressed by the act of walking on ice.
If Dr. Nof's hypothesis about the ice explaining the miracle is correct, we can still come away with two possible conclusions. One, Jesus must have been the greatest weather forecaster that ever lived. Two, the Apostles who were sailing their boat in the Sea of Galilee at the same time, must have invented the first ice breaker.
Gospel of Judas
So Judas is really a hero who helps Christ to leave His earthly body and become a pure heavenly body? Gnosticism is an interesting mix of Buddhism & other Eastern religions and Christianity. There are still probably elements of Gnosticism found within certain Christian practices like monastic life and celibacy. To anyone familiar with Textual Criticism (the study of what should be in the Bible), the discovery of this book is a real non-event. After the death of the apostles, there was little or no centralized control of the Christian churches. It seems that everyone who touched the New Testament scriptures during this time could and did make their own copies or translations. Some of codices show signs of the tampering from varies groups like the Gnostics and Arians where key text were changed to better suit their theology. These can be found in the Vatican β (Beta) and Siniatic א.(Alaph)
The fact that additional books would be written too is not a surprise. No more than someone finding a Book of Mormon in 2,000 years should worry about how it contradicts the Bible and orthodox Christianity.
Conclusion
There is no need to fit every corner of Christianity into Science, especially miracles. A god who is confined to the mere laws of the universe is pretty pathetic and hardly worth worshipping. It amuses me to see aetheists who think they can defeat God by coming up with some remote, strained physical explanation for a miracle. Miracles in the Bible are not meant as everyday events. That is their whole point. They exist at very few points in the Bible – Creation, Moses, Elijah/Elisha and Jesus & the Apostles. These miracles were put there as distinct sign posts of the Creator to pay attention and learn.
My first Christian fellowship was at Stevens Institute of Technology. Stevens is an engineering university. The whole Christian fellowship was made up of engineers, physicists, mathematicians, etc. Because of this background, I find the press’s understanding of orthodox Christianity as anti-science pretty strange. As students, we all went through our undergraduate and graduate science educations without experiencing any problems between the consistency of real science and Christianity. Quite the opposite, occasionally you would see different perspectives on Christianity from an engineer. For example, I remember when Mitch Kim came in with a T-shirt that said, “On the first day, God created…” and then listed Maxwell’s equations. In contrast, if you listen to the folks at NPR, you would think that rejection of Darwin makes you a Luddite. If I had listened to NPR when I studied Bioengineering and Electrical Engineering, I would have wondered if they knew anything about science.
There is always a danger of Christianity tying itself close to science. In the Middle Ages, Christianity fully integrated itself to Aristotelian science. This was the great work of St. Thomas Aquinas. By doing this the church brought Christianity into disrepute by its persecution (with the help of many in the scientific establishment) of those who tried to overthrow Aristotle, like Galileo. Science is a moving target. Many theories like Caloric that were helpful in developing Thermodynamics, later were found to be erroneous. Over time, the house built on today’s science (even with the help of engineers) will find itself cracked and crumbling as the ground continues to shift and change with our understanding.
The Bible says in Deuteronomy 27:18 “Cursed be he that maketh the blind to wander out of the way. And all the people shall say, Amen.”
These articles are designed to hurt the blind.
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