Dr. Ervin Taylor: ‘A truly heroic crusade’
12-13-10

As I write this I see that so far no one has commented on my 12-8-10 post on the human eye. To me, the comment made there is alone enough to convince me that a brilliant Mind (a Creator God) was involved in life as we know it today so I will repeat it here:

“The eye is an incredibly detailed mesh of more than a billion synchronized parts continuously working together to provide our brain with the thousands of images we focus on every day. No manmade machine compares to the structural complexity of the human eye.” Rebuild your Vision, by Orlin G. Sorensen, pg. 10.

If it takes an exceptionally good mind to come up with the Rubik’s Cube and other, even more complex inventions, why is it so difficult to accept the fact that some very intelligent Mind HAD to be behind the creation of the human eye–as well as other complex organisms?

And as far as our brains are concerned, they are “light years” ahead of the most advanced computer on the market today! I have an extremely interesting article on our brains from The Wall Street Journal dated a few years ago. It contains a number of research experiments done on how the brain works and what influences it. The thing that jumped out at me was the fact the even the THOUGHTS WE THINK are recorded there just as indelibly as if we had actually DONE what we simply thought about! That really made me sit up and take notice!

We may outwardly be very kind and helpful toward someone we really wish were dead. And while the good things we may do for them will e “recorded” in our brains so will the unkind thoughts we may have been thinking while we were acting so “kind and loving!” My Bible tells me that “As a man THINKETH IN HIS HEART (mind), so is he.” Proverbs 3:7! Wow! Somehow I’d never thought of that before and it had a profound impact on me. (And this complex brain that puts even our most advanced super computers to shame, just “evolved?” Even this ageing, unscientifically trained mind can’t swallow that! It seems to me that even a child can see “The Emperor simply has no clothes on!”

To me that kind of “memory” simply could not have “evolved” anywhere or at any time no matter how many eons it sat in some prehistoric slime pit! Would you believe it if someone tried to tell you that was the way computers came about? (And even the most sophisticated computer made today is simply nothing compared to our brain.) Of course you wouldn’t–and neither can I! To me, “science” means nothing if it isn’t rational.(Where, oh where, is our Common Sense?)

Nothing, even what the most brilliant human mind has ever “created,” can compare to the eye, the heart, the mind, the circulatory system in general and the rest of the magnificent human body–and even the lowest forms of life–have. Every creature that roams our earth today is a living testimony to a super intelligent Mind somewhere. If really backed into a corner even the most stubborn mind must see this even if it doesn’t want to acknowledge it.

The evidence is there, my friends. The myriads of stars that decorate the skies–each always going in just its own appointed path in the skies without any major, major collisions tells us there HAS to be a supernatural “Mind” behind it and that Mind belongs to a Deity we call God.

We always know just where look each night to find Jupiter, Orion, the Milky Way and myriads of other constellations. They are always there in their own appointed path, we can depend on each one being just where it is supposed to be at that particular time and place–and they never collide. (Can we say the same thing about our man-made cars and airplanes?)

Why don’t they ever collied like we humans do with our cars and even airplanes? Why do the sun, the moon, the stars always appear in their appointed places each and every day, month after month, year after year and century after century without fail? Who taught the birds and many animals when and how to know when to navigate thousands of miles each winter and summer to arrive at just the place they need to be for their best good? A mindless “nature”? I don’t think so!

To me every flower, tree, human being and other living, breathing creature as well as the streams, rivers and sky with its moons and stars, its brilliant sunsets and sunrises–their very existence cry out for a Creator–a superior Intelligence that far exceeds anything and everything man makes on this small planet we humans call “home.” (I have a tendency to agree with my Grandmother who would often say, “Honey, some folks in this old world jes’ get too big for their britches!”)

We demand a builder for every small or large building we see and occupy, an inventor for every “gadget” we see and use each day but we are told (and expected to believe) that all of nature–every living, growing, reasoning thing around us just came in to being with no Mind connected to their arrival on planet earth? (Hello! Is anybody out there THINKING???)

Why don’t our gardens get better with every passing day instead of going to weeds, disease and death if we don’t keep after them constantly? That just doesn’t make sense to me and I can’t understand how any thinking person today can accept and believe it. (In the light of all of this what real difference does the fossil record really make? Not that I don’t believe a fossil record exist and that, rightly interpreted, truly supports Creation but the things we see around us in the here and now is convincing enough for me regardless of whether or not the fossils may be skewed to be interpreted incorrectly.)

If evolution is true, why are there absolutely no signs of such a thing going on anywhere around us today? Why is mankind not getting better and better as time goes on? Who “pulled the switch” to stop it–and why? In some ways we actually have better health care now than we did when I was growing up but, in many respects, we are seeing more and more kinds of diseases and poorer health than we did back then. That’s PROGRESS?

The only way we could see an obese person when I was a kid was at the annual state fair in Tampa, Florida when we would pay a nickle or a dime (big money in those penny-pinching days!) to go into a tent and see one. That surely isn’t the way things are today! Today, as I can see and understand it, in “developed” countries the obese folks–starting with young kids–either equal or even exceed in many places–the slender folks around us. And the vast majority of them have serious health problems. Again, that’s“progress”? It doesn’t sound like it to me!

(It was interesting to me to read an article on health a while back. Did you know that during the severe rationing of food we had during WWII folks ended up healthier than they were before the war? The collected number of ”sweets” were almost completely wiped out of the diets during that time–but the health bubble quickly began to deteriorate again as soon rationing was removed and sweets again became a popular part of the diets? What does that tell us about the effect of bad diets on our health?)

True, knowledge has increased (as the Bible said it would–Daniel 12:7) but I see no signs that health, happiness and peace of mind have increased along with it. There are more broken homes now and kids growing up without parents with every passing day. More progress?

We didn’t have a lot during the depression when I grew up and there were many tragedies that went along with it but neighbors stuck together back then and when someone was in need we shared–at least that it the way it was where I lived. Today thousands of people don’t even know their neighbors and their kids do not have the “luxury” of playing outside with other kids. We didn’t live in Utopia, of course, but I wouldn’t trade my growing up days with kids of today for anything!

As I see it, it isn’t the lack of evidence as much as it is a matter of not wanting to have a God in the picture because if He is acknowledge then it naturally follows that mankind is indebted to Him and will someday have to give an account of how we have lived the life He gave us and intended for us to live. And many don’t want to be accountable to any one–they simply want to “do their own thing” regardless of the consequences. But the day is coming when we will have to give that account (whether we like it or not) and, according to my Bible, that “day” is getting closer and closer with every passing moment.

I didn’t start out to preach a sermon here but this is just the way I see things and the reasons I will never be able to “swallow” any evolutionary or agnostic (sorry, Ken) theory regardless of how many degrees anyone may have following their name. “On Christ the solid Rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand. . .” But, leaving religion out of it (which I can’t do) the whole idea just flies in the face of what I understand to be Common Sense–(or is there any such thing any more?).

Lydian

P.S–I’m not sure a debate is a good idea at all because my experience says they often “cause more heat than light”–and the last thing we need in this discussion is “more heat!”

A New Endowment Program for Adventist Education
So here I sit–a “very old lady”–totally confused and not having a clue as to whether to donate or not–or where to donate if I should.

As things stand now I think I will just continue putting my own little amount to my current “missionary out reach” of buying “Steps to Christ” and “Who Do You Think You Are?” and passing them on to the clerks in the stores where I shop or other people I meet that I think would like them.

If and when you folks decide on what, how and where to help in this very worthy project let me know and I’ll do what I can then.

A New Endowment Program for Adventist Education
I just noticed that there is such a program in place in northern California but I would want one that is nation wide. After all, if our kids aren’t already in danger here in the southern union also (as well the rest of the US) it’s most likely only a short matter of time till they will be.

A New Endowment Program for Adventist Education
I am far from a wealthy person who could and gladly would donate large sums of money to such a program but I could and would gladly donate some if such assurances were solidly in place. I’m sure there are many “old folks” like me “out there” who feel the same way. (Is there already such a program in place? If so please post all needed information.)

The God of the Gaps
While browsing my rather voluminous file of articles to “save” I ran across this jewel—I think it is worth saving and thinking about–especially the last statement by Darwin himself:
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Darwin’s Theory of Evolution

While Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is a relatively young archetype, the evolutionary worldview itself is as old as antiquity. Ancient Greek philosophers such as Anaximander postulated the development of life from non-life and the evolutionary descent of man from animal. Charles Darwin simply brought something new to the old philosophy — a plausible mechanism called “natural selection.” Natural selection acts to preserve and accumulate minor advantageous genetic mutations. Suppose a member of a species developed a functional advantage (it grew wings and learned to fly). Its offspring would inherit that advantage and pass it on to their offspring. The inferior (disadvantaged) members of the same species would gradually die out, leaving only the superior (advantaged) members of the species. Natural selection is the preservation of a functional advantage that enables a species to compete better in the wild. Natural selection is the naturalistic equivalent to domestic breeding. Over the centuries, human breeders have produced dramatic changes in domestic animal populations by selecting individuals to breed. Breeders eliminate undesirable traits gradually over time. Similarly, natural selection eliminates inferior species gradually over time.
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Darwin’s Theory of Evolution – Slowly But Surely…

Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is a slow gradual process. Darwin wrote, “…Natural selection acts only by taking advantage of slight successive variations; she can never take a great and sudden leap, but must advance by short and sure, though slow steps.” [1] Thus, Darwin conceded that, “If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down.” [2] Such a complex organ would be known as an “irreducibly complex system”. An irreducibly complex system is one composed of multiple parts, all of which are necessary for the system to function. If even one part is missing, the entire system will fail to function. Every individual part is integral. [3] Thus, such a system could not have evolved slowly, piece by piece. The common mousetrap is an everyday non-biological example of irreducible complexity. It is composed of five basic parts: a catch (to hold the bait), a powerful spring, a thin rod called “the hammer,” a holding bar to secure the hammer in place, and a platform to mount the trap. If any one of these parts is missing, the mechanism will not work. Each individual part is integral. The mousetrap is irreducibly complex. [4]

Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is a theory in crisis in light of the tremendous advances we’ve made in molecular biology, biochemistry and genetics over the past fifty years. We now know that there are in fact tens of thousands of irreducibly complex systems on the cellular level. Specified complexity pervades the microscopic biological world. Molecular biologist

Michael Denton wrote, “Although the tiniest bacterial cells are incredibly small, weighing less than 10-12 grams, each is in effect a veritable micro-miniaturized factory containing thousands of exquisitely designed pieces of intricate molecular machinery, made up altogether of one hundred thousand million atoms, far more complicated than any machinery built by man and absolutely without parallel in the non-living world.” [5]

And we don’t need a microscope to observe irreducible complexity. The eye, the ear and the heart are all examples of irreducible complexity, though they were not recognized as such in Darwin’s day. Nevertheless, Darwin confessed, “To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree.” [6]

Footnotes:
1. Charles Darwin, “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life,” 1859, p. 162.
2. Ibid. p. 158.
3. Michael Behe, “Darwin’s Black Box,” 1996.
4. “Unlocking the Mystery of Life,” documentary by Illustra Media, 2002.
5. Michael Denton, “Evolution: A Theory in Crisis,” 1986, p. 250.
6. Charles Darwin, “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life,” 1859, p. 155.

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I don’t think Sean could have said it better himself!

Walla Walla University: The Collegian Debates Evolution vs. Creation
Sean, I guess I “bit off more than I can chew” when I subscribed to some of your other options.
All I can handle is the ^way it used to be”–like this column still is. Please put me back to this mode of information and I will be very happy. Thanks.