12-13-10 As I write this I see that so far no …

Comment on Dr. Ervin Taylor: ‘A truly heroic crusade’ by Lydian Belknap.

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!”

Lydian Belknap Also Commented

Dr. Ervin Taylor: ‘A truly heroic crusade’
12-8-10

I just recently returned from a two week visit to my daughter Carol Paden and her family in Texas. It was a wonderful visit but during that time I was pretty much computerless so have lost out on what has been going on on this site.

Shortly after returning I received a program of eye exercises I had ordered just before I left. (For some reason at 86 my eyes aren’t as good as they once were!) Last night was the first time I had time to sit down and start reading it and the following really caught my attention:

“The eye is an incredibly detailed mesh of more than a billion synchronized parts continously 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.

As I have stated numerous times on this site, while I am a college graduate, I am not a scientists (my deceased husband was) and my field of interest was along an entirely different line. So, much of the discussion on this site, sort of “goes over my head.” But this comment I can understand!

If I tried to tell you the Rubik’s Cube just “evolved naturally” with absolutely no mind behind it you would consider me utterly stupid or, at least, somewhat brain damaged. Of course there was a very intelligent mind behind it–and a lot of other things the “creator” of this brain game came up with–as well as the thousands of other things MAN has invented that makes life more fun and much easier for a lot of us.

Having said this, I am supposed to “swallow” the idea that the human eye–which is far, far more complex than this brain game could ever be–just “evolved” over vast periods of time with absolutely no “intelligent mind” behind IT? Please–what ever happened to good old Common Sense? Has “much learning” made some among us “mad”?

Lydian


Recent Comments by Lydian Belknap

Louie Bishop Testifies, Again, about His Experience at La Sierra University
@Larry:
Larry, don’t throw out the baby with the bath water. Just get rid of those who teach and and support that which is contrary to the 28 SDA fundamental beliefs.


The reality of creation is the basis of our name
This is a wonderful sermon. Due to problems with my Hope Chanel system I was unable to listen to it so was delighted to see it printed on your website. I was able to make a printed copies of it to share with some friends who also were not able to hear it. Thanks so much!


LSU graduate comments on LSU conflict
11-12-10

A short while back a dear friend sent me an email with lots of beautiful pictures showing a garden (somehow I lost the site) in which every bush had been transformed into a bird, an animal–even a child. It was absolutely magnificent!

As I looked at one of the amazing displays I started wondering what would happen if I was actually in that garden and approached a group of people who were also enjoying the beauty it held. And if after a few moments I said something like this:

“This is so beautiful–and to think Nature did it all on her own! It is truly amazing of what she can do if people will just back off and let her do her own thing.”

What would their reaction have been? (I suspect they would have thought I was somewhat deranged and slowly backed away and left before I became violent!)

Obviously that garden had a lot of very talented hands (and minds) behind all of that beauty and I suspect they were there every day clipping away the stray twigs and leaves that started appearing here and there.)

But is my disbelief in evolution unreasonable, and show my lack of knowledge (as some scientists contend), when I question that this beautiful world just “evolved” from chaos with no intelligent mind behind it? Why can’t we see it happening today? Who turned off the switch? And why?

I’m not a scientist but if this isn’t a case of “The Emperor Has No Clothes” I don’t know what one would be. We are often overwhelmed with the many wonderful and useful things humans have come up with that makes our lives more livable but every new invention or other things ALWAYS have a creative mind behind them. Why is it so difficult to recognize that the wonderful world we live in HAD to have an intelligent mind behind it? What ever happened to common sense?

Lydian


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.


LSU graduate comments on LSU conflict
When Man’s wisdom–however intelligent it may sound, or how many “letters” there are behind someone’s name (or even a lot of “someones”) that proclaim it–if it contradicts a single plain “Thus saith the Lord” it is NOT “present truth!” however much it may appeal to the liberal minds of millions who may wish an easier way to get to heaven.

I fear we are a long way from being the “people of the Book” we once were! But, guess what!–God knew this would happen and He called the last of the seven churches “Laodicea.” Truly, we are saying, “I am rich…and have need of nothing.” (After all, folks didn’t have the brilliant scientists such as we have today when You told Moses–and even our Adventist pioneers
–You did it is six literal days and rested the seventh!)

I am NOT against true science or scientists! There definitely is a real place for it (and them) and I truly believe it is “God given.” I have a LOT of respect for true science and true scientists but when someone–anyone–goes against a plain “Thus saith the Lord” they lose me. (Not that these folks really care if a very “ignorant”, very “old lady” doesn’t believe them!) But God does and that’s enough for me!

As Bob said–“All have free will. To each his own.” I agree! (But I still tremble for those who believe ideas contrary to what God says–even if it comes from the mouth of a renowned scientist, an “Adventist” teacher or an “Adventist” preacher. (Please forgive me if I have misunderstood or misjudged anyone.)