I promise not to drag this debate topic out after today, but I cannot avoid making a few observations in light of the numerous exchanges between people, both Christian nod non-Christian, on various social media sites. As a Christian, the bible tells me that the heavens (and all of creation for that matter) declares the glory of God. Thus, according to God, one would think that the any “reasonable man’s” (a word used by Bill Nye many times) pursuit of scientific discovery in any field would be to confirm, not deny, the existence, glory and majesty of The Almighty. The bible declares that Christ made all things, both visible and invisible. It also declares that He made this material universe out of nothing. Honestly, does that sound reasonable? Do any of the miracles recorded in Scripture sound reasonable?
Watch a recording of the debate at http://www.debatelive.org
I suggest to you that when you eliminate The Almighty from the equation of the Genesis record of creation, and try to bring the mind and power of God into a laboratory in order to discover how or when the universe came into existence, you will be laid in the balances of reason and found wanting. How does one look at the various and complex forms of plant life or animal life and walk away saying, “glory to the natural processes of evolution?” How does any reasonable person watch a sunrise or sunset or see a baby develop in the womb of their mother and not see the sovereign hand of The Almighty?
From a purely scientific perspective, please explain to me, how does energy or matter evolve into intelligence or conscience? I think one needs more “faith” to deny the existence of God than believe His Word. In my opinion, any science or education that leaves God out of their thinking is futile and ultimately of no moral value to mankind at all. Yes, we may be blessed with discoveries of medicine and technical things that either improves or makes our lives easier; but I believe that it was The Living God Himself Who put those ideas or brains into those people to make those discoveries happen. Thus, glory to God! This may hurt a bit, but Psalm 14 and 51 declare that only a fool would say in their heart there is no God.
As I said yesterday, my heart goes out to Bill Nye, the science guy. According to a Scripture, he is Bill Nye, the lost guy. While it is interesting to engage in the discussion about origins of life, and I would really enjoy hearing a discussion between a secular evolutionist and a born again, Spirit filled, world class scientist, let us never forget that Jesus said to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. I do believe that Ken Ham took the opportunity to do that. People may claim to be agnostic or atheists on earth, but there are no atheists or agnostics in hell. Pray for Bill Nye. Pray the revelation that God gave Simon Peter would one day be his: You are the Christ, The Son of a The Living God.
Seems to be the way to keep it all in the eternal frame. .bill bye heard the Gospel and so did many others…the main thing is the main thing
Thanks Pastor Ray for these thoughts; the social ramifications of an evolutionary world view run much deeper than time allotted for discussion, but at the end of the day we all must pray that God opens Bill’s heart. Thanks for sharing with us!
Evolution makes no claims about the existence of god(s). It merely sums up our accumulated scientific knowledge to explain what happened after the big bang (or whatever you may choose to call it).
But I don’t doubt scientists for millennia have tried to prove existence of god(s). It seems very telling that none have succeeded.
It seems rather sad that Mr. Nye kept asking for any prediction, any proof of anything that will occur in the future proving that there is actually a God behind creation. I was very surprised that Mr. Ham did not alert him that one day even Bill Nye will have to bow before the Lord. I find it to be the ultimate irony that a scientist who bases his work on observation, experimentation, and even the simplest of scientific models cannot admit that casting lures into space will never provide the answers he is unable to find by observing creation. God is everywhere. He is just being ignored.
It’s interesting that the main stumbling block in such debates isn’t fundamentally evolution. It’s always Noah and the arc, or Jonah. They are such difficult scenarios for the average mind to accept that creation is then lumped into the same perceived “impossibility.” It would be simpler if these two seemingly impossible accounts had not been the way later events were made possible, and more credible events had occurred. With God, nothing is impossible; however, to the unbelieving mind, faith is a foreign concept. These events cannot be taken as truth by an unbelieving mind, thus, creation loses its foundation. Our faith IS our foundation. Without faith in these early events, the virgin birth and resurrection are, likewise, impossible to accept, and Jesus becomes a “teacher” rather than God. Faith, not proof…. We call this our faith, because that’s what it has to be. Creation is so much easier to believe than the problems related to evolution. And just as some can’t accept an arc, I can’t accept “nothing exploding and creating the Universe.” Now, there’s a leap of faith making the arc account solid as a rock. (Or should I say, solid as MY rock?)