Are you here by
Accident?


Why I believe…



…we are here by design, not chance

...the Bible is the reliable message of God

...Israel demonstrates the existence of God

...Christianity is unique among all religions

…You should ask yourself these questions

…You should seek God

…we are here by design, not chance.

  1. basic open systems (a wristwatch),

  2. feedback systems (power steering),

  3. adaptive systems (anti-skid brakes),

  4. intelligent machines (computers),

  5. self-repairing systems

  6. self-reproducing systems.

Man—with the most sophisticated intelligence known—has produced systems 1 through 4, but has yet to create truly self-repairing16 nor self-reproducing systems. Yet these levels of system complexity are found throughout the biological world. Development of even a rudimentary complex system by chance has never been demonstrated.

Some systems are especially complicated and are said to be irreducibly complex17 because two or more components are interdependent such that no component can successfully function without the others. This poses a problem for evolutionary theory because each co-dependent component would have to evolve in-step with the other components it depends upon for the organism to continue to survive. Yet the living world is full of examples of irreducibly complex systems such as the feather, the eye, the avian lung, the amniotic (reptilian) egg, the woodpecker18, and many more.19

Complex systems, when left to themselves, tend to fail.20 Randomness (chance) leads to chaos. This downhill trend in physical and information systems can only be reversed by the addition of information. Information can only be added by intelligence. Complex systems are evidence of intelligence!

…the Bible is the reliable message of God.

Author

Earliest Copy

Number of Witnesses46

New Testament Authors

200 A.D.47

20,000+48

Old Testament Authors

300 B.C.49
250 B.C.50

several hundred

Homer (Iliad)

1200 A.D.

643

Caesar

900 A.D.

10

Plato (Tetralogies)

900 A.D.

20

Tacitus (Annals)

1100 A.D.

20

Pliny the Younger (History)

850 A.D.

7

Aristotle

100 A.D.

5

Sophocles

1000 A.D.

100



Prophecy

Predicted58

Fulfilled

Messiah born of a virgin.

Genesis 3:15 (4,000+ B.C.)
Isaiah 7:1459 (580 B.C.)

Luke 1:34-35 (2 B.C.)

Messiah born in Bethlehem.

Micah 5:2 (720 B.C.)

Luke 2:1-7 (2 B.C.)

Timing of Messiah’s presentation as king.60

Daniel 9:25 (530 B.C.)

Luke 19:28-44 (30 A.D.)

Messiah to die for sins of others.

Daniel 9:26 (530 B.C.)
Isaiah 53:8,11 (580 B.C.)

Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23, John 19 (30 A.D.)

Messiah to be resurrected.

Ps. 16:10 (970 B.C.)

Mark 16:9 (30 A.D.)

Destruction of Jerusalem by Rome

Daniel 9:26 (530 B.C.)
Luke 19:43 (30 A.D.)

70 A.D.

Jerusalem to become a heavy burden for all nations.

Zechariah 12:3 (480 B.C.)

???



…Israel demonstrates the existence of God.

that God will accomplish His will: “Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once?” 63

…Christianity is unique among all religions.

believe you are a sinner, perhaps your understanding of the holiness and perfection of God is inadequate--perhaps your concept of God is too small? 85

…You should ask yourself these questions.

…You should seek God.

For seekers…

The primary sources for seeking God are prayer and reading the Bible.96

Why not perform an experiment? Regularly and earnestly pray before God that He would reveal Himself to you. If you are honest in your desire, He has promised to reveal Himself to you.

The following resources offer avenues for further investigation for those who are curious. Citations by secondary references appear within square brackets.

End Notes

1 Within the field of statistics, the possibility of anything with less than one chance in 1050 is defined as “absurd”.

2 Hoyle and Wickramasinghe, “Where Microbes Boldly Went”, New Scientist 24 (1986) [MORRIS, p.183]

3 SHAPIRO, Robert, Origins: A Skeptics Guide p.112 (1986) [BIRD, p.79]

4 HEREEN, p.183

5 HOYLE and WICKRAMASINGHE, Evolution from Space p.24 (1986) [HEREEN, p.183]

6 PATTERSON, C., Evolution p.157 (1978) [BIRD, p.309]

7 GISH, Creation Scientists Answer Their Critics p.266

8 CRICK, Francis, Life Itself, p.88 (1981) [GISH, Creation Scientists Answer Their Critics, p.375]

9 CRICK, Francis, Life Itself p.71 (1981) [BIRD, p.80]

10 DENTON, p.201

11 BEHE, p.106

12 Recognize that the best minds, money, and research around the world have yet to come close to creating life by design using man’s intelligence. Although man is able to tinker with life, he will never be able to create life from scratch. This adds to the already weighty evidence against the development of life by chance.

13 GITT, Werner, “Information, Science and Biology”, Creation Ex-Nihilo Technical Journal, vol. 10, no. 2, 1996

14 DENTON, p.264

15 MISSLER, Chuck, Beyond Coincidence audio tape, Koinonia House (http://www.khouse.org)

16 Not just self-diagnostic.

17 BEHE, p.110

18 A woodpecker could not function without all of the following: special claws for gripping a tree trunk, stiff tail feathers for bracing against the tree, special shock absorbers surrounding the brain, long tongue anchored under the skin in the back of the skull which enters the beak through the right nostril, glands to secrete a sticky substance to coat the tongue.

19 BEHE, DENTON

20 Due to the operation of the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics (the tendency toward randomness) which operates in information systems as well as physical systems.

21 DENTON, GISH, BIRD

22 VALENTINE, J.W. What Darwin Began, p.263 (1985) [GISH, Creation Scientists Answer Their Critics, p.378]

23 GOULD, Steven J., “Evolution’s Erratic Pace”, Natural History, p.12,14 May 1977 [BIRD, p.58]

24 RIDLEY, Mark, New Scientist, 90:830 [GISH, Creation Scientists Answer Their Critics, p.376]

25 RAUP, David, Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin 50(1):25 (1979) [GISH, Creation Scientists Answer Their Critics, p.381]. Contrast his statement with that made by Richard Leakey in the same year: “New fossil finds since Darwin’s day have smoothed out much of the abruptness of the fossil record.”

26 SIMPSON, G.G., “The History of Life”, Evolution of Life p.135 [Denton, p.334]

27 DARWIN, Charles, The Origin of the Species, p.309

28 LUBENOW, TAYLOR

29 BIRD, GISH, LUBENOW

30 DENTON, p.179

31 The creationist museum LEBENDIGE VOORWELT, in Hofheim, Germany maintained by Dr. Joachim Scheven specializes in “living fossils”. http://www.lebendigevorwelt.de

32 HOYLE, Fred, Engineering and Science, November 1981 [HEREEN, p.179]

33 The anthropic principle was used by Fred Hoyle to successfully predict this relationship—based solely on life’s need for it—before it was experimentally determined.

34 HEREEN, ROSS

35 A claim is generally made by skeptics at this point that this is a circular argument: life exists as it is precisely because of the physical environment we are in. If it had been different, then life would have evolved differently (e.g. silicon-based, etc.). I leave it to the reader to examine the previous comments regarding complex systems to determine whether a highly-tuned system occurs by chance.

36 Notice the use of the term architecture which implies purposeful design.

37 DYSON, Freeman, Disturbing the Universe, p.250 (1979)

38 Real-world examples of “self-organization” are either isolated to minute localities of time or space or reflect underlying information already present in the system (e.g. snowflakes, crystals, plant growth).

39 DAVIES, Paul, “Chance or choice: is the Universe an accident?”, 80 New Scientist 506 (1978). [BIRD, p.402]

40 Kings, priests, prophets, soldiers, statesmen, shepherds, fishermen, tax collector, medical doctor, tent maker, farmer.

41 GEISLER and HOWE

42 ARCHER, An Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties

43 ARCHER, A Survey of Old Testament Introduction, p.28

44 ARCHER, A Survey of Old Testament Introduction, p.27

45 MCDOWELL, p.42

46 Copies or other writings quoting their content.

47 BROMILEY, 4:815

48 ARCHER, A Survey of Old Testament Introduction p.27

49 Varied Old Testament texts from the Dead Sea Scrolls.

50 The Septuagint, a Greek translation of the entire Old Testament written in Alexandria.

51 Acts 7:22

52 Deuteronomy 23:13

53 ARCHER, A Survey of Old Testament Introduction, p.188

54 FREE and VOSS

55 RAMSAY, Sir William, The Bearing of Recent Discovery on the Trustworthiness of the New Testament, p.222 [MCDOWELL, p.71]

56 Genesis 9:20; Numbers 20:12; 2 Samuel 11:4;, Luke 22:60

57 Isaiah 46:9-10

58 Dates are approximate.

59 Some point out that the Hebrew word used for virgin in this passage can also mean young maid. But, would this qualify as a sign? Also, the Septuagint—the Greek version of the old testament written in the third century before Christ’s birth—translates the term into Greek as parthenos, which specifically means virgin.

60 The Coming Prince by Sir Robert Anderson offers an in-depth analysis of this prophecy.

61 Deuteronomy 28:64, 29:28, 30:1; Amos 9:9; Ezekiel 36:19

62 HUNT, Dave, A Woman Rides the Beast (1994)

63 Isaiah 66:8

64 Isaiah 62:6, Matthew 24:15, 2 Thessalonians 2:4, Revelation 11:1

65 Deuteronomy 30:3, Jeremiah 16:13-16, 23:3-8, 32:37-41; Ezekiel 20:33-38, 22:17-22, 36:22-29; Zephaniah 2:1-2; Zechariah 10:8-10

66 Genesis 13:15, 15:18, 35:12, Exodus 23:31, Numbers 34:2, Deuteronomy 1:7, 11:24; Psalm 105:8-11

67 HUNT, Jerusalem: A Cup of Trembling

68 Ezekiel 36:22-24

69 Jeremiah 3:17, Isaiah 62:7, Zechariah 14:16

70 Zechariah 12:1

71 Jerusalem was designated as the capital of Jerusalem by Israel and the Knesset relocated there on July 30th, 1980.

72 Daniel 9:19; Matthew 5:35

73 Exodus 6:6, 19:6; Deuteronomy 4:37, 7:6-8, 10:15, 14:2, 26:18, Psalm 105:6-7, 135:4; Isaiah 41:8, 44:1, 45:3, 49:7

74 To receive and record God’s revelation: Deuteronomy 4:5-8; 6:6-9; Romans 3:1-2. To be witnesses of God: Isaiah 43:10-12; Revelation 7:1; 14:1. To produce the promised redeemer, the Messiah: Romans 9:5; Hebrews 7:13-14; Revelation 12:2,5

75 FRUCHTENBAUM

76 Ezekiel 36:22, Ezekiel 39:7

77 1 Corinthians 1:27

78 Ephesians 2:14-17

79 Isaiah 48:9-12; Romans 11:1,12,25-32

80 Matthew 16:18; Revelation 12:11; 19:7

81 Romans 9:18-24

82 Genesis 1:1; John 1:1-3

83 Romans 1:20; Acts 17:22

84 Jeremiah 17:9, Matthew 5:28-29; Galations 3:22; 1 John 1:8

85 Isaiah 6:5

86 Romans 3:20; Galations 2:16; Ephesians 2:8

87 Exodus 33:20

88 Leviticus 17:11

89 Hebrews 9:25-26

90 Isaiah 53:10; Hebrews 9:22; 1 John 1:7

91 Matthew 7:13; John 14:6

92 John 3:16; John 3:36

93 1 Corinthians 1:27; Galations 5:11

94 Hebrews 9:27

95 Isaiah 57:15

96 Unlike other books, the bible is spiritually discerned (1 Corinthians 2:14). Don’t expect to read it like a novel and grasp its deeper content. God doesn’t work that way. He reveals truth in layer-upon-layer to those who seek Him—like peeling an onion. If you’re not serious about seeking Him, he won’t reveal things to you. (Does the very idea that God would withhold information from those that don’t seek him offend you? If God is real and the Bible is His book, then you need to get past trying to create God in your own image and find out what He says about Himself. If He truly is the creator and you are his creature, then your preconceptions and opinions don’t matter.)

If you are unfamiliar with the Bible, I wouldn’t suggest beginning at Genesis 1:1. Although Genesis and the rest of the Old Testament are foundational, starting there is like trying to swim across the Pacific ocean your very first time in the water. I recommend you start with the book of John in the New Testament (The events of John 1:1 precede Genesis 1:1 anyway!). Pray before each reading session and remember that you are out to find out who God says He is.



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August 4, 2004