HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!
I just wanted to take the time to wish all my readers a very happy thanksgiving. Be safe, and enjoy the holiday!
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I just wanted to take the time to wish all my readers a very happy thanksgiving. Be safe, and enjoy the holiday!
J. Edwin Orr, in his book Faith that Makes Sense made this arguement against chance and evolution. (pages 11-14)
A pilot came to talk to me in my tent-office in New Guinea, and said: "Tell me, Chaplain, why is any man compelled to hold a religious faith? Could not everything have happened by chance?"
I asked him jokingly what he knew about chance and he told me with a grin that he was an expert. So I took out a coin and tossed it, and aksed him if it were heads or tails. He replied, "heads.""Now tell me," I asked, "what is the chance of getting heads?" He suggested "one out of two." When I asked him why that proportion, he replied that each coin possessed onlyh two sides, "heads" and "tails," therefore it had to be one or the other.
"What,"said I, "is the chance of getting two heads in succession?" He replied "one out of four." For three heads in succession, he replied "one out of eight" because it was a multiplied chance.
"That's right," I agreed. "It is the probability of the first occasion, multiplied by the probability of the second, multiplied by that of the third."
"What do you know about dice?" I asked him. He grinned knowingly, so I added, "What is the chance of getting a six when you roll the dice?" "One out of six," he replied. For two sixes in succession he suggested "one out of thirty-six" and for three sixes in succession "one out of two hundred and sixteen," and then for four ixes in succession he estimated quickly "one thousand two hundred and ninety-six."
Then I asked him the chance of getting twelve sixes in succession! He allowed me to supply an answer: "One out of two billion one hundred and seventy-six million seven hundred and eighty-two thousand three hundred and thirty-six."
"What," said I, "do you think the chance may be of getting dice to roll the same way all the time?"
"That's fantastic," he said.
"Exactly," I rejoined. "Yet you talk about chance to explain the origins of our complex universe!" Conversation lapsed for a moment. His silence gave me my chance to expand the argument."Let's take something a bit more complicated: take the human body. When your life began, it began as a single cell, which doubled after its fertilization, the nbecame four cells, then eight, sixteen, thirty-two -- until it became thousands of cells, finally becoming millions of cells. But from the beginning these cells seemed to follow some kind of plan, each taking its proper place, each following much the same pattern of organization -- till finally you were born. They continued to cooperate in a complex organization.
"To send atelegram from Las Angeles to New York, I go to a telegraph office, take a telegraph form, write out my message, take it to the clerk in attendance, pay a certain amount, and leave the telegram for dispatch. The message may be typed out, given to a telegraphist, sent by cable or radio to New York, where it may be decoded, then delivered. Can you imagine that happening by chance? Can you imagin, for instance, the underground cables being there by chance, or the telegraph poles, or the telephone instumments, or the telagraphist, or the pay clerks?
"Supposing I take a pin and stick it in your leg, a nerve in your leg sends a telegram to your brain, saying 'Murphy, you've been stabbed!' Then your brian sends a message to your vocal cords urging them to utter something appropriate for the occasion. Does tha happen by chance?"
I told him of an incident on the campus of the University of Washington. After our lecture, an atomic scientist came up to me and said: "Orr, your illustration about hte coin and the dice is very interesting, but it is quite superfluous. In physics, statistically speaking, there is no such thing as chance. When one burns hydrogen in oxygen, the result is pure water. When one burns hydrogen in oxygen a hundred times, one gets water a hundred times. When one burns hydrogen in oxygen a thousand times, the result a thousand times is water. When hydrogen is burned in oxygen a million times, the combustion will form pure water one million times."
"That I know," said the pilot. "I know also that mixing hydrochloric acid and caustic soda, two deadly but different poisons, produces common salt. But isn't there an element of chance in the behavior of radioactive atoms?"
I was prepared for his question, so I replied:
"I said 'statistically speaking ther is no such thing as chance in physics.' It is true that no scientist can predict which of the atoms of a bit of uranium will break down, but he can predict their number, which is exact enough."It is your privilege to believe tha such things happen by chane, and your privilege to believe that the whole amazing universe originated by chance. But it does not make sense to me.
"A Christian believes that the comlpex design of the univers is a result of the planning of a Super-Intelligence. This is most reasonable. If you can show me that it is unreasonable, or that any other explanation is more reasonable, I shall withdraw the argument. Chance is less reasonable. So the choice is yours to believe in God."
My pilot friend was such a gambler that his habit reminded him constantly of the arguments against Chance. This so unsettled him that he began to consider what he had heard so often -- the reasonable claims of the Christian faith and the good news of salvation.
more to come next week
Here is a small example of how an in depth study of the Bible can help us to understand kung fu better.
James 3:3 tells us,
When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal.
this little verse tells us several things. The first thing it tells us is the obvious thing: control the head, control the whole body. We find this to be true in kung fu, just as it tells us in Scripture.
The second thing it tells us isn't quite so obvious, but just as true: you control a powerful beast by taking control of its weekest link. Just like you control the horse by controling the mouth, you control a whole person by controling just their finger.
cool, isn't it, how God weaves this very universal truth into His Word. Makes it all come alive to me, what about you?
If you have ever had a formal job anywhere, you probably know what a job description is. It is my oppinion here, but I believe that there are three documents that every worker should have copies of ready at hand: a job description, a training manual/plan, and their evaluation form. A job description is simply a document that describes what is expected of you in your position. It spells out what skills you must have, briefly explains what tasks you will be doing, and paints an overall picture of what that job is made up of. So, you see how important it truly is. Your boss cannot morrally or realistically hold you accountable to any standard if it is not clearly communicated to you, and that is what your job description is.
So have you ever wondered about what your spiritual job description is? What does God expect us to do? Well, obviously, that document is found in the Bible, but where? And what exactly does it say? Look, for a moment in Micah 6:8, and consider this.
"He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?"
1: to do justly,
2: to love mercy,
3: to walk humbly with our God.
Three things, it sounds so simple, yet it is so involved!! How do we even begin to do that?! I will tell, since you asked, how we can start to do that. It all starts with the Word of God. It always starts with the Word of God! You have to get in it. Start reading it regularly, then you have to pray faithfully. You get in a good, solid, Bible believing church and into a good Bible study. Then you begin bearing fruit as it is mentioned in Scripture.
Let's look at #3, to walk humbly with our God. What does that mean? First of all it means that we have to lose ourselves from the equation. We have to stop thinking about what we want, about our desires, our goals, our ambitions, what we enjoy, what is troublesome to us. And instead, we begin to look at what God wants, at His desires, His goals, His ambitions, what He enjoys, what is troublesome to Him. And we begin to reprogram our thoughts to match His. Do you understand that idea? It means that God is more important to us than we are. Easier said than done, I know, but so true and sooooo important! That is what it means to walk humbly with our God. It means that we put ourselves where we belong, on the back burner, in the roll of a servant. It means that we understand that God doesn't owe us anything, that we owe Him everything. It means that our oppinion doesn't matter, only His oppinion matters. It means that our ambitions are empty unless they agree with His ambitions. It means that God is our number 1 priority; more important than our boyfriend/girlfriend, more important than our family, our job, our education, our friends, our hobby, our car, our reputation, everything. Jesus was willing to leave Heaven to come here, and die for us; how much is it really to ask of us to live here for Him so we can live there with Him? Jim Elliot once said,
"It is no great loss, to lose that which you cannot keep, to gain that which you cannot lose."
Lets look at #1 and #2. Often we try to apply mercy to ourselves and justice to others when it should be the other way around. It's harder to live like that, but far more rewarding. Not long ago, I was discussing God with my father, and we were talking about the relationship that holiness had with justice and righteousness, and love had with mercy and grace. You see, God does justice and righteousness because He is holy. He does mercy and grace because He is loving. It is His essence that leads the action into existance. He does "action" because he is "essence". It is God's holy essence that drives Him to do righteously and justly. It is His loving essence that drives Him to do mercifully and graciously. Do you understand the relationship here? This is important because if you noticed, in #'s 1 and 2 God told us to love mercy and to do justly. Mercy is driven by Love, and Justice is driven by Holiness. God is telling us here that He wants us to reflect His very nature in our lives. He wants us to reflect the very nature of God by demonstrating His holiness in our lives, by demonstrating His love in our lives. How, I ask you, can we do this if we do not walk humbly with Him? See, it all comes full circle. This is why God is not satisfied when we "just come to church". He wants us to walk WITH Him. Don't you see? That is what we were designed for!!! God made Adam to walk with Him in the Garden. But since the fall of man, we haven't been able to do that like we were designed. That is why Jesus came down to Earth and died for us, so that we could be restored to Him and walk with Him again. Have you ever walked with someone without spending time with them? If you have, you are the first to do so. To walk with someone implies that there is some interaction happening on some level. It is personal, sometimes intimate. People share precious moments while walking together. This is what God longs for! For us to walk humbly with Him. When we walk humbly, we are free to see things that enrich our lives, free to understand truth for the first time. Free to serve and experience the joy of it. When we walk humbly with our God, then we can then experience Him. When we experience Him, then He will change us, re-wire us from the inside out and then we will begin to reflect His very nature to others. And that, my friend, is when we can then go out and change the world!!!
It is the height of ingrattitude to look at what Christ did for us and say, I don't owe God anything! or that He should be happy with just a little of my time instead of my whole self. After all, "what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?"
thanks for thinking about it.
I recently was told by someone that "God should just be happy that we even come to church."
What are your thoughts on that matter?
I am very thankful that Halloween is over. I hate that holiday! It brings out the worst in people.
I not only believe that Christians shouldn't celebrate it, but I believe that it is distinctly evil.
I was asked yesterday by a co-worker why I didn't dress up for the holiday at work, I responded by saying,
"As an evangelical Bible-believing Christian, I cannot celebrate a holiday that emphasises evil."
"but it is all fake" she replied
"That is what you say when you haven't met the real thing." I told her.
"Well, I just do it for fun."
"Yeah, I know. Fun is one of Satan's best tools."
my elder brother shares a few thoughts about faith, good stuff
He also talks a little about different ways to approach truth.