Atheist Daniel Dennett: Christianity is Like a Virus

Daniel Dennett compared Christianity to a virus. Image courtesy of David Orban, flickr.com.





Joel Kontinen


Some weeks ago, philosopher and cognitive scientist Daniel Dennett was interviewed on the BBC World Service. In a HardTalk programme hosted by Stephen Sackur, Dennett claimed that Christianity was like a virus.

Obviously, that was not a compliment. Few people would be very enthusiastic about viruses.

This is not the first time someone makes such an outlandish claim. Richard Dawkins, for instance, has been saying something very similar for years.

Dennet’s claim probably says more about the worldview (atheism) that produces these opinions.

Christianity has been very successful. In contrast, atheism has not been very successful, as it is an ideology that gives mankind no hope.


Source:

BBC.

New World-Class Exhibits at the Creation Museum

Joel Kontinen

Opened six years ago, the Answers in Genesis’ Creation Museum in Kentucky has attracted 1.8 million visitors. The Museum presents the biblical view of earth history, including the view of a real global flood in Noah’s days.

Recently, the Creation Museum introduced three new world-class exhibits.



Source:


Creation Museum Expands with Three World-Class Exhibits Answers in Genesis 24 May 2013.

Nature: The Wings of a Seabird Are Built for Flight

The wings of seabirds are designed very elegantly and intelligently.



Joel Kontinen

Design in nature is so obvious that it is almost impossible to avoid seeing it – even in science journals that tend to prefer “Darwin only” views. Recently, Nature news discussed why penguins cannot fly. In doing so, it also disclosed teleology that is seen in birds. In other words, wings have a purpose.

Summarising research conducted by biologist Kyle Elliott at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada, science writer Matt Kaplan said:

”Elliott and his colleagues speculate that because the wings of a murre are still built for flight, they create drag underwater.”

Yes. Wings are built for flight. It is perhaps needless to add that they are designed very elegantly and intelligently.

Source:

Kaplan, Matt. 2013. Why penguins cannot fly. The need to swim efficiently makes seabirds poor fliers. Nature news (20 May).

Science Rules Out a Naturalistic Origin of Life

Joel Kontinen


Science should be about things that can be verified by careful research. However, scientists sometimes just assume that what they are trying to prove.

The origin of life is one such thing. As far as we know, life only comes from life. Lifeless matter cannot produce living beings. A brief video produced by Creation Ministries International illustrates this issue.

Excellent Design - No Changes Since Dino Days

Joel Kontinen


Evolution is often defined as change over time (from a common ancestor to current organisms). However, all too often organisms do not change as much as our Darwinian friends would want them to.

Take plants like cycads, for instance. They haven’t changed since dino days.

Kermit Gosnell and Abortion’s Darwinian Connection

Charles Darwin’s ideas have had bad consequences. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.



Joel Kontinen


Bad ideas tend to have bad consequences. Darwinian evolution with its struggle for existence has a sordid track record. Evolution inspired the harsh totalitarian regimes of the 20th century, led to the Second World War, causing great destruction and loss of life.

It inspired racism, eugenics and the holocaust.

But that is not all. A trial in the United States emphasises another rotten fruit of Darwinism: the idea that man is just an animal has led to millions of abortions. Recently, the Washington Post reported:

“A Philadelphia doctor accused of performing illegal late-term abortions in a filthy clinic has been found guilty of first-degree murder in the deaths of three babies born alive but was acquitted in the death of a fourth baby.”

Dr. Gosnell killed the babies after they were born. Although this does not differ substantially from killing babies before they are born, it shows that in an evolution-based worldview humans do not have any intrinsic value.

As the Lord Jesus said, a bad tree cannot bring good fruit.

Source

Dennis, Brady. 2013. Abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell convicted of murder in deaths of three infants. The Washington Post (13 May).

Six Years in Prison and 600 Lashes for Obeying Christ

El Greco: Christ carrying His cross (1580). Image courtesy of Wikipedia.






Joel Kontinen


It is not always easy to follow Christ. The cost of discipleship can be very high, especially in some parts of the world.

Recently, a court in Saudi Arabia sentenced a Lebanese Christian to a six-year prison sentence and 600 lashes for converting a female co-worker, who later fled to Sweden.

The court sentenced a Saudi man, who was also involved in the lady’s conversion, to two years in prison and 200 lashes.

The men obviously gave the woman some Christian books to read.

Source:

Steffan, Melissa. 2013. Saudi Arabia Punishes Two Christians for Converting Coworker. Christianity Today (17 May).

Financial Crisis Rooted in Rejection of God, Pope Says

Pope Francis says rejecting God has led to the current economic crisis. Image courtesy of Casa Rosada, via Wikipedia.



Joel Kontinen

Speaking to four new ambassadors to the Holy See, Pope Francis discussed the reasons for the worldwide financial and economic crisis. He pointed out, “Human beings … are nowadays considered as consumer goods which can be used and thrown away. We have started down the path of a disposable culture.”

He went on to say that this attitude stems from “a rejection of ethics, a rejection of God.”

It is not too difficult to agree with him.


Source:

Pope to New Ambassadors: Financial Crisis Rooted in Rejection of Ethics. Vatican Information Service 16 May 2013.

The Kind of Evolution We Might Notice

While animals do not evolve, some machines might have evolved (but not randomly).




Joel Kontinen


It is exceedingly difficult to find any real evidence for Darwinian evolution. However, if we look at lifeless objects, for instance horseless chariots (as they used to be known at one time), we do see enormous changes.

The problem with these changes is that they are not random. Engineers have made intelligent changes to existing machines.

That is actually called intelligent design.

Human Mothers Could Not Have Evolved

Blind Darwinian mechanisms cannot produce intelligent beings.



Joel Kontinen


On Mother’s Day it is good to think about the origin of motherhood.

Darwinian evolution fails to give a credible explanation of why there are both mothers and fathers. It would have needed a miracle to get a male ape-like human ancestor to evolve at exactly the same time as a female ape-like ancestor, so that leaves absolutely no room for evolution. Actually, a similar chain of improbabilities goes way back to the first sexually reproducing organisms.

The Bible presents a much more credible explanation. According to Genesis 1:27-28 (NIV):

“God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”

Stephen Hawking Boycotts Israel

Stephen Hawking boycotts Israel. Image courtesy of NASA.




Joel Kontinen

Science is not the only thing that scientists do. Professor Stephen Hawking was supposed to attend a scientific conference in Israel but he cancelled his coming at the last moment. Initially, the University of Cambridge issued a statement, explaining that he was not well enough to travel. However, he later admitted that his real reason was a desire to boycott Israel.

Professor Hawking is not the only scientist who has used his scientific credentials to dabble with politics or other non-scientific issues. Richard Dawkins has hardly spent any time in a laboratory in decades but has focused on spreading the gospel of atheism. Recently, PZ Myers has defended abortion.

The Hawking case shows that anti-Semitism has definitely not fallen into a black hole.

Source:

Plosker, Simon. 2013. Stephen Hawking’s Media Mess. The Times of Israel. (9 May).

Polystrate Fossils – Still a Huge Problem for the Evolutionary Timeline

Joel Kontinen

Some fossilised trees are a problem for the idea of millions of years without which Darwinian evolution would not even theoretically be viable. They cut through rock layers that are assumed to be tens of millions of years old.

This is very problematic (for millions of years), as if fossilisation does to occur rapidly it will not occur at all.

A brief video produced by Creation Ministries International emphasises this dilemma:

Richard Dawkins Continues His Anti-Religious Campaign

Richard Dawkins wants to deny parents the right to teach religion as fact to their children. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.




Joel Kontinen

Richard Dawkins likes to bask in the limelight. Recently, he compared Christian teaching on hell to child abuse.

He would deny parents the right to teach religion as fact to their children. He is especially angered by the concept of hell (which Jesus regarded as factual).

Atheists have a long and murky history of intolerance. Communist countries once violated the basic human rights of millions of Christians. Even today, Christians are persecuted in many countries.

Jesus promised that nothing could be able to stand against the Christian church. Dawkins ought to read history just to see what has become of secularists who once claimed they would wipe out Christianity.

Source:

Cooper, Rob. 2013. Forcing a religion on your children is as bad as child abuse, claims atheist professor Richard Dawkins. Daily Mail (22 April).

Life Could Not Have Arisen on Earth, New Research Suggests

Researchers used Moore's Law to conclude that life has not had enough time to evolve on Earth. Image courtesy of NASA.




Joel Kontinen

Life is far too complicated to have evolved on Earth through purely natural processes, a recent paper suggests.

According to an article posted on the Phys.org website,

“Geneticists Richard Gordon of the Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory in Florida and Alexei Sharov of the National Institute on Aging in Baltimore have proposed, in a paper uploaded to the preprint server arXiv, that if the evolution of life follows Moore's Law, then it predates the existence of planet Earth.”

Moore's Law states that the number of components in integrated circuits doubles every two years, and thus computers become exponentially more complex and effective over time.

Gordon and Sharov apply Moore's Law to biological complexity. They work backwards from the present, assuming that genetic complexity doubles every 376 million years.

They conclude that given the current complexity of life, the first life had to appear almost 10 billion years ago, which exceeds the prevailing naturalistic estimate of the age of Earth by over five billion years.

What the research failed to consider is that life could never have risen spontaneously in any time. Life only comes from life.


Source:

Yirka, Bob. 2013. Researchers use Moore's Law to calculate that life began before Earth existed. Phys.org (18 April).

Coelacanth, the Living Fossil That Is Not an Evolutionary Link

The coelacanth was once touted as the link between fish and land animals.




Joel Kontinen

The African coelacanth, Latimeria chalumnae, became the first living fossil that had its genome sequenced. While the paper reporting this research, recently published in the journal Nature, pays homage to Darwinian evolution, the fish itself is not at all that what evolutionists once assumed.

The coelacanth is a true fish. It was never about to change into an amphibian. “The modern coelacanth looks remarkably similar to many of its ancient relatives,” the Nature paper says. In other words, that what is missing is evolution.

Assumed to have become extinct at the time of the dinosaurs, the coelacanth has obviously not had the time to evolve.

Source

Amemiya, Chris. T. & al. 2013. The African coelacanth genome provides insights into tetrapod evolution. Nature 496 (7445), 311–316.