Two Big Bad Trojan Horses

Image courtesy of Wikipedia (Creative Commons 2.5).





Joel Kontinen

Throughout church history, ideas that are completely opposed to Christianity have often tried to infiltrate the church. In the early days, the apostles had to warn the believers of a salvation by works view stemming from the observance of Judaism. Later, Gnosticism became an even bigger threat.

In the past two centuries or so, two big bad Trojan horses – theistic evolution and the belief in millions of years – have tried and are still trying in infiltrate the church.

Murphy’s Law and Intelligent Design

The Fall resulted in thorns and thistles.




Joel Kontinen

First we had a power blackout caused by a blizzard and then two days later my laptop refused to function. Then we had more and longer blackouts.

Evolutionists often claim that anything less than perfect design means no design. However, in this case, a power grid that almost always works is still designed and so is a computer that once in a while does not function as it should.

They speak of a fallen world and not of the absence of design.

Orwellian Newspeak in New Scientist

George Orwell, the father of newspeak. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.





Joel Kontinen

Criticizing Darwinian evolution is an attack against science, Paul Wolpe argues in the latest issue of New Scientist in a genuine Orwellian way:

“SCIENCE is under assault. In the US and throughout the world, rhetoric about evolution, stem cells, global warming and other controversial and cutting-edge technologies often transcends legitimate disagreement to challenge the work of scientists.”

However, scientific theories should not be above criticism as no one has ever succeeded in developing a theory that had no defects. And Darwinian evolution has probably more of them than any other view scientists have suggested.

In Orwellian newspeak words are given meanings that differ diametrically from their ordinary meaning.

Evolutionists often regard evolution as a synonym for science. What they tend to forget is that modern science owes its origin and existence to Christian thinking or the view that a rational Creator has created a rational world that can be studied and observed.

Since its early days, Darwinian evolution has been a very questionable idea. Many of the great pioneers of science, for instance Louis Pasteur, resisted it. However, they did not attack science but merely criticised Darwinian evolution.

Many former people's republics were fond of newspeak. They were actually totalitarian oligarchies in which the people did not have any power and they had no idea what democracy was about.

Darwinists have embraced this method wholeheartedly.

Source:

Wolpe, Paul Root. 2012. Science needs a universal symbol. New Scientist 2846: 24-25.

BioLogos – Using Man’s Word as the Authority in Understanding Genesis

Many theologians have doubts about Adam.




Joel Kontinen



If human history teaches us anything, it at least tells us that it is difficult for us to believe that a transcendent Creator can communicate with us in an understandable way.

However, our thinking will not change reality. If God was powerful enough to create everything in the cosmos, He is capable of telling us how He did it.

Unfortunately, many Christians will doubt this. In recent years, scientists and theologians at the BioLogos Foundation have insisted that Christians should accept theistic evolution or the view that God is behind evolution.

In a 21-minute video clip, Ken Ham, CEO of Answers in Genesis-USA, speaks about the anti-biblical teachings of BioLogos.

When Stargazers Met the Creator of All Stars

Joel Kontinen

When Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem, he was not only greeted by shepherds, who were members of the lower class, but also by the magi, stargazers who had the wherewithal to leave everything and embark on an investigative journey to see what was going on.

Traditionally, Epiphany is celebrated on 6th January to remind us of this historical event. Men who studied the stars met the One who “made the stars also”.

The apostle Paul describes Jesus as follows in Colossians 1:15-17 (NIV):

“The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”

Two Ways of Seeing the Past

Joel Kontinen

Ken Ham, CEO of Answers in Genesis (USA), often speaks of ultimate authority. In this brief video clip he talks about the difficulty of interpreting the past. In the Bible, God tells us that He was there in the beginning so He knows what He is talking about.

A False Cheetah and a Chimp That Did Not Learn Sign Language

A false Cheetah. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.



Joel Kontinen

Last week brought us news about the demise of a chimpanzee named Cheetah at the age of 80. However, it was soon reported that this chimp was born long after the first Tarzan films were shot.

The real Cheetah starred alongside Johnny Weismuller and Maureen O’Sullivan in Tarzan films in the 1930s.

The media and science reporters are fond of ape tales but unfortunately we often can’t make head nor tail of their tall tales.

Recently, the journal Nature reported on Herbert Terrace, who in the 1970s tried to teach a chimpanzee named Nim Chimpsky to learn sign language. Nim learnt about 125 signs but unlike human children it failed to form logical sentences but merely combined signs haphazardly, for instance, ”eat – me –eat” or ”play – me – Nim”.

Terrace says that Nim aped signs to get rewards. The chimp tests turned out to big failures, as Nim was unable to learn properly. Finally it grew too big, and the tests had to be discontinued.

Evolutionists had hoped to prove that a chimp can learn to communicate but the case of Nim Chimpsky tells us that there is an enormous intellectual and linguistic gap between humans and chimpanzees.

Only humans, who are created in the image of God, are able to use language in a creative way.


Source:

Hoffman, Jascha. 2011. Q & A Herbert Terrace The interpreter. Nature 475 (7355): 173.