AS THE BIBLE TELLS US WE ARE FEARFULLY AND WONDERFULLY MADE

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Scientists at Harvard University, working with Google AI/machine learning experts, have published an amazing study of a one cubic millimetre piece of human brain. (The piece was excised during a medical procedure).

Sliver of brain tissue

The sliver of tissue, ~3 mm long, was sliced into over 5,000 thin sections and each one was scanned with an electron microscope. The images were then analyzed with Google’s machine learning programs (AI) to piece together a detailed 3-dimensional picture of the cells and their connections.

The tiny fragment contained 57,000 cells and 230 mm (9 in) of fine blood vessels. It had thousands of neurons and nearly 150 million synapses (the major connections between neurons).

The electron microscope images alone occupied 1,400 terabytes of computer memory. To put this in perspective, a typical large external hard drive today stores 20 terabytes. It would take 70 of these hard drives to store the data. But the whole brain is one million times this volume. Scaling up, we would need 70 million hard drives. At just $US300 each, this would cost 21 billion dollars, quite aside from the power to run them. And that’s just for one copy.

The researchers found things that have not been seen before. As one of the co-authors who helped lead the research, Jeff Lichtman, remarked to the Guardian,

“We found many things in this dataset that are not in the textbooks. We don’t understand those things, but I can tell you they suggest there’s a chasm between what we already know and what we need to know.“

We have a long way to go before we understand how the brain works. Indeed, we are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14).

It is getting harder and harder for biological scientists to cling to evolution and random chance and deny intelligent design for what they can now observe. Since the discovery of DNA and the electron microscope that revealed complex machinery even in the simplest cell, the demise of evolution as the cause of life on this planet was sealed.

“For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.” Romans 1:20-23

Sample, I., Scientists find 57,000 cells and 150m neural connections in tiny sample of human brain, theguardian.com, 10 May 2024.

Shapson-Coe, A. et al., A petavoxel fragment of human cerebral cortex reconstructed at nanoscale resolution, Science 384(6696):2024.

This article appeared in the latest issue of Creation Magazine

FOUNDATION FOR RATIONAL THINKING

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People are searching for solid foundations. They are dealing with a lot of information and a lot of data, and they just don’t know how it all holds together. Genesis has a blueprint for this very thing, and it is in the opening phrase, “In the beginning, God . . .” All things originated with Him. He made them, ordered them, and gave them purpose and meaning.

Without acknowledging our Creator God and His commandments for how we are to live our lives we make up our own rules. We can see how that is working when we now do not even acknowledge that God made us male and female with established roles. Also, we have no understanding of why the world is like it is with death and suffering if we do not acknowledge God and His Word. God has revealed to us not only that He created the world and humans made in His image to be in a relationship with Him but He has also told us that man’s disobedience to His commandment not to eat of the tree of good and evil is the reason for death and suffering in the world and the severing of our relationship with God.

Martyn Isles of Answers in Genesis does a great job of showing us how important Gensis 1 to 11 is to understanding all the big questions of life, giving us meaning and purpose and answers to the Why, How, Where,and When of it all.

EVIDENCE FOR A CREATOR: INCREDIBLE DESIGN AND BEAUTY

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The new James Webb Space Telescope can ‘see’ much farther than ever, probing distant realms of the universe never observed before.

Some of its earliest images were of galaxies with highly red-shifted light, thus interpreted as very remote and among the first ones formed after the supposed Big Bang (BB).

As reported last issue, fully mature spiral galaxies were found, not ones in their early stages—much bigger than thought possible. In BB theory, gravity should not have had the time to assemble them, so headlines carried statements like “massive galaxies that shouldn’t exist”. Now a new study suggests the galaxies could be up to ten times more massive than first estimated, making the BB’s problem that much worse.

Despite this, secular astronomers are unlikely to abandon the BB, the favoured way of explaining how the universe supposedly made itself with no Creator. Rather, rescue attempts will involve ‘auxiliary hypotheses’ to try to explain the observations.

The ideas of dark matter, dark energy, and inflation were similarly postulated to overcome conflicts between theory and observation. No one has ever seen or sampled dark matter, for example, but without it, BB theory doesn’t work. So, expect various refinements and modifications to salvage the theory in due course.

Niels Bohr Institute, James Webb’s ‘too massive’ galaxies may be even more massive, phys.org, 17 May 2023.

There is increasing evidence of the remarkable stability of our solar system. CMI has reported on this previously (Creation Vol 44, Issue 3, page 8, 2022).

Medium-sized planets are common in other systems, but there are no medium-sized planets in our solar system; instead, we have gas giants and ice giants on one hand, and small rocky planets like our Earth on the other. Using the Nice model, scientists previously found that the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn regulate the orbits of the smaller planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars), and have prevented them from becoming unstable and falling closer to the Sun. A further study has recently suggested that our solar system has built-in constraints on the degree of movement of inner planet orbits, preventing them from becoming increasingly chaotic and colliding. Moreover, the latest mathematical modelling (Mogavero, F., Hoang, N.H., and Laskar, J., Timescales of chaos in the inner solar system: Lyapunov spectrum and quasi-integrals of motion, Phys. Rev. X, 13:021018, 2023), suggests that certain symmetries in the orbits of the planets restrict the chaotic forces at work. Yet such stability is not evident in other planetary systems in the Milky Way.

The remarkable stability and order of our solar system point to the wonderful design by an intelligent and benevolent God. The chaotic factors would also limit the age of the solar system, pointing to a maximum age less than naturalism allows. As the creation account in Genesis records, the sun, moon, and planets have been intelligently placed in their positions for divine purposes, “for signs and for seasons, and for days and years” (Genesis 1:14).

adapted from REMARKABLE EVIDENCE OF A DESIGNED, YOUNG, AND STABLE SOLAR SYSTEM by Andrew Sibley Creation Magazine, volume 45, Issue 4, 2023

IS DESIGN DENIAL OF LIVING THINGS DEFENSIBLE?

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Living things certainly look designed. Some people are surprised to learn that even well-known, militant atheists and evolutionists will admit this fact, as the following three cases illustrate. Let’s hear first from British biologist Richard Dawkins: An increasing number of people in our secular society … are persuaded that design denial is an entirely sensible position. “Living things are not designed, but Darwinian natural selection licenses a version of the design stance for them. We get a shortcut to understanding the heart if we assume that it is ‘designed’ to pump blood.”2

Director of The Skeptics Society (US) Michael Shermer agrees: “The design inference comes naturally. The reason people think that a Designer created the world is because it looks designed.”3

So does American evolutionary biologist and Intelligent Design critic Jerry Coyne: “If anything is true about nature, it is that plants and animals seem intricately and almost perfectly designed for living their lives.”4

In the above instances, Dawkins, Shermer, and Coyne had living organisms in mind. But on a cosmic scale, too, top scientists affirm design. Charles Townes (1915–2015), who shared the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1964, unashamedly affirmed the universe was God-made: “Intelligent design, as one sees it from the scientific point of view, seems to be quite real. This is a very special universe: it’s remarkable that it came out just this way. If the laws of physics weren’t just the way they are, we couldn’t be here at all. The sun couldn’t be there, the laws of gravity and nuclear laws and magnetic theory, quantum mechanics, and so on have to be just the way they are for us to be here.”5

So, to repeat, wherever we care to look we observe design. This being so, why is it that many people today seem unable (or unwilling) to accept the evidence of their eyes?

Living things certainly look designed—like the intricacies of a peacock’s tail.

Design denial

Recall that Richard Dawkins actually admits that “a shortcut to understanding” living things is gained by assuming that they are designed—even though he emphatically rejects that any designing intelligence was involved; and certainly not the God of the Bible. He is very insistent upon this point, but also inconsistent! And those who disagree with him—who believe instead that the Creator God is behind all the design we see—he calls deluded. Of course, not all atheists and skeptics go as far as Dawkins in their rhetoric. Nevertheless, an increasing number of people in our secular society are buying into the lie that design denial is synonymous with (even necessary for) scientific integrity. They are persuaded that design denial is an entirely sensible position.

“In their case the god of this world (Satan) has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” 2 Corinthians 4:4

“For they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.” John 12:43

‘Talk about design if you really must, but whatever you do, don’t bring God into the discussion.’ That, they claim, is bad science! I am reminded of the line from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.” You can substitute “lady” with any spokesperson for the secular scientific establishment who claims that it is unscientific to follow the trail from designed things to the Designer—a claim that is contrary to the Bible (e.g. Romans 1:20). No, we really should follow where the scientific evidence leads us. We have nothing to fear from facts, only fact-denying dogma. Beware of those who say otherwise, whatever their credentials.

“For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” Romans 1:20

The Maker’s marks

The hallmarks of design are everywhere we care to look. In making the point that Jesus was far greater than Moses, one Bible writer wisely affirmed, “For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God” (Hebrews 3:4). This is not the place to delve further into that passage, but don’t miss the message: if the architect and construction workers are the ones who deserve the credit for an impressive house, the One who is “builder of all things” even more so. When something “looks designed” (Shermer), even “perfectly designed” (Coyne), we do indeed get “a shortcut to understanding” (Dawkins) if we acknowledge it to be so. Trying to avoid this leads to a sort of cognitive dissonance

When something “looks designed” (Shermer), even “perfectly designed” (Coyne), we do indeed get “a short cut to understanding” (Dawkins) if we acknowledge it to be so. Trying to avoid this leads to a sort of cognitive dissonance, a conflict between two contradictory ideas—as in, ‘it looks designed, let’s pretend it’s designed as it’ll help us understand it, but let’s be sure to keep telling ourselves it is not designed.’

In his most recent book, Return of the God Hypothesis (2021),7 Stephen Meyer reminds his readers that: “… many of the founders of modern science did not just assume that the universe had been designed by an intelligent agent. They also argued for this hypothesis based on discoveries in their fields of study. Johannes Kepler … Robert Boyle … Carl Linnaeus. Many other individual scientists made specific design arguments based upon empirical discoveries in their fields.”8

These great scientists of the past, rather than denying the design that stared them in the face (and suffering cognitive dissonance), delighted in it! This was a vital factor in their fruitfulness as outstanding scientists.

‘Delighting in design’ is certainly true of the editorial team of CMI’s Creation magazine, as well as the many authors and graphic artists who contribute to each new issue. Consider subscribing if you don’t already receive it—read, learn, and share it with others.

Let us avoid the foolish mistake of ascribing greatness to the things that are made. Christians should also help friends, colleagues, and family members to avoid this pitfall. Instead, we must be sure to worship the Maker whose marks we have observed in His manufactured creatures—evidence for God’s Grand Design is all around us. Merely to delight in the created designs themselves, while robbing our Creator of the glory that is rightfully His, is sheer idolatry (see Romans 1:25).

“Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.” Romans 1:24-25

References and notes

  1. This first appeared in CreationExtra, CMI-UK/Europe, March 2022.
  2. Dawkins, R., The God Delusion, Bantam Press, London, p. 182, 2006 (emphasis added). 
  3. Shermer, M., Why Darwin Matters, Henry Holt and Company, New York, p. 65, 2006 (emphasis original).
  4. Coyne, J., Why Evolution is True, Viking, New York, p. 1, 2009. 
  5. Quoted in: Meyer, S.C., Return of the God Hypothesis: Three scientific discoveries that reveal the mind behind the universe, HarperOne, New York, p. 146, 2021.
  6. Bell, P. (ed) and 10 others, Does Evolution Explain Everything About Life? Answers from Ph.D. scientists, Creation Book Publishers, Power Springs, GA, 2020.
  7. See Woodmorappe, J., The existence of specified information in the universe points to a creator God, A review of Return of the God Hypothesis: Three scientific discoveries that reveal the mind behind the universe (Stephen C. Meyer), J. Creation 36(1):26–29, April 2022.
  8. Meyer, ref. 5, p. 47.

adapted from a CMI article Delighting in Design – and in its Originator by Philip Bell1 Check out http://www.creation.com

BEST NEWS EVER TOLD

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The GOSPEL is the best news ever.in human history. Consider what God, our heavenly Father, did to make it possible for mankind that had rejected His sovereignty at THE FALL to be restored back into a right relationship with Him.

Adam was told that death would be the result of eating from the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil> Yet Eve and he chose to disobey God and eat it being deceived by another being, a spiritual being, that had already chose to disobey God, Satan, also known as the Devil. Mankind thus bought death and suffering into a word that was originally created perfect.

God’s plan to restore mankind is beyond our comprehension and it is only because God originally made us in His image to be in relationship with Him does He reach out to us by His Holy Spirit to make Himself known.

The most remarkable part of God’s plan is that He, Himself entered His world in the person of His Son, Jesus to pay the price of mankind’s disobedience – death. It is important to understand Jesus came exactly as prophesied in God’s Word given through His prophets.

God has demonstrated that He wants a relationship with each of us. He has done this ever since Creation by working with individuals that trusted Him. It is why it is so important we know His Word (The Bible) is inerrant, it conveys the true history of this world and of His working with individuals.. Events such as Noah’s Flood, The Tower of Babel, Israel’s exodus from Egypt and above all Jesus resurrection from the dead were all real events. Satan has contrived with strategies that are demonstrably untrue, such that the world made itself via evolution and therefore miracles are impossible and that God’s intervention in His world with miraculous events such as Noah’s flood are myths. In the case of Noah’s Flood this is despite the fact most nations around the world have a flood story in their origins.

Delivering the Gospel, the best news this planet has ever heard should be a joy for us to deliver and we should be anxious to share it with everyone. The Holy Spirit indwells every believer. He is also the one who convicts unbelievers of sin so He will direct us to those people that need to hear the Good News if we are available to be led by the Spirit and are saying each day, as Jesus did when He walked this planet, not my will but yours, Lord be done today.

Time is short, brothers and sisters in Christ so let us get about our joyous task of delivering the best news ever told. Your own testimony of what God has done and is doing in your life is an important part of the Good News. So too is Jesus prophesied soon coming return to put things right.

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They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. Rev. 20:5

This fallen world will experience the rule and reign of Jesus with the Saints for 1000 years before this world is destroyed by fire. The second resurrection of the dead and the White Throne judgement follows and only then will believers join Jesus and God the Father on a new earth and heaven. Jesus work is complete and He hands over sovereignty of the new earth to the Father. All unbelievers have been relegated to the Lake of Fire, punishment and a second death.

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.” Revelation 2:11

“Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.” Revelation 20:6

“Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.” Revelation 20:14

But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” Revelation 21:8

DOES GOD EXIST?

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Reflections on the Existence of God is a timely book for this time. God is no longer considered relevant by most politicians, and academia teach the new generation that evolution and billions of years is truth. As foolish as it is, God is not even considered necessary for life. We now make up our own rules and believe we shape our own destiny.

This book is a series of short essays seeking to answer life’s most enduring question: Does God exist? It is a well-researched book that is easy to read and understand. Each essay can be read in less than 10 minutes. In the end, it is important to know whether God exists or whether He does not. There is no third option. This book seeks to determine which of these beliefs is true and which one is not.

The author Richard E. Simmons 111 is the best-selling author of The True Measure of a Man, Reliable Truth, The Power of a Humble Life, and more. His approach is structured and methodical, and his passion is transforming lives through gaining wisdom and applying truth to every area of life. In late 2000, he founded The Center for Executive Leadership, a not-for-profit, faith-based ministry in Birmingham, Alabama.

His challenge to the reader: “follow the truth wherever it leads, always remembering that the truth is your friend. It enables you to believe responsibly. It leads to your ultimate well-being.”