Atheists for Creation and Creationists for Evolution

Wow. My Google Alerts turned up some interesting reading this morning!

First, here's a comment from a young earth creationist. (Really!)

Evolution is not a theory in crisis. It is not teetering on the verge of collapse. It has not failed as a scientific explanation. There is evidence for evolution, gobs and gobs of it. It is not just speculation or a faith choice or an assumption or a religion. It is a productive framework for lots of biological research, and it has amazing explanatory power. There is no conspiracy to hide the truth about the failure of evolution. There has really been no failure of evolution as a scientific theory. It works, and it works well.

He's not joking. You can read the article here.

That's a refreshing bit of honesty I've been asking for for a long time.

Then, in the interests of equal time, here's one from an unabashed atheist:

Does science tell us that humanity is just an afterthought of an evolutionary process that did not have us in mind? No problem, because it is possible that what appears random to us actually has a direction when viewed from afar. Does the cruelty, waste and suffering of the evolutionary process challenge the idea of a loving God? Certainly not, because it is possible that God's unfathomable purposes could be attained in no other way. Does the ceaseless march of science make explanations based on the supernatural seem ever more tenuous and irrelevant? How absurd!

Wow. He's admitting that arguments for God are reasonable.

However, before you go running to read his article, you better get ready for a battle.

The internet and the information age assures us that battle is heating up, and it ensures us that it will reach you:

The Battle for Your Mind

You can't hide from the best atheist arguments any more. If you don't have something solid on which to base your faith, you will be taken down.

It appears to me that there are two solid things:

• Willful ignorance


• Real experience

Some people don't care what's true. No argument in the world will move them. They just believe what they want to believe.

Those people don't have to worry about atheist arguments.

The rest of us are going to be hit by some good ones. It's not just evolution that's an issue, there's a lot more. I won't give them to you myself. I'll let you run across them. You better get ready, though, because they're tough ... really tough.

However, over and over again, I see one front in the battle wide open. No atheist addresses it well. In direct confrontation with atheists, the best they could do is call me a liar. Most walk away.

That front goes unmentioned in the atheist article above.

That front is ...

Real Experience with God

I'm a teacher. I've always considered it my responsibility to learn. I believe Jesus is the Truth, so I'm not afraid to explore. I believe true exploration of facts and evidence will lead one to the conclusion that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

However ...

Along the way I've been hammered. A Jewish archeologist ran a full-page article in an Israeli newspaper accusing the scholastic community of covering up the fact that there's no evidence for the exodus from Egypt. He said six million people should have left some evidence, and the lack of it is proof enough that the exodus never happened, at least not on a Biblical scale.

He published that argument in a full-page ad in a Jerusalem newspaper.

I looked for the outcry. I looked for Jewish and Christian archeologists standing up in defense of Moses.

The silence was deafening.

One American archeologist debated him on the radio in Arizona. It was pitiful. The American could only suggest that maybe, possibly, something smaller happened, and we didn't notice.

I was shaken. Don't get me wrong. That one thing wouldn't have shaken my faith, but it was the brick that broke the camel's back. The camel's back was already full of bricks, and that one dropped him. (The camel was my faith.)

I had to step back and reevaluate. What, I thought, if nothing I believe is true? What if Moses didn't lead the Israelites out of Egypt. What if the Bible is just a bunch of books written by men? What if there's no good evidence for anything concerning the Christian faith?

Do you know what my answer was?

How in the world could I possibly explain the way I live every day? How in the world could I possibly explain the answered prayer, the guidance of God, the resolution of conflicts, the transformation of people's lives--even of their faces, the utter reliability of living a life of confidence in God?

I couldn't explain it, and no atheist has ever been able to explain it, either.

I don't understand God. His way really are a mystery, and as our atheist says above, it's quite reasonable that his ways are beyond our comprehension.

The fact is, though, that the testimony of the Gospel has always been that if you believe in Jesus Christ, he will deliver you from your sins and raise you up to a new life.

Being delivered and raised up is a noticeable and real way of life. Walking with God results in real experiences and real fellowship with God Almighty. That can't be explained away by archeological arguments or by Richard Dawkins belief that having seven billion people on earth will result in a lot of coincidences that look like God is answering prayer.

Sorry, Richard, that doesn't explain anything in my life or in the life of those around me.

What's lacking in today's world is not Christian arguments. What's lacking in today's world is Christian living. No one can argue against it.

As Jesus himself said, if Christians live in divine love, the world will believe, no matter what atheists say (Jn. 17:20-23).