But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. –II Corinthians 4:3&4
Atheism is defined as “the belief that there is no God.” Beyond pure Atheism is Agnosticism, which is essentially an uncertainty of God’s existence. Many who espouse these philosophies have simply never given serious consideration to this issue, being rather entirely caught up with the daily diversions of their lives. I pray that God may use this article to throw the light of truth into this dark region of doubt: to challenge those trapped in unbelief, and also to strengthen the stand of those that believe already.
Upon consideration of how our vast, complex universe came into existence, there are only 2 possibilities. The first is that a supreme being, which we think of as God, created it all. The second is that everything created itself from nothing, and purely by accident. This second possibility has come to be called evolution. I think that what really gets overlooked by most is that in a godless universe, all of that which exists then had to have come about by random accidents, for there would be no guiding intelligence. I hope that even now your mind is raising some “red flags” about that 2nd option. How could this great universe of “somethings” arise from nothing? Can a tornado in a junkyard make an airplane? Can rocks really give birth to living creatures? Yet even those wild examples start with existing matter.
It is somewhat incredible to me, but some people still fall back upon invisibility as their excuse for not believing in God; they say that because they don’t see Him directly, He must not exist. This is a very thin argument, and that without merit. We don’t see wind, gravity, or radiation. Modern technology uses invisible electronic signals in thousands of ways, including satellite transmissions and “wifi” for our smart phones. We already know of and accept the existence of many invisible forces, so to deny God on such a basis is hypocritical. If you came across a watch lying on the ground, you would clearly recognize it to be the work of intelligence, and not some accident of nature. You do not have to see the person that made it to know that they exist. All the world around us cries out in testimony that it can only be God’s handiwork. We live in the reality of it every day, and it is therefore easy to lose sight of the intricacy. Do we not use for our benefit many complicated devices, having no idea of how they could be assembled and function? Seemingly simple realities, like the need for male and female to reproduce utterly confound the reasoning behind supposedly “accidental” development. What about pollination? Why does the existence of so many already complicated plants then depend upon yet another complex creature to pollinate it? Accidental development cannot account for it!
The evidence of God is plain for all to see, and God attests to this in the Bible; For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse. –Romans 1:18-20
This passage also goes on to prophecy about mankind’s denial of God’s existence, and the rise of the evolution theory; Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. –Romans 1:21-23
The Word of God also attests to His invisibility. When Moses asks God to show His glory to him, God responds; And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live. –Exodus 33:20. In Colossians 1:15, as part of a passage describing Jesus’ attributes, we find; Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. Another reference is found in I Timothy 1:17; Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen. Obviously, God has chosen for us to have faith in Him, being unseen, through that which we can see. The very nature of faith is to believe, where eyesight fails.
Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. –John 20:29
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. –Hebrews 11:1-3.
If we can therefore see so much testimony for the reality of God, what leads so many toward blatant unbelief? (1) It is the way they have been raised. In some families, the idea of God is utterly foreign. (2) Publicity: it is promoted in schools, published in books & newspapers, and broadcast in movies & television that evolution is a proven fact. Yes, some professed Christians believe in evolution, but this would render large parts of the Bible untrue. (3) The love of money and the esteem of men are great persuaders. The acceptance of the evolution theory is required in most scientific fields, and no contradictory finds will be regarded. Scientists can go along with this and be promoted, or face ridicule & unemployment. Even the public library in my hometown exemplifies this! A couple years ago they put on a big “origin of man” evolution exhibit, and since then they have received great praise and funding from the federal government. (4) The rebellious sinful nature of mankind often leads to the denial of God. Without this standard of morals, mankind is free to do whatever they might “feel”, without the consequences of judgment. (5) Our own judgments concerning right & wrong may hinder the acceptance of God. We don’t like the way things are working, and think that God shouldn’t allow it. We may also be disgusted by the behavior of those who claim to be God’s children, or we have also been badly hurt by them. Negative circumstances may be discouraging, but we should never let our lack of understanding translate into a denial of God’s obvious existence.
Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. –Isaiah 55:6-9
Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? –Romans 9:19 & 20
This passage also goes on to prophecy about mankind’s denial of God’s existence, and the rise of the evolution theory; Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. –Romans 1:21-23
The Word of God also attests to His invisibility. When Moses asks God to show His glory to him, God responds; And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live. –Exodus 33:20. In Colossians 1:15, as part of a passage describing Jesus’ attributes, we find; Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. Another reference is found in I Timothy 1:17; Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen. Obviously, God has chosen for us to have faith in Him, being unseen, through that which we can see. The very nature of faith is to believe, where eyesight fails.
Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. –John 20:29
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. –Hebrews 11:1-3.
If we can therefore see so much testimony for the reality of God, what leads so many toward blatant unbelief? (1) It is the way they have been raised. In some families, the idea of God is utterly foreign. (2) Publicity: it is promoted in schools, published in books & newspapers, and broadcast in movies & television that evolution is a proven fact. Yes, some professed Christians believe in evolution, but this would render large parts of the Bible untrue. (3) The love of money and the esteem of men are great persuaders. The acceptance of the evolution theory is required in most scientific fields, and no contradictory finds will be regarded. Scientists can go along with this and be promoted, or face ridicule & unemployment. Even the public library in my hometown exemplifies this! A couple years ago they put on a big “origin of man” evolution exhibit, and since then they have received great praise and funding from the federal government. (4) The rebellious sinful nature of mankind often leads to the denial of God. Without this standard of morals, mankind is free to do whatever they might “feel”, without the consequences of judgment. (5) Our own judgments concerning right & wrong may hinder the acceptance of God. We don’t like the way things are working, and think that God shouldn’t allow it. We may also be disgusted by the behavior of those who claim to be God’s children, or we have also been badly hurt by them. Negative circumstances may be discouraging, but we should never let our lack of understanding translate into a denial of God’s obvious existence.
Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. –Isaiah 55:6-9
Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? –Romans 9:19 & 20
Debunking the Theory of Evolution
While there can be numerous influences leading to a disbelief in God, the evolution theory weighs in heavily, because it seems to imply that the universe could have come into existence on its own. Yet evolution actually stands in opposition to many key scientific laws, all the while claiming itself to be real science. The following is meant to be only a brief but expository glance at some key points regarding evolution.
Many will claim that evolution is a scientific fact, and has been proven true. There are, however, six types of evolution, and only one has validity. (1) Cosmic evolution. This is how the universe supposedly got started, the “Big Bang” theory. (2) Stellar evolution. How the stars were formed. (3) Chemical evolution. This is about how the elements formed. (4) Organic evolution. This regards the rise of life from non-living material. (5) Macro evolution. How one type of creature changes into another, like a lizard changing into a bird. (6) Micro evolution. These are small changes within the same type of creature, more accurately called adaptation. An example would be insects that become resistant to a pesticide. The non-resistant population would die, but those left would pass their immunity along to their young when breeding. This type of “evolution” is easily observed from the evidence, but the other 5 types have NO evidence to show they are true, and are therefore believed by faith only. By broadening the definition of evolution, we are being deceived into accepting it as truth.
The concept of evolution is withstood, however, by the testimony of both science and sense. (1) The first Law of Thermodynamics is the law of the conservation of mass/energy: energy (or matter) cannot be created or destroyed. Energy may be changed from one form into another, but the total amount remains unchanged. This law plainly excludes the possibility that the “nothingness” of the universe pulled itself together to make a whole bunch of “something.” Did you know that there about 11 trillion stars for each human being? In mathematics, when you multiply any number by zero, the result always equals zero! To me, the fantasy of nothingness becoming something accidentally is far less reasonable than to think that God created it all. But science also says that it couldn’t happen. (2) The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics is the law of increasing entropy (disorder). This law refers to the degeneration of energy; all things tend to rot, decay, become less organized without any outside interference. Evolution claims the opposite! This 2nd law is easily observed in our everyday lives. Science has also proven that life cannot come from non-living material. No amount of time can change the reality of these laws.
There is also no science that shows our earth to be billions of years old. Scientific dating methods have proven to be very unreliable. The problem is that there are too many unknown variables which affect them. The primary age-dating mechanism used is the Geologic Column. This resource is also not science, but imaginative supposition from the mind of atheist Charles Lyell. The column, as Lyell proposed it, exists nowhere in the world, and nothing is even reasonably close. But it was this invention which provided a basis for Darwin’s theories on evolution!
The reliable dating methods we have indicate that our universe is quite young (the Bible puts it at just over 6,000 years). Comets are theorized to be leftover matter from the “big bang” that started it all, some 15 billion years ago. Yet comets are mostly water, deteriorate rapidly, and we know they can’t last much beyond 10,000 years- but we still have comets.
When NASA was taking on the moon landing project, evolutionists were warning them about the depth of the lunar dust. Due to the moon’s lack of atmosphere, x-rays from the sun continually break down the moon’s rocks into powder. With the moon supposedly 3.5 billion years old, it was thought that a landing spaceship could sink into dust over 20 miles deep! This concern led to an unmanned probe being sent to the moon first, only to find dust 2-3 inches deep: Age estimates from this were not more than 8,000 years.
We know that the earth is young from the amount of sediments on the ocean floor. We know from all of the still active volcanoes. We know because the underground pressure on the oil reserves should have dissipated them by now. Erosion rates show that all of the continents should have eroded away by now. We know because the earliest writings of man only go back about 4,000 years- about the time of the Flood. If mankind had really been here for over 2 million years, there should be much older samples; and the writings are complex, fully developed.
There is also a little- known, but powerful discovery that speaks for creation, and against evolution. That is the discovery & research involving polonium-218 halos, found by the trillions in the granite rock: granite is the major “basement” rock of our planet, upon which the sediments of Lyell’s supposed column are built. The granite itself shows that the earth was never a “molten mass” in the beginning, and the halos show that the granite came into existence in under three minutes. This is a well researched find, and you can check it out in depth in Robert Gentry’s book, Creation’s Tiny Mystery.
It has been scientifically proven that one type of animal cannot become another type. Even Darwin had given up on this type of evolution some 14 years after his book came out, but now we see that DNA presents a truly impassable barrier. No “transitional” types of animals have been found. Considering the supposed age of the earth, and the immense library of fossils now available, this is very profound. The only other possibility for evolution, mutation, has also been a failure: true mutations are far too few to account for life in all of its forms and complexity. And mutations are plainly seen to always be harmful to the organisms. In spite of all the known facts, the evolutionist will still declare that mankind descended from apes, and the need to find evidence of the impossible leads to innumerable errors, and some blatant fabrications. The entire alleged history of ape to man fossil evidence are mostly just fragments of bone, an amount that covers an area the size of a pool table. A few examples of error/fraud are; Neanderthal man: most experts say this is modern man showing the effects of rickets & arthritis. Piltdown man: this supposed “missing link” was discovered to be fraud. A human skull was combined with an ape jaw, and the teeth were filed to make a fit. Staining had also been added for an aged appearance. Nebraska man: another alleged missing link, this discovery was built up from one tooth. 7 years after, the tooth was found to belong to an extinct kind of pig. Lucy: this find was quickly broadcast to be an ape-man, but not long afterward it was determined only to be a type of ape. The decision reversal wasn’t widely broadcast! Orce man: a piece of skull was behind this one, only to later find it belonged to a 4 month old donkey. No matter what the find, today’s anthropologists are taught to use the evolution theory for the way they consider it. Money and reputation are also on the line. One can see how imagination could come into play, even if unintentionally. The media then quickly broadcasts new “finds” of supposed ape-men, but when the discoveries are overturned or disputed, we hear almost nothing.
There will always be some that are determined not to believe in God, no matter what evidence is presented. This is due mostly to our naturally rebellious sinful state; a condition that wishes to deny God the Lordship over their lives, and deny their accountability to Him in the end. It is my hope that any doubters reading this will take the time to search out the matter in depth, and respond accordingly. I also hope that it will encourage and strengthen the Christian in taking a stand for the truth.
Even though one may accept the reality of God’s existence, this will not provide eternal salvation for the soul. The Bible says that in the end, every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Philippians 2:10 & 11). It also says that even the devils believe and tremble- a faith without works is dead (James 2:19 & 20). True Christians know our God to be a very real, living presence. He is interactive, listening to our pleas and providing guidance on a daily basis: God is not merely a scientific reality. For help in finding real salvation through Jesus Christ, please read my blog article, Salvation through Repentance, not Acceptance. For more information on the creation vs. evolution matter, visit www.evolution-facts.org on line. Also recommended is the Thomas Heinze book, The Vanishing Proofs of Evolution, available through www.chick.com.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men… He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name…The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. John 1:1-5, 10-12, 29.
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. –John 14:6.
