Evolution and Creation: are we missing the point?

Nice article I came across – enjoy!

In the Beginning
By Royce Logan

Why are our eyes at the front of our head instead of at the bottom of our feet? Why do we have two eyes instead of just one? Why do we have eyes? Oh, “natural selection”. The organisms in our body have evolved into this magnificent creature we’ve become because of the intelligence of nature.

What? Nature has intelligence? If nature has intelligence then nature must also have consciousness. Why? Because consciousness is required to have a will and a will must have a desire and the desire must be to choose the more favorable traits of the organism over the lesser traits of the organism and then the organism must have the ability to sever itself from the lesser traits.

So, how can nature choose the more favorable traits of the organism unless it has the consciousness, the will and the desire to make that choice and then the ability to discard those lesser traits into the ash bin of its useless self?

Pretty crazy, huh? I agree.

There is no intelligence in nature, no consciousness, no will, no desire and certainly no abilities in nature to evolve into a better organism and then intervene into that evolution process to give a body of organisms something that is not even of its own realm: a consciousness. No, the only abilities in nature to evolve are those abilities set into motion by an intelligent designer who also has the ability to intervene into that process of evolution to unite the natural realm with a realm of awareness and of consciousness: the realm of our spiritual existence.

And you say, “Prove it!” And I say, “Prove me wrong!”

Where did the first slimy organism come from? Out of nothingness? Out of no thing? No matter, no energy, no light, no life, no nothing. Emptiness. But the very existence of nature is dependant upon the reality of itself: the truth that nature must contain substance, matter, even energy to exist, to be reality, and to be truth.

Nature can procreate itself, but it can not create itself. Big difference! We weren’t evolved from some slimy mess under a rock. If you still think we were then you have to answer the question, “Where did the slimy mess come from?”

Where does thought come from? Can a creature consume certain elements of nature to create thought? Sure, food nourishes the body to provide the fuel to generate thought, but food, by itself can’t create anything.

Having the ability to choose, having a will and a desire can only be manifested in a physical creature when a physical body has been combined with life; when the experience of nature has been integrated with a spiritual experience.

Nature alone is only substance and matter. Evolution requires something beyond what nature can offer. Evolution requires life.

Creation versus evolution. We’re missing the point.

Creation is evolution.

Royce Logan.
http://www.AgapeSolutions.org

The Forgotten Art

Tolerance seems to override modern evangelism in today’s society. Many people wonder what it means to “evangelize” to a person or crowd. No, evangelism does not mean threatening others with a horrible afterlife. Let’s face it; this is hardly the “good news” that Paul and the first ‘Christians’ emphasized during their ministry. Unfortunately, many fundamentalist Christian sects will preach fire and brimstone as oppose to the true Good News. But what is the true good news?

The true Good News is that Jesus has risen from the dead and saved everyone from the pain and guilt of sin and death!

We can’t forget the roots of which we Christians have come. Consider the wise words of Paul:

“For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! 16Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification.” (Romans 5:12-20, NIV)

The Good News goes beyond the silly tracts and saying contemporary Christians have developed over the years. The Good News is Freedom. We need to start evangelizing Freedom instead of guilt. What good does a guilty conscience do for humanity? God does not want “fearful” converts. God wants a sincere heart that is eager to seek His love. Evangelism entails freeing the heart and soul of the individual – this is what the early Christians in antiquity preached. There was no “hell” talk, only rhetoric regarding the grace, truth, love, and freedom of Christ our Lord. There was only preaching about His eternal sacrifice (out of Love) for humanity. It is time we look beyond the man-made institutions of “worthiness”, and focus instead on Godlike forgiveness.

Baptism: The Soul of Christianity

The baby is in hand, the water is set, and loving family members dab tears of joy. Yes, it’s time for another Christian Baptism! This has become a common scene on Sunday morning for all Christians. Baptisms give us the opportunity to share in the love of Christ through His Heavenly ritual. However, there is a baptism that we as Christians often forget about, one that the early Church preached with great zeal and compassion. Today we baptize by water (and of course there is nothing wrong with this), but first century advocates of Christianity also taught baptism by death.

As Christians, we are all baptized in the death and resurrection of Christ. Paul makes this abundantly clear in his letter to the Romans:

Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with,[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. (Romans 6:3-9, NIV)

Paul’s description of baptism unmistakably demonstrates the immense importance of baptism in death to the Christian community. Our baptism in death releases our burden of sin and frees our spirit – calling this “Good News” appears to be quite the understatement! It is because of our baptism in Christ’s death (dying with Him) that we become purified (like Him) and thus become conquerors of Hades (like Him). No more should Christians overlook the immense importance of baptism; it is far more than a Sunday morning ritual. True Christian baptism reaches beyond the water from the preacher’s hand, it permeates the very soul of Christianity.

The Greatest Sin

It is not uncommon to hear Christians talking about sins, and if one is worse than another. Naturally, it says that all sins are equally detestable to God, but is there a sin that rises above them all?

In short, I would say no (although there is mention of the “unforgivable” sin, which is speaking against the holy spirit). Nonetheless, I heard someone say something very interesting the other day that I want to share. During one of my classes at business school, the professor said something along the lines of:

One of the greatest sins that the Bible harps on is underutilization of potential

Intellectual Honesty or Jesus?

It seems today that when it comes to religion, many people confront an unfortunate dichotomy. The choice is between intellectual honesty and Jesus. Many believe there is no way to reconcile the two.

The purpose of me writing this post is not for me to say why my interpretation is superior, but instead to present an alternate view that often goes unnoticed… too often different views can be silenced by the surprisingly large fundie presence online (i.e. the blog-o-sphere).

If you were in a room of 100 Christians, and asked, “how many of you knew someone that grew up in a religious environment and then walked away from their faith upon leaving for college?” then you would see 100 hands raised in the air.

Let me suggest why I believe this happens.

Analyzing Jesus: His Miracles

Analyzing Jesus
Part Four: His Miracles

This is the fourth installment of my series titled, “Analyzing Jesus”. So far, we have looked at the historical figure, looked to see if he was the Jewish Messiah, and looked at further evidence to analyze the authenticity of the Old Testament claims/prophecy of a the Messiah. Today we move on and begin to address another controversial subject in regards to Jesus… his miracles.

Analyzing Jesus: Scientific Evidence for being Jewish Messiah

Analyzing Jesus
Part Three: Scientific Evidence for being Jewish Messiah

So far in this series I have covered that Jesus did in fact exist (despite some conspiracy theories), and also the likelihood that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah given all the prophecy he has fulfilled (and the probability of doing so). Today’s post I will continue with the idea of Jesus as the Jewish Messiah, and hopefully successfully address some major questions.

The first issue I will address is a question that I posed at the end of the last part in this series. It was the following:

“couldn’t have all the stuff about Jesus fulfilling prophecy have just been added by zealots after his death?”

Quite a valid question, in fact, many people ask it today. I mean, how can it be possible for one man to actually fulfill every single one of the prophecies written over 1,000 year span? Someone HAD to change the prophecy around right?! Not necessarily.

Analyzing Jesus: Was he really the Jewish Messiah?

Analyzing Jesus
Part Two: Was he really the Jewish Messiah?

In Part One of this series, we analyzed Jesus as a historical figure in history. The second part of this series is to address if Jesus is the Jewish Messiah, but in order to do that, we need to understand what Messianic Prophecies are. Scholars (Jewish and Christian) believe that the Bible (Old Testament) contains over 300 predictions about the Jewish Messiah. These predictions do not come from one source, but are from multiple authors in a variety of books ranging about 1,000 years. In other words, what we have here is an enormous “library” of statements made about the Jewish Messiah (what he will be like, what he will do, and so on).

Analyzing Jesus: The Historical Figure

Analyzing Jesus
Part One: The Historical Figure 

It’s about that time again. Time for me to start up a new series regarding religion/faith/Christianity. I can already tell that this series will be a long one, so get ready for the long haul. I will address Jesus on a variety of different fronts, trying my best to be objective (like a lawyer). Granted, I cannot completely rid myself of my preconceived biases, but I hope that you can, at the very least, respect my investigative reasoning.

a Letter to Atheists

The internet has opened a whole slew of avenues to obtain information, meet new people, and read up on different ideas. Until recently though (roughly about the time I started this blog) I had never had constant contact with individuals from the atheist community. Wow have things changed. Today I read (daily) atheist commentaries and I even contribute on a very popular atheist blog (as the Christian Contributor of course).