A brief response to anti-creationist books

From CMI:

What about the anti-creationist books? I can’t possibly deal with all of them, but I will highlight some of the typical tactics and distortions used in such books by addressing some of those in the Selkirk and Burrows book, Confronting Creationism: Defending Darwin.¹ Such books normally present a distorted account of the creationist position, which is then made to look silly. They erect a ‘straw man’, set him alight, and then gloat over how stupid creationists can be to believe such things. Of course, creationists are not above criticism; we are human, fallible creatures. And sometimes the more ‘flakey’ fellow travellers of the creation movement give the sceptics cause to blaspheme. I have no wish to defend the indefensible. This response deals with deliberate distortions of main-stream creationist thinking by much anti-creationist literature...Continue Reading.

How life works

From Creation Ministries International:

Life is not a naturalistic phenomenon with unlimited evolutionary potential as Darwin proposed. It is intelligently designed, ruled by immutable laws, and survives only because it has a built-in facilitated variation mechanism for continually adapting to internal and external challenges and changes. The essential components are: functional molecular architecture and machinery, modular switching cascades that control the machinery and a signal network that coordinates everything. All three are required for survival, so they must have been present from the beginning—a conclusion that demands intelligent design. Life’s built-in ability to adapt and diversify looks like Darwinian evolution, but it is not. Darwin’s theory of speciation via natural selection of natural variation is correct in principle, but it cannot be extrapolated to universal ancestry. What we see instead is different kinds of organisms having been designed for different kinds of lifestyles, with enormous potential for diversification built-in at the beginning, but with time this potential for diversification has become depleted by selection and degraded by mutations so that we are now rapidly heading towards extinction. Intelligent design and rapid decay point to recent Creation and Fall, as the Bible tells us...Continue Reading

If anyone thinks that rocks need millions of years to form, then experiments carried out by Murdoch University (Perth, Western Australia) researchers would surely overturn that idea...From sand to rock—quickly!

The Nativity: Fact or Fiction?

From Creation Ministries International:

In Genesis 3:15, God says to Satan ‘And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on your head and you shall bruise him on the heel.’ Numerous Christian and Jewish Bible scholars have interpreted this verse as the first prophecy of the Messiah (see documentation). Known as the Protevangelium, it is the first gospel promise made to sinful mankind, whose willful rebellion in the Garden of Eden brought forth death, suffering, and a corruption of God’s perfect creation.

This verse makes two implicit promises. First, it hints at the virginal conception, as the Messiah is referred to as the seed of the woman. This is contrary to the normal biblical practice of naming the father, and not the mother, of a child. Second, it hints at the Messiah’s suffering and ultimate victory... The Nativity: Fact or Fiction?

Death and Suffering Questions and Answers

Creation Ministries International tackle another subject that has generally confounded mankind throughout the ages. I’ve read many inept essays by religious leaders attempting to tackle this thorny issue. I remember quite clearly how many struggled to explain how a God, if He really existed, could have possibly allowed the Indonesian Tsunami to take so many lives.

But God really is on His throne and He is in sovereign control. The universe isn’t a chaotic accident that occurred in our primal past, as the atheists would have it.

So, what are the answers? The answers are found in God’s word, the Bible.

Here is a sample of titles that CMI have addressed. If anyone has any further questions or troubling concerns, I can personally vouch that the CMI team are only too happy to graciously respond to e-mail queries, and I strongly recommend that people take advantage of that resource.

How can an all-powerful, loving God allow suffering and death?

Why would a loving God allow suffering?

How did bad things come about? (From The Creation Answers Book)

9/11 and the real ‘enemy’

Why is there death and suffering? (available in Italian)

The problem of evil (response to critic explaining the logic involved)

CMI answers philosophy/religion professor on biblical exegesis and the problem of evil

When did evil begin?

The Fall: a cosmic catastrophe: Hugh Ross’s blunders on plant death in the Bible

Cosmic and universal death from Adam–s fall: an exegesis of Romans 8:19’23a

Answering angry anti-Christianity (response to critic)

Crossing the thin red line: There are answers

The Fall into Sin

‘Lost’ without Genesis: coping with the ‘death wave’

The awesomeness of death

Two histories of death

Waves of sadness: Tsunami terror raises age-old questions (available in Spanish)

More titles HERE

Why should the Bible be trusted?

Another great resource from:

Creation Ministries International

Frequently asked questions listed by topic

Is there evidence that the Bible is the inerrant word of God, rather than mere stories and opinions of uninspired men?

The Authority of Scripture (available in Spanish)

Jesus Christ on the infallibility of Scripture

Holy Books?

Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy—with exposition (posted on Biblical Hermeneutics Web site)

The Christian and Authority (The inerrancy and primary authority of Scripture, Elliot Miller, Christian Research Institute)

Bible and Christian Theology (FAQ, Christian Answers Network)

M-A-P-S to guide you through Biblical Reliability (Hank Hanegraaff, Christian Research Institute)

The Bible’s Manuscript Evidence (Hyde Park Christian Fellowship)

The Textual Reliability of the New Testament ((Semi-Technical) Tekton Apologetics Ministries)

The Textual Reliability of the Old Testament ((Semi-Technical) Tekton Apologetics Ministries)

The Inspiration, Inerrancy, and Authority of the Bible

Manuscript Support for the Bible's Reliability

Can we believe the Gospels? A former chief magistrate examines the witnesses to the resurrection

Book review: The Sufficiency of Scripture

The first book of public hygiene

Modern medicine?

See Q&A: History: Biblical Chronology

Where did the individual OT books come from, and how were they combined to form the OT?

The Formation of the OT Canon ((Semi-Technical) Tekton Apologetics Ministries)

What is the importance of the Dead Sea Scrolls? (Associates for Biblical Research)

Are there answers to skeptical attacks against the Bible?

The Da Vinci Code: Secret hidden truth?

Da Vinci Code apostate challenges CMI

Materialist ‘defence’ of Bible fails (defence of the supernatural in Biblical miracle reports)

See Q&A: Countering the Critics: Refuting alleged Bible errors

Can the Bible mean anything we want? Or are there clear rules for interpreting it?

Should Genesis Be Taken Literally? (analysis of different types of literature in the Bible, and how to interpret each)

L-I-G-H-T-S to the Word of God (Hank Hanegraaff, Christian Research Institute)

Biblical Hermeneutics (Semi-technical, Biblical Hermeneutics website)

Genesis: What does it really teach, should it be trusted, and why does it matter?

See Q&A: Genesis

Are there special codes embedded in the Scriptures that can be used to predict the future?

What about the ‘Bible Codes’?