Feature Articles

The objective of this article is to provide a review of some of the foundations of our beliefs as they apply to Biblical creation and creation science. Also, it is to help people come to faith in God, hold their faith if they have faith, and strengthen their faith to be effective with others in bringing faith in God to them. I first listed these foundations in the February 2005 issue of the TASC newsletter. From time to time it will be helpful to refocus on some of these foundations of our creation beliefs so that we may easily review and keep them in mind as we continue to address these foundations in our TASC newsletter articles and witness to others.

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With support from the United States National Institutes of Health and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, scientists from several medical research laboratories in the United States and the Netherlands have recently completed a series of experiments designed to sequence the male-specific region of the Y chromosome (MSY) in the chimpanzee. 1 In their words, they achieved for the first time “levels of accuracy and completion previously reached for the human MSY.” They also compared the MSYs of humans and chimpanzees and found that “they differ radically

1. 1. Hughes JF, Skaletsky H, Pyntikova T, Graves TA, van Daalen SKM, Minx PJ, Fulton RS, McGrath SD, et al. (2010) Chimpanzee and human Y chromosomes are remarkably divergent in structure gene content. Nature 463 (7280): 536-539

William Dembski

The End of Christianity by William Dembski attempts to reconcile natural evil with a good God. The problem for Dembski, who believes modern science has proven that the earth and universe are billions of years old, is to explain how natural evil in the form of physical death and suffering could have existed before the Fall of Man while leaving God’s good character intact. Dembski creates an elaborate theology to address this problem.

This paper examines abortion from several perspectives: biblical, philosophical, logical, scientific, medical, ethical/moral, legal, and historical. Although the examination cannot be exhaustive, it will hopefully lead the reader to seriously reconsider his pro-choice position or be strengthened in his pro-life position.

C. Everett Koop and Francis Schaeffer are most insightful when they say, “…far from being only single issues, abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia strike at the heart of our most basic beliefs about God and man.” 1

This paper will focus on the horrors of abortion and infanticide and will not include euthanasia.

1. 1. Koop CE, Schaeffer FA (1983) Whatever Happened To The Human Race?, Crossway Books Wheaton, Il, x

Creation and Resurrection1

By Henry Morris, PhD2

The two greatest events in the history of the cosmos were, first of all, its supernatural creation and, secondly, the resurrection of its Creator from the dead. The evidence for each, to one whose mind and heart are open to evidence, is overwhelming. All true science points to creation, and the best-proved fact of history is the resurrection. The Bible, of course, teaches that both are vitally true, vitally important and vitally related, but even to one who does not believe the Bible, the evidence is still unanswerable. He may reject it, but he cannot refute it.

1. 1. Adapted from Dr. Morris’ article “Creation and Resurrection” in the April 1984 edition of Acts & Facts. Morris H (2010) Creation and Resurrection. Acts & Facts 39(4):12-15 Copyright © 2010 Institute for Creation Research. Used by permission.
   
2. 2. Dr. Morris (1918-2006) was Founder of the Institute for Creation Research.

Dr. Cornelius Van Til

“I propose to argue that unless God is back of everything you cannot find meaning in anything…” 1

“I hold that belief in God is not merely as reasonable as other belief; it is not a little more probable, or infinitely more probable, than unbelief. I hold rather that unless you believe in God you can logically believe in nothing else.” 2

The above quotations by the late reformed apologist Cornelius Van Til explain the need for God to be at the foundation of human thought. This includes logic.

1. 1. Van Til C (1976) Why I Believe in God, Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, PA, 1
2. 2. Ibid., 16

A person tossing aside the Word of God to enter neutral ground finds himself on a slippery slide to the rejection of God

Stephen C. Meyer

Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design 1 by Stephen C. Meyer is the latest book from a major proponent for intelligent design (ID).2 Signature is Meyer’s magnum opus. Meyer is the director of the Discovery Institute’s (www.discovery.org) Center for Science and Culture, the flagship organization for the ID movement. He is a trained geologist and has a Ph.D. in the Philosophy of Science from Cambridge. 3 Signature is written at a level accessible to the layman but also informative to the specialist in biochemistry. The book is a history of Meyer’s interest and involvement with ID. The main focus of the book is the origin of the informational code in DNA, especially as it relates to the origin of life. The book discusses several topics including the history of the discovery of the structure of DNA, the cracking of the DNA code, the history and status of origin of life theories (especially the RNA world), basic information theory, various scientific methodologies and modes of thought and why ID is scientific, historical sciences, detecting design, why ID is the best explanation for the origin of the information in DNA, and responses to ID critics. This review will touch upon some of the book’s highlights.

1. 1. Meyer SC (2009) Signature in the Cell; DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design, HarperCollins, New York, NY. The book’s website is www.signatureinthecell.com
2. 2. Reynolds D (2006) Intelligent Design. TASC Newsletter, May, 2006. See http://www.tasc-creationscience.org/ sites/default/files/newsletters/2006/may06.pdf
3. 3. Meyer’s dissertation was on the topic of origin of life biology.

Four giant stone hand axes were recovered from the dry basin of Lake Makgadikgadi in the Kalahari Desert. How big would a human have to be to use such a giant stone tool?

Most information in this article comes from Nature’s Destiny
by Dr. Michael Denton.1

Light

About 60% of the sun’s radiation is in the visible range, only about one trillionth of one trillionth of the entire electromagnetic spectrum. Amazingly, this same range is what the air, the atmosphere, is transparent to.

1. 1. Denton MJ (1998) Nature’s destiny : how the laws of biology reveal purpose in the universe, Free Press, New York, NY.