By Gary Ray Branscome
The
philosophers of this world have never fully agreed on what “religion” actually
is. Some of them think of it as rules and obligations. Others think of it as
how God is worshipped, or as an ideology. The Apostle Paul, speaks of the “Jewish
religion,” and calls the Pharisees the “strictest sect” of that
religion (Galatians
In
the past, evangelical theologians have taught that there are only two religions
in the world. That definition lumps all non-Christian religions together as
religions of the law (or works), while contrasting them with Christianity, with
its emphasis on grace. And, there is truth to that distinction because man-made
religions see things in terms of what men need to do, rather than what God has
done for us. However, the rise of secular religions in the last century has
changed all of that. And, many of the problems that Christians face today stem
from a failure to understand and come to grips with that change.
The
secular religions center around worship of the goddess “mother nature”
disguised as science. This becomes obvious whenever those who embrace secular
religion give “nature” credit for our senses, for our intelligence, or for life
itself. By claiming that nature is our creator they are making nature their
god, thus honoring “the creation more than the Creator,” which is idolatry even
if a statue is not used (Romans
One
of the doctrines of secular religion is the claim that the universe is billions
of years old. Another is the claim that life came from non-life. And, a third
is the claim that all the life forms on earth can be explained by simple life
forms gradually morphing into more complex life forms. Furthermore, all of
those doctrines are assumed to be true without the rigorous testing that sets science
apart from philosophy. The purpose of such rigorous testing is to prove
untested assumptions wrong – because that is the way real science advances.
However, nature worshippers just interpret circumstantial evidence to support
their ideas while explaining away anything that does not fit. In short, they
interpret the scientific evidence the way cults interpret Scripture.
Let’s
start with the claim that life came from non-life. The scientific evidence
against that claim is so strong that evolutionists try to avoid discussing it,
at least with creationists. Nevertheless
At one time it was widely believed that maggots would
spontaneously generate in meat. In order to test that "hypothesis,"
Francesco Redi (in 1660) devised an experiment,
consisting of jars that contained meat. One jar was open, another jar had a piece
of cheesecloth stretched across the top, and a third was closed. Maggots not
only did not appear in the meat that was in the closed jar, but flies were
actually observed laying maggots on the cheesecloth. Two centuries later, many
still believed that bacteria would spontaneously generate in broth. In order to
test that hypothesis, Louis Pasteur (in 1859) devised an experiment that
utilized several long-necked flasks containing beef broth. The necks on some of
the flasks were straight, while others were bent in an s-curve. As predicted,
bacteria only infested the broth that was in flasks with straight necks. When
the flasks had curved necks, the bacteria stuck to the side of the neck, and
could not get to the broth. Those experiments, coupled with the invention of a
dust-free box at the end of the nineteenth-century, convinced the scientific
community that life does not come from non-life. Atheists know that. And, that
is why, when the atheist Richard Dawkins was interviewed for the movie
“Expelled,” he suggested that life may have been seeded on earth by life forms
that evolved elsewhere in the universe. That is atheist mythology not science.
When we look at the fossil record, we find that about
forty percent of the fossilized life forms are not extinct. We find fossilized frogs, dragonflies,
turtles, figs, cats, and thousands of other species that are virtually
identical to their modern day living counterparts. In other words, the fossil
record tells us that they have not evolved. That is scientific fact! However,
when we encounter a fossilized life form that is extinct atheists often claim that it evolved into
something else. There is not any scientific evidence to support that claim.
They just make it because it fits their religion, and because we do not have a
living specimen that we can hold up to disprove it. Take for example their
claim that dinosaurs evolved into birds. There is not one scrap of evidence
that dinosaurs ever evolved into anything. In fact, modern birds have been
found in the same rock layers as dinosaurs. So the claim that dinosaurs morphed
into birds is atheist religion, not science.
As to the age of the earth, many of
the claims made about radiometric dating are false. In fact there is much
evidence that the world cannot be as old as the evolutionists claim. While most
of it is too technical to go into here, it is available through such research
organizations as “The Creation Research Society” or “Answers in Genesis”. I
could add much more, but this is a book of theology, not science or
apologetics. Nevertheless, it is important to understand that Christians do not
reject the “facts of science,” we just interpret those facts to agree with the
truths that are clearly and explicitly stated in Scripture. In contrast
atheists interpret the same facts to agree with their secular religion. And, the following verses describe what happens when a
nation turns away from the True God.
“Professing themselves to be wise… They changed the truth of God into a
lie, and worshipped and served the creation more than the Creator… For this cause God gave them up to vile
affections: for even their women exchanged the natural use for that which is
contrary to nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the
woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men doing what is
shameful, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error that was
fitting. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God
gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things that are not right;
Being filled with unrighteousness of every kind” (Romans 1:22-29).
REMEMBER
Opinions may contradict the Word of God,
but the facts never do.