In our last study we found out that the Bible does in-fact claims to be the word of God. So, where does that leave us now? Can we actually trust the Bible we read today?It is true that we do not posses the original documents that comprise the Bible to fall back on. Many critics say that the integrity of the Bible has been compromised through the many translations from language to language over thousands of years. The argument is, when you translate a document from language to language you will lose the original meaning, especially when it comes to ancient languages. Another argument we hear from critics is the fact that the printing press was not around during ancient times, people had to transcribe the scriptures by hand which gave room for many errors. These do sound like very valid arguments which we will take a closer look at in this study, along with comparing the scriptures to other ancient manuscripts to test the validity of the Bible.
The Bible is comprised of sixty six separate books, written over a sixteen hundred year period. The old testament contains thirty nine books written from 1500 to 400 BC, and the new testament contains twenty seven books written from 40 to 90 AD. A total of forty people from kings to servants authored the Bible, and all sixty six books come together perfectly to tell one complete story with no contradictions. This last fact is disputed by many non-believers, but as we will find out in a future study, there are no contradictions in the Bible. Right now we will focus our attention on the copies we posses, and the transcription method.
Before the invention of the printing press in the mid-1400's AD, the scriptures had to be copied by hand. The transcription system they used was extremely accurate, they had developed this incredibly intricate system of counting letters, words and paragraphs to insure that no copying errors were made. If a single error was made the entire scroll would be destroyed, and they would start again from the beginning. These scribes would dedicate their entire lives to performing this single job. Thanks to the discovery of the dead sea scrolls we can see just how reliable this scribal system was. We will take a closer look at the dead sea scroll's in a future study.
Now that we see the original scribal system was very reliable, let's take a look at the copies we have to work with. It is true that in the 200s AD the new testament was translated from Greek into Latin, Coptic, Syriac and much later into English. Many people believe that much of the true meaning could be lost through the many translations, but the problem with this argument is, we still have copies of the text in it's original language of Greek. In fact, there are over twenty four thousand copies of the new testament, five thousand three hundred nine of which are in Greek. Many people today speak the Greek language, and anybody can learn it. All Bible colleges offer classes in Greek and Hebrew. The old testament has over six thousand copies in the Hebrew language that we can fall back on. If we compare this to other ancient manuscripts we find that the Bible stands alone in it's reliability. Take for instance, Homer's lliad in which we only posses six hundred forty three copies of. We do not have the original, and the earliest known copy is removed by twenty two hundred years from the original. Herodotus is another trusted ancient manuscript with only eight existing copies removed from the original by thirteen hundred years. Julius Ceasar, Gallic wars is removed by one thousand years with only ten copies. These manuscripts are trusted among schollars of today, but they don't come close to the reliability of the Bible. As we said before, the new testament has twenty four thousand copies, and the earliest known copy dates back to 125 AD, which is only removed from the original by thirty five years.
As you can see, no other ancient writing comes close to the reliablility of the Bible, yet many people will put their trust in these other ancient writings rather than the Bible. Our next study is going to look at archeology, and how it enforces the reliability of the Bible.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Friday, September 10, 2010
Genesis 1:3 Word Of God II
In our last study we learned that reading God's word would build our faith, but many people don't believe that the Bible is God's Word. The most prevalent argument I hear from people is: "Man wrote the Bible so how can I believe everything that they are saying, after all, people often have their own agendas, and are fallible". When we do study the Bible we find that it was written by forty different people over a sixteen hundred year period. When people hear this one fact they tend to disregard the Bible all together instead of seeking more information to validate their position. This is a very big mistake to make, basically we are putting all of our trust in our own feelings instead of searching for answers through the facts. The Bible actually warns us about making this kind of mistake: Hosea 4:6 "My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge."
Our emotions often get in the way of us making intelligent decisions by blinding us from the facts. Just look at your own life; I'm sure you can find many instances when you made poor decisions based on what your heart was telling you. This happens all the time when it comes to dating. Many times your head will tell you that this person that you are interested in dating is all wrong for you, but your heart wants to give this person the benefit of the doubt. These situations always end badly, but we, as people, keep making the same mistakes. I think we all need to learn hard lessons from time to time, and many times more than once. When you study the Bible it may seem to be a bit redundant, but that is for a reason. People need to hear things over and over again to let it sink in. The major themes in the Bible are repeated throughout the Bible so we won't miss them. Proverbs 11:9 says: "Through knowledge shall the just be delivered." This is a major theme in the Bible that people have a very hard time understanding. We tend to feel that God is so merciful, he would bring us to salvation just for trying to be a good person. Unfortunately, this is not how it works. In this verse, God is trying to tell us to seek his wisdom through the word of God. Proverbs 2:3-6: "Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding." Proverbs 3:13: "Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding." God's wisdom and knowledge are things we should be seeking according to the word of God, because our eternal destination depends on it. This is the reason we should never just disregard the Bible because it was written by people. We should be asking questions like: How can a book written by forty different people over such a span of time come together to form one complete story with no contradictions without the hand of God involved? How can man predict so many events throughout history with one hundred percent accuracy? Before dealing with questions like that, we must first find out what the Bible claims to be.
Does the Bible in fact declare to be the word of God? We can start our search in 2Timothy 3:16, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God." The first thing I noticed with this scripture is, it says "all scripture is given by inspiration of God", not some, but all. This means that the entire Bible comes from God. The next thing we must look at is the term inspiration of God. Many people will say that the meaning of the word inspiration is to influence another. This is a situation in which we must look at the original language the new testament was written in, which is the Greek language. The phrase "inspiration of God" comes from the Greek word theopneustos, which means God breathed. It is derived from two Greek root words theo, meaning God and pneo, meaning to blow. Basically, what this verse is saying is God breathed the scripture into man. To get a full understanding of what is happening in this verse we can go to Genesis 2:7. This verse says, "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." By simply breathing into man's nostrils, God gave life to man, and brought his soul to life. Another great verse to look at is John 20:22: "And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, receive ye the Holy Ghost." This is after the resurrection, and Jesus is giving his apostles the gift of the Holy Ghost. I bring these scriptures up simply to illustrate what is happening in 2Timothy3:16. God is breathing his word into the hearts of his prophets, and they are writing these words into a book that will become the Bible. Simply put, scripture comes directly from God.
Let's look at another scripture found in the Gospel of John 1:1. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." This verse makes an amazing claim, that the word and God are one and the same. If you think about it, when you read the Bible you are experiencing God first hand. God is talking directly to you through his word. When I read the Bible I do see my own life within the words of the Bible. When I am seeking an answer from God about things happening in my life, many times the answer will just jump off the page. Any christian who has studied the Bible has had an experience like this. It's like the light bulb is turned on and that situation that you have been trying to deal with just makes sense now. The word of God is just so amazing to read, and very important for every christian to read because in the end we are all judged by the word. John 12:48, "He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day." Psalm 96:13, "He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth."
Our emotions often get in the way of us making intelligent decisions by blinding us from the facts. Just look at your own life; I'm sure you can find many instances when you made poor decisions based on what your heart was telling you. This happens all the time when it comes to dating. Many times your head will tell you that this person that you are interested in dating is all wrong for you, but your heart wants to give this person the benefit of the doubt. These situations always end badly, but we, as people, keep making the same mistakes. I think we all need to learn hard lessons from time to time, and many times more than once. When you study the Bible it may seem to be a bit redundant, but that is for a reason. People need to hear things over and over again to let it sink in. The major themes in the Bible are repeated throughout the Bible so we won't miss them. Proverbs 11:9 says: "Through knowledge shall the just be delivered." This is a major theme in the Bible that people have a very hard time understanding. We tend to feel that God is so merciful, he would bring us to salvation just for trying to be a good person. Unfortunately, this is not how it works. In this verse, God is trying to tell us to seek his wisdom through the word of God. Proverbs 2:3-6: "Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding." Proverbs 3:13: "Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding." God's wisdom and knowledge are things we should be seeking according to the word of God, because our eternal destination depends on it. This is the reason we should never just disregard the Bible because it was written by people. We should be asking questions like: How can a book written by forty different people over such a span of time come together to form one complete story with no contradictions without the hand of God involved? How can man predict so many events throughout history with one hundred percent accuracy? Before dealing with questions like that, we must first find out what the Bible claims to be.
Does the Bible in fact declare to be the word of God? We can start our search in 2Timothy 3:16, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God." The first thing I noticed with this scripture is, it says "all scripture is given by inspiration of God", not some, but all. This means that the entire Bible comes from God. The next thing we must look at is the term inspiration of God. Many people will say that the meaning of the word inspiration is to influence another. This is a situation in which we must look at the original language the new testament was written in, which is the Greek language. The phrase "inspiration of God" comes from the Greek word theopneustos, which means God breathed. It is derived from two Greek root words theo, meaning God and pneo, meaning to blow. Basically, what this verse is saying is God breathed the scripture into man. To get a full understanding of what is happening in this verse we can go to Genesis 2:7. This verse says, "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." By simply breathing into man's nostrils, God gave life to man, and brought his soul to life. Another great verse to look at is John 20:22: "And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, receive ye the Holy Ghost." This is after the resurrection, and Jesus is giving his apostles the gift of the Holy Ghost. I bring these scriptures up simply to illustrate what is happening in 2Timothy3:16. God is breathing his word into the hearts of his prophets, and they are writing these words into a book that will become the Bible. Simply put, scripture comes directly from God.
Let's look at another scripture found in the Gospel of John 1:1. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." This verse makes an amazing claim, that the word and God are one and the same. If you think about it, when you read the Bible you are experiencing God first hand. God is talking directly to you through his word. When I read the Bible I do see my own life within the words of the Bible. When I am seeking an answer from God about things happening in my life, many times the answer will just jump off the page. Any christian who has studied the Bible has had an experience like this. It's like the light bulb is turned on and that situation that you have been trying to deal with just makes sense now. The word of God is just so amazing to read, and very important for every christian to read because in the end we are all judged by the word. John 12:48, "He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day." Psalm 96:13, "He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth."
Monday, August 23, 2010
Genesis 1:3 The Word Of God
"And God said, let there be light: and there was light(Genesis 1:3). And God said, let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and it was so(Genesis 1:6,7). And God said, let the earth bring forth grass, and it was so(Genesis 1:11)". These verses in chapter one of Genesis all show us the creation of the earth and life itself. One thing they have in common is that all show life was created by the word of God; God simply spoke and it existed. The message one is to receive from this is, God's word is absolute truth. Now, let's think about that for a minute; God's word is absolute truth. That means, when God speaks you can bet your life on the fact that it's the truth. That is an amazing thing, and something that is very hard for us as humans to wrap our minds around. Just look at the world around us, it is violent and corrupt. It is hard for us to trust anyone in this world, let alone a God you can't physically see. This is were faith comes in.
Every christian must understand this concept of absolute truth, which is very tough for us considering we are taught in this society that there are no absolutes. The only thing you can count on in this world is death and taxes. Of course, those are two things we can count on. We will die, and while we are alive, we will be taxed, but as Christians we must realize that the only thing we can truly count on is God. This of course takes faith, as it says in Hebrews 11:3 "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." This verse tells us that the worlds and all life were created by the word of God, but we can only understand this with faith. If we could see God we would not need to have faith. In Hebrews 11:1 we see the definition of faith: "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." The evidence for God starts with the word of God itself.
As Christians we must be studying the word of God every day in order to build a strong faith. This is necessary because in the flesh we are very weak and sometimes forget the promises of God. In his word, God makes many incredible promises towards his followers, but it can be very difficult to trust that those promises will come to fruition through the tough circumstances that we face in life. Just look at the environment we live in today. We live in a time when the economy is getting worse every year, poverty is on the rise and employment is declining. I myself get nervous when I see the state of our world, and I am a christian. We have to realize, God never promised us an easy life, but he did say that he would never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). He will get us through the tough times and it won't be easy, but it will make us stronger people for it, and most importantly, it will build our faith in God.
Every Christian's faith will waiver at times, it's just a fact of life. We are weak in the flesh, and when the times get tough we sometimes take our eyes off of God. We just have to remember to always go back to the word of God to reinforce our faith. We see these examples in the word of God itself, every hero of the Bible had points were their faith wavered. A great example is found in the story of Abraham. Abraham was considered a friend of God, and made the father of a nation by God, and he had times in life when he lost faith. In chapter twelve of Genesis, God commanded Abraham to leave and go to the land of Canaan. If Abraham did as God commanded, he was promised to be blessed abundantly. Abraham did as he was told, and went to Canaan, but when he arrived in Canaan he saw nothing but famine throughout the land. Instead of trusting that God would come through on his promise, Abraham panicked, and devised a plan which included very sinful acts, to go to Egypt to find food.
This does happen in all of our lives all the time, especially during the tough times. We must always remember that there is away to fight this, and it is through the word of God. The word of God will always lead us out of any tough situations and at the same time, it will build our faith. "So the faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17). You might be asking: can we really trust the Bible that we read today as the word of God? For the next few weeks we are going to examine the Bible very closely to see if it is reliable. Our next study will deal with what the Bible actually claims to be.
Every christian must understand this concept of absolute truth, which is very tough for us considering we are taught in this society that there are no absolutes. The only thing you can count on in this world is death and taxes. Of course, those are two things we can count on. We will die, and while we are alive, we will be taxed, but as Christians we must realize that the only thing we can truly count on is God. This of course takes faith, as it says in Hebrews 11:3 "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." This verse tells us that the worlds and all life were created by the word of God, but we can only understand this with faith. If we could see God we would not need to have faith. In Hebrews 11:1 we see the definition of faith: "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." The evidence for God starts with the word of God itself.
As Christians we must be studying the word of God every day in order to build a strong faith. This is necessary because in the flesh we are very weak and sometimes forget the promises of God. In his word, God makes many incredible promises towards his followers, but it can be very difficult to trust that those promises will come to fruition through the tough circumstances that we face in life. Just look at the environment we live in today. We live in a time when the economy is getting worse every year, poverty is on the rise and employment is declining. I myself get nervous when I see the state of our world, and I am a christian. We have to realize, God never promised us an easy life, but he did say that he would never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). He will get us through the tough times and it won't be easy, but it will make us stronger people for it, and most importantly, it will build our faith in God.
Every Christian's faith will waiver at times, it's just a fact of life. We are weak in the flesh, and when the times get tough we sometimes take our eyes off of God. We just have to remember to always go back to the word of God to reinforce our faith. We see these examples in the word of God itself, every hero of the Bible had points were their faith wavered. A great example is found in the story of Abraham. Abraham was considered a friend of God, and made the father of a nation by God, and he had times in life when he lost faith. In chapter twelve of Genesis, God commanded Abraham to leave and go to the land of Canaan. If Abraham did as God commanded, he was promised to be blessed abundantly. Abraham did as he was told, and went to Canaan, but when he arrived in Canaan he saw nothing but famine throughout the land. Instead of trusting that God would come through on his promise, Abraham panicked, and devised a plan which included very sinful acts, to go to Egypt to find food.
This does happen in all of our lives all the time, especially during the tough times. We must always remember that there is away to fight this, and it is through the word of God. The word of God will always lead us out of any tough situations and at the same time, it will build our faith. "So the faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17). You might be asking: can we really trust the Bible that we read today as the word of God? For the next few weeks we are going to examine the Bible very closely to see if it is reliable. Our next study will deal with what the Bible actually claims to be.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Genesis 1: 1-2 The Hand Print Of God II
I would like to continue this study by looking at the structure of the universe and how it supports the idea of an intelligent creator. In this study I would like to introduce another theory called irreducible complexity. Irreducible complexity is a single system which is composed of several well matched interacting parts that contribute to the basic function wherein the removal of any one of the parts causes the system to effectively cease functioning. This theory was introduced by biochemist Michael Behe in his 1996 book Darwin's Black Box.
I feel the universe best represents this theory in that if any part of the universe was off just a bit life would not exist. An example is the mass of the proton. If it was a tiny fraction either larger or smaller the entire universe would collapse. It's as if the universe was designed specifically for human life. This idea was first articulated by Brandon Carter in 1973 at a symposium honoring Copernicus's 500th birthday. It was in response to the Copernican principle, which states that humans do not occupy a privileged position in the universe. He brought forth the anthropic principle, which says the universe has a purpose. It's as though the universe was designed to bring forth intelligent life forms (ie. humans).
Just looking at the make-up of our atmosphere we can see that it consists of 78.08% Nitrogen, 20.95% Oxygen, 0.93% Argon, .038% Carbon Dioxide and trace amounts of other gases. The interesting thing here is nitrogen when mixed with just about anything is poisonous to man, but it does make great plant food. Everyday there are one hundred thousand strokes of lightning that takes nitrogen out of the air and puts it into the ground for plant food. If you where to change any part of the atmosphere just a bit life would not exist on this planet. If there was no lightning we would not be here. If carbon dioxide was removed from the atmosphere we would all die.
The hand of God is just so obvious in the structure of our universe. Just look at the planets in our universe. They just happen to be on just about the same plane with the exception of Pluto. If one planet's orbit was to cross another planet's orbit, the entire planetary system would collapse due to collisions. If we look at Pluto, it is at a fourteen degree angle from the plane of the other planets. Pluto's orbit crosses the path of two other orbits. If Pluto was on the same plane as the other planets it would be on a collision course. I do not think you can truly argue that it is by chance. I believe that Pluto is the perfect signature of the creator to prove the impossibility of chance.
The universe is filled with signatures from God. Let's look at more examples. Scientists say that the surface of the sun is 11,000 degrees. They say that if it was just a fraction hotter or cooler life would cease to exist. If the earth was on a different orbit life would not exist. If the earth was rotating ten percent slower, life would not exist. The odds for life existing just keep getting greater and greater. Here is another fact. If the earth's crust was ten percent shallower, life would not exist due to the molten lava below the earth's surface. The possibility of just a single cell coming into existence by chance is 10 to the 40,000/year.
Based on just the information brought forth in this study we can conclude that the universe was designed to support intelligent life, and it was all created by God. It is mathematically impossible for life to even exist simply by chance. the information in this study is just the very tip of the iceberg. These two first verses in the Bible tell us that there is a God and he created everything. Science definitely supports the Bible's claim of God and creation, so it is time to get to know God. So how does one get to know God? The word of God will give you everything you need to know about God, and that is found in the Bible. You might be asking: can we really trust the Bible? That is the subject we will deal with in the next study.
I feel the universe best represents this theory in that if any part of the universe was off just a bit life would not exist. An example is the mass of the proton. If it was a tiny fraction either larger or smaller the entire universe would collapse. It's as if the universe was designed specifically for human life. This idea was first articulated by Brandon Carter in 1973 at a symposium honoring Copernicus's 500th birthday. It was in response to the Copernican principle, which states that humans do not occupy a privileged position in the universe. He brought forth the anthropic principle, which says the universe has a purpose. It's as though the universe was designed to bring forth intelligent life forms (ie. humans).
Just looking at the make-up of our atmosphere we can see that it consists of 78.08% Nitrogen, 20.95% Oxygen, 0.93% Argon, .038% Carbon Dioxide and trace amounts of other gases. The interesting thing here is nitrogen when mixed with just about anything is poisonous to man, but it does make great plant food. Everyday there are one hundred thousand strokes of lightning that takes nitrogen out of the air and puts it into the ground for plant food. If you where to change any part of the atmosphere just a bit life would not exist on this planet. If there was no lightning we would not be here. If carbon dioxide was removed from the atmosphere we would all die.
The hand of God is just so obvious in the structure of our universe. Just look at the planets in our universe. They just happen to be on just about the same plane with the exception of Pluto. If one planet's orbit was to cross another planet's orbit, the entire planetary system would collapse due to collisions. If we look at Pluto, it is at a fourteen degree angle from the plane of the other planets. Pluto's orbit crosses the path of two other orbits. If Pluto was on the same plane as the other planets it would be on a collision course. I do not think you can truly argue that it is by chance. I believe that Pluto is the perfect signature of the creator to prove the impossibility of chance.
The universe is filled with signatures from God. Let's look at more examples. Scientists say that the surface of the sun is 11,000 degrees. They say that if it was just a fraction hotter or cooler life would cease to exist. If the earth was on a different orbit life would not exist. If the earth was rotating ten percent slower, life would not exist. The odds for life existing just keep getting greater and greater. Here is another fact. If the earth's crust was ten percent shallower, life would not exist due to the molten lava below the earth's surface. The possibility of just a single cell coming into existence by chance is 10 to the 40,000/year.
Based on just the information brought forth in this study we can conclude that the universe was designed to support intelligent life, and it was all created by God. It is mathematically impossible for life to even exist simply by chance. the information in this study is just the very tip of the iceberg. These two first verses in the Bible tell us that there is a God and he created everything. Science definitely supports the Bible's claim of God and creation, so it is time to get to know God. So how does one get to know God? The word of God will give you everything you need to know about God, and that is found in the Bible. You might be asking: can we really trust the Bible? That is the subject we will deal with in the next study.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Genesis 1: 1-2 The Hand print of God
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. This first verse in the Bible is truly an incredible verse that shows a supernatural authorship in many different ways. One way it exhibits a divine authorship is the way it establishes the foundation of the universe being made-up of time, space and matter. In the beginning (time), the heavens (space) and the earth (matter). For thousands of years scientists have speculated about the make-up of the universe, but not until the 20th century did physicists confirm that the foundation of the universe consists of time, space and matter. From this very first verse we also see that all life was created by an intelligent creator (God), and it is backed-up by science which has taken thousands of years to catch-up with the Bible.
Now if we look at the second verse, "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters", we see that the earth was formless and empty. It's not until we see the spirit of God move across the face of the earth do we see life start to form. Just from verse one and two we are told that life was wonderfully created by God and not from a cosmic explosion that just by chance produced life in this universe. What I would like to do for the remainder of this study is to look at God's hand print in life itself.
Specified complexity is a term that was first used in 1986 by Charles Thaxton when he was claiming that messages transmitted by DNA in the cell were specified by intelligence, and must have originated with an intelligent agent. In the 90's William Dembski developed this theory stating that when something exhibits specified complexity (ie, both complex and specified, simultaneously), one can infer that it was produced by an intelligent cause (designed) rather than being the result of natural process. An example he gives is a single letter is specified without being complex. A long sentence of random letters is complex without being specified. A Shakespearean sonnet is both complex and specified. An atheist would argue that there is no intelligent creator, that life evolved through natural selection. My argument is, life is too complex to explain it away as a cosmic accident and evolution. If we take a close look at the human body we can see that it was wonderfully and fearfully made. The human body is so complex, it would be mathematically impossible for it to form without an intelligent designer.
If we take a close look at the human eye we can get an idea of just how complex life really is. When light first enters the eye it passes through the cornea. This is a lubricating tear film that covers the front of the eye, and helps to focus incoming light. The next thing the light passes through is a clear, watery fluid called the aqueous humor. This keeps the image sharper than it would be by passing through air. Next is the iris which is the colored part of the eye. The iris dilates and contracts to control the amount of light that enters the eye to protect the eye from being damaged. Light next hits the lens which operates much like a camera lens, it focuses light. It actually changes shape to focus on nearby and distant objects. Notice when you turn your head everything is automatically in focus. We now enter the vitreous humor which functions like the aqueous ( to sharpen the image ). The retina is a thin, light-sensitive tissue lining the back of the eye that acts much like film in a camera. Light must be properly focused onto the retina, and the surface must be flat, smooth and in good working order to produce a clear image. We now see the macula which converts light into nerve signals. It allows us to see fine details like the words in this blog.
I just gave you seven different parts of the eye, each with it's own distinct function to help us see. The eye fits perfectly into the theory of specified complexity by showing a specific purpose in every part of the eye. Without an intelligent creator you could not have systems so complex. Just imagine being in a scrap metal yard with computer parts everywhere. How many tornadoes would have to go through the yard to accidentally put together one working computer? It would not happen. In fact, nothing would exist if there was no creator. Based on just this evidence alone I find it impossible to deny that God exists.
Now if we look at the second verse, "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters", we see that the earth was formless and empty. It's not until we see the spirit of God move across the face of the earth do we see life start to form. Just from verse one and two we are told that life was wonderfully created by God and not from a cosmic explosion that just by chance produced life in this universe. What I would like to do for the remainder of this study is to look at God's hand print in life itself.
Specified complexity is a term that was first used in 1986 by Charles Thaxton when he was claiming that messages transmitted by DNA in the cell were specified by intelligence, and must have originated with an intelligent agent. In the 90's William Dembski developed this theory stating that when something exhibits specified complexity (ie, both complex and specified, simultaneously), one can infer that it was produced by an intelligent cause (designed) rather than being the result of natural process. An example he gives is a single letter is specified without being complex. A long sentence of random letters is complex without being specified. A Shakespearean sonnet is both complex and specified. An atheist would argue that there is no intelligent creator, that life evolved through natural selection. My argument is, life is too complex to explain it away as a cosmic accident and evolution. If we take a close look at the human body we can see that it was wonderfully and fearfully made. The human body is so complex, it would be mathematically impossible for it to form without an intelligent designer.
If we take a close look at the human eye we can get an idea of just how complex life really is. When light first enters the eye it passes through the cornea. This is a lubricating tear film that covers the front of the eye, and helps to focus incoming light. The next thing the light passes through is a clear, watery fluid called the aqueous humor. This keeps the image sharper than it would be by passing through air. Next is the iris which is the colored part of the eye. The iris dilates and contracts to control the amount of light that enters the eye to protect the eye from being damaged. Light next hits the lens which operates much like a camera lens, it focuses light. It actually changes shape to focus on nearby and distant objects. Notice when you turn your head everything is automatically in focus. We now enter the vitreous humor which functions like the aqueous ( to sharpen the image ). The retina is a thin, light-sensitive tissue lining the back of the eye that acts much like film in a camera. Light must be properly focused onto the retina, and the surface must be flat, smooth and in good working order to produce a clear image. We now see the macula which converts light into nerve signals. It allows us to see fine details like the words in this blog.
I just gave you seven different parts of the eye, each with it's own distinct function to help us see. The eye fits perfectly into the theory of specified complexity by showing a specific purpose in every part of the eye. Without an intelligent creator you could not have systems so complex. Just imagine being in a scrap metal yard with computer parts everywhere. How many tornadoes would have to go through the yard to accidentally put together one working computer? It would not happen. In fact, nothing would exist if there was no creator. Based on just this evidence alone I find it impossible to deny that God exists.
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