Evolutionists argue that finding common chemical fasteners and molecular building blocks in biological organisms points to a common evolution. Atoms, molecules, and the functional groups in amino acids, enzymes, proteins, fats, and carbohydrates are indeed common threads in organic matter. But having building blocks in common more preferably points to a common Master Designer who used a common system to create all of life, and “fasten” it together. This is the most straightforward conclusion from observing the extremely complex yet elegant biological structures in the creation!
Mankind is a designer and builder of bridges, buildings, automobiles, airplanes, machinery, computers, playground equipment, locomotives, railcars, ships, traffic lights, and so on. And all these objects of design from the intelligence of mankind use standardized fundamental fasteners, including, bolts, screws, nuts, washers, rivets, studs, and nails. These common fasteners must conform to standard and uniform requirements for performance. Otherwise, how would we know whether a bolt or screw was able to do the job intended? And if we wanted to replicate a certain object, how would we know it would come out the same unless there were certain standardized parts? Modular homes are replicated using common raw materials from common factory-produced parts, just as trees are replicated using common raw materials in soil, water, and air, and common cellular “factories”.
The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) Committee F-16 develops and improves standards for general-purpose fasteners. There are over 75 standards which can be specified in ASTM F-16, so that common, replicatable, and high-quality design and construction can take place. If mankind designs and builds many various structures using fundamental fasteners in common, shouldn’t we assume that the evidence of common chemical and molecular “fasteners” confirms the requirement of a common Master Designer and Manufacturer who has used a parallel design strategy in the creation of the myriad forms of life?
This is the straightforward conclusion, which the Bible says we intuitively know to be true in Romans 1:19-20.
– Mark Cadwallader, Board Chairman of Creation Moments
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“The more the believing person makes his very own the event that absolutely substantiates optimism namely, Christ’s Resurrection all the more can he summon up the realism, the clarity, and the courage to call problems by their real name so as to tackle them without closing his eyes or viewing them through rose-colored glasses.” – Joseph Ratzinger when he was Cardinal Prefect for the Catholic Church, before he became the conservative Pope Benedict XVI (2005-2013)
There are many strong evidences for the Resurrection of Christ, which I wrote about in the September 27, 2024, blog post Would Christ’s Resurrection be Provable in a Court of Law? And the above statement is tremendous advice for understanding our world and for maintaining “realism” together with “optimism”. Christians are exhorted to think on good things (Philippians 4:8), but does that mean ignoring negative news? No, because “the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding” (Proverbs 9:10). And the ugliness we see in a fallen creation helps us comprehend the deficit of our condition before a good and holy God.
By describing the world as “cursed because of sin” (a foundational biblical truth), Christians are sometimes accused of being “negative”. Calling attention to sin is “negative” and therefore politically incorrect. Doom and gloom for the world system as we know it is politically incorrect. Yet the truth is we are part of a world dying in trespasses and sins. We can quickly despair if we think that our work will convince everyone of the truth or solve all the world’s problems, whether they be sociological, political, technological, ecological, moral, or otherwise.
Thus, Ratzinger also writes, “It is no wonder if our society is disintegrating when Holy Scripture sharply warns us that ‘the whole world is under the power of the evil one’ who is called ‘the prince of this world’”. The key is to stand in biblical truth, which is to balance absolute realism about our world with ultimate optimism! And that is the Resurrection of Jesus Christ – “the first of many brethren” (Romans 8:29) – and therefore a glorious Resurrection which can include us through trust in Him!
– Mark Cadwallader, Board Chairman of Creation Moments
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“…Why is the land ruined, laid waste like a desert, so that no one passes through? And the Lord said, ‘Because they have forsaken My law which I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice nor walked according to it…” (Jeremiah 9:12-13).
Here, the biblical laws regarding a “sabbatical” rest for the land are especially noteworthy. Mankind would do well to understand the value of resting occasionally from the production of goods and services. “In the seventh year there shall be a sabbath rest for the land, a sabbath to the Lord. You shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard. What grows of its own accord of your harvest you shall not reap, nor gather the grapes of your intended vine, for it is a year of rest for the land” (Leviticus 25:4-5). Furthermore, at the 49th year according to sabbatical law, there would be two years in a row of rest for the land because the year after the seventh sabbath year is the year of Jubilee, in which the land would again rest (Leviticus 25:8 17). Rests for the land have been scientifically shown to work better than intensive tillage in the long run, in preventing soil erosion and managing agriculture production for profit. This is especially important for land which is less than ideal farmland.
Studies have compared long-term productivity, topsoil retention, and organic matter content. Farms now considered “conventional” (using large-scale intensive tillage, chemical fertilizers, and pesticides, and producing a cash crop every single year) have been compared to so called “organic” farms (tilling “green manure” crops back into the soil every several years, lying fallow about every seventh year, no chemical fertilizers, and only occasional spot application of pesticides around field edges). Although crop yields may vary, the organically managed farms can outperform the intensive “conventional” farms. And soil losses due to water erosion are much less for the organic farms than for conventional farms. In addition, the soil in organic farms have higher levels of microorganisms, enzymes, and moisture. The organic farm soil is also softer, making it more suitable for the emergence of seedlings.
Crop yield reductions due to erosion can at some point exceed the diminishing yield increases due to intensive application of modern technology. And when the topsoil is gone, crop yields plunge. Unfortunately, in the face of heavy debt financing (another unscriptural practice), many farmers worldwide cannot afford to periodically leave fields out of production.
Fortunately, the simple application of biblical principles and wisdom in stewardship can avoid many of these problems. In spite of the curse on sin in this fallen world (Genesis 3:17-19), which makes for the labor and irritation and even futility (“vanity”, “under the sun”, Ecclesiastes) that frustrate the inventions of mankind, and which ultimately require the intervention of God in Christ. Through good management of soil and cultivation methods including crop, animal, and pasture rotations, integrating rather than segregating food systems, people in many places are mitigating these problems, bringing a “healing” of the land. They are building up good topsoil and even turning “deserts” into “gardens” by exercising “dominion over creation” in the biblical sense of good stewardship.
– Mark Cadwallader, Board Chairman of Creation Moments
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Perfect order is certainly an attribute of God. In fact God’s perfect, absolute standard of righteous order constitutes an immeasurable beauty and power.
Order is present everywhere in the creation, in things tangible and intangible. Consider the symmetry of petals on a daisy, leaves on a fern, or even kernels on a corn cob. Everywhere we look we find nature full of spheres, cones, equiangular spirals, and all sorts of polyhedra geometric shapes all nicely ordered and described by straightforward mathematics. Such ordered arrangement has a sublime and intricate beauty. The creation is a beautifully arranged symphony of many intricate and elegant instruments.
Quality Control for businesses can be defined as the perfecting of order and beauty in the production of goods and services. Businesses worldwide are today heavily involved in one form or another of improving quality. What started out as Statistical Quality Control (SQC) has given way to Total Quality Management (TQM). TQM includes both the idea of continuous improvement through incremental changes as well as radical innovation or “reengineering” an organization. It means satisfying with quality all of an organization’s stakeholders, i.e., shareholders, customers, management, and nonmanagement employees.
Total Quality implies perfect quality, and thus perfect order to the production of goods and services. Good quality assurance programs try to expose every flaw and require 100% repair of the flaws detected. The standard, the point of reference, is absolute. Performance must be based on absolute order. To evaluate anything accurately you must have a standard.
But not only is there scientific and mathematical order in the universe, along with artistic order, and a “way of doing things in business” order, there is also moral and ethical order – a moral and ethical order which is the absolute standard. Just as with scientific law, understanding moral law enables a person to benefit by using the principles, and avoiding ill consequences. Thousands of years of history show that when societies honor a strong code of ethics similar to the Ten Commandments, they tend to prosper. When they do not, they decline or never achieve greatness. Moral and ethical order provides stability and power.
Principles of order and righteousness govern the creation. Some Personality of ordered beauty established this order to begin with in craftsmanship, science, and morality. The order and beauty point to a holy and powerful God, the God of the Bible. “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory” (Isaiah 6:3). It is this Holy Order which has ultimate everlasting power.
And the fact is that we are all disordered, corrupted: we are sinners. We, therefore, cannot be maintained in an incorruptible, eternal body and world (creation), but instead must be subject to decay (death). The prophet Isaiah said it this way, “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips” (Isaiah 6:5).
You do not have to sink deep into a mud puddle to get muddy. Since all of us are born in the midst of a mud puddle, all of us are muddy all of us are stained. The simple fact is that our stains must be washed clean. As the Bible says, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him” (Rom 5:8,9).
– Mark Cadwallader, Board Chairman of Creation Moments
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In the river-laced jungles of Central America, an agile reptile demonstrates why it has earned the nickname, “The Jesus Christ Lizard”. It runs on water. Upright on two legs, the lizard can skip briskly across the surface of a river. God in His creative genius enabled this little creation to defy conventional physics.
Apparently, most of the basilisk lizard’s ability to run on water comes from a well-timed downward stroke of the leg and foot, slapping the water and creating an air-filled cavity while quickly moving on to the next step. Of course, physical parameters such as the animal’s mass under the pull of gravity (its weight), the length of its leg, and the shape of its foot, etc., also factor into this ability.
God uses the testimony of His “general revelation” (His creation) to remind us of His “special revelation” (Jesus Christ our Lord). And the Jesus Christ Lizard is a little monument to a wondrous miracle that has captured the imagination of many people. Many folks may not know much else about Jesus, but they have heard that He walked on water, hence the lizard’s nickname.
Furthermore, since God created what we know as “the creation”, He created the physics and chemistry that governs all of creation. Therefore, it stands to reason that He can change the physics and chemistry of a local environment in order to perform “miracles”. A miracle is, by definition, a miracle if it falls outside the probability of occurrence defined by the scientific laws of creation. Miracles within the governing laws of this present creation would cease to be “miracles” if the physics and chemistry were changed. But constrained as we are by three dimensions of space and one dimension of time, and with the formulas of physics and chemistry and the present values for the natural constants (like the gravitational constant and the speed of light), miracles when they happen, amaze us and point to a God who created everything in the first place and therefore transcends His creation!
– Mark Cadwallader, Board Chairman of Creation Moments
*Creation Moments has a Gospel Tract featuring the Jesus Christ Lizard. Check it out and other Gospel Tracts for use in creation-evangelism at creationmoments.com. Or order any or all of the pre-printed set of seven here: https://store.creationmoments.com/donate/general-fund
Image: Common basilisk, Envato.
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Reason, accurately applied, exposes the cruelty and futility of this present world. However, reason alone is not able to give answers to ultimate questions. There is in fact a fundamental futility to life on earth because of the curse of decay. This fundamental futility has been recognized by philosophers as well as scientists.
The biblical book of Ecclesiastes is wise King Solomon’s record of his experiment to test the full measure of what life “under the sun” has to offer, i.e., what life has to offer from the human perspective. Ecclesiastes reports the results of a diligent quest for purpose, meaning, and satisfaction in human life. The conclusion that he comes to is that life is futile and perplexing. “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity!” (Ecclesiastes 1:2) All is futile proud emptiness. All earthly goals and ambitions when pursued as ends in themselves lead to frustration. Except, Solomon concludes at the end of his analysis, “to fear God, and keep His commandments” (Ecclesiastes 12:13).
Because of this observed futility, nihilist and existentialist philosophers say that truth is not objective. The logic is that since life is fundamentally futile, all is absurd. Rather than turn to God in the midst of futility, they use futility to define all reality and say simply that the most important thing is willful activity on the part of man. People should abandon the role of rational spectator and simply act. Why try to make sense of absurdity? “Just do it!”. “Obey Your Thirst!” These and other advertisement slogans of pop culture have been based on such philosophy. Of course, the philosophy is left arguing that it does not matter what the action is, the point is simply to act. This justifies behavior of any kind; rational or irrational, kind or cruel, just or unjust.
Solomon went beyond the nihilists in his thinking about futility, recognizing that God and the deep longing of the human heart require righteousness, justice, and love.
– Mark Cadwallader, Board Chairman of Creation Moments
Image: King Solomon in Old Age, Gustave Doré, PD, Wikimedia Commons
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On the FBI’s most wanted list for 18 years, Theodore (Ted) Kaczynski was the notorious serial killer who crafted dangerous mail bombs from untraceable primitive materials and waged a war of terror. His difficult-to-decipher motive was apparently a general anti-science and technology thrust, a “noble-savage” back-to-nature type philosophy that blamed civilization and not sin for the problems of man.
Our system of justice depends largely on the education of prison inmates, under the assumption that education leads to moral reformation by giving people opportunity to pursue worthwhile causes and contribute profitably to society. Yet, in the case of Dr. Ted Kaczynski, mathematical and scientific genius, we find a horrific failure of intellect and education without God. Ted Kaczynski went to Harvard on a scholarship at age 16. He had a genius level I.Q. of 167, got his PhD in mathematics from the University of Michigan with honors for his dissertation, and became a Berkeley Assistant Professor initially considered most likely to get tenure. With his arrest in 1996 and death by suicide in 2023, the American public has had an excellent case study of how intelligence and education do not lead to moral reformation.
There is a difference between educating the mind and educating the conscience and the heart. The one can explain away all sorts of depraved and wrong behavior, while the other convicts and trains a person in morality and righteousness. The Kaczynski family was remembered as “hypereducated”. But Ted, even as a boy, had a history of estranging himself from others and was, for all his brilliance, also remembered as having an arrogant and stubborn streak. He isolated himself from other people all through school and effectively disappeared in 1969 after only two years into his career at Berkeley. He lived by himself in a crude shack in the Montana wilderness for over twenty-five years. He had no close friends, no wife, and as far as could be surmised, no intimates of any kind.
The Bible warns against this sort of thing: “He who separates himself seeks his own desire, he quarrels against all sound wisdom” (Proverbs 18:1). Apparently, Ted Kaczynski not only estranged himself from other people, but he also estranged himself from God – a proud man unable to love. The Bible also says, “Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies” (1 Corinthians 8:1).
For all Ted Kaczynski’s study and intellect, the Bible, with just a few pearls of wisdom, pinpoints principles and the problem of self-pride which Ted did not understand. The Good Book trains our character and not just our intellect. While in prison, Kaczynski certainly didn’t need more education. He needed Jesus. Similarly, Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) must be programmed with the Bible – or we risk ending up with a much more horrific version of Ted Kaczynski!
– Mark Cadwallader, Board Chairman of Creation Moments
Image: Unabomber Sketch 1987, Federal Bureau of Investigation, PD, Wikimedia Commons + Changes Made.
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The key advice in today’s legal environment is to get a good lawyer because it’s no longer the facts that count, but how the facts are presented. A smart lawyer who really understands the details of the legal system can help you beat it.
Years ago, as a young man, I was advised (by a Judge no less) how to “beat the system” for a traffic violation of which I was guilty. I wanted to protest the amount of the fine which I viewed as too steep, so I set a time to appear before the court. Since I pled guilty, I was required to pay the fine. Because my police officer was not present, the case would have been dismissed if I had pled “not guilty”. This is what the Judge advised me I should have done after we were finished!
In an age of excessive regulation (a tyranny of over-regulation) and moral relativism, more people have less of a problem lying about their guilt in such a case. Even judges, educated in the Law schools of today, do not understand that true justice depends on absolutes of right and wrong. The “value” in a value-relative society becomes how smartly you can play the system, not whether or not you operate with integrity. Rather than “bravo if you don’t tell a lie”, it becomes “bravo if you know how to play the system to your own advantage”. If you want to win your case, take it to a court where judge and jury can be predicted for the outcome you desire.
Law schools are in fact increasingly teaching that common law and higher law are not the basis for law. They teach a sociological basis for law, not a transcendent, objective basis. Legal positivism as well as the critical-legal-studies movement both repudiate objective standards of law. The law effectively becomes arbitrary. Under sociological law, illegalities are only a consequence of the application by others of rules to an “offender”. Things are not illegal because they are inherently wrong or logical consequences of inherently wrong things. They are wrong only because different societies and cultures decide they are wrong. This is value relativism in law schools. It justifies an arbitrary legal code and undermines any real responsibility to uphold the law because it discards the higher basis for law. If the law is only as good as men, then I might as well create my own law!
A country, and a democratic country especially, is only as good as its people. If its people do not live by legitimate internal standards of right and wrong, the country will slide toward chaos and, eventually, a loss of freedom. Where irresponsibility abounds, some form of law must eventually step in. Freedom requires moral responsibility.
A legal system based on the principle of “innocent until proven guilty” is designed to protect the citizen from potentially corrupt authorities. It protects the freedom of the people. Yet it is a system that depends on the responsibility of the citizen to do the right thing. Otherwise, people will try to outsmart the system, resulting in tremendous burden on the State to prove the guilt of an increasingly dishonest and corrupt citizenry. Chaos builds in the courts and in society. This is why John Adams said at the founding of America, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other.”
– Mark Cadwallader, Board Chairman of Creation Moments
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Conjecture and theory, no matter how cleverly constructed, are true only if demonstrated with solid supporting evidence. This is the requirement of the Scientific Method: hypothesis demonstrated by experiment and observation. The theory of evolution and Big Bang cosmologies postulating that the universe expands and collapses in cycles of reincarnation are pure conjecture since there is no way to test them.
Yet “scientific” mankind seems to jump to conjecture instead of staying with facts, when the evidence suggests responsibility to his Maker. The Bible is right: “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator” (Romans 1:25).
Solid supporting evidence is not only the requirement of The Scientific Method but is also the requirement in a criminal court of law. All kinds of theories may be proposed to explain a crime and its motive, but unless there is evidence and especially eyewitness testimony, the theories remain theories and are not considered true. Clever conjecture is never enough on which to “rest your case”.
As C.S. Lewis, famous former Professor of English Literature at Oxford and then at Cambridge, points out in his writings, logic tells us there are three possibilities when evaluating eyewitness testimony. In this case, that of the apostles and the over 500 witnesses of the resurrected Christ over the forty days between His resurrection and ascension when Jesus Christ is recorded in the New Testament to have appeared on ten different occasions – “Either they were liars, or they were madmen, or they were telling the truth.”
That the apostles were liars is highly unlikely, considering their upstanding moral character and the fact that they all suffered and died for their lie. That they were insane is also highly unlikely considering the clarity and consistency of thought conveyed by the writers of the New Testament, as well as the consistency of their behavior. The apostle Luke, for instance, when he referred to geographical facts by mentioning thirty-two countries, fifty-four cities, and nine islands in his Gospel and Acts of the Apostles, made no errors. Secular scholars are forced to rate him as a first-class historian. And the logical progression in the systematic unfolding of doctrine by the apostle Paul in the Book of Romans shows supernormal capacity for rational thought. The logical conclusion, as Lewis points out, is that the apostles were neither liars nor madmen, but were testifying to what they knew to be true.
To be considered true, ideas should be based in fact, scientific evidence, or credible testimony, as in a court of law. Dr. Simon Greenleaf (1783-1853), former professor of law at Harvard University and formerly recognized by the Supreme Court to be perhaps the greatest authority on legal evidence who has ever lived, is known to have made a detailed examination of the evidence relating to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He concluded that in any unbiased courtroom in the world, the evidence would establish the fact that Jesus was resurrected from the dead. Belief in the resurrection is supported by some hard (and hard to dispute) facts, including: the empty tomb, the five hundred plus people who saw the resurrected Christ, the radically changed lives of the disciples, the disciple’s willingness to die for their faith, and the birth and growth of the church.
The Bible has the answers to the truly important questions about life. It has answers to our fundamental dilemma. Mankind has rebelled and turned his back on God in spite of the fact that God wants a relationship with us. Sin against God has separated us from Him. But God has demonstrated through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ that we can be restored to an eternal and glorious relationship with Him through faith in His redemptive work of Christ!
– Mark Cadwallader, Board Chairman of Creation Moments
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The “Information Age” has been upon us for many years now. The use of telecommunications and the internet have certainly revolutionized our world, and have sped the flow of information and knowledge. Futurist Alvin Toffler called it the latest wave of “profound change” – change to an “information based” economy. Now, with Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) and the spread of “smart devices” (the “Internet of Things”) promising even more “profound change” people are talking about an “Intelligence Age”, an “Experience Age”, or even an “Age of Reckoning”. As it says in the Bible, “O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased” (Daniel 12:4).
Modern mankind is distracted by so many things, and in this age is tempted to think he can substitute the knowledge of information and intelligence in general for true wisdom and knowledge. Yet there is a difference between “information” and “wisdom” – and between “spiritual knowledge” and “knowledge” in general. One can imbibe all kinds of information these days, but frankly much of it is non-essential, trivial, misinformation, disinformation, or “fake news”. It will never replace knowledge and wisdom manifested as good judgment, insight, and understanding. Information, in and of itself, does not bring “life”.
The kind of knowledge and wisdom extolled by the Bible (e.g., “…giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge…” 2 Peter 1:5) is the kind that allows us to see life from God’s perspective, and not just observe it apart from Him. It must be preceded by faith and virtue. The multimedia available today may be more capable of dispensing information than the limited media of movable type and the printing press which resulted in the first information revolution during the 16th century. But that first information age was utilized by printing houses to print Bibles, the best-selling book year after year for all time. It was utilized by Martin Luther and other early reformers to broadcast the gospel message – with Bibles in the language of the common people, and spiritual pamphlets being some of the main objects of printed information.
Honest historians recognize that the Protestant Reformation followed shortly upon the invention of the moveable-type printing press. And furthermore, that the scientific and industrial revolutions followed on the heels of the Protestant Reformation, as people in Western Europe had more direct access to the Bible and to true wisdom and knowledge. The Scientific Method of hypothesis demonstrated by experiment and testing drew upon the confidence of a European culture which believed that the Law-giving Covenant-keeping Creator God of the Bible made the order within the natural world such that it would also be governed by laws and principles from its Creator.
But don’t make the mistake of thinking that the information revolution of today will be similarly edifying. Without a real effort to supply biblical content and information, wisdom and truth is quite elusive, and the lies of the devil will proliferate. The mere availability of online services, AI, multimedia access, “smart” things, and high-impact visuals to the common man around the world does not itself mean a similar advancement of profoundly essential grace and truth.
– Mark Cadwallader, Board Chairman of Creation Moments
Photo: AI phone capabilities, Envato.
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