This fun new 20-minute video from the Discovery Institute illustrates the question of "where did the information inside living cells come from?"   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aA-FcnLsF1g

If even ONE single stable protein of practical biological length could not have formed by chance processes during the history of life on earth, much less a biologically functional protein, much less the hundreds of proteins necessary for new functional types of cells and new body plans, why do evolutionists keep insisting that all biological information was formed this way?

(Not even to mention the improbability of getting the first living cell from nonliving chemicals, and problems like Haldane’s dilemma of how to spread genes throughout the population within the short time of the Cambrian Explosion and Sanford’s dilemma of how to prevent genetic entropy from overwhelming beneficial mutations with harmful ones)...

(Not to mention, in a naturalistic scenario, why would one hold to the unscientific view that matter/energy appeared out of nothing, thus breaking all the laws of thermodynamics and scientific method causality?)

The failure of naturalistic theories like neodarwinian evolution to explain the origin of the  information built into living cells has long pointed instead to a Designer (and in my understanding, the best candidate is the God of the Bible, because there is actual evidence for His existence... such as the resurrection of Jesus from the dead...).

http://pleaseconvinceme.com/2013/the-minimal-facts-of-the-resurrection/

http://www.reasonsforgod.org/the-best-reasons/the-resurrection/

http://worldviewofjesus.com/2013/02/03/minimal-facts-argument-for-the-resurrection-of-jesus-Christ/

Here are some books read over the past year or so... For more of my reviews, see here http://tim223.xanga.com/category/book-reviews/

Courtship in Crisis: the case for traditional dating, by Thomas Umstattd, Jr. - (The following is written about a pre-publication copy that I had the privilege of reading) - This is a fascinating book.  He explains that he was excited by "courtship" when Joshua Harris' book "I kissed dating goodbye" came out in the 1990s (weren't we all), but explains some problems he encountered in his life with the courtship approach.  By contrast, his grandmother explained that in her generation, she was encouraged to date many guys in a casual (no sex) way, and this method apparently worked well for her generation.  In our generation, Umstaddt says, our "Modern Dating" approach has not worked well (marriage rates are falling and divorce rates are high).  Umstattd has some great thoughts in this book.  I think it's well worth reading, for everyone... supporters of courtship/betrothal, nonChristians who date for hookups only, and especially Christians who are desiring to follow Jesus in purity but who are confused about how to go about finding a spouse.

 
A Relentless Hope: Surviving the storm of teen depression, by Gary Nelson. - He shares the story of how his own son went through years of severe depression, anxiety, and anger (all the while while Gary was pastoring and counseling others).  He shares honestly about how tough it was, and some things he learned regarding how to parent a depressed child ("just keep loving them"), and some things that were helpful (Prozac, and also, focusing on fighting together with the child against "it" (depression)).  I don't necessarily agree with all of his parenting actions (I definitely disagree with the idea of letting your son sleep with his girlfriend), but who am I to judge?... and Nelson has definitely been through a lot bigger struggle in his situation than I have.  Some things can definitely be learned from this true story of his family's situation.  This story also resonates with me as some of my friends have faced the heartache of having a family member commit suicide.  How do you respond?  As a friend, quiet support and prayer would seem to be the best (not 'advice').  As a griever, (as Job in the Bible and as Tim Keller's book "Walking with God through pain and suffering" well discusses), at first we struggle with God and ask 'why', but eventually we are able to trust Him, even though we may never 'understand' (on this side of heaven).

 
Yawning at Tigers: You can't tame God, so stop trying, by Drew Dyck. - This is basically a book about God (in the same genre as "Knowing God" or "Crazy Love" or other books)... it makes the point that God is big and powerful and owes an apology for his actions to none of us (God is "transcendent")... and at the same time God cares about us and knows us individually (God is "immanent").  He shares about things he has learned from seminary and from time overseas in various countries (e.g. Albania).  His main point, that we should not underestimate God, is good, but the book itself is such a piecemeal, scattershot, postmodern-style, 10-different stories/anecdotes-per-page collection that it's hard to keep his main point in mind.  I suppose he would be a fascinating person to have a conversation with, but his book seems a bit disorganized.

 
Ordinary: sustainable faith in a radical, restless world, by Michael Horton - the theme of this book is that American Christians have tended to focus on "extraordinary", "novel", "transformative", "high-intensity", "experiential" aspects of the Christian life, whereas the life God wants us to live is stable, peaceful, and 'ordinary'... going to church regularly, building relationships with neighbors/coworkers/friends, reading our Bible every day, etc.  Horton complains that there is too much focus on "the one thing that you're missing in your Christian life", and not enough of the standard things, especially Christ himself.  The book is good, and that one point is well taken, although the book can get a bit repetitive and cliche and arguing against straw-men arguments sometimes.  It is, perhaps, a reaction against books by many authors (such as David Platt and Francis Chan) which are themselves reactions against the 'american dream' version of Christianity.. the prosperous life.  Horton emphasizes that discipleship is long-haul, line-upon-line, and that the Christian life should be one of contentment and walking with God daily.

 
United: Captured by God's Vision for Diversity, by Trillia J. Newbell - A personal account of how she (a black woman) grew up amid the pressures of racism in America, and came to Christ, and has since grown in her understanding of the ideal goal for which we Christians should be aiming in the area of racial diversity.  She explains that there were some personal friendships/relationships (with a Christian caucasian woman and a Christian chinese woman) that really helped her in many ways, so she makes the point that it is these individual relationships that are what is most helpful in overcoming racism in America. It is a great read overall.  She cites John Piper and his book "Bloodlines", and Thabeti Anyabwhile in his insistence that 'there is no such thing as race'.  It is a bit redundant... the latter half of Newbell's book is a bit repetitive from the former half of the book.  It is fascinating to me that she basically takes the exact opposite perspective as Michael Emerson (I previously reviewed his book, "Divided by Faith")... he says that although white evangelicals think that personal relationships will eventually fix the problems, he claims that NO, there are "systemic injustices" which must be fixed politically, and relationships won't fix that.  I think Newbell would say that the relationships would fix the systemic injustices, in time... and I agree with her...  Newbell also writes about "finding her identity in Christ rather than in her race," and overcoming certain feminist ideas...  which I think are some of the best parts of her book.  Good book overall, worth reading.

 
The Myth of Junk DNA, by Jonathan Wells - A short book showing how the evolutionary myth of "junk DNA" has hindered biology.  A bit technical occasionally, but overall written at a nice level for everyone, and worth reading!

 
The Mysterious Epigenome - Thomas Woodward and James Gills - This book attempts to convey the great discoveries of the past decade in the area of epigenetics (how acquired traits can be passed down directly from parents to children without going into the genome).  The book attempts to reach both young people and adults by using a "let's tour the cell in a submarine" analogy/story.  Unfortunately, it misses both demographics... the story is too advanced for children to understand, and the detail sidebars are too corny and surfacy for adults.  I hope this same material can be given a different treatment in a different book some day, to put the same content into a different, more readable style.  For example, the readable style of Stephen Meyer ("Darwin's Doubt", "Signature in the Cell") is much more accessible for all levels, although it is very wordy/verbose/lengthy.  But the book might be worth reading once, just because the epigenetics info is so fascinating.

 
The Spirit of the Disciplines, Richard Foster - This book discusses various spiritual disciplines (and the importance of them).  It's a good book, and it briefly touches on the big danger of spiritual disciplines (they can make people trust in the disciplines rather than in Christ for their justification!)... I wish it hit that message much harder and more repeatedly... that would make it a "safer" book for people to read.  There is a balance... between those who emphasize "free grace" and those who emphasize "spiritual disciplines"... I wish they would read each other's books...

 
The Finish Line, by D. Creson - a short book with stories and vignettes surrounding the acceleration of Bible translation, and the fact that within a few decades all the ethnic groups of the world might have the Bible in their own language... Jesus said "the gospel will be preached to all the nations (ethnic groups), and then the end will come", so this underscores that the end of the world is getting close.  It is an interesting, quick read.  Unfortunately, Wycliffe (who D. Creson works for) has capitulated in the area of creating Muslim-friendly Bible translations which replace "son of God" with other inaccurate terms, due to pressure from certain linguistic consultants.  I hope they change their ways so that we can support them again in the future.

 
The Insanity of Obedience, by Nik Ripken - a continuation of the story from his first book "The Insanity of God", but this book was not nearly as good because it often sounded so harsh, strident, and judgmental... i.e. the message seemed to be one of anger toward American Christians because they are living too-comfortable lives... rather than understanding that God calls different people to different ministries and our job is not to judge.

 
The Live Dead Journal, edited by Dick Brogden - a powerful collection of devotional readings and meditations, mostly by people who are missionaries to muslim areas of Africa.  Each devotional is powerful and challenging and thought provoking.  The title summarizes the message - we should live "dead" to our own desires, focused on Christ's kingdom.  Well worth reading multiple times. It can get a little preachy sometimes though, in a postmodern 'reactionary' kind of way.  It's worth reading at least once, and probably would be good for a discussion with other people.

 
God's Double Agent, by Bob Fu and Nancy French - Bob tells the fascinating story of how he grew up in communist China.  He was a very strong communist in college, organizing other students.  Then some events caused him to shift somewhat in his beliefs.  His girlfriend who became his wife was a strong influence on him over the years.  He happened to meet some Christians, and over a long time of studying, eventually came to Christ.  His life after that was much more difficult.  He escaped to the USA in 1997.  This is a great true story.  It has many moments of heartbreak.  It helped me understand Chinese struggles better... especially two aspects: the pressure to not disappoint one's parents (Bob's interaction with his amazing, loving, disabled, father is a thread of heartbreak throughout this book and similarly throughout many Chinese people's lives), and the pressures of Asian marriage (in particular, the tension between Bob's desire to help persecuted Christians, and the need to take care of and protect his own family... such as the pressure of having the phone often ring in the middle of the night with info about persecuted Christians needing help).  The good news is that the story is not finished... he is still alive and walking with Jesus, in Texas.

 
Babylon, by Peter Herder and Benji Nolot - This book examines what Revelation says about the wicked city, "Babylon"... it is not just a city, it is a world system... that started back in the Garden of Eden at the fall of man, and continues to break forth throughout history... in the modern days, as Revelation predicts, it is tied in with human trafficking and slavery.  This is a very unusual book in its style, but the basic points seem to be valid.  They make an interesting speculation at the end about whether the 'final Babylon' might be an actual physical city as a representative (they even suggest one city), or whether it refers to the whole anti-God world system.  Worth reading.

Here's a great article summarizing the fact that the morphological (fossil-based), DNA-genetic, RNA-genetic, mitochondrial-genetic, and microRNA-genetic similarity 'trees' simply don't match.  At all.  They completely contradict each other in thousands if not millions of places.

http://www.evolutionnews.org/2015/02/problem_6_molec091151.html

This is especially fascinating to me because a few years ago, I was listening to an evolutionist give a lecture.  After his lecture during the Q/A time, I asked him what was, in his opinion, the strongest evidence in favor of evolution.  He said, the fact that the fossil tree and molecular genetic tree match so nicely.

Unfortunately for him, as the science continues to develop, it continues to sweep aside that piece of evidence upon which he relied.

In contrast, the molecular and fossil evidence we see is for a set of "bushes" (both morphologically and genetically), not a single tree - perfectly matching what the Bible says about God creating each animal after its own "kind".  Genetic and morphological variation within each kind is thus expected (Chihuahua vs Great Dane), and significant similarity between DNA (because similar or identical proteins are being used), but not necessarily a genetic "tree" from a single common ancestor... because there was no common ancestor.

Here are some more book reviews from recently-read (or not-so-recently-read) books. For my previous reviews, look at here or here or the "book reviews" category on this blog.

---------

Evolution's Achilles Heels - edited by Robert Carter - Nine creationist PhD's discuss the latest (2014) scientific and philosophical case against evolution. It is technical, but also well-written and clear. It has chapters about the fossil record, the origin of life, natural selection, the geologic record, cosmology, genetics, radiometric dating, and morality. I would compare this book as a rough equivalent to Stephen Meyer's "Signature in the Cell" and "Darwin's Doubt", with the following differences: (1) EAH is written by 9 people rather than 1, so it is slightly less coherently written (but still good), (2) EAH is much shorter (260 pages rather than 1100 pages for Meyers' books combined) so it's easier to read quickly, but it's also a little more concise/dense than Meyer's books (he's a bit more verbose), (3) EAH is written from a young-earth creationist perspective, which is farther outside the mainstream than Meyer's age-agnostic or old-earth Intelligent Design perspective (but of course I fully agree with EAH's perspective), and (4) EAH is even more up-to-date scientifically than Stephen Meyers' books. For the best up-to-date perspective on the paucity of evolution and the strength of the ID (and/or creationist) view, one should read BOTH EAH and Meyers' books.

The Insanity of God, by Nik Ripken - Great book... he begins by telling about his own humanitarian/mission work in Somalia several years ago immediately after the war finished, and how things got more and more difficult for Christian work there. Then their son died. At that point, stricken with grief and somewhat disillusioned with missions work (where was the fruit, the conversions, that they were hoping/laboring for?), they went home. But then Nik decided to travel around the world and interview Christians in other nations who had faced persecution, to learn how they had come through it. His secondhand recorded stories from these interviews (Russia, Ukraine, China, Middle-eastern countries, etc) are very powerful and encouraging. Many persecuted Christians around the world consider persecution a matter of course, not anything unusual. This encouraged Nik, and he published this book. He next started writing The Insanity of Obedience, which is also good (I just started reading it). By "insanity", Nik means that God's ways are not our ways... and God uses our weakness to display His strength, and grow His church despite/through suffering.

Footprints in the Ash, by John Morris and Steven Austin - this is a book about the 1980 Mt St Helens eruption, and all the geological lessons learned from it, and the implications of those lessons for dating other features (such as the Grand Canyon). It is a great book, with clear illustrations and many amazing photos. It points out that many rocks from historic volcanic eruptions are dated by radiometric techniques to be hundreds of thousands or millions of years old, illustrating that the radiometric techniques are quite inaccurate. It has a brief application / sermon-type section at the end where it applies the lessons to our spiritual lives. Highly recommended.

Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus by Nabeel Qureshi - Powerful, gentle, authentic, sincere, well-written, well-paced autobiographical account of a devout young Muslim (from the Ahmadiyya sect) who eventually came to believe in Jesus Christ (of the Bible, not the Quran) in his 20's. Along the way he has a lot of explanation of Muslim culture and terminology to help other culture understand Islam better. Nabeel chronicles the very painful and arduous journey he traveled, most of the time thinking he was 'refuting' and 'disproving' Christianity, but eventually he could no longer deny the truth. He described the heartbreak that came between him and his family when he left Islam and followed Jesus. But the way he writes about them, you can sense how much he loves them. Nabeel is now a speaker with Ravi Zacharias' organization. Highly recommended.

In Six Days, by John Ashton
On the Seventh Day, by John Ashton - both of these books are great reads. Each book has short articles from 40 or 50 scientists about why they believe in God and/or God's creation of the world (not evolution). Even though not every article is as 'powerful' as the others, it is a very 'genuine' book that gives a snapshot of the thought patterns of many different people - some more scientific, others more intuitive. Many of them were previously evolutionists and sometimes atheists. It is an encouraging book, and demonstrates that it is easily possible to be a scientist who believes in God and in the Biblical young-earth creation.

Dear Muslim Friend - by Jerry Mattix - Short, 120-page booklet, "explaining Christianity to a Muslim". Very excellent. It is gentle, yet firm, answering objections Muslims have to the Bible ("was it 'corrupted'?") and "Christianity"/Crusades/politics/etc, and showing clearly the Jesus of the Bible.

Money, Greed, and God by Jay Richards - He writes about how capitalism has roots in the Biblical worldview (but of course it is not the perfect solution)... and he writes as a former socialist! So he deeply empathizes with socialism, but shows how capitalism is a 'less bad' solution out of all imperfect approaches. Well written.

Follow Me, by David Platt - This is an intentionally "challenge"-oriented book, like Francis Chan's books. It's an exhortation to follow Jesus into the uncomfortable obedience, wherever/whatever that is.

The Practice of the Presence of God, Brother Lawrence - This is a collection of letters by a monk from the middle ages. He went into a monastery when a young man, anxious about his soul. After many years, he came to know God well, and became an example to other people of the peace of God. As the title implies, Lawrence continued to live in close fellowship with God, in constant prayer, etc. His main duties were in dishwashing and gardening, and he gradually came to understand that he could be just as close to God while dishwashing and cooking as in a prayer service.  I don't agree with everything in the book, but it does sound like Lawrence was a true believer in God, and we can learn some things from him.

Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, volume 3, Michael Brown - More excellent work.. this volume focuses on the messianic prophecies, and deftly demonstrates that Jesus fulfills them marvelously. It is a great read, because it cuts through the simplistic 'foretelling' approach which skeptics like to skewer. For example, "the virgin shall be with child" in Isaiah 7:14- some people simplistically claim that this was a prophecy of a virgin birth, which Matthew then quotes. The skeptics point out that the Hebrew word 'almah' does not necessarily mean virgin, so Matthew was (according to them) misquoting. However, serious scholars have always known that there are deeper aspects to Matthew's usage, and in fact he was not just focusing on the virgin-birth aspect, but using the prophecy in typological ways which are more in-line with the Jewish mindset regarding prophecies. If you like the articles at www.christianthinktank.com , you will like Brown's book too.

Mission Drift, Peter Greer - A great short book examining certain ministries that stayed true to their original Christian mission, and many others that gradually drifted away, and summarizing principles that help to stay "mission-true".

Divided by Faith, by Michael Emerson and Christian Smith - The authors summarize some history of evangelical attitudes toward race (and slavery) in America, and then try to make the point that white evangelicals in America tend to focus only on restoring personal relationships between races but ignore the "larger, systemic issues of injustice" like police profiling and enforced neighborhood segregation. They base much of their book on interviews conducted with evangelicals. Some points they make are correct, like the fact that many cities today are still quite segregated, and many churches are too. Other points they make are suspect. I took a lot of notes on this book, and I may publish a longer review later if I have time. One big critique of this book is that they spend 170 pages describing the problems as they see it, and then less than 1/2 page describing the solutions, and their solutions are extremely vague. I do not necessarily recommend this book.

Walking with God through Pain and Suffering - Tim Keller - TOP QUALITY, He does a good job explaining how to handle suffering, and why God allows it.  He shares many stories from people in his church who have been through extreme suffering.  Well worth reading multiple times.

Don't Let the Goats Eat the Loquat Trees, by Thomas Hale - EXCELLENT fun-to-read account of his time working as a missionary surgeon in Nepal with his family. He mixes in informative and funny stories with info about Nepal and insights about walking with God in missions work. The only problem is that this book is a little old (~30 years ago), so the info about Nepal/etc is dated. Well worth reading.

The Pineapple Story, by Otto Konig - Actually, it's better to listen to the audio sermons by Konig rather than to read the abridged book. He has an amazing ability as a humorist, and also a lot of good insights about walking with God (basically - surrender everything to God, don't hold anything back - it's the best way to live). The one caveat is that he sometimes falls into an oversimplified theology, in which if I have a problem in my life it is because I'm withholding something from God... simply surrender it (or start praising God) and *presto*, God will remove the problem. But overall his insights and experiences are worth listening to.

The Great Divorce, by C.S.Lewis - I finally got around to reading the whole of this wonderful book. It tells of a man who (in a dream) visits Hell and Heaven, and came to understand that those in Hell really WANT to be in Hell... they do not want to admit that they are sinners and that God is good and right and loving. It has a lot of good thoughts. A drawback is that C.S.Lewis leaves the door open to universalism, but at least he doesn't push it. Highly recommended story. One of several famous quotes from the book:
"There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, in the end, "Thy will be done." All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. Those who knock it is opened."

Several good articles for today:

http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=27-03-035-f (Lunatic, Liar, Lord.. or Legend)

http://teampyro.blogspot.com/2014/05/of-leprechauns-mermaids-and-loving.html (Leprechauns, Mermaids, and Loving Homosexual Couples)

http://hipandthigh.wordpress.com/2014/05/01/evaluating-old-earth-responses-to-young-earth-arguments-1/ and http://hipandthigh.wordpress.com/2014/05/09/evaluating-old-earth-responses-to-young-earth-arguments-2/

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/thoughtlife/2014/04/david-platt-dont-squander-your-singleness/ 

http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/hope-for-the-despairing-heart

Here's a great post linking to other posts about a physics conference last week in which secular physicists were dismayed about the fact that they still can't figure out how the universe could have popped into existence from nothing.  Physicists are now admitting that "All the evidence we have says that the universe had a beginning."   And they don't know what started this beginning.

http://crev.info/2012/01/cosmologists-forced-to-in-the-beginning/

For those of us who have read the Bible and know the God of the Bible, the answer is quite simple.   God started it.

This is not a "God of the gaps" argument; rather, it is a testimonial inference (and/or "inference-to-the-best-explanation") which fits perfectly with all known scientific evidence.

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."  Genesis 1:1

Here is an interesting article called "The War Against Girls", a good book review of "Unnatural Selection" by Mara Hvistendahl.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303657404576361691165631366.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read#printMode

Here's an excerpt:

"Despite the author's intentions, "Unnatural Selection" might be one of the most
consequential books ever written in the campaign against abortion. It is aimed,
like a heat-seeking missile, against the entire intellectual framework of
"choice." For if "choice" is the moral imperative guiding abortion, then there
is no way to take a stand against "gendercide." Aborting a baby because she is a
girl is no different from aborting a baby because she has Down syndrome or
because the mother's "mental health" requires it. Choice is choice."

Here is another interesting article called "The Search for the Historical Adam".

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/article_print.html?id=92509

It summarizes the state of the continuing controversy about whether God created the human race directly in the persons of Adam and Eve, or whether God "used evolution" over millions of years to bring us to where we are today.  The same compromises and arguments are occurring, with the theistic evolutionists / progressive creationists / old-earthers saying "it really doesn't matter" and the rest of us Bible-believers saying "it really does matter."

The article is unfortunately biased toward the theistic evolution point of view, but it does spotlight the incredible pressures in the intellectual spheres in the creation/evolution discussion these days.

Great quote from Tim Keller -

"[Paul] most definitely wanted to teach us that Adam and Eve were real historical figures. When you refuse to take a biblical author literally when he clearly wants you to do so, you have moved away from the traditional understanding of the biblical authority.  If Adam doesn't exist, Paul's whole argument - that both sin and grace work 'covenantally' - falls apart. You can't say that 'Paul was a man of his time' but we can accept his basic teaching about Adam. If you don't believe what he believes about Adam, you are denying the core of Paul's teaching."

And finally, a closing quote from the most awesome book of all, the Bible... Ephesians 1:3-12.   I see so many of my nonChristian friends inwardly hungry for significance (especially men) or for love (especially women), all day long... vainly seeking in this or that activity or place.  If only they could know and experience our great God!  ...the God who loves us fiercely, beyond measure, and will never stop loving us, and Who has called us to true, eternal, significance through being adopted by Him:

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory."

John Horgan recently said on his blog at Scientific American magazine that secular scientists still have no good theory for how life could arise from non-living chemicals.  "Don't tell the creationists," he says!  (as if we aren't fully aware...)   The main contenders for abiogenesis theories these days are self-catalyzing RNA molecules (whose problems Horgan lists, and Stephen Meyer enumerates in his book "Signature in the Cell"), and "Panspermia", the idea that life on earth must have come from somewhere else in the universe.  Panspermia merely pushes the problem somewhere else, of course.

Horgan tries to claim that his naturalistic approach is more "honest", however.  Here's a quote:

"Creationists are no doubt thrilled that origin-of-life research has reached such an impasse..., but they shouldn't be. Their explanations suffer from the same flaw: What created the divine Creator? And at least scientists are making an honest effort to solve life's mystery instead of blaming it all on God."

If the divine Creator God had a beginning, then yes, He would need a cause.  But since He is eternal and never had a beginning, He needed no cause.

A naturalist might say, "You believe in an eternal God, I believe in an eternal universe.  We both believe in something eternal, but at least I can see the universe, whereas I can't see God.  My position is more rational because I'm building my beliefs on the available observable evidence."

There are three problems with this.  First, according to observable scientific principles such as the laws of thermodynamics, all the matter/energy in closed systems is constantly moving into a less-usable state (higher entropy).  So if the universe was really eternal, it would have already come to a "heat death", a cold, homogenized "stew" of molecules evenly distributed everywhere.  The fact that there's still lots of usable energy around (e.g. the stars) indicates that it had a beginning, some finite time ago.  (Someone might postulate a constantly exploding-and-contracting universe that has been 'reborn' an infinite number of times every few billion years with no loss of energy...  but how "observable" would that theory be?!?  That's about as observable and rational as postulating that an invisible 'Flying Spaghetti Monster' created the universe!

Second, which Cause better explains the world we see around us?  If all life arose from nonliving chemicals, then morality is merely an illusion, as are also consciousness, choice, love, and rational thought itself.  Furthermore, are all design inferences inherently "dishonest", as Horgan seems to imply?  Suppose I found a scrap of paper stuck under my front door one day, with the following text: "Dear Tim, I think you're cute. Signed, a secret admirer."   I could attribute this object to three types of causes (or a mixture) - necessity, chance, or design. 

• "Necessity" would be, for example, a secret miniature printing press buried behind a trap door in my wall which stealthily swung into action in the middle of the night and stamped out such a note every few years, inserting it beneath the doorstep before lapsing into hibernation again.  That would explain the paper, but the chain of causality would next move to "where did the printing press (a more complicated object than the note) come from?"
• "Chance" would be, for example, the hypothesis that the wind just so happened to blow a pencil and a scrap of blank paper out of the trash dump on the other side of the city, and just so happened to rub the pencil against the paper as they tumbled down the street, and just so happened to form legible english letters and words which created a coherent set of sentences, and just so happened to insert the paper under my front door during the night.   Is it possible?  Sure.  What's the probability?   A lot bigger than the probability that one self-replicating cell would form by chance...
• "Design" would be the hypothesis that some unknown "intelligent agent" wrote and delivered the note.

If I inferred design, would that be a "dishonest" inference?  Would it be irrational?  Would it be "unscientific"?  Would Horgan say, "No no no, you must keep trying to think up a way that it could have happened by chance!  You must keep making an honest effort to solve the mystery of the note's origin by postulating non-intelligent causes, rather than blaming it all on some unknown intelligent agent!"

Third, there is indeed real-world evidence for the existence of the Biblical God.   Jesus of Nazareth was born at the prophesied time and place, performed miracles and taught about (and in accordance with) the God of the Old Testament, was killed, and then raised to life again and was seen by hundreds of people.   While God is currently invisible, He has provided ample historical evidence of His existence and character to those who take the time to investigate...

Here are some recently read books with a short blurb/synopsis, in case you might be interested in reading them too.   My previous set of reviews was September 12, 2009 if you want to read more (use the "Posting Calendar" link at the lower left side of this page).

- Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, Volume 1, by Michael Brown - great book... addresses a lot of "I couldn't possibly consider Jesus my Messiah, because I'm Jewish, my whole family is Jewish, etc" and "Didn't Christians persecute the Jews for thousands of years?" type questions.  There are an amazing amount of carefully cited references... great resource!  There are three more volumes... I look forward to reading them...

- Genetic Entropy and the Mystery of the Genome by John Sanford - Excellent book.  Thanks to Rich for giving it to me!  The gist is that random mutations are slowly destroying the human genome, little by little, inexorably, and neodarwinian evolution (natural selection + random mutation) is not only unable to create new genetic information, but unable even to maintain our current genome.  This implies that our genome was originally created essentially perfect by an Intelligent Designer, some thousands of years ago.  The book needs some editing to make it a little less redundant, and the pictures are a little corny (sometimes he seems to be aiming for a lay audience, and sometimes for a scientific audience), but overall the points he makes are excellent.

- The Future of Justification, a response to N.T.Wright - by John Piper - great book... closely written theological rebuttal to NT Wright's New Perspective on Paul.  Piper does a good job of showing why justification is God's "forensic"/legal "writing us down NOW as if we're innocent", and how this individual forgiveness-of-sins is the heart of the gospel.   (as opposed to the NPP heresy, which teaches (similar to the RCC) that justification is God's eschatological pronouncement at the end of time that we are "in the covenant community", based on the good works that we've done during our lives through His enabling(/"infusing") power).

- Overcoming Sin and Temptation - by John Owen (new edition by Kelly Kapic/Justin Taylor) - Excellent book!  Deep reading, difficult old english, but great thoughts on putting to death sin by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Overall summary: (1) It is extremely important to be putting sin to death in our lives... "be killing sin or it will be killing you". (2) the ONLY way to kill it is by the power of the Holy Spirit, not by accountability partners, or more Bible reading, or setting rules for oneself, or telling oneself "I'm better than that", or self denial or self-flagellation, or any other type of human-power-based approach to attempting to make oneself more righteous.

- Evolution: greatest hoax on earth - by Jonathan Safarti - All of Safarti's books are worth reading.  This one dissects Richard Dawkins' latest book "Evolution: the greatest show on earth" which claims to present the most powerful and up-to-date evidence in favor of evolution.  Safarti's book carefully goes through Dawkins' claims and dispassionately blows each one out of the water.  It is a "polemical" book, but a rational, evenhanded polemic overall.

- Head, Heart, and Hands - by Dennis Hollinger - Thanks to Tom for lending me this book.  Hollinger makes the point that some Christians are wired to be more "head" (intellectual)-oriented, others "heart" (emotional)-oriented, and others "hands" (practical, gift of helps, social-justice/soup-kitchens/etc)-oriented.  He makes the point that all aspects are necessary, and we need to understand our own selves and be willing to grow in the other two areas.

- The Edge of Evolution - by Michael Behe (a RCC biology prof who believes in common-descent of man and apes, and in an old earth, but not that darwinian evolution can explain all of it) - fascinating in-depth look at what (darwinian) evolution can and can't do, using the specific examples of malaria and sickle-cell anemia resistance to malaria.  Pro: Behe is an expert on this subject, and also tries to make it accessible... he well demonstrates his point that evolution can make small destructive changes to genetic information that sometimes confer "resistance" to a particular disease, but it cannot cross the multiple-improbable-step gap to create new biological features and innovations and genetic information.  It's a little difficult to get through all the biology - I made it about halfway and then stopped for a while.

- Signature in the Cell, by Stephen Meyer - great book!  It's basically about how evolution has no plausible way to create novel genetic information (in our DNA).  Meyer reviews all the theories and shows how they don't work (and contradict each other).  The only reasonable explanation is intelligent design...   The only downside to this book is that it's so long!  If it could be shortened, it would be better.

What interesting books have you been reading lately?

Have you heard of the evolutionary term "convergence"?  It refers to the supposed arrival of multiple biological lineages to the same "body plan" through independent evolutionary histories.  The problem is that the main evidence for evolution is supposed to be the seamless "tree of life" in which body plans ("morphologies") gradually change into what comes next.  When an animal exhibits an organ extremely similar to another supposedly unrelated animal in the evolutionary "tree of life", instead of accepting that it is evidence against the theory of evolution, proponents simply say "it evolved more than once" and give it the name "convergence".

This hilarious handwaving deserves much... um... scrutiny.   Here's a gem from recent Creation Safaris:

In the land of Jabberwocky, a scientist named Niwrad came up with a theory of everything he called Galumph.  With frabjous joy, he investigated all the creatures of the borogoves with his apprentice, Ecallaw.  He found that the Jubjub birds had round eyes and the mome raths, though similar, have square eyes.  That’s because of Galumph, he explained.  The Bandersnatch and Jabberwock, though looking very different, both have round eyes.  “Galumph triumphs again!” Niwrad chortled.  “But how can that be?” burbled Ecallaw with uffish look.  “They are so very different in other respects.”  “Callooh! Callay!” exclaimed Niwrad frumiously.  “'Tis only to demonstrate the power of Galumph.  The former is a case of Parallel Galumph.  This one, a case of Convergent Galumph.  Do you see?  Galumph explains all.  We must away and tell Yelxuh, our mimsy publicist, to announce our scientific triumph to the townspeople!  We have slain the mystery of Jabberwock with Galumph.  Galumph has wiped the brillig from our slithy toves, and given us Enlightenment!”
    Convergence is about as meaningful and convincing an explanation as this.  If God exists, and if it were his intent to show the impossibility of evolution, he could hardly have done a better job than to show both unity and diversity of plants and animals, but with cross-branches linking unrelated lineages with similar traits.  It would simultaneously show a single Creator (instead of polytheism) and the impossibility these complex species and traits had emerged naturally from common ancestry.  As far as the differences between bat species, it is also much more plausible to explain by trait loss rather than by innovative gain of new complex systems.  Yet the Darwinists, intent on their naturalistic world view, have come up with a term like Galumph, called Convergence, to rescue their beliefs from the evidence.  To see the extent of their use of this rescuing device, look at Brett Miller’s partial list of incredible similarities between unrelated creatures in his essay,

The Convergence Concoction.  Like his final cartoon shows, it’s so much easier for lazy scientists to say “It evolved!” than to consider the implications of the evidence.  Another resource on the explanatory flimflam being sold as Convergent Evolution can be found in this article on the Explore Evolution website, section II D.
    It can look impressive to see in scientific papers the amount of detailed work researchers perform to arrive at their Galumph explanations.  How could all these analytical tools like Bayesian analysis, software that generates phylogenetic trees out of genetic inputs, mathematical manipulations, inscrutable jargon, tables, charts and piles of supplemental data be misguided?  How can it be wrong when it feels so right?  But if the conclusion of this bridge over troubled water is “Galumph!  Stuff happens,” it doesn’t matter.  That’s a non-starter as an explanation.  And busy work is not science.  Undoubtedly one could find similar amounts of complex procedures and data manipulation in the textbooks on alchemy and astrology.  Couching the Stuff Happens Law (09/15/2008 commentary) in euphemisms does not produce understanding.
    By failing to include the top-down theories in their roster, they have failed to address the pool of possible explanations.  Regardless, this jabber about Convergence is not an explanation; it’s Jargonwocky masquerading as meaning.