My Hiatus :(

Hi everyone!

I know it has been a very long time (nearly 9 months) since I have last written a blog. I really do want to keep this going, but it is difficult to do with school. Of course I choose to go to a University that isn't as easy as high school (I joke). So basically, I am here to say that I probably won't roll out a blog post any time soon, however I really, really want to and it has been itching me for a while now.

I figure what could be a decent trade off is write about a couple good Apologists that came to UofM (one of the advantages of being in college ha) in this post and what I thought about them. I suppose I could also give a general life update too and my future plans for this blog.

So, a while back, sometime in October I think, Frank Turek came to speak at UofM. Essentially his argument was about the truth of the New Testament and thus the validity of Jesus as who he claimed to be. His talk was very engaging and informative, and had a real air of confidence. I was thoroughly impressed by his speaking abilities. Of course being the liberal school we are, a humanism club was fortunate enough to attend the meeting also. These guys really made the meeting a fantastic experience because they offered legitimate counters to what Mr. Turek was saying. At the end of the meeting, there was a Q&A session and there was a non-stop slew of questions from the humanist club who asked the question based on major (The bio major asked questions about evolution). I thought Frank Turek did an incredible job at answering every question and offering a more-that-satisfactory counter-argument. Overall, I thought the meeting was hugely successful and made me buy his book: I don't have enough Faith to Be an Atheist. I would highly recommend that book to absolutely anyone no matter where you are in the faith or where you aren't in the faith. The book brand new was only about 15$.

I figured I should talk about the experience that is really pushing me back into doing this blog. I went to Panama City Beach this past spring break not to party, but to evangelize. I must say I was very nervous at first, but got more used to it and had an awesome time in Florida. My faith really grew and that was when I felt that God really wants me to do apologetics. For large portions of both the ride down and back up, we discussed apologetics. It really opened my eyes to the passion I have for this stuff and truly made it clear to me that I should keep doing stuff related to it. And for that reason I am going to stop worrying about choosing a career that pays well and choose a career the Lord can really use me and something I have a passion about. This Friday I am going to meet with my Academic Advisor and tell her that I like doing Christian Apologetics and ask her what classes I should take.

So, finally, what the purpose of this blog is going to be: I am going to use it just like I have been doing before. I am going to post something about a particular idea that has been weighing on me and give it an apologetic spin. I don't know how regular it will be, but I really want to at least do one a month until the summer when I have a lot more time.

So that's the update. Like I said, I am really wanting to keep this up more so you can expect to see more posts. FYI, I have like 12 ideas saved as drafts, so there is always something I can post.

Thanks,

Eric

Pascal's Wager vs. Atheistic Wager

There is a famous gamble made by a man named Blaise Pascal. Essentially, his wager is there is no harm in believing in God. If you are wrong and God is not real-oh well. You lived a righteous life. If you are right and He is real, you made a great choice. If you are right and God isn't real then you lived a life of no morals doing whatever you want. However if you are wrong and He is real, then you are spending an eternity in a torture, fiery place called Hell. By my calculations this bet is 100% fail-safe. Why aren't more people believing it? It could be a bunch of factors such as having to live a life with morals or it could be they are counting on their own wager: The Atheistic Wager.

The Atheistic Wager is a belief that there is no point in believing in God. Live however you want. If God is real, then he is also benevolent and accept everyone into heaven. This sounds real appetizing and an "answer" to atheistic prayer giving them a reason not to believe. However, this has one very serious flaw to it.

By using the Atheistic Wager, Atheists (and non-believers to I suppose) can ignore God till they die. Thats when they assume they will be sent to heaven. However, the entire time they were living, God has been true meaning the Bible and everything inside of it is true to. Ultimately, their wager is forced to accept God as a very real Creator in order to hold any water. If they must accept Christianity is true then must accept what is written about life after death. That quite frankly says that the road to heaven is very narrow and the ONLY way to Heaven is through Jesus Christ as your savior. The Atheists ignored this part largely due to their ignorance and will find themselves in hell as they are only willing to accept some of Christianity in their wager.

Impossibilty to Deny God

No matter which world view you subscribe to, denying God is impossible. How can that be even with evolution which SUPPOSEDLY gets rid of the need for a creator? Simple. Evolutionary Theory states that we evolved from a very simple single-cell organism to what we are now-a very complicated and diverse creature with many functions and most of all a conscious. If we were to keep in line with how evolution works (upward progression), we will keep getting smarter, more intelligent, higher conscious until we are Gods ourselves. With enough time our brains will become so strong that we will become very powerful-powerful enough to even create another universe to play with.

Think about it. Even if you are a die hard Evolutionists this scenario is very real. How can you prove that something of that sort didn't happen to us in this universe? Another species on another planet evolved to such a powerful level that it created this universe and then evolution starts over again. In fact this is right up Evolutionists alley, as this theory is impossible to prove except through time itself. And we all know those are the best kind of theories evolutionists like to propose.

Either way, you must bow your head to a creator. No matter which view you subscribe to, there is a Creator called God.

No turning back

I have been thinking over the entire aspect of God from an Atheist view. How much they would just have to trust in the idea of God and what he did and I can totally see how hard it would be for them to officially recognize God and believe in him.

That's when I was thinking "What if I stopped believing in God?" What would I do. And it really hit me. I would be on an island by myself. In respect to origins of life and the universe, I could never possibly accept the naturalistic approach no matter how hard I try. I have seen an unskewed presentation of evidence for creationism and the points are to large and critical for me to ignore.

What I am saying is that even if I wanted to stop believing in God and never hear of him again, no matter how hard I would try, and could not ignore the facts staring me down in every facet of nature not only because I "use" to believe in creationism, but because I know the true facts of the Creationism argument and not some mere straw-men.

The Tools Required

We know atoms exist. Can we see them? Of course not. But we KNOW they are there, creating the reactions we need to survive. Even back in 400 B.C. Democritus knew there had to be something smaller than the smallest thing he could see. How else could the piece of cheese stay together then?

This would seem like blind faith to many. Why on earth would you be so sure there are atoms present when you haven't even seen them yourself! I am sure many, many people in the world today have never seen actual atoms. But they don't believe simply because they just "know" there are atoms, they believe because they see the effects of them.

Not until the 1930's did humans ever see these atoms. They knew they were there simply by the effects atoms had. They understood the properties and reactive abilities of atoms, could give rough estimates of how one looked, but never saw one. Only though an electron microscope, a tool, could humans finally see the atom itself.

God is all around us. We have never seen God, yet we believe in him. Why? Because we can see the effects of God all around us. From the acute tuning of all life one Earth to interact so precisely with one another to the benevolent care he provides and the blessings he pours out. We know he is there. But in order to truly see God, you need to use a certain tool just like the electron microscope is needed to see atoms. The Bible is the most important tool to all of man. Without it we can't see God's nature at all. We can see his characteristics through general observation (such as he was a master engineer, physicist, mathematician etc.), but never get a real reading on how to come to know him and what he requires us to do until we look into our 'microscope' and actually study him.

I concede my Young Earth Creationists views. Evolution is true and I have been given undeniable evidence!

Yea, it's true guys. I have been given irrefutable evidence against special creation and it in fact proves Evolution through mutations are quite true. I will show my enlightenment to you too.

The Evolution of Transportation

We start with simple wheels on our feet:


Over the eons of making those same rollerblades, and through chance mistakes in producing them, we somehow added enough material to create a extra large, but better supportive wheel:


Again, through millions of chance mistakes, we added another wheel.


Now extra strength to the frame, and a complex motorized engine has been added. Remember, this has been through random, non-intelligent mistakes we are causing to what we previously were building to add complexity to it.


Ahh! The pinnacle of the two wheels. This will be the last time we see this in our evoulutionary process of transportation


Now we enter the era of three-wheels. This is a short lived period but a shining example of chance.



We now have reached a four-wheel vehicle that has all-weather conditions. The processes are so complex that I would say a divine being created it, but of course that is against what I believe. In Evolution I believe!








And finally, through the billions years of producing parts and accidently putting them together thus creating newer, better inventions with increasing complexity and order, we get to Optimus Prime. The greatest example nature will ever have to show of the power of making mistakes:



Yes, through random, chancy mutations over the course of billions of years we evolved from simple roller skates to Optimus Prime. Where did all the resources come for this extra information? I don't know, but it just does. And that is what is taught as fact....lol.

Does that series of pictures look ridiculous? That is what our "educated" scientists say is how humans came to be. Interesting when in a different light, huh?

Why God is not intolerant

So often I hear the remark, "If God is so benelovent then why does he send people to hell?" or "If God is so benelovent, why does he have such intolerance in my (non)christian beliefs and send me to hell for that?"

A very simple answer to this that is quite logical and fits well within God's benelovence:

Why would God force you to spend an eternity with him when you have been denying him your whole life?

If anything you should be thanking him for his benelovence pouring out. He is doing you a service-finally granting your eternal seperation from your Creator to spend an eternity in hell.

Think about it.