The Deconstruction of "Evidence of God in an Expanding Universe" by, J. C. Monsma

Dear reader, in a few moments you will have stopped wondering which direction to bow whenever the urge to glorify, serve, or sacrifice fills you. While The Evidence of God in an Expanding Universe provided by forty of America's top scientists may leave the debate open to dimmer stars, I have seen the answer like a beacon in the night. Towards the east, to Mecca I will pray, the Prophet Muhammad's example showing me the way.

Ok, seriously, you will want to continue reading even after you've realized I was being sarcastic about following Muhammad (yikes, better watch my neck!). I like to think that despite my joking, sarcasm, ridicule, mocking, and lambasting, one can sense that I really do care about religion and that I don't take the subject lightly at all. If I don't subsrcibe to any religion and instead align myself with a camp which finds religion not only offensive but oppressive, I'd hope that what I write would not immediately give away that position. And, for my own sake, I'd hope that I'm never so confident or so afraid as to stop considering the other side's best arguments.

These are reasons why I give you The Evidence of God in an Expanding Universe. The book was put together in 1958 by schooled minister and writer John Clover Monsma. It's exactly the sort of book I've been looking for for years. In it, the writers (who are all scientists with Masters or Doctorates) express their belief in a personal God, the Christian God of the Bible, and present reasons for that belief. Some scientists claim their reasons are in fact evidence which in turn is tantamount to proof of God's existence, while most contributors admit that their reasons and the so-called evidence merely lend support to a strong personal faith which serves as the ultimate foundation for their belief.

We will start with the first article:

"The Origin of the World-By Chance or Design?" by Frank Allen

• The origin of the Universe has occured in time; therefore, the universe must have been created.
• "The great first cause, an eternal, all-knowing and all all-powerful creator must exist, and the universe is his handiwork."
• "The adjustment of the earth for life are far too numerous to be accounted for by chance."
• Design seen in earth as a sphere, rotating on an axis around the sun. Inclination of the Earth. Gasses of the atmosphere ideal for life. Density of atmosphere protects the Earth from meteor impacts. Rain. Properties of water. Soil. -All too convenient for life. All pointing to design, not "chance".
• Distance of earth from sun, size of earth, make life possible.
  
• The odds of a proteing molecule randomely coming together are such that its essentially impossible, according to Swiss Mathematician Charles Eugene Guye.

"A Conclusive Test" by Robert Morris Page

• "The historical appearance of the Christ as prophesized, with the fulfillment of the many things that were prophesized, a fulfillment that is so firmly established historically as to be doubted by those with little knowledge, has authenticated not only the prophecies concerning Him, but also the validity of His teachings."
• "For those who study God and the relationship that one should have with him, and wholeheartedly sets out to fulfill the conditions, there will be such overwhelming influence in the person's life that there can be no room for doubt-God becomes an intimate personal reality of such nearness and such magnitude that faith grows to the proportions of positive knowledge."

"The Lesson of the Rosebush", by Merrik Stanley Congdon

• By analogy to our own intelligent agency in a world fraught with rational values, we must accept the implications of similar rational activity and intelligent control involved in..." the bell curve, the water cycle, the CO2 cycle, reproduction, photosynthesis, etc.
• "How could they operate rationally throughout Nature without the sustaining intelligence of a rational creator who works in and through their creation?"
• One cannot "disprove the existence of intelligent activities of an unconditioned, personal God."

"The inescapable Conclusion", by John Cleveland Cothran

• "...the behavior of even insensible matter is not at all haphazard, but on the contrary, 'obeys' definite "natural laws."
  
• Periodic Law, not Periodic Chance
• "Consider the 102 known chemical elements and their amazing diversities and similarities."
• "The materical universe is unquestionably one of system and order, not chaos; of laws, not chance and haphazards."
• Matter did not create itself. A creative agent must have existed. The agent had to have a mind. But mind must have a will to act. Only a person has a will.
  

"The Answers to the Unanswered Questions", Donald Porter

• "...as a scientist I derive satisfaction only by placing God in the leading role."

"Let's look at the facts without Bent or Bias", Edward Kessel

• Old proofs are enough to convince a reasonable mind of God's existence.
• Science, from the second law of thermodynamics, proves that the universe had a beginning, thus a prime mover, thus a God.
• Science shows that the universe began in an instant.
• God used his initial laws and matter-his original creation-to keep creating by evolution.
• Because mutations aren't always random-mutations tend to reduce organs and characteristics as opposed to heighten-there is an intelligence evident to genetics and evolution.
• "...to study science with an open mind brings one to the necessity of belief in a God."

"Applying the Scientific Method", Walter Lundberg

• Orderliness and predictability in natural phenomena constitutes a revelation of God in nature.

"Physical Evidence of God", Paul Clarence Aebersold

• "...the fact is that man has almost universally recognized a greater all-encompassing intelligence and order in the universe than could possibly be conceived from chance involving inanimate unguided matter.
• No proof can be found-knowleddge comes from a molding together of knowledge of the material and the spiritual.
• Since science cannot explain ultimately where everything came from and why, God is the only reasonable answer.
• "The one thing we all certainly realize is that man and the universe did not spring forth spontaneously from absolutely nothing. They had a beginning, and there was a Beginner."

Identifying Einsteins 'Creative Force" Marlin Kreider

• God exists, but is unprovable, non-physical (author admits)
  
• There are manifold evidences of Gods existence in men and nature at large
• Laws of Nature, Order of Cosmos=God
• Order, according to common human experience, is the result of an orderly mind
• Design and structure of human and animal bodies
• Can't explain the brain
• We haven't produced life in a laboratory
• No evidence that genetics atterations could account for life

"Scientific Revelations Point to a God", George Carl Davis

• There is no proof for God (author admits)
• "No materical thing can create itself"
• "The higher the evolutionary development to which a creation leads, the stronger the evidence of a supreme intelligence behind the creation"
• The "greatest miracle of all": living, inricate, lovely things were formed from the stars

"Plain Water Will Tell You the Story", Tomas David Parks

• Order and design in water

"Natures Complexity and God", John William Klotz

• Complexity=God, not blind fate
• Yucca Moth and flower, commercial fig and small wasps testify to existence of God

"The Most Vital Question Confronting Us", Oscar Leo Braver

• "Science can establish that a creative art at some time must have taken place, implying the existence of a divine intelligence. Science can also establish that none but a divine intelligence could have been the author of the laws of the universe."
• Atheism=strife and war. Atheism is illogical and false.

"Rank Materialism Will Not Do", Irving William Knoblach

• Science cannot explain life. Science cannot explain the atom.
• "Science demands faith in the senses, faith in the instrumentation, faith in authority and faith in probability or chance."

"A Personal God, Viewed Scientifically", John Lee Abernethy

• Jesus gave evidence that he was the Son of God.

"Footsteps of God in the Plant World", Gerald T. Don Hartog

• God reveals himself in the following ways:

1. Orderliness-Growth of Plants
2. Complexity-Nothing man has made compared to a plant
3. Beauty-exceeds that of the greatest genius among men
4. Inheritance-wheat produces wheat

"Facts from a Forester's Fieldbook", Laurence Cotton Walker

• Order-examples from biology, forestry-is evidence of God

"Things a Fruit Rancher's Boy Learned", Walter Lammerts

• The Divine Spirit usually works through spreading belief from parent to child
• There is no evidence for 2 of Darwins most basic assumptions:

1. The young organisms of each generation continously tent to vary slightly from their parents in all possible directions
2. Favorable changes we inherited by the next generation and accentuated until extensive changes are built up

• Species do not vary indefinitely
• Most mutations are lethal
• It is doubtful that mutations can accumulate rapidly enough

"Trillions of Living Cells Speak Their Message" Russell Artist

• A single simple cell is more intricate and amazing in its form and operation than a watch.
  
• "We are confronted with the formidable, even insuperable, difficulties in trying to account for its beginning, and, for that matter, its continued functioning. Unless we maintain with reasoned logic that an intelligence, a mind, brought it into existence."
• All attempts to make a living thing from non-living material have failed
• It is easier to belief that an intelligence brought about life instead of "accidental concourse."
• Infering from complexity of cells that an intelligence, God exists, present a "justifiable inference."

"The Reasonableness of Theism" George Herbert Blount

• "Order cannot originate from nothing, spontaneously"
• "Order=a Planner" is an axiom of a thinking man
• (The author sums up an atheists argument quite well:)
• "...the cosmological argument is countered with the possibility that matter and energy are in unending exchange, and that therefore reality, as we know it, has had no beginning. The orderliness of nature is considered as high quality mental fiction. Little evidence is seen for a standard of justice,a nd all aspects of nature are considered amoral."
• "The atheists view requires considerably more faith than the theists view."
• If you haven't seen the evidence of God, maybe you haven't looked.
• (The author believes in God because he claims to have encountered God. In other words, you believe in God when you've met him.)

"Geological Directives" Donald Robert Carr

• It is a case of "the spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit" (romans 8:16)
  
• (The author was motivated by a powerful sense of need in his belief in God)
• Signs of god-a beginning, uniformitarianism (geologically)
• "In a universe which had no beginning, but had always existed, no radioactive elements would remain."
• "The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiword."

"Genesis I in the light of Modern Astronomy", Peter W. Stoner

• "...There is not one single item in this Genesis chapter that disagrees with science as we know it today."

"The Great Designer" Claud M. Hathaway

• Believe based on experiences-knowing him inwardly
• "I have found that God, the personal Christian God, is the only concept which perfectly fits the peculiar contours of the human soul."
• "Design Requires a Designer"
  
• "The more complex the order, the more remote the possibility of chance"
• Nature is unable to order itself
• God must be supernatural-a supernatural first cause

"Scholarly Witnesses and a Few Observations" Marlin Grant Smith

• God=Sovereign
• "We as human beings and the world around us are an aggreagate of effects, and under and behind that aggregate of effects lies the invisible, primordial Cause, which I call God."
• Laws=God
• Testimony of millions of men, simple and learned, through the ages=god.

"A Look Behind the 'Natural Laws'" Edwin Fast

• Complexity and laws=God

"Chemical Laws and God", John Adolph Buehler

• (interesting, supports atheists' arguments:) "The reason chemistry seems to obey the laws we have discovered is because we are really dealing with a statistical science. At the base of our physio-chemical laws is apparant dissorder and chaos, but because of the vast numbers with which we work the statistical laws are applicable and exact laws result. Thus, out of chaos comes harmony."
• "Only by postulating a directional force with a purposeful end can we account for the harmony and order which have come from chaos."
• Design, order, harmony=Supreme Intelligence.
• Water cycle, carbond dioxide cycle, ammonia cycle, oxygen cycle=evidence of God
  

"Science Undergirded My Faith" Albert McCombs Winchester

"Naturalism Must Bow to Theism" Olin Carroll Karkalits

• Theism provides better more complete answers and fewer unanswered questions.
• "...There are 'internal' objects of reality within man himself." Inner perception, cognition, experience, feeling, awareness, abstract thought, trancend time and space limitations with imagination, reason, memory, volition and desire, a sense of right and wrong, feelings of obligation, courage, devotion, bravery, loyalty, faithfulness, friendship, love
• These are all descriptions fo Man's Nature-his "inner reality".

"God-Alpha and Omega" Edmund Carl Kornfeld

• "Edwin Conklin said, 'the probability of life originiating from accident is comparable to the probability of the unabridged dictionary resulting from an explosion in a printing shop'."
• Complexity and order disprove chance
• Christian Faith is not irrational, its superrational.
  
• Faith must proceed reason.

"The Universe Under Central Control" Earl Chester Rex

• Design, Law, indicate a unity of purpose and god.

"The Validity of Religion" Malcolm Duncan Winter, Jr.

• "facts fo the Bible have been confirmed by history-archeological findings to an amazing degree."
• The question of whether God exists can only be answered through a step of spiritual faith, taken after inductive reasoning leads one to conclude that a personal God should exist. God gives us a personal assurance of the validity of his existence is unshakeable.
• Faith is a basis for belief

"Wonders of the Soil" Dale Swartzendruber

• Network of design in soil leads one to think of a great designer.
• to deny a designer is as illogical as to deny a farmer when observing a beautiful field of grain.

"Soils, Plants, and a 4000 Year-Old Explanation" Zimmerman

• There is a force in a seed, containing all codes to generate a full-grown plant/fruit. How? "Who" set in motion the laws of genetics and growth?"
• God is an answer to a mysterious universe.

"Man himself as evidence" Robert Horton Cameron

• Thought itself proves the existence of God.
• Thought is more than a system automatic-it is reasoning, judgement, appreciation of beauty, enjoyment of symphony, a sense of humor.
• Emotion=evidence of creators wisdom
• moral judgement, human will=evidence
• God gives new outlook, new motives, new joys and sorrows to those who find him

"Laboratory Lessons" Elmer W. Maurer

• Nothing in natural science, in chemistry, conflicts with the Bible

"Concord Between Science and Faith" WAyne U. Ault

• Faith is how one believes, but is supported by "first cause" and possibly "continouse motivating cause."
• Most have faith in the speed of light, though rarely tested. No one has seen a proton or electron, but see their effects. Much knowledge of universe must be accepted by faith.
  
• Bible reveals God and mand's relation to God.
• Thousands of "rational reputable, and well-adjusted men have attested to a conscious personal relationhip to God and the power of prayer."

"God in Medical Practice" Paul Ernest Adolph

• Hope has definite medical results. 80 percent of all illness encountered in general practice have a predominately physchic causation. 40 percent demonstrate no organic causation at all. Causes of nervous diseases are guilt, resentment, fear, anxiety, frustration, indecision, doubt, jealously, selfishness, and boredom.
  
• "The human body finds harmonious function when it is in tune with its maker."

"Of Flowers and the Baltimore Oriole" Cecil Boyce Hamann

• God is a more logical explanation to design, law, and order than instinct, genetics, or evolution.
  

This is Your Bible; or, Did You Know? Part III

The father's of God's chosen people were cowards. Abraham and Isaac pretended that their wives were their sisters because they were afraid that they would be killed if other men knew that their wives were actually their wives. Jacob did not tell his stepfather that he and his family were leaving because he was afraid his stepfather would keep Jacob's wives, his daughters by force (Gen 31:31).

Jacob's wife Rachel stole her father's stuff when they were leaving (Gen 31:19).

The God of Abraham was one of many gods connected to different nations of the region in that time. There also was a God of Nahor (Gen 31:37).

Jacob was afraid that his brother would slaughter him and his family. He hid from his brother when he approached. It does not seem as though Jacob had any faith in God.

Jacob's sons were liars, murderers, and thieves. They told the Hivite prince that if he and all his men became circumcised, then they would forgive his son for having sex (defiling) with their sister, and their people would become as one. The prince agreed and had all the men circumcised. While all the Hivite men were sore and bedridden because of their circumcisions, Jacob's sons entered the city and killed them, took their livestock, wealth, children, and wives. (Gen 34)

Jacob's household had "strange gods" among them.

Jacob's first born, Reuben, had sex with Jacob's concubine.

Jacob's-now named Israel-sons hated their brother Joseph and conspired to kill him because he was loved so much by Jacob and because Joseph claimed to have dreams that indicated that he would rule over his older brothers.

Gen 38:7 God killed a baby who was wicked.

Gen 38:10 God killed a guy who ejaculated on the ground rather than impregnate his brother's wife. He wasted his semen despite being told to father his brother's children for his brother.

Gen 38:14 Judah had sex with a woman disguised as a prostitute. She turned out to be his own daughter-in-law. Judah wanted her burnt alive when he found out.

Gen 47:6 Joseph, acting as the Pharoah's governor, demanded that the people give the Pharoah everything they had and 20% of the crops they produced in the future in exchange for bread during years of famine.

Exodus 2:12 The first act of Moses recorded in the Bible was to kill an Egyptian and bury him in the sand.

Ex 2:24 & 12:41 God seemed to have forgotten his covenant with his people for over 400 years as they toiled as servants/slaves of the Egyptians.

Ex 4 To prove to others that Moses was sent by God, God gave Moses a handful of tricks that were actually reproducible by the Pharoah's magicians.

With these tricks and spectacles that come later, God seems to recognize that people will not believe without seeing with their own eyes.

Ex 4:21+ The Lord treats people like puppets. He tells Moses what to say. He hardens the Pharoah's heart. Etc.

Ex 8-9 The Lord does things in long, drawn out ways. He tries different ways of torturing and killing the Egyptians over the course of days and weeks.

Ex 12 There is something very wrong with leaven and leavened bread. If eaten during passover, God will disown you.

Ex 12:29 God murders babies and children. He killed all the firstborn of Egypt.

Ex 15 The Israelites really thought God was awesome after he caused the Red Sea to fall in on Pharoah's soldiers. They sang and rejoiced.

Ex 15:3 "The Lord is a man of war..."

Ex 12+ The Lord allows his people to come close to dying of thirst or starving before he finally provides for them after they complain.

Ex 17:16 God swears to "have war with Amalek from generation to generation."

Ex 20:5 God does not just punish the sinner, but punishes the sinner's children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and perhaps further down the line, all for the sins of the father.

The Other Commandments:

Ex 21:6 If a servant loves his master and does not wish to leave, the master "shall bore his ear through with an aul", and the servant shall serve him forever.

Ex 21:7 (Men may sell their daughters as maidservants)

Ex 21 The death sentence for murder, kidnapping, and cursing your father or mother.

Ex 21 One will only be punished if they beat and kill their servant or beat a pregnant woman and cause an abortion.

Ex 21:26 If one puts out a servants eye or tooth, that servant can go free.

Ex 21:28 If an ox gores a man, that ox must be stoned to death.

Ex 21:29 If someone knows that the ox they own is dangerous, and that ox kills someone, then the owner shall either be put to death or pay a ransom.

Ex 22:16 If one has sex with an unattached woman, then one must marry that woman.

Ex 22:18 "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live."

Ex 22:19-24 The death sentence for bestiality, sacrificing to any God other than the lord, and afflicting a widow or fatherless child.

Ex 22:25 Interest shall not be charged with a loan.

Ex 23:29-30 God will drive all others out of the land of Canaan-all those who currently live there-to make way for the Israelites. At least three nations already lived there-the Hivites, Canaanites, and Hittites.

Ex 31:15 Anyone found doing any work on the Sabbath shall be put to death.

Ex 32 Moses' right-hand man Aaron, who was chosen by God to be his mouthpiece, oversaw the making of a Golden Idol for the people. The people wanted a God they could worship, and they hadn't seen Moses in a long time, so saw to the construction of the Golden Calf, worshipped it, and had a big naked (yes, naked) party, despite the fact that the first commandment was that "thou shall have no other god before me".

Ex 32:14 The Lord has thought to do evil. He is capable of loosing his temper. He nearly did so, and nearly forgot his covenant with his people. Moses told him to repent, which God did.
Ex 32:27 Moses oversaw the killing of about three thousand men of his own people.

True Stories From The Bible; or, This is Your Bible, Part II

Whether or not you have cut off a flap of skin from your penis is of the utmost importance to your creator. Gen 17; 14. God will refuse to be your god if you are not circumcised.

God's aim is off, or else he purposely fires indiscriminately. God's wrath was sent down upon the city of Sodom in the form of fire and brimstone. The only righteous family living there was allowed to escape....except, inadvertently, Lot's wife looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt. Gen 19:26.

Gen 19:33 God does not intervene or express objection when the daughters of Lot decide to rape their own father. These girls, who were two of the three people God let escape his slaughter in Sodom, decided to get their father drunk and take turns having intercourse with him so that his "seed" would be preserved.

Gen 20 God threatens to kill people and closes the wombs of women even if they don't do anything wrong. God admitted that the king of Gerar did not know that Sarah was Abraham's wife, and despite the fact that the king did not sleep with her, God nearly killed him and his people anyway.

Gen 21:9 Sarah, the wife of God's chosen one, Abraham, had Abraham's mistress and son "cast out" so that there would be no rival to her son Isaac for heir. "Casting out" involves being left for dead, I presume.

Gen 22 God demands blind, unquestioning obedience. He blessed Abraham when Abraham prepared to and fully intended to stab his son and burn him on an alter in response to God's command. Just as Abraham was about to kill his own son, God told him it was all a test-God must not be so cruel after all, just ask Lot's wife...

Gen 24:58 The wife of Isaac-Abraham's son and a man blessed abundantly by God-did not even meet the man she would marry before agreeing to marry him.

Gen 25:6 Abraham, one of God's chosen, had concubines and many son's by them. Abraham gave them gifts and sent them away. Abraham was essentially worse than a polygamist.

Gen 25:31 & 27:14 Jakob, son of Isaac, and the chosen heir of Abraham, refused to feed his starving brother until his brother agreed to sell him his birthright. Later, Jakob lied to his own father in order to receive blessing that were meant for Jakob's brother.

Gen 29-30 Jacob's wives enlist their servants to have sex with and bear children by Jacob in order to win Jacob's love and attention.