mid-week apologetics booster (7-31-2014)

Good morning all!

Hope you’re having a great week (staying in the air conditioning or your pool :))!  Here are the weekly items for you:

1. Arguing from Ignorance: http://apologetics-notes.comereason.org/2013/12/arguing-from-ignorance.html His atheist friend accused him of arguing from ignorance when arguing for the existence of God and I really liked the analogy he used:

   “If I were to say ‘Why the origin of a bullet in a man’s heart requires a shooter,’ would that also be an appeal to ignorance? There’s evidence and there is an inference to the best explanation of that evidence. That is not a logical fallacy, but an inductive argument.”

2. Reasons Why I Believe Christianity is True: http://1peter315.wordpress.com/2014/03/09/7-reasons-why-i-believe-christianity-is-true/
3. How Should Christians Respond to Atheist Friends?  http://stayintheconversation.org/rzimcanada/articles/how-should-christians-respond-to-atheist-friends/
4. What is the Gospel (~6 minute video): http://www.acts17.net/2014/07/what-is-gospel.html
5. Why should I believe something?  http://www.tilledsoil.org/believe-something/
6. University fires scientist after dinosaur discovery offers young earth evidence: http://www.worldmag.com/2014/07/university_fires_scientist_after_dinosaur_discovery_offers_young_earth_evidence
7. Failures of Evolution: Peppered Moth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z2xGWtm0yw&feature=youtu.be
8. 3 Common Traits of Youth Who Don’t Leave the Church:  http://www.faithit.com/3-common-traits-of-youth-who-dont-leave-the-church/
9. The Great Bible Translation debate (cartoon): http://adam4d.com/debate/
10. Mormonism – Did the Eleven Witnesses Actually See the Gold Plates?: http://www.mrm.org/eleven-witnesses

Finally, below I will past a short article titled “Did Adam Really Live 930 Years?”

Blessings,

 

Did Adam Really Live 930 Years?
July 14, 2014

Genesis 5:5 says Adam lived for 930 years. Judging by today’s standards, this sounds impossible. Many contemporary readers of Genesis balk at such numbers and some end up rejecting the whole Bible. But a few researchers have found reasons to believe it.
Plant geneticist Dr. John Sanford and his colleagues plotted the ages of the biblical patriarchs listed in Genesis. The result shows a systematic drop-off in lifespans after 950-year-old Noah, “in a way that could never happen by chance,” according to an online post showing their results.1

The Genesis lifespans decline according to a well-defined decay curve that began immediately after the Flood.

The researchers’ post points out how the biological decay curve found in these biblical texts matches biological decay curves known from the science of mutation accumulation.1,2 As mutations add up after every generation, they constantly erode genetic information.

Did early mutations damage genes that once enabled human bodies to live for hundreds of years?

The authors of the post wrote, “The lifespan data indicates [sic] that the extreme longevity of the early Patriarchs was real, and that the rapid decline of longevity after the Flood was real.”

And if the patriarch’s lifespans were real, then the verses that record and refer to them accurately describe real history.

References

Sanford, J., J. Pamplin, and C. Rupe. Genetic Entropy Recorded in the Bible? Encouragement for Believers – Science Update. Posted on logosra.org June 1, 2014, accessed June 26, 2014.
Also see Sanford, J. 2008. Genetic Entropy. Waterloo, NY: FMS Publications, 155.
* Mr. Thomas is Science Writer at the Institute for Creation Research.

Article posted on July 14, 2014.

mid-week apologetics booster (7-24-2014)

Good Morning All!

Hope you’re having a blessed week!  I know I am!  During the hottest days of the summer, we’ve gotta still remember that “this is the day the LORD has made;  Let us rejoice and be glad in it”! Ps. 118:24.  Here are some items I ran into this week:

1. It was a creationist who created the MRI, but it looks like he didn’t get enough credit for it:  http://biblescienceguy.wordpress.com/2014/07/09/15-famous-thinkers-physician-is-a-creationist/
2. Who are the “other sheep” in John 10:16? (this is something Mormon’s sometimes point out as referring to them):  http://www.mrm.org/john-10-16
3. Wintery Night says: A must-read series of posts on cosmic fine-tuning by Allen Hainline: http://winteryknight.wordpress.com/2014/07/18/a-must-read-series-of-posts-on-cosmic-fine-tuning-by-allen-hainline/
4. 50 top questions: http://www.examiner.com/list/answering-top-50-questions-christians-can-t-answer-26-through-30
5. Does the Doctrine of Hell Make God Unjust? http://thecripplegate.com/does-the-doctrine-of-hell-make-god-unjust

Enjoy the rest of your week!

mid-week apologetics booster (7-17-2014)

Good Morning Everyone!

Here are some items for you to read:

1. Christianity as the Best Explanation: http://www.str.org/articles/christianity-as-the-best-explanation#.U8fG-7Goe2l
2. Sin and Sinners: http://str.typepad.com/weblog/2014/07/sin-and-sinners.html
3. How to Get Out of a Corner: http://www.str.org/articles/how-to-get-out-of-a-corner-2#.U8fHprGoe2k
4. Mormon Role-Play: http://str.typepad.com/weblog/2014/07/a-motivating-mormon-role-play.html
5. What Does Christianity Say About Salvation?  Six Big Questions: http://coldcasechristianity.com/2014/what-does-christianity-say-about-salvation-six-big-questions/

I would also like to share with you a web site I’ve developed this summer (This is what I did on my summer vacation, teacher :)).  I developed it in order to learn a technology that I will be needing to use at work, so it had a dual purpose: (1) to glorify God and (2) to improve and practice my skillset.  It is made to work either on your desktop computer or a smart phone like Android or iPhone (probably tablet too).  It is called Nuggets.  Here is the site:

http://coolgadgetssoftware.com/nuggets_mobile_app/web/index.html#/nugget/y

Here is a screen shot of how it looks:

“Nuggets” are just passages out of the Bible – I have 4641 of them loaded in the program.  Notice the “Next” and “Prev” links at the bottom – that’s how you navigate through these “Nuggets”.  The second screen shot shows what the various menu items that you see when you press the “Main Menu” link in the upper right of the screen.  So this app/site is great for just getting a “quick fix of truth” when you’re out and about and maybe find yourself with a few minutes waiting for something (oil change, doctors office, etc).  It goes through them in random order.

It also has areas for practicing memory verses.  Currently, there are 379 memory passages loaded.  Those are the ones I personally practice on a regular basis.  One of the enhancements I hope to make in the future is to allow a person to select a subset of those 379 to be their own personalized memory verse list.

Another feature included is the idea of ‘Topics’.  I’ve associated Bible passages with various “topics”.  There are 362 topics in the list.  You can either browse the list of topics and select one to see the passages associated with it, or you can go to a screen that will show you a random topic (one at a time).

You can also just view the full Bible – use the ‘View Chapter’ menu item.

Finally, I’ve provided a search of the entire Bible – use the ‘Search’ menu item.  For example, in the following screen shots I’ve searched for ‘come to me’ in the New Testament in the ESV translation:

The second screenshot shows that there are 13 verses in the New Testament in the ESV translation where the phrase ‘come to me’ (case insensitive) occurs.  Notice that as navigate to each search result, the phrase ‘come to me’ is highlighted in green.

Well, this app/site is a work in progress (I still need to address getting a better looking font on iPhone), but I would love to hear your feedback and/or suggestions.  I sincerely hope you find it useful.

Have a great week!

mid-week apologetics booster (7-10-2014)

Good morning all,

Hope you’re having a great week.  Here are some items for you to read:

1. What is the Relationship of Faith and Reason and How Does this Relate to Salvation through Faith? http://nailmark.net/1/post/2013/08/what-is-the-relationship-of-faith-and-reason-and-how-does-this-relate-to-salvation-through-faith.html
2. Mormon No More – with James K. Walker – How a former 4^th generation Mormon became an asset for God’s kingdom. http://www.defendmag.com/walker-nomore-mormon
3. Phillip E. Johnson lecture entitled “Darwinism On Trial”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwj9h9Zx6Mw
4. Is Natural Selection the Same Thing as Evolution? https://answersingenesis.org/natural-selection/is-natural-selection-the-same-thing-as-evolution/
5. Why do bad things happen to ‘good’ people? (Way of the Master – 2 minute 23 second video)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwGOJ-nFYHI&list=SP3B82C219AC3A6847&index=3

Have a blessed rest of your week!

mid-week apologetics booster (7-4-2014)

Good Morning Everyone,

Happy Independence Day.  Here are some things I’ve run into:

1. I am tired of the fallout of our students and you should be too… : http://roblundberg.blogspot.com/2014/06/i-am-tired-of-fallout-of-our-students.html
2. Common Objections: http://www.truthbomb.blogspot.com/search/label/Common%20Objections
3. Defending the faith in your community every day: http://www.christianapologeticsalliance.com/2013/01/15/defending-the-faith-in-your-community-every-day/
4. Does Radiometric Dating Disprove Creation?  http://www.forensicfaith.com/content/does-radiometric-dating-disprove-creation
5. On Guard Conference: Gary Habermas – The Resurrection of Jesus (1 hour 40 min video lecture): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNdmSQKyzgc

For anyone that didn’t know, there is now a movie out called ‘America’ by Dinesh D’souza.  I hope to see it today, looks like it’ll be pretty good…

Have a great holiday and weekend!