Acts 17:29
Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device.
One of the most difficult ...
Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device.
One of the most difficult problems for those who believe that we are the product of millions of years of evolution is the human brain. The human brain has ten billion times 25,000 neural connections. If you work it out, this means that a miracle would have to take place if we evolved from an ape like creature on the time scale that evolutionists propose: every generation would have had to have many thousands more neural connections than the last!
Even more astonishing is the fact that we are not born with a brain that is a blank slate. Several studies have shown that even infants as young as three months expect things to behave in certain ways. In one study, three month old infants showed surprise when researchers made an object they were looking at disappear. Another study showed that young infants expect inanimate things not to move by themselves. But they expect living things to move all by themselves. Such built in "programming" in the brain enables us to progress more quickly as we learn about the world around us.
The problem of the complexity of the human brain, and the fact that it seems to come preprogrammed, ultimately caused Alfred Russel Wallace, an influential evolutionist, to switch to belief in a Creator. The more we learn about what God has created, the more likely we are to conclude that we are indeed the work of a wise Creator. He has even given us a brain capable of seeing that.
Prayer: I thank You, dear Father, for the intelligence You have given me. Amen.
References: Natural History, 9/97, "The Nature of Learning," pp.42 45.
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Actually, I didn't do that deliberately as I was quoting it from memory, but I'll accept your correction. However, it doesn't change the fact that an entire reading of Romans 8 outlines the struggle of man and creation and contrasts it to the hope that the whole book of Romans eludes to. The decay of creation (including the curse of childbirth) is the spirit of the passage that was intended to be outlined. Thank you for illuminating it further.
That is it?? Sooo your argument is that you cannot conceive that the growth and complexity of the human brain came about through evolution....therefore it had to be created? Isn't this called an argument from incredulity? Isn't this a classical logical fallacy?
Actually, it argues that there isn't enough time in the evolutionary scale for some great apes to evolve a human's mind. It is an argument of statistical improbability in regards to "nature's unusual/prejudiced serendipity" towards the brain of a human. It also attempts to dismantle the idea that the mind is a blank slate, and how that, in and of itself, though being incredulous, is a remarkable parallel in addition to the mathematical quandary.
DaNorthernLight The Evolutionary theory says nothing about the mind being a "blank slate" one way or another. So that part is just plain spurious. Now as far as the video's assertion that it is impossible for the human brain to evolve all those neurons is concerned. Just saying it is impossible doesn't make it so. If the video creator was available I might ask him how many neurons do the great apes and chimps have? Then how many more does the average human have. So we could better compare.
As for faith being a virus, I suggest you look at history with a different lenses. This is also a touchy subject you are beginning to tread upon in general in a realm where absolutes are 'out-of-style'. Nevertheless, you'll find that the shoulders of science that we stand upon, and many scientific workers today are men and women of faith. Personally, I'm passionately dogmatic about my faith, but not intolerant, hence a 'semi-gentlemanly' discourse for personal edification.
(cont) If God experienced time as we do, then your argument is valid. However, an omniscient being cannot experience a ticking clock as we do, otherwise he would no longer be omniscient. It is also in his power to create beings with free will in spite of his omniscience, otherwise one would detract from his omnipotence. He has the power to allow something to take its course without acting upon it. We see this in ourselves when we desire to create autonomous function (via God's image in us).
(cont.) As for "unchanging" mover, you are also making numerous assumptions about both the character of God and what his view of time is. Ironically, if you picture him as a man, watching a clock ticking and being completely satisfied in himself, it seems ludicrous to imagine eternity passing before creation begins. This is a false view of God, and how he views time. God=timeLESS... there is nothing linear or incremental about Him. Time has no meaning.
As for disproving God, you seem caught up in many separate points of discussion that I have a difficult time knowing which one I am responding. You claim that God can't exist because because an "unchanging" mover's eternity can't exist prior to time's beginning. I respectfully disagree. The same argument for first cause also applies to time as well in that there would have to be an eternal existence prior to a temporal existence -- namely our universe's beginning.
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Sorry to butt in here pal but did you DELIBERATELY misquote Romans 8:22?
Romans 8:22
"for we know that the whole creation groans and suffers THE PAINS OF CHILDBIRTH together until now.
Funny how you left those words out.
Isn't this called an argument from incredulity? Isn't this a classical logical fallacy?
The Evolutionary theory says nothing about the mind being a "blank slate" one way or another. So that part is just plain spurious.
Now as far as the video's assertion that it is impossible for the human brain to evolve all those neurons is concerned. Just saying it is impossible doesn't make it so.
If the video creator was available I might ask him how many neurons do the great apes and chimps have? Then how many more does the average human have. So we could better compare.
If God experienced time as we do, then your argument is valid. However, an omniscient being cannot experience a ticking clock as we do, otherwise he would no longer be omniscient. It is also in his power to create beings with free will in spite of his omniscience, otherwise one would detract from his omnipotence. He has the power to allow something to take its course without acting upon it. We see this in ourselves when we desire to create autonomous function (via God's image in us).
As for "unchanging" mover, you are also making numerous assumptions about both the character of God and what his view of time is. Ironically, if you picture him as a man, watching a clock ticking and being completely satisfied in himself, it seems ludicrous to imagine eternity passing before creation begins. This is a false view of God, and how he views time. God=timeLESS... there is nothing linear or incremental about Him. Time has no meaning.