“So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said:
“Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’
What therefore
you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.
The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him.
Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’
Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.
The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.”
So Paul went out from their midst. But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.”
~ Acts 17:22-34 ESV, Bible.com/app
http://bible.com/59/act.17.22-34.ESV
I see so many folks searching for truth or discussing what they feel is truth. Yet they won’t even consider the ‘option’ of God as truth.
Because
- Their view of the world won’t allow it, scientifically
- if they would consider God, they won’t ….
- a.) if He is connected to anything organized
- b.) their preconceived notions pop culture,
- c.) opinions held by those they consider intelligent
- d.) historical atrocities
3. Due to their own research.
What ever the reason… It’s not new.
They aren’t any different than the “learned’ of Paul’s day. They haven’t cornered the 
market on much more knowledge than the Athenian had. Knowledge held by mankind is so infinitesimal, and a billion Sagans, Hawkins, or Nyes, combined mental storage space, still won’t scratch all the knowledge yet to be uncovered.
Here is where the; Atheist……..”science has the answer”, guy,…….. “you religious people believe in fairy tales”, folks, ……”you can’t prove it”, walking encyclopedia crowd…...fail to grasp the utter foolishness of their belief.
They eliminate even the possibility without the proof to actually eliminate the possibility…… because we of faith can’t prove it?
They do realize…….. don’t they………….most of us were still dropping our drawers, in wood shacks, and relieving ourselves in holes in the ground less than a century ago?
Can I prove God? Can you prove God? Can anyone prove God?
Let’s look at faith like an investigation. Starting with the forensics of a case, the physical and scientific.
Paul provided the Athenians evidence. Evidence, they could look into. they could actually talk to eyewitnesses. Apparently that evidence changed some minds Other’s disregarded it, or didn’t bother to follow through on the investigation.
Scientifically then….
Only God can prove His existence. I…….. personally say He’s done that.….. just look at the world around us, and the complexity of what we can see. Then look at the complexity we can’t see, except for under a microscope…….. the complexity that science somehow thinks happened by chance, circumstance.
God say’s He’s already proven it….
“For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”
~ Romans 1:20
That’s from God’s Word, the Bible. Many Scientists today don’t think it’s so clear,….. though one……. a few centuries ago did……
“Atheism is so senseless. When I look at the solar system, I see the earth at the right distance from the sun to receive the proper amounts of heat and light. This did not happen by chance.”
-Isaac Newton, Physics, Mathematics
A Christian Scientist, that even atheists seem to think was pretty smart….for his day.
Many secularists study scripture, but for what purpose…… if not to prove God…… they study it in vain. Often they use scripture to try and disprove God. I will give the same argument as a secularist does for a Christian Creationist Scientist, when speaking of how their bias defeats their search for truth.
“Imagine if the scientific world was as biased towards evolution as the creationists are against it. Imagine if Nature and other top scientific journals boasted on their masthead that they possessed a “firm commitment to the truth of evolution and the inerrancy and authority of Charles Darwin”, and refused to accept any papers submitted by anyone who held creationist beliefs. Imagine if science popularizers like Stephen Jay Gould or Ken Miller wrote that, “By definition, no apparent, perceived, or claimed evidence in any field, including biology, geology and physics, can be valid if it contradicts evolution.””
~ Adam Lee, “Why Creationism Isn’t Science”www.patheos.com/blogs/…/essays/why-creationism–isnt–science/
Creationist Christian Scientists are biased. Yes I get that, but that quote is exactly how many in the scientific community do feel.
A Harvard Geneticist says it for me:
“Our willingness to accept scientific claims that are against common sense is the key to an understanding of the real struggle between science and the supernatural. We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs, in spite of its failure to fulfill many of its extravagant promises of health and life, in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we have a prior commitment, a commitment to materialism. It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our a prior adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.” ~ Richard Lewontin, From: “Billions & Billions of Demons”, The New York Review of Books, Jan. 9, 1997, Pg. 31.
http://creationrevolution.com/bias-of-unbiased-scientists/#l9lOD8o8xmSS3tex.99
He admits the very bias Adam Lee denied. He shares the bias against anything supernatural. There just can’t be a God making this all work.
How about this…….
“Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution.” ~Theodosius Dobzhansky, ‘Nothing in Biology makes Sense except in the Light of Evolution’, The American Biology Teacher (Mar 1973)
In a recent debate with Ken Ham, a Young Earth Creationist Scientist, Bill Nye ‘The Science Guy’, belittles all who holds Ham’s view.
“The science we were debating last night was, at its highest, middle school science,” ~ Bill Nye Regarding Science Debated With Ken Ham, The Blaze
Yes……. Creationist’s…the faithful are so child like in their scientific learning.
The reality of it is this…… though. The knowledge in the universe that is unknown, would make even the most intense scientific debate, mere pre-kindergarten level science, in comparison.
Getting all historical is another argument against faith.
They love to cry out the evils of religion and prop up the virtues of humanity…….
Like the sadly deluded and now deceased, Christopher Hitchens:
“Here is the point about myself and my co-thinkers. Our belief is not a belief. Our principles are not a faith. We do not hold our convictions dogmatically. We believe with certainty that an ethical life can be lived without religion. And we know for a fact that the corollary holds true – that religion has caused innumerate people not just to conduct themselves no better than others, but to award themselves permission to behave in ways that would make a brothel-keeper or an ‘ethnic cleanser’ raise an eyebrow.”
― Christopher Hitchens, God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
The evils committed by religion surely are evil, but the religion didn’t commit the evil. The people (humanity) did.
Ahhhhhh……………the humanity, the same humanity he upholds.
Humanity……… Hitchens argument is ….it’s definitely more ethical when secular?????? 
I don’t think that was his argument, but he proves a point …….. check out these fine socialistic killers and or ‘ethnic cleansers’, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Amin, Pol pot, ……….. I wonder if they raised an eyebrow?
Did socialism kill all those killed by these fine examples of Humanity?
A political ideology, didn’t kill….. People killed. Humanity killed.
Yep……. Humanity, killed.
The fact is Humanity is no more good, or bad, historically than people of faith! Any group is going to come away looking bad at times, because Humanity has a way of making that happen, even in the faithful.
Just a note about Criminal Records, they are not admissible in court. They are Prejudicial.
So here, I read about Paul and the Athenians, ……and I think to myself…… He told the learned of his time about the living God……. And many accepted what he shared…… Why?
One reason……. I’m convinced……… is because they didn’t have a history of faults, to point to, in those claiming faith in this ‘new’ God, in order to delegitimize the religion by. They weren’t prejudiced, by humanity’s criminal record.
That is one of the big mistakes made by the skeptic. They throw the baby out with the bathwater!
Why? Because the religious got it wrong here and there?? SO out goes the baby.
The funny thing is they haven’t the same backbone when it comes to throwing out……… science. It is just as easy to point to scientists that have committed atrocities, over time. Plus scientists get things wrong and proved wrong time and again through experimentation. Often the skeptic defends science by saying…
“He’s not a scientist, he’s a creationist!”
(Try using that when the secularist gets historical on the faithful?Trust me it doesn’t work.)
The truth is Humanity gets it wrong, the person or particular group, not the faith and frankly not the science either.
In reality, no belief can stand the test of perfection set up, because humanity has managed to so sully them, yet folks still manage to pick and choose in what they will believe,based on history.
I hate when I have to justify the ills in history that my faith has wrought. But it is in essence is not my faith.
The Skeptic says,
“I can’t believe in a faith that has done so much evil. I’ll choose to trust in humanity instead.”
But it was humanity that messed it up, not the religion.
When investigating something, you have to rule out possibilities. Narrow down the suspects.
My wife loves watching “real crime shows”, on TV. Usually the Titles of the episodes are something like……..
“Wives Who Snap”,
“Collecting Spousal Life Insurance 101”
or
“Husbands Who Sleep…Forever”
………. So sleep doesn’t come easy to me.
What makes these entertaining…….. to my wife, ……..besides deep seeded thoughts of trips to France, without me, are the, twists and turns that occur when, “Law Enforcement” jumps to a conclusion, or rushes to judgement, by failing to eliminate possible suspects.
They latch on to pieces of evidence that seem to imply, or point the finger at a particular suspect, and every other possibility is ignored, because from the evidence at present there isn’t another suspect.
Any good crime, mystery show, hinges on these twists and turns, to draw in their audience weekly! It’s why advertisers, pay absorbitant fees to advertise during those show’s time slots!
Because, I can’t prove God did it….. The Atheist (bad cop) dismisses Him as a suspect in the Creation of the Universe. He places his confidence in the…. circumstantial evidence that chance did it. Flimsy as it is. Yet he has not excluded God as a suspect!
Here is what I know for sure.
History is flawed for everyone, believer and non-believer alike. Actually, that’s why God in the person of Jesus Christ came to earth to save us, not only from the sins we’ve committed, but also from the sins we can’t not commit, because we are apart of sinful humanity.
Science doesn’t have the answers,……. Not yet,…. oh they have some,….. but every now and then,……. new discoveries are made and sometimes, these new discoveries change what was thought to be true.
Our good scientific friend, Bill Nye likes to make preposterous claims about, the guilt or innocence of Creationism and Science, without eliminating the suspect God in the workings of our Universe.
For Instance;
“Some of the most wonderful aspects and consequences of evolution have been discovered only recently. This is in stark contrast to creationism, which offers a static view of the world, one that cannot be challenged or tested with reason. And because it cannot make predictions, it cannot lead to new discoveries, new medicines, or new ways to feed all of us.” ~ Bill Nye
I used to love Bill Nye the science guy, but this Bill Nye is wrong.
Bill Nye and skeptics in general, love to overlook Circumstantial Evidence, where faith is concerned, yet rely on it for their look at science. In the Creation/Evolution debate, circumstantial evidence is used by both parties, but seen different. Science’s view is okey dokey, because it is open minded, while Creationist view of that evidence is not, because it comes from the view of God as creator.
Unfortunately, circumstantial evidence is what most cases are built on, even scientific cases. Because most investigations deal with things that nobody was there to see. Faith relies heavily on this type of evidence.
One place faith can’t be questioned is the effect it has on a person’s life, and those who come in contact with that person. But this is circumstantial, and not accepted by the skeptic.
Here is a perfect example where a great scientist……. who just happened to profoundly disagree with Nye’s assertion that creationism offers a static view of the world, displays the circumstantial evidence disproving Creationism’s static state.!
“God is going to reveal to us things He never revealed before if we put our hands in His.
No books ever go into my laboratory. The thing I am to do and the way of doing it are revealed to me. I never have to grope for methods. The method is revealed to me the moment I am inspired to create something new. Without God to draw aside the curtain I would be helpless.”
My wife and I are currently going through a book guiding us in prayer over 40 days. “Draw The Circle; The 40 day Prayer Challenge”, by Mark Batterson. In it he shares the remarkable story of just how George Washington Carver, came to the scientific knowledge of the peanut.
” ……. soil was being depleted of nutrients because farmers planted cotton(every year) …. George Washington Carver ….. introduced the concept of crop rotation. He encouraged farmers to plant peanuts….. The strategy revived the soil, but…….. there was no market for peanuts…..(they) rotted in warehouses …….. (so) Carver prayed about it.
Carver routinely got up at 4 AM, walked through the woods, and asked God to reveal the mysteries of nature……. He (believed) Job 12:7-8: Ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds of the air, and they will teach you;or speak to the earth, and it will teach you. Carver literally asked God to reveal the mysteries of nature. And God did.
In Carver’s own words:
I said, “Lord, why did you make the universe?”
The Lord replied, “Ask for something more in proportion to that little mind of yours.”
“Then why did you make the earth, Lord?” I asked.
“Your little mind still wants to know far too much,” replied God.
“Why did you make man, Lord?” I asked.
“Far too much. Far too much. Ask again,” replied God.
“Explain to me why you made plants, Lord,” I asked.
“Your little mind still wants to know far too much.”
So I meekly asked, “Lord, why did you make the peanut?”
And the Lord said, “For the modest proportions of your mind, I will grant you the mystery of the peanut. Take it inside your laboratory and separate it into water, fats, oils, gums, resins, sugars, starches and amino acids. Then recombine these under my three laws of compatibility, temperature and pressure. Then you will know why I made the peanut.”
On January 20, 1921, George Washington Carver testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on behalf of the United Peanut Association of America……….. Carver mesmerized the committee by demonstrating …….. more than three hundred uses for the peanut. Or maybe more accurately, the Lord revealed more than three hundred uses……….everything from glue to shaving cream to soap to insecticide to cosmetics to wood stains to fertilizer to linoleum to……. worcestershire sauce ………….. the next time you enjoy a good old-fashioned PBJ, remember that all of those things trace back to a man who had a habit of prayer at 4 AM. They weren’t good ideas. They were God ideas. His praying led to dreaming. And his dreaming led to worcestershire sauce!”
– See more at: http://www.markbatterson.com/uncategorized/day-four/#sthash.VnOamAoF.dpuf
Then today, Day 11 of reading through “Draw the Circle”my wife and I read the story of MANA……
“My friend, Mark Moore, got a GOD IDEA at Ebenezer’s a few years back. I actually share the miraculous story of MANA in Draw the Circle:
god-idea-4/#sthash.tqJZspRI.dpuf
The 40-Day Prayer Challenge. Check out Day 11 when the book releases in December. All I’m going to say is this: never underestimate the power of a single prayer! We prayed that Ebenezer’se
would be a dream factory and that prayer will save million of lives by helping to end severe acute malnutrition. And the magic wand is none other than peanut butter!” – See more at: http://www.markbatterson.com/uncategorized/one-
There’s a whole lot of circumstances going on there!
So I’d ask Bill Nye,…….
What do you say to the fact….. that Creationism’s God does lead others to discovery, through no less a mode as prayer, or would you call George Washington Carver a liar? And that this scientist’s discoveries, inspired by God, can feed all of us?
Yes Bill, the many uses of the rotting peanuts was found following a prayer, by George Washington Carver. One of those uses is now being used to feed the malnourished across the globe.
Prayer…. to the God of Creation…..Feeding the world!
I love it!…. Isn’t that ironic?
“Humor is everywhere, in that there’s irony in just about anything a human does.”~ Bill Nye
Makes me wanna laugh…… like…… out loud!
How about you Bill?
“The more you find out about the world, the more opportunities there are to laugh at it.” ~Bill Nye
Open mouth, insert foot!
Some how I doubt he’d laugh at the irony. “It’s just circumstantial, you can’t prove God did it!” Would probably be more like his response.
Then eliminate Him as the suspect, Bill. George Washington Carver testified He was in a conspiracy with God to use peanuts 300 different ways. He was actually there.
One more Bill Nye Quote
“As my old professor Carl Sagan said so often, ‘When you’re in love, you want to tell the world.’ And I base my beliefs on the information and the process that we call science. It fills me with joy to make discoveries every day of things I’ve never seen before. It fills me with joy to know that we can pursue these answers. It is an astonishing thing that we are — you and I are one of the ways the universe knows itself.”
I want to tell Bill, and others who don’t know….. just as Paul did the Athenians, because just as Bill said…
When you’re in love, you want to tell the world! I am filled with joy making discoveries every day of things I’ve never seen before. It fills me with joy to know that I can pursue the answers. And most of all That the God of Creation wants us….. that includes you too Bill…. to know Him!
So I will and just like Paul, some will want to know more, but sadly others will rush to judgement, let history cloud their judgement, ignore boats load of circumstantial evidence (us faithful call that PROVIDENCE), without excluding God as a suspect.
Ponder this next time you eat a Peanut: What’s holding you back from God. Who are you listening to? Is there room for you to really investigate God,…. and what He has in store for you?
If you do, ….
Might you find 300 uses for useless stuff in your life, just as George Washington Carver found for rotting peanuts!?!
Thee Bloomin Idiot 