The Power of Chance

According to the Darwinist, design just happens! It starts simple and then it becomes more complex. However, life can’t be too simple. Even the simplest forms of life require many different systems: reproductive, respiratory, digestive, reparatory, immunological, transportation and elimination system, to name just a few of the essentials. Regarding this, Bruce Malone writes,

• “The tiniest single cell bacterium is made from the specific arrangement of 100 billion atoms and is as complex as a city. It has a central memory bank, assembly/processing units, and packing/shipping centers. It has an elaborate communication system with quality control procedures and repair mechanisms and can produce its own army to attack invaders. Its protective wall allows waste products out while preventing unwanted substances from entering. The cell is filled with thousands of ‘robot-like’ machines designed to perform specific functions due to their three-dimensional structure. There is a master library, power plants, and trash disposal centers. If the DNA in a single bacterial cell were the thickness of fishing line, it would be 125 miles long…The entire string can be unwound and copied at three times the speed of a spinning airplane propeller without tangling the line…” (“Censored Science: The Suppressed Evidence,” 38)

Can chance circumstances produce such a creature from non-life, especially in light of the fact that there is no evidence that it even produced a single protein? What does chance produce? Can it produce a paper clip, a staple, or a toothpick? Can it produce anything I’d use on my kitchen table – a fork, knife, or even a spoon? Can it cook an egg, clean my table, or boil a cup of water? Have we ever seen chance put together another that we associate with intelligence? Can it write a line of poetry? Can it paint my portrait or sing me a lullaby?

How then can we believe that chance is responsible for life, consciousness, reason, and the laws of nature – things that are even beyond our intelligence? How is it that others can believe in chance? Intelligent and highly educated people?

Can they explain the origins of the single cell bacterium, life, or even DNA? Can they explain why it is that this universe is fine-tuned so precisely for life? Can they account for freewill, consciousness, or even our conscience that informs us about justice and injustice? They can’t explain any of these things, and yet they are convinced that it all arose by chance from an explosion that is known as the “big bang.” Now that’s faith!

TV Evangelists’ “Good News”

I have a lot of trouble watching the TV “prosperity” evangelists. Their “Christianity” is hard to recognize, and their Good News is personal success.

Recently, I saw evangelist Mike Murdock on TV. I was intrigued and wanted to watch further. His sayings were certainly catchy: “The Bible is not about destiny but about decisions.” He wasn’t taking about God’s decisions, but ours! We’re the captain of our ship! Instead, I like to think that God is running my life and guiding me down paths of righteousness (Psalm 23:3) and sculpting me into His art form (Eph. 2:10). I began to think about it a little more, and concluded that our God does destine our lives:

• “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” (Psalm 139:16)

• “The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases” (Proverbs 21:1).

He even directs our footsteps! Strange that Murdock should get it so wrong. I listened further: “God will not give you anything you haven’t pursued.” But isn’t this teaching crediting us with too much? Paul claimed that we don’t even know what to pray for, and so the Holy Spirit has to intervene for us (Romans 8:26).

Does my life in Christ rest upon my pursuits? I hope not! I hope that He is applying a corrective hand over my pursuits, replacing my foolishness for His plan. James claims that we don’t receive what we pursue because we are pursuing the wrong things (James 4:2-3). However, Murdock never made such a distinction.

If it was up to me to chose the right pursuits, I’d have no peace at all. However, I recalled that it doesn’t always depend upon me or what I might pursue:

• “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen” (Ephes. 3:20-21).

This truth does so much to remove all of our self-concern – wondering whether we are asking for the right thing or pursuing what God wants us to pursue. Then Murdock made another provocative pronouncement: “God never uses disease to teach!”

My gosh, I had thought that God had been teaching me through my diseases and infirmities! Could I have been deceived? I had thought that God works all things together for good (Romans 8:28), even our diseases! And Paul seemed to have the same assessment:

• “To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Cor. 12:7-10).

It seems that Paul had learned a lot through his “thorn in my flesh!” But perhaps this “thorn” hadn’t been a disease? However, it was clear that Job had been physically afflicted and it turned out to be a real learning experience for him (Job 42:6-8). David was also afflicted and thanked God because it enabled him to learn God’s Word (Psalm 119:67). He had also been prompted to cry out to God from his sickbed (Psalm 41:3). Hezekiah had been humbled in the midst of his disease and had found healing in God (2 Kings 20:1-3). Sounds like God taught him something! The blind man that Jesus healed learned that Jesus was the Messiah through his disease and healing (John 9).

Listening to Murdock, it was hard not to think that I was carrying the weight of my life upon my own shoulders. It was all about me and my choices, and so they better be the correct ones! I knew that this was leading somewhere. Finally he made his pitch. We had to send him $1000. I couldn’t listen any further, but I knew what would follow. I had heard him and other prosperity preachers before. We are required to prove our faith before God by stepping out in faith with big bucks.

In order to lubricate the process, Murdock let loose with another catchy phrase: “Obedience delayed is obedience denied.” This meant that we had to write out the check without any delay. The catch had to be reeled in before he could escape. But isn’t there a place for prayer or reflective consideration before making such an “investment?” Not according to Murdock! The check had to be sent immediately and not to one’s home church either. It had to go directly to him, as if he and the other prosperity preachers are the only authorized channels through which to receive God’s blessings.

Instead, the Bible gives us a lot of reasons to delay making hasty commitments (Proverbs 19:2; 21:5; 29:20). I was reminded of Jephthah’s hasty and costly vow (Judges 11:31-39). Jesus also taught thoughtful restraint:

• "Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him” (Luke 14:28-29).

Wouldn’t we too become the object of ridicule if it was known that we had just sent our last $1000 to Murdock to finance his fifth mansion? (I don’t know how many he does have, but prosperity preachers have a reputation for high living.) I think so, but this isn’t my main concern. I am concerned about those who associate this type of preaching with the real Good News and will become hardened against this News after they wake up - $1000 poorer – and find that they’ve been duped.

The Bible had it Right Scientifically!

My Response to a Christian Evolutionist (CE):

I’ll respond to one of your points that I think is central to your position and that of the CEs: “The science of the Bible is obviously the ‘science’ of the ancient near east, and is antiquated and therefore wrong. Instead, the Bible is about salvation and a relationship with Christ.”

With this bold statement, you dismiss whatever the Bible has to say about the physical world, including history, geography, psychology and biology. Why then not also dismiss what the Bible has to say about our feelings, thought life and spiritual growth? These are not independent of our biology, and according to you, the biology of the Bible is clearly a reflection of ancient “science.” I don’t see how you can trust in the Bible’s spiritual message after denying its message about our physical world.

Your distinction between the Bible’s teachings about the physical world and the spiritual cannot hold up under scrutiny. The Bible states that Lazarus rose from the dead, but all miracles impinge on the physical world. Will you then rule them out and declare the Bible errant in its account of miracles? Will you also deny the resurrection of Jesus? According to your distinctions, you must. However, Biblically, there can be no hard distinction between physical and spiritual truth. They cling together as sodium does to chloride to produce salt.

Will you also deny prophecy? This too deals with phenomena within the physical world. However, Jesus taught that He performed both miracles and prophecies to promote faith(John 14:28-29). If you deny the former, the latter (faith) is left without a solid foundation. If you dismiss the Biblical affirmation that God has historically fulfilled prophecy, then you deprive the church of important reasons to believe in the Christian faith.

Instead, I’d like to cite Biblical evidence that the Bible wasn’t corrupted by ancient “science” but instead foresaw the findings of modern science:

1. TIME IS NOT ETERNAL AS BIG BANG COSMOLOGY ASSERTS: 2 Tim. 1:9 who has saved us and called us to a holy life--not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time,

2. THE UNIVERSE HAD A BEGINNING: Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Contra the steady-state theory that had ruled science).

3. THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF THE PHYSICAL WORD AREN’T VISIBLE: Hebrews 11:3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

4. LAWS: Jeremiah 33:25 This is what the LORD says: 'If I have not established my covenant with day and night and the fixed laws of heaven and earth, (Also Job 38:33)

5. WATER CYCLE: Job 36:27 "He draws up the drops of water, which distill as rain to the streams.” (Also Amos 9:6)

6. DINOSAURS?? Psalm 74:14 It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan and gave him as food to the creatures of the desert. (Isa 27:1; 51:9; Jer. 51:34; Eze 29:3)

7. INNUMERABLE STARS: Jeremiah 33:22 I will make the descendants of David my servant and the Levites who minister before me as countless as the stars of the sky and as measureless as the sand on the seashore.' "

8. COSMIC EXPANSION, ROUND EARTH: Isaiah 40:22 He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. (Scripture claims that the universe was created, rather than having existed eternally, as the atheist had supposed.) (42:5)

9. STARS AS GUIDES TO SEASONS AND GEOGRAPHIC POSITIONS: Genesis 1:14 lights in the expanse of the sky… [would] serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years.”

10. COUNTLESS STARS: Jeremiah 33:22 states, “I will make the descendants of David my servant and the Levites who minister before me as countless as the stars of the sky and as measureless as the sand on the seashore. " (Also Job 11:7-8; 22:12)

11. THE EARTH DOES NOT SIT ON A PEDESTAL AS ANCIENT COSMOLOGY HAS IT: Job 26:7 He spreads out the northern skies over empty space; he suspends the earth over nothing.

12. STRESS NEGATIVELY IMPACTS HEALTH: Proverbs 17:22 A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

13. UNHEALTHY QUALITY OF EXCREMENT: Deut. 23:12-13 Designate a place outside the camp where you can go to relieve yourself. 13As part of your equipment have something to dig with, and when you relieve yourself, dig a hole and cover up your excrement.

14. FOSSIL FINDS IN THE MOUNTAINS: Psalm 104:6 …the waters stood above the mountains.

The Media and the Mosque

Why has Western civilization turned so viciously against its own Christian roots? Why do our institutions that started as Bible schools – Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, Brown, and Dartmouth – now mock the mother that gave birth to them? The latest manifestation of Western self-contempt is the embrace of Imam Rauf who is now a USA paid emissary.

In regards to Rauf, the president of ACT for America.org and Lebanese immigrant to the USA, Brigitte Gabriel, writes,

• “More Americans now know that Rauf, as recently as March, said in Arabic that he opposes interfaith dialogue. They know he is a vocal supporter of sharia law, that he says governments which do not employ sharia law are ‘unjust’ and that he has refused to label Hamas a terrorist organization. They know he has refused to sign the ‘Freedom Pledge,’ issued by Former Muslims United, which pledges to oppose retaliation and punishment toward Muslims who leave Islam. The more Americans learn, the more concerned they become.”

It wasn’t our mainstream media that has disclosed these unsettling but important facts. Gabriel explains that instead it was “investigative reporters, bloggers and watchdog organizations.”

Meanwhile, the mainstream media largely paints those who raise questions about Rauf and his mosque as simply fearful or, even worse, as instruments of hate. They are also referred to as “extremist elements” or just “ignorant.”

However, is it hate that causes us to question Rauf’s rationale for rejecting Donald Trump’s generous offer to buy their property so they can relocate the mosque at a less contentious site? Rauf explained that this option couldn’t be considered because it would anger Muslims! Is it extremism that causes us to be concerned about what else might anger Muslims? Wouldn’t transparent dialogue about the real nature of Islam also anger Muslims? And what does this say for the future of interfaith dialogue? Is it ignorance that would lead us question moderate Muslims about their understanding of certain Koranic verses like:

• [3:27] “Let not the believers take the disbelievers for friends rather than believers. And whoever does this has no connection with Allah…

• [5:54] O ye who believe, take not the Jews and the Christians for your friends and protectors. They are but friends and protectors to each other.

Or is it extremism that would lead us to inquire about the Islamic doctrine of “Taqiyya,” which authorizes lying to the infidel in order to promote Islam? Perhaps it is a legitimate fear that would engender concerns about other verses impacting our 1st amendment rights:

• [33:59-61] Prophet, tell your wives, your daughters, and women believers to make their outer garment hang low over them, so as to be recognized and not insulted: God is most forgiving, most merciful. 60 If the hypocrites, the sick of heart, and those who spread lies in the city [Medina] do not desist, We shall arouse you [the Prophet] against them, and then they will only be your neighbors in this city for a short while. 61 They will be rejected wherever they are found, and then seized and killed.

Should we be concerned about how such a teaching might impact free speech? Why are we so willing to gloss over these verses and the potential threat of these teachings to Western civilization, while our Bible is customarily torn to shreds in the very academic halls it had once founded? One Nigerian woman privately lamented, “The media is crazy. They just don’t know Islam. They have no idea what it’s like living under Sharia law.” I think she’s wrong. The media does know, but their lens prevents them from clearly seeing what seems to be alarmingly ubiquitous – the intolerant Jihadist core of Islam.

Imam Rauf comes across as grandfatherly and reasonable, but as Gabriel points out, this seems to be no more than a neatly cultivated veneer for his naïve multi-cultural, religiously-pluralistic Western audience. Indeed, he endorses Sharia law, which reduces non-Muslims to a tertiary status and relegates Muslims who deny their faith to the sword. Gabriel concludes:

• “Terrorists are only one manifestation of radical Islam. As Americans look even closer they will come to realize that the same ideology that produces a terrorist also produces a seemingly moderate Muslim who is dedicated to the advancement and imposition of Sharia law. They will learn that the Islamist in a suit and tie, who wants to replace the Constitution with Sharia law, differs from the terrorist only in the means to the end, not the end itself.”

Why aren’t we coming to terms with what has already become so obvious around the world? I don’t understand much about the European Union. However, no one seems to dispute the fact that they have criteria for membership. The Union just doesn’t receive every nation into membership. Instead, there has to be a fit. Is it therefore unreasonable to examine the fitness of Islam?

However, when Islam’s fitness is called into question, those who do so are dismissively labeled “Islamophobes.” Meanwhile, the media is happy to give time to any radical who has a new angle on how to deconstruct the Christian faith. Why this discrepancy? Is it a matter of crucifying Christ all over again? The Christ Himself might agree:

• "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you: 'No servant is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. (John 15:18-20)

Ironically, it is the Biblical revelation alone that provides the indispensible foundation for the freedoms that secularism values. It is only the revelation that we are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27) and therefore have certain unalienable rights that can provide an adequate philosophical foundation for the Bill of Rights. Even the skeptic, Thomas Jefferson, confessed:

• “And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath?” (Notes on the State of Virginia)

Can secularism also insist on these liberties? Well, it can, but not in a way consistent with its anti-theistic position. If all it has is a materialistic orientation, then we coerced into regarding one another materialistically! Consequently, all aren’t equally deserving of society’s freedoms and protections. Some of us are a credit to society, while some are a financial drain on society. Some are deserving; some aren’t! On the basis of what should each have an equal vote or protection? There is no secular basis! So it must secretly borrow from its hated parent.

As secularism continues to wage its auto-immune war against itself – Christianity – it fails to see that it consumes itself in the process. Welcome Islam!

Bullfighting and Abortion

What can they possibly have in common? Not much, but the September 23, 2010 LifeSiteNews.com reports that they have more in common than we might suspect:

• “The socialist dominated legislature of the Spanish region of Catalonia was blasted by a member yesterday for caring more about animals than human beings, in response to legislation outlawing the practice of bullfighting. Juan Bertomeu, a deputy elected from the more conservative People's Party, observed that while one bull dies every three days in a bullfight, 57 children are killed by abortion in the region daily, a practice that is legal and supported by the ruling socialists. ‘You want to tell me that you have feelings over the death of a bull every three days, and there's no problem with taking the life of 57 children every day?’ said Bertomeu.”

I’m not particularly interested in Spanish politics and even less in bullfighting, but I think that this is particularly illuminating of our age. I too was touched by the reports of gulf-spill animal rescues. I’m also moved by all the efforts made to rescue a stranded whale, but I’m puzzled by the callousness of our educated elites towards abortion, adultery, pornography and the accompanying destruction of the family?

Does it represent a rebellion against Christian or traditional values or the assertion that “I’m numero uno, and nobody is going to interfere with my freedoms and pleasures?” What are your thoughts?

Spiritual Insecurity

We all want to be part of a group in which we’re liked and affirmed. We also want to be appreciated and loved for who we are — validated for our beliefs, attitudes, habits, tastes, politics, and even for our worldviews. Consequently, we usually choose people who share our views and lifestyles and tend to feel uncomfortable and insecure when others don’t share them. We either leave the group or learn to conform to group “expectations,” even down to dress and appearance.

Our sense of insecurity is often magnified when it comes to finding a church “family.” Not only do we want to find a worldview/lifestyle fit – a fitting in with the people – we also need to feel that we’re fitting in with God. More than anything else, we seek to find a community that will validate our spirituality, our relationship with God, with all its uncertainties and feelings of insecurity about our adequacies.

Nobody wants to walk into a church where everyone is speaking in tongues and where you too are “required” to do the same. To many of us, being part of such a community is a prescription for feelings of alienation and inadequacy. Others have fled from churches where everyone was saying, “The Lord told me…” Well, if the Lord wasn’t “telling” you anything, you begin to feel worse than a freak – a second-rate spiritual entity!

For a number of years, I attended a church that had regular “testimonial” services. People would testify of the goodness of God that they were experiencing. I found these gatherings particularly painful and often wanted to run out, but lacked the courage to do so. I had been experiencing intense depression and hearing these testimonials made me feel like a spiritual “reject,” a divine discard, or even worse, someone God had scorned!

These tortuous experiences have somewhat opened my eyes to the extent of spiritual insecurity (SI). Many churches have learned to capitalize on rampant uncertainly, confusion and SI. Instead of directly challenging these three viruses, they have taken the opposite strategy. They reassure the insecure that SI is natural, normal, and inescapable.

Instead of doctrine – it can create an intense sense of alienation from both man and God if you feel that you can’t believe in the same way that others believe – these churches emphasize friendship and acceptance of whatever beliefs, religions or lifestyles that you might bring to the table. Their sermons emphasize inclusiveness and disdain any mention of a “we and them” divide. Consequently, even though they might preach salvation through the grace of Christ, they are loathe to pass judgment on any of the other supposed roads to God or on any divergent teachings. Instead, everything and everyone is OK! It’s about feeling accepted and exploring together and not about arriving at the truth.

Instead of a dogmatic confidence in certain theological propositions – Jesus died on the Cross for my sins – these “emerging” churches assert, equally dogmatically, that we really can’t be certain about any theological constructs. Then, they baptize their conclusion with the assertion that thoughtful and intelligent people know that certainty is a myth. Well, if you can’t be certain about anything, then you can’t judge and offend anyone. (Besides, if you can’t be certain, then you can’t make the assertions that certainty isn’t possible.) However, this type of church makes many insecure Christians feel comfortable. Uncertainty and confusion are no longer threats to our spirituality. Instead, they have become our final resting place – “If nothing is possible beyond uncertainty, then I don’t have to feel bad, insecure, or alienated from God. I fit right in, and I can feel comfortable right where I’m at!”

Uncertainty has been turned into a virtue. In The Myth of Certainty, Daniel Taylor writes,

• “When people defend their world view, they are not defending reason, or God, or an abstract system; they are defending their own fragile sense of security and self-respect.” (25)

Well, if there’s no certainty to be found, then the quest for it is ultimately grounded in our psychological needs rather than in a search for or defense of the truth. We can also argue that when people defend uncertainty, they are likewise defending their own fragile sense of security. Where then is truth? Is it no more than a figment of our insecurities? Is it just a matter of the way we feel? An Emergent church guru, Tony Jones, claims that,

• “The truly infinite God of Christian faith is beyond all our linguistic grasping…and so the struggle to capture God in our finite propositional structures [theological teachings] is nothing short of linguistic idolatry.” (The New Christians, 234)

Ironically, Jones is equally dogmatic and certain about our inability to be certain about God. God is merely someone to be pursued but never found. However, this is a comforting message for those who are confused about God. It tells them, “It’s OK. Actually, you are a more thoughtful and sensitive person than those who claim to be certain!”

What then is the answer for those who struggle with uncertainty and SI? It’s not the easy way of comfortable resignation. Instead, it’s a matter of pursuing the God who promises that He is able to make us stand firm (Romans 14:4). It’s a matter of asking Him to provide (James 4:2-3). It’s a matter of meditating on His Word day and night (Psalm 1:1-3). It’s a matter of entrusting Him with all of our concerns (Phil. 4:6-7) and then waiting patiently (Psalm 27:14). If God is God, then He is able to provide certainty.

Christ has expanded the boundaries of my spiritual comfort zone. I no longer feel that I need to flee from church, when I feel that the fit is lacking. I know who God is (Jer. 9:23-24) and therefore feel safe and secure. However, I must admit that this understanding came very slowly and painfully. But confidence about God is the most precious jewel:

• “My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” (Col. 2:2-3)

Do We Need God to be Good?

My Response to an Atheist who tried to argue that the “happiness” principle is just as good a basis for morality as is God:

I will try to list several reasons why God is a superior basis for morality than your notion of “happiness”:

1. AUTHORITATIVE: For morality to function as morality, it has to be authoritative. There is nothing authoritative about “happiness.” Regarding this, the secular humanist, Max Hocutt, stated, “To me {the non-existence of God} means that there is no absolute morality, that moralities are sets of social conventions devised by humans to satisfy their needs…If there were a morality written up in the sky somewhere but no God to enforce it, I see no good reason why anyone should pay it any heed.” (Understanding the Times)

2. PERFECTION IN WISDOM AND LOVE: There is little reason to follow moral dictates if we’re not convinced that they represent the highest form of wisdom and love. There is absolutely no reason for anyone to follow a morality based upon someone else’s conception of “happiness.” However, if we are convinced that the omniscient God loves us, we gratefully want to follow the dictates He’s placed on our heart.

3. IMMUTABILITY: If morality is always changing, there’s no reason to adhere to it. It might just be different tomorrow? “Happiness” depends upon our moods and culture, which are always in flux.

4. UNIVERSALITY: Morality needs to be applied consistently and uniformly. “Happiness” does not provide an adequate basis. It is capricious and differs from person to person. Besides, doing the things that make us happy isn’t always the same thing as doing the moral thing. “Happiness” can be appealed to to justify racial cleansing and sadism, depending upon whose “happiness” we’re referring to. “Happiness” is also myopic. It inevitably looks for immediate payoffs.

5. TRANSCENDENCE: Morality must be able to transcend our individual whims, wills and cultures and provide a standard by which we can assess all conduct and a standard for our legal codes. If it fails to transcend all of these claims and concerns, then each one of us represents our own ultimate supreme court – hardly any basis for morality. This will leave us with no basis to adjudicate disputes and to promote justice. It will fracture whatever cohesiveness a society might have had.

6. EXPLANATORY POWER: God can not only explain and provide a rational basis for morality, but He can also account for the balance of reality – consciousness, freewill, meaning/purpose, the origins of life, DNA, the cell, the fine-tuning of the universe, and the physical laws. “Happiness” lacks explanatory power.

I think that a powerful historical case can be made that when morality lacks an adequate rational basis, it’s inevitable that the ruling powers resort to physical coercion. Just look at the experience of communistic/atheistic nations!

Meanwhile, you have elected to choose the moral basis of “happiness” over God. However, there’s no escaping God. Even your paradigm points unmistakably back to Him:

1. The very fact that there is such a strong correspondence between what satisfies (happiness) us and what is virtuous points to an Intelligent Designer. I thank God that he didn’t design virtue as something painful (although sometimes it does require sacrifice.)

2. If “happiness” is your governing principle, then you must believe in Christ to maximize your happiness!

Even when atheism tries to flee God into the darkness of its mental contrivances, it inevitably runs into Him. There is no escape! This is because He is the creator of not only the physical world, but also all truth, wisdom, and morality. But why does atheism hide from God? Here’s Jesus’ answer:

• “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.” (John 3:19-20)

I wish I could show you how Christ has unified my life and has given me such intellectual satisfaction. The way I treat my neighbor, the awesome sunset, the touching play, the edifying concert, and even raising children all fit together into a harmonious mosaic, a completed puzzle. I rise to serve my Savior. I shed tears, knowing He’s with me. I go to sleep singing His praises.