Challenging Creation - Questions and Answers for Christians and Atheists

Daniel Copeland

Description

Evolutionists like to challenge Creationists, and Creationists like to Challenge Evolutionists. Many Evolutionists have questions that have never been answered in a fair and honest way. Challenging Creation welcomes the questions from all different angles, and answers them with clear information and a dash of humor.

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique
• Sociology

Informations

• Publié par: First Edition Design Publishing
• Date de parution: 27 septembre 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781622870615
• Langue: English

Extrait

Challenging Creation
Questions and Answers for
Christians and Atheists



By Daniel Copeland
Challenging Creation, Questions and Answers for Christians and Atheists

By Daniel Copeland
Challenging Creation, Questions and Answers for Christians and Atheists
Copyright 2012 Daniel Copeland
ISBN 978-1622870-61-5

Published and Distributed by
First Edition Design Publishing, Inc.
September 2012
www.firsteditiondesignpublishing.com



ALL R I G H T S R E S E R V E D. No p a r t o f t h i s b oo k pub li ca t i o n m a y b e r e p r o du ce d, s t o r e d i n a r e t r i e v a l s y s t e m , o r t r a n s mit t e d i n a ny f o r m o r by a ny m e a ns ─ e l e c t r o n i c , m e c h a n i c a l , p h o t o - c o p y , r ec o r d i n g, or a ny o t h e r ─ e x ce pt b r i e f qu ot a t i o n i n r e v i e w s , w i t h o ut t h e p r i o r p e r mi ss i on o f t h e a u t h o r or publisher .


All scripture quotations are from:
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version ® (ESV ® )
Copyright © 2001 by Crossway,
a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
All rights reserved. www.esv.org

For questions, feedback or speaking engagements, please contact:
Foundations Creation and Worldview Ministries
www.foundcon.org

Readers may reproduce up to one full chapter for ministry use without written permission, but source and author must be clearly credited. This work may not be reproduced for profit without written permission.
Acknowledgements
A number of people helped me along the way with this book, and many encouraged me to keep going when things got hard.
All glory first and foremost to Jesus Christ, our Creator and King! It is for his glory and honor that we acknowledge the wonders of creation and spread the good news of his love!
Many thanks to my editing team:
Bill and Lana Whitacre
Connie Mueller
Cheyanne Lutz
Barrett Robertson
Cheyanne and Barrett are students of mine and helped me to avoid sounding like a boring college professor. Bill, Lana and Connie not only helped with the grammar and language editing, but offered so much encouragement and prayer. God’s blessings on all of you!
Many others encouraged and helped me, and space does not permit a full listing. I’m sorry, but thank you from the bottom of my heart! You know who you are.
No other person deserve more credit, though, than my lovely wife, Tanya. As I wrote this book, I was in full-time ministry, taking a full course load at Grand Canyon University, and launching a non-profit ministry called Foundations Creation and Worldview Ministries. My saintly wife was holding down the fort, doing more than her share to raise our daughter, and teaching at a private Christian school. With all my heart, thank you, Tanya! You are the love of my life!
Contents

Introduction/How to use this book

Part I. Creation vs. Science
1. What is Biblical Creationism?
2. What is Darwinism/neo-Darwinism?
3. Is Creationism even scientific?
4. Is Creationism even logical?
5. Isn’t Creationism just religion?
6. Why does science support evolution?
7. What about the fossil record?

Part II. The Creation Event
8. Adam + Eve = Incest?
9. Don’t genetic similarities prove evolution?
10. How can a “good” god create violent animals?
11. Vegetarians with sharp teeth?
12. Why does Earth suffer for man’s sin?
13. Why aren’t humans that different from animals?
14. How could humans possibly live 900 years?
15. Why didn't people keep the 'true' religion?

Part III. The Flood
16. Where did the Flood water come from?
17. Where did all that water go after the Flood?
18. Why doesn’t the earth show evidence of a global flood?
19. What did the carnivores eat on the ark?
20. How could that many animals fit on board?
21. How did koalas get to Australia after the Flood?
22. Couldn’t the flood have been a local event?

Part IV. The Age of the Earth
23. Doesn’t carbon dating prove an old earth?
4. Don’t continental drift rates prove an old earth?
25. Doesn’t the Grand Canyon prove an old earth?
26. Doesn’t light from distant stars prove an old earth?
27. How could dinosaurs and man walk together?

Part V. Things Creationists Don’t Believe
28. Do you believe God made the world just the way it is?
29. Do you believe God made the earth with age?
30. Do you believe science is evil?
31. Do you believe in other myths?

Part VI. Pure theology
32. Can’t “days” mean long eras of time?”
33. Can’t Genesis 1 be understood figuratively?
34. Genesis 1 is a poem, so why take it literally?
35. Don’t Genesis 1 and 2 contradict one another?
36. Why does any of this matter?

Part VII. Worldview Evangelism
37. What is a Worldview?
38. How can I convince people to consider creationism?
39. What is “Intelligent Design” and how is it helpful?
40. What is “Irreducible Complexity”?

Epilogue: Let’s Make a Bet! (Pascal’s Wager)

Appendix A. Assumptions of Evolution

Appendix B. Resources you can read

Glossary
Introduction
I never read introductions to books, so feel free to skip this.
Oh… you’re still reading. Cool! I guess I have to write an intro then.
Well, this book was inspired by atheists… in a good way. Almost all of the questions addressed here were asked by real people who really don’t believe in God. A few of the questions, especially in chapter VI, were asked by Christians who just don’t believe in a 6-day creation. All of the questions are valid.
A question can be a powerful thing! I get a lot of question from atheists, theists, and agnostics alike. Most of the time, people are genuinely seeking an answer; sometimes they are asking a question in order to stump me and make Biblical Creationism look foolish. Regardless of the spirit behind the question, people are very often surprised that there is a plausible answer. One of my great joys in life is when people ask a question and their eyes light up with understanding when they receive a genuine answer. And so, I hope to pass that joy on to you.
Whether you are a student, a minister, an evangelist, or an old man, I want to equip you to know the truth and be able to help others see it too.
1 Peter 3:15 …but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you!
In order to get the most out of this book, you need to know a few things. First, I like to have fun, and I try to interject a little humor. Please forgive my occasional sarcasm.
I’ve tried my hardest to write with my own teenage students in mind. I am capable of writing very academically, but I don’t want this to feel like a textbook. The reality is that it probably will feel like a textbook from time to time, but don’t give up, please! The overall goal is for you to be able to flip to a question and get a thorough answer. Because some questions have closely related answers, some of the information is repetitive. This is not a mistake, but it might frustrate you sometimes. Occasionally, to avoid too much repetition, I might suggest at the beginning of an answer that you read a different answer first. This saves me a little time writing, and hopefully helps make things more clear for you.
None of us can be an expert in every field of study, and this book is not a complete guide to every facet of creationism. Hopefully it answers questions well enough to be meaningful, but the reality is that I can often only point you in the right direction.
There are seven chapters in this book, each one dealing with a different area of concern. I find that many people have an area of interest within the evolution/creation debate. For instance, one person wants to defend evolution based on his understanding from astronomy class that the universe must be billions of years old. He could care less about the genetic evidence against evolution, but he would be fascinated to see cosmological evidence! Perhaps you can flip to the section titled “The Age of the Earth” and examine the question and answer about light from stars. The goal is to try to address a broad variety of topics in order to reach a broad range of interests.
The index has a condensed version of the question, but you’ll notice the question is worded differently in the text. Most of the time, the questions in the text are written verbatim as I received them. Some were asked verbally, some via email, and some on internet forums and chat rooms. I like visiting atheist forums and asking them what they think about things!

I’ve included an appendix in the back for you (I had mine removed and figured I might as well give it away… okay, bad joke) which gives some great resources for understanding more. I categorized those resources by discipline, so if you are interested in biology, there are biology resources for you; if you are interested in the stars, there are cosmology resources, etc. Most of the books listed are written to be understood by anyone with a basic high school level science education, but not all.
If you see a word or phrase in bold, it is in the glossary. The one exception to that rule is the word “bold” in the previous sentence.
Finally, I want this book to be a tool to help inform your worldview and help you challenge the worldview of your friends. Chapter 7 is about how to get people thinking. Read it, apply it to yourself first, and then use it every time you get into a discussion.
I leave you now with this word of encouragement: Have fun with this book, and may God bless you as you hopefully see more of his majesty and amazing power!

Soli Deo Gloria!
Daniel Copeland
2012
Part I. - Creation vs. Science
1. What is “Biblical Creationism?”

In order to defend an idea, you need to know what the idea is really about. There are a lot of people who would call themselves “creationists” but who have some strange ideas about what that means. Muslim