Evidence for God from Science Newsletter January, 2001

Greetings in the name of the Lord! This is the latest edition of the update for the Evidence for God from Science website. There are many new additions to the site, including the first genetic analysis of ancient anatomically modern humans.

This weekend was a scary time for our family, since Andy, our middle son was hospitalized for over 24 hours. It began earlier in the week, when Andy was taken to the pediatrician for some test to try to determine why he was having recurrent fevers. A routine blood test turned up a high sedimentation rate, indicative of some sort of inflammatory process going on. Andy had complained of some pain in some of his bones, so a bone scan was ordered. The pediatrician also noticed a heart murmur, so an echo cardiogram and EKG was ordered. The bone scan was negative, but the cardiac tests were said to be troubling. Our pediatrician was going to get a second opinion from a pediatric cardiologist. Friday afternoon, I got a call from the office of a doctor I had never heard of saying that they wanted to admit Andy to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center as soon as possible, since the echo cardiogram showed that Andy had an enlarged left ventricle. My wife, Carole, was taking photographs for a friend, so Andy was at the babysitter. Since I work at Cedars-Sinai, I had to go home, pick up Andy and then travel back to Cedars - a three hour round trip in Friday night rush hour traffic. The time on the road gave me lots of time to pray and think about Andy. As parents, I think we tend to take for granted our children as we deal with the day to day struggles of parenting. In contemplating giving Andy back to the Lord, I considered all the ways in which he is special and fits in with our family. Andy is the "life of the party" and the glue that holds his brothers together. Being the middle child, Andy plays and interacts easily with both his older and younger brother. When the eldest and youngest brothers interact, it is more like a teacher-student relationship. Our family would be very different with Andy missing. Carole, notified the prayer team and Andy was admitted to the ER at Cedars. After three blood draws, an X-ray, an EKG, and an echo cardiogram, Andy was declared completely healthy and returned to school on Monday. Although the experience was not pleasant, it made me take the time to appreciate Andy. God uses such things to turn our focus to the important things in life.

Congratulations to Adam, who submitted an essay about what God has done for him and why he is grateful. In appreciation of his essay, Adam received a free Evidence for God from Science CD-ROM along with Zondervan NIV Bible CD-ROM.

http://www.GodAndscience.org/doctrine/thanksessays.html

Evolution

The big news this month is the release of the first genetic study to examine Genetic material found in mitochondria, the organelles that generate energy for the cell.mtDNA from ancient anatomically modern humans. Previous studies have shown that there are large difference in The order of nucleotides in a DNA or RNA molecule, or the order of amino acids in a protein molecule.sequences of Genetic material found in mitochondria, the organelles that generate energy for the cell.mtDNA between modern humans and Neanderthals. However, without a measure of the variation between ancient anatomically modern humans and modern humans, the data is incomplete. The first study to examine the Genetic material found in mitochondria, the organelles that generate energy for the cell.mtDNA The order of nucleotides in a DNA or RNA molecule, or the order of amino acids in a protein molecule.sequence of ancient anatomically modern humans was published in 2001, examining the Genetic material found in mitochondria, the organelles that generate energy for the cell.mtDNA The order of nucleotides in a DNA or RNA molecule, or the order of amino acids in a protein molecule.sequences of 10 ancient Australians. The results show that even 62,000 year old humans had virtually the same Genetic material found in mitochondria, the organelles that generate energy for the cell.mtDNA as modern Aboriginal humans. In contrast, contemporary (or later) Neanderthals are markedly different from ancient or recent anatomically modern humans.

Descent of Man Theory- Disproven by Molecular Biology
http://www.GodAndScience.org/evolution/descent.html

Apologetics

What does the Bible say about Reincarnation?
This is a page that examines what the Old and New Testament says about reincarnation. The New Testament is very clear about the issue, but the Old Testament is not as clear. Most Jews believe that you can come back in a second mortal life to help atone for your sins. In fact, recently, an influential Orthodox Rabbi from Israel stated that all of the 6 million Jews who died in the Holocaust were reincarnated sinners. However, there are a number of Old Testament verses that indicate that we have only one mortal life.

Does the Bible Support Reincarnation?
http://www.GodAndScience.org/apologetics/reincarnation.html

The Trinity in the Old Testament
Orthodox Jews and many cults do not like the idea of the Trinity, complaining that the concept is not found in the Bible. Pages already exist on this site that demonstrate the concept of the Trinity from the New Testament. However, Jews do not accept the New Testament as scripture. The new page demonstrates how the Trinity is found in the Old Testament so that you can be better prepared to share the gospel with your Jewish friends and co-workers.

The Triunity (Trinity) of God in The Old Testament
http://www.GodAndScience.org/apologetics/triunity.html

"Creationary Model for the Universe and Life on Earth" is a comprehensive model for the universe that fits both biblical accounts and scientific data. It is a much-requested (by evolutionists) creationary model. One of the most common complaints from evolutionists is that we criticize evolution without providing a reasonable alternative. This page is an attempt to answer their charge.

Creationary Model for the Universe and Life on Earth
http://www.GodAndScience.org/apologetics/model.html

The Bible is comprised of a series of writings over a period of thousands of years. This new page outlines the origin of the Old and New Testaments, including the evidence we have for the integrity of those writings.

How The Bible Came To Us by Wes Ringer
http://www.GodAndScience.org/apologetics/bibleorigin.html

There are many atheistic web sites that claim that the Bible is full of contradictions. This site does not focus on answers to those "contradictions," but many other sites do. I have created a page of links from which you can obtain answers to virtually any biblical "contradiction." Check out some of the great sites in these links:

Answers to Biblical 'Contradictions'
http://www.GodAndScience.org/apologetics/contralinks.html

There is a page on an anti-Christian site operated by Mike Friedman, who is a 19 year old computer science student, that attacks An Estimate of the Probability for Attaining the Necessary Parameters for Life Support on this site. Mr. Friedman states on his page that GodAndScience.org "is falsifying scientific truth". However, an examination of the charges show that Mr. Friedman doesn't really understand the subject matter. Mr. Friedman's page would not even be worth commenting on except that my server stats indicate that a significant number of people come to my site from his page. This page was written to give those people a chance to see how bad Mr. Friedman's page is.

Rebuttal to 'The Probability of Life' by Mike Friedman
http://www.GodAndScience.org/apologetics/problifebad.html

Young Earth Creationism

The Genesis Flood- Why the Bible Says It Must be Local

Many people have written to know what my position is on the flood. Was it global or local? After much time in research, I have concluded from the Bible that the Genesis flood must have been a local event. There is one key verse in Psalms 104 (the "creation" psalm) that indicates quite clearly that the flood was local. The Psalm describes the creation of the Earth (beginning with a description of an expanding universe), followed by description of the early earth as a water covered planet, and the formation of land masses. The key verse is verse 9:

"You set a boundary they [the waters] cannot cross; never again will they cover the earth." (Psalms 104:9)

Obviously, if the waters of the earth never again covered the entire earth, the flood must have been local. There is much other evidence presented, including verses from the New Testament and the Genesis flood text itself, which clearly establishes the frame of reference as being local. The page also establishes that our English "translations" of the flood text are more than translations, but are actually interpretations of the text, which internally contradict themselves as translated. The reader is challenged to reread the Genesis flood passages and substitute the most common translations of key Hebrew words for the ones used in our translations. You will never view the Genesis flood quite the same:

The Genesis Flood- Why the Bible Says It Must be Local
http://www.GodAndScience.org/apologetics/localflood.html

For the past several decades, the question of the age of the Earth has been a very divisive one among Christians. Many people (known as "Young-Earth Creationists") believe that the only valid interpretation of the Bible indicates that the Earth is 10,000 years old or less, and they also claim to have scientific evidence that supports this view of the Earth. Mr. Tiscareno has investigated these young-Earth "scientific evidences" to determine what the truth is, "confident that God will be glorified by the Truth regardless of its theological implications."

Is There Really Scientific Evidence for a Young Earth? by Matthew S. Tiscareno
http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~matthewt/yeclaimsbeta.html

A new page has been added to include links to other sites that are critical of young earth "science" and theology

Young-Earth Creationism Links
http://www.GodAndScience.org/youngearth/links.html

Doctrine

I know that all of you Christians have felt left out by not being able to participate in the Atheism Test. So I have created a JavaScript Basic Theology Quiz for you to test your understanding of basic Christian theology. There are 25 multiple choice questions that should take you less than 10 minutes to complete. Consider yourself challenged - take the test!

Basic Theology Quiz
http://www.GodAndScience.org/cgi-bin/quiztest.cgi?basicchristiantheologyquiz

A new page by Wes Ringer compares the Law of Moses in the Old Testament to the Law of Christ in the New Testament. Understand the purpose of the law today as it applies to believers of Jesus Christ:

The Pattern Of Redemptive History In Both The Old And The New Covenant As It Relates To The Moral Law by Wes Ringer
http://www.GodAndScience.org/doctrine/law.html

Personal

New pictures are available of our sons.
Mark's Photo Gallery
http://www.GodAndScience.org/personal/markgallery.html
Andy's Photo Gallery
http://www.GodAndScience.org/personal/andygallery.html
Matt's Photo Gallery
http://www.GodAndScience.org/personal/mattgallery.html

More about the Deem family can be found at the Personal Pages

http://www.GodAndScience.org/personal/index.html

Newsletters are now available online. Go to the URL below to read the current and past e-mail newsletters:

http://www.GodAndScience.org/newsletter.html

Do you have Netscape 6? If you do, be sure to add GodAndScience.org to your sidebar. The sidebar lists all the new pages added to the site, so that you can keep up with the latest information. Just click the "Add Tab to Netscape 6" icon on the home page. Don't have Netscape 6? You can find a list of recently added pages

http://www.GodAndScience.org/new.html

Projects being worked on:

"All ways lead to God" - An examination of this popular belief is shown to be logically impossible.

The Power of Atheism to Change Lives - Yes, the title is a teaser. Even atheists can recognize that atheism has no power to change our behaviors. The page will examine the differences between atheism and Christianity in terms of their effects upon moral behavior. It will also include a list of links to testimonies of people whose lives have been changed by the power of Jesus Christ. This page should appear within a week of the current newsletter. If your testimony is on the web, let me know so that I can link to it. Thanks!

The Incredible Genetics of "". A popular young earth ministry of has some rather remarkable science and theology regarding the ability of organism to evolve through genetic recombination. In essence, they believe that all the "kinds" of organisms of Genesis were born with multiple alleles of Functional and physical units of heredity passed from parent to offspring. Genes are pieces of DNA, and most genes contain the information for making a specific protein.genes that were highly diverse. For some reason, these Functional and physical units of heredity passed from parent to offspring. Genes are pieces of DNA, and most genes contain the information for making a specific protein.genes never segregated during the first couple thousand years of the history of life on earth. However, after the flood, these same Functional and physical units of heredity passed from parent to offspring. Genes are pieces of DNA, and most genes contain the information for making a specific protein.genes suddenly formed all the species we see on the earth, along with those found only in the fossil record. I don't usually name specific Christian ministries, but try to keep my comments generic in nature. However, this young earth ministry has recently gone out of their way to attack the ministry of Reasons To Believe by name. I am praying about whether to name names, or leave the name of the ministry off the page. Please give me your feedback about how you think the Lord would handle this issue. Thanks for your prayers.

Those are the most recent updates and changes since the last e-mail update. If you would like to see anything in particular at Evidence for God from Science, let me know. Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, The people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance.

In Christ,
Rich Deem

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Last Modified January 26, 2001