Continuing
with Abraham’s account of the creation and the principles behind it so we can
better understand how the Earth was changed during the crucifixion and why it
was not merely a cosmetic event, but a change that was extremely complex and
performed in a specific and exact manner.
What are the chances that a big bang, that is an explosion out of nothing,
could produce an orderly array of billions of galaxies each with billions of
stars placed in orderly elliptical patterns? What are the chances that such a
random explosion would produce so many energy-filled stars that they can hardly
be numbered? How likely is it that these separately positioned stars
would all move in perfect order within their respective galaxies? What
are the chances that our sun and our moon would be positioned so as to appear
exactly the same size in the sky? What are the chances that the moon
would rotate in such an orderly fashion that the same side of the moon is
always facing the earth? What are the chances that all the necessary
elements for life would be conveniently present on the third planet from our
sun in our solar system? What are the chances that the carbon, hydrogen,
nitrogen, oxygen, and other atoms would spontaneously erupt into the first
living organism?
What are the chances that millions
upon millions of years, as the evolutionists claim, could transform such a
basic form of life into a being as complicated and organized as a fish, let
alone a reptile, bird, mammal, or human being? What are the odds of all
of these coincidences when taken collectively? What if we multiply the
probabilities of all of these miraculous coincidences?
In addition, what are we to make of
scientists who would have us believe this sequence of events? Should we
honor their wisdom, knowledge, and powers of deductive reasoning? Do they
have the most believable story? Does their position make the most
sense? We are left to conclude that these thinkers may be great
scientists, but they are poor mathematicians. They may be great at
comparative anatomy, but they are lousy at statistics. They excel in
discussing possibilities, but fail miserably in understanding probabilities.
Doesn’t it take a lot of faith to
believe such a story? The rigid scientist disregards religious ideas because
they are based on faith. They mock the idea of a supernatural being. Yet,
we may fairly ask—“What takes more faith?” Certainly, it takes a lot of
faith in coincidence, chance, randomness, and dumb luck to believe a sequence
so unlikely.
If an alien race visited our planet
and saw an automobile but no humans, would they return home with the tale that
on earth, the iron ore, nickel, aluminum, copper, rubber trees, components of
fiberglass, cow skins that make up leather, hydrocarbons which make up plastic,
and crude oil that makes up petroleum had spontaneously evolved into a
car? Would they explain that the process involved matchbox cars evolving
into larger plastic cars which later developed self-propelling engines, power
steering, disc brakes, and GPS navigation systems? Would they estimate
the process to have taken several billions of years? Would they be
esteemed as the greatest astronaut-scientists of their planet?
Which is more complicated—an
automobile or the human body? Which is more likely to arise by pure
chance alone? Which is more ridiculous to believe—that all this
structure, organization, and order is a product of eons of time—or to believe
that an omniscient being, a supreme and ultimate scientist, has control over
the entire universe and all the life-forms in it?
Indeed, all the believers in a
supreme intelligence should bend the knee, take off the hat, and honor the
evolutionary scientists who demonstrate more faith, more belief in the
unbelievable, more hope in the invisible, more confidence in the impossible
than any believer in God ever could. They have more to teach us about
believing in the unlikely than any religion. They have grasped the unreachable,
accepted the unthinkable, and rejected the most plausible. We stand in
awe of them; we honor their great and unequalled exercise of faith.
As Elder Russel M. Nelson has said, “My long road to become a
doctor of medicine was only the beginning. After that came years of hospital
work, research, specialty training, and certifying examinations. Then followed
many years of teaching, service, and the challenges of the newly emerging field
of open-heart surgery, all of which brought me to a profound reverence for the
structure and function of the human body. I was convinced that its creation was
divine…Scientists in many disciplines observe similar manifestations of law and
order, whether in the predictability of the tides, the phases of the moon, or
the location of stars in the sky. Such law and order undergird all creation.
Those laws can be discovered and defined. Their consequences can be measured.
Such order bears witness of a Supreme Creator (Russell M. Nelson, “Faith in
Jesus Christ,” Ensign, March
2008, p25,27).
Alma put it this way to Korihor: “Thou hast had signs
enough; will ye tempt your God? Will ye say, Show unto me a sign, when ye have
the testimony of all these thy brethren, and also all the holy prophets? The
scriptures are laid before thee, yea, and all things denote there is a God;
yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its
motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do
witness that there is a Supreme Creator” (Alma 30:44).
Surely the signs are there for all to see and to try and
understand.
This earth on which we dwell is an
individual planet occupying a unique place in space. But it is also part of our
solar system, an orderly system with eight other planets, asteroids, comets,
and other celestial bodies that orbit the sun. Just as the earth is a planet in
its own right, so each of us is an individual in our own sphere of habitation.
We are individuals, but we live in families and communities where order
provides a system of harmony that hinges on obedience to principles. Just as
order gave life and beauty to the earth when it was dark and void, so it does
to us. Obedience helps us develop the full potential our Heavenly Father
desires for us in becoming celestial beings worthy someday to live in His
presence (Conference Report, April 1999, p47).
In Genesis 1:12 we find: "And God saw that it
was good." This as before the Fall. To understand the Fall, we need to understand what
existed prior to that moment, so we can comprehend what took place and what is
meant by the word Fall. First of all, Parley P. Pratt makes it quite clear when
he said, “We can never understand precisely what is meant by restoration,
unless we understand what was lost or taken away."
And then he describes how the earth
was pronounced very good. Paarley P. Pratt describes what he surmises may have been the glory of the Creation: "From this we learn that there were neither
deserts, barren places, stagnant swamps, rough, broken, rugged hills, nor vast
mountains, covered with eternal snow; and no part of it was located in the
frigid zone so as to render its climate dreary and unproductive, subject to
eternal frost, or everlasting chains of ice. The whole earth was probably one
vast plain, or interspersed with gently rising hills and sloping vales, well
calculated for cultivation." (A
Voice of Warning, Deseret Book, Salt Lake City, 1978, pp83, 84)
In addition, Harold B. Lee said,
“Besides the Fall having had to do with Adam and Eve, causing a change to come
over them, that change affected all human nature, all of the natural creations,
all of the creation of animals, plants-all kinds of life were changed. The
earth itself became subject to death, that it might be cleansed likewise. How
it took place no one can explain, and anyone who would attempt to make an
explanation would be going far beyond anything the Lord has told us. But a
change was wrought over the whole face of that creation, which up to that time
had not been subject to death; and from that time henceforth all in nature was
in a state of gradual dissolution until mortal death was to come, after which
there would be required a restoration in a resurrected state" (The Teachings of Harold B. Lee, edited
by Clyde J. Williams, Bookcraft, Salt Lake City, 1996, p34).
It is not difficult, then to see that
the Earth, from its creation to its current existence follows a form—albeit a
very complex one. It was not an accident of nature, but put together by the
Gods.
And when, during the crucifixion, we learn of the destruction in the land of Promise, we see how it was
taken apart, so mountains could collapse and valleys could be raised into new
mountains, “whose height is great.” Like all things, the complexity of all
these events is awe-inspiring and involved the full attention of the Gods to
organize and reconstruct this part of the planet. Someday, when we know exactly how this was
done, we will be even more astounded at the ability needed to perform such
assignments. What we do know, however, is that nothing happens accidentally,
nothing is a surprise to the Gods, nothing is unknown. There is a Plan and it
is carried out, and in a specific manner, and in the scriptural record we are
told far more than most have yet grasped and understand.
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ReplyDeleteHey learn what evolution is! It's not a amouse giving birth to a cat,but after many generation that mouse becomes a whole new kind(let's call it a chibi). The chibis whom where a desended from mice, but it is still part of the mammalian tree and it's still hangs on the rodentia branch.Yeah sure it probably was put on a different small branch,but the chibi is still on the same large branch of the rodentia.The chibi didn't went to a different tree or jump a on another branch(both big and small).Ps real evolution is not like anything that you see on pokemon.
ReplyDelete(Here's my explaintion on trees and branches)
Now imagine a tree(mammals) and the branches are the groups(primates)and let's put smaller branches on the bigger branch(primates:lumers,monkeys,apes and humans)
Here are websites to help you.
http://biologos.org/common-questions/scientific-evidence/what-is-evolution
http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/evo_01
No matter how they try to spin it, if live evolved entirely without any creator from inorganic matter, then the changes from inorganic matter to organic matter came about by a series of accidents.
DeleteNatural selection is not accidental, but before it can occur the selections have to exist.
Since many things are still not understood by biologists, or anyone, about life-- for instance what all has to be in place for "self consciousness" to occur-- then one cannot say for sure self-consciousness and other not fully understood things could have evolved.
How can it be known these things could come about by evolution if these things are not fully understood?
So accepting god-less evolution as the source of life is an act of faith, not science.
We have discussed evolution in this blog over the past seven years far deeper than what you have shown. It is interesting to many of us that in all the thousands of years of mankind, no cross-over species has ever been found, none in the process, and no skeletons (fossils( of any. Don't you think it's time eo give it up? Take a look at my book "Scientific Fallacies and Other Myths" for an entire section on the impossibility of things like the human brain, human eye, etc., to have evolved.
ReplyDeleteI was getting ready to do a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle the other day and tripped. All the pieces went flying through the air and to my surprise they all landed right side up, all the edge pieces on the edges in the right place, middle pieces in their precise position and the puzzle landed completely fit together.
ReplyDeleteOf course that didn't really happen, but the odds of it happening are far greater than a big bang randomly creating earth and our entire solar system. Or than a single strand of human dna being created out of nothing or evolving from an amoeba.
Well said.
ReplyDelete