A man with a relational experience is never at the mercy of a
man with a baseless argument.
EDITOR:
A man with a relational experience is never at the mercy of a man with a baseless argument. Paraphrasing Billy Graham when informed that God was dead, “He seemed quite well when we spoke this morning. Why wasn’t I notified? I’m ‘family’!”
I am referring to Charles Callahan’s letter in the July 11 edtion of the Morgan Hill Times.. He was reacting to my column in the June 27 edition headlined ‘Setting our own rules doesn’t work.’
[http://www.morganhilltimes.com/opinion/opinionview.asp?c=63911]
Mr. Callahan, appears not to have discovered the inerrancy and significance of Biblical text, nor of a “nonexistent God.”
He differs with my statement, “(It) is intuitively obvious … creation was begun with the image of age… “ He counters with “In science, we correlate our measurements with theory and … data, consistent with other theory that makes sensible, coherent probability.”
He equates the Biblical view of world history with “tales” and “mythical conjecture” as opposed to, “people dedicated to discovery.”
He makes the point of my column headline. In his central statement, “There are no unicorns, no elves, no wraiths, no gnomes or trolls, no demons, no devils or angels or gods. Just life. And that ought to be sufficient.”
How sad. Let’s take these points one at a time and challenge “coherent probability” with hard fact.
He and I agree, the material universe is composed of numberless particles in a systematic order of motion that together, form what we know of our environment. He has presupposed “big bang” as the first cause of that material universe. That begs the obvious question, “Who/What lit the fuse?”
He refers to the “expanding universe.” I have no problem with that. Then he speaks of the “evolution of life” as evidence against my position. I believe I covered that point in my first column. Let me make it another way using “coherent probability.”
Consider a beehive. The bee colony consists of worker bees, queen bee, various sorts of drones and nurse bees. Remove any one of them, the hive would die. Now, coherently explain please, how a functioning hive evolves. Further, please apply “coherent probability” to explain how impersonal “big bang” so structured all those numberless particles to produce even a single bee. Disregard the question of how such a critter could survive without a colony for support.
Real scientific discovery begins by agreeing to submit to the conclusions of the data, then investigating all the data available and drawing conclusions. There was a time when the data appeared to prove the flat earth theory. Christopher Columbus noted the curved shadow, during a lunar eclipse as support for the Biblical account of a spherical earth.
Mr. Callahan is among those who begin their investigation by “ruling” that there is no personal first cause. In doing so, they have “ruled” that there is, “Just life. And that ought to be sufficient.”
If that be so, what makes his views any more “coherently probable” than mine? I’ll guarantee he’ll soon come against a person with a bigger club or a sharper tongue, who is dedicated to coercing his submission to the morals of others.
On the other hand, I have far more evidence in support of my views. There is no coercion and much reason involved. There are volumes, written by men of science with credentials to match any he cares to quote, refuting evolutionary “evidence.” Some years back my column challenged anyone to produce one shred sound evidence in support of the theory of evolution. There is none. It remains intuitively obvious that evolutionary theory is flawed.
Lastly, regarding the “authorship” of the Bible. Suppose we take 66 individual “books,” composed over a period of close to 3,000 years by men who usually did not know one another and were often social outcasts. Let the writers come from among shepherds, prophets, kings, fishermen, farmers, philosophers, soldiers, tax collectors, young men and old men. Have them write on history, philosophy, science, architecture, agriculture, poetry, ethics, the meaning of life and every other subject of vital interest to humanity.
Now, please illustrate to me how such a product could be edited without contradictions. Edited with accuracy that is found in every school of objective investigation: archeology, botany, history, geography, astronomy, etc. If there is a more reasonable explanation than “divine inspiration” I will agree in advance to accept it.
Until then, I’ll go with the opening words of the Bible, “In the beginning, God …”
Ben Gilmore, Morgan Hill
