Insight on the News
“A Second Look”
Genesis 1:1 states: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” For more than a century, scientists who favor the evolution theory have criticized this Bible verse. However, “many of them now are taking a second look at this earliest, most powerful case for the existence of a Creator,” reports The Orange County Register, a California newspaper.
For example, the article notes what is said by Australian biologist Michael Denton in his book Evolution: A Theory in Crisis. He maintains that from the time Darwin published his book On the Origin of Species until now, there has not been a single shred of evidence to support Darwin’s theory.
Similarly, the Register cites the book The Mystery of Life’s Origins: Reassessing Current Theories, written by three scientists. According to the paper, they explain that life could not have started by chance and “argue that a ‘Creator beyond the cosmos’ is the most plausible explanation for life’s origin.” Supporting this view, the article mentions that British astronomer Fred Hoyle “is widely quoted for his statement that believing the first cell originated by chance is like believing a tornado ripping through a junkyard full of airplane parts could produce a Boeing 747.”
For a number of scientists, the evidence to support a Supreme Cause is unmistakable. But what of those who persist in denying the existence of a Creator? Such persons do well to consider these words penned by the prophet Isaiah: “The perversity of you men! Should the potter himself be accounted just like the clay? For should the thing made say respecting its maker: ‘He did not make me’?”—Isaiah 29:16.
A Deadly Obsession
In January of this year, serial killer Theodore Robert Bundy, was placed in the Florida State Prison electric chair and executed. He had been linked to the brutal deaths of as many as 36 women, though authorities suspect the figure could be as high as 100.
In an interview before his execution, Bundy admitted that pornography was a major factor contributing to his criminal behavior. According to Dr. James Dobson, who conducted the interview, “at 12 or 13 he began to find pornography in drugstores, even along the road, and he became addicted, obsessed,” reports the Daily News.
Bundy’s confession echoes the words of Arthur Gary Bishop, another convicted murderer, who was executed last year for the sex murders of five boys. According to The Tribune, a San Diego, California, newspaper, Bishop contended that pornography “was ‘devastating’ to him as a boy and led to his downfall.” Bishop quoted a psychologist who testified at his trial that “as people become addicted [to pornography] their desires escalate, their normal feelings become desensitized and they tend to act out what they have seen.” Bishop confessed: “So it was with me. I am a homosexual pedophile convicted of murder, and pornography was a determining factor in my downfall.”
Even though confessed murderers have admitted that pornography is destructive, there are many people who still view it as harmless entertainment. To such ones the warning given at Isaiah 5:20 well applies: “Woe to those who are saying that good is bad and bad is good, those who are putting darkness for light and light for darkness.”
No Mystery
United Church minister Phyllis Smith claims that the faith of some of the clergy is apparently being threatened by the questions of terminally ill patients, reports The Toronto Star, a Canadian newspaper. According to Smith, “dying people ask questions about the mysteries of life and death that nobody understands.” She says: “We don’t need to feel threatened just because we feel we should have all the answers.” When difficult spiritual questions are raised, Smith maintains that clergymen “don’t need to defend God.”
While it is true that individuals may not always have all the answers to questions about life and death, the Bible does. Should not those claiming to be ministers of God know what his Word says? The apostle Peter said that fellow believers should always be “ready to make a defense before everyone that demands of you a reason for the hope in you.” (1 Peter 3:15) Early Christians had no problem understanding the condition of the dead or what future prospects are held out for dying mankind. They knew that Ecclesiastes 9:5 says: “The living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all.” And Jesus told his followers: “The hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice and come out.” (John 5:28, 29) For true ministers of God, life and death hold no mystery.