Houston Community Newspapers Online - The Villager - 04/29/2005 - Challenge Accepted

Challenge Accepted
By: PASTOR FRANK MOORE, OAK RIDGE
04/29/2005

When I returned to my office last Thursday, I had a voice mail from a stranger offering encouragement for my article on Terri Schiavo (April 7).

Frankly, I was surprised and appreciative, but I did not understand until I received my copy of The Villager that evening. When I began to read the editorial howls I knew I had struck a nerve. My reason for responding is not to defend, but to challenge those writers to search out the truth.

The first writer chided me for not understanding that the theory of evolution was similar to the "theory" of gravity. Sir, gravity is a demonstratable fact, not a theory.

I just think it is amusing that it took Sir Isaac Newton, the father of modern physics, until the 17th century to recognize it. Every object has gravity. It is determined by mass. It is calculable. NASA has to figure it in each time the shuttle takes off. My junior high science teacher at Marble Falls, Texas, demonstrated it to us in 1964 when he dropped a rock off the top of the building and had us time it.

Objects on planet earth fall at a rate of 32 feet per second, per second unless other factors like density and resistance affect that fall. Evolution, on the other hand, is a foundless bankrupt system of unbelief; man's effort to explain the creation without a creator.

That gentleman went on to state "we know the age of the earth is about 3 billion years because we can date the rocks. Sir, I invite you to dig deeper. The unscientific circular argument you refer to goes like this: "We know that rocks are old because they contain fossils, and we know that fossils are old because of the rock they are found in." Sir, the fact is no one but God knows how old the earth is.

Then another writer somehow compared the article I wrote about Terri Schiavo to radical Moslem clerics that prohibit "listening to music or even dancing in public." For the life of me I have no idea how he got from A to B on that. He seemed to infer that I am against research or progress. Nothing could be further from the truth. I love the sciences. In addition to teaching Life, Earth, and Physical Science, I have also taught chemistry and biology. My own children have asked me, "Dad, why aren't you a scientist since you love it so much?"

I will challenge his statement about "an originally tolerant religion such as Islam." Sir, you need to dust off your world history book. In the sixth and seventh century AD, radical Islam overran North Africa, Asia Minor, pushed into Mongolia and India, and much of Europe as they evangelized by the sword. Muslim warriors would have overrun France were it not for the narrow victory of the Franks in the Battle of Tours in 732. It took King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella until the end of the 15th Century to drive them out of Spain.

And finally, one writer pointed out that the Nazi's had practiced "forced selection" rather than "natural selection." Certainly, that is understood. P. Hoffman, in Hitler's Personal Security wrote, "Hitler believed in struggle as a Darwinian principle ... and even after his defeat in April, 1945, Hitler expressed his faith in the survival of the fittest and declared the Slavic peoples to have proven themselves the stronger."

True science is based on observation. Evolution is not. Actually, scientists belie their calling when they support evolution in the absence of any proof.

Both Bob Jones and ABEKA science curricula, used at most Christian schools, teaches our students about the laws that govern science; laws that fly in the face of evolution. For example, the first law of Biogenesis states that "all living cells come from pre-existing cells." Cells replicate according to their DNA blueprints. God has said in His word, that living things will reproduce "after their own kind." That is a limit He has placed on nature that protects us from the chaos of evolution.

Evolution leads us to believe that things are evolving upward, from simple to complex; from primordial goop to man. However, the Law of Thermodynamics states that the universe is running down, like a great clock. An honest glance around us reveals that our planet is deteriorating, my office moves from order to disorder, the sun is expending its energy and will someday burn out. What we observe is contrary to evolution.

Let me simply close by challenging those that would know the truth -- you need to read. Louis Pasteur wrote, "a little science leads men away from God, but much science will lead them back to Him."

In addition to reading the Bible, I would invite you to get a copy of The Collapse of Evolution by Dr. Scott Muse, or The Evolution of a Creationist by Dr. Jobe Martin, or Darwin on Trial by Dr. Phillip Johnson. Two excellent Web sites for inquiring minds are Institute for Creation Research, WWW.ICR.org and WWW.Livingwaters.com.

More and more of the scientific community are distancing themselves from evolution because of its failure to produce any evidence. As I reflected on the printed responses to my original article, I was reminded again that the issue of evolution versus creation is a belief issue. Many people read my article and followed the reason and said, "He's right." For others, no amount of evidence or proof will ever be enough.

Houston Community Newspapers Online - The Villager - 04/29/2005 - Challenge Accepted