from here: https://creation.com/poor-reasons-unbelief

Poor reasons to reject Christianity

by Keaton Halley

Published: 28 May 2020 (GMT+10)

Today’s feedback is from D.Y. from the U.S., who asks for assistance with a wayward college-aged son who has walked away from his faith.

My son grew up believing in God, enthusiastically attending church, bible studies, church camp, young life events, etc. Now 20 and in college he no longer believes & is bombarded with info contrary to the Bible & Christianity. He thinks the New Testament is a hoax written just to fulfill the Old Testament prophesies & give us something to believe. He says that only because he was raised in the bible belt was he to grow up as a Christian & that if he was born & raised in say a middle Eastern or far east country he would have adopted those beliefs to be true & therefore condemned to hell so Christianity is bad for that reason. Can you recommend a good way to interest him in searching for the truth & what resources do you recommend besides prayer? Also, if he accepted Christ as a young boy who was just following the motions of a salvation prayer & what he was taught, but has now decided to reject it, is he saved or is his salvation lost since he has turned away???

Keaton Halley of CMI–US offers the following advice, which may be beneficial to others in similar circumstances.

Hi D.Y.,

Very sorry to hear about your son’s departure from the faith of his upbringing. Christians have different views about whether a person can lose his salvation, so I will not address the question of whether or not he once was a believer, as this is beyond the scope of our ministry’s mandate. If he explicitly rejects the claims of Christianity now, though, then we should treat him as what he professes to be—an unbeliever. That means we should love him and witness to him and pray for him to repent and turn to Christ.

What evidence does he have for that claim? Why does he believe that?

In your conversations, I recommend you try to focus on the reasons he has for unbelief. He says the New Testament is a hoax. Well, what evidence does he have for that claim? Why does he believe that? It’s only after he offers some reason or evidence that you can try to provide an answer (and spend some time trying to find one if you don’t immediately know how to respond). Until then, he’s only offered his opinion, with no reason to support it. So, try to get at the basis for the conclusions he has come to.

After he offers his reasons, it might be worth pointing out that even many secular scholars would not consider the New Testament in its entirety to be a purposefully orchestrated hoax. That’s a bit outlandish. Even many critics would acknowledge that the authors of these books sincerely believed that Jesus rose from the dead, for example. Even though the critics think that the authors of the Bible were mistaken, they would agree that this wasn’t a con job. So, you could explain to your son that his views aren’t even in line with mainstream secular scholarship.

Next, he tries to dismiss Christianity by pointing out that many people are not raised with those beliefs. Unfortunately, your son has fallen prey to a classic logical fallacy known as the genetic fallacy. (See Loving God with all your mind: logic and creation.) This is the mistaken idea that you can undermine a claim by tracing it to its source. But something is true or false regardless of how someone came to believe it. The origin of the belief is irrelevant to its truth or falsity.

To show how this reasoning is mistaken, you might offer your son the following parallel. Does he buy into this argument? It’s only because he was raised in the 21st century that he believes the earth revolves around the sun. Had he been born in Medieval Europe, he probably would have believed that the earth is stationary, at the center of the universe. Therefore, it’s bad to dismiss geocentrism as a false viewpoint, because it’s simply an accident of the circumstances in which he was born that he believes in heliocentrism.

No, clearly the case for heliocentrism stands or falls on the merits of the arguments for it, not on how many people have had access to those arguments. Similarly, the case for Christianity stands or falls on the merits of the arguments for it, not on how many people were raised in a culture where they were pressured to believe something different.

Notice also that your son is making the faulty assumption that people are sent to hell because they just had the bad luck to be born in a place where Christianity was not widely taught. But there are multiple problems with this. First, God is in control of where and when people are born, and whether or not they have the opportunity to hear the Gospel, so our circumstances are not accidental. Acts 17:26–27 says that God “made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us … ” So, God sovereignly put people where they are specifically with the intention that they should “seek God” and “find him.” He did not leave people without witnesses to Himself. Romans 1 tells us that all people have the witness of creation that testifies to God’s existence. And, of course, God may reach people through many other means as well, like missionaries and so forth. His arm is not too short to save. Multitudes of people in Asia and the Middle East have come to trust in Jesus. So it is actually presumptuous to think that God has failed to give anyone sufficient evidence for the truth.

We need to trust in Jesus because he is the only one who provided a solution to our problem.

Second, the Bible teaches that the only people who end up in hell deserve to be there because of their wickedness. Focusing on someone’s alleged lack of exposure to the truth ignores the fact that they are not innocent victims of their circumstances, but sinful rebels against their Creator. All people know God in their hearts, yet they suppress the truth in unrighteousness (Romans 1:18–19) and live lives that are not pleasing to God. Your son is presuming that these people in non-Western countries are basically good, and do not deserve hell. But the Bible teaches that “all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Jesus said, “No one is good except God alone” (Mark 10:18). We are sinful ever since Adam, and this is why we need a Saviour. The Bible says that we need to trust in Jesus because he is the only one who provided a solution to our problem. He died for our sins and satisfied God’s justice, whereas Muhammad, Buddha, and others did not.

Another important area to ask your son about is what he believes now, as an alternative to Christianity. He’s offered some criticisms of the Christian worldview, but does his new worldview fare any better? For example, he claims that Christianity is immoral for condemning people to hell. But can his own worldview even account for the fact that some things are immoral? If he does not believe in God, for example, why would there be any such thing as right and wrong? See Can we be good without God? and Answering a moral relativist.

Finally, you asked about resources you might share with your son. I would recommend that you first read any material that you plan to give him, so you can verify that it’s worthwhile and so that you can later discuss it with him. Even if he is unwilling to read what you give him, it would be good for you to be equipped to give answers. One book that I think might be helpful in your situation is Christianity for Skeptics, by Drs Steve Kumar and Jonathan Sarfati. It gives a nice overview of the case for Christianity and isn’t overly technical. But, as you learn more about your son’s specific reasons for rejecting Jesus, you might browse our website and webstore for other articles and books that tackle his specific objections.

You might simply share some of the points I’ve made in this e-mail as well. May God bless you as you pray for and witness to him, and may your son come to know the saving love of Christ.

John 8:31–32.

No We Are Not All God’s Children

from here: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2016/01/13/no-we-are-not-all-gods-children/

Jan 13, 2016

One of the clearest teachings of Scripture running from Genesis to Revelation is that there are two classes of humanity: those who belong to God and those who do not; those who will live with him forever and those who will not.

This simple yet basic truth is taught everywhere in the Bible, yet far too many people seem totally oblivious to this – and I refer here to so-called believers, not just non-Christians. Not only have I had biblically illiterate believers chew me out for suggesting that there are two humanities, but almost every day we have someone claiming that we are all God’s children.

There are of course countless examples of this, so no need to pick on any one individual here. But the most recent and most publicised example of this occurred a few days ago, and is worth using as yet another instance of how not to think on this topic. I refer to the remarks of Pope Francis on this in a video he just released. As one Catholic site reports:

The Pope’s first video message on his monthly prayer intentions was released Tuesday, highlighting the importance of interreligious dialogue and the beliefs different faith traditions hold in common, such as the figure of God and love.
“Many think differently, feel differently, seeking God or meeting God in different ways. In this crowd, in this range of religions, there is only one certainty that we have for all: We are all children of God,” Pope Francis said in his message, released Jan. 6, the feast of the Epiphany.
At the beginning of the video, a minute-and-a-half long, the Pope cites the fact that the majority of the earth’s inhabitants profess some sort of religious belief. This, he said, “should lead to a dialogue among religions. We should not stop praying for it and collaborating with those who think differently.”
The video goes on to feature representatives of Buddhism, Christianity, Islam and Judaism, who proclaim their respective beliefs in God, Jesus Christ, Allah and Buddha. Later on, after the Pope affirms that all, regardless of their religious profession, are children of God, the faith leaders state their common belief in love.

For those interested, you can see the video here: apostleshipofprayer.org/

Of course this is not the first time Francis has made such claims. And a fair amount of this push for all things interfaith has been heard often before in Catholic circles, although there are many Catholics who are not so thrilled with it all, especially when it comes to cosying up to Islam. See here for more on that: billmuehlenberg.com/2015/12/07/20359/

But let me look at this claim that we are all God’s children. The truth is, there is so much biblical material on this topic, that a small book could easily be produced on this. Let me keep it brief and simple. It is of course true that we all belong to God because we are all created by him.

But biblical sonship overwhelmingly refers to being his by redemption. While every single human being is indeed a creation of God, only the redeemed are actual children of God. Again, this is plain teaching found everywhere in the Scriptures. The biblical story line throughout presupposes this, and it is found in the earliest of Biblical passages. Way back in Genesis 3:15 we read about the two humanities that came about after the Fall:

And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel.”

These two seed lines run throughout the Bible. Everywhere we see God making such distinctions. Yahweh chooses Abraham and his seed; he chooses Joseph above the other brothers of Jacob; he chooses Israel over all the other nations on earth; and so on.

The wicked and the righteous are constantly being contrasted, as in Psalm 1:1: “Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers.” The final book of the Old Testament continues this theme. In Malachi 3:18 we read:

Then you shall again discern
Between the righteous and the wicked,
Between one who serves God
And one who does not serve Him.

The apostle Paul makes much of the two humanities theme as in places like Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 15 where he speaks of the first Adam and the last Adam (Christ). We are all without exception part of the line of Adam, and share in the death that comes as a result of that. But for those who come to Christ, we receive newness of life.

As Martyn Lloyd-Jones remarks, “God has always dealt with mankind through a head and representative. The whole story of the human race can be summed up in terms of what has happened because of Adam, and what has happened and will yet happen because of Christ.”

Jesus constantly spoke in such terms as well. We read about the judgment between the sheep and the goats for example in Matthew 25:31-46. But one of the clearest and most strongly stated examples of this idea of two humanities comes from the lips of Jesus in John 8. In a heated dispute with the Pharisees over sonship, we find this in verse 39-44:

“Abraham is our father,” they answered.
“If you were Abraham’s children,” said Jesus, “then you would do what Abraham did. As it is, you are looking for a way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. You are doing the works of your own father.”
“We are not illegitimate children,” they protested. “The only Father we have is God himself.”
Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

Wow, super strong words, and words which forever dispel the blatantly false notion that we are all God’s children. Unless people enter into a relationship with God through faith and repentance, they are none of his. Indeed, simply looking at how the Bible describes the lost makes it clear that they are not God’s children. Consider some of these telling descriptions about what we are as sinners:

-spiritually sick (Luke 5:31-32)
-rebellious children (Luke 15:11-32)
-lost (Luke 19:10)
-in darkness (Acts 20:18)
-under the power of Satan (Acts 20:18)
-slaves to sin (Romans 6:22)
-spiritually blind (2 Corinthians 4:4-6)
-God’s enemies (2 Corinthians 5:18-19)
-objects of wrath (Ephesians 2:3)
-dead (Ephesians 2:5)
-darkened in their understanding (Ephesians 4:18)
-separated from the life of God (Ephesians 4:18)
-in the dominion of darkness (Colossians 1:13)
-alienated from God (Colossians 1:21)
-his enemies (Colossians 1:21)
-idol worshippers (1 Thessalonians 1:9)
-not a people who had not received mercy (1 Peter 2:10)
-sheep going astray (1 Peter 2:25)

Um, it is pretty hard to consider the unbeliever as a child of God in the light of such passages. Only those who are in right relationship with God can claim the title of being his child. Indeed, we are all alienated from God until we come to Christ, and then we become adopted into God’s family, as these passages explain:

Romans 8:14-17 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

Galatians 3:26-29 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Galatians 4:4-7 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.

Ephesians 1:3-6 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will – to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.

It is vital that we adhere closely to the word of God on this matter. Not everyone is a child of God. If people want to have interfaith powwows to better get along with one another in a messed up world, that is one thing. But we help no one when we push unbiblical notions that somehow we are all one big happy spiritual family.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

www.ncregister.com/daily-news/we-are-all-children-of-god-pope-francis-stresses-in-first-prayer-video/#ixzz3wzgKznAQ

from here: https://www.themessedupchurch.com/blog/dear-christian-stop-it-p5h96

Dear Christian: STOP IT!!

MAY 17, 2020

There are lots of things that Christians believe that are not in the Bible. At all.

What’s the point of being a “Bible-believing Christian” if you believe a bunch of stuff that isn’t even in the Bible? And even worse, why would you believe ideas that go against what God’s Word teaches us?!

If the ideas listed below pertain to you…

If God really wanted us to “Achieve our Dreams” and “Fulfill our Destiny,” wouldn’t the Bible clearly tell us that? Wouldn’t there be verses in the New Testament where we (the church) would be instructed to “Dream Big” or “Get out of your comfort zone” or “Follow the dream in your heart” or something like that? Did Jesus die on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins, or did He die on the cross so our dreams can come true?

If we were supposed to have an “Encounter with God” and experience His “Presence” wouldn’t the Bible tell us that? Wouldn’t there be verses in the New Testament where we (the church) would be instructed to “Encounter God” and “Soak in His Presence?” Wouldn’t there be lots of information about how to have these experiences? Instead, there is only instruction about having correct doctrine and living according to that doctrine.

If we are supposed to listen to a guy talk about “life lessons,” “relationship skills,” and “practical advice for successful living” at a church worship service, wouldn’t there be Bible verses in the New Testament where we (the church) are taught that? How is that even a “worship service?” Is a motivational speech really the same thing as hearing from God’s Word?

If we (the church) were supposed to “follow the vision” that our “vision-casting” pastor gives us, wouldn’t there be a bunch of Bible verses telling us about that? Wouldn’t there be at least one Bible verse about this??

If we are supposed to give 10% of our income to our church because that is how we prove our faith to God, so that He will reward us with a great increase, why aren’t there any Bible verses in the New Testament where we (the church) are taught this guarantee for prosperity? Why does the New Testament say that our lives on earth will be difficult if we’ve been given this “tithe your way to wealth” plan? Why didn’t Jesus or any of the Apostles teach, and then demonstrate, this principle for financial prosperity?

If unbelievers just need to hear how God is “crazy about them” because they’re “so awesome” in order to become Christians, wouldn’t the Bible clearly tell us that? Why doesn’t the Bible mention our deep need for self-esteem? Is the Gospel message really about how great we are, and that we just need to “know our true identity?” If we just need to realize how very special we are, why didn’t Jesus give us a pep talk instead of dying on the cross?

(Huh??)

If we Christians can speak things into existence, using the power of our words, why don’t we just do it? Why do we have so many “experts” who must go into elaborate detail to explain it? Why are there 90 million books, seminars and sermons that teach this-shouldn’t they just “speak it into existence?” When did Christians stop noticing that this is actually witchcraft? Does the phrase “casting spells” ring a bell? Furthermore, if there is such a thing as the “Law of Attraction,” why isn’t it anywhere in the Bible? Why do Christians keep talking about this supposed “law” even though it’s a totally non-Christian idea? Is Oprah a new Apostle or something??

If God really wanted to have an “intimate love relationship” with us, wouldn’t His Word say so? Furthermore, if God is longing for this “intimate love relationship” why are we constantly failing at it? Why is God constantly failing at it? Doesn’t an “intimate love relationship” between God and a man sound kinda weird and creepy (not to mention between God and a married woman).

If God is passionate about having an intimate love relationship with us, why doesn’t He answer our prayers the way we want Him to? And if we’re supposed to use the analogy of a marriage, what kind of spouse is constantly withholding stuff in order to establish a close, intimate relationship? Furthermore, if He wants us to totally depend on Him for every need so He can show us He’s really there, why doesn’t He just do it? Why all the confusion?

If we are supposed to be in a constant state of hunger as we say “more Lord, more...” wouldn’t the Bible tell us that? Wouldn’t there be clear Bible verses teaching us to continually ask God for “more?” Why are there no Bible verses telling us to “always be desperate and hungry?”

If God needs to use big, emotional revivals to accomplish His will on earth wouldn’t He have told us to “fill stadiums” in the Bible? Why does the Bible (specifically, the New Testament) describe the establishment of the Church if gigantic revival meetings are so important?

If the Bible is the totally sufficient Word of God why do we need so many new teachings? Why do so many people run towards the latest new “word from God?” Why is everybody and his brother writing books that make outlandish promises that go against the Bible?

If the Church is in desperate need of “new revelations” (for various reasons: to understand the end times, to have “Apostolic Alignment,” to attain the secrets of intimacy with God, etc.), doesn’t that prove the insufficiency of the Bible? Is it any wonder that so many Christians are not at peace: they believe there’s always something new and better around the corner that they better not miss… followed by something new and better that’s right around the next corner that they better not miss… (And none of this is from God!)

---

Here are some more articles that might be of interest:

“Bible-Believing” Christian??

Frequently Abused and Misused Bible Verses

Assertions and Assumptions are NOT the Foundation of the Church

https://creation.com/evolutionary-inconsistency-coronavirus

The deep inconsistency of evolutionism, revealed amid the COVID-19 crisis

by Paul Price

Stephen Asma

Published: 5 May 2020 (GMT+10)

As of the time of writing, we are in the midst of a global viral outbreak (a pandemic) known as COVID-19 (the “coronavirus”). The majority of us are being confined to our homes in an attempt to mitigate the spread of the disease (“shelter in place”), the goal of which being to save human lives, and protect the most vulnerable in our communities such as the elderly or immunocompromised people.

Commenting on this situation, the New York Times featured an article called:

Does the Pandemic Have a Purpose? Only if we give it one. The coronavirus is neither good nor bad. It wants only to reproduce.

Yes, that is a lengthy title. This is an opinion piece by Mr. Stephen Asma, a professor of philosophy. Obviously an attempt to capture an uplifting tone in the midst of this crisis, Mr. Asma’s opening line is, “Nature doesn’t care about you.”1

If nature doesn’t care, why should we bother?

From his evolutionary perspective, this is probably the most accurate thing he has to say in this article. Within an evolutionary worldview, he is being consistent because human life is not intrinsically valuable, and it has no deeper meaning. His next line is:

“That may seem harsh, but strictly speaking, nature doesn’t care about anyone or anything, except passing genes into the next generation.”

How can there be “real despair and tragedy” if humans are part of nature, and there really is no drama, caring or love in nature?

But this still doesn’t go far enough, because nature doesn’t care about anything at all! Nature is not a sentient individual that thinks. It is just an abstraction, which means this is a fallacy of reification (acting as if something abstract is something concrete). The same is also true about viruses—he has anthropomorphized them by suggesting they “want” to reproduce. But they cannot even reproduce on their own! They require hosts to do this, meaning technically they are not alive at all. Machines do not have wants and needs.

In any case, the author’s next step is to reinforce his point (that nature doesn’t care about us) by way of some examples of vicious behavior by parasites. “Why would a loving God create dangerous parasites?”, is the implied point here. Why would God allow the existence of viruses such as the coronavirus? The answer is found in the Fall and the Curse in Genesis 3. This ‘nature’ we see around us is not as it once was; it is not the same as it was when God declared it all to be “very good” in Genesis 1. In fact, when we see bad things occurring in the natural world it should remind us what went wrong, and cause us to consider how fragile our lives are.

Mr. Asma writes:

It’s obvious that our struggle with other organisms matters a great deal to us – causing real despair and tragedy. But from the more general evolutionary perspective, this drama is value neutral. Strictly speaking, it isn’t even a drama because there is no plot in nature.

Keep these statements in mind because they will become very ironic when we discover what Asma is arguing our response should be. Notice also that Asma has created a dichotomy that his own worldview cannot logically support. How can there be “real despair and tragedy” if humans are part of nature, and there really is no drama, caring or love in nature? Evolutionists cannot live consistently with their worldview. They want to have their cake and eat it, too. What would consistent evolutionism look like?

Consistent Evolutionism

Darwinism, hailed by Mr. Asma as a “great achievement”, is very clear on one central point: “survival of the fittest” (actually reproduction) is what drives evolution forward. Asma in his own words on this:

Disease and death are not bugs in the system, but features. In fact, the cold-bath truth is that natural selection works only because many more organisms are born than can survive to procreate.

So how should people who really believe that react to a global viral pandemic? Certainly not by “sheltering in place” and caring for the sick! That notion spawns from Christian morality. Rather, if he were being consistent, he should suggest that nature (evolution) should take its course. Just carry on as normal and let people be exposed. Ideally, this would cause a great deal of death among the lesser-fit—but surely that would be a good thing that would benefit the human species by making us stronger and fitter. That is, after all, how evolution supposedly works. Yet, paradoxically, that is not what Mr. Asma is suggesting we do. Instead, he suggests we make believe we are at war.

Imagining that we are at war with an enemy will help us make the difficult personal sacrifices (like social distancing and sheltering in place) that go beyond our own egoistic hedonism.

Hedonism (the pursuit of pleasure above all else) would certainly not dictate that we expose ourselves to a virus. Hedonism, in this case, would be on the side of sheltering in place to avoid the virus for our own self benefit. But, shouldn’t some simply have to die in the struggle with nature? Isn’t that what Asma just got finished saying a few paragraphs earlier in this same article? If Mr. Asma wants to suggest a heroic sacrifice in the face of this virus, then from an evolutionary perspective he should be saying the opposite: that we should ‘sacrifice’ by going about our lives as if there is no virus. Which is it? One cannot have it both ways and still be consistent.

How is it a benefit to the human race, evolutionarily speaking, to shelter in place? It seems that, despite all his macho rhetoric about ‘cold bath truths’, Mr. Asma really cannot face up to the consequences of his own worldview. He lauds evolutionism but then tries to ‘get it off the hook’. He pretty much admits this when he states:

Since we cannot find our species’ value objectively by looking at the neutral laws of nature, then we must just assert it. And simply affirm that the universe is more remarkable with us in it. [Emphasis added]

Asma has actually been featured by the New York Times writing on the topic of religion previously. A couple of years prior, he had an article published by the title, “What Religion Gives Us (That Science Can’t)”.2 In it, Asma’s not-so-subtle anti-religious attitude is yet again on display, but with a patronizing bent; Asma feels that, even though religion is foolish nonsense, it is still necessary for society as a kind of emotional painkiller (i.e. “the opiate of the masses”, to quote Marx):

I do not intend to try to rescue religion as reasonable. It isn’t terribly reasonable. But I do want to argue that its irrationality does not render it unacceptable, valueless or cowardly. Its irrationality may even be the source of its power … We need a more clear-eyed appreciation of the role of cultural analgesics.

In other words, Asma wants to try to take advantage of the placebo effect. He is suggesting, rather callously, that we continue to allow people (really, Asma seems to mean the unsophisticated masses) to believe in religion, just to keep them happy.

Using the pandemic to belittle Christian thought

After talking down to religious people as having a “pre-scientific” worldview, he turns around and says that we must simply assert things to be true because we want them to be true.

God did not want His Creation to suffer like this, and it is not CMI’s aim to gloat during a global crisis. As Christians, we can see the obvious logical evolutionist inconsistences in the efforts being made to save human lives. But when a major newspaper that has previously displayed its antipathy to Christians abuses this pandemic to ensure the flag of evolutionism does not fly at half mast, we felt we must respond.

After talking down to religious people as having a “pre-scientific” worldview, he turns around and says that we must simply assert things to be true because we want them to be true. This is because, despite his soul-less Darwinian outlook, he is still a human being with a soul living in God’s universe. He cannot help but to see the inescapable fact that human life really is valuable for its own sake. Since his worldview provides no basis for this, he turns to existentialism—irrational leaps of blind faith. But the Christian worldview requires no such irrationalism. Perhaps this may be why he went out of his way to take a swipe at the Christian worldview early on in his article. The Bible gives us the basis for understanding how we got here (it was no accident!) and why our lives have intrinsic value, and why Jesus advocated healing the sick, feeding the hungry and clothing the poor, etc.

Genesis 1:27 states, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Our lives have intrinsic value, greater than any animal or inanimate object, because we are a special creation of God in His own image. That is why we must try to preserve lives in the midst of this crisis. Asma claims,

Some might argue that a human victory is not what’s needed here, that the neutrality of nature free of concepts of good and evil obviates a winner or loser. That may be true, if we view it from a distance, but in the thick of it, the imperative of our genetic survival remains. It is our unique Darwinian legacy.

But surely he must know that even the most dire, worst-case predictions about COVID-19, while potentially devastating in terms of lives lost, would never suggest the total annihilation of the human race! The remaining survivors would undoubtedly be the most fit. Plus, we’d all have lower healthcare costs as a result of fewer sick (and sickly) people to take care of! And that is the essence of Darwinism. It is only with a Christian ethic of “love your neighbor as yourself” that we can respond with care and empathy in this situation. In fact, it could be argued that social distancing, wearing face masks etc. are part of this ‘loving your neighbour’ mandate, to ensure that you do not potentially spread the virus to others.

From an evolutionary perspective though, it might help the genetic makeup of our species for the weakest among us to die. But what if that were your grandmother? Or father? Or brother? This crisis is an opportunity for us Christians to show the compassion and truth found only in the Bible; this is in sharp contrast to the spiritual and intellectual bankruptcy of those like Mr. Asma who promote the Darwinian worldview—which has been reduced to irrational, illogical and inconsistent assertions in the face of cold hard facts they simply cannot live with.