Ecclesiastes 2-3

Published on Sep 19, 2012

Calvary Chapel Spring Valley | Sunday Evening | September 16, 2012 | Derek Neider

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I have written on the Book of Ecclesiastes and the subject of the meaning of our lives on several occasions on this blog. In this series on Ecclesiastes I hope to show how secular humanist man can not hope to find a lasting meaning to his life in a closed system without bringing God back into the picture. This is the same exact case with Solomon in the Book of Ecclesiastes. Three thousand years ago, Solomon took a look at life “under the sun” in his book of Ecclesiastes. Christian scholar Ravi Zacharias has noted, “The key to understanding the Book of Ecclesiastes is the term ‘under the sun.’ What that literally means is you lock God out of a closed system, and you are left with only this world of time plus chance plus matter.”

Let me show you some inescapable conclusions if you choose to live without God in the picture. Solomon came to these same conclusions when he looked at life “under the sun.”

1. Death is the great equalizer (Eccl 3:20, “All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.”)
2. Chance and time have determined the past, and they will determine the future.  (Ecclesiastes 9:11-13)
3. Power reigns in this life, and the scales are not balanced(Eccl 4:1)
4. Nothing in life gives true satisfaction without God including knowledge (1:16-18), ladies and liquor (2:1-3, 8, 10, 11), and great building projects (2:4-6, 18-20).

You can only find a lasting meaning to your life by looking above the sun and bring God back into the picture.

Purpose, Meaning, and the Necessity of God

Suiwen Liang

“The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
‘Vanity of vanities,’ says the Preacher,
‘Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.’”¹

These lines open the book of Ecclesiastes. The “Preacher” is usually identified as Solomon, the richest and most powerful king in Israel’s history. Though he was famous throughout the Middle East for his wisdom and wealth, Solomon nevertheless found life empty and purposeless without God. The questions he asks in Ecclesiastes are similar to the doubts that the young nihilist Evgeny Bazarov also encounters in Ivan Turgenev’s novel Fathers and Sons: “The tiny space I occupy is so small compared to the rest of space… Yet in this atom, this mathematical point, blood circulates, a brain functions and desires something as well—How absurd! What nonsense!”²
Both Bazarov and the Preacher hunger for meaning and purpose, just as people throughout history have also struggled with the question, “What is life’s meaning, and where does it come from?” Traditional Christianity asserts that the meaning of life is provided by God, but secular materialism has rejected this explanation and attempts to provide another consistent explanation for what, if anything, the purpose of life really is. But without God, logic leads to only two possible conclusions: the secular humanist must either deny that life has any purpose or create an illusory meaning for himself. This logical impasse is why the American atheist philosopher Will Durant wrote, “The greatest question of our time is not communism vs. individualism, not Europe vs. America, not even the East vs. the West; it is whether men can bear to live without God.”³
Materialism, which “not only holds that there are no supernatural interventions in the course of nature, but that there are no divine beings of any kind,”⁴  is the philosophical underpinning of many forms of atheism. Madalyn Murray O’Hair, founder of the American Atheists, affirmed that her organization accepted “the technical philosophy of materialism…that nothing exists but natural phenomena.”⁵  For the materialist, man is the product of millions of years of mindless interactions of matter and nothing more. Stephen Jay Gould, an eminent paleontologist, noted that “the world fared perfectly well without us for all but the last moment of earthly time—and this fact makes our appearance look more like an accidental afterthought than the culmination of a prefigured plan.”⁶  If this really is the case, then Richard Dawkins, author of The Blind Watchmaker, is right to point out that the only difference between human beings and rocks is our degree of complexity.⁷  A materialistic worldview offers man no intrinsic worth or objective purpose. If matter is all there is, then the fact of our existence is incidental.
But even if we have no intrinsic meaning, Gould suggested that we could “construct these answers [to the meaning of life] ourselves—from our own wisdom and ethical sense.”⁸  The atheistic philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre believed that “one may create meaning for his life by freely choosing to follow a certain course of action.”⁹  However, while the notion that we can create our own subjective meaning may be appealing, it is undermined by the tenuousness of our existence. It is the nature of our universe that there must be an end not only of each human individually, but also of the world itself. Physics foretells the final collapse of the universe due to heat death, cementing our race’s extinction and insignificance. As Bertrand Russell, the great materialist philosopher, observed, “All the noonday brightness of human genius, [is] destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system, and that the whole temple of Man’s achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins.”¹⁰  All of our collective achievements, knowledge, and pleasures, even our sufferings will be obliterated by the passage of time. Not even the memory of them will remain. Clearly, immaterial meaning cannot be shaped from the material substance of a universe which is itself passing away.
Confronting this reality, the Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy wrote, “‘What will come of what I am doing today or tomorrow? What will come of my whole life? Why should I live, why wish for anything, or do anything?’ It can also be expressed thus: Is there any meaning in my life that the inevitable death awaiting me does not destroy?”¹¹  His dilemma is echoed in Tom Stoppard’s existential comedy Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, in which the eponymous characters inadvertently wander into the plot of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Eventually, the confused pair is charged with delivering Hamlet to England, but they are powerless to stop his escape and must suffer death as the consequence. Guildenstern laments, “We’ve travelled too far, and our momentum has taken over; we move idly towards eternity, without possibility of reprieve or hope of explanation.”¹²  As the title suggests, the characters are doomed, unable to alter their course. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern represent the human dilemma of drifting towards nonexistence. When God is excluded, man is left with no explanation for why this should be. Loren Eiseley noted that, “Man is the cosmic orphan. He’s the only creature in the universe who asks, ‘Why?’ Other animals have instincts to guide them, but man has learned to ask questions: ‘Who am I?’ ‘Why am I here?’ ‘Where am I going?’”¹³  Gould answered this inquiry with finality: “We may yearn for a ‘higher’ answer—but none exists.”¹⁴
The atheist Aldous Huxley found the logical conclusion that life is meaningless exhilarating:

We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom; we objected to the political and economic system because it was unjust. The supporters of these systems claimed that in some way they embodied the meaning (a Christian meaning, they insisted) of the world. There was one admirably simple method of confuting these people at the same time justifying ourselves… we could deny that the world had any meaning.¹⁵

Aware that purpose was either objective or nonexistent, Huxley and his contemporaries exchanged purpose for greater personal freedom. He confesses later in Ends and Means that “those who, to be liberated from political or sexual restraint, accept absolute meaninglessness tend in a short time to become… much dissatisfied with their philosophy.”¹⁶  As Huxley found, a hedonistic approach to life’s purpose must ultimately disappoint. The Preacher from Ecclesiastes also claims to have tried hedonism and found it wanting:  “I said to myself, ‘Come now, I will test you with pleasure. So enjoy yourself.’ And behold, it too was futility.”¹⁷  Having abandoned the pursuit of objective purpose for the unrestrained pursuit of pleasure, the hedonist arrives at a place of still greater emptiness. As G.K. Chesterton said, “Meaninglessness does not come from being weary of pain. Meaninglessness comes from being weary of pleasure.”¹⁸
In order to be live consistently with a materialist worldview, it is necessary to accept the inevitable meaninglessness of life. Christian theism, on the hand, addresses the question of our age in a way that satisfies the mind and heart. The Bible claims that human existence is neither accidental nor finite. Created in the very image of God, we are destined to exist into eternity in companionship with Him. Eternity also endows our earthly choices and relationships with unmistakable importance. Moral choices will be judged, relationships will transcend time, and neither dies with the material body. Pleasure also finds its supreme expression in fellowship with God, and it is in that communion that meaning and consummate joy are found.
No one can remain indifferent to the questions raised about materialism’s logical ramifications or the answers Christianity offers. As Ravi Zacharias puts it, whether or not man can live without God “must be answered not only by those who are avowedly antitheistic, but also by the many who functionally live as if there were no God and that His existence does not matter.”¹⁹  C.S. Lewis argued that “Christianity is a statement which, if false, is of no importance, and, if true, of infinite importance. The one thing it cannot be is moderately important.”²⁰  As we seek the answers for ourselves, we ought to consider the testimony of others who have faced the crisis of existence already. Leo Tolstoy, the same man who contemplated suicide as an alternative to a meaningless life, wrote after his conversion to Christianity, “God is that without which you cannot live. To know God and to live is one and the same thing!”²¹

¹Ecclesiastes 1:1-2.
²Ivan Turgenev, Fathers and Sons, trans. Michael R. Katz (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1996) 97.
³Will Durant, On the Meaning of Life (New York: Ray Long & Richard R. Smith, Inc., 1932) 23.
⁴Keith Campbell, “Materialism,” Encyclopedia of Philosophy, vol. 6, 2nd ed., ed. Donald M. Borchert (Detroit:  Macmillan Reference, 2006) 14.
⁵Madalyn Murray O’Hare, qtd. in Ravi Zacharias, Can Man Live without God (Nashville: W. Publishing Group, 1994) 16-17.
⁶Stephen Jay Gould, qtd. in The Meaning of Life, ed. David Friend, et al. (New York: Little Brown & Co., 1991) 33.
⁷“On one planet, and possibly only one plant in the entire universe, molecules that would normally make nothing more complicated than a chunk of rock, gather themselves together into chunks of rock-sized matter of such staggering complexity that they are capable of running, jumping, swimming, flying, seeing, hearing, capturing and eating other such animated chunks of complexity.”
Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (New York:  Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006) 366-367.
⁸Gould in The Meaning of Life.
⁹William Lane Craig, “The Absurdity of Life without God,” Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2008) 78.
¹⁰Bertrand Russell, “A Free Man’s Worship,” Two Modern Essays on Religion (Hanover, NH: Westholm Publications, 1959) 25.
¹¹Leo Tolstoy, Spiritual Writings (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2006) 58.
¹²Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (New York: Grove Press, 1967) 121.
¹³Craig 71.
¹⁴Gould in The Meaning of Life.
¹⁵Aldous Huxley, Ends and Means (New York and London:  Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1937) 316.
¹⁶Ibid. 318-19.
¹⁷Ecclesiastes 2:1.
¹⁸G.K. Chesterton, qtd. in Ravi Zacharias, The End of Reason: A Response to the New Atheists (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2008) 39.
¹⁹Can Man Live without God xvi.
²⁰C.S. Lewis, “Christian Apologetics,” God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1994) 101.
²¹Tolstoy 58.

Related posts:

Ecclesiastes 1

Published on Sep 4, 2012

I have written on the Book of Ecclesiastes and the subject of the meaning of our lives on several occasions on this blog. In this series on Ecclesiastes I hope to show how secular humanist man can not hope to find a lasting meaning to his life in a closed system without bringing God back into the picture. This is the same exact case with Solomon in the Book of Ecclesiastes. Three thousand years ago, Solomon took a look at life “under the sun” in his book of Ecclesiastes. Christian scholar Ravi Zacharias has noted, “The key to understanding the Book of Ecclesiastes is the term ‘under the sun.’ What that literally means is you lock God out of a closed system, and you are left with only this world of time plus chance plus matter.”

Let me show you some inescapable conclusions if you choose to live without God in the picture. Solomon came to these same conclusions when he looked at life “under the sun.”

1. Death is the great equalizer (Eccl 3:20, “All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.”)
2. Chance and time have determined the past, and they will determine the future.  (Ecclesiastes 9:11-13)
3. Power reigns in this life, and the scales are not balanced(Eccl 4:1)
4. Nothing in life gives true satisfaction without God including knowledge (1:16-18), ladies and liquor (2:1-3, 8, 10, 11), and great building projects (2:4-6, 18-20).

You can only find a lasting meaning to your life by looking above the sun and bring God back into the picture.

___________

Robert Leroe

“Vanity” Ecclesiastes 1:2-3 & 2:1-11 Pastor Bob Leroe, Cliftondale Congregational Church, Saugus, Massachusetts

Ecclesiastes is perhaps the most puzzling and misunderstood book of the Bible. It’s been called “the mystery book of the Old Testament” (Ray Steadman). Few sermons are preached from its pages. We may wonder what it’s doing in the Bible; it seems out of place. Ecclesiastes was written by King Solomon, who had ample opportunities to observe and experience life thoroughly. He wrote this book after he had plunged into materialism, sensuality, even idolatry. He got lost following his desires and saw his life evaporating into insignificance. Now repentant and nearing the end of his days, he writes a philosophical book for unbelievers, exposing the secular mind/worldview. The title of the book refers to an “assembly”, Solomon’s students. He calls himself “the Teacher” and conveys the logical and tragic outcome of regarding life as a cosmic accident. Solomon offers his class only two options–a life of hopelessness, or trust in God.

The quote we’re most familiar with comes from verse 2, “All is vanity”. This word has been translated many ways. Your Bible might read “futile”, “empty”, “pointless”, “momentary”, or “meaningless”. The word literally means “breath” or “vapor”. The only other place this word appears is (appropriately) in Job. The Message translates vs 2, “There’s nothing to anything—it’s all smoke.” In the NT, James picks up on this when he asks a rhetorical question, “What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes” (4:14). James and Solomon weren’t existentialists, denying any purpose or meaning in human life; they were rather saying that life is empty, fleeting, transitory, and nothing matters–without God. Solomon exposes the insignificance and absurdity of life IF life were nothing more than what is seen “under the sun”.

While participating in a REFORGER, major field exercise in Germany, my Chaplain Assistant and I spent a lot of time on the road in our CUC-V, visiting various units comprising the 3rd Armored Division Support Command/DISCOM. At one location we arrived too late; our grid coordinates were correct, but all that remained was some evidence of maneuver damage. The battalion stayed at the site only 2 days, then left. That is how life appears without God—here briefly, and little remains when life is over.

In verse 3 Solomon ponders, “What do people gain for all their hard work under the sun?” I’ve heard many soldiers ask, “What’s the point of all we’re doing?” In a life lived without God, there’s no gain, no advantage, no meaning. Verse 11 of chapter 2 states, “there is no profit under the sun”; in other words, during one’s lifetime. Imagine reaching the end of your days, only to conclude that you accomplished nothing of value! Solomon could afford anything he desired, but discovered to his frustration how nothing he could buy brought happiness. Thomas Aquinas wrote that, “No man can live without delight, and that is why a man deprived of spiritual joy goes over to carnal pleasures”. We need to appreciate pleasure as a gift, not a god. Solomon never said “no” to himself; he gave in to every impulse, devoted to “the pursuit of happiness” -only to discover he was “chasing after wind” (1:14). He was materially rich, yet spiritually bankrupt.

I remember seeing a photo of Princess Diana meeting Mother Teresa. You couldn’t possibly pair two different people. Princess Diana lived in Kensington Palace, enjoying a luxurious life. She wore designer clothes and jewels; she was famous, young and beautiful. Mother Teresa was old and bent-over. She lived in the slums of Calcutta and spent her time working among the diseased and homeless outcasts of society. She wasn’t surrounded by paparazzi. Both women died around the same time. Which one of these two you suppose was the happiest?

Solomon wanted to disillusion his readers against material goals, as an end in themselves. More importantly, Solomon wanted to drive his readers to despair and then to God. Before we’re ready to hear the Good News, we need to understand the “bad news”. Our efforts to obtain happiness are futile, and our earth-bound goals are meaningless, apart from God.

The Bayside Expo held a car show last weekend. I heard of someone who went there, whose car broke down on the way home. They probably were wishing they had gone home in one of those cars on display! I’ve been to boat shows, car shows, technology shows–and it’s tempting to think that a life of material prosperity might make me happy. For many people, life is simply the pursuit of pleasure, which ends with one big let-down. Like Mick Jagger they end up admitting, “I can’t get no satisfaction!” Apart from God, nothing will satisfy. Jesus said that gaining the whole world means nothing if God isn’t a part of our lives. To quote another pop song, without God “all we are is dust in the wind”. Solomon pursued wealth, sex, power, adventure and knowledge…and came up empty.

Chapter 2 records Solomon’s projects: houses, vineyards, parks and reservoirs–none of which are standing today. Have you ever wondered, “What will it matter a hundred years from now?” I recall a TV commercial where a stock broker rose at 4:30 in the morning to check the London and Frankfurt stock exchange results and then drove himself ragged through the day, skipping lunch. At the end of his life, what has he really accomplished? What have we done that will achieve any lasting profit or eternal significance?

Perhaps some of Solomon’s despair came from his disastrous legacy. After four decades of peace he handed over his kingdom to his son Rehoboam, who rejected the advice of the wise and sought counsel from immature upstarts—the result was civil war and a foreign invasion. It’s likely that Solomon foresaw tragedy in the life of his unprepared, impulsive son. All he’d accomplished was undone by the next generation.

In chapter 3:18-21 Solomon says that if there’s no God, we’re no better off than animals. I heard that a philosophy teacher who really believed this would warn his students not to take the logical steps of anarchy and suicide. I had such a teacher when I was working on my Doctoral degree, a theology professor who was an atheist. He wasn’t happy having an Army Chaplains in his class, and stated that he was against war, particularly the nuclear arms race. I asked him, “If there is no God and no meaning in life, what does it matter if we blow ourselves up?” He replied that it would matter to him. I countered by saying, “If there is no God, and therefore no purpose in life, it doesn’t matter what you may prefer.” He wasn’t too pleased

with my remarks, but I managed to pass his course!

Life apart from God has plenty to despair about. Many people suffer from anxiety and depression, and if they are unbelievers, they have good reason to be troubled! Solomon wants to take such a person from despair to trust in the infinite, personal God.

We learn from Solomon that God is free to be mysterious, free to not work as we might expect, free to be unpredictable at times. Eugene Peterson comments, “You live in a world ruled by the God of Exodus and Easter. He will do things in you that neither you nor your friends would have supposed possible. He is not limited by anything you think you know about Him.”

Chuck Swindoll suggests that, “if there is nothing but nothing under the sun, our only hope must be above it.” Solomon is describing a worldview without any Higher Power. Life will remain devoid of meaning until we seek out God. Ideals without God are nothing more than empty optimism, wishful thinking.

Although this book was written for unbelievers, Ecclesiastes helps us appreciate where we once were, and reminds us of the anguish we went through. We can say with John Newton, who wrote the hymn Amazing Grace, “I once was lost but now am found; was blind, but now I see.” God gives meaning, purpose, and direction to our lives. When we discover the Kingdom of God we begin to comprehend the visible kingdoms of earth. We see that this is not a random world governed by chance. We feel at home. When we know God, life begins to make sense. Faith keeps us alive because God has taken us from sand to solid ground.

Related posts:

1986 – Miss America, Kelly Cash (Johnny Cash’s great niece)

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Miss America 1988 — Pre-Evening Gown Performance

1986 – Miss America, Kelly Cash

Kellye Cash Miss America 1987

I Bowed On My Knees-Kellye Cash Sheppard

Uploaded on Jun 14, 2010

Uploaded on Jun 23, 2011

From Wikipedia:

Kellye Cash

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kellye Cash
Born	Kellye Cash February 2, 1965 (age 48) Memphis, Tennessee, United States
Height	5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)[1]
Weight	116 lb (53 kg)[1]
Title	Miss Milan Crown and Scepter 1986 Miss Tennessee 1986 Miss America 1987
Relatives	Johnny Cash (great-uncle), June Carter Cash (great-aunt), Rosanne Cash (cousin), John Carter Cash(cousin)
Website
www.kellyecash.com

Kellye Cash-Sheppard from Memphis, Tennessee, was Miss Tennessee 1986 and was crowned Miss America 1987, capturing preliminary honors in both the talent and swimsuit competitions.^[2]

Following her reign as Miss America, Cash toured with Bob Hope’s USO Show, and has appeared on The David Letterman Show, The Today Show, Good Morning America, among others.^[3]

She has performed with numerous musical artists including Vince Gill, Lee Greenwood, and Billy Joel, and appeared in many regional theatrical productions around the country. Cash was chosen for the lead part of country music legend Patsy Cline, in Always…Patsy Cline and has performed the musical on numerous occasions.^[4]

Present career[edit]

In 2003, from April to December, Cash played the pivotal role of “Narrator” in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat^[5] at the Mansion America theatre in Branson, Missouri.

She has hosted and performed at several pageants over the years^[6][7][8] as well as other events, such as for the finals of 2007’s ‘’Star Search’’.^[9]

An advocate for conservative political candidates and issues, Cash has twice been publicly elected to the State Executive Committee^[10] of the Tennessee Republican Party. She performed at an event for presidential candidate Pat Buchanan, held before the 1996 Republican National Convention.^[11]

Cash is the great-niece of Johnny Cash. She currently resides in Milan, Tennessee, a small town approximately 75 miles northeast of Memphis, with her husband, Todd Sheppard, a teacher and coach in the Milan public schools, and three children; son, Brady; and daughters Cassidy and Tatum.^[10]

In addition to making approximately 100 appearances each year at charitable, community and political events, Cash has released six music CDs: four Christian and two country, including Living by the Word, and Real Life.^[12] She is very involved in her local church by directing teaching a college and career class with her husband and also singing and playing for the church.

References[edit]

1. ^ ^a b “Miss America 1987”. PBS. Retrieved 2011-10-06.
2. ^ Associated Press (1986-09-14). “Miss America grandniece of Johnny Cash”. Houston Chronicle. p. 3.
3. ^ “Miss America grandniece of Johnny Cash”. The Oak Ridger. 2004-05-14.
4. ^ “Kellye Cash performing with Huntington Symphony Orchestra”. Ironton Tribune. 2009-08-05.
5. ^ “A new classic Christmas song, an old classic Christmas singer”. Courier-News. 2003-12-07.
6. ^ “Miss America Preliminaries”. Atlantic City Press. 2003-09-18.
7. ^ “Changes and familiar faces on view at pageant”. Roanoke Times. 2008-06-24.
8. ^ “Miss Tri-Cities 2009 Crowned”. TriCity Herald. 2009-07-19.
9. ^ “Star Search finals this Saturday”. Memphis Commercial-Appeal. 2007-10-18.
10. ^ ^a b “Celebrities born and raised in Gibson County”. Jackson Sun. 2009-05-17.
11. ^ “Buchanan will throw big party in Escondido”. San Diego Union. 1996-07-24.
12. ^ “Cash to perform at Picnic with the Pops”. Herald-Dispatch. 2009-08-09.

Related posts:

The Long War against God-Henry Morris, part 5 of 6

_______________

I have debated with Ark Times Bloggers many times in the past on many different subjects. Here are some of the subjects: communism, morality, origin of evil, and the Tea Party. I have always loved to post about evolution and I have had a chance in the past to correspond with scientists such as Carl Sagan and George Wald and also had the opportunity to write reviews of science related books that were published.

Recently I got into the subject of evolution on the Ark Times Blogand the subject came up on the Ark Times Blog. I go by the username “Saline Republican”:

The person using the username Olddoc asserted on March 18, 2013:

Plainjim, You have a good point (though actually I respect Ben Stein’s request for tolerance) but I have to speak up because there REALLY are people who don’t believe in evolution and 99.9999999% of them live in the US and almost uniformly get most of their science from those academic academies called “church”.

Almost no one else in the ENTIRE WORLD, not even in the Vatican, rallies to oppose evolution.

So prevalent is that attitude that there is a prominent private school in WLR, that simply goes from chapter 5 to 7 to avoid even mentioning evolution, selection, Darwin, etc.

The wonderful thing about science is that takes into account all the fraud, misinterpretation, wild ass guesses, math errors and weights them and refines the theory as the facts are discovered.

R acts like those changes prove the flaws but in reality they are really the beauty of science. Form a theory, observe or test the data, refine the theory, test some more.

Gravity – we’ve know a lot of the theory, but when someone finds out exactly how Earth is able to tug on the Moon, we modify what we theorize. It may be a small or a radical change, but it doesn’t threaten to make Newton “wrong”

I replied on March 18, 2013:

Olddoc, I am glad you mentioned Isaac Newton. Dr. Larry Vardiman noted:

Isaac Newton is recognized today by almost all scientists to have been one of the greatest, if not the greatest, scientist who ever lived. His breadth of knowledge, his ability to analyze and synthesize the physical world, his development and use of the calculus, his formulation of the three laws of motion, and the expression of the law of gravitation have been unequaled by any other scientist before or since. Yet, it is not widely known that Newton was also a Christian and a Bible scholar. He studied the Bible diligently and wrote commentaries on portions of scripture, such as his monograph on the book of Daniel. He clearly believed that God is the Creator and sustainer of our universe. Misunderstanding the source of Newton’s creativity, some critics have suggested that Newton would have been more productive if he had not wasted so much time studying and writing about the Bible.

___________

Dr.Herny Morris observed:
One of the self-serving arguments of modern evolutionists is their rather arrogant claim that creationist scientists are not real scientists. No matter that a large number of creationists have earned authentic Ph.D. degrees in science, hold responsible scientific positions and have published numerous scientific articles and books—if they are creationists, they are not true scientists! In a Letter-to-the-Editor, Steven Schafersman, of Rice University’s Department of Geology, says, for example: “I dispute Henry Morris’s claim that thousands of scientists are creationists. No scientist today questions the past and present occurrence of evolution in the organic world. Those ‘thousands of creationists’ with legitimate post-graduate degrees and other appropriate credentials are not scientists, precisely because they have abandoned the scientific method and the scientific attitude, criteria far more crucial to the definition of scientist than the location or duration of one’s training or the identity of one’s employer” (Geotimes, August 1981, P. 11).

Thus modern creationists are conveniently excluded as scientists merely by definition! Science does not mean “knowledge” or “truth,” or “facts,” as we used to think, but “naturalism” or “materialism,” according to this new definition. The very possibility of a Creator is prohibited by majority vote of the scientific fraternity, and one who still wishes to believe in God must forfeit his membership.

Well, no matter. At least we creationist scientists can take comfort in the fact that many of the greatest scientists of the past were creationists and for that matter, were also Bible-believing Christians, men who believed in the inspiration and authority of the Bible, as well as in the deity and saving work of Jesus Christ. They believed that God had supernaturally created all things, each with its own complex structure for its own unique purpose. They believed that, as scientists, they were “thinking God’s thoughts after Him,” learning to understand and control the laws and processes of nature for God’s glory and man’s good. They believed and practiced science in exactly the same way that modern creationist scientists do.

And somehow this attitude did not hinder them in their commitment to the “scientific method.” In fact one of them, Sir Francis Bacon, is credited with formulating and establishing the scientific method! They seem also to have been able to maintain a proper “scientific attitude,” for it was these men (Newton, Pasteur, Linnaeus, Faraday, Pascal, Lord Kelvin, Maxwell, Kepler, etc.) whose researches and analyses led to the very laws and concepts of science which brought about our modern scientific age. The mechanistic scientists of the present are dwarfed in comparison to these intellectual giants of the past. Even the achievements of an Einstein (not to mention Darwin!) are trivial in comparison. The real breakthroughs, the new fields, the most beneficial discoveries of science were certainly not delayed (in fact probably were hastened) by the creationist motivations of these great founders of modern science.

TABLE I
SCIENTIFIC DISCIPLINES ESTABLISHED
BY CREATIONIST SCIENTISTS

DISCIPLINE SCIENTIST
ANTISEPTIC SURGERY JOSEPH LISTER (1827-1912)
BACTERIOLOGY LOUIS PASTEUR (1822-1895)
CALCULUS ISAAC NEWTON (1642-1727)
CELESTIAL MECHANICS JOHANN KEPLER (1571-1630)
CHEMISTRY ROBERT BOYLE (1627-1691)
COMPARATIVE ANATOMY GEORGES CUVIER (1769-1832)
COMPUTER SCIENCE CHARLES BABBAGE (1792-1871)
DIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS LORD RAYLEIGH (1842-1919)
DYNAMICS ISAAC NEWTON (1642-1727)
ELECTRONICS JOHN AMBROSE FLEMING (1849-1945)
ELECTRODYNAMICS JAMES CLERK MAXWELL (1831-1879)
ELECTRO-MAGNETICS MICHAEL FARADAY (1791-1867)
ENERGETICS LORD KELVIN (1824-1907)
ENTOMOLOGY OF LIVING INSECTS HENRI FABRE (1823-1915)
FIELD THEORY MICHAEL FARADAY (1791-1867)
FLUID MECHANICS GEORGE STOKES (1819-1903)
GALACTIC ASTRONOMY WILLIAM HERSCHEL (1738-1822)
GAS DYNAMICS ROBERT BOYLE (1627-1691)
GENETICS GREGOR MENDEL (1822-1884)
GLACIAL GEOLOGY LOUIS AGASSIZ (1807-1873)
GYNECOLOGY JAMES SIMPSON (1811-1870)
HYDRAULICS LEONARDO DA VINCI (1452-1519)
HYDROGRAPHY MATTHEW MAURY (1806-1873)
HYDROSTATICS BLAISE PASCAL (1623-1662)
ICHTHYOLOGY LOUIS AGASSIZ (1807-1873)
ISOTOPIC CHEMISTRY WILLIAM RAMSAY (1852-1916)
MODEL ANALYSIS LORD RAYLEIGH (1842-1919)
NATURAL HISTORY JOHN RAY (1627-1705)
NON-EUCLIDEAN GEOMETRY BERNHARD RIEMANN (1826- 1866)
OCEANOGRAPHY MATTHEW MAURY (1806-1873)
OPTICAL MINERALOGY DAVID BREWSTER (1781-1868)
PALEONTOLOGY JOHN WOODWARD (1665-1728)
PATHOLOGY RUDOLPH VIRCHOW (1821-1902)
PHYSICAL ASTRONOMY JOHANN KEPLER (1571-1630)
REVERSIBLE THERMODYNAMICS JAMES JOULE (1818-1889)
STATISTICAL THERMODYNAMICS JAMES CLERK MAXWELL (1831-1879)
STRATIGRAPHY NICHOLAS STENO (1631-1686)
SYSTEMATIC BIOLOGY CAROLUS LINNAEUS (1707-1778)
THERMODYNAMICS LORD KELVIN (1824-1907)
THERMOKINETICS HUMPHREY DAVY (1778-1829)
VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY GEORGES CUVIER (1769-1832)

TABLE II
NOTABLE INVENTIONS, DISCOVERIES
OR DEVELOPMENTS BY CREATIONIST SCIENTISTS

CONTRIBUTION SCIENTIST
ABSOLUTE TEMPERATURE SCALE LORD KELVIN (1824-1907)
ACTUARIAL TABLES CHARLES BABBAGE (1792-1871)
BAROMETER BLAISE PASCAL (1623-1662)
BIOGENESIS LAW LOUIS PASTEUR (1822-1895)
CALCULATING MACHINE CHARLES BABBAGE (1792-1871)
CHLOROFORM JAMES SIMPSON (1811-1870)
CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM CAROLUS LINNAEUS (1707-1778)
DOUBLE STARS WILLIAM HERSCHEL (1738-1822)
ELECTRIC GENERATOR MICHAEL FARADAY (1791-1867)
ELECTRIC MOTOR JOSEPH HENRY (1797-1878)
EPHEMERIS TABLES JOHANN KEPLER (1571-1630)
FERMENTATION CONTROL LOUIS PASTEUR (1822-1895)
GALVANOMETER JOSEPH HENRY (1797-1878)
GLOBAL STAR CATALOG JOHN HERSCHEL (1792-1871)
INERT GASES WILLIAM RAMSAY (1852-1916)
KALEIDOSCOPE DAVID BREWSTER (1781-1868)
LAW OF GRAVITY ISAAC NEWTON (1642-1727)
MINE SAFETY LAMP HUMPHREY DAVY (1778-1829)
PASTEURIZATION LOUIS PASTEUR (1822-1895)
REFLECTING TELESCOPE ISAAC NEWTON (1642-1727)
SCIENTIFIC METHOD FRANCIS BACON (1561-1626)
SELF-INDUCTION JOSEPH HENRY (1797-1878)
TELEGRAPH SAMUEL F.B. MORSE (1791-1872)
THERMIONIC VALVE AMBROSE FLEMING (1849-1945)
TRANS-ATLANTIC CABLE LORD KELVIN (1824-1907)
VACCINATION & IMMUNIZATION LOUIS PASTEUR (1822-1895)

The Daylights (Music Group) Part 2

Uploaded on Mar 23, 2011