Just an accident?!

It was our first stop in Spain, after having left Portugal.  We had stopped in Badejos on our way south, and knew that the fuel prices in Spain were considerably better than in Portugal (or, indeed, in France!).  However, there was also a large Retail Park - and my dear wife decided that she needed to have a wee look, and to purchase a couple of necessities!

We walked into the large Centre (glad to get out of the late September heat!), and walked along towards the shop in which she hoped to be able to purchase the items she wanted - Primark!  Yes, even in Spain the chain is apparently well-established. However, as we approached the entrance to the shop, our eyes were captivated by the display in the large plaza outside it and its neighbours.  It was a water and colour extravaganza that was absolutely amazing!  Please take time to watch the video.  It is a full six minutes long - yet I didn't see a repeat of one single sequence: even of those I had watched before running out to the car for my (very basic!) video-cam.  I had intended to place the video here - but the file is too large!  So, in a 'first' for me, I have uploaded it to YouTube, and you may watch by clicking on this link:

https://youtu.be/1KixHThFJEU

Of course, the most amazing thing about that magnificent display is that, according to Richard Dawkins (who just happened to be walking by - sorry, that's actually just a personal fantasy!), it was all the result of blind chance, and random mutations, that took place over millions, if not billions, of years!  Those coloured lights; the various rhythms of the water; the little fountains; the whole edifice in which they all operated; all the product of mindless chance!  Well, in my opinion, for whatever it is worth, anyone who genuinely believes that is in need of a deep reality check!  We might as well claim, for example, that the famous "Four Presidents" heads on Mt Rushmore, N.Dakota, are simply the random end-result of millions of years of wind and rain erosion!

No-one who has ever watched that display in Badejos, for more than a few seconds, would ever believe that it was not the product of intelligence.  I haven't checked but, although I am not a gambling man, I would readily bet all of my next year's pension that not just one person, but a team of persons, spent a great number of hours from the moment that the original conception was born in someone's imagination, until the putting together of the final product.  There is, I would confidently claim, a very large computer programme behind every sequence - every raising of a fountain; every change of the colour of the lighting; every movement of the downpour - a programme that was put together by an intelligent mind.  The engineering behind the display is also amazing, and must have taken many man-hours of planning, working to the finest of tolerances.  "Chance"?; "Random mutation"?  You have got to be joking!

Yet, as any reasonable, and basically-educated, person would surely agree, compared to the workings of the human mind; the amazingly complex structure of even the simplest living cell; the order of the celestial bodies; even that water display, in all of its awesome magnificence, is like something a very small child might produce from a piece of plasticine!

That is why, in one of my books, I make the claim that it takes a great deal of faith to be an atheist!  It takes a great deal of faith to genuinely believe that nothing became something, for absolutely no reason, and then produced other "somethings" - also for no reason at all!  It takes a level of faith beyond anything I have ever experienced to believe that the very laws of physics "just appeared"!

Yet that is the basic religious belief of the atheistic, humanist, evolutionist! 

My Bible makes the very simple statement: "In the beginning, God ..." (Gen.1:1). Only God is the uncreated One; the totally self-sufficient One; the One Who, alone, has the power to create.

The apostle Paul who, as the Pharisaic Saul of Tarsus may not have been an evolutionist, but was most certainly a persecutor of the early disciples of Jesus, made reference to this when he wrote to his fellow-believers in Rome: "They know the truth about God because He has made it obvious to them. For, ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see His invisible qualities - His eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.  

Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn't worship Him as God or even give Him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.

So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other's bodies. They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator Himself, Who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved." (Rom 1:19-27; NLT).   Sounds almost as if Paul had been reading a modern newspaper - or listening to Richard Dawkins, inter al!

You, of course, must make your own choices.  However, be assured that every choice does have consequences.  Be certain to make the right choices - the consequences are eternally significant!

Rites of Passage.

In my teaching career, one of the units taught to S1 pupils concerned Rites of Passage.  This refers to the four major events in a person's life that are celebrated, in some way, by every culture known to mankind.  These are Birth, Coming of Age, Marriage, and Death.

These are also areas that, in recent decades, in some of the more 'civilised' nations in the world, have become increasingly under attack from a secular, atheistic, humanism that would have us all made in its own image - rather than in the image of the Creator God Who is responsible for our very existence.

Birth.  It was in 1967 that abortion became legal within the UK.  Since then, around 10 million babies have been callously murdered in the very place in which they ought to have been best protected - their mothers' wombs.  And that is in England, Scotland, and Wales alone!  By the way, if you missed my brief series on abortion - "Womb - or tomb?" - you can scroll down to the Blog Archive; click on "August", and then scroll down to Tuesday, 19th for the first article.  Birth, in far too many cases, is not being celebrated - it is being prevented!

Coming of age.  It is the case, as I type, that it is when one reaches the age of 18 years that, in the UK, one is considered to have 'come of age'.  Of course, as my pupils were quick to point out, the age varies for different activities - from joining the Armed Forces, to purchasing alcohol, to acquiring a mortgage.  However, for at least two - maybe three - generations, we seem to have been encouraging our children to 'grow up' far too quickly.  Beauty Pageants, at least in the USoA, for toddlers - dressed up by their mothers in 'sexy' outfits (must be some sort of paedophile 'heaven'!), to Clubs and bars being frequented by children who have barely left puberty, to 'under-age' sexual activity.  And much of this with the knowledge, and tacit approval, of parents/guardians!

Marriage.  In the UK, with the honourable exception of N.Ireland, marriage has been redefined as being the union of any two persons, regardless of gender.  This has been, effectively, a response by politicians to a sustained lobbying exercise by those representing (according to recent National Office of Statistics report) a mere 1.6% of the population.  A massive petition opposing the move, in both Westminster and Holyrood, was ignored.  Of course, it is arguable, given revelations since, that the reason for that is that the percentage of those who practise deviant sexual relations, is much higher in government circles than in the population at large!  Now, I read that an OFSTED inspection in a Jewish school resulted in pupils feeling bullied, and traumatised, by the questions asked - questions such as "Do you know that it is acceptable for two men to be married to one another?"  Marriage, instead of being a relationship in which a man and a woman fulfil God's plan for them, and produce a family (something that no two people of the same gender can ever do, on their own!), has become a declaration of deviance that is sanctioned by the state.

Death.  There was a time when death came to most people before they reached 80 years of age.  Today, in the western world, more and more people are living to be centenarians.  At least, that is what we would like to think.  However, the constant push by some for the legalisation of euthanasia, and assisted dying/suicide, shows that death is becoming a marketable commodity - think Dignitas in Switzerland, or the whole situation in the Netherlands!   The tragedy of such a situation was shown by a newspaper report just a few days ago: 

"An elderly husband and wife have announced their plans to die in the world's first 'couple' euthanasia - despite neither of them being terminally ill.

Instead the pair fear loneliness if the other one dies first from natural causes.

Identified only by their first names, Francis, 89, and Anne, 86, they have the support of their three adult children who say they would be unable to care for either parent if they became widowed.

The children have even gone so far as to find a practitioner willing to carry out the double killings on the grounds that the couple's mental anguish constituted the unbearable suffering needed to legally justify euthanasia.

… The couple's daughter has remarked that her parents are talking about their deaths as eagerly as if they were planning a holiday.

John Paul [their son] said the double euthanasia of his parents was the 'best solution'.  'If one of them should die, who would remain would be so sad and totally dependent on us,' he said. 'It would be impossible for us to come here every day, to take care of our father or our mother.'"

One commentator has responded like this:  "I wonder why no one considers the fact that the reason some elderly parents may experience “mental anguish” is that they have come to the sickening realisation that their grown children would rather find an executioner to dispatch them, than take on the responsibility of caring for their parents. Imagine the thoughts of a mother realising that the child she fed and rocked to sleep, played with and sang to, would rather have her killed than care for her; that their relationship really does have a price."

When I consider all of that, I confess to being glad that I am now out of the RME classroom.  My fear is that those who are in may be pushing the kind of agenda that is mirrored above!