News Bulletin 28 September 2012 -- The Christian Institute

A Sunday Quote

"There are two parodies of the truth which different sets of Christians have, in the past, been accused by other Christians of believing: perhaps they may make the truth clearer. One set were accused of saying, 'Good actions are all that matters. The best good action is charity. The best kind of charity is giving money. The best thing to give money to is the Church. So hand us over £10,000 and we will see you through.' The answer to that nonsense, of course, would be that good actions done for that motive, done with the idea that Heaven can be bought, would not be good actions at all, but only commercial speculations. The other set were accused of saying, 'Faith is all that matters. Consequently, if you have faith, it doesn't matter what you do. Sin away, my lad, and have a good time and Christ will see that it makes no difference in the end.' The answer to that nonsense is that, if what you call your 'faith' in Christ does not involve taking the slightest notice of what He says, then it is not Faith at all -- not faith or trust in Him, but only intellectual acceptance of some theory about Him."

CS Lewis (Mere Christianity)

Atheism, Theism, and Noetic Structures

A popular claim on the Internet is that atheism is merely a lack of belief in a deity. Furthermore, this lack of belief does not influence or inform other aspects of their lives, and that atheism does not require anything more than lack of belief in a deity. I wanted to explore this issue, since this "argument" is often employed in discussions as a kind of 'gotcha.' For example, when atheists argue that religion is the biggest cause of violence and war, and that Hitler was an atheist, the moment the Christian brings up the example of the atheist states of the 20th century, then you can usually expect this "argument" to be deployed, ultimately de-railing the argument. (As a side note, I may take a look at these named arguments in the future for those interested.) Regardless of the context in which it occurs, this argument tends to surface frequently in online discussions. It is typically invoked as a sort of 'get out of jail free card' whenever an atheist is confronted by inconsistencies in their system of beliefs. I wanted to discuss these issues: the definition of atheism, and the relation to atheism to one's noetic structure, or system of beliefs.

Let's consider the oft-repeated claim that atheism is a 'lack of belief.' As such, you do not need to hold to the position that God does not exist, just as long as you don't hold to the position that God exists. The problem with this, is that this simply does not describe atheism. It describes a position of agnosticism; a withdrawal of judgement on an issue, either through lack of awareness of the topic itself, or lack of data to come to a judgement. As such, babies would be atheists, along with dogs, trees, and rocks. Some people laughably actually accept this reductio of their position by actually claiming that babies are indeed atheists. I find this a very self-defeating move, since they are more or less admitting that no thought whatsoever is necessary to become an atheist, since, according to the argument, we are born atheists. If this is the case, then atheism is a position held not by evidence, or by argument. I find it hard to believe that this is a position that intellectual atheists would want to hold to.

Indeed, it seems as if the sole purpose of such an argument is to get out of actually having to defend the truth of atheism. Whilst we could probably go into the philosophy of language and deconstruct the meaning of the term 'atheism,' it would perhaps be more profitable to consider things in purely logical terms. Both theism and atheism are positions on a topic, namely that of the existence of God. When asked the question: "Does God exist?" then there are three possible answer, yes, no, or I don't know. In other words, theism, atheism, and agnosticism. Moreover, if the question posed is: "do you believe that God exists?" then there are only two possible responses, yes, or no. You could combine views by believing that God exists whilst admitting that you don't know if God exists or not. You can also hold to nuanced positions whereby you believe that God probably exists, or very probably exists, etc. There is, however, no magical position where you actively go around claiming that there is no God, whilst at the same time admitting a position of agnosticism.

This leads me to the subject of the relation of atheism to noetic structures. A noetic structure is simply a person's network of beliefs. Some beliefs will be based upon other beliefs, whereas other beliefs will be foundational or basic beliefs not inferred from other beliefs. Atheism, whether or not it is a basic belief or an inferred belief, it is still a part of the atheist's noetic structure. Furthermore, in order to be rational, our noetic structure must not be incoherent, or contradictory, that is to say that is must not contain any flaws. Thus, if an atheist holds to a position that contradicts or is contradicted by the truth atheism, they are irrational since their noetic structure is flawed. So, when an atheist remarks that something cannot be inferred from their atheism, they are speaking a falsehood.

Of course, ascertaining whether or not a position is incompatible with atheism or not might take a bit of work, but the principle remains. In addition to this, a person who holds to a belief not inferred from their atheism runs the risk of being irrational. Obviously, atheists can come to beliefs regardless and apart from their atheism. But in order to be rational, they need to check to see if the beliefs they arrive at are compatible with their atheism. Of course, it is also true that many atheists have a hard time understanding when a belief they hold to is incompatible with their atheism. The atheist who believes that humanity is special, or that objective moral values and duties exists, does so entirely apart from their atheism. In order to be consistent, they would need to jettison either these beliefs, or their atheism. Many people are so committed to the palpably untrue, however, that they would rather discard true beliefs than a cherished worldview, and so remain irrational. Many politicians are die-hard Keynesians despite the fact Keynesian economics has provably destroyed Western economy.

Thus, to conclude, any singular belief is part of a noetic structure of beliefs that must be coherent, and consistent to be considered rational, and atheism is a belief whether those who hold to it would care to admit it or not. In the end, I doubt whether or not the atheists who make these sorts of argument will ever have the intellectual wherewithal to actually be cognisant of this reality, or ever bother to check the consistency of their noetic structures if they do. At least we can remain sure, however, of their utter irrationality until they do so.

Is Muhammed Prophesied in the Bible? James White vs Zakir Hussain

Did Jesus Have a Wife? William Lane Craig

The Bacterial Flagellum Revisited: A Paradigm of Design

Going back to my undergraduate days, I have long been struck by the engineering elegance and intrinsic beauty of that familiar icon of intelligent design, the bacterial flagellar nano-motor. In tribute to this masterpiece of design, I have just published a detailed (31 pages, inclusive of references) literature review in which I describe the processes underlying its self-assembly and operations.

My essay also attempts to evaluate the plausibility of such a system having evolved by natural selection. Here’s a short excerpt to whet your appetite.

The bacterial flagellum is a reversible, self-assembling, rotary nano-motor associated with the majority of swimming bacteria. There exists a number of different models of this rotary motor (Pallen and Matzke, 2006; Soutourina and Bertin, 2003). Flagella are produced by a very tightly regulated assembly pathway (Chevance and Hughes, 2008; Macnab, 2003; Aldridge and Hughes, 2002), and the archetypical system for understanding flagellar assembly belongs to Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium, a rod-shaped gram negative bacterium of the family Enterobacteriaceae.

Flagella receive feedback from the environment by virtue of an elegant signal transduction circuit and can adjust their course in response to external stimuli by a mechanism known as chemotaxis (Baker et al., 2006 Bourret and Stock, 2002; Bren and Eisenbach, 2000). The most extensively studied chemotaxis system belongs to Escherichia coli.

By itself, the rotor is able to turn at a speed between 6,000 and 17,000 rotations per minute (rpm) but normally only achieves a speed of 200 to 1000 rpm when the flagellar filament (that is, the propeller) is attached. Its forward and reverse gears allow the motor to reverse direction within a quarter turn.

The bacterial flagellum, which has been described as a “nanotechnological marvel” (Berg, 2003), has long been championed as an icon of the modern intelligent design movement and the flagship example of “irreducible complexity” (Behe, 1996). But even biologists outside of this community have been struck by the motor’s engineering elegance and intrinsic beauty. As one writer put it, “Since the flagellum is so well designed and beautifully constructed by an ordered assembly pathway, even I, who am not a creationist, get an awe-inspiring feeling from its “divine’ beauty” (Aizawa, 2009).

The mechanistic basis of flagellar assembly is so breathtakingly elegant and mesmerizing that the sheer engineering brilliance of the flagellar motor — and, indeed, the magnitude of the challenge it addresses to Darwinism — cannot be properly appreciated without, at minimum, a cursory knowledge of its underlying operations. The purpose of this essay is to review these intricate processes, and evaluate the plausibility of such a system evolving by natural selection.

Click here to continue reading.

A Sunday Quote

"If Christians could be trained to provide solid evidence for what they believe and good answers to unbelievers’ questions and objections, then the perception of Christians would slowly change. Christians would be seen as thoughtful people to be taken seriously rather than as emotional fanatics or buffoons. The gospel would be a real alternative for people to embrace." – William Lane Craig

Theistic Implications of Big Bang Cosmology - Stephen Meyer

Does the Bible command its readers to think and use reason?

Does the Bible command its reader to think and use reason? Yes, absolutely. Indeed, 1 Thessalonians 5:21 commands us to "Test everything; hold fast to the good." 1 Peter 3:15 says, "But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect." 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 says, "For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."

The book of Acts also gives us several examples of people who used reason and argumentation to persuade people of the truth of Christianity. For example, Acts 19:8 tells us that "Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God." Acts 18:27-28 tells us that "When Apollos wanted to go to Achaia, the brothers and sisters encouraged him and wrote to the disciples there to welcome him. When he arrived, he was a great help to those who by grace had believed. For he vigorously refuted his Jewish opponents in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah."

Evidence of God in Creation: Dr. Hugh Ross

The Same Sex marriage Debate: David Robertson and Peter D. Williams vs. Patrick Harvie (leader of Greens) and Willie Rennie (Leader Lib Dems)

A Sunday Quote

"When many first hear the distinction between religion and the gospel, they think that it just sounds too easy. 'Nice deal!' they may say. 'If that is Christianity, all I have to do is get a personal relationship to God and then do anything I want!' Those words, however, can only be spoken on the outside of an experience of radical grace. No one from the inside speaks like that." Timothy Keller

News Bulletin 14 September 2012 -- The Christian Institute

The Same-Sex Marriage Controversy

This week, I participated in a debate on the subject of same-sex marriage before an audience at the University of Glasgow. The motion was "Politics, Religion and Expression: This House Supports Gay Marriage." The format took a parliamentary style, with teams of three representing each side. Representing traditional marriage were myself, Father John Keenan (Catholic Chaplin of the University of Glasgow) and John Deighan (Parliamentary Officer of the Scottish Catholic Church). Representing the proposed re-definition of marriage were Clare Marsh (Scottish Humanist Association), Ross Mitchell (1st Class LLB, University of Glasgow), and John McKee (LGBT & Labour activist). 

The venue was a pack-out, with likely at least 150 people present. Unfortunately, however, most people had seemingly not come for a rational dialogue and to be edified by hearing a view that they do not hold (which should be your attitude taken when you attend a debate). The audience was more hostile than even I had envisioned, and many people had come just came to heckle and poke fun during the presentations that they disagreed with.

The other side made use of the usual vacuous rhetoric and emotional appeal that one has come to be accustomed to in this debate. Their side was clearly favoured by the format since the audience was already heavily biased against us -- and 7 minutes (the time permitted for each speech) isn't nearly enough time to unpack the issues that need to be explored. The speeches were followed by a Q&A, in which almost all of the questions were directed at us, and I thought the debate would have benefitted from a formal cross-examination.

Caleb - We found God in a hopeless place: Pornography

On the Origin of Protein Folds

A common objection to the theory of intelligent design is that it makes no testable predictions, and thus there is no basis for calling it science at all. While recognizing that testability may not be a sufficient or necessary resolution of the "Demarcation Problem," my article, which I invite you to download, will consider one prediction made by ID and discuss how this prediction has been confirmed.  

Click here to continue reading>>>

The Universe Had A Beginning - Alexander Vilenkin

Same Sex Marriage Debate Next Monday: Willie Rennie & Patrick Harvey v David Robertson & Peter D Williams

A Sunday Quote

"[God] selected one particular people and spent several centuries hammering into their heads the sort of God He was -- that there was only one of Him and that He cared about right conduct. Those people were the Jews, and the Old Testament gives an account of the hammering process.

Then comes the real shock. Among these Jews there suddenly turns up a man who goes about talking as if He was God. He claims to forgive sins. He says He has always existed. He says He is coming to judge the world at the end of time. Now let us get this clear. Among pantheists, like the Indians, anyone might say that he was a part of God, or one with God: there would be nothing very odd about it. But this man, since He was a Jew, could not mean that kind of God. God, in their language, meant the Being outside the world, who made it and was infinitely different from anything else. And when you have grasped that, you will see that what this man said was, quite simply, the most shocking thing that has ever been uttered by human lips."

C.S. Lewis (Mere Christianity)

Discussion with a Mormon at Manti Pageant 2012.

Hi all this is a discussion with a couple of Mormons I had at Utah this year, the sound isnt the best but you can see some of the issues here with their view of Jesus compared to the biblical view.

For the last 3 years I (Bobby Gilpin) have been on mission trips to Utah each year, learning more about Mormonism and witnessing to Mormons, by far the best opportunity for this was at the Manti Pageant, for most of two weeks each night 14.000 Mormons were greeted by around 200 Christians while they were walking to their seats to watch a re-enactment of their theology and history, many great conversations were had as a result of this.

I am pointing this out because for the first time the Mormon Church is holding a pageant outside of the USA which is going to be held next year at their temple in Chorley near Preston at the last week of July and First week of August. This is going to be the best chance in years to have a witnessing effort to Mormons in the UK. More information about this is here.

For those who dont know the Mormon Church is around 14 Million in its membership (active and inactive) and believes itself to be the one true church on the earth (although they do accept that other churches have some truth) they believe God used to be a man and earned His exaltation and that we can do the same, potentially resulting in us ruling over our own kingdom like God does.

Jesus is the firstborn Son of our heavenly parents and salvation in its fullness comes partly through faith in Him but also needs to include obedience to the many laws and ordnances of the Mormon gospel. They are not lost out of a lack of effort or sincerity, but rather not totally trusting in Jesus alone for their salvation, almost every aspect of the Christian gospel is distorted in Mormonism, even the Cross isn't safe, Bruce Mcconkie a prominent past Mormon Apostle said this:

“Where and under what circumstances was the atoning sacrifice of the Son of God made? Was it on the Cross of Calvary or in the Garden of Gethsemane? It is to the Cross of Christ that most Christians look when centering their attention upon the infinite and eternal atonement. And certainly the sacrifice of our Lord was completed when he was lifted up by men; also, that part of his life and suffering is more dramatic and, perhaps, more soul stirring. But in reality the pain and suffering, the triumph and grandeur, of the atonement took place primarily in Gethsemane” (Bruce R. McConkie, Doctrinal New Testament Commentary 1:774).

So the need is great but many Christians don't want to speak to Mormons even at their door, or do not know what to say, my ministry UK Partnerships for Christ (www.upfc.org.uk) exists to equip Christians UK wide by presenting seminars on communicating the biblical gospel to Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses and I would love to see as many Christians as possible at this event reaching out to these great people. If you would be interested in this please let me know (bobbygilpin@gmail.com) and if you think your church would benefit from a seminar on this issue also I would love to hear from you.

Also if anyone is in the Bradford area there is a Seminar on the 28th and 29th of September in the area where myself and Tony Brown will be speaking on reaching to these two groups, more info please see the facebook event here.

News Bulletin 7th September 2012 -- the Christian Institute

One Day To Spare

Alleged Contradictions in the Gospels (Part 2): Dr. Timothy McGrew

Unbelievable Conference DVD

If you were unable to make it to the Unbelievable Conference 2012 then check out the DVD promo and grab a copy, just click here to pick up a copy.

Latest ENCODE Research Validates ID Predictions On Non-Coding Repertoire

Readers will likely recall the ENCODE project, published in a series of papers in 2007, in which (among other interesting findings) it was discovered that, even though the vast majority of our DNA does not code for proteins, the human genome is nonetheless pervasively transcribed into mRNA. The science media and blogosphere is now abuzz with the latest published research from the ENCODE project, the most recent blow to the “junk DNA” paradigm. Since the majority of the genome being non-functional (as has been claimed by many, including notably Larry Moran, P.Z. Myers, Nick Matzke, Jerry Coyne, Kenneth Miller and Richard Dawkins) would be surprising given the hypothesis of design, ID proponents have long predicted that function will be identified for much of our DNA that was once considered to be useless. In a spectacular vindication of this hypothesis, six papers have been released in Nature, in addition to a further 24 papers in Genome Research and Genome Biology, plus six review articles in The Journal of Biological Chemistry.

The lead publication of the finding (“An Integrated Encyclopaedia of DNA Elements in the Human Genome“) was released in Nature. The abstract reports,

“The human genome encodes the blueprint of life, but the function of the vast majority of its nearly three billion bases is unknown. The Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) project has systematically mapped regions of transcription, transcription factor association, chromatin structure and histone modification. These data enabled us to assign biochemical functions for 80% of the genome, in particular outside of the well-studied protein-coding regions. Many discovered candidate regulatory elements are physically associated with one another and with expressed genes, providing new insights into the mechanisms of gene regulation. The newly identified elements also show a statistical correspondence to sequence variants linked to human disease, and can thereby guide interpretation of this variation. Overall, the project provides new insights into the organization and regulation of our genes and genome, and is an expansive resource of functional annotations for biomedical research.” [emphasis added]

They further report that,

“[E]ven using the most conservative estimates, the fraction of bases likely to be involved in direct gene regulation, even though incomplete, is significantly higher than that ascribed to protein- coding exons (1.2%), raising the possibility that more information in the human genome may be important for gene regulation than for biochemical function. Many of the regulatory elements are not constrained across mammalian evolution, which so far has been one of the most reliable indications of an important biochemical event for the organism. Thus, our data provide orthologous indicators for suggesting possible functional elements.”

As this Nature press release states,

“Collectively, the papers describe 1,640 data sets generated across 147 different cell types. Among the many important results there is one that stands out above them all: more than 80% of the human genome’s components have now been assigned at least one biochemical function.” [emphasis added]

The UK Guardian also covered the story, noting that

“For years, the vast stretches of DNA between our 20,000 or so protein-coding genes – more than 98% of the genetic sequence inside each of our cells – was written off as “junk” DNA. Already falling out of favour in recent years, this concept will now, with Encode’s work, be consigned to the history books.” [emphasis added]

This new research places a dagger through the heart of the junk DNA paradigm, and should give adherents to this out-dated assumption yet further cause for caution before they write off DNA, for which function has yet to be identified, as “junk”. Be sure to also check out Casey Luskin’s coverage of the findings at ENV.

21st Century Apologetics: A Roundtable Discussion

I have just returned from my three month trip to America. During that time, I had various adventures of varying levels of excitement. The last few days I spent in Atlanta, Georgia where I went to Dragon*Con. However, I was privileged to be invited by my good friend Nick Peters, to visit him and his wife Allie at the house of his father-in-law, none other than scholar, historian, and well-known Christian apologist, Mike Licona. What was even more exciting was that Gary Habermas and William Lane Craig were there also, and they gave short talks about their most recent research projects. I, and other people who were invited to this talk, had the opportunity to pose questions to these esteemed Christian intellectuals. I shall do my best to relate the talks and the discussions that were had.

Michelangelo of the Gaps

Ask a typical geologist, or even a competent GCSE student, how sand forms on the beach and you can expect a step by step procedure as large chunks of rock are split and weathered by the relentless beating of the ocean tides. This is a very slow, perfectly natural process that has been going on for millennia.
Ask how the famous Giant's causeway came about, those striking arrays of hexagonal pillars rising out of the sea on the Irish coast. You'll get a story that starts violently, with a rush of lava at hundreds of degrees, but again is both perfectly natural and unguided.
Ask about any rock form of any size on any continent, and through the gnarled roots of trees, the whipping of the desert winds, the pounding of rivers or the surging of magma from far below us they will provide an explanation, and for the most part those explanations will be perfectly solid.

Now ask instead about David.  The seventeen foot tall marble replica of a man, complete with muscles, bones, joints, and even sideburns, has and can have no unguided natural explanation. The only explanation that explains this phenomenon is the meticulous planning and dexterous hand of the great Renaissance artist and sculptor Michaelangelo. Geologists all agree with the accepted account of the origin of this sculpture, even as they agree on the natural processes that formed the smooth river stones the original David used in his most famous accomplishment.

An Open Letter to Europe Area Presidency of the Mormon Church, by Chris Ralph.

The following letter was sent by the Europe Area Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to its Stake Presidents and Bishops, and various other leaders in April 2012. It was sent in response to the increase in levels of disaffection of members who were encountering the problematic history of the church through the medium of the internet. The letter was soon afterwards leaked to rank and file members and ex-members, and became a public document. Following that is the response to this letter by now no longer believing Mormon Chris Ralph who has come to faith in Christ.

As a side note it was said last year by Marlin Jenson who was then the head historian for the Mormon church that they have never faced a time of Apostasy like they are now, this is mostly down to information people are finding on google about the truth of Mormon history, this letter and Chris's response to it has gathered thousands of views on www.mormonisminvestigated.co.uk and other blogs.

A Sunday Quote

"Never judge a philosophy by its abuses." - Augustine