‘SCIENTISTS’ BALDERDASH BEATS GURUS: An international team of researchers have conducted a survey to see whether people have higher regard for statements made by scientists compared with spiritual leaders, even if the people don’t understand what has been stated. To do this they presented people with apparently erudite statements that were really nonsense generated by a computer algorithm that puts together modern-day buzzwords and technical terms into grammatically correct but meaningless sentences. The statements were neither overtly scientific or religious. The team surveyed 10,195 participants from 24 countries, asking them to rate how credible they found the statements. The sources of the statements were ascribed to either a person with a fictitious name and described as “a spiritual authority in world religions” or to someone else with a different fictitious name yet described as “a scientific authority in the field of particle physics”. Overall, the survey revealed people gave higher credibility rating to the “scientific authority” source than the “spiritual leader”, even by people who identified as being “religious”. The research team called this phenomenon the “Einstein effect” and summarised their results: “across all 24 countries and all levels of religiosity, scientists held greater authority than spiritual gurus”. They then concluded: “These findings suggest that irrespective of one’s religious worldview, across cultures science is a powerful and universal heuristic that signals the reliability of information”.
References: Science Alert 13 February 2022; Nature Human Behaviour published online 7 February 2022, doi: 10.1038/s41562-021-01273-8.
ED. COM. This last statement may also sound like it came out of the balderdash producing algorithm, but it does make sense if you understand the term “heuristic” which means enabling someone to discover or learn something for themselves. Therefore, these researchers were claiming that people see science, and therefore the teachings of scientists, as the way to find the truth. It is interesting that even people who considered themselves religious put scientists above spiritual leaders. This has provably happened in the Christian church over the past century and a half, as the evolutionary words of Darwin, Lyell, Dawkins and Attenborough and their followers have been elevated above the Word of God on Six Day Creation, Noah’s Flood and other Biblical issues.
It pays to remember that when something is not true, it won’t ever be made true by being said by scientists, no matter how many university degrees they may have. To find the truth you need to go to the One who is the truth – The Lord Jesus Christ. He spoke the truth and backed up His words with actions that only the Creator could do.
Finally, don’t let anyone bluff you with ‘heuristic’ balderdash or big words. If something looks or sounds like balderdash it probably is, and being said by a scientific or religious authority will not change that. God’s Word uses plain language, meant for all to understand. If someone claiming to have scientific or religious authority tries to make it more complicated than it is, or change the plain meaning to suit current popular theories, don’t let them confuse you. If someone tries to bluff you with big words don’t be intimidated. Politely ask them to explain. If they can’t give you an answer in plain language, they probably don’t know what they are talking about.
We were recently called upon to deal with this issue when we were asked about a book by Ken Coulson, a Science PhD who proposed a new theory that to many appears to reconcile Darwin’s and Lyell’s theories with Genesis. The same author also made claims about dogs and evolution. For our response to both his claims see the questions:
What do you think of the book ‘Creation Unfolding’ by Ken Coulson? Is it evolutionist? Answer here.
Dogs have undergone many changes since people have been breeding them. Surely this is evolution? Answer here. Also see the item on dog genes in this newsletter below.
Further questions related to the issue of scientific authority:
A School Chaplain claims students lose faith unless we teach God used evolution. How do you reply? Answer here.
Can you show me one error made by Richard Dawkins? Answer here.‘https://mailchi.mp/creationresearch.net/creation-research-email-update-23rd-february-2022?e=ce21bf0337
Creation Science
All posts tagged Creation Science
John 1:10
“He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.”
‘Scientists have, for the first time, successfully communicated with honeybees in their own language! Scientists have for some time known how to interpret many of the elements of the bees’ so-called “waggle dance.” This dance is used by scouts to communicate the location of food sources to the food gatherers in the hive.
A couple years ago researchers decided to see if they could confirm their understanding of bee communication. But how do you talk to a bee and get confirmation that she understood what you said? Scientists decided that the only way to do this was to build a robot bee through which they could communicate. The first attempts at building a robot bee acceptable to real bees did not work well. Early models were viciously attacked.
Scientists finally perfected a computer-controlled robot bee that real honeybees accepted. These scientists describe honeybee language as elegant and precise. Yet they found they had learned enough bee language to communicate successfully a food source and its location to real bees. They also discovered that they have much more to learn about bee language. As a result, it may someday be possible for farmers to direct bees to crops that need pollination.
Just as bees can best understand other bees, we humans can best understand other humans. That explains why, when God our Creator wished to communicate with us, He became a human being. That human, Jesus Christ, taught us about God; and He also made peace with God for us, making possible the forgiveness of our sins.’https://creationmoments.com/sermons/robot-bee-communicator-2/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=robot-bee-communicator-2&mc_cid=c83190c013&mc_eid=00c1dcff3c
Theistic evolutionist ‘Dr. Francis Collins, former director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and founder of the evolutionary creation advocacy group BioLogos, has become a lightning rod within evangelicalism for promoting vaccines for COVID-19, especially among pastors and other faith leaders.
In a BioLogos-sponsored webinar last week, Collins chided many of his fellow white evangelicals for not getting the vaccine and alleged “the culture war is literally killing people.”
Collins cited Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that vaccine hesitancy or resistance contributed to more than 100,000 deaths from COVID-19, the Religion News Service reported. He suggested vaccine resistance was partly the result of Christians falling for misinformation.
Yet in a recent Daily Wire article that’s been widely circulated, conservative writer Megan Basham questioned why evangelicals haven’t interrogated Collins more rigorously before sharing their platform with the federal official she called “Caesar’s agent.”
Citing news reports, Basham accused Collins of trying to suppress questions surrounding the source of COVID-19 and the efficacy of the federal COVID-19 response. She also accused Collins himself of being “willing to compromise transparency and truth for PR considerations.”
Basham also questioned whether it was appropriate for Collins to recruit evangelical leaders like Wheaton College dean Ed Stetzer to help him spread the government’s preferred narratives about COVID-19.
On a podcast with Stetzer in September, Collins said, “I want pastors once again to try to use your credibility with your flock to put forward the public health measures that we know can work.”
But Basham asked, “(I)s it truly the pastor’s job to tell church members to ‘trust the science?’”
Spokespeople for the NIH and BioLogos didn’t immediately reply when The Roys Report reached out asking for a response to the Daily Wire piece. TheDaily Wire didn’t receive a response when it reached out to Stetzer, public theologian Russell Moore, and other high-profile evangelicals mentioned in the piece.
‘Misinformation . . . and conspiracies’
Collins regularly cites his faith in BioLogos podcasts and elsewhere, sometimes comparing his path to Christ to that of C.S. Lewis. Collins, who headed the Human Genome Project, is author of the best-selling book The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief, which won a Christianity Today Book Award.
Because of his substantial scientific credentials and professed Christian belief, The Washington Post described Collins as being in an “unusual position to address people of faith.”
In last week’s BioLogos webinar, Collins said he was surprised by how much his shared faith mattered to Christians. Researchers, he said, have found that “unless that truth comes at you from somebody you trust, you’re not going to call it truth at all.”
Collins also highlighted how white evangelicals were somewhat less likely than average to have gotten vaccinated for COVID-19.
About two-thirds of white evangelical Protestants had gotten at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine when Pew Research polled Americans in late August. At the time, 70% of black Protestants had done so, and almost three-quarters of Americans in general.
Collins told RNS he blamed “misinformation and lies and conspiracies” for part of white evangelicals’ hesitancy about COVID-19 vaccination. He also thought his messaging about the pandemic could have been better.
Credibility as an evangelical
However, Basham called Collins’ credibility with evangelicals into question.
Under Collins’ watch, she wrote, the NIH has funded research using abortion-derived fetal tissue and factored in diversity criteria when awarding grants. NIH funding has also gone to research on “sexual and gender minorities,” she wrote.
BioLogos, which Collins founded, also advocates for “an evolutionary understanding of God’s creation.”
According to Pew Research, only about a third of evangelicals think humans evolved and a majority oppose abortion and same-sex marriage.
Basham suggested Collins gained his credibility from “character witnesses” like Stetzer and former Southern Baptist leader Russell Moore, who praised Collins’ “Christian humility.”
After the article’s publication, Basham noted on Twitter that BioLogos suddenly canceled an interview she had scheduled with Collins on a different topic. When she asked why, an organization spokesperson replied that “the tone and claims” of her article were “inconsistence” with BioLogos’ aims.
Responses Mixed
Responses to the controversy have been mixed.
Jay Richards, a research fellow with the Heritage Foundation, urged pastors and religious leaders to apologize for “this naïve propagandizing for Collins.”
Kelley Owens, a kids director at a church in Indianapolis, tweeted: “If nothing else, this pandemic has served to increase my discernment and give me pause before I uncritically accept any position . . . Even if it comes from someone I have previously trusted.”
However, a medical doctor noted on social media that Collins was “far from the only medical doctor urging, masking, vaccination, and reasonable public health interventions. In fact there have been doctors and nurses in churches all across the country giving the same message to evangelicals.”
One reader likened the pushback against Collins to how Christians interacted with former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop.
Erick Erickson, a conservative Christian pundit, initially said he was “disturbed” by Basham’s article. But later, he published a blog post calling for an end to what he characterized as “infighting” among Christians trying to bolster their own credibility.
“(M)aybe those in positions of leadership need to realize there are others they’re inspiring to tribalism, not to the trials of the Christian life,” he wrote. “Maybe instead of picking sides, pick Jesus.”’https://julieroys.com/francis-collins-draws-fire-vaccine-advocacy-top-evangelicals/?mc_cid=27c313549b&mc_eid=b13d34ad49
If you have read this far Collins is wrong in both his belief on how God created and on the effectiveness of the Covid vaccines. Genesis 1:31 ¶ And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day and THERE IS NO WAY OF GETTING THEISTIC EVOLUTION out of that!
Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
‘Perhaps you remember the story of Chicken Little, the hen who got excited when an acorn fell on her head. She began running around hollering, “The sky is FALLING! The sky is FALLING!” On the way to tell the King about this catastrophe, she met her friends – a rooster, a duck, a goose and a turkey – who then became seized by fear, achieving a kind of mass animal hysteria. By the time they all met the fox, their judgment was essentially consumed by the mania, and they fell for the fox’s deception about a shortcut to see the King. So they followed the fox right into his den where they became dinner for the Fox family.
When people are fearful, they are more easily deceived, controlled and oppressed! This is why the Bible says in many places to “Fear not.” Because we can put our trust in our great and loving Creator, the Bible says to “abide under the shadow of the Almighty”, to “say of the Lord ‘He is my refuge and my fortress’ and “Surely He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler” (Psalm 91:1-3). When preoccupied by fear, we can’t discern truth and think as clearly – hence, the critical importance of abiding in God and Christ!
Faith in the law-giving, principle-giving Creator God of the Bible is the foundation for true “science” (the Latin word for “knowledge”). This is why the scientific revolution, the foundation of modern science, came from countries that had a biblical worldview – and on the heels of the protestant reformation and the printing and publishing of the Bible in the common languages. The development of true science required faith in the law-giving Creator of the Bible, who thus must also have created principles which the Bible said were there for mankind to discover. Cultures which believed the Bible thus sought and discovered the scientific laws. And the scientific laws are, in turn, proof of the law-giving Creator of which the Bible speaks!
When science is divorced from its Creator, as it is with evolution, it is open to all kinds of error and pseudo-science. One such error has been the so-called “scientific justification” for racism and for eugenics. Prolific writer, philosopher and lay theologian G.K. Chesterton wrote about the degrading effects of this kind of science: “The thing that really is trying to tyrannize is Science…That creed is the great but disputed system of thought which began with Evolution and has ended with Eugenics”.
Chesterton predicted tyranny from this kind of “science”, forecasting what later unfolded with the Nazis in Germany. Eugenics, including the ranking of people based on skull shapes and sizes, is now almost universally recognized as a pseudo-science … though Communist China revived it for its one-child abortion policies and racial-cleansing efforts.
Divorcing science from the God of the Bible through evolution promotes tyranny. It encourages the deconstruction of divine principles such as the sanctity of life, private property, and liberty. This is because social principles can be deconstructed or debunked if they do not carry the authority of our Maker. Chesterton points out, for example, that a godless science can argue, “After all, what is human life? Brief at best, sad at the brightest, it is itself but a disease from which, etc, etc.” So why not kill?
Or it can say, “After all, what is property? Why should material objects be artificially attached, etc, etc.” So why not steal? Or “After all, what is liberty? Man must live as a member of a society, and so must obey those laws which etc, etc.” So why not totally regulate and tyrannize individuals?
Today, science is so divorced from God through evolution that we are allowing biological men to compete against biological women in sports! And deconstruction of the great divine truth that God created them “male and female” (Genesis 1:27) is so entrenched through the deception and intimidation of pseudo-science that otherwise perfectly smart people capitulate to and join with this grand deception, daring not even to debate it!
Fear, indeed, accompanies godless evolution. For if we accept evolutionism, we accept that God is unnecessary or impotent or completely absent from the created order. And God the Creator gets replaced by Chance and Survival of the Fittest. We all become vulnerable to the whims of Chance – the impersonal, uncaring, fickle, capricious, merciless “god” who keeps us in fear.
Like island dwellers sacrificing their children to the volcano god to keep it from erupting by appeasing it, we might sacrifice our freedoms in fear to a culture of deception and death, including lives of the unborn to appease the enforcers of conclusions from godless science. We must be careful that we are not led into a trap as were Chicken Little and her friends!
As always, the answer to the dilemma of mankind is found in believing the Bible for all that it has to say, including, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains fall into the midst of the sea” (Psalm 46:1-2).
In many ways, our culture is based on modernized witchcraft. We are really no better than the ancients. Control, domination and manipulation – the ancient practice of shamans and witches over people to help them “avoid disaster” – is, in many ways, the practice of today’s rulers.
“Trust the science,” they tell us, except that such science is based in godlessness, with plenty of dishonesty, corruption, deception and deconstruction of divine truth along the way. “To avoid disaster, switch to electric cars, keep wearing your masks, and vaccinate your kids!” they say. “And teach them Critical Race Theory (CRT)”, thus reviving evolution-based racism, mixed with evolution-supported Marxism. “Oh and by the way, if you resist what we tell you to do, WE’RE COMING FOR YOU!” Godless science will try to work in the fear-factor in many ways.’https://creationmoments.com/newsletter/evolution-and-the-sum-of-all-fears/?mc_cid=dd42f56b70&mc_eid=00c1dcff3c
Psalm 138:6
“Though the LORD [be] high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off.”
‘Scientists are learning that even the lowly bacteria have mind and memory. New research is showing that mind, memory, brain, and personality did not evolve. These can be found in the lowliest of creatures, including the bacteria.
Another sign of intelligence in a life form is the ability to learn. Using attracting and repelling substances, scientists have found that bacteria can learn about their surroundings and draw conclusions. Follow-up tests showed that they later remember what they learned. Scientists have even found that younger bacteria learn better than older ones. If some things are not learned when young, they never can be learned! It seems that it’s hard to teach an old bacterium new tricks!
The biggest surprise of all came when scientists discovered that bacteria have what the researchers called individual personality. They are mystified about how bacteria, each with the same genetic structure and from the same environment, can develop unique quirks in behavior. Because we find individual personality even in the lowly bacteria, we know that did not evolve.
That God would give even a bacterium the gift of personality shows us something about His mind toward us. Nothing is so small or unimportant that it escapes His attention. Since He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to rescue us from the decay that is in the world because of sin, there is no force too great for Him to overcome. Surely He is a God of details as well as a God of love, Who is concerned about every individual among us.’https://creationmoments.com/sermons/the-personality-of-bacteria-2/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-personality-of-bacteria-2&mc_cid=7735b4d93e&mc_eid=00c1dcff3c
Genesis 1:11
“And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.”
‘One of the criticisms of solar power is that it is so variable. Clearly, a solar plant is going to produce no energy at night and an inadequate supply when the sky is cloudy. On the other hand, a suitable size plant could over-produce when sunlight is intense.
Plants have a similar problem. The rapidly changing incidence of sunlight on their leaves could, conceivably, cause problems within the plant. However, researchers have discovered that plants have mechanisms to cope with these variations, and one such mechanism could answer the old question: “Why are plants green?”
Plants produce high energy carbohydrate molecules from water vapor and carbon dioxide by the well-known process of photosynthesis. This endothermic reaction requires the input of energy in the form of light, and the reaction is catalyzed by the green dye chlorophyll. What many of us have not considered is why chlorophyll is green.
White light is a mixture of all three primary colors – red, green and blue – which have increasing frequency and, hence, increasing energy, in that order. The remarkable thing about plants, therefore, is that they are absorbing light energy only at either end of the visible spectrum while rejecting – and reflecting – the middle of the spectrum, which is green. Researchers have shown that this selective absorption of certain frequencies minimizes “noise” and, therefore, enables the plant to cope with rapidly changing conditions of sunshine.
God has made plants with a truly remarkable mechanism for growth.’https://creationmoments.com/sermons/why-are-plants-green/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=why-are-plants-green&mc_cid=1b22ebf3ce&mc_eid=00c1dcff3c
Matthew 16:2
“He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, [It will be] fair weather: for the sky is red.”
‘One good test of whether a theory is scientific is whether the theory can accurately predict new and surprising findings. If you have a barometer, you may do this all the time. The sky may be clear, but the barometer is falling fast. No matter how nice the weather looks, you know that rain is likely.
Creation scientists believe that humans have been on Earth in their present so-called “modern” form ever since the model first came out. Since that was on day six of creation, humans have been on Earth as long as any creature. So creation scientists have predicted that as we find more fossils, we will find fossils of “modern man” in older and older rocks. Such a discovery would shock the evolutionists!
Evolutionists say that, according to their theory, “modern” humans have been around for only a small part of the world’s history. In their inflated estimate, they say we have been here for only 35,000 years. Evolutionists received a surprise when that age recently had to be almost tripled. A new discovery pushed the date for “modern” humans back 92,000 years. As a result, evolutionists had to admit that we turn out to be older than some of the creatures from which we were supposed to have evolved!
Of course, one has to take the hot air out of those evolutionary dates. They can be adjusted down to a number that fits the biblical calendar. However, the scientific prediction made by creation scientists has proven out. And creationists are predicting that the history of “modern” humanity will continue to be pushed back further and further!
