I find it disappointing (but perhaps not that surprising) that the main atheist response to this article is to challenge the creationist right to have a voice, rather than examine any of the content of the article.

I wonder what they're afraid of, the loss of control over censorship? If creationists are not supposed to publish in an open, public forum such as here, then where? Or more pointedly, if evolutionists hold their views to be beyond critique, then how can they claim their position as rational or evidence based?

The lack of willingness to address their issues and blind spots is why this subject will remain so polarised.

Dear Phanto,

<<Why do you see life and mortality as problems to be solved?>>

Because ontological anxiety underlies all our other problems and worries:
it is the primal anxiety over the possibility of one's own non-existence, non-consciousness, non-goodness and non-happiness.

We often mask our fundamental anxiety with lesser everyday fears.
We even create problems for ourselves as a way to deflect the underlying primal anxiety which is too painful to face.
Had we overcame our ontological anxiety, the rest of our problems would turn into fun.

<What is wrong with them that needs to be fixed?>

You cannot experience your own true nature, your own divinity, your identity with God beyond all existence and non-existence and unlimited eternal bliss, until and unless you overcome your ontological anxiety.

<<Why do you see them as things which you need to be lifted out of?>>

So long as you have ontological anxiety, you suffer.
You suffer for a lie, needlessly.
The lie is that you are this body of yours, which perishes.
The lie is that you are limited as this body is.
The lie is that you are a sinner, as the mind of that body is.
The lie is that you need anything outside of yourself to be happy, as your body does (and are miserable otherwise).

We pray:

asato ma sadgamaya
tamaso ma jyotirgamaya
mrtyorma amrtam gamaya
om shanti shanti shanti.

Lead me from the asat to the sat (roughly translated, illusion-to-truth).
Lead me from darkness to light.
Lead me from death to immortality
Om Peace Peace Peace.

For more in-depth answers to your question, see http://www.amritapuri.org/3731/asatoma.aum

Dear Dan,

<<So some say Christians should be proclaiming the 'Rock of Ages' rather than discussing the age of rocks.>>

Indeed they should!

Life is too short and precious to waste on material rocks.

If one still has worldly duties and a family to feed, then it is excusable to discuss the age of rocks in the course of gaining livelihood (say as a scientist or an engineer) - yet in between and in one's spare time, one should always remember the Rock of Ages.

<<But I would add that God's Word should be consistent with his world>>

I disagree. God's Word should be consistent with goodness, not with the world.

While not a Christian myself, if I were to use Christian terminology, I would say that while the world comes from God, human interest in the world comes from Satan.

<<or how or why would any logical or reasonable person have faith in it?>>

It is logical and reasonable to have faith because it is good to have it:

"It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to make music to your name, O Most High, to proclaim your grace in the morning and your faithfulness in the nights" [Psalm 92:1-2]

.

Dear Don (the author),

.

You’re right. We’ve still got a lot to learn about the universe. I have no doubt that many, if not all, of our current explanations of how, when, where and why it all came about will be superseded on many more occasions over the coming Ga (gigaannus) - billions of years - just as they have in the past.

It’s a race against time. Perhaps life will become extinct long before we are able to get to the bottom of it all.

If so, a large portion of mankind will no doubt continue to have recourse to the concept of the Omnipotent for protection, relief from suffering, comfort, and the reward of eternal life united with their loved ones. It’s quite simple really. All they have to do is believe that “there is a God who created everything”.

Many would have great difficulty coping with the vicissitudes of daily life without some form of faith.

It is by faith alone that they are saved.

Who cares if there really is a god or not ? Nobody will ever know – not in this life anyway, so why worry ?

.

Others have already pointed out that saying 'God did it by magic' doesn't make something any more plausible than just saying 'It happened by magic'. Once a theist comes up with a detailed description of HOW their god did it, what he used, the sequence of his actions, the reasons for the choices he made, why this had the results that it did and -- most important -- how we can verify this -- THEN they will have a theory. Otherwise all they have is a magical fantasy.

But this is actually good news. If Don Batten and Sells are the only theists who are still willing to put their beliefs on the line for public criticism, then atheists have already won.

The oxygen in the air that I breathe cannot be seen, touched, heard or felt, yet if it were gone for just a few minutes, I would die.

The THEORY of evolution postulates that all life evolved from single cell organisms that crawled, swam out of the primordal ooze. Say like bacteria clever enough to create a rotating motor spinning inside a spindle to turn a corkscrew tail to move them about a bit?

A very convenient faith based belief, that fails scientific rigor, given the complete and total absence of any carboniferous deposits that would rule this entirely faith based fanaticism in?

[And wait for the abusive dummy spits from some, as their absolutism is challenged?]

In fact the odds are less for a whirlwind whipping through a junkyard and forming a fully functional flyable 747.

We have produced bacteria pseudo life in the laboratory; but only ever in the presence of a controlling intelligence and in perfectly timed sequential steps.

According to Einstein's unified field theory, the universe and everything in it including us, is only modified energy. An explanation that holds good for dark energy and dark matter?

Can the universe think? Well, you and I can, and we are an integral part of it!
Alan B.