Piltdown Superman

It is not news that people throughout history have hated the Jews, and many want to eradicate them from their land. Especially Mohammedans, who have thugs working toward that end who murder men, women, and children. Modern Israel is a small strip land that most people would find unappealing. Yet the Hebrew people have survived persecutions and attempted genocide for millennia. The state of Israel testifies of fulfilled prophecy , which in turn indicates that the Word of God is true. The hand of God can be seen keeping Israel in existence. Israel Flag, Unsplash / Stanislav Vdovin Other peoples in the area inhabit historic lands, but modern Jews are genetically who they claim to be. Fanatical Islamic groups like Hamas and others want to join with the Palestinians (who have a flag but never had a country ) in destroying the Jews. Hatred for Israel seems to have been increasing in recent years, with the American Democrat party supporting terrorists! Hebrews have survived for thousands of y

Although political correctness (a wide-ranging term often unrelated to politics) and cultural sensitivity frequently become absurd, sometimes they can be useful. Ayers Rock in Australia is also known as the Aboriginal name Uluru.  Easter Island and its people are now called  Rapa Nui . While it was arrogant of the white explorers to assign names of their own choosing without so much as a by your leave, leftist ideologies often demonize white people. The secular science industry embraces leftist cultural ideas, and this is illustrated with the history of Easter Island. Easter Island statues, Flickr / The TerraMar Project ( CC BY 2.0 ), modified at PhotoFunia On a side note, the head statues on Easter Island are famous. What is less known is that bodies of a sort are attached to those heads and buried underground. There are stories about how the isolated population of Rapa Nui degenerated and collapsed, even to the point of wars and cannibalism. A big part of it was ecocide , the overu

Every once in a while, there will be news about a gospel, Bible fragment, or other ancient text that purports to provide special insight. People get all a-twitter about these things, thinking that knowledge can be gained from texts that were omitted from the Bible. Here is an expensive word that may impress your friends if you use it: pseudepigrapha . Essentially, it is an ancient text that is falsely attributed to a famous person. There are quite of few of those things. An infancy gospel is credited to Thomas, and I doubt he would approve of it. Apostle St. Thomas / El Greco, ca. 1612 One of my suspicions as to why people like rejected writings is that people want to feel special, and having what appears to be knowledge that others don't have may give them that imagined superiority. Indeed, that also fits with Gnosticism . While Gnosticism does not really have one definition and has changed over the centuries, essentially it means special esoteric knowledge. Also, they tend to b

So, how about those Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, huh? Really impressive things worth writing home about... Except for one, all we have are stories and historical records. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon have been misnamed for more than one reason. According to traditional accounts, the gardens did not exactly hang, but were grown on roofs and things in the palace of Babylon. But the moniker did not get corrected. History is sketchy about them, and not written by eyewitnesses. Checking more closely, they were probably in a different location altogether. Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Wikimedia Commons / 19th century illustration (PD) People who bother to read their Bibles should recognize the name of Assyria. It was a kingdom. Vicious, nasty people at times. That was a reason Jonah did not want to obey God and call Nineveh, the capital, to repentance. He wanted God to punish them, and was disappointed that they did repent for a while. Later on, they went back to being bad dudes. Ass

Although is is often interesting to learn about archaeological discoveries, it must be a tough job. Study on it. Not only are things very old and fragile, but archaeologists must study history, false narratives, shifting borders, languages — and modern political situations that may bring their work to a screeching halt. The Bible contains accurate history; nothing in it has been contravened by archaeology. Those of us who believe the Bible are not rattled by fallacious arguments from silence (something has not been found), knowing it is inerrant. Archaeology helps clear up certain things. Tablet from Nuzi, Wikimedia Commons / Zunkir ( CC BY-SA 4.0 ) When reading the Genesis narrative around the time of Abraham, people may wonder, "What's that all about?" We know why Sarai told Abram to go in to her maidservant Hagar in Genesis 16, but it turns out that she is not the first person to suggest this. Also, why did Rachel steal her father's household gods in Genesis 31, a

Huge numbers of books have been written about historical events and notable people, often attempting to go beyond recounting events. The lives and personalities of important figures are explored — and explanations for their actions are attempted. One of these is Charles Darwin. People may think that science was shaken by the wonderful discovery of evolution by natural selection, but that is not true. As discussed previously, significant events seldom happen spontaneously. Events, culture, help from others, and more helped Darwin attain popularity . Charles Darwin preaching in a church, made with AI at Bing The article linked below is by Neil Thomas, writing for the Discovery Institute. Although he is a professing agnostic (and Christians should be praying for him), he does not show contempt for Christianity. He has made a few mistakes, which is to be expected. Neil pointed out that Victorian England had reached a point where people were doubting the Bible, and this was exacerbated by i

Several countries have special days set aside to pay tribute to those killed in the service of their countries. Today is ours. One tradition is to put American flags on graves of the fallen, and people tend to blur Veterans Day (which honors living people in the armed forces) with Memorial Day. It is a good thing to have holidays to prompt us to remember the fallen, and also for other noteworthy times in a culture or individual lives. We do something similar with birthdays and anniversaries. Establishing reminders is found in the Bible. Memorial Day flags and cross / Pxhere God instituted symbols and feasts to prompt Israel to remember him and what he did for them. The most obvious in the Old Testament is the rainbow, which is God's promise to never flood the entire earth again. Another famous reminder is  Passover , which had detailed instructions for the observance. Yesterday at church, we had Communion (the Lord's Supper). Passover was a strong foreshadowing of the time when

Dating methods are fraught with problems. Secular scientists admit it on occasion. Also, the conflicting results and poor reasoning are brought to the fore by biblical creation scientists. Historical records are suspect because victors often write history, and in ancient times, often embellished the stories. Archaeometric dating is a reasonable idea at first glance. Ancient artifacts often contain bits of iron, and when it is heated (such as when cities were burned), the conditions of Earth's magnetic field are shown. Sounds like a plausible way to calibrate a dating method. Clay brick inscribed with the name of Nebuchadnezzar II, WikiComm / Dr. Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin ( CC BY-SA 4.0 ) It doesn't work. Secular scientists make a number of assumptions, primarily uniformitarianism ("the present is the key to the past") and deep time. The magnetic field of the earth was stronger in the past, but there were times of great changes in it. Observations and models of bibli

There are many stories floating around about Nicolas Copernicus, but many are completely false. (Atheistic revisionists are partly to blame.) He was in fact a Christian who believed that studying the heavens glorified God. His views did not contradict the Bible. Copernicus is credited with the heliocentric view (the earth orbits the sun). He reluctantly brought forward his view. Church leaders were enthusiastic about it at first, and geocentric (the earth moves around the sun) scientists and philosophers opposed him. Copernicus in the tower at Frombork , Jan Matejko, 1872 His model was discussed for about seventy-five years, but it seems to have received some backlash from Galileo. Frankly (mind if I call you Frank?), Galileo was a bit of a jerk and brought trouble on himself . (Atheistic revisionists made up many things about him, too.) Galileo drew from the work of Copernicus, then brought physical evidence to the discussion of which objects orbits what; it was no longer just philoso

Although atheists and other anti-creationists try to avoid inconvenient truths, some of us still try to present them. First, many insist that creationists lack the intellectual prowess to be scientists. We show them that many great scientists of the past were Christians , even biblical creationists. Then they may whine that we are discussing dead people, so we tell them about modern scientists that are biblical creationists . No, they are disqualified because the only true  scientists are materialists. Lather, rinse, repeat, they move the goalposts like they were jet propelled. Plesiosaur skeleton, Flickr /  Kim Alaniz  ( CC by 2.0 ) In 1660 London, the Royal Society was formed to encourage the development of natural philosophy (the earlier term for what is now called science). While some sidewinders say that biblical creation science was initiated fairly recently, the Royal Society had members who believed the Bible, including recent creation and the Genesis Flood. One of their member

As discussed here several times before, a movement, revolution, or other large effect on a society seldom spontaneously generates. Mayhaps you have heard how something was "ahead of its time" or the world was not ready for it. Conditions were not right for that thing. Other sweeping changes occur, leaving people wondering how they took root. Slowly. Charles Darwin is treated like a brilliant scientist for creating evolution, but that is the opposite of the truth . The conditions in Victorian England were right for his conjectures, and the prominent Huxleys helped him out . Darwin caricature, 1871, Vanity Fair , modified at remove.bg At the time of Darwin and even before, people were becoming more blatantly rebellious to God and disrespectful to the Bible. (Interestingly, the only degree that Charlie earned was in theology, which lends credence to the suggestion that he lifted the biblical creation narrative and was making a naturalistic religious text!) Many factors came toge

The word apologetics  comes from the Greek word ἀπολογία ( apologia ), which essentially means to make a reasoned defense or argument. (In this regard, an apology does not mean saying one is sorry.) We discuss the Bible internally and also use outside references. There are apologists for many things. Biblical apologists strive to show that the Bible is true. Otherwise, it is simply an item of curiosity for stuffy intellectual types having parlor discussions with brandy and cigars. Our faith would be worthless, Question Evolution Day would have no relevance, we would be worthy of ridicule. Section of P-45 Greek papyrus manuscript of the Gospel of Luke, via Wikimedia Commons That is not the case. The Bible has been shown to be an important historical reference, and it is the Word of God, changing lives and bringing salvation. Interestingly, some of the technology that backfires on evolutionists  has been used to examine extremely delicate biblical manuscripts that could not even be o

So many events of ancient history are only known through word-of-mouth stories, some artefacts, and even written accounts. The Bible has never been refuted by archaeology, and archaeologists used to respect the Bible even if they were unbelievers. Today, some try to wave off biblical events using bad reasoning. The Battle of Jericho was a significant event marking the conquest of Canaan. The Israelites were led by Joshua, successor of Moses. Jericho was an imposing city with a double wall, and God miraculously intervened. The Taking of Jericho , James Tissot, ca. 1900 There is no doubt that Jericho existed. In fact, there were walls around the city before Joshua got there. After it was burned, other people decided that it sure would be a shame to let that prime real estate go to waste, so they moved in. Jericho went without walls for many years after its conquest because nobody wanted to run crosswise of Joshua's curse on whomever rebuilt the walls. There are many archaeological fa

If you saddle up and ride down Bolivia way, mayhaps to finally solve the mystery of the demise of Butch and Sundance , you will notice lots of rainforest. There are satellite images, but the overgrowth is mighty thick. Legends of lost cities of the Amazon have some truth. A few days ago, we discussed sonar . It uses sound waves to detect and examine things unseen. Light detection and ranging — lidar — uses laser to (in this case) obtain images beneath the overgrowth using a helicopter. What was revealed is startling. Cloud forest habitat in Bolivia, Flickr / US Fish & Wildlife Service ( CC BY 2.0 ) (usage does not imply endorsement) Believers in particles-to-pilot evolution consider early humans to be stupid because they have not evolved much in the way of intelligence or cognition. Then they get surprised to see that those people were far more intelligent than the evolution narrative requires, and they are not teaching from empirical evidence. The Bible tells us that mankind was

Some folks get jaded with Christmas, reading or hearing readings of the birth of Jesus, the arrival of the Magi, the census taken while Quirinius was governor, and more. Same old thing every year, right? Some of us terribly miss the "same old" that we will never have again... If we slow down and pay attention, there is a great deal to give us a sense of wonder. Hundreds of years before, Isaiah prophesied that Jesus would be born of a virgin . Micah 5:2 prophesied where. Ironically, some prophesies were fulfilled by unbelievers. Nativity of Jesus figurines, Pexels / Susanne Jutzeler We can also find out that there are many misconceptions surrounding Christmas (especially that "Christmas is pagan and you can't celebrate it" nonsense ). That bad old innkeeper who turned Mary and Joseph away, but his kindhearted wife attended to the delivery — never happened. The Magi were powerful king makers, and there was probably an entourage, not just three (three gifts  are me

It may come as a shock to some folks, but biblical prophets did not necessarily  foretell future events. They spoke the words of God and admonished wayward people. However, some prophesied noteworthy events — such as Isaiah and the virgin birth of Jesus. Atheists cannot handle prophecy and try to denigrate it by saying people who came later got creative and fabricated the foretelling. (They assert but never provide evidence.) Isaiah 7:14 reads, ". . .the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son. . ." Disputes exist if she is a virgin or only a young woman. Isaiah , Ernest Meissonier, 1838 There are several problems with this passage. If the girl was just a young woman, the prophecy is no big deal. Also, the word translated as young woman or virgin can legitimately be translated either way. Context is important, as are historical events. We learn, to the dismay of misotheists, that it was indeed a virgin that conceived according to prophecy. Isaiah is a beloved book of the

When reading history in the Bible and seeing the word Philistines , one might want to heave a sigh and mutter about troublemakers. The most famous passages about them are probably with David and Goliath (who was probably a mercenary), Samson beating up on them, and when Philistines took the Ark of the Covenant. They are mentioned numerous times throughout the Old Testament. More often than not, they were indeed troublemakers. They cause problems today for Bible scholars and historians who want to know who they were in the first place. Pottery Votive Gift to Philistine Shrine, 9th Century BC, Flickr / Gary Todd (Public Domain) Philistines lived in several areas, and seem to have come from Crete. The Bible seems to conflict with other historical accounts and archaeology. However, there are several things that need to be considered, including that the name itself seems to have been used loosely — and retroactively. The Philistines are a problematic people group in the Bible. Scholars arg

First, a bit of something that grinds my gears. Many articles and videos (including the one featured below) are titled in the form of a question, and some folks seem compelled to reply without dealing with the material. News flash: Writers are not asking for opinions, they are answering the question in the title. You savvy? There are people who want to know if the dating methods used on human fossils can be trusted, and what kinds of problems such vast numbers of years present for the Bible. Those used on human fossils have problems. Homo naledi skeletal specimens, Wiki Comm / Lee Roger Berger research team ( CC BY 4.0 ) I reckon it's easy to get the idea that the dates assigned to fossils of humans, apes, and alleged humans are correct. After all, these are knowledgeable people who speak with authority and tell us the dating methods used. They can even go into the details of the processes if we ask nicely. But not only are there problems with the processes, all dating methods re

People seldom develop concepts on their own. They get inspirations and influences from a variety of people. If one ponders how they arrived at their religious or political beliefs, several influencers will probably come to mind. Adolf Hitler had a great deal of help with his evils . He has sparked research by historians, psychologists, and others who want to learn how he gained power, and able to commit so many atrocities for several years. Hitler wrote Mein Kampf , but many of his thoughts were under the inspiration of Karl Haushofer. Karl Haushofer, circa 1920 (colorized at Img2Go , further modified) There were evolutionary views before Darwin, and Haushofer was among those who welcomed Darwin's ideas. It is interesting that the idea of Lebensraum (struggle for living space) was asserted to be the duty and even the moral right of the superior race to take land away from the inferior races. Haushofer was all for it. — but did anyone ask, "How do you know?" What determin

Christians know that the Bible is the written Word of God, and many unbelievers admit that it is historically accurate. However, people have struggled with correlating the chronologies with historical events. There are several reasons for discrepancies. Biblical creationists like the dates of James Ussher, but a few consider them almost sacred text. He did have some flaws in his methodology, and in the years since, new knowledge has come to light. Also, other historical records are sometimes inaccurate or use different dating methods. Clocks, Pixabay / Gerd Altmann ( geralt ) It was learned that different anchor dates  were used in texts. Those were not always used consistently and sometimes changed altogether, so adjustments had to be made. There are two major schools of thought on chronologies that are discussed in the paper linked below. Although it is rather long and detailed, people like me are able to get something useful out of the material, and not study the numerous charts. Th