Showing posts with label creation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label creation. Show all posts

Sunday, October 8, 2023

Why Has God Killed People? God's Plan for Mankind. How Much Lead Is in Organic Chicken Soup (Bone Broth)?

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Why Has God Killed People?

A stone path through a forest Elke Karin Lugert/Unsplash

“If God loves human kind, why did He order the death of some people in the Old Testament?

God has revealed that His plan includes resurrecting humans. He will bring them back to life later to teach them the right way to live.

God is the one who created human life as part of His great plan to show love to us. As Creator, He retains control over His creation, including the right to decide when to end someone's life. In Deuteronomy 32:39 God says He is the only true God and has the right to kill or to make alive.

God has also revealed that His plan includes resurrecting humans—bringing them back to life (something we humans cannot do). So even when God decides to kill a whole nation because of their gross sins and the misery they were bringing on themselves (as He did to allow Israel to inherit the land He had promised to Abraham), that is not the end of those people. He will bring them back to life later to teach them the right way to live.

The Ten Commandments booklet addresses this issue in the chapter about the Sixth Commandment.

"Taking another person's life is not our right to decide. That judgment is reserved for God alone. That is the thrust of this commandment. God does not allow us to choose to willfully, deliberately take another person's life. The Sixth Commandment reminds us that God is the giver of life, and He alone has the authority to take it or grant humans permission to take it."

All of these points support God's right to take human life, including using the Lake of Fire to destroy those who refuse His offer of eternal life. Though it might seem strange at first, even when God kills someone, it can be a demonstration of His love.”  From: https://www.ucg.org/bible-study-tools/bible-questions-and-answers/why-has-god-killed-people

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The Eighth Day, God's Plan for Mankind

Transcript of video at: https://www.ucg.org/beyond-today/beyond-today-daily/the-eighth-day-gods-plan-for-mankind          (Eighth Day was yesterday.)

“God has a merciful and loving plan for ALL of mankind; the Eighth Day is a beautiful representation of this plan.  

[Steve Myers] “The final commanded festival of God is the Eighth Day. Leviticus 23 talks about this special festival with a unique name. Sometimes it's called the Last Great Day. And it shows some amazing things about how merciful our loving God is. There's a section in the Book of Revelation, in Revelation 20 that talks about God's love. And as you look at Revelation 20, this section beginning in verse 11, points to that very fact that it talks about a great white throne, and how all those who ever lived and died and never knew God will be resurrected. It says there, "The small and the great were standing before God," and it points to that time. And it says, "The books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the book of life." And what this is pointing to is this deep spiritual understanding that God has a plan and a purpose for everyone.

Just because you never knew God, or never understood God, doesn't mean you will be condemned forever. God has a plan. God is love. And just because you may grown to know God, and those in some foreign remote area in the world didn't, it doesn't mean that they're lost forever. What this points to is the fact God is love, and everyone will have an opportunity. When it says, "The books were opened," the books are the Biblia is the word there. The Bible will be opened to all those who ever lived. They'll have an opportunity to understand the love of God. They'll be able to understand that there is a sacrifice for sin. They'll be able to understand that God is merciful, and then they can choose to follow God and live His way.

And so, that's the amazing thing about God and His plan and His purpose. It is there throughout Scripture, and this is a New Testament Christian observance, keeping the Last Great Day, the Eighth Day, recognizing the fact that God doesn't want any to perish, but He wants all to come to repentance. That's exactly what 2 Peter 3:9 says. And that is what God is all about. God has a plan, and it's shown throughout His Holy Day plan and His purpose. So read Leviticus 23, and recognize the great spiritual significance of God's Holy Days. You'll find it to be absolutely amazing.”  From: https://www.ucg.org/beyond-today/beyond-today-daily/the-eighth-day-gods-plan-for-mankind

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How Much Lead Is in Organic Chicken Soup (Bone Broth)?

Let’s review lead from occupational exposures, shooting ranges, eggs, and bone broth.

Transcript of video at: https://nutritionfacts.org/video/friday-favorites-how-much-lead-is-in-organic-chicken-soup-bone-broth/?

Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.

“Lead poisoning still occurs the United States despite extensive prevention efforts and strict regulations.” Ayurvedic supplements, for example, specifically marketed to pregnant women, exceeded safety levels by up to 4 million percent, making “Ayurvedic medicine use and lead poisoning…a continued concern in the United States.” “[H]eavy metals are intentionally added” to the supplements. But, don’t worry, Ayurvedic practitioners claim, the lead has been detoxified with cow pee!

“Calcium supplements [can be] an additional source of lead contamination”—something we’ve known about for half a century now. Calcium supplements made from bone may have the highest lead levels. But just regular calcium supplements were found contaminated too, including a number of big national brands.

Diet-wise, the greatest contribution to the lead intake of children and their parents may be dairy, but the most concentrated source may be wild game shot with lead-containing ammunition. Concerns have been raised by hunters, though, that lead-free bullets wouldn’t have the same “wounding capacity.” But, CT scans of kills show just as much damage is inflicted—demonstrating that lead-free bullets have equivalent “killing effectiveness” even against “ballistic soap,” which evidently has a similar density to vital organs.

Workers in battery plants can be exposed to a lot of lead, but the #1 “non occupational lead exposure” is shooting firearms. Not eating lead-laden meat, just taking target practice in indoor firing ranges; 75% of target shooters have elevated lead levels in their blood. Even outside, airborne lead released by the friction of the bullet against the barrel, or lead-containing primers, can lead to substantial lead exposure both in people and in local wildlife—as well as the soil, with lead levels higher than those found next to an industrial lead factory. Most lead in urban soil, though, is from the decades of leaded paint and gasoline, raising concerns about urban gardens. Most of the lead doesn’t get taken up by the plants, though, but can stick to the leaves and roots. This is bad news in that even crops from raised beds using clean soil may get contaminated in an urban environment, but the good news is that the lead can presumably just be washed off. The health benefits of gardening and fresh produce would “likely…more than…compensate for the risk at most sites.”

Eggs from backyard chickens, however, should be tested for lead, since the lead gets inside the eggs; and so, it can’t be washed off. Most of the lead ends up in the birds’ skeletons, which raises the question: What happens when you try to make chicken soup? There may be an upswing in people boiling bones due to encouragement from paleo diet advocates. The problem is that lead is a neurotoxin, and, not just a neurotoxin. It also adversely affects the bone marrow, and digestive tract, and kidneys, and circulatory system, and hormones, and reproduction. Symptoms of too much lead exposure include impaired cognition, anemia, abdominal pain, kidney problems, high blood pressure, miscarriages, memory problems, constipation, impotence, depression,  poor concentration, etcetera.

And, we know from human studies that lead is sequestered in the bones. When there’s a lot of “bone turnover,” like at menopause or during pregnancy, lead levels in the blood can go up. This bump can be minimized during pregnancy by getting enough calcium and lowering sodium intake. When astronauts lose bone in space, the lead is released into their bloodstream. But, ironically, since they’re no longer exposed to all the lead on Earth, their overall lead levels may go down. Bones are so good at sucking up lead, they can be sprinkled on firing ranges to prevent lead from leeching further into the environment.

These researchers were concerned that the boiling of farm animals’ bones might release lead into the broth. So, they made three types of organic chicken broth—one with the bones, one with just the meat, and one with the skin and cartilage. All the soups exceeded the maximum allowable dose level for lead, even the boneless. Surprisingly, the skin and cartilage was the worst, exceeding the safety level per one cup serving by like 475%.”    From: https://nutritionfacts.org/video/friday-favorites-how-much-lead-is-in-organic-chicken-soup-bone-broth/

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Sunday, August 20, 2023

Effects of Baptism: A Clean Start. Sin’s Payday. Human-Made Stuff Now Outweighs All Life on Earth.

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Effects of Baptism: A Clean Start

“Is water baptism essential for salvation? God wants 21st-century Christians to understand the effects of baptism in providing a clean start to a new life.

Effects of Baptism: A Clean StartJennifer stood waiting at the steps of the pool, giving her friends and family time to gather around in order to witness her baptism. She had been thinking and praying about this commitment to God for quite some time. And she had gone through a series of counselings with her pastor that helped her understand and further convicted her about the step she was taking.

Jennifer felt good about her decision and was confident that it was the right course of action. It was just about time for her to step into the water and formally make her covenant relationship with God.

Is baptism necessary today?

But was it really necessary for Jennifer to undergo this ancient practice that originated in type under the Old Covenant (Hebrews 9:10)? Must Christians be baptized today to have a clean start?

According to some groups, including Christian Scientists, Quakers, the Salvation Army and Unitarians, the answers to these questions are both “No.”

Those who do not practice baptism vary in their explanations as to why they do not, but in general, they consider baptism to be an outdated ritual that is no longer necessary under the New Covenant. Reasons given often include:

  • What one experiences in his or her heart is what is most important.
  • External actions to reflect one’s inner thoughts are superfluous.
  • The scriptures on baptism are ambiguous.
  • People can live holy lives without being baptized.

So are the Scriptures really that vague? Is there any value to being baptized? What are the effects of baptism? Instead of relying on human opinions and reasoning, let’s see what the biblical record shows.

Christ’s example and instruction on baptism

A quick review of Christ’s actions just before the beginning of His ministry is insightful as a lesson for us today. As we will soon see, Jesus taught that baptism was very important.

When John the Baptist began preaching in the wilderness of Judea, people from “Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins” (Matthew 3:5-6). Though Jesus had no sins to confess, He asked John to baptize Him (verse 13).     Baptism is far more than a symbolic exercise.

After being baptized, the Spirit of God descended upon Jesus and a voice from heaven said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (verse 17).

Why did God the Father make this statement after Jesus was baptized? And, of special concern to us, will the Father be pleased if we are baptized? It seems obvious that He thinks baptism is important!

Scriptures such as 1 Peter 2:21 and 1 John 2:6 show that Christians are to follow the example of Jesus Christ. We are to walk as He walked, do as He did. We are indeed to be baptized as He was. When we follow Christ’s example, God the Father is, no doubt, pleased with us as well.

Jesus’ teaching on baptism was not limited to His personal example. During His earthly ministry, He had His disciples baptize those who believed (John 3:22). It is also insightful to note that Christ’s disciples baptized more people than John the Baptist (John 4:1-2).

After His crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus appeared to His disciples and gave them instructions on how they were to take His message to the world.

Note that His instructions, which are sometimes referred to as the commission of the Church, include baptizing those who respond: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19, emphasis added throughout).

Jesus also pointedly stated, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved” (Mark 16:16). Christ’s teaching on the importance and effects of baptism is quite clear!

Since Jesus clearly taught baptism, let’s now consider what we learn by following His instruction.

Effects of baptism: what we learn and receive from baptism

Repentance. When people in Peter’s audience on the Day of Pentecost in A.D. 31 asked the apostle what they should do, he told them to “repent, and let every one of you be baptized” (Acts 2:38). Repentance, which is the initial step toward baptism, means changing our way of life because of a change in our thinking. It means that in hindsight, we realize that the way we had been living was not in accordance with God’s good and beneficial laws.

The process of repentance—which we are led to by God (Romans 2:4)—helps us understand the seriousness of sin. It is marked by a strong desire on our part to be forgiven of our sins, to stop sinning and to change our sinful nature (Jeremiah 17:9). It includes the recognition of the value of Christ’s sacrifice—His blood that covers our sins (Ephesians 1:7).

Repentance is part of the message that Jesus told His disciples to preach (Luke 24:47). Why? Because, as Jesus had earlier said, “Unless you repent you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3).

To learn more about this important subject, see the articles in the section “Repentance.”

Death, burial and resurrection. After one repents of his or her sins, the next step is to be baptized—which means being immersed in water. This act symbolizes three important concepts.

First, baptism represents the death of the old man—the way we lived before repenting. Paul twice described this concept as being “crucified” with Christ (Romans 6:6; Galatians 2:20).

Next, after someone dies, he is generally buried. Baptism pictures the burial of the old man with all of his sins, which earn one the death penalty. This reminds us to put away the old way of life completely. As Paul explained, “We were buried with Him through baptism into death” (Romans 6:4).

The third concept symbolized by baptism is resurrection. Coming up from under the water after being baptized represents our resurrection to a new life in Christ. As Paul further noted, “If we have been united together in the likeness of His [Christ’s] death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection” (verse 5).

Baptism helps impress these three important concepts within our minds. This physical act helps us realize the spiritual significance of baptism.

For further study, see the article “What Do the Symbols of Baptism Mean?

Forgiveness of sins. Baptism is far more than a symbolic exercise. Indeed, there are two very significant beneficial effects of baptism in addition to the spiritual understanding we gain from obeying Christ’s command to be baptized.

The first is the forgiveness of our sins. Indeed, this is one of the key reasons for being baptized. As Peter said, “Let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins” (Acts 2:38). Through baptism we accept the sacrifice of Christ, which washes our sins away (Acts 22:16) and gives us a clean start.

Receiving the Holy Spirit. A second important effect of baptism is the opportunity to receive the Holy Spirit. Again, Peter’s teaching was: “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38).

Baptism, accompanied by the laying on of hands (Acts 19:6), is the way God has established for us to receive this precious gift.

Romans 8 documents several important benefits that come to us because we have God’s Holy Spirit.

First, this power from God allows us to set aside ungodly activities and live “according to the Spirit” (verse 4). When we allow this Spirit to lead us, we are called the “children of God” (verse 16).

Furthermore, having God’s Holy Spirit is our guarantee of eternal life (verses 11, 13, 23).

To learn more about this baptismal promise, see the articles in the LifeHopeandTruth.com section “Holy Spirit.”

Action required: should you be baptized? 

Following the biblical instruction to be baptized underscores an important biblical principle: What we do is very important to God. The true, timeless religion of the Bible calls for physical action—not just knowledge and understanding. As Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven” (Matthew 7:21).

The author of Psalm 111 made this insightful observation: “A good understanding have all those who do His commandments” (verse 10). Echoing this principle and the teaching of Jesus, James emphasized that “faith without works is dead” (James 2:20). The actions we take before and during baptism set the stage for continued obedience to God afterwards.

Jennifer’s baptism

After everyone had gathered around, Jennifer was baptized by being completely immersed in the pool. She entered into a covenant relationship with Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior. She had hands laid on her with a prayer for the receiving of the Holy Spirit, and she has been given a clean start and has begun her spiritual journey toward eternal life as a child of God in His Kingdom.

Looking back on her decision, she says it is the best one she has ever made. The decision to respond to God’s calling to be baptized was a good one for Jennifer. It can be the same for you!

The Teaching of the Apostles About Baptism

Only a few days after receiving the commission to make disciples of all the nations and baptize them, Jesus’ disciples gathered in Jerusalem for the Feast of Pentecost—one of God’s annual festivals (Acts 2:1). It was there on this holy day that the Holy Spirit was poured out on the believers (verses 2-4). Jesus had told His disciples that He would send this special power that proceeds from the Father to them after He left them (John 15:26; 16:7).

Empowered by this special gift from God, Peter—the disciple who had previously denied Christ three times—now publicly explained that Jesus Christ was responsible for sending the Holy Spirit that day (Acts 2:14-33). Peter also advised those who were listening to repent “and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ” (verse 38). Peter didn’t present baptism as simply an option.

The approximately 3,000 people who were baptized following Peter’s preaching also received the Holy Spirit that day (verse 41). As Christ’s apostles preached the gospel of the Kingdom and the Church grew, baptism was the common practice and expectation of those who responded (Acts 8:12, 36, 38; 16:15, 33; 18:8; 19:5; 22:16). When Paul was called by God, he responded by being baptized (Acts 9:18).

Jesus’ disciples taught others as they had been taught by Christ. And this teaching included baptism. When we respond to God, we, too, need to be baptized!”  From: https://lifehopeandtruth.com/change/baptism/a-clean-start/

Looking for the church behind Life, Hope & Truth? See our “Who We Are” page.

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Sin’s Payday

Romans 6:23

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

“We have all earned eternal death (Romans 3:23), but absolutely nothing we can do will earn us eternal life. It is a free gift God offers to those who humbly repent, showing that we understand the magnitude of our sin, and thankfully believe that God’s way is best (Acts 2:38; 8:37).

Desiring Jesus Christ to live in us and transform our lives is the only reasonable decision we can make when we are offered such a priceless gift (Galatians 2:20; Romans 12:1-2).     Listen to the "Verse by Verse" episode covering this scripture at: https://lifehopeandtruth.com/bible/blog/sins-payday-1/

To learn more about the many deep truths found in this verse, read “What Is the Meaning of Romans 6:23?

Study more about the response God wants from us by downloading the free booklet Change Your Life! and studying the biblical passages it presents about repentance and conversion.”

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Human-Made Stuff Now Outweighs All Life on Earth

Human-Made Stuff Now Outweighs All Life on Earth“The sheer scale of buildings, infrastructure and other anthropogenic objects underscores our impact on the planet.

  • Global Biomass versus Human-made mass. Credit: Itai Raveh

Humanity has reached a new milestone in its dominance of the planet: human-made objects may now outweigh all of the living beings on Earth.

Roads, houses, shopping malls, fishing vessels, printer paper, coffee mugs, smartphones and all the other infrastructure of daily life now weigh in at approximately 1.1 trillion metric tons—equal to the combined dry weight of all plants, animals, fungi, bacteria, archaea and protists on the planet. The creation of this human-made mass has rapidly accelerated over the past 120 years: Artificial objects have gone from just 3 percent of the world’s biomass in 1900 to on par with it today. And the amount of new stuff being produced every week is equivalent to the average body weight of all 7.7 billion people.

The implications of these findings, published on Wednesday in Nature, are staggering. The world’s plastics alone now weigh twice as much as the planet’s marine and terrestrial animals. Buildings and infrastructure outweigh trees and shrubs. “We cannot hide behind the feeling that we’re just a small species, one out of many,” says study co-author Ron Milo, who researches plant and environmental sciences at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. These numbers should be a wake-up call, he adds. They tell us “something about the responsibility that we have, given that we have become a dominant force,” Milo says.

He and his team had previously published an estimate of the amount of biomass on Earth, which led to the question of how it compared with the mass of artificial objects. Emily Elhacham, then a graduate student at the Weizmann Institute, led the effort to pull together disparate data sets on the flow of materials around the world. The researchers found that human-made, or anthropogenic, mass has doubled every 20 years since 1900. Total biomass remained more stable in that time period, though plant biomass has declined by approximately half since the dawn of agriculture some 12,000 years ago. The team estimates that anthropogenic mass crossed over to exceed biomass this year, plus or minus six years.”  More at: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/human-made-stuff-now-outweighs-all-life-on-earth/

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How Long Does It Take To Decompose…_

Human-Made Materials 

https://blog.therainforestsite.greatergood.com/human-made-mass/?

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Sunday, July 23, 2023

What’s the Real Source of Contentment? Don’t Miss The Beauty! Pets & Human Lymphoma.

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What’s the Real Source of Contentment?

What Is the Real Source of Contentment“Why are some of the most prosperous people some of the least satisfied? What is the real secret of satisfaction and contentment?

Where do satisfaction and contentment come from?

Throughout human history, people have been searching for contentment and satisfaction—but when they think they have found it, the feelings have been fleeting and temporary. Mostly people have been looking in all the wrong places.

For example, it is common and seems logical to conclude that if everyone were prosperous, everyone would automatically be content and satisfied. But is having enough to eat and drink with the peace to enjoy it enough to make us lastingly content? Is physical abundance the cause of contentment and satisfaction?

What is the real source of deep, lasting contentment and eternal satisfaction? We’ll see it’s not prosperity that will bring contentment. It’s something much more important.

The satisfaction experiment

How do we know that physical things alone won’t satisfy people? We may know this by personal experience or by learning about others’ experiences.

We can also learn it by reading about it in a book of revealed wisdom. There are verses in the biblical book of Ecclesiastes that tell us:

“The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing” (1:8).

“All the labor of man is for his mouth, and yet the soul is not satisfied” (6:7).

No matter what we see or hear or taste—whatever we experience with our physical senses—it will be temporary.

King Solomon performed the quintessential experiment on this subject. He recorded his experimental search for happiness and satisfaction in Ecclesiastes 2. In this chapter, we see a man who had it all—who was rich and powerful and had everything he could imagine. Few people in history have had all the blessings he had—and yet he was not satisfied. He decided to try an experiment to see what would really bring him the satisfaction he longed for. He tried humor and wine and song—every type of entertainment. He tried building projects and big fancy homes and gathering all the treasures and luxuries he could.

Solomon summarized his experiment this way: “Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart rejoiced in all my labor; and this was my reward from all my labor” (Ecclesiastes 2:10).

Yes, he had some level of rejoicing and reward for what he accomplished. God designed the physical world to give us joy. But Solomon goes on in verse 11 to show the longer-term outcome of his experiment: “Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done and on the labor in which I had toiled; and indeed it was vanity and grasping for the wind. There was no profit under the sun.”

He found it all futile—empty—like trying to grab a handful of wind!

Solomon’s reign was a time of plenty. The people of Israel, and Solomon in particular, were blessed with peace and abundance. But Solomon learned that peace and prosperity are not everything. These physical blessings aren’t what bring ultimate satisfaction and contentment. You can have it all—physically—but still feel empty inside.

The real source of satisfaction

So what does bring true contentment—real satisfaction?

Solomon concluded the book of Ecclesiastes with this moral of the story: “Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all” (12:13). This is what makes us whole and complete.

Solomon explained it more completely in Proverbs 19:23: “The fear of the LORD leads to life, and he who has it will abide in satisfaction; he will not be visited with evil” (emphasis added).

The main Hebrew and Greek words translated fear in the Bible can have several shades of meaning, but in the context of the fear of the Lord, they convey a positive reverence.

The Hebrew verb yare can mean “to fear, to respect, to reverence” and the Hebrew noun yirah “usually refers to the fear of God and is viewed as a positive quality. This fear acknowledges God’s good intentions. … This fear is produced by God’s Word … and makes a person receptive to wisdom and knowledge” (The Complete Word Study Dictionary: Old Testament).

The fear of the Lord is not talking about a paralyzing terror. The positive fear of the Lord taught in the Bible is a key element in leading us to change. It helps us have a proper, humble perspective of ourselves in relation to our awesome God; it helps us in times of temptation when we need to remember the serious consequences of disobeying God; and it motivates us to become more like our loving Creator.

By doing these things, the fear of the Lord helps us build a strong, loving relationship with God that brings eternal benefits. (Learn more about this in our article “Fear of the Lord: What Does It Mean?”)

When we do put God first—fearing to displease Him and seeking to please Him always—we will be on the way to true and eternal satisfaction. Even in the “Millennium”—the utopian age God promises will spread around the world after Jesus Christ’s second coming—peace and prosperity and physical things won’t be the cause of satisfaction. The real contentment comes from a right relationship with God.

When we do put God first—fearing to displease Him and seeking to please Him always—we will be on the way to true and eternal satisfaction.

God has real and permanent eternal blessings in store—He has things that the human eyes have not seen and that human minds have not even imagined!

Consider some wisdom recorded by King Solomon’s wise and God-fearing father, King David. Psalm 36 starts by talking about those who do not fear God, and how that leads to sin, wickedness and evil. But in verses 7-8 David shows the eternal blessings of a close relationship with God:

“How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings. They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house, and You give them drink from the river of Your pleasures.”

Learn the lessons of King Solomon in Ecclesiastes and recognize that the true source of satisfaction and contentment—now and forever—is a right relationship with our loving God!

Related reading:

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Don’t miss the beauty!

“For as long as I can remember, I’ve been continually astounded by the incredible beauty in the world. 

Whether it is a dazzling sunset, a mirror-smooth mountain lake, an undulating field of ripening wheat or palm trees gently swaying on the breeze next to the ocean, these sights have always impressed me, making me want to drink them in completely.  And no photograph I’ve ever taken can really do justice to those beautiful vistas!

Every autumn, my wife and I are struck by the awesome fall colors of the trees on the mountains.  During the fall we’ve had the opportunity to travel a two-lane blacktop road through the Ozark National Forest as we went to visit some church members. We were both greatly impressed with the beauty and majesty of this part of the country—this part of God’s creation! 

Have you ever wondered why God created things of such beauty?  In fact, why did God create beauty at all? 

The theory of evolution would only allow for something to develop (evolve) if there were a useful purpose for it, so what could be the evolutionary purpose of incredible beauty?  From a purely practical standpoint, it would be easier for deciduous trees to have “evolved” for their leaves to simply turn brown and fall off, rather than going through incredible shades of reds and yellows before becoming brown and dropping to the ground.  But they don’t generally work that way.  

Couldn’t the same thing be said about sunrises and sunsets, the aurora borealis (northern lights), gurgling mountain streams, a proud whitetail buck, a strutting wild turkey or a thousand other beautiful sights we may be privileged to witness? 

The world doesn’t have to be this way, but it is—by God’s design!  It seems He purposefully created awesome beauty all around us, rather than making the creation bland or just various shades of gray. He infused color and texture everywhere in creation!

I can only conclude that our loving God appreciates and enjoys beauty.  So, as a special gift, He has given us senses that allow us to enjoy it as well. And it isn’t limited to just sight! He also gave us hearing so we could enjoy a bird singing and beautiful music, as well as give our hearts a stir with loving words from a mate or a child. 

He gave us the sense of taste to enjoy a wonderful meal. And the sense of touch to express love and tenderness to a mate, or to caress the soft coat of a loving and loyal pet.  To my way of thinking, all of these are things of beauty, and they are all around us.

The problem is that we sometimes get so busy with all the things in life, and perhaps so burdened down by the weighty challenges we may be facing, that the beauty of things around us pass by without our even noticing.  It is also so human to become embroiled in all the “negatives” of life that the beautiful is not appreciated.  It seems such a shame to have gifts of beauty all around us, only to miss them. 

I encourage us all to take the time to recognize and appreciate the beauty God has created, and enjoy that gift our Father has given.

Kind regards, and have a great rest of your week,

Tom Clark, for Life, Hope and Truth

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Pets & Human Lymphoma

Transcript of video at: https://nutritionfacts.org/video/pets-human-lymphoma/

To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by veganmontreal.

“Is having a cat or dog associated with a higher or lower risk of developing non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma?

Every year, for example, 60,000 Americans come down with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma—a blood cancer that goes on to kill about 1 in 3 patients. There’s been a significant rise in incidence in past decades, and no one really knows why.

Some have suspected exposure to the bovine leukemia virus, which infects the majority of herds in this country, and can cause similar tumors in cattle. More than five years ago, we learned that about three-quarters of people tested have been exposed to this virus; likely, through their consumption of meat and dairy products.

The risk may extend beyond those just eating animal products, though. The viral contamination of meat, in general, can give people who handle fresh meat for a living unpleasant conditions, with names like contagious pustular dermatitis. In fact, meat is so laden with viruses that there’s a well-defined medical condition colloquially known as “butcher’s warts,” which affects the hands of those who handle fresh meat—including poultry and fish. Even the wives of butchers appear to be at higher risk for cervical cancer, a cancer definitively associated with wart virus exposure.

So, in the first study of its kind, researchers looked at farm animal exposure as a risk factor for human non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. To be fair, though, there’s also feline leukemia virus. And a child is likely to have more intimate contact with their family cat or dog, or other pets, than with livestock. Animal contact and cancer risk—harmful, harmless, or helpful? And no matter how this comes out, remember, I’m just the messenger.

In terms of our risk of developing non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, contact with cows—harmful, harmless, or helpful? Harmful, increases our risk.  What about pig contact? Harmful, harmless, or helpful? Same as cattle; harmful, increases our risk.

What about having a cat? Or three, like we do. Do cats increase our cancer risk, do nothing to our cancer risk, or maybe having cats is even protective against cancer? What do you think? It turns out cats are protective against cancer. In fact, even if you don’t live with a cat now, but did in the past, you seem to be protected against developing lymphoma.

All right, now, for you dog people. Canine companionship—now, or in the past: harmful, harmless, or helpful? Good boy.  And finally, what about other companion animals, like corn-loving hamsters? Rodents in the house—increased risk, no risk, or decreased risk? Decreased risk.”  From: https://nutritionfacts.org/video/pets-human-lymphoma/

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Sunday, July 16, 2023

Problems With Evolution. This Cancer-Causing Chemical May Be Lurking In Your Bread.

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Problems With Evolution

Problems With Evolution“Do evolutionists believe in evolution solely because of science? Or is it rooted in belief in a materialistic philosophy? Consider the problems with evolution.

Over the last couple hundred years an evolutionary worldview has replaced a biblical worldview in Western science and education.

The Bible contains statements that are quite at odds with many of the accepted “truths” of the modern world.

Creation or evolution?

Often, a person must make a fundamental choice, with no wiggle room for compromise: Do I believe that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant Word of God, and do I therefore believe what is stated in the Bible?

Or do I believe what is confidently taught and believed by fallible human beings—including the majority of the elite, the intellectual leaders, the teachers, the powerful and the trendsetters in the world around me?

The Bible asserts that God created everything, and this has significant implications that will make a real difference for each person.

A prime example of the choice a person must make in what to believe is found in the book of the prophet Jeremiah.

“No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.

“Thus says the LORD, who gives the sun for a light by day, the ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night, who disturbs the sea, and its waves roar (the LORD of hosts is His name)” (Jeremiah 31:34-35, emphasis added throughout, except where noted).

Here is a description in the Bible of a time when all people in the world will personally know (not just know about, but know) the “LORD.” He is the eternal, uncreated, self-existent Creator God of the Bible. He’s the One who created the sun, moon and stars—the One who is the moral judge of mankind (with the authority and power to forgive the sins of people). Is that believable?

Disbelief in God

In today’s world, a person who believes in the literal truth of all aspects of Jeremiah’s statement is in the minority. What the Bible teaches is contrary to what is considered possible by most people.

Jeremiah’s description is a stark contrast to what is commonly believed in today’s world—when so many people don’t really know God at all—primarily because they have doubts that He even exists! It’s obviously hard to know someone when you don’t even believe, with certainty, that he is real.

But why? The impact of evolution on society

And so we ask, what is it that contributes to so much doubt in so many people’s minds that the God of the Bible even exists—and that someday, everyone will know Him personally?

What is it in today’s world—in the foundation of popular culture, politics, entertainment and especially in education—that causes so much doubt in people’s minds as to whether the Creator God of the Bible even exists?

Answer: the theory of evolution.

This idea is nearly universally taught in modern schools, at all levels. It’s the belief that everything in the universe (including the sun, moon and stars and all life) just came into existence—by sheer chance. It is the idea that everything we can perceive came about by undirected forces with no intelligent planning or purpose—caused by no intelligent and powerful and righteous Creator. Thus, no God would be necessary, and no God would judge mankind for its sins or forgive them.

The theory of evolution permeates the modern world. And yet, the idea of evolution is completely inconsistent with what is revealed in the Bible. Accepting the theory of evolution necessitates disbelieving the Bible—or at minimum engaging in the tortuous mental gymnastics of reinterpreting the clear statements of the Bible in such a way as to squeeze evolution into it.

Theistic evolution?

A significant number of Christian denominations have adopted a belief in theistic evolution, which holds that God’s method of creation was to cleverly design a universe in which everything would naturally evolve. Others hold to a belief in directed evolution, in which God had a hand in guiding the evolutionary process.

But these views assume that the biblical description of creation is allegorical rather than literal. For a discussion on these questions, see our articles “Theistic Evolution,” “Can Christians Believe in Evolution?” “How Long Were the ‘Days’ in Genesis 1?” and “The Gap Theory.”

Creation summary

The Bible states that God created the world and all that is in it by speaking the created realm into existence, and that the majesty of what He made should cause those who observe it to glorify and praise Him.

Here are some summary Bible verses about the creation:

  • “For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it” (Exodus 20:11).
  • “By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap; He lays up the deep in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast” (Psalm 33:6-9).
  • “Praise Him, sun and moon; praise Him, all you stars of light! Praise Him, you heavens of heavens, and you waters above the heavens! Let them praise the name of the LORD, for He commanded and they were created” (Psalm 148:3-5).
  • “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork” (Psalm 19:1).
Evolution summary

Evolution-based teaching presents quite a different story. It is the story that nothing became everything long ago, beginning with a quantum fluctuation—a Big Bang—all matter, energy, time and space emerging from an infinitesimally small compaction. (No real explanation for how this could come into existence without a Creator can be offered.)

Then all sorts of things are hypothesized to have happened that have never been observed, and that violate all known laws of physics. This was followed by stars and galaxies assembling themselves together. Followed much later by non-living chemicals somehow (no one knows how) becoming alive. Followed by single cells mutating and eventually developing, over eons of time, through various intermediate life-forms, into modern human beings.

No scientist has observed any of this happening. But that is the story. And the God of the Bible is not a part of it. It all happened by itself, with no guidance, no intelligence, no purpose. It just happened.

Evolution as a religion

The evolutionary ideology and worldview is much more than a scientific theory. It is, in fact, a religion—a competing religion to the religion of the Bible—with nothing in it but matter and energy and its own set of miracles.

It has its own assumptions, which pointedly invalidate and suppress the conclusions that should be obvious from examining the marvels of the physical world. It flatly contradicts the Bible’s account of the origin of the world. 

In the stark terms of the Bible, the theory of evolution is “foolish” and a “lie” (see Romans 1:25 and surrounding verses).

What greater lie could there be than the one that claims that the ultimate cause of everything that can be seen doesn’t even exist? And yet, it dominates our modern world. Science curricula require the teaching of evolution to all students in much of the world’s formal education system.

But is it based on real science?

Regarding the development of living things, the “Neo-Darwinian Synthesis” is an attempt to update Charles Darwin’s 1859 theory (published in his book On the Origin of Species) with the modern findings of genetics. Darwin’s book sought to explain the variety of life-forms, from simple to complex, through natural processes entirely.

Charles Darwin’s book sought to explain the variety of life-forms, from simple to complex, through natural processes entirely.

No intelligent, wise and powerful Creator God was necessary, according to Darwin. He theorized that unguided and unintelligent forces in nature itself (“natural selection”) would see to it that small differences between life-forms would be “selected” if those differences conveyed some sort of reproductive advantage. And thus those creatures that had somehow been endowed with these advantageous differences would survive, and those without them would die out.

Darwin proposed that in this process, over great periods of time, one sort of creature would gradually develop and gain advantages and turn into another sort of creature.

The source of all those small, cumulative, advantageous changes was unknown to Darwin. In more modern times, evolutionary proponents point to random mutations as a source. The information needed to build and maintain living things is found in the DNA in their cells. When cells divide and when organisms reproduce, this DNA code must be copied. The occasional random errors that take place in this copying process are called mutations.

Thus, the modern theory of biological evolution assumes that life somehow began (no one knows how), and then simple life changed into more and more complex forms of life through mutation and natural selection. All this was theorized to occur gradually, over immense periods of time.

No God was involved in this process. No intelligence. No purpose. Thus, in the theory, there are no divine standards to guide humans morally, or to which they are accountable.

Faith in evolution

Evolution’s advocates acknowledge that it is a religion—and they are zealous for their faith in it.

Michael Ruse, an atheist and evolution-believing professor of philosophy and zoology who taught at the University of Guelph in Canada for 35 years before accepting a position at Florida State University, wrote the following in Canada’s National Post:

“Evolution is promoted by its practitioners as more than mere science. Evolution is promulgated as an ideology, a secular religion—a full-fledged alternative to Christianity, with meaning and morality. I am an ardent evolutionist and an ex-Christian . . .

“The literalists are absolutely right. Evolution is a religion. This was true of evolution in the beginning, and it is true of evolution still today. . . Evolution therefore came into being as a kind of secular ideology, an explicit substitute for Christianity” (“How Evolution Became a Religion: Creationists Correct?” May 13, 2000).

Humanist beliefs oppose Christianity

If there is no Creator God, then man looks to himself as a god—thus the modern philosophy of humanism.

The American Humanist Association listed six “primary beliefs” of humanism in its 2003 Humanist Manifesto III. The second of these beliefs is, “Humans are an integral part of nature, the result of unguided evolutionary change” (“Humanism and Its Aspirations,” American Humanist Association, 2003).

Secular humanists have a zeal to spread their belief in evolution, especially through the public schools. In their zeal, they see it as their mission to eventually win the battle of beliefs and to stand triumphant over the “rotting corpse of Christianity.” They don’t hide their agenda, as seen in the following statement.

“I am convinced that the battle for humankind’s future must be waged and won in the public school classroom by teachers who correctly perceive their role as the proselytizers of a new faith: a religion of humanity that recognizes and respects the spark of what theologians call divinity in every human being. These teachers must embody the same selfless dedication as the most rabid fundamentalist preachers, for they will be ministers of another sort, utilizing a classroom instead of a pulpit to convey humanist values [including a belief in evolution] in whatever subject they teach, regardless of the educational level—preschool day care or large state university.

“The classroom must and will become an arena of conflict between the old and the new—the rotting corpse of Christianity, together with all its adjacent evils and misery, and the new faith of humanism . . .

“It will undoubtedly be a long, arduous, painful struggle replete with much sorrow and many tears, but humanism [and its fundamental principle of evolution] will emerge triumphant. It must if the family of humankind is to survive” (John Dunphy, “A Religion for a New Age,” The Humanist, January-February 1983).

Is it science at all?

So, is this science? Or, is it not an antibiblical, godless philosophy—a religion opposed to Christianity? Is it entirely objective? Do the observations and measurements of the natural world lead scientists inevitably to these conclusions—as summarized in the theory of neo-Darwinism?

Or was an agenda driving the development of the theory of evolution from the start—back to Darwin’s day, and even before?

What do leading proponents of the theory have to say about all of that? Consider the following statements by leading zealous proponents of the modern theory of evolution.

Richard Lewontin, a leading evolutionist, author, geneticist and retired professor of biology at Harvard University, wrote:

“We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs, in spite of its failure to fulfil many of its extravagant promises of health and life, in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we have a prior commitment, a commitment to materialism.

“It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counter-intuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door” (“Billions and Billions of Demons,” The New York Review, Jan. 9, 1997, p. 31, emphasis in original).

Thomas Nagel wrote:

“I want atheism to be true . . . It isn’t just that I don’t believe in God and, naturally, hope that I’m right in my belief. It’s that I hope there is no God! I don’t want there to be a God; I don’t want the universe to be like that. My guess is that this cosmic authority problem is not a rare condition and that it is responsible for much of the scientism and reductionism of our time. One of the tendencies it supports is the ludicrous overuse of evolutionary biology to explain everything about human life, including everything about the human mind . . . This is a somewhat ridiculous situation” (The Last Word, 1997, pp. 130-131).

Professor Nagel is an American intellectual and professed atheist. He is professor of philosophy and law, emeritus, at New York University, where he taught from 1980 to 2016. Later in life, he controversially questioned materialism as the answer for all things, including human consciousness, and in so doing raised the ire of his fellow evolution-believing atheists.

Stephen J. Gould wrote: “The extreme rarity of transitional forms in the fossil record persists as the trade secret of paleontology.”Stephen J. Gould wrote:

“The extreme rarity of transitional forms in the fossil record persists as the trade secret of paleontology . . . To preserve our favored account of evolution by natural selection we view our data as so bad that we never see the very process we profess to study” (“Evolution’s Erratic Pace,” Natural History, May 1977, 86:14).

Dr. Gould was an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist and historian of science. He admitted that the evidence to support the evolutionary story just isn’t there—certainly not in the fossil record. He was one of the modern world’s most influential and widely read authors on the subject of evolution. Gould taught at Harvard University and worked at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

D.M.S. Watson said, “Evolution itself is accepted by zoologists not because it has been observed to occur or . . . can be proved by logically coherent evidence to be true, but because the only alternative, special creation, is clearly incredible” (quoted in Herbert Schlossberg, Idols for Destruction: Christian Faith and Its Confrontation With American Society, [1983] 1993, pp. 144-145).

Dr. Watson was a professor of zoology and comparative anatomy at University College, London.

Scott C. Todd wrote, “Most important, it should be made clear in the classroom that science, including evolution, has not disproved God’s existence because it cannot be allowed to consider it (presumably). Even if all the data point to an intelligent designer, such an hypothesis is excluded from science because it is not naturalistic. Of course the scientist, as an individual, is free to embrace a reality that transcends naturalism” (“A View From Kansas on That Evolution Debate,” Nature, Vol. 401, Sept. 30, 1999, p. 423).

This statement by Professor Todd highlights an important modern reality. The term science has been co-opted by the evolutionist academic and intellectual elite to exclude God and the supernatural, by definition!

Playing the game by these rules means that anyone who disbelieves the theory of evolution, and who instead believes the biblical account of creation, is “unscientific.”

Scientific flaws in evolution

Even though evolutionists have defined the Creator God out of the discussion, they are still left with devastating weaknesses in their theory. Other articles on this website address many of these problems. In briefest summary, some of the problems are these.

The links between kinds of creatures are missing.

Darwin’s theory postulates innumerable in-between life-forms as life evolved from single-cell creatures to man. It was true in Darwin’s day, and it remains true today—the fossil record is full of holes. The innumerable missing links are still missing!

The biblical account is true. Each “kind” of creature reproduces after its kind—never changing into a completely different kind (Genesis 1:11-12, 21, 24-25). There is variety within biblical “kinds”—within definite limits of variability—but no evidence has ever been found of one kind giving rise to another. Cows give birth to cows. Fish produce fish. Birds produce birds. Roses generate new roses.

Even among evolutionists this is known and admitted. Harvard Professor Stephen J. Gould wrote, “The absence of fossil evidence for intermediary stages between major transitions in organic design, indeed our inability, even in our imagination, to construct functional intermediates in many cases, has been a persistent and nagging problem for gradualistic accounts of evolution” (“Is a New and General Theory of Evolution Emerging?” Paleobiology, Winter 1980, p. 127).

Life—including the molecular machinery of life at the cellular level—is far too complex and obviously designed to have developed by the unguided process of natural selection acting on random mutations.

The “irreducibly complex” molecular machines in living cells—consisting of many precisely fitted parts, all of which must be present for these biomechanical machines to function—cannot possibly be constructed and “selected” one small step at a time. All the parts have to be present and properly assembled from the start for these machines to support life.

No one has a clue as to how the first life could have come into being, without the biblical Creator.

Though evolutionists may speculate about a chemical soup in ancient oceans, in which certain chemicals randomly attached themselves to each other to make the first living cell, no scientist has been able to reproduce this in a laboratory, or even describe in detail the steps by which it could possibly have happened.

Evolution probability

Even the most optimistic odds are against evolution.

Various researchers have concluded that the odds of chemicals coming together to produce life by chance are vanishingly small. Even evolutionists admit this. British astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle estimated the odds of even one step along the way from chemicals to a living cell by random chance at one in 1040,000 (Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe, Evolution From Space, 1981, p. 148).

One evolutionist, information theorist Hubert Yockey, on the faculty of the University of California at Berkeley, put it this way: “The origin of life by chance in a primeval soup is impossible in probability in the same way that a perpetual [motion] machine is in probability. The extremely small probabilities calculated in this chapter are not discouraging to true believers [i.e., committed evolutionists, those who choose to believe it simply because they want it to be true] . . . [however] a practical person must conclude that life didn’t happen by chance” (Information Theory and Molecular Biology, 1992, p. 257).

Some evolutionists, when honestly considering the impossibility of life beginning on earth from random processes, take the next step and speculate that life then must have begun in outer space. Then it must have somehow arrived on earth via comets or alien spacecraft or other means, then developed further here through Darwinian processes!

Included among the well-known evolutionists who, at some points in their careers, have postulated about some sort of outer space origin for life on earth are Hoyle, Francis Crick (codiscoverer of the structure of DNA), and physicist Stephen Hawking.

The information needed to build and maintain living things is found in their DNA. The occasional random errors that take place when the DNA is copied are called mutations. And mutations are nearly always harmful. 

The thinking here, apparently, is that the odds are so small that it could have begun on earth that it is ridiculous to even consider it, so maybe it started in outer space and was brought to earth. But that doesn’t solve the problem. It only speculates that the incredibly unlikely event of a chance beginning of life here on earth could have better odds somewhere else in the universe—a notion with absolutely no scientific basis.

Mutations and natural selection

Mutations—the alleged source of new genetic information to allow life to develop from single cells into all of today’s the complex organisms—are nearly always degradative, destroying information from the genome, not adding to it.

Mutations harm and set life back, instead of being the engine that pushes it forward. This is the conclusion of many studies. A good summary of this material is found in the recently published book Darwin Devolves, by American biochemist and author Michael Behe (2019).

Natural selection culls out, but doesn’t create.

The very process of natural selection accounts for the elimination and extinction of life-forms that are not “fit” enough for survival, but it has never been shown to lead to upward development of life-forms, beyond fairly strict limits.

Famed evolutionist Lynn Margulis acknowledged as much. “Natural selection eliminates and maybe maintains, but it doesn’t create” (“Discover Interview: Lynn Margulis Says She’s Not Controversial, She’s Right,” discovermagazine.com, June 16, 2011).

This once again vindicates the biblical principle of creatures being able to reproduce within narrow bounds set by God—“after their kind.”

Blind pitiless indifference

Evolution is a religion of despair and one that offers no hope or purpose or cheer.

It’s all so dispiriting. The high priests of the religion of neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory may claim that it is true and liberating, and they do indeed have a zeal to proselytize and spread their religion—especially to young, impressionable minds in school. However, they seem to know that it is an utterly bleak idea.

Cambridge University evolutionary biologist, atheist and author Richard Dawkins put it this way:

“The total amount of suffering per year in the natural world is beyond all decent contemplation . . . It must be so . . . In a universe of blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won’t find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice. The universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind pitiless indifference” (River Out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life, p. 131-133, 1995).

Not to be outdone in spreading the anti-cheer of evolutionary theory, atheist professor of evolutionary biology William Provine said:

“There are no gods, no purposeful forces of any kind, no life after death. When I die, I am absolutely certain that I am going to be completely dead. That’s just all—that’s gonna be the end of me. There is no ultimate foundation for ethics, no ultimate meaning in life, and no free will for humans, either” (Darwinism: Science or Naturalistic Philosophy? video, 1994).

Does science prove evolution?

As we have seen, committed and leading evolutionists have arbitrarily and arrogantly redefined “science” in such a way that:

  • It excludes even the possibility of the God of the Bible being the creator of the world.
  • Their “science” thus must support evolution, because it’s the only game in town.

Evolution is their religion and their faith. They choose to believe their theory (and disbelieve the Bible) because they want it that way.

However, as the many quotes in this article have demonstrated, no one need be held mentally captive to the theory of evolution nor feel intimidated into thinking that the evidence for evolution is overwhelming. It isn’t. Precisely the opposite is true.

A sound-minded person has the freedom to choose to believe the truth—that this marvelous world, in all its complexity, is indeed the product of design by a powerful and brilliant Creator—Jeremiah’s LORD.

We can base our religion on truth, instead of the falsehood of evolutionary theory. To do so does not make us ignorant or mean we have to reject the evidence and facts of science.

Evolution and Christianity

What a person chooses to believe is important. The stakes are pretty high.

One evolutionist expressed it in stark terms: “The most devastating thing though that biology did to Christianity was the discovery of biological evolution. Now that we know that Adam and Eve never were real people the central myth of Christianity is destroyed. If there never was an Adam and Eve there never was an original sin. If there never was an original sin there is no need of salvation. If there is no need of salvation there is no need of a savior. And I submit that puts Jesus, historical or otherwise, into the ranks of the unemployed. I think that evolution is absolutely the death knell of Christianity” (Frank Zindler, American atheist, in a debate with William Craig, Atheism vs Christianity video, 1993).

Another atheist evolutionist, the famous historian and science fiction writer H.G. Wells, made the same ominous point long ago.

“For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made” (Romans 1:20). 

Discussing the undeniable ramifications of the theory of evolution, he wrote, “If all the animals and man had been evolved in this ascendant manner, then there had been no first parents, no Eden and no Fall. And if there had been no fall, then the entire historical fabric of Christianity, the story of the first sin and the reason for an atonement, upon which the current teaching based Christian emotion and morality, collapsed like a house of cards” (The Outline of History—Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind, fourth revision, Vol. 2, 1925, p. 616,).

God has the last word

The words of the apostle Paul, referred to earlier, are appropriate as a concluding summary.

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may Does God Exist?be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

“Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things . . . [they] exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen” (Romans 1:18-23, 25).”  From: https://lifehopeandtruth.com/god/is-there-a-god/proof-of-god/problems-with-evolution/?

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This cancer-causing chemical may be lurking in your bread

Kid eating grilled cheese“Potassium bromate is a possible human carcinogen added to the flour of many packaged baked goods.

  • Potassium bromate is banned in several countries, including Brazil, Canada, the European Union and the United Kingdom.
  • Despite health concerns, potassium bromate is legal for use in the U.S., and the FDA hasn’t reviewed it since at least 1973.

Many packaged baked goods are made with flour that may contain potassium bromate, an additive linked to cancer. The chemical is added to flour to strengthen dough and allow it to rise higher, benefits that have led many U.S. companies to embrace it.

EWG has identified over 130 different products that contain potassium bromate, including Best Choice Wheat Sliced Bread, Gomez Flour Tortillas, Hy Vee Blueberry Crisp and Balducci's Sugar Cookies, among others. The use of this additive in the U.S. is widespread and legal, even though it’s been banned in other countries because of health concerns.

In 1999, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, echoing findings in several studies, determined potassium bromate is a possible human carcinogen.

In ab tests<?XML:NAMESPACE PREFIX = "[default] http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" NS = "http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" />,l animals exposed to it had increased incidences of both benign and malignant tumors in the thyroid and peritoneum, the membrane that lines the abdominal cavity. Later research found that ingesting potassium bromate resulted in significant increases in cancer of the animals’ thyroid, kidneys and other organs.

Because of these health concerns, potassium bromate is not allowed for use in several countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, Brazil and the European Union. California requires food with potassium bromate to carry a warning label.

Even with plenty of evidence showing potassium bromate’s potential to harm human health, it’s still legal for use in food sold in the U.S.

The food industry has long argued that potassium bromate isn’t a concern in baked products, because in theory the baking process fully converts it into potassium bromide, a similar yet non-carcinogenic chemical. But tests in the U.K. found that potassium bromate remains detectable after baking, with all six unwrapped breads and seven out of 22 packaged breads tested found to have measurable levels.

Potassium bromate was first approved for use in the U.S. by the Food and Drug Administration in the 1960s. In 1973, the FDA announced a planned literature review of the additive, but it’s unclear whether the review was completed, and the chemical hasn't been assessed since.

Absent federal action, California has taken measures to warn residents of potassium bromate’s dangers. The additive has been on the state's Proposition 65 list since 1990, so products containing it must carry a cancer warning. But no other regulatory agency has acted to regulate or remove potassium bromate from grocery store shelves.

Get Your Free Guide: EWG's Guide to Food Additives  Link at: https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news/2022/05/cancer-causing-chemical-may-be-lurking-your-bread    Stay informed by signing up to receive email tips, action alerts, promotions to support our work and more from EWG. You can opt-out at any time.

Our broken food chemical review system

The U.S. food additive review system fails repeatedly to keep Americans safe and needs an overhaul if it is to protect us from potentially cancer-causing chemicals like potassium bromate.

Congress is considering legislation that aims to break through the regulatory standstill. The Food Chemical Reassessment Act of 2021<?XML:NAMESPACE PREFIX = "[default] http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" NS = "http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" />, introduced by Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), would help bolster our food regulatory system. If enacted, the bill would create an Office of Food Safety Assessment within the FDA to confirm that chemicals that entered the food supply chain through legal loopholes, or were reviewed by the FDA decades ago, are still safe to eat. The bill identifies 10 chemicals for immediate reassessment, including potassium bromate.

While we await the passage of this bill or new federal action, consumers can minimize exposure to potassium bromate by checking food labels and avoiding products that use it. You can also check our Food Scores database to find alternatives without potassium bromate.”     From: https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news/2022/05/cancer-causing-chemical-may-be-lurking-your-bread

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