Scientists Speak Out Against Evolution(Who AM I, Part 7)

Who Am I? Part 7, Scientists Speak out Against Evolution. Evolution today is considered closed science. The truth is that Evolution has many inconsistencies, and problems. They are explored here by real scientists.

This is part 7 of a series on Who AM I?

Concerning The Scientific Consensus of Evolution

You may think that all Modern Scientists are on the same page when it comes to a belief in Evolution. Especially with a lack of any dissenting voices. This leads people to believe that Modern Science today is in complete agreement on the Evolution question.

But in my search to find answers to my own questions, I discovered that there are other opinions. A few brave souls have risked ostracization from the scientific community, as the unpopular realists and critics of the theory; and are willing to admit to its flaws and weaknesses.

Dissenting Voices on Evolution

Dr Michael Denton (a British Scientist), recognizing problems that exist with the theory of Evolution has stated:

“Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is a theory in crisis in light of the tremendous advances we’ve made in molecular biology, biochemistry and genetics over the past fifty years. We now know that there are in fact tens of thousands of irreducibly complex systems on the cellular level. Specified complexity pervades the microscopic biological world. Although the tiniest bacterial cells are incredibly small, weighing less than 10^-12 grams, each is in effect a veritable micro-miniaturized factory containing thousands of exquisitely designed pieces of intricate molecular machinery, made up altogether of one hundred thousand million atoms, far more complicated than any machinery built by man and absolutely without parallel in the non-living world.” ⁽¹⁾

Michael Denton, who holds an M.D. from Bristol University, as well as a Ph.D. in biochemistry from King’s College in London, and has been active in molecular biology; makes these striking arguments into the scientific fallacy on which Evolution rests. His work was a great find in expounding certain conclusions I had reached; as well as additional weaknesses he demonstrates exist within “Evolutionary Theory”.

His expertise in this field of biology, brings pertinent and authoritative evidence as a chemist in understanding the details involved at the heart of the issue.

He successfully reveals many of Evolutions fallacies and lack of credibility behind the facade Modern Science has constructed to conceal it.⁽²⁾

“In a very real sense, therefore, advocacy of the doctrine of continuity [evolutionary theory] has always necessitated on retreat from pure empiricism, and contrary to what is widely assumed by evolutionary biologists today, it has always been the anti-evolutionists, not the evolutionists, in the scientific community who have struck rigidly to the facts and adhered to a more strictly empirical approach … It was Darwin the evolutionist who was retreating from the facts.” ⁽³⁾

— Dr. Michael Denton

Denton’s findings and conclusions bring into view the selective nature with which Atheistic Scientists have cherry picked their ideas and theories. They have only allowed to be published those views in alignment with Darwinism. It is from this body of material the curriculum for the classrooms of academia are assembled; so that their belief system of Evolution cannot be attacked, challenged, or unseated from its throne.

You would never know it—because you almost never hear it said; but it has come to my attention that many scientists do not believe in, or cannot accept evolution; or at least admit the theory has serious problems and contradictions. The reason these voices are not heard in the main stream culture; is because the Atheists won the upper hand in the courts in the 1950’s and 60’s and have continued to hold the legal system as a tool of support to beat back religious thought or anti-evolutionist views and teaching from the class rooms.

This shift away from a religious foundation in favor of a secular one in our nation has taken place gradually over the last 90 years. I will go into more detail about this later.

This political wall of separation is carefully guarded and maintained— so, the illusion continues.

Since the mainstream culture has been educated for 70 years in these selective false theories, it has successfully produced a host of proselytes and defenders for the evolutionary atheist cause, among religious and non-religious alike. Most of you will be hearing a different side to the argument for the first time— from accredited scientists.

Curiously, not all of the voices pointing out Evolution’s contradictions are Theists. Some are Atheists who see the contradictions in science and are willing to call them out. These opinions shared below never reach the mainstream culture; but are out there to be found for those who will seek. I maintained an asterisk next to the names of scientists who also claim that they are Atheists.

“The Darwinian theory of descent has not a single fact to confirm it in the realm of nature. It is not the result of scientific research, but purely the product of imagination.” ⁽⁴⁾ —*Dr. Albert Fleishmann (Professor of Comparative Anatomy at Erlangen University)

“Science positively demands creation.” ⁽⁵⁾—Lord Kelvin (Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow for 53 years.)

“Evolutionism is a fairy tale for grown-ups. This theory has helped nothing in the progress of science. It is useless.” ⁽⁶⁾—*Bounoure, Le Monde et la Vie (Director of Research at the National Center of Scientific Research in France)

“Therefore, a grotesque account of a period some thousands of years ago is taken seriously though it be built by piling special assumptions on special assumptions, ad hoc hypothesis [invented for a purpose] on ad hoc hypothesis, and tearing apart the fabric of science whenever it appears convenient. The result is a fantasia which is neither history nor science.” ⁽⁷⁾— *James Conant (Chemist and former president, Harvard University)

“The overriding supremacy of the myth [of Evolution as scientific fact] has created a widespread illusion that the theory of evolution was all but proved one hundred years ago and that all subsequent biological research—paleontological, zoological and in the newer branches of genetics and molecular biology—has provided ever-increasing evidence for Darwinian ideas. Nothing could be further from the truth. ⁽⁸⁾

—Dr. Michael Denton

A Falsehood is Preferable to the Truth

I have discovered these voices, and many more, testifying that evolution is questionable or false science; which remains a theory because its unprovable. Yet Modern Science proceeds as if it is real. Why would this be the case? Why would you want to keep certain facts of your theory from seeing the light of day? Why would you want to ignore significant problems within your thinking and belief system— if it helps you to determine what is actually true? Why would you put forward a theory— which in its foundational premise is in contradiction to the facts of what science is currently revealing; and continue to defend it and conceal its fallacies?

BECAUSE EVOLUTION NEVER WAS ABOUT TRUTH! If it was, the scientific hierarchy would admit to its limitations and impossible claims. So why doesn’t it?

Evolution was concocted to provide an alternative to creationism. For those who do not believe in God, they needed an explanation for the existence of things. Anti-God theories of the unfolding of life have been around since the beginning of time for those who did not believe. But since believers have always been in the majority, the surprise is why most creationists have also accepted the theory of evolution and natural selection. They have just decided since this is the popular theory that has risen to the top in academia— that this was the way God worked to bring about creation. Most uneducated people will believe what they are told if it sounds reasonable. Most people are busy with other pursuits in life, and don’t take the time to study these issues and reach a level of education so they can make decisions for themselves what they believe.

Most people today have no idea of the history, because they grew up after this deception had already taken place and gone into effect. They accept it, and defend it with the same arguments they were taught in their education. The additional problem is that too many scientists in the field are followers; and are mostly comfortable just repeating what it is that they have been told by their educators and superiors. They are told a positive story with all the surface answers provided, and they don’t look beyond.

Modern Science scrutinized religion; and modern professors attack religion, and shame students if they dare mention a belief in creationism.

Students go to houses of higher education to learn and get a degree. To succeed in your education: good grades are required. Of course, students do not want to challenge the person who is going to be grading them— for fear of having their grades negatively affected. Everyone who has entered higher education knows this. They live it.

If you advance to become a teacher or professor, those who dare step outside the lines of the official doctrine of Evolution, are also shamed; and will not be published or listened to in the scientific community at large.

But the free-thinking scientist who will go below the surface, and is really seeking, and asking, and working things out in their own mind, begins to see the contradictions, and the side stepping that is going on. They can see the truth, and are revealing it.

Once an idea like Evolution has become the foundation of a society and everyone has given it national credibility, it becomes so institutionalized and the people are so invested in it— no one dares question it. There is so much at stake. If Evolution were suddenly declared to be false, it would set off a firestorm! It would wreck careers, upset all of academia, and undermine the foundations of science as it has been written about and established for 70 years in all or our institutions. Sometimes people accept a lie because it is easier than believing the truth. Yet that does not change the fact, that everyone is invested in and believing a lie!

“With the failure of these many efforts [to scientifically prove evolution], science was left in the somewhat embarrassing position of having to postulate theories of living origins which it could not demonstrate. After having chided the theologian for his reliance on myth and miracle, science found itself in the unenviable position of having to create a mythology of its own: namely, the assumption that what, after long effort, could not be proved to take place today had, in truth, taken place in the primeval past.” ⁽⁹⁾—*Loran Eisley

Eisley states very accurately, once the Atheistic scientists of Darwinism and Evolution could produce no conclusive proof of their theory, and in fact advancing modern discovery refuted and undermined their early foundational scientific philosophies (rather than supported them), MODERN SCIENCE WAS IN THE SAME POSTION IT ACCUSED RELIGION OF! The necessity of resorting to a stance of blind faith in its beliefs; and postulating mythical (invented) hypothesis to bolster up its lagging theoretical claims which could not hold up under the light of true advancing science.

Modern Science does not want to lose the ground it had gained of false legitimacy in society. It has done this by successfully dethroning God, and enshrining Atheism.

“Darwinism removed the whole idea of God as the creator of organisms from the sphere of rational discussion. Darwin pointed out that no supernatural designer was needed; since natural selection could account for any new form of life, there is no room for a supernatural agency in its evolution.” ⁽¹⁰⁾

—*Julian Huxley (Evolutionary Biologist, Eugenicist)

Julian Huxley (a noted atheist) here expressed the boone that Darwin gave to Atheism. The Atheists desire and need for an alternate theory to God’s existence and creationism. To be taken seriously and rise to positions of power and influence, Atheists needed to destroy God.

Atheism has always been a religion; and created its own doctrine and articles of faith to appear to be official, and legitimate.

Darwinism is masked in a mystery of complex theories (few are educated enough to understand), concepts that appear logical and reasoned on their surface. These assumptions gave Atheists the tool they needed to clear the playing field of religion and any discussion on God. To hold this illusion in place, Evolutionary theory must be protected and supported at all costs. Truth is not a part of the equation! Just control, societal respect and honors, and the rewards of fame and fortune.

They had to resort to concealment of the facts of science, because the real modern science had turned on their own theories. They could not tell the truth or let the truth be known— because to lose the theory of Evolution, would be to lose the Atheists foundation for their belief system, and their control over Modern Science in the culture.

The more complexity they could spin into their theories and assumptions, the better they can divert your attention, leading their audience into their desired conclusions. This also keeps people focused on their ideas, rather than on significant weaknesses missing from their theory that are not explained or delt with. This also averts probing unanswerable questions evolution can’t deal with.

Keeping the façade of Evolution and Natural Selection in place, allows them to keep up appearances and keeps public attention centered on their narrative, so the truth does not get out. This keeps them in control, and deciding the kind of world we live in; which is the world they desired and wanted to create.

The more detailed and complex the lie, the better they can deceive potential converts, followers, and believers in a respectable foundation made to appear as true science. This also allows them to embrace their own deception—creating a broad-based illusion they could all sink their teeth into.

This was the realization that James Conant of Harvard University came to understand.

“Therefore, a grotesque account of a period some thousands of years ago is taken seriously though it be built by piling special assumptions on special assumptions, ad hoc hypothesis on ad hoc hypothesis, and tearing apart the fabric of science whenever it appears convenient. The result is a fantasia which is neither history nor science.” ⁽¹¹⁾— *James Conant (Chemist and former president, Harvard University)

This body of scientific confusion was constructed to hypnotize a less educated audience into focusing their attention elsewhere. As Michael Denton and others scientists have exposed: when people believe the science is already settled and the facts already exist that “Evolution” and “Natural Selection” are proven theories— and have been for over 100 years; you have already won the battle for legitimacy. Even though the whole foundation is built on unproven speculations and invalidated hypotheses.

That is why we must look at the actual science and what it proves, and not these popular “myths” ⁽¹²⁾of the past. And the truth is: Evolution is a theory which “is not the result of scientific research, but purely the product of imagination”.⁽¹³⁾ And “a fantasia which is neither history nor science”. ⁽¹⁴⁾

The Scientific Imperatives Behind a Complex World

When it comes to viewing the big picture scientifically: with the diversity in our world of millions of life forms living in a contained and balanced system on this earth, self-perpetuating and beyond our scientific capability to recreate— or even produce a single working part of its cellular construction; the attempt to explain the entirety of it all away as a bunch of happy accidents, which kickstarted and then guided all the magnificent life we observe genetically to exist in this harmony and balance; it cannot square with logic or reason. This case of molecular complexity and irreducible systems being required for life, is strong enough on its own to verify the need of an advanced intelligent creator to produce it. But Evolution also has other challenges.

Evolution is also mathematically impossible as a workable theory.

How could all of these necessary components come together sequentially, in the precise and right order to construct this life, in the magnitude of millions of individual parts; to produce the biological world we see before us?

To challenge this claim of Evolution in a simple mathematical comparison, scientist and author A. Cressy Morrison, (an American chemist and former president of the New York Academy of Sciences) points out if life was made up of even just 10 basic components that had to come together in exactly the right order, but must be arranged in that exact order from 1 to 10 to work; what are the odds of this possibility happening by mere chance? It doesn’t seem that difficult, does it? This has been one of the most basic claims of evolution as a viable theory. That unintelligent chaotic life found a way over billions of years of evolution.⁽¹⁵⁾

Dr. Morrison was responding to claims made by Ernst Haeckel (a German Zoologist), that “if given water, chemicals, and time, he could create a man”. ⁽¹⁶⁾ [Clearly Haeckel and his successors were premature. They are still struggling to create even the first living cell, or even a working component of a cell; let alone a man.]

Morrison states that if you had 10 coins in your pocket numbered from 1 to 10 and attempted to draw them out in numerical sequence; if you took them out one at a time, but then each was replaced so that 10 options remained with each pick, (which are far better odds than the countless combinations lying on the ground in the real world) your chance of drawing out first number 1, and then number 2 in succession would be 1 in 100. Your chance of drawing 1, 2, and 3 would be one in 1000. Your chance of drawing out 1,2,3 and 4 would be one in 10,000 and so on, until your chance of drawing out 1 to 10 in succession would reach the unbelievable figure of one chance in 10 billion. This demonstration reveals how enormously figures multiply against mere chance! ⁽¹⁷⁾

I discussed the conceptual reality of “Irreducible Systems” in part 6 of this series, and again this was mentioned by Dr. Denton. An irreducible system is one in which all parts are required to have a functioning system. If even one of them is removed then the system cannot work or function. That is what makes it irreducible.

Dr. Dentons has shared his findings: “that there are in fact tens of thousands of irreducibly complex systems on the cellular level. Specified complexity pervades the microscopic biological world…containing thousands of exquisitely designed pieces of intricate molecular machinery, made up altogether of ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND MILLION ATOMS…” ⁽¹⁸⁾

If getting just 10 components of a system to come together in sequence with only 10 options available, is one chance in 10 billion; how about getting one hundred thousand million atoms right!

Again, for evolution to have ever occurred, this would have been the only path upon which it could have come about, as we understand the structure of life. The assemblage of the parts of a living cell, or the genetic coding meticulously arranged in the DNA, (all of which are required for life, and irreducible) proves to be an impossible task for a self-constructing universe through accidental forces to ever have been a mathematical possibility of happening.

After 60 years of trials, and no success, what science is up against, is akin to trying to demonstrate that if you move things around and shake them up enough, eventually a cell phone or an automobile is going to build itself and pop out on the other end.

Such a concept as evolution is as impossible as Haeckel’s flippantly ignorant assumption: that “given water, chemicals, and time, He could create a man”.⁽¹⁹⁾

Your common sense will tell you, that is just not going to happen. And you don’t need to be a scientist to understand that.

As Dr. Denton pointed out, biological life is“far more complicated than any machinery built by man and absolutely without parallel in the non-living world.” ⁽²⁰⁾

Biological life, in its most simple form (a bacterium), being far more complex than any of the inventions we as humans have constructed, is an “inescapable proof” of INTELLIGENT DESIGN! There is no other way to have the creatures we witness, or beauty and symmetry and complexity of functionality they possess.

This process of Evolution and Natural Selection (small accumulative changes over generations, advancing life; and self-generating new species of life evolving from simper ones) has no evidence in the natural world. We can only find whole creatures, designed to fit the circumstances in which they exist or have existed, presently or in all strata layers of the soil. There are no evolutionary chains of creatures changing species in the fossil record. In each layer of the soil we find different life, but no evolving chains between them. These biological imperatives are inescapable!

“Nowhere was Darwin able to point to one bona fide case of natural selection having actually generated evolutionary change in nature … Ultimately, the Darwinian theory of evolution is no more nor less than the great cosmogenic myth of the twentieth century.”⁽²¹⁾

— Dr. Michael Denton

Life Not Shaped by its Environment; But Designed for It

This is a topic I am going to spend more time on later, but I want to touch on it here and bring it into the discussion. Living creatures spread throughout this world do things that they do not have the self-awareness or intelligence to understand the implications of— in providing critical contributing roles to support the balance of life on this planet. Yet because they instinctively do them, they accomplish a needful service; and contribute to this balance we find in operation in this world. Life does not have the self-awareness or intelligence to build itself. LIFE SEEKS ITS OWN ENDS HERE! Yet in the process, fulfils a needful role to balance the effects of the other life, in recycling the bio-components of our world.

The variety of life here accomplishes this role in being the food source themselves for other life to perpetuate its existence; or their by-products or waste gives needed biological fuel to other life, providing this critical bio-balance necessary for all life to exist, recycle, and function.

If such a balance were not created and self-maintaining, a few dominate species would quickly over consume and stress all other life out of existence; undermining the whole system and causing their own destruction.

Only one species on earth is capable of recognizing and understanding this reality, and acting morally to respect and preserve it. That is human kind.

Something very advanced must have designed and built life to its purpose— to provide this balance; in both its rate of offspring, and its specific impact inherently to provide some critical need, and to solve some problem in the chain towards the sustainability of all life in both the animal and vegetable world.

Therefore, if this high level of intelligence was involved, what would that intelligent life be? What was the reasoning and meaning behind such a creation? If such a highly intelligent creature exists, where do we go to learn about it?

We are going to continue to dig out that truth.

Atheism Comes up Short

Another individual I also came across, while searching for answers to my questions, was Anthony Flew; an author and “Atheist crusader” who had been a leader in the Atheist movement for most of his life. But, which later, completely reversed his position and embraced Theism. Like Dr. Michael Denton and others, he came face to face with facts of reality he could not simply ignore.

In describing his transition from Atheism to Theism, he shares these perceptive conclusions:

“I must stress that my discovery of the Divine has proceeded on a purely natural level, without any reference to supernatural phenomena. It has been an exercise in what has traditionally been called natural theology. It has had no connection with any of the revealed religions. Nor do I claim to have had any personal experience of God or any experience that may be called supernatural or miraculous. In short, my discovery of the Divine has been a pilgrimage of reason and not of faith.” ⁽²²⁾

“I believe that the origin of life and reproduction simply cannot be explained from a biological standpoint despite numerous efforts to do so. With every passing year, the more that was discovered about the richness and inherent intelligence of life, the less it seemed likely that a chemical soup could magically generate the genetic code. The difference between life and non-life, it became apparent to me, was ontological [ finding meaning behind existence] and not chemical…

No, I did not hear a Voice. It was the evidence itself that led me to this conclusion.” ⁽²³⁾ —Anthony Flew

Flew was of British nationality, and a university professor of philosophy. During his career he taught at the universities of Oxford, Aberdeen, Keele and Reading, and at York University in Toronto. ⁽²⁴⁾

I was deeply impressed by this metamorphosis, of someone so immersed in one belief system, to be open minded enough to be influenced by a larger truth that emerged later in his life. This took great courage and honest personal introspection against a lifetime of defending a position, and then making a complete 180% turn into the teeth of your perceived enemy. A journey few are willing to take. It is so much easier to remain where you are comfortable, respected and secure. He had no other reason to do this, except to succumb to a sincerity and honest intellectual internal realization which he could no longer ignore. It was a true and honest shift in his foundational principles of belief.

A belief that under the weight of his own intellect and sense of reason, found himself convinced he had been mistaken, and wrong in his earlier assumptions.

He also makes it clear—his change of heart and belief was not a spiritually motivated event. He was finally convinced by the evidence of ongoing scientific discovery into the “richness and inherent intelligence of life”, ⁽²⁵⁾that the only logical conclusion was a maker and creator of life.

Reaching Honest Conclusions

If we are to ever find the truth; we must begin by being honest with ourselves!

We can’t hide from the truth— if we want to know what it really is!

The solar system, and known universe we see is independent of mankind, (as we are certainly not the creators). And as we speculate at how these conditions came to be, we must rely on reason and theory where we do not have hard facts or evidence. But the clear truth is, the science behind our world and solar system precedes the life here and its beginnings. The truth behind the science here precedes us; and was all set-in motion before we existed and began to ask our questions; or to learn about how this all functions.

“Finally, there is only one attitude which is possible… It consists in affirming that intelligence comes before life. Many people will say, this is not science, it is philosophy. The only thing I am interested in is fact, and this conclusion comes out of an analysis and observation of the facts.” ⁽²⁶⁾

—*G. Salet

What we witness, (both discovered or to be discovered), has been going on for billions of years; as we peer back into the age of the universe.

But remember the “trick of Life” ⁽²⁷⁾ I explained in part 2 of this series. When we attempt to explain and understand the miracle of life, or any other truth we investigate; we are not capable of extending ourselves beyond our current levels of knowledge. It is by the application of study and investigation that our knowledge base grows. Later when ideas or beliefs are reexamined within our growing intellect, more often than not, we see so much more— because of our expanded capacity.

When examining the deep and searching questions of life within this natural growth process, it is likely many of our earlier positions will need to be adjusted. Sometimes abandon, and replaced. THAT IS THE REASON WHY COMING TO UNDERSTAND WHO WE ARE, AND WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF LIFE, AND THE DISCOVERY OF TRUTH, IS A PROCESS AND NOT AN EVENT!

And what we learn today, can always be added to— by what we may learn tomorrow, or in the coming days, months, and years. As we are learning truth, all of us will be missing things, because of the limitation of our natural circumstances or personal strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, our knowledge is always incomplete. But it is in this very recognition of our inadequacy that we can be humbled into keeping an open mind and to continue the learning process going forward.

Science Great Conclusion

The growing field of science has been a blessing and help to improve our lives and circumstances, and the quality of our own existence. But to say it has replaced religion, is to ignore the very substance of science. It is true, that within religion is much error, and superstition; but religion also raises questions and provides answers that are sound, and which science supports. Not only has it not been able to replace religion, but it can’t help but provide evidence for it.

Today, those who want to attack religion, in support Atheism refuse to admit to the proof of their own experiments and findings. If seeing is believing, they will not see what is right before their eyes.

The harder they work, and the deeper they dive into their efforts to substantiate their own anti-god claims, they keep finding more and more layers of complexity that they have no reasonable alternative to explain away. So, they overlook the obvious conclusions of their own findings, and twist themselves into paradoxical knots, to offer up substitute theories that do not explain the evidence, or satisfy the truth of the science they themselves have revealed.

Modern Science itself has now raised the very question, where did this complexity come from? And who or what was behind it?

To be Continued . . .

Sources:

1.Website: All About Science.Org, Article: Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, Section: A Theory In Crisis Darwin’s Theory Of Evolution (darwins-theory-of-evolution.com)

2. An Interview with Michael J. Denton – YouTube

3.Michael Denton, Evolution: A Theory in Crisis (London: Burnett Books, 1985) [ Pg 353–354 emphasis added]. Evolution Handbook 3 (evolutionfacts.com)

4.*Fleishman, Albert, Victoria Institute, Vol. 65, pages 194, 195. Evolution Handbook 3 (evolutionfacts.com)

5.Lord Kelvin, quoted in H. Enoch, Evolution or Creation, (1988), p. 94. Evolution Handbook 3 (evolutionfacts.com)

6. *Bounoure, Le Monde et la Vie (October 1983) [Director of Research at the National Center of Scientific Research in France] Evolution Handbook 3 (evolutionfacts.com)

7. *James Conant [chemist and former president, Harvard University], quoted in Origins Research, Vol. 5, No. 2, 1982, p. 2.Evolution Handbook 3 (evolutionfacts.com)

8. Evolution: A Theory in Crisis (1986), Pg 77 Source: https://quotepark.com/authors/michael-denton/

9. *Loran Eisley, The Immense Journey (1957), p. 199. Evolution Handbook 3 (evolutionfacts.com)

10. *At Random, A Television Preview, in Evolution after Darwin (1960), p. 41.

11. *James Conant [chemist and former president, Harvard University], quoted in Origins Research, Vol. 5, No. 2, 1982, p. 2.

12. Evolution: A Theory in Crisis (1986), Pg 77 Source: https://quotepark.com/authors/michael-denton/

13.*Fleishman, Albert, Victoria Institute, Vol. 65, pages 194, 195.

14. *James Conant [chemist and former president, Harvard University], quoted in Origins Research, Vol. 5, No. 2, 1982, p. 2.

15. Book: Man Does Not Stand Alone by A. Cressy Morrison, Copyright Jan 1, 1946, Chapter 1, pg 13

16. Book: Man Does Not Stand Alone by A. Cressy Morrison, Copyright Jan 1, 1946, Introduction, pg 9

17. Book: Man Does Not Stand Alone by A. Cressy Morrison, Copyright Jan 1, 1946, Chapter 1, pg 13

18. Website: All About Science.Org, Article: Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, Section: A Theory In Crisis
Darwin’s Theory Of Evolution (darwins-theory-of-evolution.com)

19. Book: Man Does Not Stand Alone by A. Cressy Morrison, Copyright Jan 1, 1946, Introduction, pg 9

20. Website: All About Science.Org, Article: Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, Section: A Theory In Crisis
Darwin’s Theory Of Evolution (darwins-theory-of-evolution.com)

21. Michael Denton, Evolution: A Theory in Crises (Bethesda, Maryland: Adler & Adler, 1986) pp. 62, 358. Defining Evolution 10: Natural Selection – The Creation Club | A Place for Biblical Creationists to Share and Learn

22.Website: Creation.com Review There is a God by Antony Flew – creation.com

23. How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind : Strange Notions

24. Antony Flew – Wikipedia

25. How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind : Strange Notions

26. *G. Salet, Hasard et Certitude: Le Transformisme devani la Biologie Actuelle (1973), p. 331.

27. Who Am I part II Blog, Heading: The Trick of Life, Mountain Star Network Who Am I? Part II – Mountain Star Network

*The asterisk before a name indicates a scientist who is considered an atheist.

Where Modern Science Brings Us(Who Am I, Part 6)

Who Am I? Part 6, A look into how Evolution has fared under modern scientific advances. The challenges scientists have faced in trying to validate it in the context of DNA and Genetics. Evolution vs Creations standing, in the light of modern discovery.

This is part 6 of a series on Who Am I?

Evolutions Standing in Modern Science Today?

So, with this delve we have made into the scientific theory, when you take its pieces apart, and when you look for empirical evidence that would prove this theory of Evolution, Modern Science cannot provide such evidence that this theory is plausible. In fact, it has so far been impossible to substantiate Evolution as a workable theory. What other conclusion are we left with? There on the other hand, is substantial proof that life is made up of complex intelligent design. Design so complex we are still studying it, and trying to figure out how it could have been created and made to work in the first place, because it is superior to any technology we have ever been able to create. THIS IS WHAT MODERN SCIENCE HAS PROVEN EMPIRICALLY!

When trying to discover “who we are” and the origin of life on this planet, it is clear that Modern Science is still investigating, and even concealing its findings, and their meaning. Why? Because it has a theory it wants to give us… one it wants so much to believe in; but it’s a theory that its own scientists can’t prove. Modern Science holds up the mantra, that true science must be empirically proven to be substantiated. Its claim is that Evolution is all about empirical evidence. In fact, this is their main case against Religion; saying it can’t be empirically proved, therefore, it can’t be accepted as fact or truth. Yet their own foundational theory of Evolution, has no empirical evidence! Let’s look more closely.

After the 1960s, Scientists studying the origin of life divided into different camps. With the discovery of DNA and Genetics; out dated thinking now needed to be updated, because the science had grown. Darwinian ideas, popular from the 1800 to 1960, no longer applied. The theory of Evolution now had huge challenges to still remain viable. If life self-started, how did it do it?

How did this theory of Evolution turn on and start up?

Not everyone in the scientific community could agree which part of life’s bio-system would have come together first, as they have not been able to recreate life in a lab, or even to produce a successful experiment to simulate or demonstrate its origin.

On a quest to understand and explain life’s origin, these specific camps of believers formed by gravitating towards their preferred belief, in how this process of life came into being. Out of this grew 3 theories that were being explored.

3 Leading Theories (Scientist at Odds)

Each leading theory has been supported by the most advanced minds of the times in their respective fields of science, and each had reasoned arguments to back up why they believed their theory for this process was the correct one. The leading theories came down to: the Cell, the Metabolism, or the Genetics.⁽¹⁾

“Some were convinced that life began with the formation of primitive versions of today’s biological cells.” A basic cell structure that could hold and isolate the first necessary chemical compounds was paramount before anything else could happen.⁽²⁾ The old Oparin-Haldane hypothesis building on Darwin’s ideas.
“Others thought the key first step was a metabolic system.” Without the ability to consume energy to power life— it can’t be alive to do anything. Metabolism, or the process of consumption must have come first, before anything else could be fueled or constructed and enabled to happen.⁽³⁾
Finally, a third group focused on the importance of genetics and replication as the catalyst for life. This starting point, they believed, might be centered in the construction of RNA (ribonucleic acid) to kickstart the life process. RNA has a less complicated bio-structure to be assembled, and to form— than its more complicated partner DNA. If RNA could be proven to come together naturally, it might begin the process to construct everything else. ⁽⁴⁾At the very least, if they could construct RNA, it would be a strong case to suggest other components could self-construct as well.

As each group has tried to prove their theory and provide the science to back it up for the last 60 years, each of these groups have run into problems. None of them have been able to provide the answer or demonstrate life’s true starting point. While they continue to manipulated all the variables, and have watched and recorded the reactions of cellular components during their experiments—attempting to ignite parts of the system to come together and start up; all have fallen short of producing “the successful experiment, to ignite life”, and provide a workable method, simulation, or process to show how their evolutionary theory is able to provide the solution; even to produce a single workable functioning part of the cellular system.

Irreducible Systems

To make a system go (which requires all its parts to function), it would be difficult to isolate one part as the driving mechanism for all the others. If each provides a critical function that the others don’t; all are required as a needful part of the equation to explain or have existing biological life. This is what has been called an irreducible system. Darwin, himself spoke of such a challenge to proving his theory. If something living requires a basic set of needed parts to be able to exist, and by removing even one of those basic parts you can’t have a living life form; then you cannot start with less. It is irreducible. Therefore, the challenge for a scientist who believes life Evolved—is to find a way to prove how one of these critical parts came to be without the others; and then created the rest. To conduct their experiments (since scientists can’t create any kind of life), they must take exiting biological life and experiment with living organisms.

Marshall, in his article points out that because of the passion with which each group supports its own theories, “scientific meetings on the origin of life have often been fractious affairs.” ⁽⁵⁾With these independent groups religiously dedicated to their own theories; they are somewhat tribalistic.

“All three ideas acquired adherents and have survived to the present day. Scientists have become passionately committed to their pet ideas, sometimes blindly so…and journalists covering the subject are regularly told by a scientist in one camp that the ideas emerging from the other camps are stupid or worse.” ⁽⁶⁾

– Michael Marshall

The scientific society at large today is clearly divided; each division to a point of criticizing and invalidating the work of the others; and not sure what the answer is as to life’s spark.

One thing all of them are united on though; is that there is no God, and that life came from Evolution, even though they have yet to prove the theory. And if you can’t prove a theory, then it remains a theory and is based in a belief system, not empirical scientific evidence.

Self-Evident Truth

In looking over the ongoing investigations into Evolution by the scientific community; and looking what the self-evident discoveries of science (that are empirical) have proven about the function of biological life: with the cell, genetics, and the DNA; I think a credible self-evident truth has been emerging. The only answer that can provide a credible explanation of the truth we see in the structuring and function of that life, is that intelligent life had to have produced it. Creation, and not Evolution is the logical explanation behind the life on this planet.

While the Atheist Leadership who rule Modern Science in academia will never make such an admission, adjustments needed to be made to their theories to accommodate these new scientific truths of the complexity of life. Hence the admission of Papineau and Dodd we discussed earlier:

“…it looks likely that microbial creatures started swarming Earth almost as soon as it formed. Even without consensus on how and where life got going, everyone pretty much now agrees on a basic when: early. And quickly.”⁽⁷⁾

This statement reveals that Modern Science has had to give up one of its cardinal beliefs of Evolution, to now admit that early life on the planet did not evolve over millions of years to produce the first life forms. They now must recognize that a viable complex cell containing DNA was required right from the beginning, to explain the life we find in ancient fossils.

Not only that, but this life was designed to procreate and perpetuate itself within a delicate environment carefully and distinctly designed to support it.

Why can’t this be admitted to in scientific circles? The only logical conclusion that can be reached, is that the discovery of “actual truth” is not the aim of Modern Science; but the support and evangelizing of an anti-God belief in the development and unfolding of the universe. They are accepting of any science or theory that supports a self-constructing universe; but they will ignore any evidence or truth that challenges their Atheism.

Alien Life

A fourth group has emerged that will admit to this, yet they still come up short of calling it God. Some call it aliens from another world; or drifting natural living spores arrived from a distant planet.⁽⁸⁾The trouble with this theory is it just starts the same argument over again on another world. How did that intelligent life come to be— to create the intelligent life that exists there? Religion faces a similar problem with where did God come from?

Creation VS Evolution

We may not know how life was ignited and accomplished originally in any part of the universe; but what we see and understand about life here (from the provable science we do have), clearly demonstrates, that the simplest and most reasonable conclusion that can account for this mind-blowingly detailed and complex biosystem of life on this planet; is that it was engineered and constructed by intelligent life.

Creation—not Evolution, is the only viable explanation.

To be continued . . .

Sources:

1. The Secret of How Life began on the Earth, Article by Michael Marshall, 31 October 2016 http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20161026-the-secret-of-how-life-on-earth-began

2. The Secret of How Life began on the Earth, Article by Michael Marshall, 31 October 2016 http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20161026-the-secret-of-how-life-on-earth-began

3. The Secret of How Life began on the Earth, Article by Michael Marshall, 31 October 2016 http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20161026-the-secret-of-how-life-on-earth-began

4. The Secret of How Life began on the Earth, Article by Michael Marshall, 31 October 2016 http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20161026-the-secret-of-how-life-on-earth-began

5. The Secret of How Life began on the Earth, Article by Michael Marshall, 31 October 2016 http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20161026-the-secret-of-how-life-on-earth-began

6. The Secret of How Life began on the Earth, Article by Michael Marshall, 31 October 2016 http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20161026-the-secret-of-how-life-on-earth-began

7. A new finding raises an old question: Where and when did life begin? By Kat McGowan September 8, 2017 https://www.popsci.com/where-and-when-did-life-begin/

8. Panspermia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panspermia

Who Am I? Part 5

Who Am I? Part 5, Examining growing Modern Science, its discoveries and their meaning and conclusions. What does the science prove? What do we learn about who we are?

This is part 5 of a series on Who Am I?

The Attempt to Prove Evolution

After Stanley Millers experiment in 1952, demonstrating the ability to create simple chemical compounds of glycine and alanine, other scientists began to find ways to make other simple biological molecules from scratch. This led the scientific community to believe the mystery of life’s origin was very close.⁽¹⁾

But shortly thereafter, with breakthroughs into the discovery of the operations of Genetics, through the late 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s and beyond; and the isolation and mapping of the DNA, the more that scientists discovered and learned about how these biological systems operate and are configured; the more detailed the structure of cells and their functions were discovered to be. Cells where the foundational building blocks of living things.

Michael Marshall points out that the early achievements towards an explanation of “how life came to be”… proved grossly inadequate:

“Suddenly, Oparin and Haldane’s ideas looked naively simple, while Miller’s experiment, which only produced a few of the amino acids used to build proteins, looked amateurish. Far from taking us most of the way to creating life, his seminal study was clearly just the first step on a long road…” ⁽²⁾

Theory in the Face of Facts

In our search of finding the truth, of who we are? We are going to look logically and critically at the theory of Evolution to see if it is a good fit with what science has proven. In this overview we are going to look at the words and work of Modern Scientists, and their advancing theories to see how they fit together with the actual science they have uncovered about life. Theory is what we use when we don’t have the facts. It is our best educated guess at what the facts we do have add up too. It is logic, applied to the facts; and where it appears the facts are leading us. So where is the science that has been proven… leading us?

The Anatomy of Cells

These advances in Modern Science they have discovered and proven over the last 100 years, as facts, reveal how living things are constructed. The earliest life they have found in the fossil record are Microbes (Microscopic one celled life) which have proven to be very complex and of sophisticated design. If you rise to the next level of life, above one celled microbes, to multi-celled organisms; it was discovered that within every living cell is a mini bio-world of technology; a self-functioning lifeform with a brain or command center, with very logically designed intricate connecting systems to support its various working parts. Each system is built and functioning independently of each other; as well as in correlation together. This was a shock and a revelation to science as to how life works. Each cell containing micro bio-machines with certain predictable characteristics, performing specific processes required to build and support itself as a self-functioning life form; and with the blueprints (DNA) to multiply and design and grow; turning itself into and providing a body for a plant or animal species of our world in all its particulars.

In the diagram of a human cell below you can see its many different parts; each part complicated, detailed and fulfilling a critical function. I won’t go into detail about how it all works at this time, but the discovery of the functions and capabilities which a basic cell contains, represented something far beyond what anyone was expecting. Life was not simple at all, and that became a huge dilemma for those who wanted to believe life constructed itself without an intelligent designer.

The Human Cell, HealthoolHuman Cell – Parts, Diagrams, Functions, Types and Atlas – (2021 – Updated)

Michael Marshall, who has laid out the foundational theories and development of Evolution in his article, The Secret of How Life began on the Earth, draws this observation.

“Living cells, it turned out, were not just bags of chemicals: they were intricate little machines. Suddenly, making one from scratch began to look like a much bigger challenge than scientists had anticipated.” ⁽³⁾

In a nut shell: the cell contains biological components, that carry out specific intelligent functions to build and support life.

The Construction Process of Life

Within its brain (the cell’s nucleus where most of our DNA is stored), one of its operations is to consume energy needed for life in the form of sugars and material elements; and with these materials it obtains, it also creates a complete copy of itself from which it will divide. At this division, (in scientific terms) the original parent cell ceases to exist and divides into two new daughter cells at separation. These two new daughter cells continue this process of creation and division to go on to multiply. All of these cells, somehow as independent life forms, also have the sense of belonging to something greater than themselves and are constructed in concert and order, to become the independent building blocks of a lifeform (organism); and become its self-regulating organs, networks, frame and outer shell, appendages and functioning parts; all constructed of billions of these individual and independent intelligent cells. Without these logical and highly advanced internal capabilities of the cell, and containing within its organs the blueprint (code) and manufacturing systems to know how to build and construct each part of a life form, there would be no life; even the earliest life.

But this is just one issue. In the natural world a cell is not capable of self-function, outside a host. The origin and operations of a cell do not start outside of an existing organism, they come into existence because some life form already exists that produces them.

“Organisms cannot simply emerge from inanimate material (“abiogenesis”), cells always come from pre-existing cells.” ^{(4) _}Science Daily

It takes life^_ to get life, as far as we have been able to trace life’s existence. We don’t find stages of cells constructing themselves with partial parts of simpler anatomy, they are what they are, and they need the parts they have, even in the earliest stages of this earth’s existence so life is able to exist. This belief of partial organic life forms is required to support a belief that life somehow constructed itself from inanimate existing space-matter; because it is logical life must have an origin, and needed to be constructed somehow. But in actual existence we don’t find this in the natural world. We only find organized whole creatures or microbial cells fully formed even in the fossil record.

With this knowledge and understanding, it became more and more clear, that earlier theories about how life evolved contained misconceptions and inaccurate assumptions about how life might work. This brought a halt to Evolutions foundational premise, that life came together gradually over billions of years evolving into simple cells and from cells to the first life forms. Now it became clear, even in the earliest life, DNA and Genes within the cell were there and involved in the earliest life forms.

But beyond that, was the realization that just to explain the existence of the cell itself, was now a significant problem.

Explaining and demonstrating how all of this complex engineering could exist, just to have a viable functioning cell, was now the obligation of Modern Science. All of these new requirements were a part of the problem in finding a solution as to how life came to be. That answer now had to take into account the explanation of how all of these processes were created and came about, layer upon layer in the right sequence, involving millions if not billions of coordinated working individual parts inside one basic cell. This task was staggering to contemplate.

To break the problem down into bit sized pieces they have focused on the central building blocks of a cell, the DNA and how it functions to start the building of the other cell systems as a possible starting point. DNA is assisted by RNA, and the RNA absorbs and breaks down sugars, providing it to the DNA, so the DNA can make proteins that are the building materials of constructing the structure of living things. But it seems, even starting here is a problem, because both DNA and RNA are required to support each other and you can’t have the one without the other.

“DNA makes RNA protein, all in this lipid-encapsulated bag of chemicals,” says John Sutherland. “You look at that and it’s just ‘wow, that’s too complicated’. How are we going to find organic chemistry that will make all that in one go?” ⁽⁵⁾

You are seeing a crack here in the scientific claim to Evolution. This is a problem Modern Science has not been able to overcome; and they are still seeking this answer and have been for 60 years. How to solve this problem has divided the field of science into different camps looking for a way to come up with a solution to, “how did life get started”? As you continue to dig deeper, many more cracks manifest themselves.

Modern Science, Trying to Make Since of the Science

Still today, even in the light of this knowledge, (that life began already complex, even at its earliest stages, and they can’t find a way to explain how a single cell is able to exist or function without all its parts; or without a pre-existent host such as a plant or animal to create it, demonstrating that sterile evolution does not have the answers to explain the existence or creation of life), Stanley Miller’s experiment continues to be cited by the scientific community as proof that life came from a pool of chemicals ignited to life.

Other supporting theories have grown out of this, including the volcanic vent theory: where it is speculated life may have first ignited at the bottom of the sea where hydrothermal vents expel extreme-heated mineral enriched water into the ocean.⁽⁶⁾Within and around these vents microbial life thrives very successfully; even in the absence of sunlight. Another theory is that life began in volcanic pools on land where a similar condition is also present,⁽⁷⁾ which has also revealed microbial life living in super-heated water in extreme conditions. Yet again, finding an environment that can sustain a life form, is not proof of how the life form itself came into existence. These are two different issues entirely.

The modern scientific community is committed to finding the answer to these questions on the emergence of life. As the science has grown, the theories have multiplied and expanded far beyond Darwin’s first suggestions, or what Miller’s experiment suggested when it first was conducted. Yet in spite of ongoing experiments over the last 70 years to demonstrate the science to back up the theory, the secret to life still remains elusive.

Michael Marshall points out: “Over the last century, a few scientists have tried to figure out how the first life might have sprung up. They have even tried to recreate this Genesis moment in their labs: to create brand-new life from scratch. So far nobody has managed it, but we have come a long way.”⁽⁸⁾

Why has no one managed it? Possibly because they are looking for the answer in the wrong place. All of the building blocks of life certainly exist here on this planet; as do natural laws, which exist in our atmosphere and on the surface of the earth. A combination of naturally occurring substances and natural laws of electricity produced Stanley Miller successful experiment in producing certain basic amino acids in a laboratory; EVEN THOUGH THEY WERE LATER PROVEND TO NOT BE OF THE STURCTURE AND TYPE THAT WE FIND IN EXISTING LIFE. But these natural occurring phenomenon on earth do not produce living cells, or solve the problem of explaining or making abiogenesis a reality. Yet Evolution requires abiogenesis as a part of its theory to construct the first life.

In a similar comparison, nature does not produce cell phones or automobiles. It is one thing to find the material matter of which living things are made, or even the earthly materials of which our modern inventions consist. It is another to have the intelligence to take of these materials and turn them into useful or living things. We would not expect to find cell phones or automobiles produced by evolution, we would say they are too complex and require intelligent life to be involved to construct them. That is a major missing ingredient in the idea of evolution; no superior intelligence is behind this theory, merely accidental natural occurring phenomenon. A self-existent universe.

But what is the difference between a cell phone and the human body when it comes to complexity? Which requires the most knowledge and complex science to construct? We can build one, we cannot build the other, we lack both the knowledge and the complexity still to construct life. Modern Science would never suggest that a cell phone or automobile could invent itself, yet they insist complex biological creatures did. Why the contradiction? More on this later.

The DNA

DNA or Deoxyribo-Nucleic Acid is a molecule within a living cell which holds the genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of all known organisms (living things, plant or animal), and many viruses. DNA and ribonucleic acid (RNA) are nucleic acids in the nucleus (brain of the cell) to enable its function and activities. Alongside proteins, lipids and complex carbohydrates (polysaccharides), nucleic acids are one of the four major types of macromolecules that are essential for all known forms of life.⁽⁹⁾

In other words, the capacity to be alive, even for simple one cell lifeforms, requires complex design to be possible.

We previously discussed the challenges that came with the detailed discovery of Genetics and DNA; and the leap scientific theory must take to fill the gap, between the idea that lighting struck a primordial swamp and igniting some kind of life, to the arrival of the complex building blocks of Genetics and DNA within the living cell that construct all forms of life. This process of life, going from dead matter to living is a leap too far, in the scientific facts of cellular progression we currently have. As this story has unfolded in the last few decades, the scientific community realized: life was not a slow process that evolved over billions of years, as first suspected. In fact, as the search to explain life on this planet continues for Modern Science, there are far more questions than answers.

Papineau and Dodd suggest “it looks likely that microbial creatures started swarming Earth almost as soon as it formed. Even without consensus on how and where life got going, everyone pretty much now agrees on a basic when: early. And quickly.”⁽¹⁰⁾

This was a huge admission from those who seek to find facts to support Evolutions claims, needing to concede this point, life began much earlier than the Fathers of Evolution claimed and could not even exist without complexity right from the start.

In Tim Newman’s 2018 article, What is DNA and how does it work; he shares:

“Virtually every cell in your body contains DNA or the genetic code that makes you, you. DNA carries the instructions for the development, growth, reproduction, and functioning of all life.” ⁽¹¹⁾

The cell of a living entity contains sophisticated Genes with Chromosomes, designed to be transferred from the progenitors or parents to the offspring in plants or animals for life to exist; all neatly ordered and rolled up in a complex DNA structure, within the cell. This is at the foundation for any biological organisms to form and be possible.

Tim Newman further explains, “Amazingly, if all of the DNA in the human body was unraveled, it would reach to the sun and back more than 300 times.” ⁽¹²⁾

That is how complex and long these DNA codes are. It begins to make sense why the mystery of life has become so complicated to explain, figuring out how this process could have been guided by accidental forces becomes, well… impossible… really!

In just one component of the system, DNA’s function of making proteins from sugars in a complex strand needed to fuel the human system; Michael Marshall points out:

“But the process of using DNA to make proteins proved to be staggeringly intricate. That was a big problem for anyone trying to explain the origin of life, because it is hard to imagine how something so complex could ever have got started.” ⁽¹³⁾

Inescapable Conclusions

For the Atheist in the context of Modern Science, the goal is to provide an explanation how the life we see before us was accomplished… by unguided, unaided, means.

Science, past and present, has done an incredible job of discovering the truth about existing life and how it functions. Modern Science understands better than ever before what life is… just not how it could have come about by self-constructing. Every experiment and discovery have failed to provide the scientific facts to prove it.

After years of experimentation, and attempting to recreating life in a lab, or demonstrate a successful process on how living cellular components could come together in nature; so far the facts of science have proven this as a scientific impossibility.

They still have to offer Evolution as a theory, because they do not have the science or facts to overcome the obstacles. And since the theory is unproveable, their belief in Evolution has become a Religion (a belief system). Evolution, is the religion of Modern Science. Faith and belief are the only actual explanation for holding this theory as truth, in the absence of scientific fact.

In the end, they are no different than a Theist, who accepts certain beliefs on faith alone in the absence of provable demonstrable facts.

Belief Systems

The Modern Atheist claims their main reason for abandoning and even criticizing and refuting a belief in God, is because Modern Science proves life came about through natural occurring processes we find on earth, and that this is evidence no God exists. In recent times they have come up with their own explanation and term to describe a religious believer as a follower of Vitalism. Vitalism, they say, is an antiquated concept and belief, and should have been abandon a century ago in the light of scientific reality.⁽¹⁴⁾

Yet as you dig down into the theory of Evolution and its many related theories of a self-existent universe, you begin to find it has many unsolved issues and problems in attempting to reconcile itself with the true proven facts of science.

Now we find because of a lack of a provable scientific method, Modern Science believers and followers, themselves, must resort to leaps of faith ^_to maintain their beliefs in their explanation of the origin of life, in their challenge to hold those beliefs together.

Whether it be Evolution or Theology, the origins of “Who we are” must rest itself on a foundation of reason, and logical conclusion, weighing the evidence we personally find credible. The answer to the question of: who we are? in either field of study, stripped of all its outward dressing of officialdom; and boiled down to is foundation premise; and citing the evidence we have available to us (when it comes down to it), rests on the substance of personal belief.

To be continued . . .

_________________________________________

Sources:

1. The Secret of How Life began on the Earth, Article by Michael Marshall, 31 October 2016 http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20161026-the-secret-of-how-life-on-earth-began

2. The Secret of How Life began on the Earth, Article by Michael Marshall, 31 October 2016 http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20161026-the-secret-of-how-life-on-earth-began

3. The Secret of How Life began on the Earth, Article by Michael Marshall, 31 October 2016 http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20161026-the-secret-of-how-life-on-earth-began

4. Science Daily March 25, 2021 A divided cell is a doubled cell: Division and growth of synthetic vesicles — ScienceDaily

5. The Secret of How Life began on the Earth, Article by Michael Marshall, 31 October 2016 http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20161026-the-secret-of-how-life-on-earth-began

6. The Secret of How Life began on the Earth, Article by Michael Marshall, 31 October 2016 http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20161026-the-secret-of-how-life-on-earth-began

7. NASA Science; How did life begin and evolve on Earth, and has it evolved elsewhere in the Solar System? https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/big-questions/how-did-life-begin-and-evolve-earth-and-has-it-evolved-elsewhere-solar-system

8. The Secret of How Life began on the Earth, Article by Michael Marshall, 31 October 2016 http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20161026-the-secret-of-how-life-on-earth-began

9. Wikipedia DNA, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA

10. A new finding raises an old question: Where and when did life begin? By Kat McGowan September 8, 2017 https://www.popsci.com/where-and-when-did-life-begin/

11. What is DNA and how does it work? Written by Tim Newman on January 11, 2018 https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/319818

12. What is DNA and how does it work? Written by Tim Newman on January 11, 2018 https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/319818

13. The Secret of How Life began on the Earth, Article by Michael Marshall, 31 October 2016 http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20161026-the-secret-of-how-life-on-earth-began

14. The Secret of How Life began on the Earth, Article by Michael Marshall, 31 October 2016 http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20161026-the-secret-of-how-life-on-earth-began

Who Am I? Part 4

Who Am I? Part 4, A look at the foundations of Theology, and Human Morality. Where our beliefs come from. How society is formed, and how what we believe and think will transform us.

This is part 4 of a series on Who Am I?

**And God Said, Let there be Light- Genesis 1:3 Bible (KJV)**

The Theological View

It is time to take a brief look at the theological point of view regarding, Who Am I? There are really only two potential answers to this question of, “who we are”:

Either we came about by the natural process of a self-existent universe, (which is the modern scientific view of Evolution).

Or we are the deliberate outcome of intelligent life, that guided the process, and oversaw the creation; which is the Theological view.

Theology attempts to answer this question of life, by revealing who the Creator is, and providing an explanation of how intelligent design was responsible for our creation.

Different Religions have unique stories on how this world came to be; and what the ultimate meaning of life is. Religion has been with man far longer than science. Both religion and science have grown and developed (as history reveals) out of our personal need, curiosity, and experience. Religion and science have progressed as our minds have progressed. As mankind has developed socially and technologically, so have our ideas about the earth; how our world works, and our understanding of the universe and our place in it. That progress has come at a high price in human suffering, as authority figures have always been threatened by what is new and attempted to discourage and terminate it. Nevertheless, progress has and did come. There are those who look at religion and science as united in revealing the truth; and there are those who believe science disproves religion, and makes it obsolete for humanity. There are also those who believe religion supersedes science.

Religious Questioning

Our existence and the life on this earth require an explanation. Our world and universe and life itself are a mystery; how life comes, why it is here, and where it goes; and if there is a soul (living essence or spirit) that lives on and advances by this experience of life, has been a question for humanity that it has attempted to answer since the beginning of man. Each new generation asks and wants to answer these questions, and each individual wonders about this on their own personal level.

A Personal Note

I was raised a Christian, and so these religious ideas are very familiar to me; but I underwent a dramatic change in my twenties as a result of certain life experiences which deeply affected me. As a result of this, I experienced a religious crisis. I was not sure what I could believe anymore. This prompted years of serious inquiry to see if I could substantiate my earlier beliefs, in light of real-life experience which had cast doubts. I had many questions, trying to determine exactly what I could trust, and where was truth. I will share my own story along the way, as I feel it becomes helpful to our discussions into finding truth.

Religious Truth has been Found to be Constant

A fact, of which it is pertinent to take notice, is while science contains much that is firm and proven, in many ways it is always changing and updating; because there is still so much we don’t know and continue to discover about our world and the universe.

But when it comes to Religion, the foundations for “Religious Truth” have largely remained constant. The principles of true religion are mostly the same today as they were when they were first introduced thousands of years ago by enlightened leaders.

(I don’t mean primitive man, who scientists theorize existed in different forms, but I am referring to oral tradition, and the written history, when the moral law was being formed and written down in different cultures.)

Therefore, it is not the principles or concepts contained within Religion that have evolved, it is our understanding of what those truths mean; and how they should be applied.

Below is a list of those basic religious beliefs contained within the predominate Religions of the world, that have been around the longest. Specifically, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Judaism. These beliefs combined make up 77 percent of the population of the world today. For many Buddhists, the first 2 beliefs do not apply, but as part of belief 3, they do believe the point of existence is to live morally, which brings a reward during life, and after death– up to the ultimate reward nirvana.

Here are those basic common beliefs:

A belief that there is a God or Creator (in the singular or pluralistic sense) of this world and the universe, who is watching over us.
A belief that we should trust and worship God, as a supreme being.
A belief God will bless us if we try to live moral lives.
A belief that murder is wrong.
A belief that to harm another is wrong.
A belief that we should not steal from others.
A belief that we must be truthful and honest with each other.
A belief that we must strive to be virtuous, and sexually true to our marital partner.
A belief that we should learn to be contented with what we have, and true to others. And a true friend does not scheme to take another’s partner, friends, or property.
A belief that we should do good and help others in need, express sympathy, and practice compassion.
A belief that wisdom comes with experience and age; and that the youth and young adults should listen to and respect their elders, carefully consider their advice and honor them.

These moral laws are a part of almost all world societies. They are ancient, and have been practiced (as far as we can determine) from the beginning of the verbal and written law.

A Code of Moral Ethics are the Foundation of Society

Why is this code of moral law consistent down through the ages? Because “truth” is timeless– and does not change. Because the issues related in living together and getting along are universal. People of all ages of this world suffer and struggle with the challenges of existence, and need to find solutions to survive. The laws of society devolved out of this need to avoid societal chaos, and find values all could rely on. But religion specifically goes beyond practical need. In some instances, it offers answers, not just practical moral law.

As I have searched, I believe almost all religions hold levels of truth, and provide a moral framework for those who practice them around the world. This builds a moral foundation for their society, assisting in training up good citizens who live good lives and are moral and honest in their relations between people, which helps fundamentally to hold society together to be stable and consistent. People are able to relate to their neighbors because of common beliefs, and have confidence they can be trusted. I think because of this, all cultural religions with these fundamental laws of integrity bring about the good we find in the world, and are a positive influence for strong trusted relationships in their cultures. This is not to say there are not religious prejudices, and difficulties between religions and different belief systems; but on a fundamental level society needs common beliefs that all conform to. These laws and common-sense beliefs also influence the nonreligious, and provide a positive foundation for them as well in society (whether they share in these beliefs or not); because these moral practices also shape the world they live in, and they gain the same benefits of a stable law-abiding society.

Atheists and Agnostics Appreciate the Moral Law

Many who are not religious also recognize most of these morals and values as common-sense measures required to support a successful society, where personal integrity is valued; and believe in them on their merits, with no religious connection.

A Belief; There is No One True Religion

I have heard some suggest it does not matter what religion you are in, as long as you live a moral life and are a good person. We will all end up in a good place with God, and there are many roads back to heaven. Some believe there are many Gods, deities, or guides we can worship who assist us from the other side.

Whatever the truth of God may be? Those who practice a similar moral law, stabilize their existence with one another in our modern society.

A True Religion Must Answer Life’s Greatest Questions

People unite themselves to a particular Religion for different reasons, and to meet certain needs they feel they have. People are all unique, viewing the world from their own perspective, and can look for different things from Religion.

I believe the most important role of Religion is to provide sound answers to our real purpose for being here? and helping the individual to discover, “Who Am I?” which is the message of this series.

I therefore believe true religion can’t just be abstract in its form, leading nowhere really, except to pointless and meaningless ceremony or worship for the sake of worship, even if it holds some significant truths that have been handed down.

For religion to be authentic, it must be able to provide life’s answers, and give true direction.

Some religions fill our most basic need for meaning, keeping us occupied and feeling like part of a group or congregation, and feeling good about ourselves. This has great value for many people in providing a foundation, and filling the emptiness in their life. But religion has more than one responsibility. If it is authentic– it must be able to explain and reveal answers to pain and suffering; and conflict among people–including war, hate, death, societal disintegration, moral and physical destruction; and natural disasters. It must give guidance and true direction to how we overcome human conflict; offer a plausible explanation of our world and universe; and help us to see what a meaningful life looks like. It needs to explain what all of this we are experiencing down here is for? And how it will lead to a meaningful and happy conclusion?

Most attempt to do this, but that is where I think religions deviate the most, and expose their greatest differences; when attempting to answer these types of questions, relating to life’s meaning and purpose.

False Religion

Some religions preach a mysterious, difficult to understand, and nonspecific deity; and are broadly inclusive of popular cultural trends; which some prefer, as it offers comfort that someone is looking down on us, and is not too judgmental of us… but asking almost nothing from us. These are religions of convenience for us… that do not interfere with our own lives and plans. Many people like these religions because they think they can have sin and holiness together. They have a very low bar for morality. But a religion that does not ask you to rid yourself from sin (engaging in self-defeating practices) and excessive immoral self-indulgence is a contradiction to truth. We all contain both good and evil within us, (or possibly worded another way) selflessness (good) and selfishness (evil), but the more we pursue the one, the less we can pursue the other. We can’t be selfish, and selfless at the same time. If we are self-consumed, we do little to help others and improve our communities. We are one-sided in our closest relationships, unwilling to give support and love, unless there is something in it for us.

Similarly, we cannot simultaneously seek good and evil because they are diametrically opposed to each other. We have to pursue the one or the other. Whichever one we are actually pursuing, our efforts to appear to be living the other… are a lie and a deception.

“[For] every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit… Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.” -Matthew 7: 17&20 KJV

The Miracle of Human Change

Who we are… personally… is the sum total of our thoughts and acts. This is sometimes a condemnation of us; but it can also be the liberation of us. It is a two-edged sword that can swing both ways for change. A human being is capable of complete and total change, people are not helpless to remain as they are. We can become whatever we want to be morally and spiritually by making small consistent changes to our thoughts. Our thoughts (and what we encourage or entertain to pass across our minds) like ripples in a pond move outward and grow in size to affect our attitudes and beliefs. But thoughts can be fed and encouraged from good sources or evil ones. We will serve what we come to entertain and love; and we will come to love what we encourage and seek externally, and internally. What we think, will in turn shape and change our desires– and our desires shape our actions. The crowd we run with, and the friends we choose– become who we are. This is the process of Human growth and improvement, or our moral destruction.

Some self-serving, vile and evil people have found a new vision of goodness and truth, and have altered themselves to become very good, honorable, and truth-seeking people. The opposite is also true. Some very good people have been slowly influenced to lower themselves to greed, or excessive self-serving indulgence, or unhealthy pleasure pursuits; and get lost and become hardened and evil. We can always change…and…we can always come back to truth. There is always hope.

We write our own story; we make our own life what it is, because we always can choose what we will think, and how we will react.

To be continued . . .

Who Am I ? Part 3

Who Am I? Part 3, A search for meaning and truth in life. Asking searching questions about our existence. Darwin’s theories of Evolution and Natural Selection, early Modern Science and how it was shaped and progressed.

This is part 3 of a series on Who Am I?

**All Life Began in a Primordial Pool Of Chemicals -Modern Science**

A Process

Why have I taken this circuitous route about discovering one’s self and answering the question, “who am I”? Why not just come right out and say it, this is who you are!

Because the truth of something is multifaceted, it is not one thing; it is usually a sequence of things, and the existence of life on this planet is certainly that. What we have come to learn about, who we are? Is the accumulation of thousands of years of learning.

Science and Religion Mediums of Truth

There is what you might call a simple scientific explanation to this question. There is also a simple theological explanation to this question; but I have frankly struggled with both of them. Both seemed to have unanswered questions and far stretching speculations that appeared to come up short. But I do believe the truth of our existence is found within both! But so is much error!

It has become a process of sifting through ideas to find the truths and separate the error.

Reason; The Truth Guidance Mechanism

We all possess a gift, and a capability that naturally occurs within us. It is the gift of reason. Some call it common sense, or insight. It is all of these. I have found it is a tool with far more importance to us than it would seem at face value. I believe this human capacity of reason is absolutely required to learn and believe anything. It is what we engage when personally deciding to take anything into our belief system. It must pass the muster of our own judgement, and our own sense of reason. This sense and ability to reason can grow and become stronger the more we use it, and the more it becomes informed with truth. This ability is part of the answer that lies behind who we are. We will investigate this more later.

Investigating Who We Are

We are going to look at the foundations of Modern Science and their explanation of life. I am not going to go into great detail on these concepts because that is not necessary here; but to hit the main points so you have a foundation on which to gain perspective and understanding of the modern scientific theory of life’s existence. This is necessary to begin to build an understanding of who you are.

Modern Science

Modern Science suggests: no God was involved in the building of the universe, or the accumulation of space-matter into our earth or the planets of the solar system. All of the universe and the solar system to which we belong was a natural occurring phenomenon and process. According to Modern Science, our earth was formed ⁽¹⁾4.5 billion years ago. After the earth was formed, as it was cooling, ⁽²⁾ water vapor that was present in the atmosphere began condensing and falling to the earth as rain, which created pools where chemicals existing in earths raw matter on her surface came together in certain combinations. Within that pool⁽³⁾lightning struck and ignited those chemical combinations present, turning them into chemical compounds that are the foundation of life. These chemical compounds over time combined into a living cell. This new living cell or cells springing to life began to replicate (as cells in our modern world have been observed to do), which began a cycle that over millions of years of time evolved into the first simple microbial life forms we find fossilized in the oldest most ancient rocks on earth. Those microbial forms later evolved into more complex life, and those life forms also continued to evolve into the life we see today on this planet.

Where Did These Ideas of Modern Science Come From?

They have existed for centuries; but arrived at a new epoch when Charles Darwin, a scientific enthusiast, studied the naturalist philosophies of the time; and making his own observations, was convinced life advanced through small consistent adaptive changes to its environment. He suggested a new idea, the theory of “Natural Selection”.

In his theory, Darwin believed “that all life is related and has descended from a common ancestor: the birds and the bananas, the fishes and the flowers — all related. Darwin’s general theory presumes the development of life from non-life and stresses a purely naturalistic (undirected) “descent with modification”. That is, complex creatures evolve from more simplistic ancestors naturally over time. In a nutshell, as random genetic mutations occur within an organism’s genetic code, the beneficial mutations are preserved because they aid survival — a process known as “natural selection.” These beneficial mutations are passed on to the next generation. Over time, beneficial mutations accumulate and the result is an entirely different organism (not just a variation of the original, but an entirely different creature).” ⁽⁴⁾

The Theory of Evolution

Darwin studied the domesticated breeding that was being practiced in his day, to create refined and improved advances in species of cattle, dogs, horses, and other livestock, observing the wide variety of diversity that had come out of such methods and experiments. He concluded that if these breeding techniques could create breeding lines of superior and improved, better, stronger, more successful animals; this same process also demonstrated the advancement of life through genetic breeding. And not only would these laws apply to controlled experiments; this natural genetic force for change could also be applied to the natural world; and explain how life itself evolved. And that the most superior species would by their strength and superior gifts, win out over lessor forms; improving the species. Not only that, but if this process continued over millions of years (with species evolving to improve, change, and even diversify into limitless life forms) that these same genetic forces could result in the propagation of entirely different species.

This theory of Natural Selection; that nature through this bio-organic process would explain the advancement of life on this planet; would effectively dismiss the concept of a God creator, revealing life came about through a logical, incremental, natural process; and not under the hand of a supernatural being.

This theory was presented to the world in 1859, when Charles Darwin published his book, “On the Origin of Species”.

“By the 1870s, the scientific community and a majority of the educated public had accepted evolution as a fact. However, many favored competing explanations which gave only a minor role to natural selection, and it was not until the emergence of the modern evolutionary synthesis from the 1930s to the 1950s that a broad consensus developed in which natural selection was the basic mechanism of evolution. Darwin’s scientific discovery is the unifying theory of the life sciences, explaining the diversity of life.” ⁽⁵⁾

But this theory of Natural Selection, still did not offer a solution to how the first life came to be. How inanimate dead matter, could spring to life. As a solution to that question, Darwin suggested the following:

”But if (and oh what a big if) we could conceive in some warm little pond with all sorts of ammonia & phosphoric salts, light, heat, electricity etcetera present, that a protein compound was chemically formed, ready to undergo still more complex changes…” this, Darwin suggested, might have been the beginning of the formation of life on this world.⁽⁶⁾

Oparin and Haldane Hypothesis

These ideas were adopted into the naturalist community, which was small at the time, but did not capture large public support. Fifty-three years later in 1924 Aleksandr Oparin (a Russian Scientist) expounded on this idea, “suggesting that the organic compounds (in the natural environment) could have undergone a series of reactions leading to more and more complex molecules if they were exposed to an energy source such as lightning or ultraviolet light. He proposed that the molecules undergoing such changes formed colloid aggregates [naturally forming dual interspersed substance combinations] or ‘coacervates’, in an aqueous [water base] environment”.⁽⁷⁾ That this could be part of the process with which life on this planet formed.

In 1929, the English biologist J. B. S. Haldane (unaware at the time of Oparin’s theories) proposed a similar premise, furthering Darwin’s original hypothesis, which was compatible with Oparin’s theory.

“Haldane outlined how organic chemicals could build up in water, ‘[until] the primitive oceans reached the consistency of hot dilute soup’. This set the stage for ‘the first living or half-living things’ to form…” ⁽⁶⁾ These combinations gathered together perhaps in chemical combinations called coacervates. “At some point a kind of ‘oily film’ was produced that enclosed self-replicating nucleic acids, thereby becoming the first cell.” ⁽⁹⁾

The idea that life formed in a primordial soup of organic chemicals became known as the Oparin-Haldane hypothesis.

This theory began to gain a following, and garner support in the universities up through the 1950’s.

Harold Urey, a Noble Prize winning scientist in 1934, ^{(10 )}“became interested in the chemistry of outer space, [and] particularly what went on when the Solar System was first forming. One day in 1952 he gave a lecture and pointed out that there was probably no oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere when it first formed. This would have offered the ideal conditions for Oparin and Haldane’s primordial soup to form: the fragile chemicals would have been destroyed by contact with oxygen.”

The Stanley Miller Experiment

Stanley Miller, a doctrinal student in the audience later approached Urey with the idea of carrying out an experiment to prove the Oparin and Haldane hypothesis.

Urey at first was skeptical, but assisted Miller in carrying out the experiment.

“The set-up was simple. Miller connected a series of glass flasks and circulated four chemicals that he suspected were present on the early Earth: boiling water, hydrogen gas, ammonia and methane. He subjected the gases to repeated electric shocks, to simulate the lightning strikes that would have been a common occurrence on Earth so long ago.”

“Miller found that ‘the water in the flask became noticeably pink after the first day, and by the end of the week the solution was deep red and turbid’[opaque]. Clearly, a mix of chemicals had formed.”

“When Miller analyzed the mixture he found that it contained two amino acids: glycine and alanine. Amino acids are often described as the building blocks of life. They are used to form the proteins that control most biochemical processes in our bodies. Miller had made two of life’s most important components, from scratch.” ⁽¹¹⁾

The experiment and its results were published in the Science journal in 1953 and became the most famous experiment of evolutionary science to date.

Modern Science was on its way, it believed, to solving the mystery of life.

To be continued. . .

_______________________________________________________________________

Sources and Notes:

1. How Did Life Arise on Earth? By Ker Than September 01, 2016 https://www.livescience.com/1804-greatest-mysteries-life-arise-earth.html; Earth is estimated to be about 4.5 billion years old, and for much of that history it has been home to life in one weird form or another.

2.The Secret of How Life began on the Earth, Article by Michael Marshall, 31 October 2016 http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20161026-the-secret-of-how-life-on-earth-began Eventually the Earth cooled enough for water vapor to condense into liquid water, and the first rain fell. Before long Earth had oceans, which were hot and rich in carbon-based chemicals.

3.The Secret of How Life began on the Earth, Article by Michael Marshall, 31 October 2016 http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20161026-the-secret-of-how-life-on-earth-began [T]here was once a small body of water, filled with simple organic compounds and bathed in sunlight. Some of those compounds might combine to form a life-like substance such as a protein, which could then start evolving and becoming more complex.

4. Discover Website: Darwin’s Theory Of Evolution (darwins-theory-of-evolution.com)

5.Charles Darwin: Charles Darwin – Wikipedia

6. The Secret of How Life began on the Earth, Article by Michael Marshall, 31 October 2016 http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20161026-the-secret-of-how-life-on-earth-began

7. Origin Of Life: Twentieth Century Landmarks, Copyright Chris Gordon-Smith 2003, https://www.simsoup.info/Origin_Landmarks_Oparin_Haldane.html.

8. J. B. S. Haldane, Wikipedia, Encyclopedia J. B. S. Haldane – Wikipedia

9. The Secret of How Life began on the Earth, By Michael Marshall, 31 October 2016 http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20161026-the-secret-of-how-life-on-earth-began

10. The Secret of How Life began on the Earth, By Michael Marshall, 31 October 2016 http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20161026-the-secret-of-how-life-on-earth-began

11. The Secret of How Life began on the Earth, Article by Michael Marshall, 31 October 2016 http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20161026-the-secret-of-how-life-on-earth-began

Who Am I? Part 2

Who Am I? Part 2, In finding out “who we are” we need to find out what sources can be trusted to find that answer. We must learn how to come into contact with Truth. The Truth brings trust, and finding Truth requires certain mental abilities and perspectives be developed.

This is part 2 of a series on Who Am I?

Finding Trust

To find truth it is also necessary to discover trustworthy sources. It is very difficult to trust, especially once you feel trust has been broken. But trust can be gained one piece at a time, one idea at a time; seeing the reason and beauty behind things that can be regarded and counted on to remain consistent or constant… and worthy of your trust.

Gaining trust and finding truth go hand in hand. It requires being introduced to new ideas, new concepts, learning things you have never heard of before. To find truth, you have to learn, and you have to become aware.

New truth can take a period of adjustment. It can be a new twist on something you had already believed, but adding additional insight that requires an adjustment; or it can be something completely foreign to you; and it takes time to fit it in to your belief system and find out how it links up.

Sometimes an idea is so big and complex you are not sure what to do with it. At times like these you can run into a barrier, and it can be difficult to get past it. Sometimes, things catch you completely off guard. Some truths are very hard to understand. It either bothers you and you want to reject it outright; or it sounds like maybe it is true, but you can’t accept or deal with it at face value. I have experienced this many times, and still do. Some truths take time to be considered, looked at from every angle; pondered on… to work out all the details, before they can be wrested. If you find yourself learning a thing, and thinking it sounds like it might be true, but it also has some difficult or even disturbing elements to it, that is ok. Just let it alone for a while, and come back to it later.

Often, over time, things have a way of working themselves out in your mind. But sometimes you find there is something wrong, or there are true and false ideas mixed up together, and you sort them out. Going through this process helps you to find truths are interconnected, and begin to verify and validate each other, even though at first some of them seem to be in conflict.

This allows you to build trust that there is a truth out there to be found, and that you are actually finding it along the way.

Finding Answers

When I was 21 years old, I had one of these moments where I had serious questions and doubts about myself and my life’s direction, down to the core of everything I believed. There did not seem to be any satisfactory answers to several of my questions. I could not find the answers, hope, or a way forward, and was not sure what I should do.

Earlier, when I was 19, I had been told by a man I greatly admired that I should always be thinking a new thought, I should never reach a point that I just became satisfied… and stopped learning. That I should always be seeking out new knowledge and information to improve and expand myself and challenge myself.

I took that advice to heart because it seemed reasonable to me. Because of that advice, I have always had a book at my bedside to study. I always take some time before the day is over to read, and open my mind to some new ideas someone is sharing. I now own and have read many books, listened to many lectures, listen to many voices and still do. Learning is a process that can become contagious, and valuable, and now I find there are many books at my bedside at the same time, there is so much I want to know and learn. The internet, today, is also a most valuable resource I did not have in my earlier life; and another place we can search out truth.

This has been the most valuable advice; and one of the most rewarding exercises I have ever experienced. It has been a blessing to me over my lifetime with figuring out what this life is all about, and getting the answers to my questions. I often chose books about things I was troubled over and needed more insight; or more information to come to clarity, or a solution in finding an answer I just didn’t have.

I love to study history, and how events earlier in time came to be; and what motivated those people to do what they did. These people changed the world in their times, and to a large extent this has affected all of us in the future.

So, what was the outcome of that 21 year-old, with those critical questions of my youth? Over time I was able to get every question answered, because of this study I was encouraged to do. Some of my answers came in a short time, some after several years; one, in particular, did not come for about 34 years. It continued to elude me. Finally, I began to understand the reason behind it. Some time I will share it with you.

Also, through this study, many new questions were raised and answered for me.

Running Away From, or Avoiding the Truth

The worse thing to do, is nothing with your mind; to not do anything valuable to develop or inform it. To allow troubling ideas or concerns to just sit and do nothing about them; but be disturbed and injured by them.

Some attempt to silence the pain or unanswered troubling questions in their lives with harmful substance use and abuse; thinking you can run away or hide from them; or nullify their effects. Some indulge in drug use merely for recreational purposes and to have fun; but the outcome is the same… because this becomes a problem you now have to deal with.

This causes the inner conflicts and unanswered questions to become lodged in your mind and life. You can’t work them out, and you can’t be at peace, which brings on suicidal thoughts and despair. I have known this kind of pain and emptiness too, but I have also found there is always a way out.

Trust is something that is real! Trust and faith, can lead us to the search for answers and truth. It can untie the knots in our minds, and provide solutions to troubling questions– which can melt away the pain; and can heal old wounds.

Trust and belief can lead to purpose and meaning in your life. The truth “can” set you free!

The Trick of Life

One critical thing I learned I want to share with you.

I came to learn (several years after that confusing and lonely time in my life), the reason I was not able to receive the truth then… and find my answers, was because I was missing critical information– and necessary life experience I lacked. My mind was not yet prepared for the answers I was seeking.

Only by gaining that life experience (that as a young 21 year-old I did not possess), was I able to step outside that youthful mindset, and realize larger questions and answers were now available to me to unravel the mystery I felt inside.

Had I allowed the sadness and misery to overtake me, and ended it all, I would never have existed to find these answers, and this truth!

I could now see far beyond that earlier, limited view! And realized because of my inadequate experience at this early age in my life, I had mental barriers beyond which I could not see, which would not be a problem in the future– but were very real to me at the time; and almost insurmountable.

The fact is, this is a process (we come to understand), will follow us throughout life. As we continue to learn and advance, the scales continue to fall from our eyes, giving new insight–as we search to remove barriers that remain with us. We should be constantly learning, and constantly progressing and overcoming, that which seems insurmountable in or lives.

This is “The Trick of Life”: “we think we see, because we can see”.

But that is not the truth! Maybe at the time it seems it is; but that is not the end of existence or the only vision we are capable of.

If we don’t stop there, but we climb to greater heights (gaining knowledge and experience) we can look back at where we were, and realize we were in a valley with hills and mountain walls all around us restricting our view, which we could not see beyond at the time; but because we keep learning and climbing, we can now see beyond those hills and mountains to a greater vision of the world with much more landscape that has come into view.

We realize there is so much more to the world than we could see at the time. Because we have left that limited vantage point, and kept moving forward, we came to learn life is far more than what we had known it to be. And with this greater knowledge and experience comes greater sight, and expanded vision.

So, the truth is, “who we are” is what we can see now… but it is also what we will come to see and know in the future, if we keep moving.

That is why two people with different experience looking at the same set of problems have different insight. One is still in the valley; the other has climbed over the walls to understand there is more than what is currently in view.

The lesson is, that if you keep climbing, and don’t give up… only then do we find the truth… and keep on finding it.

Gaining Perspective and Wisdom

The longer we live, and the more we travel and experience in this journey of life, the more we can see, and the more we will know: to provide insight and wisdom going forward. With this valuable perspective and acquired knowledge we can look to and draw from, it gives us strength to endure in those dark times that come into all our lives.

Guidance Through Faith, and Positive Action

One of the most powerful truths I learned, is if we ask for help from above (God), and keep doing all that comes into our hearts and minds, there is always a way forward. We just need to keep going, and working at ourselves (to become better people) and solving the challenges we face.

And like a train moving down the track about to come to the end of the line where there is no more track… we just keep laying out new track before us… taking us somewhere; (not exactly sure where that is yet), but the future is a brighter place if we are holding to the truth we have, and keep moving… we will find the way forward.

Knowing What Life is, the Difficulties Become Manageable

Life never becomes perfect, or pain free, or free of challenge; that is the nature of this life for everyone.

But the lights did begin to come on, and purpose and meaning did come into my life to beat back the darkness and keep it at bay. Never gone, but under control!

I can make you this promise; those who will seek… will find. But liberation is not found in lies. It is the truth that sets us free.

The Truth is Born of Our Expedient Need

In examining the question of “who we are”? I believed: “truth” must hold the answer to all we face in life, good and bad.

I believed: it can’t be the truth, if it can’t satisfy our needs or help us. If it can’t bring meaning to our struggle, and answers to life’s tough questions.

I have since found those beliefs to be justified. The truth can satisfy and begin to comfort and complete us, and answer the questions of this life! The issue that is difficult: is this is a slow process, because we need to grow into these truths by our searching and becoming more educated and aware; and we will all grow and learn at different rates, because we are different; and have different abilities and strengths.

Usually, our greatest growth comes through our own suffering and struggle; causing us to rise above.

We will learn precept upon percept, a little here, and a little there; adding more and more, a piece at a time… until we complete the picture of truth.

“For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little.” -Isaiah 28:9&10 Holy Bible, (KJV)

Finding out “who we are”, is the journey to the truth of life itself.

To be continued . . .

Who Am I? Part 1

Who Am I? Part 1, There is no more important question we can ask, than ” who Am I?” It is at the foundation of the meaning behind our life, and what we belief and how we live. It affects everything we do. Knowing who we are, sets the course of our existence.

Who am I?

There is probably no more important question we can consider and ask ourselves, than this.

It is an inevitable question; it is something any living, thinking person will wonder. Who am I? and where did I come from?

Is there actually an answer to this question?

A Beginning Point

I have investigated this question at great depth. I have stretched and reached all my life to know who we are? And where did we come from? And, are we going somewhere after we die? Or is this all there is?

We are haunted by this question because it suggests the very context of life itself. It is the central point, the starting place from which we build.

What we believe about “who we are”, is at the heart of how we will respond to life–in all its forms.

Is There a Purpose?

It can be difficult to discover a consistent meaning to life with all that is going on down here, which seems to mostly revolve around our survival and how we get by. The quality level of that survival can be all consuming. Does our existence actually mean anything? And can it be defined in some deep purposeful way? Or is it up to us individually to find and assign some kind of value to our life?

Our Belief System

Who we believe we are, determines how we will choose to react to everything that goes on around us; the way we will approach the decisions we make about where and how we spend our time; and how we believe we should conduct ourselves. Also, it determines our expectations; of both ourselves and of others.

Our Life’s Road is Our Theatrical Seat

Our personal viewing point (what we go through each day), is like sitting in a theater seat watching a movie play out.

Life brings experiences that teach, and reveal. We hope, we fear; we cry, we laugh; we try, we struggle; we fight, we triumph; we lose, we despair; and we witness others going through all of these same things before our very eyes.

Each of us, from our personal point of view, are watching and learning from others that we see. But we are also firsthand participants in the experience; navigating our way through relationships and collective activities to learn how to interact, cope and survive here. What we each experience has been called the facts of life. After all… these facts…are the substance of what life is made of.

But what we don’t realize, (as we are going through all of these experiences that run the gamut of feeling and emotion) is we often don’t value this experience as we should; and don’t always grasp deeper meanings that are there to be found.

We usually recognize these later. Often, years later looking back!

The future often defines the past, and what it has meant to us as we re-evaluate our own personal history, and what we have learned and gleaned from it.

All Experiences are not Equal

I have found many answers to questions about our purpose here over my lifetime in my studies and observations; but the quality of answers received have greatly depended on where I have chosen to place myself on the path of life.

Meaningful information that came depended on where, and with whom, I spent that time. Much of it came from great thinkers, people who also have questioned and sought truth who I did not have personal access to; but I read or listened to their words. Much of it has also come intuitively to my mind, by working through and thinking through these questions; by human-reasoning!

I am fifty-eight years old, so I have had some time to live and to acquire a decent amount of experience. Yet, I still feel I am a youth in this process in many ways; because life (as it progresses), no matter how long we live, continues to provide new challenges.

You are never done; and the journey always has more to offer.

Those who have lived many years do have more time to acquire experience; but years of living, in and of itself, does not bring valued experience– providing meaningful answers or wisdom.

Our attitudes and feelings, our discipline in pushing ourselves to think new thoughts, and seeking new ideas by the exposure, study, and the acquisition of knowledge we willingly seek out, has the most impact to broaden our perspective, and to continue to hone us, and polish us; because it expands our own vision of the world when we consider viewpoints that do not naturally occur to us.

This stretching and comparison process, does broaden our thinking and our own personal perspective, and can lead to wisdom, and wisdom can lead us to truth.

Truth and Rhythm

I believe life has a rhythm, and a logic to it.

Truth builds momentum as you acquire it because truth is all related; it is not just a set of isolated facts. Truth is one set of facts involved in and connecting to other facts, each building and ending up related to one another… through the vast areas of our lives and this existence.

No matter where you live, or your economic conditions, truth begins to set a foundation, and grows in all directions to take in things as they are, things as they were, and things that will be. Whether conditions are positive or negative, good or bad, there are lessons to be gained within, which add to this foundation of experience and truth. When you converse with others and share experiences, there are always common understandings and realizations, even when your lives have been lived in different places or circumstances. There can also be great differences in how we view our meaning and purpose, depending on the cultural structure and beliefs from where you live in the world or within your personal circle. But even then, the similar struggle of existence brings shared understandings where we find agreement and relatability.

Truth must be Sought After

To find certain answers or deeper meanings and levels of truth you must put forth effort. Some answers can be hard to find, requiring an active search. If you want the truth… you have to become fearless; because to possess it… you must pay a price. Why is this the case? Because the truth is not there to please you, and it does not answer to anyone. It is not ours to mold and shape into whatever we want it to be. You must be able to abandon beliefs you hold that may turn out to be incorrect, if they come into conflict with truth. This can be very hard for people to do, because our beliefs are what hold us together, and give our life its stability, and they undergird our worldview.

But within us… none of us really wants to be lied to. None of us really wants to be deceived. A new idea can be scary for all of us; but truth holds the greatest beauty, and meaning… because it is real.

The truth “is what is”; it can’t be changed or conditional upon our personal belief system or interpretation, this will not make a false idea true. If we try to hide from truth, we only lie to ourselves about it and try to pretend it is not real, so we don’t have to be responsible for knowing it, or our personal accountability to live in harmony with it.

The Truth is Freedom

So, if you are going to answer this question of “Who am I?” You have to begin, by being willing to be open-minded to the truth, whatever it is.

But it is my belief, it is much better to know the truth, and live within it, than to attempt to run from it, and to live a lie; because the truth is true freedom!

Why is it freedom?

Because, it is an understanding and recognition of true reality as we discover it; and learning to live in harmony with it… rather than pitting ourselves against it. Until we do, we are not free– and we cannot be at peace within.

“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” – John 8:32 Holy Bible (KJV)

Truth Must be Found by Each of Us Personally

I am not going to tell you what to believe. This is an exercise everyone must go through for themselves and reach their own conclusion. No one can be forced to truth; you must come willingly or you will not come at all.

“A man convinced against his will, is of the same opinion still.” –Dale Carnegie

This website will be a place for sharing and expressing ideas, feelings, and knowledge of life’s experience. You will take away what rings true to you.

I, as well as other contributors, will share what we have come to believe and why. Feel free to question, to argue, to agree or disagree with whatever you wish. Being here is a choice.

To be continued . . .

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