Pesky Details: Essays for "Left Brain" Christians

By Bob Knight Barsch

Man's nature is to live by bias rather than reason. That is the reason that looking at the facts of any issue is important. I suggest that this collection of seven essays looks at familiar and accepted viewpoints with the tools of known facts, reason and logic. I suggest that though my findings are out of sync with the flow of current culture, the facts, the pesky details, show these findings to be correct.

My seven essays analyze the following questions in detail:

1) Is Western culture's view of natural resource exploitation/extraction Bible-based?

2) Is the "scientific" view that the arrangements of tiny "particles" (packets of energy) determine all reality and that, therefore, free will is an illusion no more than an adopted, metaphysical belief? How does an adopted assumption compare with experiential religious faith? Of course, if God exists, experiencing God could be an actual event. Who can argue with another person's experience? And on the other hand, a scientific materialist who believes free will is an illusion must also logically concede that his beliefs and the expression of them are all forced by his physiology and not governed by independent reason and the discipline of logic.

3) Do comparisons of biblical teachings with social behaviors among various organisms point to the existence of an absolute ethic?

4) Does the appearance of free will in mankind constitute a literal miracle? How does an otherwise determined universe determine that not all things are determined? It cannot. What does that logic indicate about the origin of the ability to alter determined chains of causes and effects?

5) Do the facts show that the origins of homosexuality are largely the result of unfortunate parenting, cultural promotion, and/or, in the case of some individuals, bad choices?

6) What common environmental conditions produce inconsistencies in radiometric dating? Why do geophysicists, paleontologists, astrophysicists, and other scientists continue to ignore the facts of those inconsistencies? Are the rocks as old as the experts claim?

7) Darwin's basic ideas are 2,500 years old. What are the pesky details pointed out in this page by page critique of his On the Origin of Species? What are his consistent errors and self-contradictions? Because paleontological evidence fails to support Darwinian gradualism, what are the new guesses about origins? To my knowledge, no other source aside from this work provides a page by page critique of Darwin's "towering genius". Was he an icon of intellectual progress or possibly "a king without any clothes." You decide.

Your choice, because you have the miracle of free will, is to dig into the details of these essays and persist in your pursuit of knowledge or simply explore in order to counterattack and defend your preferred beliefs. And that is important because our biases define who we are. They are a big part of one's identity. Take some time and prove me wrong. I accept reason but you must be reasonable and not violate logic, or perhaps, you can be clever and clandestine. Maybe that would work.

Regards, Bob

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bob Knight Barsch
• Release date: Feb 4, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310512896

Bob Knight Barsch

Bob Knight Barsch was born 23 November 1941 in Brady, central Texas. He grew up there and in Karnes County, south Texas. He has a B.S. degree in Wildlife Management from Texas A&M University and an M.S. degree in Wildlife Ecology from the University of Arizona. Bob is retired after working thirty-three years in the field of wildlife biology and management with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the Arizona Game and Fish Department. He is the author of numerous popular essays, a number of which appeared in his first book Hunting and Gathering. He has received awards from sporting and professional organizations for outstanding contributions to the management of wildlife resources. The author continues to find investigations of controversial subjects a fun and fruitful hobby.

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Detailed Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

A Biblical View of Nature

Mixing Culture and Christianity

Gargoyles

A Non-biblical Prohibition

A Substitute Goddess?

Pandora's Bible

Pagan-Christian Mix

The Church Incorporates Patriotism

Evolution of Religious Traditions to Divine Mandates

A Note on Compromise

Criteria for Christian Faith

A View of Nature from the Right

Non-biblical Origins for Arrogant Attitudes toward Nature

The Beginning of God?

Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

John Locke (1632-1704)

Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)

Emergence of the Middle Class

Thank the Western European Philosophers for Writing What We Wanted to Hear

Genocide of Native Americans Justified

Covenant Values from the Bible

And God Saw that it Was Good

Man's Mandate

Wildlife's Mandate

The Fall of Mankind

Retention of Biodiversity after the Fall

God Loves Nature

Respect for God's Creation

Nature's Witness

The Glory of God

More Praise

Values of Wildlife to People

Wild People are Good People

Educational and Esthetic Values of Nature

A Biblical View of Fishing and Hunting

I'm Going Fishing

Predators and Wildlife Pests

Use of Predators to Punish Mankind

God Cares for Predators

Predators as Symbols of Power

God Abhors a Vacuum

Predator Control

Metaphoric Predators

Natural Resource Management

Definition of Land

Ownership of Land and Water Resources

Ownership of Wildlife

Carrying Capacity

Protecting Carrying Capacity

God Prohibited Clean Farming

Heavenly Earth

Earthly Heaven

The Nature of Belief

Comparison of Faith and Assumption

Faith

Materialist Assumptions at the Crossroads

The Selfishness of Virtue?

Logical Problems of Philosophical Materialism

The Role of Information

Methodological Materialism

Philosophical Materialism Investigates Virtue

Direct Reciprocity

Indirect Reciprocity

Spacial Selection

Group Selection

Kin Selection

Tragedy of the Commons

Not of this World - the Judeo-Christian View

Direct and Indirect Reciprocity

Spacial and Group Selection

Kin Selection

Tragedy of the Commons

The Fine Line

It's a Miracle!

Does Free Will Exist?

Free Will Is a Miracle

Fingerprint of God

Miracles Prove God

The Gay Lifestyle - a Christian View

Dangers of the Gay Lifestyle

Percentages of MSM Infected with HIV

Number of Partners among MSM

Association of HIV/AIDS Infections with Other Diseases

Syphilis

Gonorrhea

Viral hepatitis

Cancer

Tuberculosis

Changes in HIV/AIDS Infection Rates

Percentages of MSM among Adult Male Populations

Nature or Nurture?

Brain Response to Pheromones in Homosexual Men

Cerebral Asymmetry and Functional Connectivity Different in Homo- and Heterosexuals

Ratio between the Length of the Forefinger and the Fourth Finger

Twin Studies

Effects of Prenatal Hormones

Gender Non-conformity - the Process

Hermaphroditism

Natural Selection within the Species

Rural vs. Urban Environments

Gay Men Display Maleness in their Sexuality - a Hypothesis

Gay Sexual Roles Show Preferences for Feminine Behaviors - a Hypothesis

Gay Men Who Produce Children?

Homosexual Sex in Prison

Social Orientation

The Biblical Perspective

Conclusions on the Biblical Perspective

Why the Bible Condemns Homosexuality

Judge?

Alternatives for the Christian Homosexual

Mutable Rates of Radioactive Decay

Use of the Decay Rates of Radioactive Elements to Date Rocks and other Materials

Uniformitarianism

Speed of Light

Inconsistent Radioactive Decay Rates

Inconsistencies Relative to Earth's Position with the Sun and Solar Activity

Inconsistencies Tied to the Plasma/Ionized State of Radioactive Elements

Inconsistencies Related to Ultrasonic Cavitation

Inconsistencies with Carbon-14 Dating

Darwin - Truth in Detail

Darwin's Purpose

Species and Kind Defined

Tautological Nature of Laws of Nature

Protein

Chapter I - Variation under Domestication

Causes of Variability

Effects of Habit and of the Use or Disuse of Parts; Correlated Variation; Inheritance

Character of Domestic Varieties; Difficulty of Distinguishing between Varieties and Species; Origin of Domestic Varieties from One or more Species

Breeds of the Domestic Pigeon, their Differences and Origin

Principles of Selection Anciently Followed, and their Effects

Methodical and Unconscious Selection

Circumstances Favorable to Man's Power of Selection

Chapter II - Variation under Nature

Individual Differences

Doubtful Species

Wide-ranging, Much Diffused, and Common Species Vary Most

Species of the Larger Genera in Each Country Vary More Frequently than the Species of the Smaller Genera

Many of the Species Included within the Larger Genera Resemble Varieties in Being Very Closely, but Unequally, Related to Each other, and in Having Restricted Ranges

Summary

Chapter III - Struggle for Existence

The Term, Struggle for Existence, Used in a Large Sense

Geometrical Ratio of Increase

Nature of the Checks to Increase

Complex Relations of All Animals and Plants to Each Other in the Struggle for Existence

Struggle for Life Most Severe between Individuals and Varieties of the Same Species

Chapter IV - Natural Selection; or the Survival of the Fittest

Sexual Selection

Illustrations of the Action of Natural Selection, or the Survival of the Fittest

On the Intercrossing of Individuals

Circumstances Favourable for the Production of New Forms through Natural Selection

Extinction Caused by Natural Selection

Divergence of Character

The Probable Effects of the Action of Natural Selection through Divergence of Character and Extinction, on the Descendants of a Common Ancestor

On the Degree to Which Organisation Tends to Advance

Convergence of Character

Summary

Chapter V - Laws of Variation

Effects of the Increased Use and Disuse of Parts, Controlled by Natural Selection

Acclimatisation

Correlated Variation

Multiple, Rudimentary, and Lowly-organised Structures Are Variable

A Part Developed in Any Species in an Extraordinary Degree or Manner, in Comparison with the Same Part in Allied Species, Tends to be Highly Variable

Specific Characters More Variable Than Generic Characters

Secondary Sexual Characters Variable

Distinct Species Present Analogous Variations, so that a Variety of One Species often Assumes a Character Proper to an Allied Species, or Reverts to some of the Characters of an Early Progenitor

Chapter VI - Difficulties of the Theory

On the Absence or Rarity of Transitional Varieties

On the Origin and Transitions of Organic Beings with Peculiar Habits and Structure

Organs of Extreme Perfection and Complication

Modes of Transition

Special Difficulties of the Theory of Natural Selection

Organs of Little Apparent Importance, as Affected by Natural Selection

Utilitarian Doctrine, How Far True: Beauty, How Acquired

Chapter VII - Miscellaneous Objections to the Theory of Natural Selection

Chapter VIII - Instinct

Inherited Changes of Habit or Instinct in Domesticated Animals

Special Instincts

Instincts of the Cuckoo

Slave-making Instinct

Cell-making Instinct of the Hive-bee

Objections to the Theory of Natural Selection as Applied to Instincts: Neuter and Sterile Insects

Chapter IX - Hybridism

Degrees of Sterility

Laws Governing the Sterility of First Crosses and of Hybrids

Origin and Causes of the Sterility of First Crosses and of Hybrids

Reciprocal Dimorphism and Trimorphism

Fertility of Varieties when Crossed, and of their Mongrel Offspring, not Universal

Hybrids and Mongrels Compared, Independently of their Fertility

Chapter X - On the Imperfection of the Geological Record

On the Lapse of Time, as Inferred from the Rate of Deposition and Extent of Denudation

On the Poorness of Paleontological Collections

On the Absence of Numerous Intermediate Varieties in Any Single Formation

On the Sudden Appearance of Whole Groups of Allied Species

On the Sudden Appearance of Groups of Allied Species in the Lowest Known Fossiliferous Strata

Chapter XI - On the Geological Succession of Organic Beings

On Extinction

On the Forms of Life Changing Almost Simultaneously throughout the World

On the Affinities of Extinct Species to Each Other, and to Living Forms

On the State of Development of Ancient Compared with Living Forms

On the Succession of the Same Types within the Same Areas, during the later Tertiary Periods

Chapter XII - Geographical Distribution

Single Centres of Supposed Creation

Means of Dispersal

Dispersal during the Glacial Period+

Alternate Glacial Periods in the North and South

Chapter XIII - Geographical Distribution - Continued: Fresh-Water Productions

On the Inhabitants of Oceanic Islands

Absence of Batrachians and Terrestrial Mammals on Oceanic Islands

On the Relations of the Inhabitants of Islands to Those of the Nearest Mainland

Chapter XIV - Mutual Affinities of Organic Beings: Morphology; Embryology; Rudimentary Organs

Classification

Analogical Resemblances

On the Nature of the Affinities Connecting Organic Beings

Morphology

Development and Embryology

Rudimentary, Atrophied, and Aborted Organs

What are the Odds: Memo to an Eleven-Year Old Boy

Purpose of Eastern Religions

Pantheism

Buddhism

New Age Beliefs

Modern Psychology and Eastern Religion

The Jews and Christianity

What Science Says about the Nature of God

The Anthropic Principle

Complex Molecular Machines in Living Organisms

The Complex Specificity of Cellular Components

Big Bang Theory

Darwinian Gradulaism is Dead

The God of the Bible

The Character and Purposes of God

Why did Jesus Die on the Cross?

Addendum - The Appearance of Necessity

About the Author

Preface

Controversial ideas challenge us today as they always have. We as Christians often find among these ideas an evolving worldview in conflict with our walk of faith. In logical concert with our walk of faith, which has to be reasonable, we find when we dig deep enough, that sound science and logic are some of our best friends. That is, we find our faith in God increases as our knowledge of the world and how it operates increases. We find with our growing interest and knowledge that most of the controversy between faith and facts originates not from the facts but from those who interpret findings and observations through the sieve of their philosophical assumptions and personal biases.

The world today is awash with information, interpretations, and hypotheses that compete for our allegiances. However, we as individuals can access information from books and other publications and some sites on the Internet to judge everything from the psychology of religion to the enigma of the origin of life. What we find upon examination of many accepted theories and constants is that the established worldview is often questionable, hypothetical, or incorrect. But with what does that realization leave us? One can observe that reason is on the side of God's existence and, by contrast, worldviews are often built upon incorrect assumptions, hubris and bias; not reason and logic.

On the heels of investigations in the fields of science, philosophy, history, and theology, you will be confident and content, as were your spiritual forefathers, to hold on to your Christian faith. You will understand that some educated elite have a territorial imperative to protect scholastic turf and their belief systems. They may assert that only the specialist turned generalist is qualified to investigate the details of data and integrate those findings into a philosophical worldview. However, simply because a person is gifted in mathematics, has a good memory for facts, and has knowledge related to his/her specialized profession, it does not necessarily follow that he/she is especially adept at the objective analysis or integration of research findings into a larger, logical framework. Rather, any wise person with an analytical mind can read the research and analyze and dissect ideas to derive his/her own opinion of them. One does not have to rely on the pundits of and marketing of ideas. Read the essays below and analyze and decide for yourself.

Because each specialty has its own jargon, I included definitions and notes at the end of essays, where necessary, to facilitate understanding. Most of the problem with understanding scientific, historical, and philosophical concepts relates to the use of a specialized vocabulary. In many cases, the ideas and speculations of researchers and synthesizers/philosophers will appear straight-forward and understandable, though not necessarily believable, once the reader has a grasp of the jargon.

In the light of dissection and analysis, I selected several topics that, according to the present worldview, many/most people consider to be non-controversial and settled. On the contrary, these beliefs are still open for discussion. An amusing result of my analyses is the realization that many of the formally educated in the world have based their careers upon and written stacks of books based on shaky, unproven, and weak assumptions. The other surprising part of these studies is how readily we as Christians tend to mix our inherited philosophies and culture and incorporate them into our religion. Do most Christians in America hold unbiblical views and attitudes toward God's creation? The first essay A Biblical View of Nature explores that question.

The second essay The Nature of Belief compares materialist assumptions (see Definitions/Notes at the end of this second essay for explanations of philosophical materialism) and theories about how the world operates with faith as experienced by Christians. We note in this essay that intelligent design often is the most powerful explanation for numerous modern scientific findings and observations. At the same time we discover that materialist generalizations to account for the same natural phenomena call for a lot of loyalty and hope.

The third essay, The Selfishness of Virtue?, examines why people cooperate with or help each other. For this essay we will compare scientific studies and Darwinian assumptions with biblical teachings on ethics. We will compare facts of cooperation and philosophical materialist assumptions with biblical critiques of human cooperation and the higher standards of Christian doctrine. Oddly, we will find support in Scripture for some materialist conclusions and discover by contrast the logical basis for the existence of an absolute morality.

In the fourth essay, I define the miraculous simply as God or mind intervening and changing otherwise determined chains of cause and effect. The difference between the miracles of God and the miracles of man is in orders of magnitude; granted, magnitude means a lot. Of course, God's order of magnitude is so big that he even authors and can alter the basic playing rules, the laws of chemistry and physics. Because the supernatural applies every time mind at some level alters determined cause and effect relationships, the spooky finger of God is repeatedly and constantly at the heart of our everyday use of information, judgment, and will.

Analysis of the gay lifestyle in the fifth essay finds its validity primarily in research studies. Review the studies; make up your own mind. If it is, and it is, primarily environmentally derived, should the church encourage homosexuality and continue to promote those conditions that produce it? We as the church must love homosexuals and at the same time reject the gay lifestyle as unbiblical and dangerous. Is homosexuality the problem or merely a symptom of poor choices, poor parenting, abuse, divorce, and cultural promotion? Does not the divorce rate in the Christian community render the church a promoter of homosexuality?

The sixth essay addresses the fact that rates of radioactive decay, used by geophysicists, paleontologists, and archeologists to age rocks and other materials, are mutable/changeable. That is, in certain environments, the rates of radioactive decay for some, possibly all, radioactive elements speed up and then slow down as ions pick up electrons to become atoms. Historical scientists in the fields of archeology, cosmology, paleontology, and geology, know this. Why do they not give more attention to this apparent anomaly? What if geophysicists and other historical scientists dated rocks by reference to the decay rates exhibited by radioactive elements in the common plasma or ionized state? What would those investigators conclude about the age of Earth, our solar system, or dinosaur fossils?

Are there good reasons to believe that radioactive elements in the Earth may have experienced long expanses of time in ionizing environments? Is it reasonable to hypothesize that they and their daughter elements in situ in the solid state rose through plasma environments to be encased by crystallizing processes in Earth's mantle? And/or weathering and erosion by water at the earth's surface may have subjected those same materials to cavitation and additional ionization. Were ancient meteorites, now radioisotope-dated to be 4.5 billion years old, subjected to millennia of ionizing solar and stellar radiation in space before falling to earth? Did streams of ultraviolet and cosmic radiation ionize materials at the earth's surface during repetitive interruptions of Earth's protective magnetic field and prior to the appearance of the planet's atmosphere? All those inevitable, recurrent events should lead a reasonable person to question whether the rocks are as old as we are told?

Consistent with inconsistencies in dating techniques, in the seventh essay, I ask how astute; how correct was Darwin? How good was his historical science? Were the details of his science reasonable? How do his speculations of the 1850s match with contemporary findings? What did he literally say and believe and was he an icon for truth or just another philosophical materialist with an agenda, a weak case, and a ready audience?

In Darwin's time it was the game of the day to write in a flowery, stilted, wordy, repetitive style. Apparently, such a prose style illustrated the education and intelligence of the author, who thereby hoped to sell himself and his ideas and opinions as complex and compelling. Unfortunately, such a style lacked clarity and made reading a boring chore. To render (take the fat out of) Darwin's rambling, stilted style, I boiled his ideas down to the meat of their meaning and then clarified and critiqued each idea. So, though I know my readers will find On the Origin of Species as dry as Death Valley, California, they can perhaps find entertainment with each Critique. Therefore, I suggest the reader first read the Critique under each topic and then, if interested, go back and read the summations of Darwin's thoughts. On the other hand, left-brain masochists may even choose to read the whole On the Origin of Species for themselves? Well...retired, left-brain masochists.

Finally, for the last essay, I included a memo that I wrote to an 11-year old boy who questioned the exclusivity of Christianity. We will note that though the universe and the life it supports are complicated, the message of God is simple enough for a child to reasonably chose whom he/she follows.

This essay will serve as a personal summation of numerous conclusions found in the other essays. Of course, intelligent design, as evident in the fine-tuning of constants that enable the universe to support life and the enigma of the origin of life and of the digital information required to run the cell and sustain biological life, says little about the character of the Designer. Hypotheses about the character of the Designer remain in the theological, philosophical, and logical speculations of Christians, Jews, Muslims, and deists who embrace the science and logic of intelligent design. This essay assesses the odds that the Judeo-Christian view of the Designer is correct.

These essays are primarily for the Christian community. But I encourage philosophical materialists and post-modern relativists to read and analyze them. I welcome reasoned critique though ad hominem attacks are irrelevant because they are logically fallacious. Feelings, accreditations, and affiliations have no particular significance. Rather, let us hang our hats on evidence and reason. I invite you to step outside the noise of the herd, be it ever so formally educated and culturally embraced, in the box and observe what a host of pesky details have to say about widely accepted, but poorly examined worldviews.

Acknowledgments

I would like to acknowledge my wife Mary Margaret for proofreading parts of the manuscript. Aside from my spouse, I would like to thank numerous individuals for their encouragement and edit of this collection of essays. However, there is virtually no one else to credit for such actions. The topics are largely abhorrently technical/boring to the general public and my take on the contents is often anathema to the specialists. So, there is no one else to thank.

No doubt, I occasionally violated specialized jargon while exploring controversial subjects that required the integration of various disciplines. For example, I communicated with a local professor of geology and asked her to review my essay Mutable Rates of Radioactive Decay. She was gracious enough to read the essay and informed me that geologists do not age rocks. They date rocks. This surprised me because as a biologist, I had dated women and aged hundreds of deer, elk, antelope, quail, doves, and squirrels. I did alter that essay to fit the jargon of geologists. My geologist friend did assure me that geophysicists did the right thing in dating rocks and used comparative controls but the specifics of those processes were outside the purview of her training. She offered no comments on my research citations and logical conclusions.

A good aspect of producing an e-book is that the author can go back and edit his/her work as new information becomes available. If a wider readership should sniff out obvious error in this collection of essays and can substantiate their findings with research studies and/or logic and reason, I will be glad to amend my work. At that point, I shall have additional persons to acknowledge for their contributions.

A Biblical View of Nature

During the last 2,000 years, Christian missionaries wrestled with the question of how to incorporate Christianity into the cultures of the local peoples without diluting the fundamentals of biblical Christian faith. Most cultural practices by local peoples had no particular religious significance. For example, planting wheat by hand, oxen, or tractor had no bearing on a farmer's potential to practice Christianity. But if the local culture approved child sacrifice/abortion, adultery, fornication, murder, male and female prostitution, and/or idol worship, these practices were not compatible with Christian faith. Converts to Christianity were instructed that such practices were a sin against God and therefore forbidden. If one was a Christian convert, he/she either gave up sinful practices or was working toward that end.

In other areas of morality, there was room for compromise. For example, if one was a new convert to Christianity in first century Palestine and he had more than one wife, he could be a member but could not hold a position of leadership in the church (1 Timothy 3:2). Apparently, having more than one wife was not as bad as divorce at a time when a single woman on her own had few work options beyond prostitution.

In some cases, the language or idioms of the local people made it difficult for them to understand the Bible. I recall a missionary who read to his congregation Revelations 3:20, about Jesus standing at the door and knocking. Of course, this story is a metaphor for the concept of Jesus knocking on the door of one's heart (a phrase that is also a metaphor). Jesus said that if you will open your heart's door he will come in and be your friend and spend time with you and will enjoy your company. The problem for the local people of this particular culture was that thieves in their culture frequently knocked on the door to see if anyone was home. If one was home and walked toward the door, the thief would hear the home owner coming and would run away to safety. If no one walked toward the door, the thief would, after close inspection, break in and steal items of value.

The missionary realized that he would need to change the specific words of the Bible to help the people understand that Jesus does not approach the individual like a thief. He changed the words in the Bible to say something like this: Behold, I stand at the door and call your name. If you open the door, I will come in to be with you.... With this change, the locals understood the real meaning of the scripture and the good will of God.

A review of historical and contemporary events and evidences suggest that history is replete with various adjustments Christian ministers made to appeal to local peoples. Some of these changes were reasonable and others polluted the Christian faith with extraneous non-scriptural ideas.

Mixing Culture and Christianity

Listed below are a few examples of the mix and confusion of Christian faith with established cultural beliefs and practices:

Gargoyles

Five summers ago, I was in Paris, France. While there, I visited the Cathedral Notre Dame. I could not get inside the cathedral at the time because of some kind of labor dispute but walked around the exterior of the building. An observation of interest was the line of ferocious gargoyles along the edge of the roof of the building. The original purpose for placing gargoyles around a church building was to scare off demons. It occurred to me that the making of images to scare off demons was not a biblical application of Christianity. The Church had made Christianity more acceptable to local cultures by mixing Christian beliefs with established pagan fears and practices.

A Non-biblical Prohibition

When I was a boy growing up in Texas, most Baptist churches there taught that it was a sin against God to drink any kind of alcoholic beverages. One Sunday evening when I attended a small Baptist church in east Texas, I recall the testimony of an obese lady on the subject of alcohol: "Ole king al-kee-hol has never passed these lips! My mental response: No, but many a buttered biscuit tarried there!"

When I was old enough to read the Bible, I realized that the prohibition against alcohol in the Baptist Church was not biblical. For example, Jesus' first miracle was the changing of the water to wine at the wedding in Cana (John 2:1-11). Note that after tasting the water that had become wine, the chief steward told the bridegroom (verses 9b-10):

Everyone serves the good wine first. And then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.

Because imbibing in alcohol can make people drunk, it is reasonable to assume that the wine served at the wedding contained alcohol.

Spend your tithe on strong drink? Deuteronomy 14:22-27 recorded proper uses of the tithe. If an Israelite lived too far from Jerusalem to carry ten percent of his farm produce to that center of worship, he was to sell the produce and take the money to:

...the place that the Lord your God will choose; spend the money for whatever you wish - oxen, sheep, wine, strong drink, or whatever you desire. And you shall eat there in the presence of the Lord your God, you and your household rejoicing together.

Here the scripture allows use of tithe monies for a family feast and the purchase of food and strong drink. Oddly enough, I never heard these scriptures read in a Baptist church to support the doctrine of tithing.

Though the scripture condemns drunkenness, (1 Corinthians 11:21, Ephesians 5:18; 1 Peter 4:3), it supports the spending of tithe monies for strong drink taken in moderation. Why do Baptists refuse to believe the Bible in this case? I suspect the main reason is that Baptists in the South, in particular, descended primarily from Irish ancestors. Because "ole king al-kee-hol" ravished many an Irishman; the Celts in the American South added to the scripture their cultural beliefs in an attempt to protect themselves from a cultural weakness. They felt compelled to label the use of alcohol in their culture as evil and chose to ignore biblical approval of moderate use.

A Substitute Goddess?

Numerous examples exist of churches elevating cultural preferences to a scriptural level. It did not escape my notice that the Church met at the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD to determine that Mary, the mother of Jesus, should have elevated status. At the time, 200 bishops convened to make a decision on Nestorianism. Nestor insisted that Mary was the mother of a man, not of God. According to Nestor, God merely inhabited the physical man we know as Jesus. The Nestorian heresy subdivided Christ into two separate beings instead of his being a person both God and man. To undermine Nestorianism, the bishops voted to proclaim Mary Mother of God rather than simply the mother of a man. As a result of her new title, Mary vaulted to the height of being an intercessor between God and mankind. By contrast, most Christians outside the Catholic Church believe that the New Testament allows only Jesus/the Holy Spirit to serve as intercessor between mankind and God the Father. Reference: 1 Timothy 2:5, John 14:6, Matthew 6:6, Luke 11:2, Luke 11:13, John 6:37, John 14:16-17, John 14:23, Acts 2:38, Acts 4:12, Romans 8:26-27, Romans 8:34, Galatians 4:6; Hebrews 7:25. Notably, the Bible, Old and New Testaments, contains not one reference to a legitimate prayer offered to any angel nor to any saint, living, dead, or ascended. All biblical prayers were offered only to the Triune God.

Prior to the arrival of Messiah on Earth, God chose various prophets, priests, and judges to communicate his messages to his people. These religious leaders acted as God's messengers to the people. However, following the triumph of Jesus' death on the cross, the intermediary role of the priesthood vanished forever. No person or organization after Jesus' death on the cross stands between the individual and God. After the cross, the relationship between God and the individual required direct, personal communication between that human being and a member of the Triune God.

But let us return to the designation of Mary as Mother of God and intercessor between God and mankind. Why arrange a meeting in Ephesus to discuss the Nestorian controversy and the religious significance of Mary being either the mother of God or the mother of a physical body occupied by God? I suggest that the bishops discussed the religious significance of Mary at Ephesus because the cultural climate there was ripe and friendly toward women religious figures. Prior to the arrival of Paul and Christian doctrine in the first century (Acts 19:23-28), the Ephesians worshiped the Greek goddess and virgin huntress Artemis. Ephesus was a good meeting place to discuss the religious significance of a particular woman because of the city's historical and cultural ties to the worship of another virgin goddess. Apparently, the bishops used cultural influences to help turn the political tide against the Nestorian heresy.

Pandora's Bible

One group that split away from biblical teaching in the early 1800's were the Mormons. The Bible contradicts the fundamental beliefs of Mormonism directly and obviously and repeatedly. I recall when I participated in Bible discussions with a Mormon friend on a daily basis. This was many years ago and at the time, I knew less about Mormon beliefs. Our daily discussions lasted thirty minutes. My Mormon friend had free rein the first fifteen minutes of the discussion to teach me about his beliefs and I led the discussion the last fifteen minutes. I learned a good deal about Mormonism from my friend, Jim. For my part of the discussion, I simply picked up the Bible each meeting and read systematically through the book of Romans in the New Testament.

I had a lot of fun with Jim when I read the Bible. He increasingly and repeatedly grew upset and regularly interrupted my reading so he could explain what the Bible really meant. I would stop reading, listen attentively, and then thank him for his explanation and say: Well, Jim, thank you for explaining what the Bible really means. I thought it meant... and then I would simply read again the passage I had just read. Often I would chuckle out loud. Over time, Jim explained why the Bible was faulty and could not be trusted. My thinking was that Mormonism is a good example of a religion's ability to embrace biblical writings and then to totally ignore them or otherwise distort them to fit post-conceived ideas.

Our Mormon friends' only salvation in remaining Mormon and embracing the Bible is to not read it. Of course, it helps if one only has access to the old King James Version, which is printed in older English and is therefore more difficult to understand. For the Mormon, opening the New Testament is like opening Pandora's box.

Pagan-Christian Mix

When I read National Geographic, I frequently note how rural peoples in many parts of the world embraced a form of Christianity that is woven into the fabric of their pagan past. Certain New Testament characters are added to the old list of respected gods. Rituals incorporate the new gods and the old ways continue much as in the past because people can lose their personal identity when their gods die. Miller et al. (1979) reported that Chief Seattle After becoming a Roman Catholic...incorporated some of the Catholic rituals into Indian ceremonies. Chief Seattle (1786-1866) was chief of the Squamish and allied Indian tribes of the Northwest, USA. The mixing of Church tradition (not biblical teaching) and native beliefs also occurred in the Southwest.

In a recent visit to the Pueblo Indian Reservation at Taos, New Mexico, I noted a similar case of interfaith coevolution. I entered the San Geronimo Church in the center of the Reservation plaza, a site the Pueblo Indians have occupied for a thousand years. Inside the church building behind the pulpit, a large mural covered the back wall. This colorful and beautiful painting depicted basic beliefs of the pueblo occupants. In the center of the mural was the Virgin Mary and on each side of Mary were large fruiting corn stalks. Mary had risen to the status of the Native American Corn Goddess or Mother Earth who provided bodily sustenance for the faithful. Mary's diminutive son Jesus wore a crown but was off to his mother's left instead of center-stage.

The mixing of native beliefs and Church tradition by the Pueblo peoples is not surprising when one considers the Pueblos' first exposure to applied Christianity by the Spanish. The occupying Spanish enslaved the Native Americans and forced them to erect the first church on site in 1619. Slavery was deemed necessary to make good traditional Christians of the Indians. And, cheap labor reduced the cost of spreading the faith.

Another example of the pagan-Christian mix is the Santeria faith, now extant in the United States. Santeria represents a combination of the Yoruba faith from West Africa, Roman Catholicism, and Native American Indian traditions. Yoruba arrived with slaves, entering the United States through Cuba and other parts of the Caribbean. Practitioners worship Catholic saints and/or the Orisha. The latter are considered spiritual beings who are manifestations of God (Olofi). Leadership in the religion is based on strength of communication with the Orisha. Rituals include animal sacrifice, commonly chickens.

The Church Incorporates Patriotism

Note the turn of the German church to the dark side under Hitler in the 1930s as recorded by Metaxas (2010:325):

...Germany celebrated Hitler's fiftieth birthday, and once again the sinuous Dr. Werner tied himself into a ribbon for the epochal occasion: he published another glowing tribute to Hitler in the official journal of the German Reich church: "We celebrate with jubilation our Fuhrer's fiftieth birthday. In him God has given the German people a real miracle worker...Let our thanks be the resolute and inflexible will not to disappoint....our Fuhrer and the great historic hour.

Another example of the patriotic propagandizing and distortion of biblical Christianity is reflected in one of our most cherished patriotic songs. I refer to the Battle Hymn of the Republic written November 1861 by Julia Ward Howe to the tune John Brown's Body. Here is the third verse:

I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel:

As you deal with my contemners so with you my grace shall deal.

Let the hero born of woman crush the serpent with his heel,

Since God is marching on.

The hero born of woman as recorded in Genesis 3:13-15 is commonly believed to signify Jesus who defeated Satan and the power of death by his death on the cross and resurrection to new life. The new fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel represents the force/will of God as seen in the rows of armed Yankee soldiers with their steely rifles and gleaming bayonets. God's grace for salvation shall come upon those Yankee soldiers in direct proportion to the number of Southern Baptists and Methodists they can shoot with their rifles and stab with their bayonets. That is the meaning of the third verse, second line: As you deal with my contemners so with you my grace shall deal." The aim of this verse was to make the northern troops believe that killing Christians from the South would ingratiate them with Jesus and his saving grace. The war was presented to the invading northern troops as a Christian holy war. This is not to say, of course, that slavery in the South was a holy institution.

I have read that slavery as practiced in the South in the 1800s was generally/frequently horrible with separation of families, sexual abuse, torture, and humiliation. We marvel that the German church put up with Hitler and we marvel that Southern Baptists and other Christians tolerated slavery and slave trading.

The Bible provided specific guidelines on slavery. Those who would be leaders in the church were to be the servants of other Christians (Mark 10:44) and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. Social position meant nothing in the early church: "For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body - whether Jew or Greeks, slave or free... (1 Corinthians 12:13). The master who was a Christian and his