Revolution: How Christianity Mirrors Reality, Changes the World and Impacts You

By Daniel Currier

Have you ever wondered:

1. Are science and the Bible at odds?

2. What started the scientific enterprise?

3. Is the Bible fiction because it talks about unicorns?

4. Is our DNA 99% similar to a chimp's DNA?

5. Which religion matches reality the best?

6. Is evolution or creation correct?

7. Does the Bible teach that Christians should have a blind faith?

8. Did Jesus Christ even exist?

9. Did Jesus really rise from the dead?

10. What does becoming a Christian really mean?

 

Book overview

This book will look into the above topics. We will talk about how different worldviews and religions have different real-world impacts, both good and bad. As we look at Christianity, we will see that it has propelled world progress in tangible ways. It gave rise to science and the free market, and it abolished chattel slavery. The findings of science seem to point to biblical claims about God and nature. Life looks designed as Scriptures teach, not formed from the directionless processes that some assume. Genetically, we are radically disparate from chimps. We will also discuss other things too, such as some strange biblical passages that some view as fiction, but rather are vindicated by evidence. We will see that objective moral stands from the Creator make a better world than subjective moral standards. As Jesus is the central figure of Christianity, we will also learn about some interesting aspects of his birth, life and death. We will learn how his message has changed people and has changed the world for the better. Lastly, we will see how building a rational Christian faith, each one of us can be the change we want to see, and as a side benefit, we can help change the world for the better.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Daniel Currier
• Release date: Mar 31, 2021
• ISBN: 9781393510611

Daniel Currier

Daniel earned a bachelor's degree in technology education and a graduate degree in biology. In addition, he is a graduate of the Discovery Institute Summer Seminar, an intensive training in science, philosophy and intelligent design. This unique educational background has opened doors for him in various professional careers including graphic design, industrial design, line art, information technology and healthcare. In addition, since 2009, he has taught biology and technology at the college, high school and Jr. high levels. While biology and technology may seem like a strange duo, he sees them as compatible. They give him an eye for designs found in nature, designs that point to the Creator. This unique background helps him have answers to secularism and Darwinism. He also founded www.iApologia.com, a platform where he writes on Christian apologetics and worldview. He speaks at various venues and conferences where workshops and presentations include topics that range from science and faith, Intelligent design and creation, Christian apologetics and Christian worldview, social issues, and pre-college preparation. Daniel also has been part of starting and leading a local Ratio Christi chapter, a university campus apologetics club.

Book preview

Book Overview

Have you ever wondered:

1. Are science and the Bible at odds?

2. What started the scientific enterprise?

3. Is the Bible fiction because it talks about unicorns?

4. Is our DNA 99% similar to a chimp's DNA?

5. Which religion matches reality the best?

6. Is evolution or creation correct?

7. Does the Bible teach that Christians should have a blind faith?

8. Did Jesus Christ even exist?

9. Did Jesus really rise from the dead?

10. What does becoming a Christian really mean?

This book will look into the above topics. We will talk about how different worldviews and religions have different real-world impacts, both good and bad. As we look at Christianity, we will see that it has propelled world progress in tangible ways. It gave rise to science and the free market, and it abolished chattel slavery. The findings of science seem to point to biblical claims about God and nature. Life looks designed as Scriptures teach, not formed from the directionless processes that some assume. Genetically, we are radically disparate from chimps. We will also discuss other things too, such as some strange biblical passages that some view as fiction, but rather are vindicated by evidence. We will see that objective moral stands from the Creator make a better world than subjective moral standards. As Jesus is the central figure of Christianity, we will also learn about some interesting aspects of his birth, life, and death. We will learn how his message has changed people and has changed the world for the better. Lastly, we will see how building a rational Christian faith, each one of us can be the change we want to see, and as a side benefit, we can help change the world for the better.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture verses are taken from the Holy Bible, Authorized King James Version.

Chapter 1: The Struggle, the Search, and Civilization

Western Civilization is a strange phenomenon. It has propelled the world into a particular mixture of ideas and assumptions, a successful mixture never seen before. Freedom for all became a virtue, slavery became a sin, and personal industry became a quality. Technology and progress were praised, not shunned. Western Civilization has been perpetually categorizing and making distinctions, birthing the scientific revolution, free-market capitalism, and the university system. Seemingly a strange duo, the enlightenment and great religious groups were birthed. Reason and truth became victorious over superstition and ignorance.

However, Western Civilization is now challenged by atheism, which has no foundation for truth, goodness, and reason. Even worse, relativism and postmodernism deny we can even access truth, like true Truth with a capital T. Maybe there is your truth and there is my truth? Maybe all cultures are just as moral as all others? Maybe all religions are essentially the same?

Take, for instance, the time I heard this claim while visiting an elderly couple. The husband said something to the effect of, I’ve traveled quite a bit in my life, and I think Christianity and Islam teach pretty much the same thing. He is not alone; society seems to agree. Political correctness clamors the mantras that: all religions are the same, all lead to God, all lead to heaven, all holy books are equal, and one way is the only way is just malarkey.

While many think various morals, worldviews, and religions are essentially the same, people still are quite interested in the diversity of religions and their differences. My point is this: everyone is still interested. Even atheists seem interested, but interested in a strange way. While bashing the topic, they're still talking about it.

Being one of the ground guys on the college campus as a part-time adjunct Biology instructor and a co-leader at a university apologetics club, I see all types. Maybe I see all types because I intentionally try to interact with students on worldviews and religion. It seems to me that the average student is religious, but in a strange way. Their religion doesn't seem to be atheism or Christianity or any other major religion. Rather, they seem to just have a hodgepodge of worldviews, ethos and ideas.

One guy, for example, claimed all of life was created by God. However, he later said that everything, including life, came through undirected natural processes. While one could think God used processes like abiogenesis and Neo-Darwinian evolution to get us here, the idea ultimately fails. These two processes, naturalistically, assume unguided processes, not a creator. In other words, we are now talking about a God who created, but didn't create. I asked him for clarification, since this didn't make sense to me. Confused, he had no answer. I assume he walked away scratching his head. It seemed he wanted a Creator and no Creator at the same time, or a God that did everything, but also did nothing.

Many such people claim the Christian title, but their inconsistent beliefs and lives are wobbly and rubbery; it's hard to pin down what they really believe. Besides being inconsistent, there seems to be a strong sense of self; I am the authority of my life. There is an assumption of the me factor: my rights, my freedom, my morality, my truth, and my body. I think God exists, so he exists for me. Abortion is wrong, I would not do it, but others should have a choice. Really, who am I to judge? In other words, relativism seems to be going strong.

The American sociologist Christian Smith studied the religion of today's youth. His findings confirm my anecdotal observations. In his book, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers, he gives this new religion a name: Moralistic Therapeutic Deism (MTD). Here are the five main points of MTD followed by my thoughts on each point:

1. A god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth.

2. God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.

3. The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.

4. God does not need to be particularly involved in one's life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.

5. Good people go to heaven when they die.

1. A god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth.

From my experience, many in the West assume the existence of some sort of higher power, a deity a little like a cosmic grandpa. Maybe an old man with a long white beard who sits up in heaven watching out for us. Many of these people identify as Christian, even though this picture is not even close to the Christian God. This sounds like a large dose of a god of their own making with a skewed blend of the biblical concept of God.

2. God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.

This point shows the common pluralist mindset or the idea that all religions are essentially the same. Superficially, this may seem to be true, but this is not true in the particulars, especially where it matters. When fundamentals and critical points of each religion are compared, different and contradictory claims appear. Sure, some moral teachings do seem to overlap at times, but often religions teach different things for goodness, niceness, and fairness. Which is right: Christianity, Islam, or Hinduism? Christianity says love your enemy, Islam says murder them, and Hinduism says the caste system is how the world works.

Islam claims Jesus Christ was just a prophet, He was not God, and He didn't rise from the dead. Christianity teaches He was more than a prophet, He was God in the flesh, and He rose from the dead. These are not superficial differences, but are foundational to both religions! Either Islam is true and Christianity is false, or Christianity is true and Islam is false. Sure, both could be false, but both can’t be true. People who hold to pluralism don't seem to quite know what these religions even teach.

3. The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.

As previously said, it seems that me is the most important thing in our world. I think it has become our god. You have heard the phrase follow your heart, you have rights, others should accept you for who you are, follow your truth, and you need more self-esteem. While some are true on one level, they all become self-pointing compasses when assumed in the extreme.

On one level, freedom, rights, liberty, and personal autonomy are essential human rights. But, it only goes so far. I don't always have the right desires, nor should I expect people to approve of my bad behaviors. I should not always follow my truth nor should I always be full of self-esteem. If I’m lost in the woods, I don’t want my compass to point to me; rather, I want it to point north.

In addition, our personal happiness ought to be throttled by our responsibilities to our families and neighbors. Our rights need to be tempered with our duties. There is only one of me, but billions of others. The center of the world does not run down my spine. Plus, this is a flawed view of life; life is full of problems and pain, sadness and sickness, disease and death.

4. God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.

Maybe this higher power is a standoffish being, a cosmic butler who comes at my bidding. If I need a problem resolved, the cosmic butler can be summoned. But notice the bigger issue: the focus is still, me.

In reality the correct focus is not me; rather, it is God. If God really did create everything, He is the one who is at the center, not me. In addition, this is a faulty view of God. God is not just all-powerful and all-knowing, but He also is a personal Being who makes personal decisions. Simply put, God acts on His own time scale and in His own way. He does not need to capitulate or comply with my demands or my requests. God has the right to say yes, later, or no.

5. Good people go to heaven when they die.

This sounds nice and fine but my observation is that most don’t really quite know what being good actually is. Maybe it is just being nice. If so, can’t bad people be nice too? What about fair? Maybe kind?

Our culture shouts that being LGBT is good, rape is bad, abortion is bad for me but fine for others, vulgarity is fine, blasphemy is fine, smoking is bad, racism is bad, masculinity is bad, femininity is good, socialism is good, big families are bad, sex out of marriage is good (as long as it’s consensual), capital punishment is bad, war is bad, environmentalism is good, and animal abuse is bad. I could go on and on.

But, as I look at such a list, I don’t really see a pattern. It looks like a confused mess, a hodgepodge of politically correct good and bad things. Grounding for such morality seems arbitrary, taken blindly from pop-stars, pop-media, friends, and personal opinions. It is concerning to see some bad things called good, and some good things called bad! Thus, of course I’m a good person, since I am the one and only judge. Thus, there is no absolute standard, no standard for true judgment and justice.

A hodgepodge of points from many worldviews may make you feel good, but it is usually also irrational; they all can’t be simultaneously true. So, if our culture’s most popular religion is flawed to the core, is there a better one? There are many world religions. Which, if any, is true? Is there a way to find out which is true? Which matches reality and the world around us the best? Is there one that is testable and has public claims? Is there one that promotes reason and science, responsibility and rights, life and liberty, progress, and personal worth? Is there one that has done great good for the world? Which is the best way? Is there a correct way at all? How would a thinking person start his or her religious quest?

Many may give diverse answers, but my thought is that it seems obvious to start looking at the real world and compare it to Christianity. Yes, I am a Jesus follower, and you could shout, unfair and biased! However, I think this is perfectly reasonable. Besides being the largest religion on earth, it is also fundamentally the most unique, not really fitting the typical religion mold.

The next chapter will build the underlying framework for the rest of the book: Seven Big Bangs that match Christianity. These seven things seem to match Christianity better than atheism, postmodernism, and other religions.

Chapter Overview

One of the many worldviews today, but maybe the most popular as well, is something that we may be able to call a religion. Some have labeled it Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. This religion takes many Christian ideas and twists or redefines them. However, just because it is popular doesn’t make it true, just like many of the other worldviews that we see in society. Christianity gives a response that is not only solid, but it also matches reality.

Going Deeper:

Myers, Jeff and Noebel, David. Understanding the Times: A Survey of Competing Worldviews. David C Cook. 2015

Smith, Christian and Lundquist Denton, Melinda. Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers. Oxford University Press. 2009

Chapter 2: The Seven Big Bangs

I once challenged an atheist with four essential parts of reality that fit naturally in the Jesus worldview but not in his. I remembered them by using four mental hooks I learned from a man named Frank Pastore: the Four Big Bangs. The first was the Cosmological Big Bang, the second the Biological Big Bang, the third the Psychological Big Bang, and the last was the Moral Big Bang.

When atheists try to explain these away, there seems to be lots of hand-waving and just so stories. Stories that are predicated upon the magical popping into existence of the universe as the wheel of time is spun. I love the poor responses, such as, Sure, we don’t know, but at least we’re humble because we admit we don’t know. One of my favorites is the false assertion they make: At least we don’t believe in the God of the gaps. They say this and imply that I am using the God of the gaps argument/fallacy, but in reality, I’m not and they are! (Stick with me and I’ll explain why this is so in a future chapter.)

Furthermore, I think there are three more Big Bangs that fit the Christian worldview better than other worldviews. Below are all seven followed by my summary of each.

The Cosmological Big Bang

The Biological Big Bang

The Psychological Big Bang

The Informational Big Bang

The Immaterial Big Bang

The Moral Big Bang

The Christian Big Bang

1. The Cosmological Big Bang

One of the most fundamental issues that everyone has to explain is the fact that the universe exists! Isn’t something more likely to not exist than to exist? Thus, it seems like someone wanted it to exist. In addition, virtually all scientists now agree that the evidence shows that the universe started to exist. While this isn’t that controversial today, in the early twentieth century it was controversial. Many at that time promoted a steady-state theory that states that the universe had no beginning and has no end in time. Before I go on, I want to be clear that I’m not talking about when the universe started to exist, nor am I talking about the prevailing Big Bang theory. I’m just saying that the evidence shows the universe started to exist. This alone would be interesting, but there is more. From the law of causation, we know that things that start to exist always have a previous cause. While this makes perfect sense if the universe was created by a Creator, it makes no sense if one assumes there was no Creator. In addition, the universe is finely tuned, and if things are not just right, the system becomes broken. Many times it becomes functionless and the system ceases to exist. Just so stories don’t help here. We need solid, rational answers.

2. The Biological Big Bang

First dead matter, then living matter, that’s the problem. Am I to believe that a poof, composed of eons of time, created life? We could talk about the debunked spontaneous generation hypothesis from history to the modern abiogenesis version, but both have the same issue of lacking evidence and rationality. From the origin of life to the origin of species to the origin of humans, life needs an explanation. Secular worldviews can’t adequately explain any of this.

3. The Psychological Big Bang

The question here is simple: how did consciousness arise? From a bacteria-like cell, to a blob brain, to a mind? When I was a child, a frog turning into a prince was a fairytale, but now some think that a frog turning into a prince (peppered with a lot of time) is science.

Somehow, we humans acquired the capacity for creativity and consciousness, design and beauty, self-awareness and self-reflection, and language and love. From proverbs to poems, to meaning and methods, to emotions and economics, we have them all. We have mental abilities and complementary physical abilities that other organisms don’t have. Where did this all come from? How could these even remotely be evolved? It’s like humans have had a Big Bang of unprecedented magnitude that gave us such capabilities.

4. The Informational Big Bang

We already talked about the Biological and Psychological Big Bangs. This Big Bang goes right along with those two. This is the information enigma. We are not just talking about small amounts of information, but massive amounts. Megabytes, gigabytes, terabytes, petabytes, exabytes, zettabytes, and yottabytes in size. Well, maybe not that massive, but you get the point. There is a lot of information. This information is contained in all biological cells. For example, two of the many types contained in life include digital information, such as DNA code, and micro machine designs. Without these, physical life would not be possible. Strangely, this type of information is meaningful, functional and specified. Where did all this information and design come from? Simply, it is much like the type of information we produce on a daily basis. From universal common experience, this type of information persistently comes from intelligent minds. Perpetually, meaningful digital information and machine designs require writers and machine designers.

5. The Immaterial Big Bang

Materialists don’t have as much of an inconsistency problem as a theft problem. When I say materialists or materialism, I don’t mean someone who owns lots of fancy clothes, cars and houses. Rather, it is people who think that the only things that exist are matter and motion, material and energy. They think everything can be explained naturalistically. When I say they've a theft problem, I’m saying they reach over and steal part of the theistic worldview to explain theirs. If materialism is true, there should be no immaterial things. But the problem is that there really does seem to be immaterial things in the world. Some examples are faith, hope, courage, truth, mathematics, laws of logic, and even the scientific method! Materialists like these things, and they use them. These things also don’t necessarily require the physical world to exist. For example, before the existence of the universe, it was true that the universe didn't exist. That is a logical truth. In addition, these logical truths existed before humans existed. For example, consider the logical truth that it is true that before humans existed, humans didn't exist. The same goes with the laws of arithmetic. Before humans, could you have specific numbers of things, like three rocks, or twenty sand grains? Sure. The concept