• Intelligent Design: Humans, God, and Mt. Rushmore • Reasons to Avoid Dropping the G-Bomb • Prayer in Public Schools— A Nation at War
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Inside this issue:
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/ SPRING / 2006
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CONTENTS T A B L E
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Intelligent Design: Science or Religion?
By Rev. William M. Cwirla Who ya calling pond scum?? Were you created with a purpose or did you evolve from gunk? Can science and Christianity coexist? Read Rev. Cwirla’s defense of Intelligent Design to find the answers.
The Pinch: Caught in the Middle of the School Prayer Debate and Other Church/State Stuff
By Rev.Tim Pauls Prayer in public schools is a good thing. Or is it? Rev. Pauls discusses multiculturalism, secularism, and the fine line between church and state. Accompanying his essay is a compelling article on school prayer by Mollie Ziegler.
10 Myths about Suicide:: Christian Responses to Kids at Risk
By Dr. Beverly Yahnke Over 50 percent of teenagers contemplate suicide. Read Dr.Yahnke’s article to find out how you can help those who face this temptation.
12 A Few Lies Satan Tells about Himself
By Vicar Charles Lehmann Vicar Lehmann weighs in on Satan’s anger, our sin, and God’s gift of Jesus for our redemption.
14 Your Alpha to Omega: What to do after Graduation
By Rev. George F. Borghardt III Are you finishing school this year? Do you feel unsure of what life has in store for you after graduation? Rev. Borghardt reminds us of the hope and promise we have in Christ.
25 The G-Bomb
By Rev.Tom Chryst Your friends, television actors, and maybe even you misuse the Lord’s name. Check out Rev. Chryst’s article to see why three little words say more than you might think.
COLUMNS
Volume 6/Number 1 • Spring 2006
16 We are Family
By Kathy Luder Kathy and her mom attend a funeral at church. While there, she contemplates the similarities between biological families and church families, family suppers and the Lord’s Supper, and birthdays and feast days.
20 Mining the Riches: Why Do We Suffer?
By Jeff Hansen While reflecting on Lamentations 3, Jeff Hansen gives insight about God allowing suffering in our lives.
23 Putting Christ in Christianity
By Dr. Gene Edward Veith Why are most Christians so reluctant to talk about Jesus? Are good works more appealing than our Savior? Dr. Veith outlines the importance of focusing on Christ and the forgiveness He offers.
26 Pulse: And the People’s Choice Award Goes to . . .
By Adriane Dorr Do you like the Black-Eyed Peas? Gwen Stefani? Audioslave? Read this Pulse column to see a survey of what kinds of music Higher Things readers listen to the most.
28 Dare To Be Lutheran: A Relevant Font
By Aaron Wolf Megachurch or faithful church? Contemporary Christian music or the liturgy? Video projectors or hymnals? Mr.Wolf explains the benefits of being distinctly, and even an old-fashioned, Lutheran.
30 Catechism: The Power of Water
By Rev. David Petersen God joins water and His Word to keep us from eternal damnation. Read about God’s saving gifts, which He gives us through the means of Baptism.
Also in this issue: 22 Letters to the editor 24 News and Notes
HigherThings Publications Executive & Editor REV. TODD PEPERKORN Assistant Editor JULIE STIEGEMEYER Editorial Assistant ADRIANE DORR Art Director STEVE BLAKEY
Editorial Associates REV. GEORGE BORGHARDT REV. TIM PAULS REV. DAVID PETERSEN REV. ERIK ROTTMANN
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Bible Studies Editor REV. TIMOTHY SCHELLENBACH Contributing Editors REV. ERIC ANDRAE PAM KNEPPER KATHY LUDER REV. SCOTT STIEGEMEYER DR. GENE EDWARD VEITH Marketing Manager MARY JO JITER
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Pennsylvania judge recently ruled that the teaching of intelligent design as an alternative to the theory of evolution in the public high school science classroom constituted the teaching of religion, and was, therefore, unconstitutional. Across the country the debate rages in school boards, courtrooms, and classrooms. Is intelligent design science, or is it religion?
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WHAT IS “INTELLIGENT DESIGN?” Intelligent Design (ID) is a school of thought held by some scientists, theologians, and philosophers who believe that the universe shows objective evidence for design. Consider this example. Imagine walking along a stretch of ocean beach and seeing an array of rocks that form the letters “HELLO.” Is it more reasonable to assume that this formation is the result of the random tumbling of rocks bounced around by waves over a long stretch of time or the intentional act of a designer who arranged the rocks for a specific purpose? We immediately assume design, of course. Rocks bouncing in the waves don’t form letters much less words. That’s the idea behind Intelligent Design. ID advocates see evidence for intelligent design in nature. Biologist Dr. Michael J. Behe (Darwin’s Black Box) calls biological systems “irreducibly complex.” He cites the whiplike tail of single cell flagellets as an example. The flagellum in the cell consists of a stator, rotor, bushing, hook, and tail. If one piece is missing or defective, the flagellum will not work, and the cell cannot move and dies. Therefore, concludes Dr. Behe, the flagellum could not have evolved from simpler forms over a long period of time. It must have been designed as a working unit from the beginning. Mathematician Dr. William A. Dembski (Intelligent Design:
The Bridge Between Science and Theology) finds what he terms “specified complexity” in the genetic code. The genetic code consists of four basic molecules designated by the first letters of their chemical names: A,C, G, and T. These four molecules, arranged in long double helix strands, form genes and chromosomes, a detailed blueprint for every protein in the body. The genetic code is specific and complex information—a dense language with a four-letter alphabet. The chances of A,C,G, and T molecules stringing themselves together to form a coherent code for an aardvark or even an amoeba, much less a human being, are impossibly small. Like the software of a computer, the very existence of a code implies a coder. ID proponents point out that Earth is a rare cosmic gem in the universe. It’s the perfect place for life—the right galactic neighborhood, perfect parent star, orbit, distance from the sun, surface gravity, magnetic field, oxygen atmosphere, water to land ratio, surface temperature, a large solitary moon to govern the tides. Furthermore, the entire universe is delicately balanced on a finely tuned set of universal physical constants. One tiny glitch in any of these universal constants, and the whole galactic party would be over. ID advocates contend that these things cannot possibly be the result of a great cosmic coincidence; they point to intelligent design.
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Religion? By Rev. William M. Cwirla
SCIENCE OR RELIGION? The majority of scientists and science educators remain unconvinced. They argue that design, like beauty, tends to be in the eye of the beholder. We have an eye for pattern. We sometimes see “faces” or other objects in the clouds. Rock cliffs sometimes resemble faces. Snowflakes form beautifully intricate geometric patterns, yet these “designs” are a natural property of crystalline water. Design is not a measurable property in the same way as temperature or color. Critics cite bacterial injection systems similar to the flagellum in the cell yet simpler, challenging whether biological complexity is actually irreducible. They also point out that chemical systems are not entirely random, especially when it comes to large, complex macromolecules like DNA and proteins. Specified complexity may be a property of these molecules. Science educators fear that introducing intelligent design into the science classroom will lead to sloppy science. They charge ID proponents with plugging God into the gaps of scientific knowledge as a catchall explanation. Science deals in verifiable, testable concepts. Since God is not testable, God should not be introduced into the scientific discussion. When scientists observe an event, they assume a natural cause, not a divine miracle. Ordinarily, this assumption works quite well. Science studies things as they are. Scientists in the physical sciences, such as physics and chemistry, follow a strict scientific method.They conduct controlled experiments to test their hypotheses and theories.The natural sciences, like biology, deal with much more complex systems; experiments are not always possible. The study of origins—where things come from and how
they are developed—cannot use experiments to repeat past events. Instead, researchers make observations and form reasonable explanations that fit the facts. It’s like detective work. Detectives collect clues from a crime scene and put together a case that will convince a jury “beyond a reasonable doubt.” Evolution looks at the evidence from the natural world and sees a process of change by natural selection; ID sees evidence for intelligent design. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? God ordinarily works through means. Though He made everything out of nothing in the beginning, He used the material of the Earth to bring forth vegetation and animal life (Genesis 1:11–12, 24) and the waters to bring forth the creatures of the sea (1:20). He made man out of the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7). Science can analyze the clay, but it cannot detect the Potter. Though Christ “fills all in all”(Ephesians 1:23 ESV) and is the creative, ordering Word through whom all things were made and in whom all things hold together (Colossians 1:17), no telescope or microscope can detect His presence. Certain things can be known about God from the observation of nature. The apostle Paul wrote that even those who do not have the written Word can know something of God from nature: “For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made” (Romans 1:20 ESV). Ultimately, however, understanding that God created everything out of nothing by His Word is a fruit of faith. “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible” (Hebrews 11:3 ESV).
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A Few Lies Satan Tells
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ood and evil, light and darkness, God and Satan—two great forces are locked in an eternal struggle for mastery over the human race. Is this the way it is? No, it’s not true. But that is what you hear in popular books, movies, and television shows.
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It’s a view of the world that fills Satan with glee.“Yeah, I’m hot stuff,” he says.“God doesn’t get the play in Hollywood that I do. I’m the one everybody wants to see.” But what Satan’s forgetting is that he’s a creature, and in that sense, he’s just like you or me.The word creature sounds like what it means. A creature is a “created thing,” created by God. And when we confess, as the Scriptures do, that Satan is a created thing, he screams in fury. Satan’s first sin, the one that got him banished from the presence of God, was that he wasn’t satisfied with who he was. We hear echoes of Satan’s aggravation in his tempting of Eve in the garden. When Eve tells him that she must not eat from the tree, the serpent replies,“You will not surely die . . . For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:4–5 ESV). Satan tries to pull Eve into his sin.“God’s holding out on you,” he says.“He doesn’t want you to be all that you can be.” And sadly, when Eve eats of the tree, she loses all that Satan says she’ll get. She was already like God, in the sense that she was created in His image, and that image is lost. She had already received all good things from her Creator, but she casts those things aside and receives death, pain, and anguish. And Satan has gotten just what he wanted. Misery loves company, and now Eve, Adam, and the entire human race live in the death that is Satan’s everlasting prize. But let’s not give the devil more than he’s due. And he’s not due much. The world will say the garden is the place where the struggle began. It will say Satan and God are two equals who are beating each other up in a battle for your soul. But that’s Satan talking. And as loud as Satan might yell, he can’t endure just one Word of God. Satan is a liar and a murderer and has been one since the beginning (John 8:44).The Word of God is truth. It is reality. And in the fullest way, it’s Jesus who says,“I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6 ESV). And those are three things Satan cannot endure. Jesus is the way to the Father whose presence Satan cannot tolerate. Jesus is the truth that destroys Satan’s lies. Jesus is the life that Satan doesn’t want you to have. Faced with God’s promises, Satan
must flee.“…Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” (1 John 4:2–4 ESV). God has claimed you as His own in your Baptism. He has put His name on you and has given you His Holy Spirit. Notice how John speaks. Satan and God are not equals. He that is in you is greater than he that is in the world. And though at the Word of Jesus Satan must flee, he will also come back with his murderous lies. He will accuse you with your sins. He will bring death, sickness, and suffering into your life. He will say,“God’s promises are bunk.They are lies. Look at all that you are suffering!” But God has promised that He will abide in you. He that has claimed you in Baptism feeds you with His very body and blood in the Lord’s Supper. And as you receive the living Christ into your own body, Satan’s lies melt away, and only you, a redeemed child of God, remain. Charles Lehmann is a student at Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He serves as vicar of Saint Paul Lutheran Church in Hamel, Illinois. Before studying for the ministry, Charles was a Lutheran High School theology teacher. His email address is lehmanncr@ctsfw.edu.
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By Vicar Charles Lehmann
Dualism: A Resurgence of an Old Heresy
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he idea that God and Satan are equals is nothing new. As Lehmann points out in his article, the devil considered himself to be God’s equal way back at the time of the fall. It’s a teaching called dualism, and it keeps appearing. At the time of the apostles, it was the Gnostics (rhymes with the word caustic) who taught that the holy god was far away from the evil world, so it was up to you to save yourself by learning enough special knowledge. Four centuries later, it was the Manichaeans (does not rhyme with plecostomus) who taught that God and evil were equals, and evil could keep God from getting things done. Therefore, it was up to you to save yourself by living an austere life. I caught a radio preacher saying,“There’s a vote for your soul. God has voted for your salvation, and the devil (rhymes with duh-AY-vil) has voted for your damnation. It’s up to you. How will you vote?” See the trend? If God and Satan are equals, then it’s up to you to save yourself. Apparently, Jesus didn’t do enough to save you. But He did, and that’s the joy and comfort of being a Christian. Jesus has conquered the devil completely, for eternity. It’s done. They’re only equals in the wishful thinking of Old Adam. Of course, this doesn’t say much about you. When you give into temptation, you’re giving in to a defeated enemy. That by itself shows how badly you need a Savior. The Good News is that Christ is your Savior. No matter what the devil thinks or says, he’s beaten, and you’re forgiven for all of your sins. - Rev.Tim Pauls
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