Notes on Reality

Copyright 1998-2008 by Donald R. Tveter, http://www.dontveter.com, commercial use is prohibited. This material cannot be quoted at length or posted elsewhere on the net or included in CD ROM collections. Short quotations are permitted provided proper attribution is given.

Introduction

This set of pages began because I was annoyed with the highly "rational" atheists and scientists who figure the Bible is wrong and their atheistic view of the world is right. For instance they may say that "Science has proved the Bible wrong" or here is a comment from one web site:
You've got to be kidding! You believe this kind of nonsense?

But the Biblical view of the world is not nonsense, it is in fact HIGHLY logical. The idea that the Biblical worldview is nonsense is the fault of a lot of people. First many of the religious have insisted upon interpretations of the Bible that are at odds with scientific results. Highly rational scientific people are only too happy to take these interpretations of the Bible and denounce the whole thing on that basis. The reality is that there are other interpretations of the Bible that are not at odds with the scientific results.

Second the religious have failed to state the Biblical view of the world in a form that highly rational people can understand. This point is really important. The Biblical side doesn't even realize what is going on. When they make their short quick Biblical references (e.g. "Jesus died for your sins!" or "You're a sinner and if you don't repent you're going to Hell!" or "The penalty for sin is death.") they might as well be talking in Latin or Greek. Most of the rational world thinks the people saying such things are mentally defective. When missionaries go up the Amazon river or some other out of the way part of the world they learn the local language and culture and then translate the Bible into terms that the local people can understand. But the highly rational scientific people in Western culture are just as alien as the natives up the Amazon river. Bible believers need to translate the ideas into a form that scientists, atheists and the modern general public can understand.

Third the religious have often added in to their beliefs things that are not Biblical in origin and which don't even make sense. This colors the whole Bible as nonsense.

Fourth, many scientists and rational people just plain don't want there to be a God. These people get caught up in the trap of thinking that they know so much about the world that they can dismiss the Biblical view of the world. The reality of the situation is that Science is constantly being surprised by new developments and that right now there is plenty of room available for the Biblical view of the world and of man to be proven true in the future.

When the book comes out it will be called The Haunted Mansion: Basic Christianity for Modern People, not Notes on Reality.

The work has two themes, one about the Biblical view of the world and one about the defective views of scientists. If you're not scientifically inclined the science sections may numb your mind so skip them.

Contents

The Logic of the Biblical Worldview

This section explains Christianity in a logical way, a way that I think is necessary for highly logical scientific people. It should also make sense to the skeptical members of the general public who think the Biblical view sounds like nonsense.

Notes on Heaven

The Logic of the Biblical Viewpoint section concerns itself with the logic of the matter and is therefore essentially non-emotional. This section is more emotion-oriented, it deals with what there is to live for.

Won't Any Religion Do?

People often think any religion will do but they are not all the same by any means. Christianity offers the only sensible deal and it's totally free whereas other religions offer you inferior deals.

The Haunted Mansion

The early Biblical belief was that God controlled every detail of the universe. Science replaced this by a clockwork view of the universe where many people came to believe that there is no need for God. Then quantum mechanics made it worse by adding unpredictability. But the stunning discoveries of physics in the 20th century: special relativity, general relativity, quantum mechanics and Bell's Theorem point to the block model of the universe, sometimes also called superdeterminism and this puts God back in charge of every detail. An immediate consequence of the physics is that you can do away with evolution by chance in a single stroke.

Genesis Interpretations

The interpretations of the Bible you get from young Earth creationists will make you think that Science has proved the Bible wrong but there are other less publicized interpretations that fit the scientific results.

Life

The mainstream scientific facts clearly point to Intelligent Design, not Evolution. This section details the mistakes you get from evolutionists.

Eerie Similarities between Evolution and Young Earth Creationism

Both sides approach the subject in exactly the same way: they use their own particular bias mixed with sloppy thinking and dishonesty.

Notes on Unreality for Young Earth Creationists

Arguments for young Earth creationism do not stand up to scrutiny.

A Discussion Forum

Leave your comments on the Notes on Reality pages or discuss the issues.

Note

What I have here is the result of a good deal of thinking and reading about Biblical doctrine. I think the most appealing aspect of Biblical doctrine is that God has arranged things the way things really ought to be, his plan and his perspective makes sense through and through. Think about it and I think you will agree. Not every Biblically inclined person will agree with every bit of my analysis however I think for the most part most will agree on most things. Nevertheless I don't simple-mindedly believe what anyone says about anything so I urge you to not take my analysis as absolutely true and that's that! Compare my perspective with others and then take up the whole matter with God.

Acknowledgements

I want to thank the people at the Daystar Discussion Forum, especially the atheists and agnostics for coming up with comments and questions that I can try and respond to. Their efforts are helping me put down my ideas "on paper". I think that's a very worthwhile thing to do, one for the benefit of other people with similar questions and two for helping me think about these issues more carefully to the point where I can write about them.

If you have any questions or comments, write me.

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