From former Cambridge professor, author and famed atheist, Richard Dawkins:

“Before 1859 it would have seemed natural to agree with the Reverend William Paley, in “Natural Theology,” that the creation of life was God’s greatest work. Especially (vanity might add) human life. Today we’d amend the statement: Evolution is the universe’s greatest work. Evolution is the creator of life, and life is arguably the most surprising and most beautiful production that the laws of physics have ever generated. Evolution, to quote a T-shirt sent me by an anonymous well-wisher, is the greatest show on earth, the only game in town.

Indeed, evolution is probably the greatest show in the entire universe. Most scientists’ hunch is that there are independently evolved life forms dotted around planetary islands throughout the universe—though sadly too thinly scattered to encounter one another. And if there is life elsewhere, it is something stronger than a hunch to say that it will turn out to be Darwinian life. The argument in favor of alien life’s existing at all is weaker than the argument that—if it exists at all—it will be Darwinian life. But it is also possible that we really are alone in the universe, in which case Earth, with its greatest show, is the most remarkable planet in the universe.”

[...]

“Where does that leave God? The kindest thing to say is that it leaves him with nothing to do, and no achievements that might attract our praise, our worship or our fear. Evolution is God’s redundancy notice, his pink slip. But we have to go further. A complex creative intelligence with nothing to do is not just redundant. A divine designer is all but ruled out by the consideration that he must at least as complex as the entities he was wheeled out to explain. God is not dead. He was never alive in the first place.”

The rest of this article may be found at The Wall Street Journal.

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From a Facebook response written by Beth Duren Lancaster:

“The first question that comes to my mind is, What if evolution was God’s idea? Would there then be no use for God after evolution was set into place? If God invented evolution, then God would be the author/designer/creator/sculptor of evolution. Would we say that since we have the completed works of Shakespeare, we’ve no need for the Bard himself? We have lightbulbs (“greener” and far better than the original), so no need for Edison? The Mona Lisa hangs on display, so da Vinci is useless to us? Now, I can’t stress enough my awareness that these are far from perfect comparisons (I don’t know of any Edison disbelievers), but I’m not at all trying to offer any sort of proof for the existence of God so perhaps it doesn’t matter. Why would an invention or creation (maybe too charged a word for Dawkins) render the inventor or creator useless?

Dawkins works from the premise that God does not exist and has never existed. So that certainly aids in his conclusion that evolution renders God useless, but it’s definitely no disproof of God. Perhaps that isn’t Dawkins’ intent, but then what would be the point of the article? (And when is that ever NOT Dawkins’ intent?) Dawkins’ is supposedly highly skilled in his own scientific field, but has always appeared to me to be a real lightweight in fields out of his specialty. In other words, he’s a pretty lousy philosopher and seems nearly devoid of any sort of grasp of theology.

I do completely agree with the ending of his article. Either God exists scientifically or God doesn’t exist at all. There’s no ‘true for you, not true for me’ when it comes to God’s existence. Be a devout believer, a seeking agnostic, or a solid atheist, but good grief don’t think you’re doing anyone any favors by being everything to all. If you take a stand for nothing out of fear of offending someone, you give up all chances of ever challenging anyone. If our motivation is to challenge another person by sharing beliefs and discussing differences in effort to build relationships and better both parties, then we shouldn’t have to fear offending people. Believers and non-believers can both challenge each other, but too often our motivation is to convert just to prove ourselves right, and that’s simply a picture of the inward fears of humanity. Sometimes stepping on each others toes can actually be a good thing, but we shouldn’t feel the need to put on combat boots before we do it.”

Several years ago, my wife and I bought one of those package vacation deals with Carnival Cruise lines. We aren’t really cruise people, but we were looking for a cheap getaway that might be fun. So, they had one of these all-inclusive vacations deals where the only catch was you had to listen to their pitch for “vacation ownership,” i.e., a time-share. So, we went and sat through the pitch. Then, we boarded our Carnival Cruise ship in Miami for a 3 day jaunt to the Bahamas and back.

The ship had everything. Food, music, lounging, entertainment. You could take a dance class, or swim, or just read a book. You could do whatever you wanted – or nothing at all. The important thing was that you were on the ship. So, we went to a couple of shows, ate some very average food, took a dance class, went ashore in Nassau and went snorkeling with about 100 other people, and had a pretty good time. But, overall, I was kind of bored with the set-up of the vacation. There was no risk. Everything was prepackaged and predictable.  Read more…

Cynthia Crane was busy with her daily routine when God altered the forces of nature to send her a very clear, if not so subtle message. Normally this mother of six has her plate full doing laundry and washing dishes. However, on this sultry September day she had gotten ahead. With an unusual bit of free time she determined to find some mid-morning inspiration from television. Bypassing the usual suspects: Days of Our Lives, Oprah, Montel Williams, she paused on her local cable affiliate to watch Pat Robertson’s  700 Club. It was at that moment that her life changed forever.

It wasn’t the story of a 9/11 survivor who birthed a ministry out of tragedy.  It wasn’t the incredible story of weight loss inspired by faith. It was a bolt of lightning that came crashing down on her, entering her head and exiting through her tailbone.  Fortunately for Cynthia her son was home. Reaching into her back pocket he pulled out her cell phone and dialed 911. Soon emergency medics arrived and, by the grace of God she is alive to tell the story today.

Her pastor, Rev. Larry Stallworth, has a different spin on this compelling story. Cynthia had better be more careful about what she watches on TV. That’s right. This not-so-little act of God was a warning that she’d better stay away from Pat Robertson. “The evangelical church has gotten downright nutty over the last couple of decades. Guys like Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland and Pat Robertson? These guys are very close to abandoning evangelical faith altogether in favor of some covetous, mystical belief that, at times, borders on utter nonsense,” said Stallworth. Crane is not entirely convinced. “Guys with such great hair can’t be entirely beyond the pale,” she quipped. “But my pastor has a lot of wisdom, so I’m considering his words.”

“If God judged the sins of New Orleans by sending a hurricane then I have no doubt that he would send a bolt of correction to one of his children for the sin of watching TBN,” Stallworth said.

This article first appeared on Examiner.com.

As President Obama gives a national speech today to school children, there are some in the United States who continue to pray for God to kill him. Citing the "imprecatory Psalms," at least two local church pastors have made it clear that they regularly and actively are praying for the death of the President of the United States.

Wiley Drake, pastor of the First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park, California, may have been the first to get national attention for his stance. Drake, who announced on "The Alan Colmes Show" that he was "asking God to enforce imprecatory prayers" against the president, is widely known in Southern Baptist circles for submitting the resolution that led to the widely questioned "Disney boycott" a number of years ago. Unofficially dubbed "Mr. Resolution" by convention messengers, Drake’s pattern each year has been to offer numerous resolutions to the convention, most of which are rejected or never make it out of committee. So well known is he for this annual ritual that when he was elected as Second Vice-President of the SBC in 2006 comic joy was expressed from the dais that "Wiley won’t get to offer resolutions next year."

Drake, upon his election, immediately added, "2nd Vice-President of the Southern Baptist Convention," to all his correspondence and when his 1-year, non-renewable term was over, changed it to, "2nd Vice-President of the Southern Baptist Convention, 2004-2005." He caused a minor stir when he flew to Nashville for the fall meeting of the Executive Committee with the expectation that Southern Baptists should foot the bill, a privilege normally extended only to the sitting President. Eventually there was reimbursement, but a clarification also issued that Drake was not qualified for travel expenses.

The SBC gadfly is also a "birther," that is one who does not believe that Barack Obama is a natural born citizen of the U.S. and, therefore, not a legitimate president. He is even named on a lawsuit to that effect. Drake, also a member of the "Minutemen" organization and a vice-presidential candidate on the 2008 American Independent Party ticket in California, is now recognized by most Southern Baptists as being so far to the right that he’s not even on the wing. Said Art Rogers, pastor of Skelly Drive Baptist Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, "I’m to the right of center on the American political spectrum. Wiley is on another planet."

Continue reading at Southern Baptist Examiner.

We begin offering articles from a host of contributors from around the world who engage their context or others with the “mission of God.” We begin today with Russ Rankin. You may find more information about Russ on our Contributors Page.

The Kingdom Principle

Several years ago I accompanied a friend on hiking trip. Our objective was more than just spending a few days in the great outdoors. The location was a restricted-access country in Asia where mission work is forbidden. My friend, a strategy coordinator for an unreached people group, asked me to join him on the trip high in the mountains to locate and mark with a GPS villages previously untouched by Westerners. His desire was to count doors, do a needs-assessment and hopefully encounter men of peace through whom he could introduce the Gospel to a secluded people. As a journalist, I planned to do a feature package on the people and the challenge of bringing the Gospel to them.

We spent our first day navigating dusty trails and narrow goat paths straight up a mountain nearing 10,000 feet. At one point, having run out of water, we resorted to drawing and filtering from streams that were no more than mud puddles. Periodically, we encountered people living on the mountain; villagers tending to crops on semi-flat fields or goat herders on patches of mountain grass. At one rest stop, two members of our team engaged a couple of farmers in light conversation and gave them tracts in their language.

In our ignorance, we didn’t realize those farmers were heading down the mountain to a village at a lower trailhead. I can imagine their report to the local officials: white devils were on the mountain handing out (illegal) materials. To our dismay, as we broke camp the following morning we saw coming up behind us a trail of military vehicles. Needless to say, the language barrier didn’t mean much as the officials angrily interrogated our leader and hauled us all off the mountain.

Read more…