A review: Is Genesis History?

I am happy that I watched the movie Is Genesis History? Watching it has helped me strengthen my ability to have faith in God. This is the third significant time I went into an experience expecting to have my faith completely shaped away and instead found it more strengthened. I am, in a sometimes good way, a serious doubter of all things not proven. That’s great when it comes to sussing out scams not so great when it comes to giving control over my soul to complete faith in God.  I openly admit that.

I went to this movie expecting to see silly examples, or hysterical insistence, and no effort to prove it and came away with complete respect and admiration for the method used to raise doubt in anyone’s mind. At one point, one of the scientists, a geologist, is explaining how the current method of dating of the rocks is misconstrued and misunderstood by many scientist. It’s ironic that when I search the Internet – the scientist who still believe in the debunked method (in this movie) of dating rocks deny that the number of scientists who no longer give credence as “insignificant numbers” yet they do not produce names or numbers.

Much of the evidence is based on “the Flood”. At the beginning of the movie, the narrator stands in a deep canyon, with a small stream, and says science tells us that it took thousands of years for the stream to carve the canyon, and the plants to take up life there. And yet this is not true, the canyon was created as recently as the 1980’s, for those of you old enough to remember Mt. St. Helen’s eruption – this particular canyon was created by that volcanic occurrence. It’s a stunning way to start the movie.

Years, ago, I remember watching another movie about creation versus evolution. At that time I must not have paid enough attention because I was not fully convinced. But one of the things that stuck with me from that documentary was looking at the excavation of a bed of dinosaur fossils. All of the dinosaurs appeared to have died while swimming. These were not the sea faring dinosaurs. In Is Genesis History movie, they showed plenty of evidence to give even the most hard core evolutionist reason to doubt. The type of fossils found, the arrangement of the fossils, the locations, and the amount. After this segment of the movie, if you don’t doubt, then you were not listening. The key again is the great Flood. In the Grand Canyon, the lowest layer with the great unconformity, the various layers with the sea animals, and dinosaurs, the measureable ocean waves, and through it all the impossibility of each layer just randomly forming with all the fossils. Evolutionist would have us believe that it was just random. The geologist that explained in this movie, discussed how the sizes of the layers formed and under what conditions. These were not random conclusions – the evidence he presented was overwhelming.

A conversation with a biologist brought up something that has always had me doubting evolution. That is how could every living thing in its complexity evolve from the same cell? It’s like putting a bunch of code words in a computer and expecting the words to just randomly organize itself in this complex artificial intelligence; cannot be done. The amount of time it would take for a sea animal to develop appropriate lungs to live on land – is preposterous enough to give doubt as to why would the animal keep trying? And how is it possible the animal survived during transition? Sure, there have been evolutionary changes in each genus or species but the dramatic changes suggested by Darwin and evolution would suggest finding the missing link in all the various classes or kingdoms. Not only has the missing link never been found for humans there are none for any of the other classes. Not popularly talked about is that Darwin was proven by modern scientist to be wrong on much of his theories. He was right about many things but not in how we evolve. I had learned that myself when taking anthropology classes.

The astronomy portion of the movie was not as heavy hitting as the geological, biological, and anthropological sections but it didn’t support the evolution theory either.

Overall, this was presented as a documentary and not a movie, so I’m sure some people were disappointed. But I, for one, thought it was worth every penny because of the calm, factual presentation they used to show that creation is much easier to believe than evolution. At the end they suggested going to the website for additional information. I agree. Don’t just take their word for it – do your own investigations. I signed up for a study guide and updates. I really want to learn more specific’s so I can have reasonable persuasive debates with evolutionist. It’s the first time I’ve been hard struck with the notion that maybe our children should be learning both sides of the story. After all, science proves over and over again, that science does change. J  And teaching our children that – it is important – to always seek knowledge from all sources – keep up-to-date and keep an open mind before you decide. For me, I no longer have doubts. God is my creator. 

Unfinished Business, an Unfinished Life

I think from the picture you will know somewhat about the topic of this particular post. But it's going to be so much more than that. I have a lot I need to "spew" today.

Yesterday, I went to church for the first time in about 3 weeks. Yep, I've been attending church quite regularly since I moved to Kentucky. It's wonderful. I have found a family of caring people. I am sure it helps that my real family is there, too. It always helps to have family, if they love you, of course. It's one of the real things I missed about moving so much in the military and my entire adult life. On the one hand, moving gave me a much bigger perspective on the human condition and motivation, on the other hand, I lost my closest support system. At the time, it was what I thought I wanted. Who knew...?

In the sermon given, the topic was not at all about suicide yet, the one verse that was part of the sermon jumped up and grabbed me. It was:

26 Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. 27 The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!” Acts 16 (NIV)

This particular chapter and verse of the Bible was not at all about suicide. Please read it all to get the true story. I am not attempting to take it out of context - simply giving you context to my own personal revelation. The jailer knew that if the prisoners escaped he would be held responsible for such an act of complete irresponsibility and be shamed and executed. Paul, knowing this also, stopped him, before he could do this vile act - and told him that they had not escaped that they were still there. The lights came on and the jailer saw that it was true - and he immediately asked what he needed to do to become a christian. The rest, as they say, is history. Paul and Silas, while praying to God in love and concern, not only saved the prisoners, but helped saved the jailer. This is where I got completely hung up. The message of this particular chapter was a bit different but I dwelled on this for the rest of the morning. Afterwards, I went to our preacher and asked him why he picked this particular chapter this morning. At first, he said he wanted to give a message of hope about being baptised and saved - but I said, no, no, I meant, in this particular case, the jailer was about to commit suicide and I wonder if there was something about *that* and he realized where I was going with it. I told him, that I felt that I had failed my own duty to stop someone very special and dear to me. That I did not cry out "Don't harm yourself! We are all here!" because it was this very thing was what I thought should have been said to my lost young soldier, my daughter's lost sweetheart, the deep thinking, sharp young man she wanted to marry. The brave soldier who carried demons inside about many things but especially about his tours of duty in Afghanistan. He was trained as a mechanic on Bradley tanks, but served as a minesweeper scout in the Persian gulf war(s). I could go on and on about him but this post is really about what I could have done and why we (especially me) probably failed. Maybe there is no right answer but I want to dedicate the rest of my life to finding the right answers. I may stumble, fall, and fail over and over again, but if I can reach just one, I feel that it will be worth it to keep trying.

I had a strange dream last night, and honestly I no longer recall much of it any longer, but it clarified a few things for me this morning. One of the things, that I go through, that I think many of the 22 daily go through, along with the horrors of war, is that we entered into the service, we were broken down, made blank, and then we were formed as a member of a special team. This team we formed was one where we would always have each other's back. We called it covering your 6, think about a clock - and where the number 6 would fall if the number 12 were the front of you.

And it was the breaking down, and cleansing, and forming a team that strived for perfection, because only perfection will save lives, that was so perfectly instilled in us; that makes us, former military, so hard to get along with in the civilian world. This training, and our constant employment of the training at our missions, makes it all the more disappointing to veterans in the civilian world. We get out from our service, newly awash with enthusiasm, that we can do anything!!! That, along with teamwork and a lot of good old fashioned elbow grease. And we then...find out, our new civilian employers don't bother to train us, but hold us responsible if mistakes are made, don't make documentation but expect us to know the rules, ask us to act as a team but then throw us under the bus, or sell us out to the other side, fire us if we appear to threaten their positions, rather than promote us for doing a good job. Veterans find our government not only doesn't care about us, but spend much money on warfare but make more laws to take away benefits we were promised when we enlisted. The very same enlistment where we made an oath with the government and the American people: 

I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.

For many of us, the oath never ended. But when the government, the politicians began to turn us away, began to deny us the benefits, that we were promised, when the civilian sector refused to acknowledge the training we received, we began to falter, to lose confidence, to wonder why, we ever served in the first place. And we sometimes even cry out for help, to the VA Hospitals, only to find they are more concerned with scheduling, and vacations, and internal promotions, and CYA, and we try to show our pride, with flags and are told our neighborhoods don't want the flags, don't want our service, and we began to try to hide the demons, because it appears that the demons are for us and us alone...

I am missing my transition right here - the one that will tie the above to the conclusion. I will never, in a hundred years, be able to write enough to clarify what the problem really is or which solution is really right - but for me - I believe I have found my problem and I have a new solution I am going to try.

This is probably one of the more rambling blogs I'll ever write - I needed to get some things off my chest - but here are some of my conclusions.

1. We don't love each other enough - we seem to only care about getting more than the other person.
2. The government is our own worst enemy, not ISIS or ISS or NAZI's or Communism or Socialism or illegal immigrants, even.

I pledge to show my love more and openly - I don't care if it labels me a "tree-hugging liberal" if people want to label me as such - they are part of the problem - not the solution. I'm not even sure I know what a liberal is - I only know that if I am one - I am a hated individual. If I become hated for loving people, well, then I think I've done my job. And I hope I can persuade those of you who wonder where or if they've failed, too, to help others by openly showing love and more importantly compassion, then I know my solution has worked.