Our critic this week is Phil Vischer who is the creator of Veggie Tales. Phil apparently does not accept the history recorded in Genesis, and seems unaware of the science that confirms creation and the biblical timescale. He recently made some remarks on twitter that are demonstrably false. Here are Phil’s comments in purple text, with my response in black:
What does our view of origins have to do with politics? Everything! A person’s view on origins will guide his or her thinking on how society should function. Our understanding of our beginnings will inform our view of politics because it will determine our understanding of the nature of man, the nature of the universe, the existence of God, our moral responsibility, economics, and the purpose and scope of government in society.
What do a round Earth, natural selection, and dinosaurs have in common? They are all things that are demonstrably true and biblical that some professing Christians deny. All of these things are mentioned or implied in Scripture. And they are scientifically provable. Yet, some Christians claim that such things are false or even anti-biblical! When Christians deny things that are observable, provable, and biblical, it is dishonoring to the Lord and makes unbelievers less likely to embrace the Christian worldview.
We have been exploring common misconceptions regarding origins. Several such misconceptions pertain to the time between creation and the global flood. Here we explore the claim that the Bible teaches or at least implies that there was no rain before the flood.
Sometimes a creationist will say “there are no transitional species” or “animals do change, but one species never changes into another.” While I appreciate the sentiment, these claims are not true. In reality, new species do arise over time – a phenomenon we call speciation. Secularists sometimes claim that speciation is proof of Darwinian evolution, but this too is an error. All of these mistakes can be eliminated when we distinguish between species and kinds.
“My back hurts a lot more than it did when I was younger. Well, I guess that’s the second law of thermodynamics at work.” Actually, it isn’t. Misconceptions of the second law of thermodynamics abound, even within the creationist community. Such misconceptions include the idea that the second law (1) is the tendency of any ordered system to go to disorder, (2) is the same as the curse associated with Adam’s sin, or at least began at the fall, (3) disallows order spontaneously arising from disorder, and (4) would obviously make Darwinian evolution impossible. None of these are true. But the second law is relevant to origins and can be powerful when used properly. To understand the second law, we need some background information in the field of thermodynamics.