For more than 25 years reading about scientific evidence for God (especially related to intelligent design theory) has been a type of intellectual hobby for me. In some ways, it is more than a hobby. This type of material strengthens my faith and encourages my heart. I hope it does the same for others.
I’ve also been struck by numerous analogies in nature for the Christian life that I see and think about as I go on walks or just enjoy nature in some setting.
My life has involved a strange mix of experiences. I’ve been serving as a pastor of churches in beautiful rural, eastern NC for the last 10 years. I have a M.Div in Ministry Leadership. But before all that, I studied Mechanical Engineering and then served as a junior officer in the Engineering Department on nuclear submarines for 5 and a half years (the first year and a half was all training). Later (in between serving in the US Navy and becoming a pastor), I taught classes on thermodynamics and heat transfer to engineering students at a university in Indonesian (I only have a B.S. degree in engineering, but I was teamed up with professors with Ph.D.s and did quite a bit of the teaching – which was in areas I had used extensively while on the nuclear submarines). God used this combination of experiences to prepare me to write about scientific evidence for God for a lay audience. Much of my material is closely based on material produced by scientists who believe in the theory of intelligent design (and I constantly reference this material).
I started a blog in 2016. I write on a range of topics including theological topics, Christian devotional blog posts, a little bit of politics (especially as it relates to Christian concerns), and, of course, scientific evidence for God. I’ve finally collected links to these blog posts in one place – here! I’ve divided them into three categories:
1. Scientific Evidence for God
2. How Seeing Evidence for God in Nature Helps Us
3. Devotional Blog Posts Inspired (at least in part) by things Seen in God’s Creation
If you don’t know where to start, I’ve marked my three favorite blog posts in the first category, and my favorite in each of the others. May God bless you, strengthen your faith, and lead you to worship Him as you read and think!
Part 1: Blog Posts Mainly About Scientific Evidence for God
****** one of my top 3 favorites in this category:
How the Smallest Cells give Big Evidence for God
This blog post is based on scientific work to identify a living cell with the smallest possible genome.
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Nuclear Submarines and Living Cells
I served in the engineering department of nuclear
submarines for several years. In this blog post I draw some parallels between
living cells and nuclear submarines and discuss how this parallel supports the
theory of intelligent design.
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I take a lighthearted look at a serious claim from some scientists that octopi may have been seeded here from outer space.
******another one of my top 3 in this category:
Behe’s Three Mighty Blows Against Darwinism
I summarize the arguments from Michael Behe’s first three excellent books on intelligent design: Darwin’s Black Box, The Edge of Evolution, and Darwin Devolves.
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Scientists have No Idea How Life Began
I share a video from Dr. James Tour on the topic of the origin of life.
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God Created the Earth to be Inhabited
Largely based on information from two books, Rare Earth and The Privileged Planet, and prompted partly by a science video, I discuss how special and wonderful our home planet is.
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Birds, Navigation Using Quantum Entanglement, and the Glory of God
Birds have amazing navigation abilities, and this points to their glorious Creator!
******the final of my top 3 favorite in this category:
How Viruses Strengthen the Scientific Case for a Creator
Viruses demonstrate the huge gap between basic chemicals that don’t come from living things and living things that can reproduce.
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I review an excellent book on the origin of life.
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Eccentric Orbits and the Glory of God
The way our home planet orbits the sun is just right for us. In this blog post I discuss how the earth’s nearly circular orbit shows the wisdom and glory of our Creator.
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mRNA Vaccines and the Glory of God
I briefly describe how mRNA vaccines work and then I explain how this illustrates why the RNA world is not a realistic explanation for the origin or life.
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Here, I summarize several excellent chapters of Stephen Meyer’s superb book, Return of the God Hypothesis.
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When teaching a Heat Transfer class to mechanical engineering students, I was stunned by the beautiful and precise match of a number of factors that allow our Sun to provide radiation to us at just the right wavelengths. Years later, I found a book on this topic that expands a lot on what I had noticed. This blog post is largely a summary of the information in Children of Light: The Astonishing Properties of Sunlight that Make Us Possible.
Part 2: How Seeing Evidence for God in Nature Helps Us
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Theistic Evolution Demagnifies God’s Glory
I summarize some of the content of the excellent book, Theistic Evolution: A Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Critique (spoiler: this book is against theological evolution and in favor of intelligent design).
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Knowing that God Created Everything Fuels Faith Filled Praying
A blog post inspired by Hezekiah’s prayer.
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Seeing God in Creation Gives Me Courage to Keep Serving Him
This is an introductory blog post to seeing evidence for God in the world He has created.
******my favorite in this category:
There are many types of reasons to believe in God
This blog post includes a poem I wrote about the different types of reasons to believe in God. One category of reasons is evidence that we see nature.
Part 3: Devotional Blog Posts Inspired (at least in part) by things Seen in God’s Creation
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Spiritual Lessons from Elephants and Water Buffalo
Elephants and Water Buffalo know that they need to guard each other to keep from getting eaten by lions. This applies to the Christian life!
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A Beautiful, Bountiful Harvest
A devotional inspired by the cotton fields near our home.
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Three Lessons from the Beautiful Bloom of the Ric Rac Plant
My wife’s patient care for a ric rac plant finally paid off when it produced a stunningly beautiful flower. This inspired some thoughts about the Christian life.
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Heart Matters: Layers of Glory
A devotional blog post prompted by seeing four layers of fog above the fields on my morning walk.
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Elephants, Rhinos, and Fathers
A true story about Elephants and Rhinos illustrates the importance of fathers
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A guest blog post by my (then teenage) daughter inspired by the white cotton fields around us (similar, but a little different from a blog post I wrote also related to these fields)
******my favorite in this category, and perhaps my overall favorite:
A devotional blogpost inspired by a field of sunflowers.
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Reading the Bible is Like Watching a Sunrise
I compare reading the Bible to watching a sunrise.
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Reading the Bible is like Snorkeling at a Coral Reef
I compare reading the Bible to snorkeling at a coral reef
Hebrews 13:16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others . . .
Mark, thank you for the nice list of evidences. It will be interesting to read through them. I'm curious if you lean toward young earth creation (YEC, 6,000 year old universe) or old earth creation (OEC, 14.7 billion years)? If YEC, do you know of any compelling experimental evidence for it?
ReplyDeleteDavid, I apologize for the delay in approving and responding to your comment. Somehow in the busyness of life it just slipped through the cracks.
DeleteI lean towards OEC, but I respect those who hold a YEC view, which I used to lean towards. I'm not completely certain on which view is correct.
I share some evidence for OEC and also some thoughts about how Genesis 1 might fit with OEC in the one blog post I have written on this topic. Here is the link to it:
https://parresiazomai.blogspot.com/2019/02/the-dream-solution-how-considering.html