Episode 203 – Eternal Information – Part 11 – Doubt Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The goal of Anchored by Truth is to encourage everyone to grow in the Christian faith by anchoring themselves to the secure truth found in the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God. Script: Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. The Gospel of John, chapter 14, verse 1, New King James Version

******** VK: Hello! I’m Victoria K. Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. We’re glad that you’re able to join us here today on Anchored by Truth. For several episodes now we have been working on a series we call “Eternal Information.” We’ve covered a lot of ground so far in this series. If you have missed some of the earlier episodes we encourage you to go to our website crystalseabooks.com where they are all available. This has been a fascinating series because in it we have talked about yet another way where we can be assured that God is creator of everything in our universe. Today, in the studio today we have RD Fierro. RD is an author and the founder of Crystal Sea Books. RD, we have spent a lot of time in this series discussing information because the existence of information – any information at all – pretty much assures us that the God of the Bible must exist. Do I have that right? RD: Absolutely. But before we go too far into our discussion I would also like to say hi to everyone and welcome them to Anchored by Truth. At Anchored by Truth we have one central focus – to help people discover or rediscover a basic truth: the Bible is the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God. But we cannot be assured that the Bible is the word of God unless we have first assured ourselves that God exists. You can’t very well believe in the Bible without first believing in God. And most Christians know that there is a branch of study called “apologetics” that focuses on demonstrating that God does, in fact, exist. VK: So, in that sense we might think of the study of information as a new apologetic approach. Studying information can complement other more widely know apologetic approaches such as the cosmological approach and the teleological approach. The cosmological approach to apologetics reasons that we can be sure that God exists because He is, and must be, the Ultimate Cause for the effect that we call the universe. The teleological approach reasons that since we can perceive design throughout nature, but especially in living creatures, that there must be a Designer behind all that design. Design requires a Designer. A created order requires a Creator. In a similar way all information requires the existence of intelligence. Information absent intelligence isn’t information at all. It’s just nonsense or gobbledygook. RD: Yes. That’s a great summary of why we started this series on information. I was prompted to dig into information by Dr. Werner Gitt’s book called In the Beginning was Information. The title is an obvious play on the first verse of the Bible and the book leads us to the very same point that Genesis 1:1 makes. In the beginning God created the heavens and earth. That’s the most succinct way of stating the cosmological apologetic approach that is possible. If we believe in God we don’t have to wonder where the heavens and the earth come from. If we don’t then we have to try to fashion some other explanation. VK: And of course people being sinful have tried to fashion alternatives. It’s just that those alternatives always wind up leaving the doubter with more questions than answers. God has fashioned His creation, His universe, in such a way that you can’t avoid noticing His work and His fingerprints. RD: And that’s a good introduction to the subject I want to tackle today: doubt. There are obviously many in our culture today who doubt the existence of God. Some are militant about it and write books and create theories and even gather large followings with their doubt. Others are more subtle or quiet about their doubts. And doubts about God are not uncommon even among Christians. But what I want to show everyone today is that, while doubts about the Bible or God are common, they are also not informative nor are they necessary. It is possible for us to develop such a deep understanding and awareness of God and His word that doubts will vanish like fog before a rising sun. VK: I’m not sure if that is good news or bad news. I think most people probably begin their Christian journey with some level of doubt. And I suspect that there are many who have been Christian for years or decades who still have doubts. Maybe not doubts about the existence of God per se but certainly doubts about parts of the Christian faith. RD: You’re absolutely right about doubts being pervasive even among people who identify as Christian. So, doubts are certainly not uncommon. But I’ll repeat myself. Even though doubts are common they are not necessary and it is possible to have the kind of Christian faith that does not doubt that God exists, the Bible is His word, and that God will never leave them or forsake them. This is a subject I’ve been wanting to discuss for a while but it fits in very nicely with the themes that we have been talking about in this Eternal Information series. We’ve talked a lot in this series about the fact that information is an essential component of our universe. VK: Because even if someone wanted to claim that our universe does not contain information they would be trying to communicate information to make their denial. RD: Yep. And information, as distinguished from matter and energy, is non-material. Information can be transmitted, received, or stored by matter and energy but the matter and energy do not affect the content of the information. VK: You can use the same note card to write a recipe for apple pie, or the instructions to build a submarine, or describe your feelings for a person you just met. The chemical composition of the pen and note card don’t control what goes on the card. RD: Right. Matter and energy may enable us to pass and receive information, but they don’t create the information. So, information is non-material and it also reflects intelligence. For information to exist then somewhere there must be a non-material source of intelligence. Otherwise we’re left with the proposition that information pops into existence like magical dust in a fairy tale. VK: Magical dust in a fairy tale – really? RD: We are so used to using information that we forget that everything we see or know about must have a point of origin. And as Dr. Jonathan Sarfati pointed out when he was here explaining the operation of a thing is quite different from explaining its origin. And that’s one of the weaknesses of our contemporary culture. We no longer build coherent world views that people once took for granted. As a consequence we have begun to embrace blatant contradictions that people would have once rejected out of hand. Never before in human history has there been a society that accepted the notion that men could become women or women become men. VK: Our culture seems to have a lot in common with the society to which Isaiah preached. In Isaiah, chapter 5, verse 20, God had Isaiah say, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.” Isaiah said that there were people in his country who had turned values on their head. They had gone beyond simple tolerance to trying to reclassify the differences between good and evil behavior. Of course, that’s always a futile effort. Just look what happened in the garden of Eden when Adam and Eve tried to substitute their judgment for God’s. RD: Exactly. And it’s important to remember that all the mischief in the garden, and a great deal of subsequent mischief in humanity, began with doubt. VK: You know you rarely think about that but the very first thing that Satan did when tempting Eve was to introduce doubt into her mind. Satan didn’t start out with a direct temptation but he started out by trying to get Eve to doubt God’s goodness. In Genesis, chapter 3, the latter half of verse 1 records that Satan said to Eve, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” Satan’s question was intended to sound almost innocent, as if he were seeking clarification. But Satan’s intent was clear. As various translations put it, Satan was “subtle” or “crafty.” Satan knew if he started out just contradicting God Eve might push back. So, he started with an indirect approach. He started by creating doubt. RD: And we see the fruit of that same phenomenon going on around us today. A lot of people don’t realize that when Charles Darwin released the early versions of his most famous work, Origin of the Species, that in the first two versions he made a reference that almost sounds Biblical. VK: In the 1st version of Origin Darwin wrote, in his Conclusion: “ … I should infer from analogy that probably all the organic beings which have ever lived on this earth have descended from some one primordial form, into which life was first breathed.” And, in the 2nd edition, Darwin added “by the Creator” to the end of the sentence. RD: Right. Now many commentators aren’t sure whether Darwin actually believed in some form of supernatural creator or whether his inclusion of this reference was a public relations maneuver – designed to avoid alienating the public even further from views he knew would be controversial. But we’re not really sure because Darwin never made his exact views public. But the point is this. The early versions of the book that set off the widespread embrace of evolution didn’t start out by directly refuting the book of Genesis. It just introduced doubt about whether Genesis needed to be accepted as history. That was the thin edge of the wedge that has turned into the evolutionary Grand Canyon. Today evolution is taught in virtually every class on biology, geology, or paleontology all around the world. Just like in the Garden of Eden just a bit of initial doubt has led an ark’s worth of mischief. But this series is about information so primarily what I want to point out today is something that we rarely think about. VK: Which is? RD: That doubt is not evidence and doubt is only useful information insofar as it gives us insight into the mind of the doubter. VK: I think we’re going to need some more ... information … on what you’re getting out. RD: Well, we started out today talking about the fact that doubts are not informative. In other words, doubts don’t provide anyone new or additional information unless we’re just talking about the doubter themselves. For instance, if someone tells us that they have doubts about God’s existence that tells us what they think but it doesn’t tell us anything about whether God actually exists. Doubts are doubts but that’s all they are. VK: So, what you’re saying that doubts don’t impart any real information about the subject that is really at issue. If someone goes to the doctor and tells the doctor they’re having stomach pains and they think they have cancer the doctor may respond “I doubt that.” But that really doesn’t give the patient any new information other than the doctor’s thinking at that moment. But, if the doctors says we’ve done blood work, various scans or procedures, and comprehensively reviewed your symptoms and there’s no sign of cancer, now the patient has new information. The doctor’s doubt may be of some comfort to the patient but it has little to no informative value. But the results of the blood work and scans does give the patient information that they can act upon. RD: Exactly. Doubts are minimally informative and they are never evidence that pertains to the substance of an issue. And yet in our society, and even within the church, we treat doubts as if the existence of the doubt actually had bearing on issues or facts. And that’s what I want to draw people’s attention to today. As a church we have to quit treating doubt, our own or others’, as if the existence of the doubt gives us reason to question our faith. VK: Which we do all the time. If we go into a room and someone says, “I doubt whether chapter 1 of Genesis is literal history” all of a sudden people in the room start wondering about Genesis. And their questions about the truth of Genesis will be magnified is others in the room also express the same doubts. Pretty soon people may become convinced that somehow chapter 1 of Genesis is questionable even if no one has given a single actual fact that would call the Genesis account into question. I think I see what you want us to focus on. We have a tendency in our culture to treat doubt – especially doubts about God or the Bible – as if they actually meant something. But they don’t. RD: My point is that doubt is meaningful to the doubter but there is no particular reason it should be meaningful to anyone else. Someone else’s doubts do not, or at least should not, have any impact on our own beliefs or faith. But all too often they do. And this should be true even when the doubts are dressed up in elegant language or supposedly expressed by authority figures such as college professors. We should not let the doubts of others color our own thinking except in one regard. VK: What’s that? RD: Doubt is ok as long as what the doubt does is serve as a launching point for our investigation of the truth. VK: So, if someone expresses doubt about the historicity of chapter 1 of Genesis and that prompts us to begin an exploration of the science and facts that can shed light on the question, that’s not a bad thing. Someone might tell us that chapter 1 of Genesis was never intended to be interpreted as history, only as a poetic expression of God’s creative attributes. So, we can then do research into the form of literature contained in Genesis 1, what various scholars have written about that chapter, or how Biblical figures, especially Jesus, view chapter 1. All of that research can yield actual information that can help us make an informed judgment for ourselves about the historicity of chapter 1. But far too often, we don’t do that. We simply receive the doubt and begin to let it color our own views. RD: Right. And that’s why I wanted to include this discussion about doubt in our series on information. We have talked extensively in this series about the fact that information has to do with the transmission of content for an intended purpose. Doubts alone are essentially devoid of content – again other than what they tell us about the doubter. If someone says, “I doubt that God exists because of thus and so,” then we can address the “thus and so.” But if someone just tells us they doubt whether God exists and doesn’t provide any explanation for why they have doubts then there is very little that we can do with that. Their doubts tell them and us that they have uncertainty about something – and of course we are concerned about uncertainties people have about God and the Bible. But their uncertainty does not give us any reason to accept their uncertainty into our own belief or faith. We can address reasons that people may feel uncertain, but all too often Christians treat the uncertainty, the doubt, of others as if the doubt possessed meaning, as if it had informational content. It doesn’t. VK: So, the point that we are trying to make in this episode is too often you will hear a Christian say something like “I didn’t question my faith until I went to college and found out other students had begun to question theirs.” There are legitimate questions about faith and the Bible that may arise and we need, as faithful followers of Christ, to be able and prepared to address them. But the doubts or questions others have are just that doubts and questions. We need to avoid the temptation to turn their leaden doubts into some kind of philosophical gold idol to which we must then pay homage. Sadly, though you see that happen continuously in our society and even in the church. “I didn’t doubt until my friends did” is all too often a common refrain. And as you have said, Satan manufactured the fall out of a seed of doubt. RD: Doubt is not informative except about the state of mind of the doubter. And what is true of the doubt an individual possesses does not make it more true for many, dozens, or thousands of individuals. Collective doubt has no more informative value about a question than does individual doubt. Truth is not determined by popular vote. Truth is that which corresponds to reality and doubt about the truth does not affect the truth at all. VK: It’s both sad and funny that the nature of reality, science, and logic confirm that life could not have arisen from non-living matter unless there was an outside force that acted upon the matter. Or, as Darwin himself said, “some … primordial form, into which life was first breathed …” Science tells us that physics plus chemistry does not equal biology. Only the information content present in DNA and other living machinery permits the transformation of physics plus chemistry into biology. That is an absolutely certain statement and yet doubt abound about it. Conversely, the General Theory of Evolution makes outlandish claims such as inanimate molecules organized themselves one day and turned into a cellular structure containing 100 billion atoms. Claims like bacteria turned into biochemists, the bacteria having arisen from a pre-biotic soup that covered the entire planet. But there is no evidence for the prebiotic soup even in the oldest dated rocks. And there is no way that random mutations could have enabled genetic information to escalate in complexity so much that it would turn a DNA molecule that contains 500,000 base pairs into human DNA molecule with its 3 billion base pairs. But you hardly ever hear anyone express doubts about a process that isn’t just improbable but scientifically impossible. But point out that the Bible provides a cogent explanation for everything that exists and doubts drop out of the heavens like raindrops during a hurricane. RD: Doubts dropping like raindrops – really? VK: Really. RD: But your point is well taken. People have good, solid reasons based in science and fact to believe in God and the Bible but they seem to be oh-so-willing to embrace the doubts about them even when no one provides a basis for the doubt. Yet, they will cling to discredited ideas about the universe popping into existence from nothing and living creatures spontaneously arising from pond scum and scarcely ever express doubts or reservations. And what we are trying to help people understand there is no need to do that. Information, accurate information, is the antidote to the poison of doubt. And it is high time for those of us who possess the accurate information about the truth of God, Genesis, and the Bible be willing to convey it and defend it. The stakes for not doing so are truly eternal. VK: This sounds like a time to go to God in prayer. Today let’s listen to a prayer of for those people who have eaten from the tree of doubt and allowed its bitter fruit to become a part of their lives. Today we’re all praying for those who need a new spiritual life in Christ Jesus. ---- PRAYER FOR THE SPIRITUALLY LOST VK: We’d like to remind our audience that a lot of our radio episodes are linked together in series of topics so if they missed any episodes or if they just want to hear one again, all of these episodes are available on your favorite podcast app. To find them just search on “Anchored by Truth by Crystal Sea Books.” If you’d like to hear more, try out crystalseabooks.com where “We’re not perfect but our Boss is!” (Bible Quote from the New King James Version) The Gospel of John, chapter 14, verse 1, New King James Version

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