CORRECTION. The book review on Tipler's book by Dr. Rich on page 16 in his issue has a mistake. The tide should have the word Immortality, not Immorally. It was a typing error that got by all of our proof readers until after the page was printed. Sorry!

AUSTRALIAN TRIP. We have been waiting to see what kind of response there would be to our announcement two issues ago of a trip to Australia during July of this year led by John and Phyllis Clayton. At the time of this article (January 1, 1996) there have been enough people sign up that we are planning to go ahead with the trip. If you have an interest in the trip or only part of it call or write Mark Story, Queenslander International Travel Group, 6495 Happy Canyon Road, Suite 119, Denver CO 80237. You can reach Mark by phone at 303-370-0288 or by FAX at 303-727- 5934.

INTERNET. Thanks to Lyle Lindholm of Raymond, NE, our program and much of its offerings will be available on the Internet. He already has our bimonthly on with a browser at:

We will have additional information on this as soon as it is available. We appreciate Lyle's efforts. We just do not have time right now to get into the net or Email ourselves, but we realize the importance of doing this and Lyle is doing this at his own expense and with his own tine.

AIDS UPDATE. Latest figures from the National Cancer Institute and the Federal Center for Disease Control show that one out of every 92 men between the ages of 27 and 39 has the HIV virus. Women are four times less likely to be infected with AIDS than men. AIDS is now the #1 killer of people ages 22 to 44 and the rate is climbing rapidly. The government records show 501,310 AIDS cases since 1981 and 311,381 deaths. Source: Lauran Neergaard, A.P., South Bend Tribune, December 2, 1995

ALIEN AUTOPSY FILM ADDS TO ROSWELL UFO STORY. One of the most enduring UFO stories which seems to go on and on is the story of a alien space craft which crashed in 1947 near Roswell, NM. The stories about the incident have claimed that aliens were found by the military and taken to a secret bunker in Dayton, OH, and materials were found that were clearly not terrestrial in nature, but from a technology beyond man's. There have been incredible claims on all sides of the issues and a few proven cover-ups and a few proven hoaxes which we have mentioned from time to time as they have become available.

The most recent chapter in this saga took place on the Fox Television Network on August 28 and September 4, 1995, when a 17-minute film titled "Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction' was shown Now the video is being hashed and rehashed by people on all sides of this issue. The Skeptical Inquirer devoted most of its November/December, 1995, issue to it and Time, ran an article (November 27, 1995, page 105) as did most of the major news magazines.

There are a good many inconsistencies in the film, and we are convinced by what we have seen that it is not valid; but you might wish to read the articles mentioned above to see for yourself whether the criticism made by skeptics is valid. This is not a biblical issue and it has no relationship to the existence of God, but for many people the hope that an alien will solve their problems is more realistic than the concept of a loving God. There is also a certain mind-set involved in many who promote and repudiate these kinds of things that precludes rational consideration of the evidence for the existence of God. This too makes it worth investigating. We will have more as data becomes available.

JUPITER PROBE IS INCREDIBLE. For 18 years astronomers have been working on a probe to explore Jupiter, and for over six years they have been tracking its progress to the giant world. The space vehicle--called Galileo--arrived at Jupiter on December 7, 1995, and a probe was dropped into the atmosphere. Preliminary data has shown that there is much less water in Jupiter's atmosphere than was expected, and that may mean that hopes for some elementary forms of life or of life chemicals are doomed; but it will be some time before all of the data is processed and analyzed. In the meantime, Galileo is orbiting Jupiter and taking pictures of its moons as well as the planet itself. Up to 1,400 pictures are expected. If you wish to get up-to-date information about the Jupiter probe, you can do so on the Internet at:

The uniqueness of Jupiter and its moons and the unusual and unexpected makeup of the Jovian system has done a great deal to emphasize how specially designed Earth's system is. Jovian planets have been observed around other stars, and they seem to be the rule unless there is too much heat or too small a mass for stability to occur in the atmosphere. The wisdom and planning involved in this special planet on which we live becomes more apparent when you see what exists elsewhere.

FIRST IT WAS EVE; NOW ADAM. Several years ago, we reported on evidence that all humans on the earth have a common female ancestor, based upon mitochondrial DNA studies. In Nature, November 23, 1995, is an article by Michael Hammer at the University of Arizona reporting on Y chromosome studies of a wide range of racial and geographic groups which suggests that all males have a common male ancestor. The Y chromosome is passed only from father to son, and Hammer puts the time of this ancient common male ancestor at 188,000 years. The Bible claims that all humans came from a common male and a common female ancestor. There can be all kinds of arguments about how old this ancestor is, but the long and short of it is that the Bible does not tell us anything about the age of Adam. If we take the basic Bible claim and go no further with it we find an agreement with the evidence. We need to stay away from tradition and just take what the Bible says and leave it at that.

It has been said that theology is the attempt of man to understand and interpret God's Word and science is the attempt of man to understand and interpret God's creation. If there is a contradiction between science and religion, it is because we have bad science or bad theology or both. It is our contention that there has been a lot of both. Only if we view science and theology as necessarily symbiotic and compatible can we avoid the problems and conflicts that have plagued mankind in the past.

CAVEMAN DATA. National Geographic, January, 1996, has some new data on early man. One of the more interesting parts of it is that our suggestion in previous articles that Neanderthal man was a racial variation of modern man is well supported. Man's uniqueness is well demonstrated in the article.

FOSSIL DINOSAUR FOUND ON NEST WITH EGGS. China has allowed scientists access to the rich fossils of the Gobi desert, and new finds are coming out of the Gobi at a regular rate. One of the more interesting finds to become available is the find of a Oviraptor (a small meat-eating dinosaur) sitting on its nest with eggs in it, There are at least 15 eggs and the legs of the dinosaur are tucked under its body in a manner similar to a modern chicken. Preliminary data indicates that when the fossils are completely extricated from the entombing rock it will prove that dinosaurs did care for their young in a bird-like way.

One of the things we have tried to point out in this journal from time to time is that the Bible does not mention dinosaurs. Attempts to link the dinosaurs to the "behemoth" or "leviathan" of Job do not stand up, and attempts to deny the animals existed as unique forms of life are also doomed to failure as more and more evidence becomes available. Some scientists believe that modern birds are a kind of living dinosaur, but most scientists are beginning to feel that the dinosaurs are creatures that are independent of all modern forms of life. It is very much like the problems that science has had in classifying the duckbilled platypus, which did not really fit into any existing biological classification and eventually was given its own group--Monotremata--to which the spiny anteater has now been added.

There is no need for believers in God and the Bible to attempt to deny evidence or to be afraid of the implications of finds as long as we are taking only what the Bible says and not what tradition has said. These new finds show that dinosaurs have a wide range of characteristics and vary as much as mammals do today. We suggest that they were part of the preparation of the ancient earth to meet the needs that God knew man would have. Without the dinosaurs the ecosystem that has provided our basic needs would never have existed. We have had a wide range of articles on dinosaurs and the Bible, and we will be happy to send you a packet of materials on this subject if you are interested (address below). A donation of $ 1.00 would help cover our postage to send this packet.

YEAR-END REPORT AVAILABLE: Every year we prepare a report of the year's activities and finances of this work. Those who help us financially on a regular basis are automatically sent a copy of this report, but it is available to anyone who is interested in this program of work. We believe in accountability and we try very hard to conduct this work in an honest and above-board way, so if you would like a complete report just send us 3 self-addressed 32 cent stamped envelope and ask for the Year-End Report and/or the 1995 Index. Mail your request to:

Back to Contents Does God Exist?, January/February 1996