NEW STUDY COURSE: We are pleased to announce that we have a new Does God Exist? course available. This is a general apologetic, 13-lesson course suitable for upper level high school, undergraduate college, and adult classes. The course begins by assuming that the student is a blank slate with no preconceived notions and may not even believe in any kind of God nor accept the Bible as an authority. The first two lessons make a cosmological argument for there being a “Causer” based on the evidence, with no Bible dependence. The next two lessons deal with what the nature of that Causer must be, and how the physical and quantum mechanical evidence supports the notion of an intelligent God outside of space and time. The next lesson explores which of the various world religions fits the God we have been describing. Remaining lessons deal with the accuracy of the Bible and challenges to that accuracy, evolution, morality, anthropological questions, and the logic of the Church in the Christian system. The complete course, including student and teacher materials may be purchased online through www.doesgodexist.tv or by writing to Does God Exist? at the address on the Contact Us page of this Web site. If ordering by mail, the cost of the teacher’s manual is $5.00 and the cost for each student set is $4.00 postpaid.

NEW VIDEO PROGRAMS: We now have four new programs available in our series of video lessons on Does God Exist? making a total of 28 lessons. As with the previous lessons you can download them for free of charge or purchase them (using a credit/debit card) on DVDs through www.doesgodexist.tv. You can also purchase the DVDs or get them on free loan from Does God Exist? at the address on the Contact Us page of this Web site. The new programs deal with:

The New Atheism, the New Science, and Belief in God	An update of the challenges of modern atheists with some answers to them and an introduction to the next three programs.
Bad Science	Cases where both atheists and religionists employ bad science in their arguments.
Quantum Mechanics and God	A simplified explanation of quantum mechanics and why the cosmological argument is not affected by this field of study.
Bad Theology	Cases where both atheists and religionists employ bad theology in their arguments.

ANNOUNCING A NEW CHILDREN’S BOOK. For many years we have had a series of 14 children’s books helping elementary-school-age kids learn about unusual animals and how they are designed to live in unusual environments. Now we have added a new book to that series entitled Frogs and Toads: God’s Bug Snatchers. These books are four-color, attractive books that catch kid’s attention, and this one is especially colorful and informative. There are also books in this series that deal with the uniqueness of man as a being created in God’s image and how that impacts self-image and the role we have in serving God. A complete list of these books is available on our Web site and in our catalog. Like all of our children’s books, this book will be available for $2.00 postpaid or all 15 books can be purchased for $25.00 postpaid. Send your requests to us at the address on the Contact Us page of this Web site. You can also order these materials using your credit card by going to www.doesgodexist.tv.

A NOTE CONCERNING SEMINAR TRIPS. The trip we had planned to the Galápagos Islands was cancelled due to problems with boat availability. The fact that this was an anniversary year for Darwin overloaded the system and made it necessary for us to cancel our plans. We have not given up the idea and will work on it again next summer. The September Canyonlands program escorted by John Clayton and Alan Doty is still on and still has room. Go to this link for more information.

ATHEISTS LAUNCH NATIONWIDE CAMPAIGN. In recent issues of this journal we have discussed the deluge of atheist books and materials sweeping the United States. A new movement is now being launched which plans to establish “God-less congregations for humanists.” The leader of this movement is Greg Epstein who is a humanist chaplain at Harvard. Epstein is beginning a tour of the United States funded by The American Humanist Association and the Secular Student Alliance. Epstein, who was raised as a reformed Jew, has written a book titled Good Without God (due in October 2009), which is being promoted in his tour.

This movement plans to establish local humanist centers that will act like churches providing “the community-building functions of the church, only in the service of the humanist creed.” The plan is to establish small groups, similar to what many churches do. There is now a humanist parenting group functioning at Harvard which does activities together like going to museums, and offering parenting classes. Epstein’s chaplaincy hosts a “Humanist Small Group” biweekly which is a Sunday brunch, and buys drinks at “Humanist Community Pub Night.”

The latest “American Religious Identification Survey” shows that 15 percent of respondents said they had no religion--up from 8.2 percent in 1990. That growth has catalyzed humanist efforts to get better organized. Epstein has a Web site which spells out more details at http://www.harvardhumanist.org/about-us/chaplain.

ACLU LAUNCHES FIGHT TO OPEN ADOPTION. The American Civil Liberties Union is promoting what they call “Key States Initiative.” In a solicitation letter sent to supporters this past spring, the ACLU announced it is fighting to overturn a state law banning gay and unmarried straight couples from adopting children or being foster parents. Like most ACLU causes, all of the attention is being paid to the desires of adults, with no consideration of what happens to children. Those of us who work with homeless and adopted children know that the best foundation for these kids is a stable family with clearly defined roles and values. The law was enacted because professionals saw a need to exclude unstable units and living arrangements. The fact that an adult wants to be a parent does not necessarily mean that desire is rooted in wanting what is best for the child. It is the same issue as the ACLU’s push for abortion, with no consideration for the rights of the baby that is to be killed.

NEW BOOK GIVES 10 BIBLICAL CREATION THEORIES. Thomas Patrick Arnold has a useful reference book entitled Two Stage Biblical Creation (available at www.thomasarnoldpublishing.com). The book diagrams 12 creation theories and explains 10 major ones. The 576-page book is a useful reference for anyone interested in the Genesis account.

NEW COMPLICATION FOR LIFE IN SPACE. The media has been pushing the idea that there are large numbers of earth-like planets in space with life on them. Much of this hoopla has come from the number of extra-solar planets which have been found. These are planets orbiting other stars (not our sun), and the number is now approaching 400. NASA reported in April 2009 (www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2009-064) that the Spitzer Space Telescope which has been studying the cooler extra-solar systems is not finding some critical chemicals necessary for life as we know it. Hydrogen cyanide is a component of adenine, a basic building block of DNA. Studies of 61 cooler stars have shown no hydrogen cyanide at all, and unless one postulates a whole different biochemistry, there would be no life in such systems.

PLANNED PARENTHOOD HAS BIG YEAR IN 2008. One might think with all the economic problems our nation has had in the last year, that abortions might be down, too. However, Planned Parenthood announced in April that in 2008 they conducted 305,310 abortions (up 15,000 from 2007), distributed 1.4 million “emergency contraceptive kits” which contain the “morning after pill” and made a profit of $1.014 billion. Thirty-four percent of that money came from taxpayers in the form of grants, and $10 million went to Obama’s campaign. The abortion issue is difficult, but it seems that more and more effort is going into killing the unborn and less and less is going into education and preventing the pregnancies. Data: Washington Update by Tony Perkins, Family Research Council, 4/9/09.

“MANY PATHS TO GOD” GROWS IN ACCEPTANCE. A survey of 35,000 American adults conducted during 2007 shows that 70 percent of Americans believe there are many paths to God--all equally valid. Sixty-eight percent said that there was more than one true way to interpret the teachings of their own religion. Michael Lindsay of Rice University said that “the survey shows religion in America is, indeed, 3,000 miles wide and only 3 inches deep.” The problem is that people do not know why they believe what they believe, and certainly do not understand the uniqueness of the Christian system. Universalism and pluralism have become the politically correct positions, and because people do not know their Bibles they can subscribe to these things and dismiss Jesus’ clear statement, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6). Data: A.P. release by Eric Gorski, South Bend Tribune, June 24, 2008, page A3.

STRING, BRANE, MULTIVERSE THEORIES AND SCIENCE. One of the things happening in science today is that new theories are being proposed as answers to the creation question that in reality are not good science. Suggesting that there are infinite numbers of universes, 11 spacial dimensions, collisions of particles that are 6th or 10th dimensional are wonderful fantasies. A growing number of scientists are saying that these proposals cannot be taken very seriously. This is because they cannot be tested, are immune to falsification, or have so many solutions to the equations that describe them that they just cannot be taken seriously. Leonard Susskind in his book The Cosmic Landscape says that there are 10 to the 500th power (10⁵⁰⁰) different universes possible according to the theories, each having its own distinct set of physical properties. Lee Smolin in his book The Trouble With Physics shows the inability to falsify these theories. Lawrence Krauss in his book Hiding in the Mirror raises the question of whether these theories are grounded in reality. All of these books are available from Scientific American (www.sciambookclub.com). When someone starts referring to these ideas as ways of denying the creation of the cosmos, remember that to do so scientifically one must conform to scientific method and not just wild imaginative proposals.
Scientific American Book Club advertisement, Science News, June 9, 2007, page 361.