Quote of the Day

"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."

President John Adams

When faced with the facts don't you wish some people would wake up to reality?

ENGLISH NOT SPANISH & Immigration Reform

I went out to a convention in town the other day. It was a popular trade show. It had lots of displays and lots of people there. Sales people would get up at certain displays on stage and start promoting the product. In most, not all, but most of the spoken promotions the promoters would speak in English then pause and speak in Spanish.

What is up with that? Why do they think they need to speak in English and then in Spanish. This was very frustrating. I would be listening and interested and then bam here comes the Spanish. This would happen over and over again. I would just end up walking away and not finish listening to the sales promotion.

The language of America last time I checked is English. As I typed the preceding sentence I was thinking that sounds pretty good, but then I thought I have never actually checked.  So I checked and this is what answers.usa.gov says “Official Language of the U.S. There is no "official" language for the United States, although some individual states list English as their official language.”

No official language of the United States. English is the de facto official language of the United States but not the “official” official language. Why would our government never officially establish a set language for our country? With all the illegal immigration and the amnesty talk going on in Washington D.C. it is easy to envision a nation where my grandchildren are learning Spanish in school and not English.

I do not oppose immigration. Let me clarify that I do not oppose Legal immigration. I do oppose illegal immigration. We should enforce all immigration laws on the books now. We need to build a very tall, very wide and very secure border fence. We need to dramatically up our military presence at our southern border. We need to protect America for the Americans that live here.

Anyone that came here illegally should never be granted citizenship. I am not saying to send them all back but they should not be granted the same status as legal immigrants. There are a lot of ideas and plans out there about the immigration issue. I am by no means an expert on this but I believe some basic things can be done right away. Then continue debating the long term solution. But there are a lot of no brainers in my opinion on this issue that we need to implement.

• Enforce all current immigration laws.
• Do not grant amnesty to the illegal immigrants.
• Build a very tall, very wide and very secure border fence.
• Deploy a large military presence to our southern border and protect America for the Americans.
• Do not even consider the so called “Dream Act” or a better name for it the “Nightmare Act.”
• Pick people from all aspects of American life, all party affiliations and give all stakeholders a voice. Then craft commonsense legislation. Craft in one small part at a time. Nothing comprehensive. Only create and pass what everyone voting for it could actually read and understand before they vote.

Creationism vs Big Bang Theory

I watched the debate between Ken Ham of the Creation Museum in Kentucky and Bill Nye of “Science Guy” fame. Judging the debate between a clear winner or loser I would have to say it was a draw. Bill Nye was a little more forceful in his presentation of his beliefs but Ken Ham was much more respectful in his manner of debate. Ken Ham was in a precarious situation. He was wanting to defend the creation view point but also wanting to do so in a respectful and intelligent manner so he would not turn someone away from God.

I personally believe in the literal interpretation of the Bible. I believe if you believe the Bible is God’s word you can’t pick and choose what parts to believe and what parts not to believe. You either believe it all or don’t believe any of it. The Bible has proven to be 100% accurate in all the verifiable areas it contains, so I have no reason to doubt the validity of the areas that are not provable. Those areas I believe by faith.

Those that believe like Mr. Nye in the “Big bang theory” and evolution also, whether they want to admit it or not, choose to believe in those things by faith. Like Mr. Ham said there is no way to prove definitively either viewpoint or belief.

I will explain how I came to have confidence in the creationist viewpoint. Take it how you may. I have no way to really prove most of it, but some of it I can prove with Bible verses. I grew up going to public schools getting taught evolution and the big bang, but I also grew up faithfully attending church and learning the Bible version of our origin. The two in my mind then and in a lot of minds now seemed to clash.

I am a very logical thinker. I love math and science. Those were the subjects I excelled in. English not so much excelling in that subject. To me if you could not prove it by experiment or mathematical equation I did not trust, respect or even believe it. That is why I did not excel in English class. There was no way to mathematically prove the rules of punctuation or grammar. It was just because so and so ages ago said so. That did not stand up to my logical reasoning. I needed proof.

Until one day something dawned on me as I was reading the creation account in Genesis. The two viewpoints and beliefs in my mind could both stand together and both be correct as far as the age of the universe that is, not evolution – I never believed that. Evolution in my logical thinking made absolutely no sense at all. But the age of the universe that scientist say they can test and “prove” verses the 6 to 7 thousand years the Bible says we have been here, in my opinion, can coexist without contradicting each other.

How you say? Well this is based on extrapolation from a couple Bible verses. Genesis 1:27 – “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” & Genesis 2:7 – “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” Notice in these verses God created “man” not a new born babe not a mass of cells that would eventually grow into a man but God created a man. Adam at his creation was just 1 second old but he was a full grown adult man.

God created Adam with the appearance of age. God created all full grown animals. They all were just 1 second old but full grown mature adult animals. God created the plants and trees. Again after God created them they all appeared decades if not hundreds or thousands of years old. But they were just a few seconds old in reality. The same with the planets, moon, and stars. All fully created not just forming but fully created.

You see God created all these things with the appearance of age in them. If you were to examine and test Adam you would say he was probably 25 to 30 years old. He would tell you God just created me a few seconds ago. I am not even a day old yet. Same thing with the trees if you could scientifically examine one of the original trees God created you would say this huge tree on the edge of Eden according to our tests it has been hear 1000’s of years. But God would tell you he just created that tree a couple days ago, the same thing with the earth itself, with the rocks on the earth. All of God’s creation was created with the appearance of age built into it.

This is how both views of the age of the universe can both be correct. Yes Mr. Scientist your tests indicate this earth is billions of years old and your tests may be correct. But the actual age is 6 to 7 thousand years old. Both are correct when you factor in God created all things with the appearance of age built into them.