Hi Red! Thanks for the comments. Isn’t it wonderful that God’s world and Word are simple enough for a child but so deep that we can never plumb their depths? We stand as human beings at the “middle scale” – miniscule to the Cosmos but giant to the molecular and atomic/subatomic. It is almost as if we were placed there on purpose!

I also appreciate that what is necessary to discern reality are correct beliefs, not high intellect. If the “light” in us by which we see is darkness, how great is that darkness in which we walk! This is true of logic, as I know you know. Start with a false premise and it does not matter how perfect your reasoning is, you will not by the chain of logic find the correct answer (though you may “stumble” upon it). Evolution occasionally stumbles into truths, but it’s not b/c of evolutionary theory but in spite of it.

On that note I would qualify your claim that they are terrible philosophers. They are terrible Aristotelian philosophers, but they are unrivalled Hegelian philosophers. The essence of Hegel’s philosophy is story-telling, weaving a narrative so compelling it seems “necessarily” true (even if, in Aristotelian logic, it is claiming A and not-A).

I might sligthly alter

Thank you for the comment. Dr Bergman agrees, so we changed the word “created” into “assembled” and added another explanatory sentence: “Specifically, they removed the original genome from an already functioning cell–leaving all components other than the genome itself in place–and replaced it with a synthetic genome, which was built in the lab (with some modification) from Mycoplasma mycoides.”

Hi Red! Sorry it has taken so long to respond. Life gets away from you quickly. You write one article and it’s on to the next with barely time to breathe in between. I almost never “look back” to check for comments. Not sure why I did this morning, but I’m glad I did. I have two books available at the moment, both of which were written when I had not yet made the “turn” to YEC, but they might still have value. They’re pretty cheap, too, as we wanted them to serve as a ministry, not as money-makers. You can find them on Amazon. The first is called “Through the Looking Glass: The Imploding of an atheist philosopher’s worldview.” It tells our story. And the second one is on Milton’s PARADISE LOST; I forget its title at the moment. Here is a link to my author’s page on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/John-Wise/author/B0BXHHKW4V?ref=ap_rdr&shoppingPortalEnabled=true Let me know what you think! John

P.s. If you’re looking for a free resource you can check out our podcasts, The Christian Atheist AND Simple Gifts. I have not had a lot of time or energy for podcasting recently, but there’s a great deal of material available on both. Cheers!

And regarding ‘living fossils’. When my oldest of 6 and I were watching a nature program about horseshoe crabs the narrator commented they had not changed in 300 million years – since before the dinosaurs yet they look so clunky. My daughter snapped back “that just shows evolution doesn’t happen!”
😆