Project Completion

And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. (Genesis 1:31-2:3 ESV)

God created the heavens and the earth in six days, not in one big bang.

For those who had been in IT (information technology) projects, we know that when a project completes and go live, the next business day we have to standby anxiously, hoping that there will be no trouble.

For God, when the project was completed and went live on the sixth day, it was very good. The following day was a day of rest.

Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. (Exodus 20:9-11 ESV)

In the Beginning

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1 NIV NLT BSB CSB ASV CEV)

The heavens and the earth have a beginning and will also have an ending. But the Word of God will never pass away.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. (Revelation 21:1 ESV)

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. (Matthew 24:35 CSB NIV)

Gods of the Gaps

Thus shall you say to them: "The gods who did not make the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under the heavens." (Jeremiah 10:11 ESV)

Secular humanists believed that gods were created to fill our gaps in knowledge. When they did not know how rain was made, they created a rain god. When they could not explain the thunder, they created a thunder god. As our knowledge increase, there will be less and less requirement for divine explanation. Eventually, when we know everything, god or gods will cease to exist.

And this is exactly what the Bible said about the so-called gods who did not make the heavens and earth. They will vanish from the earth and from under the heavens (Jeremiah 10:11). And exactly as the Bible said, there is one God who stubbornly refused to go away. This is the God that created the heavens and the earth. Till today, science could not come up with a satisfactory answer to creation. So, the God that created the heavens and the earth is still keeping His job.

For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited), "I am the LORD, and there is none else. (Isaiah 45:18 NASB95)

Chicken And Egg Problem Solved - 2

And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and He brought them to the man to see what he would name each one. And whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. (Genesis 2:19 BSB)

God is right. The Bible is true. The chicken came first. And scientist had to agree with the Bible.

There was never a chicken-and-egg problem in the Bible. Only unbelievers have this problem. And now it is solved.

Where Did the First Atom Came From?

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. (Genesis 1:1-5 ESV)

In this YouTube video "How Did the First Atom Form? Where did it come from? | Big Bang Nucleosynthesis - YouTube", Arvin Ash tried to explain how the universe came about via a big bang. But the big bang needs way too many Goldilocks moments (not too hot, not too cold, just right) to make things happen.

The Bible tells us that God created the heavens and the earth in six days. It is not a big bang. Molecule to man evolution is just not true. Uncaused existence is just not possible.

Mind And Information

Which come first, mind or information? Based on our observation, mind produce information. But evolution and Buddhism insist that information come first. For evolution, it is the scientific rules. For Buddhism, it is dharma. The Bible agrees with our general observation. The mind comes first. This mind is God.

Three Marks Of Existence - Questions Unanswered

Tilakkhaṇa (Pali) or trilakṣmaṇa (Sanskrit) or 三相 (Chinese), translated as the three marks of all existence, is a basic doctrine of Buddhism. The three marks of existence are impermanence (anicca), dissatisfaction or suffering (dukkha), and no-self (anattā). According to Buddha, a full understanding of these three can bring an end to suffering.

What caused the universe to have this three marks of existence? Buddha did not answer this question. Instead, he gave the parable of the poisonous arrow to explain that it is not necessary to know the answer because the answer is irrelevant to the solution.

Because Buddha refuse to answer the question on what cause the universe to have this three mark of existence, we have to make the following assumption for Buddha's solution to work is:

1. The current universe which we live in where all things are impermanent (anicca) and all beings are suffering (dukkha) has always been like that, unchanging, and permanent;
2. The current universe has no beginning, or even if it has a beginning, this first cause does not interfere with the current universe, allowing it to remain unchanging and permanent.

The Bible tells us that the universe has a beginning and an end. The Bible also tells us that the universe has a creator God who has already laid out His plans for His creation. Finally, the Bible answered the question that Buddha refused to answer. How does the universe acquire this three marks of existence? Dukkha and anicca came about when Adam sinned. The universe has always been anattā, but men can no longer recognize it.

Thus if the Bible is true, Buddhism is false. If Buddhism is true, the Bible is false. The Bible and Buddhism cannot be both true.

The Main Theme of the Bible - 2

This is the big overview of the Bible - creation, fall, redemption, restoration.

Creation
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1 NASB, NLT, NIV)

Fall
Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all men, because all sinned. (Romans 5:12 HCSB)

Redemption
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. (Romans 5:6 ESV)
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV)

Restoration
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. (Revelation 21:1 ESV)

There are many who asked, "If God exist, why are there so much evil in the world?"
The usual conclusions we get are:

1. God wanted to stop suffering but could not. He is not omnipotent.
2. God can stop suffering but will not. He is a sadist.
3. God does not exist. He is just some imagination by men to ease their sufferings.

But the truth which was told by the Bible, the true word of God, is that God had already provided redemption and restoration. It takes time but it will happen eventually.

Read the Bible. In it we were told how the world came into being (creation), how sin came into the world (fall), how God provided the remedy (redemption) and at the end of ages, how God will destroy this current world and recreate a new world (restoration).

The Bible had already told us the end from the beginning. We know that Jesus has already conquered sin and death. The evil in the world today will eventually pass. Complete victory will come. Do you believe?

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. (1 Corinthians 15:20-26 ESV)

Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" (John 11:26 CSB)
I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am he. (John 13:19 ESV)

Uncaused Existence

"If everything has a cause, so why is God exempted? If uncaused existence is possible, then why don't you accept that the universe could be uncaused?"

When it comes to uncaused existence, there is a debate. Is this uncaused existence an intelligence, like God, or is it a system, like the laws of science? So what comes first, intelligence that create the laws of science, or a system of laws evolve intelligence by mindless trial and error process?

Common sense tells me that the intelligence comes first. I have never seen a system coming into existence on its own without human intelligence. The Bible also agrees with me.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1 NASB, NIV, NLT)

But the evidence is not conclusive because there is only two levels of intelligence now - the uncaused intelligence (probably God) and human intelligence. It can always be argued that human intelligence can come from mindless evolution based on a uncaused existence of scientific laws because the age of the universe, currently (2013) estimated to be 13.82 billion years old, may be long enough for it to happen.

However, if the universe can be proven to be only 6000 years old, we can conclude confidently that the uncaused existence is intelligence, which is, God. Since the young universe has not been proven yet, many people cling to scientific laws as the uncaused existence. Because to acknowledge that the world is really created by an uncaused intelligence, there is an implication. Do we then have to submit to this intelligence?

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. (Romans 1:21 NIV)

Ten Years

Ten years ago, I started this blog with a Chicken and Egg Problem. Since then the problem has been solved scientifically. The chicken came first, same as what the Bible told us.

Using Einstein's Theory of Relativity to Reconcile the Six Day Creation with Science

There is this website "Six Days | SixDay Science" that try to reconcile the 6-day creation with the age of the universe using Einstein's theory of relativity, that is, time is relative to the observer's motion. Thus from God's view point, which is the universal cosmic clock, the time taken is 6 days. But since God stretched the universe, the time of the universe is changed. This website claimed that the universal cosmic clock is the cosmic microwave background. This is an interesting way to reconcile the six day creation and the age of the universe and perceived by scientist. This website also has a link to another website that list 26 statements in Genesis 1 that can be tested against current scientific understanding about the creation of the universe and the development of life on Earth.

Which Came First, Intelligence or System

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1 NASB, NIV, NLT)

Now that the chicken-and-egg problem is solved, we cannot apply this analogy to the First Cause question.

Instead of chicken-and-egg problem, now I have intelligence-and-system problem. Which came first, intelligence or system? Did an intelligence designed and created the system, or a system of laws evolved intelligence accidentally and mindlessly?

The current theory of the beginning of the universe is the big bang theory. The big bang caused the existence of time and space. But what about the laws? Did the big bang created all these laws at the same time, or the laws have a separate existence? If the laws of the universe have a separate existence, where were they held?

The Incompleteness Theorem

The Incompleteness Theorem , proved by Kurt Gödel and published in 1931, actually showed that there exist logical statements whose truth value is undecidable, that is, they cannot be proved either true or false. The following was taken from the website "What is Incompleteness Theorem? - Definition from WhatIs.com".

QUOTE
The Incompleteness Theorem is a pair of logical proofs that revolutionized mathematics. The first result was published by Kurt Gödel (1906-1978) in 1931 when he was 24 years old.

The First Incompleteness Theorem states that any contradiction-free rendition of number theory (a branch of mathematics dealing with the nature and behavior of numbers and number systems) contains propositions that cannot be proven either true or false on the basis of its own postulates.

The Second Incompleteness Theorem states that if a theory of numbers is contradiction-free, then this fact cannot be proven with common reasoning methods.
UNQUOTE

Chicken And Egg Problem Solved

And God said, "Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens." (Genesis 1:20 ESV)

It is now proven by science that the chicken came first, just as the Bible said. You can read about this in an article in Gizmodo.

But the unbelievers said and I quote from the same article in Gizmodo,
QUOTE
What they found was a specific molecule called ovocleidin which is a member of a family of C-type lectin-like proteins. These things are all over the place; they're cell adhesion molecules, some are involved in cell signaling, some function in modulating the immune system and blood clotting pathways. They're even found in snake venoms. They're found in everything from C. elegans to mammals. Their key property is that they bind calcium.

In birds, these proteins have been coopted to regulate egg shell formation. They bind calcium and can seed the crystallization of calcium carbonate, and also control the rate of crystal formation. Chickens have ovocleidin, but geese have an ortholog, ansocalcin, and ostriches have struthiocleidin. There seems to be a lot of lability in what particular calcium-binding protein is used in shell formation, and it's probably the case that most of the sequence is free to mutate without affecting the nucleating function.

You simply can't make the conclusion the reporter was making here. The species ancestral to Gallus gallus laid eggs, the last common ancestor of all birds laid eggs, the reptiles that preceded the birds laid eggs…the appearance of egg laying was not coincident with the evolution of ovocleidin. The first chicken that acquired the protein we call ovocleidin now by mutation of a prior protein also hatched from an egg.
UNQUOTE

We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete. (2 Corinthians 10:5-6 ESV)

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11 ESV)

The Descent of Man

This picture is taken from the Bill Nye Ken Ham debate. It is from Ken Ham, showing a summary of the Bible from creation to consummation.

Creation
Genesis 1:1 - 2:3

Corruption
Genesis 3:1-24

Catastrophe
Genesis 7:11-12

Confusion
Genesis 11:1-9

Christ
Genesis 3:15
Micah 5:2
Daniel 9:24-26

Cross
Psalm 22

Consummation
Revelation 21:1

First Cause And Infinite Regression of Causes Cannot Be Proven

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1 NASB, NIV, NLT)

This is how God began the Bible, by telling us that He is the First Cause. He does not explain how He came about. This is very unsatisfactory to a lot of people, who asked this question, what caused the First Cause? The logic always goes something like this, "If everything has a cause, so why is God exempted? If uncaused existence is possible, then why don't you accept that the universe could be uncaused?"

And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM (אהיה אשר אהיה): and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM (אהיה) hath sent me unto you. (Exodus 3:14 KJV)

About 2500 years after creation, God introduced Himself to Moses as "I AM (אהיה)", the self-existence one, the uncaused. Again God did not offer any proof. The creature cannot know the creator, except by revelations from the creator. It would be impossible for us to proof that God is uncaused and uncreated, except to believe by faith that He is, because He said so. While it is logical, it is again is extremely unsatisfactory to some. They believed that "god" is created to fill the gaps of ignorance. But the truth is that everyone has to stop somewhere. It is either infinite regression of causes or first cause. Both are currently not provable and had to be accepted by faith.

Buddha's Parable of The Poisoned Arrow

Buddha refused to be drawn into questions regarding how the universe began. He had concluded that dukkha (suffering, 苦) were caused by desire (the four noble truths 四諦) and proposed his own solution (the eight-fold path 八正道) to nirvana. He felt that how the universe began is irrelevant to the solution. He gave the parable of the arrow as an analogy:

QUOTE
The Parable of the Arrow (Majjhima-nikaya, Sutta 63)
The Buddha was sitting in the park when his disciple Malunkyaputta approached him. Malunkyaputta had recently retired from the world and he was concerned that so many things remained unexplained by the Buddha. Was the world eternal or not eternal? Was the soul different from the body? Did the enlightened exist after death or not? He thought, "If the Buddha does not explain these things to me, I will give up this training and return to worldly life".
Thus, he approached the Buddha with this question, who replied:
"Suppose, Maunkyaputa, a man were wounded by an arrow thickly smeared with poison, and his friends and companions brought a surgeon to treat him.  The man would say: 'I will not let the surgeon pull out the arrow until I know the name and clan of the man who wounded me; whether the bow that wounded me was long bow or crossbow; whether the arrow that wounded me was hoof-tipped or curved or barbed.' All this would still not be known to that man and meanwhile he would die.  So too, Malunkyaputta, if anyone should say: 'I will not lead the noble life under the Buddha until the Buddha declares to me whether the world is eternal or not eternal, finite or infinite; whether the soul is the same as or different from the body; whether an awakened one ceases to exist after death or not,' that would still remain undeclared by the Buddha and meanwhile that person would die.
Whether the view is held that the world is eternal or not, Malunkyaputta, there is still birth, old age, death, grief, suffering, sorrow and despair – and these can be destroyed in this life! I have not explained these other things because they are not useful, they are not conducive to tranquility and Nirvana. What I have explained is suffering, the cause of suffering, the destruction of suffering and the path that leads to the destruction of suffering. This is useful, leading to non-attachment, the absence of passion, perfect knowledge."
Thus spoke the Buddha, and with joy Malunkyaputta applauded his words.
UNQUOTE

The parable in Chinese:
就好比有人身中毒箭，很痛苦，他的親人憐憫他，想為他解除中毒箭之苦，為他請來專門治療箭傷的醫生。然而他卻想：箭不可拔，應先知道射箭的人，姓什麼？名什麼？是長得高、矮、胖、瘦？膚色如何？又是哪一族人？住在哪個方向？所用的弓、弓扎、弓弦、箭桿、箭纏、箭羽、箭頭的材質、顏色？製造箭頭的人，姓什麼？名什麼？他的長相與身份又是如何？結果，「彼人竟不得知，於其中間，而命終也。」
中阿含經《箭喻經》

It is true that the patient does not need to know too much about the poisoned arrow in order to receive the treatment, especially if the information is irrelevant. However, Buddha was the doctor, not the patient. Buddha was providing a cure for dukkha. If God exists and created the universe, Buddha's cure could be wrong, because he did not take into account this Very Important Person. You cannot live in an universe that has a Creator and ignore Him, just as you cannot live in a country that has a government and ignore the government. The parable of the poisoned arrow fail to prove that the knowledge about the arrow was irrelevant to the doctor.

The Agnostic's Guide to True Religion

There may seem to be many religions and gods, but your fellow agnostic, Confucius, said that we should always begin at the classification of things (格物).

If you look carefully at all the religious systems of the world, you can actually divide them into two classes:

1. Creator religion: eternal creator (god or gods) who created the universe but not part of it;

2. System religion: an eternal system of rules exists from which the current universe is built upon.

So it is a chicken and egg problem - is there is some intelligent personality (a god or some gods) who create the system, or the system is always there, and the god or gods and the universe arise out of the system.

Common sense tells me that things are always made by some intelligent personality. I am sure many heard of the watch implies a watchmaker analogy. Critics of this analogy like to point that the watchmaker would likewise need another maker, and so on ad infinitum. Well, mathematics tell me that the largest number n, will always have a larger number, n + 1. But we define "infinity" to resolve the issue. Likewise, if a maker always have another maker, then it will stop at the infinite maker, which is God.

If we agree that there is some intelligent personality creating the universe, then our next job is to identify this intelligent personality. Among all the religions that claim to have some intelligent personality that create the universe, which is the most probable?

First, let us eliminate false creators. An example is Pan Ku (盤古, 盘古), the creator in Chinese mythology. He was formed from an egg which was formed from a formless chaos. In another word, he was created within a pre-existing system. Thus it is not a true creator religion, but a system religion. Likewise are the creation accounts of many polytheist religions, which seem to accept a system from which our world, gods and people, exists.

The only true creator religions that I know of are the monotheistic religions. The most likely candidates for creator God are the God of Abraham and the God of Sikhism. Thus the Agnostic can start by studying all the monotheistic religions. This should narrow down the scope.

There is an unborn, unoriginated, uncreated, unformed

There is this interesting speech by Buddha found in a Buddhist scripture accepted by all schools of Buddhism:
“There is, O monks, an unborn, unoriginated, uncreated, unformed. Were there not, O monks, this unborn, unoriginated, uncreated, unformed, there would be no escape from the world of the born, originated, created, formed.
“Since, O monks, there is an unborn, unoriginated, uncreated, and unformed, therefore is there an escape from the born, originated, created, formed.”
"比丘們，不生、不有(非緣起)、非造作、無爲(之維度)實有。若無不生、不有、非造作、無爲(之維度)，則不能辨知從生、有、造作、有爲的解脫。
然而，正因爲不生、不有、非造作、無爲(之維度)實有，才得以辨知從生、有、造作、有爲的解脫。"
The Gospel of Buddha - Sermon at the bamboo grove at Rajagaha
Udana (自說經) 8:3

There is no chicken-and-egg problem in the Bible

There is no chicken-and-egg problem in the Bible. The chicken came first and that can be deduced by logic. Since you need a male and female chicken to start producing the egg, the chicken have to come first.

There are many issues if the egg come first.

1. Where does the egg get the sperm to fertilise it? If it is already fertilised, then it is a special pre-fertilised egg. That means it is not the normal egg that is being produced today.
2. Who will take care of the chick when it is hatched?
3. There have to be a minimum of two eggs, one male and one female.

So which is easier, to have two special pre-fertilised male and female egg to hatch into full grown male and female chicken, or just have the full grown male and female chicken straight away? Use Occam's razor and you will get the answer.

The only reason why the chicken-and-egg problem exist is that people is trying very hard to deny God.