Evangelism Using God’s Creation�(5 August 2026)�

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Michael G. Houts, PhD

houts315@gmail.com

www.apologeticspress.org

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Evangelism Using God’s Creation

Romans 1:20

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse

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Evangelism Using God’s Creation

John 3:12

If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

Evangelism Using God’s Creation

Acts 17:23-24

²³for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription:

TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.

Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: ²⁴God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands.

Class Will Include at Least One Field Trip

• Creation Museum / Ark Encounter
• Friday, August 28, 5:00 pm–Sunday, August 30, 11:30 pm
• $200/family includes hotel and admission to Creation Museum (Saturday) and Ark Encounter (Sunday afternoon, following worship at Point Pleasant Church of Christ).
• Please make $200 check payable to “Madison Church of Christ” and provide to Kathy Stephens (noting “Creation Museum/Ark Encounter”) by Sunday, August 16.

Initial Observations

The idea that the universe and everything in it simply made itself is strongly refuted by true science.

True science is the Christian’s friend.

God has given us tremendous evidence that we should put our faith in Him. But He also lets it be our choice!

The Fact that We Can Choose Tells Us How We Should Choose!

If we were purely material, i.e. a complex assembly of several thousand trillion, trillion atoms, we could not make choices.

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The only way any of us can make even the simplest choice is because we are not simply “material.” God has given us a soul (Genesis 1-2).

Atheists also Realize that Atheism Does Not Allow for Free Will

William B. Provine

“There is no ultimate foundation for ethics, no ultimate meaning in life, and no free will for humans, either.”

Francis Crick

“...your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells...”

Robert Sapolsky

“There’s no God, there’s no free will, there’s no purpose to anything.”

Susan Blackmore

“There is no stream of consciousness. There is no conscious self. There is no free will.”

Science

the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation, experimentation, and the testing of theories against the evidence obtained. (Google’s English dictionary provided by Oxford Languages)

The Origin and Evolution of Life�

Question:

Is it “scientific” to believe that something happened spontaneously (life arising from non-life) that we have been unable to duplicate given our best laboratories, our smartest scientists, and virtually unlimited financial resources?

All Attempts to Show DNA, RNA, or Proteins Could Spontaneously Assemble Have Failed

• Long strings of amino acids don’t exist in water. One percent two amino acids bonded, 0.01% three, 1 in 10¹⁴⁰ will have 70 amino acids bonded. Water breaks DNA, RNA and proteins down into building blocks.
• Building blocks must be “one handed” – spontaneously formed building blocks are an even mix (racemic).
• The Miller-Urey experiment produced only small amounts of amino acids (2% of product). Products removed to avoid destruction.
• Miller-Urey experiment also produced tar (85% of product) and Carboxylic Acids (13%). Tar and carboxylic acids poison enzymes in living systems, resulting in death.

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Recent sample return missions confirm racemic (useless for life) mixtures of amino acids found in space

“The team found equal parts left-handedness and right-handedness in their OSIRIS-REx samples, referred to as a "racemic" mixture.”

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"I have to admit, I was a little disillusioned or disappointed," Glavin said. "I felt like this had invalidated 20 years of research in our lab and my career. But I mean, here's the thing: This is exactly why we explore. This is why we do these missions, right? If we knew everything in advance, we wouldn't need to do an OSIRIS REx to bring these samples back."

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Sir Frederick Hoyle

(David Purchase, Creative Commons)

“The likelihood of the formation of life from inanimate matter is one to a number with 40 thousand naughts [zeroes] after it. It is enough to bury Darwin and the whole theory of evolution. There was no primeval soup, neither on this planet nor on any other, and if the beginnings of life were not random they must therefore have been the product of purposeful intelligence.”

Sir Frederick Hoyle, author of Evolution from Space, quoted in Nature, 1981

Scientists Recognize the Impossibility of Life Creating Itself from Non-Living Material, and Advances in Science have only made the “Problem” Worse!

Scientists Recognize the Impossibility of Life Creating Itself from Simple Chemicals, and Advances in Science have made the “Problem” Worse!

Carl Sagan:

“Well, it is clear that one could randomly assemble all the elementary particles in the universe a billion times a second for the age of the universe and never get this protein” (commenting on the 1 in 10¹³⁰ odds of the random formation of a single protein).

Ironically, a few sentences later Sagan goes on to say “There is no doubt about the fact of evolution, but there are still sizable questions on the mechanics of the evolutionary process.”

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Sagan, 1973, Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence, pg 46, MIT Press

Carl Sagan

(University of Mount Union, Creative Commons)

The Idea that Life Could Simply Make Itself Has Been Disproven by True Science

1. Excellent, technically detailed resources available for in-depth discussions.
2. Resources address claims that life has been made “from scratch” in a lab. Such claims are false or grossly exaggerated.
3. Resources show that even simple life is vastly more complicated than anything man has ever made. Could a jet airplane simply make itself?

The Idea that Life Could Simply Make Itself Has Been Disproven by True Science

1. Formation and concentration of building blocks
2. Homochirality of building blocks
3. Solution to water paradox
4. Consistent linkage of building blocks
5. Biopolymer reproduction
6. Nucleotide sequences forming useful code
7. Means of gene regulation
8. Means for repairing biopolymers
9. Selectively permeable membranes
10. Means of harnessing energy
11. Interdependency of DNA, RNA and proteins
12. Coordinated cellular purpose

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We Can Trust the Bible, and God’s Plan of Salvation

Romans 1:16

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.

Numerous examples of people being saved:

Acts 2:36-47; Acts 8:4-13; Acts 8:26-40;

Acts 9:1-20; Acts 10:1– 11:18; Acts 16:13-15;

Acts 16:23-34; Acts 18:8; Acts 22:6-16

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Evangelism Using God’s Creation�(12 Aug 2026)

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Michael G. Houts, PhD

houts315@gmail.com

www.apologeticspress.org

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Creation Museum / Ark Encounter�August 28-30

• Friday, August 28, 5:00 pm–Sunday, August 30, 11:30 pm (totally flexible for those driving separately)
• $200/family includes hotel and admission to Creation Museum (Saturday) and Ark Encounter (Sunday afternoon, following worship at Point Pleasant Church of Christ).
• Please make $200 check payable to “Madison Church of Christ” and provide to Kathy Stephens (noting “Creation Museum/Ark Encounter”) by Sunday, August 16.

God gives us the ability to choose. Why would anyone then choose to reject God?

Romans 15:4

For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.

Ecclesiastes 1:9

That which has been is what will be,�That which is done is what will be done,�And there is nothing new under the sun.

We are Under Spiritual Attack

1 Peter 5:8-9

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. ⁹ Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.

Influential / intelligent people can be deceived into making poor choices.

1 Kings 18:19

^{19 “}Now therefore, send and gather all Israel to me on Mount Carmel, the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”

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Many of the most influential people in Israel promoted worship of Baal and Asherah.

Many of the most influential people (and institutions) in the world today promote atheism and evolution.

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Does it make sense to cut a log in two, use half of it to bake bread and roast meat, and then use the other half to make an idol that one pretends is a god who can deliver them (Isaiah 44:15-20)?

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Does it make sense to teach as “fact” that something happened spontaneously (life arising from non-life) that we have been unable to duplicate given our best laboratories, our smartest scientists, and virtually unlimited financial resources?

People throughout history have become confused and led astray.

1 Kings 18:21

And Elijah came to all the people, and said, “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people answered him not a word.

God always provides tremendous evidence that we should put our faith in Him!

1 Kings 18:38-39

Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench. ³⁹Now when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, “The Lord, He is God! The Lord, He is God!”

False Assumptions Drove Belief in Intelligent Human Life on Mars

At the end of 1907 the Wall Street Journal reported that the most extraordinary event of the past 12 months was the “proof afforded by astronomical observations...that conscious, intelligent human life exists upon the planet Mars”

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False Assumptions Drove Belief in Intelligent Human Life on Mars

Idea of humans on Mars continued to be reinforced. Article by E.C. Slipher in May,1915 edition of The American Museum Journal (Published by the American Museum of Natural History in New York) stated

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“Dr. Lowell believes that the numerous linelike markings seen there are those of vegetation growing by an enforcedly constructed irrigation system. Two significant facts found by observation support his theory: first, the marked geometric directness of the lines — no natural causes can account for them; second, the characteristic manner in which they develop with the seasons and the melting of the snow-caps.”

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False Assumptions Drove Belief in Intelligent Human Life on Mars

How could anyone disagree with this “scientific” proof?

Percival Lowell –

Harvard University graduate, fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Wealthy - sent well equipped team of engineers and astronomers to Atacama desert in 1907 to observe canals.

French Academy of Science and others convinced that Martian civilization was an established fact.

Many influential people believed in evolution - life expected to be common throughout the solar system and universe.

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False Assumptions Drove Belief in Intelligent Human Life on Mars

If the Wall Street Journal was correct, what would have been some of the Biblical implications?

1. Why did Jesus come to earth to die if God also created humans on Mars? Are Martian humans sinless? If they are sinless, why are they going to be destroyed with the rest of the universe?

2. Why didn’t God tell us that he had also created humans on Mars?

3. If humans were created on earth and then traveled from earth to Mars, why is there no evidence of their technology? If the trip occurred pre-flood, does that mean it is possible for humans to avoid God’s judgment?

Assumed Contradictions with the Bible Resolved by Advances in True Science

Collier’s April 30, 1954

Disney 1957

Mariner 4, 1965

Viking, 1978

Belief that “higher life forms” existed on Mars was widespread through the 1950s.

Not fully disproven until 1965, six decades after popularized by Lowell and others.

Perseverance Rover / Ingenuity Helicopter, 2021

False Assumptions Drove Belief in Intelligent Life Throughout the Universe

“When we take account of realistic uncertainty, replacing point estimates by probability distributions that reflect current scientific understanding, we find no reason to be highly confident that the galaxy (or observable universe) contains other civilizations, and thus no longer find our observations in conflict with our prior probabilities.”

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Sandberg et al., Oxford University, June 8, 2018.

Related story https://www.space.com/41080-alien-life-may-be-rare-today.html

False Assumptions Drove Belief in Intelligent Life Throughout the Universe

“We found qualitatively similar results through two different methods: using the authors’ assessments of current scientific knowledge bearing on key parameters, and using the divergent estimates of these parameters in the astrobiology literature as a proxy for current scientific uncertainty.”

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Sandberg et al., Oxford University, June 8, 2018.

Related story https://www.space.com/41080-alien-life-may-be-rare-today.html

False Assumptions Drove Belief in Intelligent Life Throughout the Universe

When we update this prior in light of the Fermi observation, we find a substantial probability that we are alone in our galaxy, and perhaps even in our observable universe (53%–99.6% and 39%–85% respectively). ’Where are they?’ — probably extremely far away, and quite possibly beyond the cosmological horizon and forever unreachable.

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Sandberg et al., Oxford University, June 8, 2018.

Related story https://www.space.com/41080-alien-life-may-be-rare-today.html

“Alone in the Universe” Completely Consistent with the Bible

Genesis 1:26-27

²⁶ Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” ²⁷ God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Where did the Genetic Information in God’s Creation come from?

Biblical Creation:

Given a complete encyclopedia, write a sentence about butterflies.

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Atheistic Evolution:

Given a sentence about butterflies, write a complete encyclopedia.

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True Science Shows Opposite of Evolution is Occurring. Information is Being Lost from the Genome, not Gained

• Evolution would require an unimaginably large addition of genetic information to turn a “simple” life form into all the diverse life we see today.
• Natural selection acting on mutations is either information neutral or results in a loss of information.
• Textbook examples of “evolution” either show nothing or actually show the opposite of evolution.
• “Microevolution” can be a deceptive term.

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Microevolution Does Not Produce New Genetic Information

• Until the 1850s, dark gray peppered moths were rare. Almost all peppered moths were pale.
• Around 1850, dark peppered moths started to become more common, especially in heavily industrialized areas where pale tree trunks were darkened by heavy pollution.
• By 1950, peppered moth populations living near industrial centers consisted almost entirely of dark individuals.
• Since 1950, England has introduced strict air pollution control measures, and there are now more light-colored moths.
• Example does not show “evolution” in that no new genetic information created.

From Biology: Visualizing Life, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1998, pp 181-183

Typica Form

Carbonaria Form

Peppered Moths

Example: Bacteria Developing Resistance to Antibiotics can be Either Neutral or the Opposite of Evolution

1. Information to resist the antibiotic already in the bacterial population.

2. Plasmid Transfer: one germ inserts a tiny tube into another, and a small loop of DNA called a ‘plasmid’ transfers from one to another.

3. Mutation: Loss of a control gene may enhance resistance to penicillin (excessive production of penicillinase ). Mutation that reduces efficiency of bacteria’s chemical pumping mechanism can reduce uptake of antibiotic and provide “resistance.”

Selective Breeding (Developing New Breeds of Animals) is the Opposite of Evolution

New breeds represent the selection of specific traits from existing genetic information.

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The information for undesired traits is removed.

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Selective breeding reduces available genetic information, and is actually the opposite of evolution.

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Genomic Selection

• Start with 1000 “perfect” manuals for manufacturing a car.
• Randomly change 100 words in each manual (different changes in each) and make 1500 cars. Choose the manuals for the 1000 “most fit” cars. “Select out” the other 500 cars.
• Randomly change 100 more words in each of the selected manuals and repeat the process.
• After 100 generations, the manuals would each contain ~10,000 “mutations,” with each manual having its own set of mutations.
• Eventually “error catastrophe” will occur – no manual left that can produce an operable car.

The Idea that “Simple” Life Could Evolve Into More Complex Life Forms Goes Against Science

1. Excellent, technically detailed resources available for in-depth discussions.
2. Evolution would require the creation of a tremendous amount of genetic information.
3. Genetic information is being lost from the genome, not gained.
4. Textbook examples of evolution either show nothing or show the opposite of evolution.

We Can Trust the Bible, and God’s Plan of Salvation

Romans 1:16

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.

Numerous examples of people being saved:

Acts 2:36-47; Acts 8:4-13; Acts 8:26-40;

Acts 9:1-20; Acts 10:1– 11:18; Acts 16:13-15;

Acts 16:23-34; Acts 18:8; Acts 22:6-16

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