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[music]
A question I get asked all the time is "Okay, if
there was a God - an intelligent designer, WHICH
God is it?" And it's an excellent question! A few
years back, the Kansas state school board was
deliberating over whether or not to include
intelligent design in the science curriculum. This
spurned a huge outcry from the anticreationists.
Bobby Henderson intelligently designed a satire
written as an open letter to the school board,
claiming to represent a religious group known as
the Pastafarians, who believe in a Creator who
vaguely resembles a plate of spaghetti and
meatballs called the Flying Spaghetti Monster. He
argued that the Pastafarians should also be allowed
equal time to present their beliefs in the science
classroom as well, saying:
As I show in my other CrEvo Rants, evolution
actually violates scientific and natural laws, and
goes against the grain of observable evidence.
[Swoosh]
Help! Help!
[ding] Question: Was this intelligently designed?
Or the result of unguided, natural processes?
Obviously it had a creator - and you just logically
deduced from the observable evidence that this
machine had a creator. You just used the
scientific tool of intelligent design! see CrEvo
Rant #121 for more details
But Henderson indirectly brings up a very good
question: Any Tom, *** or Harry can claim to know
who the Creator God is. In fact, any Tom, *** or
Harry could claim to BE God - so how do you know
who the real God is? Will the real Creator
please stand up?
I have had multiple people tell me they were God.
Of course the first thing I said to them
was: PROVE IT!
Think about it - how would you expect God to prove
He's God? With so many different religions around
the world, some with multiple Gods - you got quite
a variety to choose from! Some say that ALL paths
lead to God.
How is that logical? You cannot say all paths lead
to God because several of those paths exclude all
others as a way to God! Mohammed dictates that
Islam is the only way to God, and Jesus didn't
mince His words either when He said "No man comes
to the Father - except through me!"
Secondly, If I go to an international airport,
wanting to fly to say, London. If I use the same
logic, I should then be able to get on board ANY
airplane and expect it to take me to London! Of
course, this is illogical, and irrational - so why
would it apply to the path to God? And when your
soul is on the line, uhhhh - I don't know about
you, but I wanna be sure you're I'm
the right airplane!
[swoosh]
>>[Intercom] "Ladies and gentlemen I'm captain
Louey C. Fir, and on behalf of white knuckle
airlines, we'd like to welcome you aboard flight
666 on our one way flight to the lake of fire. We
know you're comfortable as we are world renowned
for bringing you the best in comfort as you travel
to the wonderful flaming sea. Current temperatures
are a freezing cold 32 degrees celcius, at our
destination it's presently dark, and its showing
current weather conditions of not a drop of water
anywhere, and a nice temperature of....well, I
can't tell cause the thermometer is off the scale,
but I assure you it's hot there."
>>Ummm - stewardess? I think I'm on
the wrong flight...
[swoosh]
So just how do you tell who the Creator is? Jesus
claimed to be God, and all the apostles claimed He
was the Creator. He told the Jews "Before Abraham
was, I AM" - a statement that caused the Jews to
pick up stones to kill Him. Why? They explained in
John 10:33 "For a good work we stone thee not, but
for blasphemy; and because thou, being a man,
makest thyself God." Why did they say this? Because
back in Exodus when God met Moses in the form of a
burning bush, God told Moses to tell the Jews "I
AM" was sending him. God appeared to Moses as a
burning THORN bush - symbolic that this God was
Jesus - who would later on be crowned with a crown
of thorns by the very people He came to save!
Mohammed didn't claim to be God, nor did Buddha,
nor did Joseph Smith. The Flying Spaghetti Monster
didn't claim to be God either - seeing as how he
never showed up to make such a claim:
[swoosh]
>>[Spag monster] Hi! I'm your creator! I'm...
[screaming]
Hey! Wait! Come back! I'm your creator!
[swoosh]
Jesus proved He was God with so many miracles, that
even His enemies didn't deny them! It's claimed
that the Buddah MIGHT have done a miracle or two,
but those reports are sketchy, even to most
Buddhists. Muslims admit that Mohammed performed no
miracles. Lenin never performed any miracles.
[swoosh]
aaand of course, the flying spaghetti monster has
never performed any miracles to prove
he's god either
>> I can walk! I can walk!
Muslims will claim that the Koran was a miracle -
Mohammed miraculously received the Koran from God.
Well wait a minute - that's what Joseph Smith
claimed too - that he miraculously received the
book of Mormon from God. Yet both books mtutually
exclude the other as being from God! So how do we
know which one is right? Or are they both not from
God? How would you know? Muslims acknowledge that
the Koran contradicts itself multiple times, but
claim that if it does, the more recent writings are
to be considered correct. Understand that from the
perspective of someone outside of the Koran, trying
to judge whether or not it is God's written word,
we would not expect God to contradict Himself, and
so we would conclude that it was not from God. The
holy writings of Joseph Smith have also changed
over the years. Smith claimed the book of Mormon
was more accurate than the Bible - yet there has
been THOUSANDS of "CORRECTIONS" to the book of
Mormon over the years - was the book of Mormon
accurate or not? When a book which is not even 200
years old has been CORRECTED by its followers
thousands of times, then you'll please understand
why we would conclude it is not from God. Both
books were written by a single individual, yet the
books contradict themselves or have been
"corrected." Yet both books point to the Bible as
truth, yet the Bible contradicts what the other
books say! The Bible is thousands of years old,
incredibly reliable, was written by 40 different
people over 1,500 years, and all the books are in
agreement with each other.
But even atheists Penn and Teller perform
"miracles" every day and get paid really well for
it. Maybe Jesus was just a really good illusionist?
Besides the fact that RAISING THE DEAD AFTER FOUR
DAYS is a pretty impressive magic trick, there is
stil the issue of prophecies:
Jesus fulfilled over 400 specific prophecies -
including being born of ***, where He would be
born, where He would die, how He would die, that
none of his bones would be broken in the process,
that He would be betrayed by a friend, and how many
pieces of silver He would be betrayed for! So that
we would know He was God, He told us for centuries
before He came in human form "You'll know it's me,
because I'll do this, this, this, this, this, this,
this, this, this, this this, this,
this, this, this... you get the point.
There was no prophecies of Mohammed, nor Buddha,
nor Lenin - and What'd the Flying
Spaghetti Monster do?
[swoosh]
The Buddhist scriptures in Cambodia also contain a
prophecy of a coming "Holy One" - even Buddha
himself pointed to what was obviously Christ, as
the saviour - a prophecy fulfilled 500 years after
the Buddha said:
Even Islam and the Koran points to Jesus as being
true and a great prophet - but either Jesus is
true, or He is a liar - he left no room for any
other way to the Father.
Lenin said: A lie told often enough
becomes the truth.
Buddha said: I am a student of life searching
for the truth
Mohammed said: Unless God covers me with a cloak of
mercy, I have no hope.
Jesus: I AM the way, I AM the truth, I AM THE Life.
He finally proved it by rising again from the dead.
Buddha didn't, Mohammed didn't, you can go see
Lenin's body - it's still there. and the
flying spaghetti monster?
[swoosh]
And that is how you know that Jesus is the Creator.
In response to Nicodemus asking how to enter into
heaven, Jesus told him "You must be born again."
Every single one of us has done what we knew was
wrong - we find in Romans that it was the Creator
who gave us a conscience to know right and wrong,
so every single one of us has sinned against God
and is not worthy to enter into heaven. Being born
again is just simply acknowledging that you have
sinned against God, asking Jesus to forgive you of
your sins, and acknowledging that He died the death
you deserved. He promises to give you the Holy
Spirit as a seal of your salvation, your being born
again. Why aren't you born again?