by Conti, Gene;
“Cindy will be bunking with the girls, and Fred, myself, and Brother Francis will each be assigned to one of the guys’ rooms.”
“With the T-chip and announcements behind us, I guess we should start today’s lesson, late as it may be. I’ve titled it, Smoke and Mirrors.”
CHAPTER SIXTY
SMOKE AND MIRRORS
I had already placed a number of fossils on the lab table, as well as some props.
“What I wish to cover today is the fact that some government agencies, including the Department of Education at the Federal level, and some of their outside supporters, are not being completely honest with us regarding science. And thus the truth must be suppressed by them.”
Andy raised his hand. “Are you saying, Doc, that the Matrix also wants to control us by distorting science somehow?”
“In a word—yes! If one doesn’t toe the party line, there are repercussions. By deciding who does and who does not get grants for certain projects, is one way. Putting pressure on institutions and universities to demote or fire professors that are bucking the conventional evolutionary Mother Gaia line is another.”
“My dad,” Nate interjected, “has shown me a number of articles where professors were harassed or fired, including a guy with two PhDs—Dr. Richard von Sternberg from the National Institutes of Health with ties to the Smithsonian Institution—who wrote an article mildly critical of evolution; and he has shown me other write-ups on grants being given primarily to those only supportive of global warming.”
Juan’s hand shot up. “Yes, Juan,” I acknowledged.
“Doc, you are right. Follow the money, which leads to power and control—over us.”
“Santi,” I called, waving my finger in his direction as he wished to contribute something.
“Madre de Dios. These evil gente … people … these Nazis, must destroy God, so they can be gods themselves—as my prima, Juan said—over us.”
I nodded my head at Santi. They are beginning to catch on, I thought. But they need the tools, the hard evidence to support their new positions; otherwise, the atheists, liberals, and secular humanists will have them for lunch.
“Okay gang, we are about to attack the belly—no, the heart of the beast. The first and last thing the progressives and leftists will hold onto down to their fingernails is the age of the earth and universe. This is their ace in the hole. The concept of millions and billions of years is required for evolution to happen; that alone destroys the Judeo-Christian concept of a God. This is important—”
Jude immediately countered, “Oh, spare me. Bunch of flatearthers. Of course millions of years destroys God … because it’s true! That is why only the elite intellectuals should control education, and direct society and its goals.”
“Like in Plato’s Republic,” I replied. “The philosopher-king and the guardians ruling over the proletariat.”
“Ah … yeah, right,” Jude answered, a bit unsure of the reference. “A ruling class to make everyone and everything fair and equal. This is needed to guide the people, as no one anymore believes in a God; and everyone doing their own thing is getting way out of control with civil unrest, robbery, murder, clash of religious beliefs—”
“Excuse me, excuse me,” Ali interrupted, waving his hand rapidly. “We Muslims believe in Allah, praise be his name, and Sharia Law keeps everything under control.”
“Sorry, Ali, with the exception being the Muslims,” Jude backpedaled on his position somewhat.
Maria jumped right out of her chair and turned toward Jude, who was at the back of the room in his usual corner by the windows. Her dark eyes aglow as she pointed an accusatory finger at him. “Yeah, an elite class, just like the “enlightened” of the French Revolution. And I suppose you’ll elect yourself like Robespierre, the philosopher-king, to mandate a ‘share the wealth’ executive order. I should lop your damn head off—personally.”
There was stunned silence. Maria was becoming quite feisty. Realizing what she had just said, she quickly advanced to the cussin’ jar, dropped a dollar into it, and returned to her seat. She leaned forward with her head bent low and clutched her cross, perhaps doing a mea culpa.
“I think we’ve gotten a bit off track. Can we advance this discussion without all the drama?”
Philip raised his hand, and I was happy to recognize him.
“Doc, Jude is correct. And the millions of years is one of the main reasons I’m an atheist. I’ve studied a little of your Christian religion, and originally it held to a roughly six thousand-year-old creation. All your church fathers and doctors of the church adhered to this, including Augustine. But with the advent of what Hutton, Lyell, and Darwin wrote, the church capitulated and has agreed with the millions of years theory themselves, since the late 1800s.”
“That is absolutely correct, Philip.” Jude was smiling smugly with his arms crossed.
“Besides,” Philip continued, “nothing personal … but I’ve found that most of you Christians don’t even understand your basic theology of what you’re suppose to believe in.”
“How so? Please elaborate for us, Philip.”
“Well, if millions of years exist, which is what even you Christians believe now, that puts trillions of animals that lived and died prior to man—or Adam, as you like to call him—coming on the scene. Correct?”
“Good analysis, Philip.” Jude sat up, rubbing his hands gleefully.
“I’m not finished. That puts death and suffering before your Adam even existed and therefore before he sinned. And according to your Christian teaching, Adam’s sin of eating the forbidden fruit is supposedly what brought death, suffering, starvation, predatory animals, poisonous insects, and a host of other maladies into the world. Is that not so?”
“Right again, Philip.” Jude could hardly contain himself.
“So what do I need a savior for? To save me from what, Doc? If death, suffering, and disease have been ongoing since the earth was a simmering molten mass, what’s the point?”
“Are you agreeing with Jude,” I asked Philip, “that we need a big nanny government babysitting us, then?”
“Not necessarily. I don’t like anyone telling me how to live, not the feds not the illuminati or whoever. But since we have millions of years of death and suffering behind us, and apparently millions of years of the same ahead of us, I just don’t have an answer. It appears to me that this original sin thing with some Adam character was also created by men to control us.”
Maria nervously squeezed her cross and Maggie pensively looked at me, waiting for me to fire a magic-bullet comeback at Philip. Jude was just glowing.
CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE
THE BIG IF
“Doc,” Philip continued, “I’d like to read something from one of my atheist colleagues, which I believe sums this all up.”
“Sure, go ahead,” I replied.
Philip cleared his throat and proceeded to read from his tablet.
“‘Christianity has fought, still fights, and will fight science to the desperate end over evolution, because evolution destroys utterly and finally the very reason Jesus’ earthly life was supposedly made necessary. Destroy Adam and Eve and the original sin, and in the rubble you will find the sorry remains of the son of god. Take away the meaning of his death. If Jesus was not the redeemer who died for our sins, and this is what evolution means, then Christianity is nothing!’”
“That was a quote by G. Richard Bozarth from his article, “The Meaning of Evolution,” in American Atheist magazine from February 1978. As I was saying Doc, this makes your Christ’s death and resurrection completely unnecessary.”
The class was absolutely silent. All eyes were on me waiting for me to counter with a diametrically opposed argument.
“Philip is right, and so is Bozarth. If …” I paused.
Jim animated and fired up as usual, responded. “So my religion means nothing with this millions of years thing.” He momentarily reflected. “Yeah, that’s right, trillions of deaths of
animals and hominids before Adam was created, or evolved.”
Nate raised his hand. “Adam’s sin supposedly led to death, disease, and suffering. But if death and suffering have already been ongoing for millennia, there is no sin, so to speak. We’re back to relative morality and everyone doing his own thing. And since there is no God to save us from ourselves and the chaos we’ve created, that leaves only the governmental Matrix to turn to for help.”
With that there was a hushed muffled exchange of ideas and feelings swirling about the class—and a feeling of abject hopelessness.
Finally, Jim again spoke, and revealed what everyone was thinking and saying. “Doc, there is no hope, no future for us, just millions of more years of the same weary existence: pestilence, war, famine, and death.”
I looked around the room at these fresh young faces now without promise or hope for the future.
“Good, you now understand,” I said forcefully while leaning on the lab table.
“Good? How is millions of years of suffering, still ahead for mankind, good?” Jim posited still wired up.
“Maybe you should take an antidepressant. That’s what people do who have no hope, and, as you said, Jim, the millions of years kinda puts the icing on the deal.” I looked at Maggie and gave her a wink and a smile. She smiled back.
“I said if – remember?” I paused again.
Philip picked up the banter. “If … if what, Doc?”
“Only if the millions of years truly exist is there no hope. But if the entire universe and earth is really around six thousand years old …”
I paused, yet again, for added affect.
“… Then the Bible is accurate and correct,” Maggie finished my thought for me. “And that is why the atheists and leftists must fight tooth and nail to preserve their millions and billions of years. It’s their last straw to control us. It’s the only thing they’ve got, because evolution of all plants and animals definitely can’t take place in a short six thousand-year time span. Nate, what was the name of that double PhD guy who was demoted or whatever?”
“Dr. Richard von Sternberg,” he replied to Maggie with a smile.
Maria followed through. “And if the Bible is correct regarding creation, then we have a God we can look to for guidance—not the Matrix government bureaucrats, not Plato’s illuminati, nor the French Enlightenment’s Robespierre.”
“And, may I add to what Maria said, we have a bright future as well. But, you would need to read the last chapter for that.”
Jim, happy now, piped up. “Well, what the devil are we waiting for, Doc? Let’s see this evidence you have for our young earth and universe.”
“You said it, Jim, the devil—old scratch, Beelzebub.” Jude was just sitting and pouting, very leery and apprehensive about what the evidence may show.
CHAPTER SIX-TWO
MILLIONS AND BILLIONS
“I need to bring some of you up to speed on this young earth topic.” I said, as Claudia nodded her head, along with some others.
“The Judeo Old Testament and Christian New Testament writings, together comprise what we call the Bible. The Protestant Bible is composed of a series of sixty-six books—the Catholic Bible has seventy-three books—written by over forty men, over a period of about fifteen hundred years, in three different languages, on three different continents. The first five books of the Bible—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy—were written by Moses. Genesis covers the history of the early earth and universe. Other books have different authors and cover various aspects of our history, as well as other topics.”
“That Moses guy,” Juan said, raising his hand, “was he the same dude that parted the Red Sea and received the Ten Commandments from God?”
“That’s also just another bunch of B.S.” Jude interrupted.
“B.S.?” Nate exclaimed, turning to Jude wanting some cussin’ jar payback.
“Yeah, Barbra Streisand, Nate. You’ve heard of her, haven’t you?”
Nate turned forward again in his seat, mumbling under his breath.
“Look fellas, all this bickering and back biting is not going to get us anywhere. If you wish to disagree with a point, raise your hand and present your evidence. To answer Juan’s question - yes, Moses lived around 1400 BC, or around thirty-four hundred years ago.”
I continued. “The Bible doesn’t directly come out and say six thousand years old for the earth and universe; one need only to add up the ‘begats’.”
“Pregunta,” Santi said, now raising his hand. “Que es ‘begats?”
Juan tapped Santi on the shoulder, and then made a circle with the thumb and index finger on his left hand, moving the index finger of his right hand in and out to illustrate ‘begating’ to his cousin.
“Oh,” Santi exhaled and turned back around somewhat embarrassed. The class chuckled.
“Well, now that we all know what ‘begat’ means, the Bible, starting with Adam, goes through the lineage of man. Adam begat Seth who begat Enos who begat … and so on through Noah, and continues through to Abraham and his sons Ishmael and Isaac. That led to—”
Ali was extremely agitated. He waved his hand so violently I stopped mid sentence to acknowledge him.
Ali stood up and very angrily stated, “Ismael is the first legitimate son of Abraham. Isaac, the liar and cheat, stole his birthright. Allah will have his revenge on those Jew dogs.”
“Okay, Ali, cool your jets,” I stated forcefully, pointing a finger at him. Matt’s face tightened up. Ali sat down with a thump onto his seat.
The class appeared tense and confused. “What Ali is alluding to is that Abraham’s wife Sarah could not conceive. She encouraged Abraham to have relations with her servant Hagar. She bore Ishmael, whose tribe became the Arab nations.”
Juan was beside himself, “Man, like you could have sex with a servant girl back then in biblical times? God permitted this?” Some sporadic chuckles played about the room.
“Only to propagate your lineage, Juan, or your family name would die out,” I explained. “God permitted it only under these specific circumstances.”
Jim jumped in. “And then afterwards, Abraham’s wife Sarah did have a son, Isaac, and his offspring led to the nation of Israel - and the two have been fighting like cats and dogs ever since.” He then sat down proud that he remembered some of his biblical history.
Thad raised his hand. “So all this ongoing conflict in the Middle East goes all the way back to these two sons of Abraham?”
“That’s about it in a nutshell, Thad.”
“What an incredible series I could incorporate into my news articles.”
“What an incredible history of the Middle East, if people actually just read the Bible,” I asserted.
“Wow! The Bible as real history, I never thought of it that way, Doc,” Thad very introspectively replied.
“Let’s finish up this synopsis of the begats; it continues through the House of David, where, at that point, the linage splits. One line leads to Jesus, and the other to Mary, his mother—which this college is named after.”
“This is the original Ancestory.com. From your great-greatgreat granddad Adam to Abraham, when one adds up the lineage of the begats, is about two thousand years. From Abraham to Christ is another two thousand years. And from Christ until the present day is the final two thousand. Voilà, six thousand years of earth history, plus the six days of God bringing the earth and universe into existence prior to Him creating Adam and Eve on that sixth day.”
Philip forcefully interjected. “That’s fine, but how do we know that the days of creation were only six? Maybe they represent the millions of years of earth’s evolutionary history before Adam really evolved, and therefore was not created by your God from the ‘dust of the ground,’ to quote your Bible.”
“Philip has a good point, Doc,” Tom aired directly. “The millions of years must exist. Hundreds of thousands of layers of rock contain fossilized death representing billions of years before Adam,
or man, came on the scene. How do you explain that in light of Christianity like Bozarth wrote? Or is your God an ogre, and likes death?”
Addressing the whole class, I explained, “What evidence is out there in the world today that shows this millions of years of death?”
“The geologic column, of course, and that’s some cold dead hard fact—literally” answered Pete, our geology major, who chuckled a bit.
“And what would that cold dead hard fact be, Pete?”
“Well, the single biggest and best example would be the Grand Canyon. That carved out hole is the best evidence for the geologic column, which illustrates clearly the millions of years. The layers of the canyon contain thousands upon thousands of fossils embedded in them—the death Tom mentioned.”
“Philip, I remember you saying early on that the facts determine right and wrong?”
“Yes, I did. Facts speak for themselves,” he said hesitantly, looking at me suspiciously, knowing I’m going somewhere with this.
“Remember our discussions in the early days of the class when we were talking about one’s worldview and how it impacts a person and his decisions?” I asked the class as a whole.
Many nodded that they remembered. “This is where it comes into play now. Christians and atheists, or evolutionists, both have the same facts. The same Grand Canyon, the same earth, and the same universe. Each group interprets those facts according to his or her worldview.”
Pete stopped me. “Doc, you’re losing me. When I look at the Grand Canyon, it’s obvious that it took the Colorado River millions of years to chisel that mile deep trench.”
“Pete, and all of you, think for a moment. You are saying that basically a little bit of water over a long period of time carved out the canyon. Did you personally observe that happening? In other words, do you know that for a fact, or did you memorize it from a book?”
Jude arrogantly jumped up. “You didn’t observe it happening either - right?” he questioned, pointing his finger at me, the sun’s rays bouncing off the fake emerald on his pentagram ring.