Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth for the Colson Center on John Stone Street. More recently, a self-described humanist skeptic attempted to disprove the common claim that an atheistic universe. Cannot explain the design that we see in the universe, especially the complexities of life. Posting on X, the skeptic posted a video of a jumbled container of nails being shaken until all were perfectly lined up, insinuating that yes, disorder can evolve into order.
Well, rather than the cunning critique of a theory of creation as he imagined, the user seemed unaware of the obvious holes in his theory. For example, who made the nails? Where did the container come from? Who put the nails in the container? And who did all that shaking?
The entire demonstration, in fact, required an intelligent designer that imagined the experiment to begin with, that provided the materials in a particular order, and then acted toward a particular goal. Also, as our former colleague Shane Morris observed on X, nails in a box failed to approach the complexity of DNA, and the skeptic's experiment only worked because of underlying order in the universe, order that his worldview simply cannot explain. Back in the 20th century, a group of students were taught a more complicated version of the nail experiment. In the Miller-U-Ray experiment, scientists claimed to have made amino acids in a lab. and that it was a small step from creating life from non-life.
As it turns out, the experiment had too many faulty variables to ever be proven valid. Even so, had the amino acids actually been created with proper controls, as Dr. Stephen Myers and James Torr point out. Complex chemicals are a long way from life.
Now the real tragedy of these claims about amino acids and ordered nails is that people actually believe them. Many people still believe that science has proven that God does not exist or is at least unnecessary. Shallow, misleading claims from skeptics are old and common and persistent, but they're also convincing for people who are unaware of the other side of the arguments. Like the nail guy in X, it's common for atheists and ex-vangelicals to make arguments that were dismantled ages ago or that never made sense to begin with. The faith of too many Christians, especially young Christians, are shipwrecked by these flimsy arguments.
And yet, here we are in this golden age of Christian answers. From apologetics to social issues, to biblical skepticism, to critical thinking, we have access today to more quality biblical thinking about more things than maybe any other generation in history. Part of the job of parents and grandparents, pastors and teachers is to prepare students for the questions and the criticisms they will face. In this time and place, it's part of what Proverbs 22, 6 means by saying, train up a child in the way he should go. The resources available for the patient discipling of the minds and hearts of the next generation by families and churches are many.
Think of podcasts like Elisa Childers or Sean McDowell, books like A Practical Guide to Culture, studies like Truth Rising or Person of Interest by J. Warner Wallace, and events such as the Reality Conference from Stand to Reason. And the gold standard for such training for students, according to Chuck Coulson, is the Summit Ministry Student Conferences. These two-week events take place in the summer in Colorado and South Carolina. As the summit website states, quote, the Christian worldview speaks clearly to the hardest questions our culture asks.
In a world filled with confusion, doubt, and shifting beliefs, we stand firm, providing space for honest questions, thoughtful exploration, and meaningful dialogue. And I know that's true because I've taught at summit conferences for years. I've seen it up close. And we've even sent our own children to summit conferences. Summit student conferences are for students aged 16 to 25, and they fill up fast.
So learn more by going to summit.org. That's summit.org. For Breakpoint and the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, I'm John Stone Street. Today's Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Timothy Padgett.
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