Reasons To Believe - Spokane Chapter

April 2005 Newsletter

Table of Contents:

Chapter Meeting: Sunday April 17, 3-5pm.

We invite you to attend our monthly meeting. A presentation is offered to the group, followed by discussion and questions, and we conclude with snacks and a little club business.

We always try to start and end our meetings right on time. If you need directions, don't be afraid to call the phone number below.

  • Date: April 17, 2005 (Sunday)
  • Time: 3 - 5 P.M.
  • Hosts: Dan and Cathy Bakken
  • Location: 13003 N. Miami Ct, Mead
  • Phone: 466-2693 (for directions, etc.)

Intelligent Design Conference Report

For those of you who joined us on April 9 at Fourth Memorial Church, we hope you enjoyed the conference as much as we did!

The conference was a great success, partly due to an excellent front-page article in the Spokane newspaper, the Spokesman-Review, the day before! Our speakers involved in the intelligent design movement said it was one of the best and most favorable articles they'd seen on the topic of intelligent design!

We estimate that there were between 450 and 500 attendees, who heard five different speakers over the course of the day.

The college events also went well for the most part, and were well attended. The Greater Northwest Apologetics Team is planning to continue to put on conferences on apologetics topics here in Spokane, perhaps annually or every other year. Stay tuned!

Israel Trip Report

You may recall that in our March newsletter we mentioned that Dan (president of RTB- Spokane) and I (Cathy, newsletter editor), were about to leave for Israel for a 2 week trip. Just reporting that we had a great time, and visited many exciting historical and biblical sites. We never felt unsafe, despite the US government's current warnings against tourists visiting that part of the world. Israel knows how to deal with security issues!

Our favorite site was the Herodian road just below the temple mount, still covered by stones pushed off the mount by the Roman soldiers in 70 AD!

Top 10 Scientific Discoveries of 2004 that Support RTB's Testable Creation Model

For the past few years, Reasons To Believe has offered a list of the top scientific discoveries that affirm the testable creation model that the organization has put together.

For a summary of this model, visit http://www.reasons.org\resources\apologetics\testablecreationsummary.shtml.

Each of these discoveries has been discussed on RTB's online radio show, Creation Update. To access the audio files, visit www.reasons.org, and click on "Webcast", then "Creation Update Archives".

  • # 10 : Is there scientific evidence for a global flood? Analysis of deep ice cores in Antarctica and Greenland and a sediment core off New Zealand's coast demonstrate that humans were created at the ideal time in geological history and provide a powerful refutation of young-earth creationism.
    Discussed on Creation Update, airdates 07-13-2004 and 09-21-2004.
  • # 9 : New insights into the fossil record of whale speciation continues to undermine this evolutionary icon.
    Discussed on Creation Update, airdate 11-16-2004.
  • # 8 : Discovery of a nearby pulsar-pulsar binary and measurements of its orbital features yields another powerful confirmation of general relativity's reliability, and thus, the validity of space-time theorems proving the beginning of space and time.
    Discussed on Creation Update, airdate 01-06-2004.
  • # 7 : A study of gypsy moth parasites demonstrates that the creation of a diverse array of specialized parasites indeed is consistent with an all-powerful, all-wise, and all-loving Creator.
    Discussed on Creation Update, airdate 07-27-2004.
  • # 6 Cellular midbody design.
    Discussed on Creation Update, airdate 07-13-2004.
  • # 5 : New insights into the physics of the Moon's origin establish more evidence for Earth's supernatural design so that it can support life.
    Discussed on Creation Update, airdate 05-25-2004.
  • # 4 : Is human evolution a fact? Evidence continues to mount against any genetic link between ancient modern humans and Neanderthals. This undercuts some young-earth creation models for human origins, as well as the evolutionary multi-regional hypothesis.
    Discussed on Creation Update, airdate 12-14-2004.
  • # 3 : A measure of the late heavy bombardment's extent reveals new design features for the support of life and adds to the weight of evidence against naturalistic models for the origin of life on Earth. "Magma Ocean,".
    Discussed on Creation Update, airdate 05-18-2004.
  • # 2 : The discovery of uranium/thorium fractionation, a new geochemical marker for early life on earth.
    Discussed on Creation Update, airdate 01-06-2004.
  • # 1 : Multiple independent confirmations of dark energy bolster the most spectacular evidence for the supernatural design of the universe for life.
    Discussed on Creation Update, airdate 12-14-2004.

News Notes & Quotes

Learn More About the Crucifixion

Physician and RTB board member Alex Metherell has written an excellent article about the crucifixion, comparing it to the Passion of the Christ. One of the movie's criticisms has been that the violence is excessive. However, according to Metherell, the flogging and the crucifixion were actually worse. The article is entitled, "The Passion of the Christ: The Most Amazing Love Story of all Time: A Review from a Biomedical Engineering Perspective", by Alex F. Metherell, MD, PhD. It's online at www.reasons.org/resources/apologetics/ other_papers/alex_metherell_passion_review.pdf

Buddhism vs. Christianity Quote

"One could go so far as to say that as far as the truth of Buddhist teaching is concerned, it does not even matter that much whether the Buddha as a historical personality ever existed, whereas Christianity would lose its meaning without the historical person of Jesus."
Heinz Bechert, "The Historical Buddha: His Teaching as a Way to Redemption: 1. Buddhist Perspectives," in Christianity and the World Religions: Paths of Dialogue with Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism, by Hans Küng, with Josef van Ess, Heinrich von Stietencrom, and Heinz Bechert (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1986), 294.

C.S. Lewis Quote on Christianity

"Christianity is not a patent medicine. Christianity claims to give an account of facts - to tell you what the real universe is like. Its account of the universe may be true, or it may not, and once the question is really before you, then your natural inquisitiveness must make you want to know the answer. If Christianity is untrue, then no honest man will want to believe it, however helpful it might be. If it is true, every honest man will want to believe it, even if it gives him no help at all."

C. S. Lewis, "Man or Rabbit?" in God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics, ed. Walter Hooper (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1970), 108-9.

Who We Are and What We Do: Your Local Reasons To Believe Chapter

We're here to answer your questions and help local Christians and churches get more answers about science and the bible issues.

  • We offer trained apologists and bring in national speakers to speak at local churches and other events to share these exciting discoveries.
  • We build alliances with churches, ministries, and groups to share the Reasons to Believe message.
  • We help Christians overcome their fear of science and equip them to use it as an effective tool in spreading the Gospel.
  • We reach out to skeptics and non-believers with gentleness and respect, encouraging them to evaluate their worldviews.

Contact Information:

For more information about the Reasons To Believe Spokane Chapter, contact:

  • Phone: Dan Bakken (509) 466-2693
  • Email:

  • Web Page: www.reasons.org/chapters/spokane

  • Newsletter Editor: Cathy Bakken, cgbakken@yahoo.com

Resources To Know About:

www.reasons.org: Many useful documents are available, as well as their daily new "reason to believe" from the latest scientific research.

Reasons' Web Store: Buy the books you read about here! http://store.reasons.org/

Reasons Institute: RTB's online distance learning program. Take college-level apologetics courses. Contact RTB for information at 626-335-1480.

Reasons To Believe television show: Thursday mornings, 3:00 A.M. Pacific time on TBN. An archive of recent shows is at www.reasons.org.

Creation Update Web Radio Show: http://www.oneplace.com/ministries/creation_update/Archives.asp.