Savage Street Church of Christ

07_22_2018_CarlSaganAndVoyager_DonRuhl

Carl Sagan and Voyager

Don Ruhl • Savage Street, Grants Pass, Oregon • July 22, In the year of our Lord, 2018

Persuasion:

1. The Hopelessness of an Evolutionist
   1. Sagan’s writings, and
      1. writings of other evolutionists,
      2. are tainted with hopelessness
      3. (quote I A pages 4, 8).
   2. Man does seem to deteriorate himself and his world.
      1. Evolutionist can only despair. 
      2. He looks to other worlds for salvation,
         1. knowing the answers do not lie here.
   3. But why should potential nuclear war frighten Sagan?
      1. Man is supposed to be improving.
      2. Isn’t nuclear war an expression of the so-called doctrine “survival of the fittest”?
   4. The hope of the Christian
      1. Man shall not destroy the earth or himself
         1. (at least globally), but
         2. God shall do it—2 Peter 3:5-7,10.
            
            5 For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, 6 by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. 7 But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

            10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up (2 Peter 3.5–7, 10).
            

      2. The Christian shall be spared destruction and ushered into eternal life.
2. The Brilliance Of Design (quote II, page 5)
   1. Who can doubt the brilliance that produced Voyager?
      1. No mere accident, nor
      2. the creation of an explosion.
         1. Brilliant minds building upon the work of former generations and
         2. contemporary colleagues.
      3. The designing of the designers boggles our minds.
   2. But which is greater:
      1. The brilliant engineering design of Voyager? Or
      2. the brilliance of the engineering designers of Voyager?
   3. Voyager, though marvelous, is a creation of man, for man is superior.
      1. Is it logical to conclude
         1. that the superior of the two
         2. evolved from an accidental explosion?
      2. Which one is the fairy tale:
         1. A princess kissing a frog and immediately turning it into a prince? Or
         2. a frog turning into a prince after millions of years?
   4. The brilliance of Scripture
      
      For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God.  (Hebrews 3:4).

      3 By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible (Hebrews 11.3).
      

3. Some Ingredients Of Life (quote III, page 5).
   1. Shall life evolve on Neptune?
      1. What shall the first life eat?
      2. How shall it survive till digestive system developed perfectly?
   2. Finding some ingredients is not significant.
      1. God used the earth—Genesis 1:11,12,24; 2:7.
         
         11 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so. 12 And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

         24 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind”; and it was so.

         7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being (Genesis 1.11–12, 24; 2.7)
         

      2. Shall sugar, flour, water, egg, baking powder, et al., form into a cake?
      3. Barry Commoner, a biologist from Queens College, observes,
         
         “Only cells are capable of replicating themselves. If something is self-replicating, its got to be able to do it by itself, with no clever biochemist standing on the sidelines helping it along” (“The Search for Life’s Origins — and a First ‘Synthetic Cell,’” Smithsonian, June, 1984, by Paul Trachtman, page 50). (emphasis in original).
         
4. A Whale Of A Universe (quote IV, pages 7, 8)
   1. I knew it was a whale of a universe!
      1. Do they expect voyager to meet a whale flying a spacecraft?
      2. Shall voyager crash into an ocean without much damage
         1. so an unintelligent whale
         2. can play the record on a phonograph
         3. the whale does not possess?
      3. They think we believe myths and fairy tales
   2. This whole episode is reminiscent of the tower of Babel.
      
      3 Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. 4 And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth” (Genesis 11.3–4).
      
   3. Man can communicate with life outside the earth.
      1. Why can we not still employ prayer?
      2. The only hindrance is sin
         1. Psalm 66.18
         2. Isaiah 59.1–2
         3. John 9.31

Exhortation:

1. Therefore Remove Sin By:
   1. Belief—John 8.24.
   2. Repentance—Acts 3.19.
   3. Baptism—Acts 22.16.