iPandora

“…to be Pro-Choice.”

Neil highlighted this fact in his article on why it is abortion supporters who are the ones still stuck in the middle ages of scientific ignorance.

It is an incontrovertible fact that life begins at conception and those who say otherwise are either deceiving or deceived.

And then John posted this video which uses humor and passion to reveal the moral depravity of the abortion industry.

Christianity has been recently buzzing with with what some people call a “prosperity” gospel. Over simplified, this gospel refers to a leader (preacher) calling on his people to becomes saved and everything will be taken care of (to the extreme, become saved and you will become rich). In Christendom, certain preachers have been labeled as “prosperity preachers.” People like Joel Osteen and Rick Warren have been assigned this label and ridiculed in areas of Christendom for their messages and actions. However, is this ridicule really due them?

I wish to make my argument in defense of many preachers (and specifically these two) through three different avenues. I want show you that these preachers preach a relevant gospel, not a traditional gospel. They use Christ as the backbone of their gospel, and their efforts are supported by scripture.

Many people easily despise the like of Joel Osteen and Rick Warren but have not listened to their message and heard they were “liberal” from someone else. Recently, I actually sat down and watched a Joel Osteen sermon. Guess what he was talking about? Self-Esteem. What topic could be more relevant to today’s needs? Honestly, there are so many people who struggle day to day with the ins and outs of insecurity and self esteem and here was a preacher giving them God’s perspective on the subject. Sure, this isn’t a traditional topic like the beatitudes, or Hell’s hot flames . . . but it is what people today need to hear. However, because people like Rick Warren and Joel Osteen are not preaching a line by line gospel, they are often ridiculed and despised by the traditional establishment. However, they aren’t teaching the words of the gospel (line-by-line), but the heart of the the gospel.

Not only is their teaching more relevant, their actions are more relevant. I remember Rick Warren sitting down with Barack Obama before the general election to promote AIDS awareness. At first I was taken back by this. What in the world is a Christian pastor doing associating with a secular agenda (that is originally linked to a sinful lifestyle)? However, I was soon convicted that, this is what we are supposed to be doing. As Christians we should be promoting AIDS awareness, we should be looking for the cure, we should be concerned because God LOVES the people with AIDS. Who better in Christendom is there to promote AIDS? Charlie Hunt (the head of the Southern Baptist Convention)? No one knows of him and he is stuck in an old establishment that is trying to splice syllables of scripture but can’t tell the laity its relevance to every day life. There is no one better than Rick Warren. His name is out there. He is respected even on the West Coast (a very hard thing to do). All that these preachers are doing in exemplifying the true gospel of Christ. A gospel that meets people where they are and addresses their direct needs in basic, simple, and easy to identify with ways.

However, there is still the argument that many people throw out the Joel Osteen doesn’t hardly use the scriptures in his messages. Once again, I am compelled to ask, how you ever watched him? A Christian survey service recently compared the average references to scripture in a “standard message” from a “normal” pastor to Joel Osteen. It was found that the normal message will contain between 7-15 references to scripture while Joel Osteen regularly references the scriptures between 25-35 times a message. Sure, it might not be an exact quotation, but is the Bible about the words, or about the heart behind the words? In fact, I recently sat down with my mentor and counted the number of times Joel Osteen references scripture. We were only watching for about 20 minutes and had counted well over 20 references. Joel Osteen and Rick Warren look the the scriptures for a message, not a recitation, and this is what they present. They give preach a gospel that speaks through the heart of the text to the current needs of our society.

However, there is still a further defence of these prosperity gospel preachers. I wish to direct your attention to Philippians. Specifically Philippians 1:15-18

“It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter do so in love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, no sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.?

Did you hear that? The important notes are here “The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely . . . But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from falses motices or true, Christ is preached.” What is that? It doesn’t matter how it is presented, it just matters that the gospel is preached. This is the true defense of the prosperity gospel. God is being taught and his name is being lifted up.

Sure, I have my issues with some churches and some Christians actions, but, as Paul said, “What does it matter? Christ is preached” and that is all we are called to do, however that looks

I wrote this note for facebook . . . but the lessons it has and the insight it brings are good for a larger audience.

This week has really been a wonderful week. There have been many challenges in my personal life, my emotions have been all over the place, and some events didn’t go how I wanted them too. But this week was really a wonderful week. So much . . . well really so little things went right, but they were the quality things. The things that matter.

One thing especially has stood out to me. I have begun really spending some rich time in the scripture . . . well, no, in God and His Love, and I have had a wonderful time. However, I am feeling a call to an even greater intimacy, understanding, and relationship with Christ.

The inspiration for this desire comes from Proverbs 3:5,6 where Solomon says:

⁵ Trust in the LORD with all your heart
       and lean not on your own understanding;

 ⁶ in all your ways acknowledge him,
       and he will make your paths straight.

For a week now, I have been living in this verse and asking myself questions to spur further mediation.

“Trust in the Lord with all my heart.” That is a whole lot of heart. Where is my heart . . . in people, things, or God? I was trained while growing up to place my heart in God’s hands, but where is it really? Is Christianity so “easy” that I can do everything by myself and have no need to throw my all in Jesus’ hands? I am afraid it is.

“and lean not on my own understanding.” My understanding is faulty, but I love it. I use it to fulfill my job. I use it to boast of my grades and I use it to impress others . . . but how shallow is that? How shallow is my understanding? Upon leaving the shelter of my family and their ideas, I was shown new and more sophisticated ways of understanding. I was challenged in my perceptions and was sometimes found to be wrong. However, even with my expanded view, God still says in Isaiah 55:9

 ⁹ “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
       so are my ways higher than your ways
       and my thoughts than your thoughts.

“in all my ways acknowledge him, and he will make my paths straight.” This has really been the inspiration behind me decision. You see, I do not know what is meant by acknowledge. Sure, I understand what it means in the human concept (to recognize), but what does it really mean to “acknowledge him in all my ways.” There is the story of the elderly lady who would always open her car door, step aside for a second, and then step in. When asked why she stepped aside, she said “I am letting Jesus get in first.” Is this acknowledging Him in all my ways? It sure seems like a good place to start.

The Hebrew word used for acknowledge here is translated as “acknowledge” 6 times in the Bible and is translated as “know” 645 times. It also specifically means “to perceive, to acquire knowledge, to know, to be acquainted.” So then, this simple passage could actually be “know God in all your ways” or “get to know God’s desire in all you ways.” This reminds me of the elderly couples you can watch who will finish each other’s sentences. The couple know each other so well that they know what the other person wants, desires, and requires. This seems to be what the verse is hinting at. “Know God in such a way that you know what His next step would be and you know how it will bring Him glory.”

I have been trying to do this the last couple days and it has been such a blessing. Time in the morning has been spent in silence just so I can clear my head and listen. Time in the day has been spend mediating (not memorizing) on what God has given to me and finding new ways to apply it. I have begun driving the speed limit because I want to “acknowledge God’s presence with me in my car” and the drive to school that used to be a race to beat the traffic has become a time to look out the window and enjoy the beauty of God’s creation and see him through it. My plans, while still important (they are God inspired) have become secondary as I have fought to “trust in the Lord with all my heart.”

Now, I need to make one thing clear. I am still struggling in so many areas of my life. I am still stressed with details at times. I still drop the ball many times. I have not become a saint. I am simply trying to “acknowledge” and enjoy God in everything I do (and boy is that hard).

I now want to spend a short amount of time with the Lord without the worries of people, stresses of life, or swing of emotions over temporal things. I want those worries, stresses, and emotions to be about my walk with the Lord. In light of this, I will be taking a week off facebook with the specific intent to spend that time with God. I love the people here and have a great time. But I also spend a large amount of time here. It is my desire to instead spend that time with the Spirit of the Lord, in His Words, speaking to His Son.

I would invite anyone who is so called to join me in this. I am sure there will be some stress/withdrawal the first couple days, but if you need me you can get me contact info off my profile.

So, without further ado, I wish God’s blessings on you all and I will see everyone back on here next Friday evening.

This is a slight commentary on Chipotle (the restaurant chain) and how it symbolizes the significant superiority of the free market economy and accompanying extreme wealth and their many benefits to the world at large.

Have you eaten at Chipotle? If not, you should.

It’s not really Mexican food, per se.

It’s more like Starbucks does Mexican food. We all know Starbucks isn’t really coffee, but it’s still really good and we’re willing to pay a lot for it.

Chipotle uses fresh ingredients and a limited number of choices in an efficient and modern atmosphere to serve quality food at reasonable prices.

Kinda like Henry Ford: You can get anything you want at Chipotle, so long as it’s a burrito (not completely true, but I’m suffering under a plethora of metaphors and similes today. Sorry).

Anyway, it’s good. I like it. My wife does too. And lots of other people too.

Chipotle uses it’s efficiency structure, derived from it’s owner, McDonalds Corp’s,  excellent experience at high-volume, low-cost supply-chain infrastructure management to maintain significant profits while maintaining reasonable prices.

Unless they were making tons of money from us eager eaters, Chipotle would not be able to be such a force for good so far as the environment is concerned.

Chipotle uses it’s leverage with it’s sour cream supplier, Daisy, to make sure the cows that give their milk to the Chipotle sour cream cause are not fed any hormones of any type. A non-hormone injected cow will not produce anywhere near the same amount of milk as one who is kept hormone-high. Which means that the “cleaner” milk costs more. If Chipotle were not making tons of money, it could not afford to reqire this better milk.

I probably couldn’t taste the difference between hormonal sour cream and non-hormonal sour cream, but I’m happy to be enjoying stuff that doesn’t  cause so much trouble to the cow.

Chipotle’s beef, pork, and chicken likewise come from free-range animals not injected or force-fed. This means the amount of usable meat from each animal is much less than ones that are artificially “enhanced”, lowering the profit and raising the cost of each animal.

All because I pay 5.35 for my loaded steak burrito, all these animals are able to enjoy better lives and provide me with my enjoyment in a more natural, healthful way.

Could an eatery in a poor nation support the same level of “sustainable” resource management?

It’s not that we can compel them to behave in a certain way. If the way they raise their cows raises the costs beyond what their economy can support, they’ll starve.

In a hierarchy of needs, basic human needs come before animal comfort. If feeding the cows in destitute South American and African nations means the people will be able to afford beneficial red meat while saving more money so their sons and daughters can attend school, that’s a trade worthwhile.

As their education level rises, their production will speed, efficiency will rise, and the average wealth of their economy will increase until they can afford places like Chipotle and the less efficient, but more friendly methods of production.

So don’t hate the economy, your wealth and ease, or the rampant consumerism that drives much of our lives these days. It’s not all good, but it’s far from all bad. Americans give and give and give more, by orders of magnitude, than anywhere else on the planet. We produce more per unit of labor, and we own more per person than anywhere else, and it leads to a continued cycle of growth and giving.

By working hard and excercising a responsible or even an irresponsible level of gratitude to God for His beneficence to us in giving to those without, we cause more good.

God did not punish the men who used their business acumen to double His granted funds, neither will He begrudge you trying hard, with ethics and moral behavior, to maximize your economic potential.

Now go and sin no more. And eat at Chipotle.

I write this next post with a heavy heart. Most of my previous posts have been fueled by intellect, however, another force will be driving this one. Intellect is still the basis of this force, but something deeper, darker is also here. Please hear my heart. Every example and illustration is from my personal experience and is true and I can give many more examples for many of the points.

I was recently reminded by a pastor that “Christianity is hard and hurts” and “it could cost you.”

I simply want to ask the pastor, and you: How has Christianity hurt you? Or more aptly, has Christianity really hurt you?

I do not mean hurt like, my professor doesn’t like my views, but a deeper kind of hurt like, the essence of me as a person has been attacked.

I have. Since starting my current journey a year and a half ago, I have had my character attacked, I have been called homosexual in the church, people I serve have stolen from me, I have had to work from 12-20 hours a day to insure that people hear about Jesus. I have seen people I love work for six years without a pay check and almost no breaks. I have seen churches stop supporting us financially and then chide us for our foolishness when we cannot afford  a security system. I have had to pay a cost. Have you? Honestly? Sure you have to get up early Sunday . . .

I am sick of hearing senior pastor’s proclaim their love for minihry and then proceed to preside over a budget with more money for flowers than for benevolence. I am sick of slick youth pastors who are paid to speak at events tell me I should trust in the Lord, and then proceed to go home and preside over a group of children who go to camp because their parents are afraid that something might happen on a mission trip.

Last summer, I was hosting a group of middle schoolers on an inner city mission trip. While we were in the middle of the community, a car drove by and shot bullets into a group about 50 yards away from us. The group quickly evacuated, but later the middle schoolers concluded that they wished they had been the ones shot because they knew where they were going, but those who were shot were did not have that same assurance. These children got it, they had a price to pay, and were willing.

As a Church, we praise Lottie Moon who died of starvation, on a ship when she was already headed home. However, honestly, is there any starvation inside the church? What about outside?

Now, I know exactly what you are saying right now, ” ShatteredChina has a point, there are so many churches like that, thankfully mine isn’t.” STOP RIGHT THERE. Examine your church because that statement just sounded like the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican.

We suffer from “Church Pride.” It is just like when I worked at Starbucks. I loved working at my Starbucks and it obviously did everything right, but the one down the street makes drinks wrong and has bad service. Or so I thought. However, all the Starbucks had different problems, and so do the churches.

I am sick of going to a conference and hearing a teacher talk about what is happening in the church and then say, “but I am so glad that your churches are not doing that.” Wrong, the reason the teacher is addressing the issue is because our churches are doing something wrong. Not our collective, general churches, I mean our individual, specific churches, including the one I attend. We need to have the basic humility to realise and accept this and then do something about this, instead of passing the blame to the next church.

The small churches are proud of their heritage and despise the big church for its self centeredness. Both ideas are wrong. Your heritage is dead and God called you to bring others to LIFE and the big churches meet a need in the body. The big churches provide programs for people and do anything to attract the pocket book and overpower the communities of small churches in order to do minister. Both these mindsets are also wrong. The church is to attract the heart, not the clothes, and big churches should partner with the small churches to help the small churches to provide ministry in a small community.

And really, these are just two blaring problems in so many churches. Revelations is clear that there will be a great falling away from Christianity in the tribulation. How many of those in the pew next to you will fall away. Sure, your group is probably pretty strong because you are in it and know those in it, but what about the people who aren’t in a group in a church? And what about those who drop in and out of your church? Here is a question for you, would your church let a drunk homeless man sit on your front pew? Honestly?

Consider this true story as I close. The New Orleans public pools system was holding a party in 2003, the pools were celebrating their first season without a drowning in years. As the party ended, a body was noticed floating in the pool. The 100 lifeguards attending quickly retrieved the man and tried to resuscitate him. He had died. The man had drowned while a hundred lifeguards around him were celebrating the absence of a drowning that year.

Why are we celebrating a new building, a larger Sunday school, or a single salvation while the people around us are still going to HELL?

Edit: If you ever get the chance, watch “The Second Chance” with Michael W. Smith. Don’t just view it as entertainment, though it is, view it to learn and understand because it is a reality.

As I look forward to holding my baby in my arms, I have done quite a bit of thinking on how motherhood is changing my life.

It has been interesting answering the question, “Well, what are you doing with your life?” As a student at a highly recognized college, I was used to receiving many affirming looks and comments. My status as a student was, in a very real way, my identity.

Recently, I was introduced as a “former college student”, and when asked if I had already graduated, I had to say no. I was under no obligation to explain myself to a stranger, but I definitely felt cooler air as her disapproval showed.

Our society ranks things differently than I do. A college degree is important in its own right, but raising my child is much more important to me.

There are definitely times I miss my life as a college student; I had great professors, classmates and I loved my degree program. However, I’ll gladly give up the title “student” and replace it with “mother”.

For Better Or For Worse

Twitter.

Yes, I’m one of “those” people. Texting to the world.

I think the moment that most symbolizes the power of twitter was when an average lady sent a direct message to a CNN newsman. No email address, mailing address, or phone number necessary.

There was also the moment when another average lady stood up and took charge and lead a massive “melt the phones” drive when the House was debating and voting on the stimulus package. Together we helped get the info on shaky representatives being pressured to support the travesty and we put pressure and support to them to buck up and stand strong.

The resulting vote tallies with every single Republican and several Democrats voting against the  bailout was a testament to the strength in concentrated power.

Twitter does it’s best to limit us arbitrarily.

#TCOT is a hash tag used to feed all the messages sent by the group Top Conservatives On Twitter, and it feeds tens of thousands of messages each day. By far the largest and most active feed, and Twitter refuses to acknowlege that power in it’s trends pages.

But we continue to stand and shout, and it’s fun.

Find me @music2myear.

Work has been rather busy of late and it’s  been difficult to muster the brain power necessary to put on page coherent thoughts. Therefore, this admittedly incoherent thought shall have to suffice.

ShatteredChina posted this on Facebook and I thought it too hilarious not to pass up.

I thought you all might appreciate this . . . this is about my senior year of High School

RE-POST with name of high school and graduating year in the subject box.

1. Did you date someone from your school? Self love . . . no, I didn’t

2. Did you marry someone from your high school? Not yet, and hope to never

3. Did you car pool to school? Yep. “Everyone climb in the van, we are going to drive around the block.”

4. What kind of car did you have in High School? 18 Speed Human Operated Biped

5. What kind of car do you have now? Anything that is availiable

6. It’s Friday night…where were you? Reading a book.

7. It is Friday night (present day) where are you? Tired, asleep, or studying. Maybe getting together with friends/people.

8. What kind of job did you have in high school? Lawn Care (Hated it), Starbucks

9. What kind of job do you do now? Intern, Day Camp Colunteer Coordinator, Barista (as a friend said . . . once a Barista, always a Barista)

10. Were you a party animal in High School? Oh, all the way . . . The three of us had great parties all the time. Me would get anoid at I am Myself was usually just wiped out on the couch.

11. Were you considered a flirt? How about not? . . . I mean, there were slim pickings

12. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir? All three . . . infact, I was lead piano, and the only soloist

13. Were you a nerd? Um . . . how about I not answer this one? Ok Yes . . . and still am a big one (though I am not a geek . . . big difference)

14. Did you get suspended or expelled? I wish . . . get the day off school

15. Can you sing the Alma Mater? “Dear Mother, Dear Father can I take th 15 passenger out for a spin tonight?”

16. Who was/were your favorite teacher(s)? Myself . . . or Saxon.

17. Where did you sit at lunch? The Kitchen . . . I mean, where else

18. What was your school’s full name? Golden Academy for the Support of Communities Actively Support Excellence . . . No, really just Golden Academy.

19. When did you graduate? This is an impossible question for a homeshooler to answer (that and, “What grade are you in?”

20. What was your school mascot? At that time . . . it was probibly Peanut

21. If you could go back and do it again, would you? Wouldn’t trade it for anything

22. Did you have fun at Prom? Sure . . . with who?

23. Would you talk to the person you went to Prom with? I prefer to not talk to myself.

24. Are you planning on going to your next reunion? Yep . . . next time I look in the mirror, I will be sure to great the entire class.

25. Do you still talk to people from school? Who? Ryan, Matthew, Andrew, Joseph, Anna, or Merrie? Yah, I try to talk to them here and there.

Propaganda – ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliberately to further one’s cause or to damage an opposing cause (Merriam-Websters)

Propaganda, the term carries a huge amount of negative stigma. In fact, in current society this term applies almost exclusively to the expression of pro government ideas in a dictatorship or strong government society (i.e. Kim Jong Propaganda, Chinese Propaganda, Nazi Propaganda). But are we entering a new age of propaganda? A new age of irrational explanations of irrational ideas?

Why don’t we think about a couple more terms?

Fascism – a political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascist) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition (Merriam-Websters)

This terms was used by the Children and Schools Secretary to describe a return of strong Republican ideal as seen in the 1930’s. However, did the Secretary really know what the words mean, or was he just trying to instill fear? Believe it or not, I am actually buying into the idea that the recent stimulus package is really a way to make the American public totally dependent on the government and consolidate a liberal government. Are the secretaries statements just part of this movement? The spread of terms to instill fear and irrational though?

In fact, come to think of it, most of the terms in politics are actually propaganda and are used EXCLUSIVELY to propagate fear and irrational action without thought.

How about these terms?

Socialism

Big Business

Terror

Truth

Abuse

Corruption

All of these have been used extensively recently and all have one purpose, to herd us like cattle into the respective pens of the parties regardless of the gray issues or inter-party issues that we citizens might want to see.

What is evolution?

This a question that most conservative Christians would love to answer with a slurry of arguments and facts. Beginning in Pre-K, good Christians are taught to combat the evils of this horrible theory. In fact, just the mention of the despicable word will throw many Christians into a frenzy.

On a daily basis, I am confronted and challenged on my beliefs on evolution. I have established myself as a creationist, but there is so much more to evolution than just the beginigs of life. In fact, I have come to realise that the beginings of life is just a small part of evolution. I have been learning about evolution for about 6 years now and I have come to realize something. Conservative creationists rarely understand exactly what evolution really is.

However, how many of you have actually taken the time to listen to the theory of evolution . . . all of you, right? After all, the way you formed your opinions was by listening to a humanists evolutionary arguments and then shooting back a plethora of geological facts and scriptures to show that you know the real truth.

However, I have the sinking feeling that we have not listened to what the evolutionist have really been saying. You see there are actually two parts the theory of evolution and we have unfortunatelythought they are the same thing.

Big Bang – the big band theory is no longer accepted at face value in the scientific community, but spin-offs of it are. In fact, there is actually a fair amount of evidence for the theory that the world started in a sort of “bang”. Astronomers calculations have shown that everything in the universe is actually shooting out from a single point. The center of the point is unknown right now, but it is known that the Milky Way galaxy is becoming increasingly farther from near solar systems and galaxies as it travels through space.

The Big Bang theory starts with the presence of gases, but they cannot explain where the gasses came from (hm . . . maybe God). I am a creationist, but who says God couldn’t have spoken and “bang” it happened.

However, the problem with the theory really isn’t in the creation of the universe because that can be reconciled to God. The problem actually starts when scientists claim that intelligent life was created from inorganic molecules that randomly assembled to form cells.

I know that I am probably losing some of you on this so let me explain. Humans are formed of tissues and organs. These are what hold us together and they are all made out of tons of cells. Each individual cell is actually independent of another cell. Each cell is composed of thousands of molecules that assemble together to for things like DNA and vesicles (they are like cells inside of cells). One of the most basic molecules, amino acids, is composed of specific chemicals. According to evolutionists, the chemicals that are in amino acids can randomly assemble in the right conditions to form the amino acids and then the amino acids can assemble to form cells.  The scary thing is that they are almost correct. Experiments have shown that these chemicals, if placed together, will arrange themselves into the amino acids and then the amino acids will assemble into other structures. However, to the best of my knowledge, they have not yet shown that the amino acids can assemble into cells.

In here lies the problem with the Big Bang. The problem is not with the explosion, the problem is with the absence of a creator with a divine touch and an investment in the creation of an world.

Origin of Species/Natural Selection – This form of evolution is in no way to be mixed with the Big Bang. In reality, this form of evolution has nothing to do with the beginning of life.

This theory is based on two basic premises.

The first is that there is variation in a species. Basically, we are not all like each other. Guess what, a lot of this variation is due to mutations. No, not extra arms coming out of you skin, but more like the suntan you get when you go to the beach. The suntan you receive is not bad, however, the energy from the light enters your body and messes with your DNA. This mess will most likely just kill the cell with the “mutated” DNA.  However, every once in a while, the change in the DNA will lead to something unexpected like skin cancer. The change in the DNA didn’t kill the cell, but now the cell won’t operate like it is supposed to so it just keeps growing a reproducing, leading to cancer. Then, every once in a while, the mutation will actually lead to something beneficial.

The second premise is that the individuals who have the genes that will favor them most will be able to create the most offspring with the same genes.

If you put these two statements together, you will have the premise that everyone is different, and those who are best favored will be able to reproduce the most and their genes will be represented the most in the next generation.

Now I know this doesn’t work with humans because we are monogamous, but look at something like corn. Years ago, farmers would plant corn and save the best to replant. The would lead to better looking crops than the year before. Then, the farmer would take the best of the second crop and replant it. Over many years, the farmers have now been planting many many crops and selecting the best so that now we have the big juicing corn that is harvested these days.

However, lets look at an example that we can all relate to better. Why isn’t penicillin effective anymore? When penicillin was introduced, it destroyed all kinds of bacterial infections and diseases. However, today it is ineffective against almost anything.

The bacteria didn’t “grow” resistant to the drug. However, there were many bacteria with many different DNA. When penicillin came in, it killed all of the bacteria. Well, it killed all except 8 out of 1000. However, those 8 bacteria had a little different DNA which was resistant to penicillin. These bacteria had genes which favored them (kept them from getting killed) and guess what? They were able to pass along their penicillin resistant genes to the next generation where the other bacteria couldn’t pass along their genes. So the next generation ended up being penicillin resistant.

This is the basis of evolution, the bacteria didn’t grow wings, but they did become resistant to penicillin. This can also be seen in an experiment involving two fish populations.  The same species of fish was placed in a stream with a waterfall. One group of the fish was put up above the water fall where birds could hunt them. These fish couldn’t travel down the water fall where a second group of fish were planted and were protected from the birds by dense trees.

These fish had two primary coloring patterns. A bright patter and a dull pattern. Scientist observed that at the upper group of fish, the birds would spot and hunt the bright colored quicker and easier than the other fish. In fact the bright fish were eaten so quick that they couldn’t pass their bright genes to the next generation, so the next generation was primarily dull colored. In fact, after a few generations, there was no longer a bright colored gene in the group at the top of the water fall. The bottom of the waterfall was hidden from the birds  so the bright fish we not eaten. In fact, the females prefered the the bright colored fish so there were more bright colored offspring in the next generation and in a few generations there were very few dull genes in the lower population.

So, now there was a group above the water fall with only dull coloring and a lower group with primarily bright coloring. The fish were kept in their different environments and became used to and adapted to their environments. In time, there two populations were put together and would not mate because they had become so different.

This is the essence of natural selection. The two fish groups were created from the same group of genes. Then, over time the two groups were faced with different challenges and responded to them in different ways which used and prefered different genes. After doing this enough times, the fish had were composed of different sets of genes.

This is true evolution. This is what the term really means. This is a reality that faces us everyday and this the evolution that we cannot deny.