I believe in Creationism. Why? Because upon analysis, it proves to be the most logical and reasonable position.

Apparently, that strikes many people as threatening and strange. They don’t understand how that can be. A global analyst and investment strategist believes in such malarkey? Can a blinkered person such as that make logical decisions and function in the fast-paced world of money?

You may be surprised at my answer.

I am a man of little faith. I simply do not have enough faith to believe any of the alternate arguments on such matters as the origin of life and the universe. I thrive on analysis, evidence and probability.

Some people (and big financial institutions that I will not name) are so unsettled by this “out of the closet” personal perspective that they refuse to do business with an investment management company that I founded.

Just how can I support my position? I will provide proofs. You can choose to consider them. But before I do, a bit of warning would only be fair. What I have discovered as a result of many discussions and debates over the years on this general topic is this: Facts don’t necessarily matter. What I am telling you is that people will deliberately choose to ignore evidence. People will invariably choose to believe what they want to believe. The facts can hang. For various reasons, they will doggedly cling to their a priori views on such issues as Evolutionism, the Big Bang Theory, and a myriad of subsidiary theories.

I recall discussions with people who I consider quite intelligent and for which I had (and continue to have) high respect. They had no valid counter arguments to the facts and probabilities that I laid out before them. Yet, they turned away…perhaps threatened and afraid of the implications that their world view was false. Even such intelligent people — puzzled as they were — deliberately chose to accept on faith the unexplainable and the impossibilities that apply to evolutionary theories. They, in effect, confirmed their religion.

The fact is that any world view or cosmological thesis requires an element of faith. Whether an atheist, agnostic, or believer in a higher power, or someone practicing a new age variant, a measure of faith will be needed. But how much? That’s the key question. Just what facts, proofs and disproofs can be marshaled in support of the reasonableness of a chosen “faith”?

Everyone is free to make their choices and to search out a satisfactory rationale. Please continue to do so as you continue to read this article. However, it is also true that the vast majority of people have never really examined what they believe and why. They have never tested their views against science and reasonable logic. Many choose to simply accept what they have been told and will believe the views and values of the collective zeitgeist of the times.

Such perspectives are not well-advised…certainly not in financial markets, I can tell you. To simply refuse to consider facts or to test one’s views is unwise. Any student of human behavior or an accomplished investment strategist will have only a cautious regard for the correctness of any consensus view. As is well documented, the popular perspectives of the majority or the pulls of crowd psychology will provide no more safety than a crowded strip of flypaper. Consensus views have been legendarily wrong and foolish as the behaviors and beliefs of crowds are rarely logical or sophisticated. It is amazing what crowds will believe!

(If you are interested in reading accounts of crazy financial manias and insane beliefs of crowds, I recommend the following two books. First, a classic written by Charles MacKay in 1841: Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. Also, Manias, Panics and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises by Charles P. Kindleberger.)

In contrast, people who have the mental discipline to remain unfazed by the seemingly metaphysical pull of a delusional crowd and to remain calculated, clear-headed and unintimidated are the ones who do best in financial markets. Everyone else risks becoming a casualty should they hold the “wrong” majority view. The same is true in almost any other field – everywhere one will encounter the psychological pressure to concede to the consensus or popular view.

I have been a global investment analyst/executive working in “Wall Street” environs now well into the fourth decade. At the outset, I seemed to be progressing well. I completed a B.Sc. and a graduate degree in less than 4 years. I was the 2nd youngest in my MBA class; youngest Vice President at a major national investment brokerage firm; youngest partner in a powerful and influential investment bank; Director of Research for a major Wall Street firm at the tender age of 33, etc. I may have been stupid, but I hid it well.

In 1986 I was even named a top global analyst by Euromoney Magazine (my specialty at the time was industrial sectors). At a later date, I was a top-ranked portfolio strategist. During all this time in my profession, I practiced systematic, probabilistic, deductive, empirical and Aristotelian (logic) analysis. I liked to be a thinker. All that still applies…I hope. But how could that be? All that time I was a Creationist. Therefore, isn’t something awry?

Here I will throw down the gauntlet. To this day, I have yet to encounter anyone who could conclusively prove evolution as a fact, or for that matter, disprove Creationism. Not one. I offer an open invitation and will challenge anyone. I would even go so far as to defy anyone to prove Evolutionism to be a reasonable “theory.” The evidence clearly reveals it to be the most “primitive” of religions based on the allegations of “science” itself.

By necessity, in a short article series as this, I can only deal with a few main points. My main objectives are to urge the consideration of the “reasonability” of what is believed and to challenge people to think and consider the evidence for what they believe.

In the past, I have received a lot of correspondence offering only vehement and emotional opinions…threats and slurs. Some of them were cowardly as they didn’t have the courage to identify themselves. I expect this article series will attract many heated responses. But please note: I truly am a man of little faith. I will be looking for verifiable information, facts and sources, not unsubstantiated opinions. May the facts fall where they may.

The Proofs and Theories

Evolution remains a theory. That is a fact as you will see. Yet, disingenuously and dishonestly, many people (including those who consider themselves scientists) speak as if it is fact. No, evolution is a theory. In fact, as the evidence shows, it is a desperate theory as it does not rest on scientific facts. Many questions remain open that the evolutionists cannot answer — virtually millions upon millions of inconsistencies and impossibilities that have not found explanation or resolution. Evolutionists can only offer speculative theories and imaginings that have no evidential support. So, to say that Evolutionism is a scientific theory is even to disparage the legitimate historical discipline of science.

What do you believe? To begin, how many options are there in answering the questions of the origins of life on earth? Basically, there are only two systematic approaches (not counting various hybrids, for the moment). These are Naturalism and Creationism. If there were any additional options, I would consider them. I have proposed a third option — Comealongism. This is the escapist’s option, choosing to avoid any serious contemplation and hoping that another explanatory alternative will come along some day. Which of the two former cosmological views requires the least amount of faith? Which can be disproven by scientific observation? Which one requires a lack of reasonableness?

The Record of Science Versus God

I often hear that science and religion are incompatible. This is not true for a number of reasons and certainly not for the Judeo-Christian faiths. In the first place, this claim is ludicrous simply because of the fact that most of the founders of modern science were Christians. (This includes Pascal, Boyle, Newton, Bernoulli, Mendel, Pasteur…the list is long. Please review this article on Wikipedia for a more complete list.)

These were people who believed in the creation account in the Bible as it seemed obvious and sensible to them. They possessed a Biblical worldview. To them, their discoveries and inventions did not invalidate either the Bible or the existence of a Creator. These only served to magnify their reverence for God. Many of them took a deep interest in theology.

The tired debate that has been fought over the past two centuries, staging the Bible as if it would be in opposition to science, is entirely miscast. Yes, there have been many misguided people, theologians and religious institutions who took positions against natural science (for example that the earth was round and that it revolved around the sun) out of ignorance or outright mendacity.

Nevertheless, there is not one statement in the Bible that misaligns with the physical sciences, apart from miracles. After all, that is the definition of a true miracle…something occurring that cannot be explained in the three-dimensional realm. The difference to be noted here between Evolutionism and Creationism is that it is only the latter that provides full disclosure on the roles of miracles and supernaturalism. Evolutionists require millions upon millions of miracles — not only individually or sequentially, but simultaneously and repeatedly — to make their theories work.

Then, how has science come to argue against a Deity? To answer this, we first must define what we mean by science. It goes without saying that it covers a wide arena of inquiry. Some of it is more of an observational type. It studies natural processes or things and documents them as they are. Other science is applied science. It builds on that which is observed and may find other applications for the natural laws and phenomena that it discovers. Then, some of science concerns itself with explaining the “whys” and “wherefores” of what is observed. Here it ventures into the field of theory.

A hypothesis may align with what is observed and can sometimes be successfully used to deduce other outcomes or to find new applications. However a hypothesis or a theory is not the same as fact. This is the accepted foundation of scientific process. Theory is not fact. Integrity and intellectual honesty require that disclaimers are made, especially so when involving speculative or philosophical views.

A very different pursuit under the name of “science” is the exploration of things and processes of the distant past — back to the beginnings of the universe and the origins of all things. Here, observations cannot be made in real time. Scientist were not around thousands (or as it may be claimed) millions of years ago when things supposedly began. Questions relating to how all things began needed to be theorized should one wish to test a naturalistic approach. Such questions as how the universe came about and how life came to earth are the subjects of this branch of study. No harm there. However, somewhere along the line this field of research was uniquely co-opted by a religion…a metaphysical pseudoscience.

What is the difference between real science and pseudoscience? Science depends on evidence and testing. Says Phillip Johnson, “Scientific methodology exists wherever theories are subjected to rigorous empirical testing, and it is absent wherever the practice is to protect a theory rather than to test it.”i

Interestingly, pseudoscience didn’t co-opt other fields of study to the same extent…i.e. study of arts, literature or language. That said, those studying the origins of language can have the same tendency to ignore evidence just because it doesn’t fit their a priori theory. For instance, the entire objective of a book written by Guy Deutscherii on the origins of languages was to try to explain why the evidence didn’t line up with the theory of evolution. The problem was that evidence showed that the first languages to appear in the historical record were sophisticated and complex (far more so than English). The evolutionist was expecting language to evolve from simple forms to the more sophisticated. The evidence was exactly opposite, therefore requiring his tortured and contorted explanations. Karl Popper’s observation is apropos: “The wrong view of science betrays itself in the craving to be right.”iii

A priori biases as described, as well as the incredibly speculative musings (to the point of ludicrousness) by so-called scientists recklessly supporting evolutionism, argue that science should have separated itself from this field of inquiry long ago. Why? As mentioned, it is a pseudoscience and because fanatic evolutionists give real science a black eye. Desperately clinging to their religion, they shamefully steal reputational legitimacy and credibility from “real science.” Today, the meaning of the word “science” has been completely changed. It is no longer the science (in the historical sense) of its founders. The word today means “anything ex-God.”

Science is important and useful. The benefits to mankind of its understandings and inventions are beyond measure. That said, it must also be recognized that such science has never been able to step outside the bounds of the physical or the observable (i.e. outside the Creation). It cannot be used to prove the non-existence of God nor to explain anything that could be outside of Creation. This would be impossible.

 

Notes:

i. Phillip Johnson, (1991), Darwin on Trial, InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, pg. 148.

ii. Guy Deutscher (2005), The Unfolding of Language, Henry Holt and Company, New York.

iii. Karl Popper (1934), The Logic of Scientific Discovery, pg. 281.

One of the signs of the last days, according to Jesus Christ, was to be the rise of many false messiahs. The Bible says: “At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people” (Matthew 24:10-11). Apostle Paul also warned by the Spirit that in the “later times” some people “will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons” (1 Timothy 4:1). People will be deluded and blinded to the truth.

In reality, people will actually want to be deceived. Why? Because that course will appear most desirable to them. The way that appears to be right to mankind, “in the end it leads to death” (Proverbs 16:25). For most of Christianity (especially so in the advanced, high-income countries of the world), this condition is already at a late stage.

Many societies (if not the entire world) already seem near the point (if not already long past) where God finally relents and lets them molder in their own perversions and lusts (Romans 1:24). He gives them over to their perversions and even sends them “strong delusion” (2 Thessalonians 2:11). Again, why? Because wickedness deceives in every way and “because they refused to love the truth and so be saved” (verse 10).

While this penchant for waywardness has always existed, the Bible indicates that it will become rampant nearer the end of days. Jesus, speaking to the Jews, warned that “[…] many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold […]” (Matthew 24:11-12).

The prophet Zechariah, too, writing approximately 2500 years ago, prophesied that the entire world would be cursed with wickedness (Zechariah 5:8). Also, the “man of lawlessness” (2 Thessalonians 2:3), who is described as a deceiver and liar, is to arrive at that end stage. It only follows that conditions in the world will become sympathetic to his arrival well in advance.

The Many Ways of Wickedness

As already mentioned, wickedness foments its strategies and assaults everywhere … at every level, channel and way. Part of this state of increasing wickedness is a blurring of worship between God and Mammon. We have called this a form of ecumenism. While this term historically has described the coming together of so-called Christian sects and faiths, we apply it here to the merging of worship of both God and Mammon (Money). Better said, it is an endtime syncretism of beliefs, and it is described and pictured in the Bible.

Jesus Christ clearly said that one can only one love master, God or Mammon. (“No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon”—Matthew 6:24 KJV.)

But, did Jesus really say that? Wouldn’t it be nice if one could sup at both tables … to worship both God and Money? Wouldn’t that be a pleasurable perspective, and one that will suit itching ears? (2 Timothy 4:3).

Implicitly, this commingling of fealty to both God and Money is exactly what the Bible prophesies will occur. “People will be […] lovers of money” (2 Timothy 3:2) and “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” (verse 4), while at the same time “having a form of godliness but denying its power” (verse 5). Jesus describes this duality … really a duplicity: “[…] on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness” (Matthew 23:28).

Here we see a society that thinks its love of money is compatible with godliness. (Perhaps just as the CEO of the greedy Wall Street-based Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein, could say that he “was doing God’s work.”)

Blurring Beliefs

This blurring of wealth worship (materialism) and institutionalized “godliness” is pictured in the figure of the whore shown in Revelation 17. She is bedecked in fine clothes, “glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls,” and has “a golden cup in her hand” (Revelation 17:4). She represents religion that is in a lucrative league with the worldly kings of the earth. Here it appears that the two orbs of commerce (money) and religion co-exist comfortably. The reality is that materialism, greed and the worship of wealth alone has won the hearts of mankind, though the Bible expressly states that “[…] man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 8:3; Matthew 4:4).

This apparently unbridgeable gap between God and Mammon offers one of the biggest, exploitable marketing opportunities ever known to mankind (and is also an important key to Satan’s last-day strategy). How can one not pass up the chance for rich comfort and lucre from the wealth of Mammon, while at the same time have the assurance of being righteous and spiritual?

If one can figure out a way to convince people that they can both worship God and sup with Mammon at the same table, they or their businesses will meet with certain success. This is not a new discovery. It is a ruse that has worked in past history every time. Today it is an institutionalized strategy and unfolds on a global scale.

Mammon has masterfully honed its alluring appeals to the fleshly affections of mankind. In our day, these temptations and materialistic proposals to our souls are rampant … both immediate and incessant. Who does not agree that the lures of Mammon are lustrous and inveigling? So, even as God promises to be near and never to forsake us (Hebrews 13:5), Mammon’s call to us is also near and with us.

This last-day dominance of Mammon is also reflected through Jesus’ comments to the seven churches. It is the Philadelphian church that is commended by Jesus. It is shown to be weak and poor (Revelation 3:8). In contrast, the Laodicean church, that has confidence in its riches and wealth, is indicted as being blind and naked (verse 17). This church is shown to be as blind as the society in which it exists.

The Many Faces of Laodicea Today

The merging of the worship of God and Mammon has progressed significantly. It surely is a condition that strikes its stake deep into the heart of Christians living in the high-income world. The Laodicean spirit is already well advanced in the world today, evident in a number of ways.

The emergence of Babylon the Great, the great commercial colossus that is depicted in Revelation 17—18, with its cup filled with the vile toxins of commercialism and materialistic idolatry, is already within view. Indeed, there is much debate on the general topic of endtime Babylon (aspects of which we have often commented upon). However, for the purpose of the topic at hand, we need not stop to consider these many views. Here, we only want to focus on one aspect of endtime Babylon(s) (whatever its final form will be) …namely, the “inseparability” of two Babylons.

What is meant by the inseparability of two Babylons, and what might be their identities? How can there be two, and yet they be inseparable at the same time? Actually, this was the very question put to me the first time this writer ever spoke on the topic of Babylon mentioned in Revelation 17 and 18. At the time, I was unprepared. The question was this: Where do you see the break between the Babylon mentioned in Revelation 17 (“Mystery Babylon, the Great Mother of Prostitutes”) and the one mentioned in chapter 18 (great city of Babylon)? I was caught rather flatfooted, as I had simply assumed that they were different Babylons since they were treated in separate chapters and had slightly different names in some Bible translations.

While I still hold to the view that they are different Babylons—in other words, alternate dimensions or at least different perspectives of the last-day Babylon emergence—I also hold to the view that they are inseparable. While this might seem contradictory, it is not. Basically, it is two Babylons clandestinely co-habitating, in effect becoming one. I say clandestinely because most people—surely including many who claim to be Christians—are blind to this emerging union. Yet, this harlotry is becoming ever more open. From the religious side, it is a union that has been sanctioned by an increasing number of Christian denominations and religious movements.

The merging of God and Mammon—figured as religion and materialism, spirituality and faith in globalization commingled together—is the final capstone of mankind’s perversions. This is the very thing that is imaged in the blurred religious and commercial Babylons shown to rise in illicit cahoots in Revelation 17 and 18. In a sense, it is the final, global religion. As such, that may be why the two Babylons in these chapters are presented as one, unbreakable though blurred continuum.

Mammon Among Religions Today

Where is the evidence, people might ask? Where is the blurring of God and Mammon happening today? We have already said that this spirit is clearly evident in a number of ways.

There are numerous channels and multiple feedback loops in this present-day progression. Such relatively new organizations as the International Interfaith Investment Group (3IG), which claims to wield some $10 trillion in wealth and 7% of the inhabitable real estate on the planet, are pushing for a purer and better world with the power of money. This is a group of some 7 world religions.

There are many other organizations that seek to bridge the powers of religion, politics and money.  Some of these include the Alliance of Religions and Conservation (ARC), the Coalition for Renewal (COR), and the Ecumenical Council for Corporate Responsibility (ECCR), to name a few. A sense of the spirit of these initiatives is evident in this quote from the ARC secretary-general: “The world’s major faiths are starting to discover the power of their collective purse. Worldwide […] they own trillions of dollars of shares, estimated by Citigroup to be in the region of 8-10% of the world’s equity market.”

There are many, many more such initiatives, and naming them would shock in some cases. It is therefore no surprise that secular observers comment on the wealth of religious organizations. Says David Silverman of American Atheists, “Churches have a tremendous amount of power and a stupid amount of money.”

Evangelicals may believe that they are not culpable in this last-day blurring of faiths and techniques. In actuality, it is in these very circles that Satan may be chocking up some of his biggest victories. Within so-called Christianity there are many movements in this direction.

Various denominations that promote Prosperity Gospel (material comforts in the here and now), Reconstructionism, Kingdom Now and many other ideologies risk consorting with the deadly and deceitful embrace of Mammon. We do not doubt that there are sincere and godly people who may be swept up in these ideologies, and who come by their ignorance innocently. However, there are certainly also wolves and entities masquerading as “angels of light.”

While we greatly respect good scholarship, it is also academics that has come to the aid of the human desire to love Mammon through the introduction of new theories that “revise” Biblical teaching on idolatry and materialism. For example, such organizations as the influential Acton Institute seem to exist solely to validate capitalism and free-market economics as a Biblically-endorsed system. To the contrary. God has never endorsed any human system.

We have only scratched the surface. What is common to them all? They carry out their agendas and battles the way the world does. They use politics and the power and lure of money and prosperity. Apostle Paul, on the other hand, said otherwise: “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does” (2 Corinthians 10:3).

All of the initiatives mentioned above, as well as other ecumenical thrusts, seek to achieve power in the way of the world … to be seen as shakers and movers on the world scene … shapers of human destiny and the entire planet earth … loving worldly power. Again, the Bible warns against this perspective. Jesus Himself said clearly: “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them” (1 John 2:15).

Thoughts to Ponder

Any religious movement that claims to build a ‘kingdom” on earth is sure to be fostering ideologies that promote earthly citizenship rather than heavenly citizenship. Jesus Christ could not have been clearer on this point, saying that His kingdom was not of this world (John 18:36). This very same Jesusowned no place on earth “to lay his head” (Luke 9:58).

Furthermore, He pointedly asked: “When I return, will I find faith upon the earth?” (Luke 18:8). It is a prophecy enfolded in a rhetorical statement. It is probably the most revealing of the very few prophecies that specifically apply to the Church.

It is an unpopular perspective: Christians (denominations, movements and individuals) and Christian look-alikes—namely, religious developments deliberately conspired by the Enemy to be an imitation—today risk either falling for or trafficking in the lures of both Babylons. They promote the idea that one can consort with Mammon while yet love and worship God.

Apostle Paul provides the admonition that our generation needs to heed: “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ” (Colossians 2:8).