Guillen alludes to the age of earth in millions of years and I’m not sure what exactly his beliefs are regarding a literal six day creation.

However, when it comes to believing that God is God, and that the Bible is holy and true, many people struggle. Much of what we consider to be scientific fact has actually been inferred from theories mixed with data gathered from instrumentation, not from direct evidence or experience. This is especially true when it comes to cosmology and inner-Earth science. What we “know” about our planet and our universe is somewhat based on conjecture, albeit intelligent logical reasoning derived from indirect evidence. We can’t, at this point, sample the Earth’s core any more than we can visit the far reaches of our universe. That certainly is a claim to deity, isn’t it? No wonder the Lord wanted everyone to hear this statement! To believe in Jesus is to believe in God, because Jesus is God! Jesus is fully God! The converse is also true. If you don’t believe in Jesus, you don’t believe in God.

The Rise of Ocularcentrism

As a soon-to-be college graduate, you have developed the ability to gather and analyze empirical data to test truth claims and to reason your way through complex questions. In the process, you may have acquired what is often called “healthy skepticism” when it comes to assessing claims of pitchmen and politicians. These skills and intellectual habits will serve you well. As a defense of the Christian worldview, Believing is Seeing is a bit of a mixed bag. First, there are some excellent bits:

Why is it that we have a much harder time believing in a sovereign God, than we do a story on the news or from a friend? Why is it difficult for some to comprehend and believe that God created the universe, is in control of everything, and ordains life? The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight, and asked them, "Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?" His parents answered, "We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age, he will speak for himself." (John 9:18-21 RSV)

One day, however, when I was feeling beaten down by a crisis ....., it happened. After decades of being an Atheist-scientist, of assiduously exploring the world's great religions, I relaxed ... let go ... and completely surrendered myself to the buoyancy of Jesus' promise."

Now he has grown spiritually. He still regards Jesus as a man, but he sees him as God's man, a gifted man, a man with insight and understanding, a great man. All the resistance to accepting this remarkable miracle has deepened his insight and understanding. Then the man's parents become involved. I would not like to be in the shoes of any of those Jesus Seminar “scholars” at the last day. “There is a judge for the one who rejects Me and does not accept My word -- the very word which I spoke will condemn Him at the last day.” Dr. Guillen makes it clear that every worldview requires faith in unprovable assumptions. Logic, mathematics, the scientific method - none of these can work without axioms. He draws extensively on Godel's incompleteness theorems, but the basic idea has been well understood by philosophers and theologians for centuries. At the same time, I hope that your university education has not turned you into full-blown skeptics. For, to paraphrase Hamlet to his college-buddy Horatio, “There are more things in heaven and earth . . . Than are dreamt of in our philosophy” ( Hamlet 1.5.167-68). The answer is not as straightforward as you might think. Remember those True or False questions from childhood exams? This isn’t one of those. The answer to this question involves numerous factors, having nothing to do with eyesight, which determine the seeming reality of the observer. Beliefs, acceptance, perception, perspective and past experience are all filters that shape our vision.

Faith only comes by hearing God's Word, and believing it - no matter what - without a shadow of a doubt - without needing constant visual proof. As a thermal engineer, I rely on the laws of thermodynamics to make nearly all of my analyses and designs. I use them to put bread on the table. I appreciate their beauty and revel in their elegance.

A few years ago, a book entitled “The Five Gospels” was published. It was produced by the “Jesus Seminar,” a group of liberal scholars. The subtitle of the book is, “What did Jesus really say?” These scholars got together for the purpose of questioning everything that Jesus said. They came to the conclusion that Jesus never really spoke most of what the Bible quotes Him as saying. They decided that most of the written words and teachings of Jesus were fabricated by early Christians soon after Jesus’ death! Loading the player ... "Then Jesus told him, 'Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed'." John 20:29 (NIV)When our Lord smears clay over this man's eyes he is saying that there is something hindering the man's spiritual sight -- not only his physical, but his spiritual sight. It is the clay of his humanity, his own and that of those with whom he is surrounded. That fallen human nature is a hindrance to seeing spiritual truth and reality. When he sends this man on a stumbling journey to the pool of Siloam he is indicating that there is a difficult time ahead of him. The process of healing his spiritual sight will involve a prolonged and difficult journey that will be filled with obstacles. It is only when he gets to the pool that his inner sight will be granted him. heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" this they replied, "You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!" And they threw him out. I also really enjoyed the discussion about light and how the Scriptural and scientific truths align on this.