Pastor Became Atheist. Why?

Teresa McBain ministered in the Methodist church for twenty years. She formerly pastored at Lake Jackson United Methodist Church in Tallahassee, Florida, but today she ministers as the public relations director of the American Atheists.1 She says that she used to believe in the God of the Bible, but she recently changed her mind: "I know it's a lie. I know it's false."2 Why has she rejected God?

She explained her reasons to the Christian Post, saying, "One [reason] was the contradictory nature of the Bible; the lack of scientific or historical foundation or accuracy, which took me a very, very long time to come to terms with."3

It makes sense to reject the God of the Bible if the Bible contained errors and lacked scientific or historical foundation. But it doesn't. Analyzing and teaching the amazing ways that true science confirms Scripture is what motivates the ministry of ICR—evidence for the veracity of science and Scripture abounds.

While McBain may represent those who are unfamiliar with or reject the truth of Scripture, scientific and historical confirmations of the Bible exist in abundance. A summary of ICR News reports during the month of June 2012, a small sampling of evidence, provides just a snapshot of recent examples:

Gene control regions are protected from tampering, which means that assuming that evolution tampers with them is a faulty conclusion. 4

Evolutionists turned a blind eye to original dinosaur red blood cells when they claimed that Otzi the Iceman's red blood cells were the oldest preserved. Red blood cells in dinosaur fossils fit with the biblical young world. 5

A clay seal with the oldest inscription of the word "Bethlehem" confirms that it had been a village before Micah prophesied that the Lord would be born there. 6

Squid ink, made of original, unmineralized biochemical melanin, cannot possibly be as old as its 160-million-year age assignment, confirming the Bible's historical time line as well as its account of the great Flood. 7

The precisely arranged body parts of rorqual whales were all required to coexist simultaneously for them to eat and survive, confounding whale evolution and confirming Genesis 1:21. 8

Whoever arranged the molecular machines that perform plant photosynthesis understood quantum mechanics far better than any physicist. 9

A 1984 Bible-based model for the origin of planets predicted that Mercury's crust would contain remanent magnetism from its recent creation. This was confirmed by MESSENGER's most recent survey in 2012. 10

The newly published bonobo genome has a hallmark of special creation—its gene sequences do not match any evolutionary tree, but comprise a well-integrated mosaic of gene systems.11

The idea that the Bible has contradictions and lacks scientific or historical confirmation is popular, but it is wrong.

In a dramatic moment at the 2012 Annual Convention of American Atheists in Bethesda, Maryland, MacBain apologized to her new atheist friends for having been one of those "crazy fundamentalists."12 Believing in the fundamentals of the Bible would be crazy if the Bible were not internally, scientifically, and historically reliable.13 But because its verifications are so overwhelming, refusing to believe it is crazy.

References

* Mr. Thomas is Science Writer at the Institute for Creation Research.

Article posted on August 8, 2012.