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This article is from
Creation 42(1):6, January 2020

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Radicalizing young people




The mass protests of school students about ‘climate change’ have caused many of us to wonder how it has come to this. Even supposed adults are falling over themselves to genuflect to a 16-year-old kid. We are scratching our heads wondering what the world is coming to.

I believe that we can largely trace this radicalizing to the loss of faith in God, particularly in young people. Since the 1960s, once-Christian countries have increasingly indoctrinated all young people in an evolutionary way of thinking—there was a ‘big bang’, where nothing exploded with no cause billions of years ago, and we are the product of purely natural processes (‘evolution’) since then. In other words, we are ‘star dust’, as one famous commentator put it. We are ultimately a chance product of atoms randomly banging around over billions of years.

Such a view has no room for the Bible’s message of God creating us with a purpose; our fall into sin, sickness, and death in Adam; and salvation in Jesus Christ. This brings a life of purpose lived now and a wonderful hope for eternity, including that we will be free of sickness and death.

Because of the evolutionary brainwashing, the indoctrinated now have no purpose to their lives and no eternal hope or perspective. Consequently, young students are looking for some sort of self-authentication, and a crusade to save the planet fits the bill. Hence the fervour, and we are awash with ‘virtue signalling’!

But not many get to consider that if we were all nothing but stardust from a big bang, and it will all end forever when the universe runs out of useable energy, there would be little point to ‘saving the planet’ anyway. How does one get a moral imperative—what we ought to do—from atoms banging around?

Creation magazine provides a powerful counter to the cultural demise around us, for young and old. This issue presents powerful evidence that God did indeed create everything, just like the Bible says. Our ears (pp. 14–17) reveal incredible design! The wonderful world of bats (pp. 28–31), with their amazing echolocation and flight, speaks of divine invention. In the children’s section, the size of the universe (pp. 32–35) highlights God’s all-powerful nature.

This issue also counters the fake history that has taken popular thinking captive. We have articles correcting the notion that Neandertals were primitive sub-humans (pp. 12–13) and that scholars of the past could not reason logically and scientifically (pp. 26–27). Other articles cover the origin of languages, which backs up the Bible’s real history (pp. 52–55); Egypt’s pyramids and where they fit in (pp. 18–20); how Earth’s inner core should not be as it is if Earth were billions of years old (p. 21); how proteins in fossils refute their claimed age of millions of years, as researched by Brian Thomas, our Ph.D. scientist interviewee for this issue (pp. 38–41); and how the Ice Age needs a catastrophic cause like Noah’s Flood to explain it (pp. 48–51).

But how can we share this vital information? Ian and Heather Hartley show how it can be done at public gatherings (pp. 22–25). (One of their secrets: they give away Creation magazines!) I trust that this encourages others to get active too.

Helpful Resources

Evolution's Achilles' Heels
by Nine Ph.D. scientists
US $17.00
Soft Cover
Christianity for Skeptics
by Drs Steve Kumar, Jonathan D Sarfati
US $17.00
Soft Cover

Readers’ comments

S H.
Thanks for the article. I actually think there's a deeper demonic element to some of the radicalising in the sense that people are inadvertently worshipping the earth and not God. Truth is that worshipping God (who is the creator) should mean that we necessarily look after the earth. My desire in life is always to leave things better than when I arrived and this surely is the outcome of the Holy Spirit in people's lives - God is always redeeming things, turning lives around and putting things right way up. Any theology or worship of environmentalism per se (or those who are the latest faces of this) can never put things right, despite their best efforts. Only God who changes from the inside to the outside can ever bring real and lasting change.
Jaroslav L.
Loss of faith always empowers satan as it is in this case. If one does not follow Christ then he/she is mislead with fake doctrines. [link deleted per feedback rules]

Indeed, we should be more careful about our environment but current false movement is not leading us the right way.
Thanks Nathanael, for drawing Don's attention to the perjorative use of "special needs" to define Gr..'s activism - & thanks Don, for so quickly changing the wording on the online version.
I am the parent of a highly intelligent, caring, amazing teen, who, in his few short years, has been used by God to bring more people to Christ than I have in my many decades - and who also happens to be on the autism spectrum. It is precisely because of the "hyperfocus" on things that they believe in, their loyalty and unshakeability, and the fact that they often don't bow (as much) to peer pressure, that kids like Gr... & my son have the courage and determination to stand up and try to make a difference in a world that has largely lost its way.
I realise the point of your article is that many young people have been "hijacked" by the all-pervasive evolutionary world view, but rather than knock the messenger, lets pray for her, that she, and other young leaders like her, will come to know and love God, and use their God-given tenacity and focus to fight for things of eternal, rather than earthly, significance.
BTW - thanks so much for all that you and the other staff at CMI do to promote Biblical truth, & to make "science" accessible to those without a science background. CMI's emails, books and "Creation" mag are eagerly devoured in our house, and have been invaluable in giving the many young people who we are in contact with a different way to think about things. (Mostly Christians, and most, unfortunately, having been taught some form of theistic evolution by their pastors/churches!)
Stephen N.
Great article by Don Batten. I especially agree with the comments of Bill P. of the US. There has been a deliberate indoctrination of the youth by a group that seeks more power-perhaps world power. As the old saying goes, "those who don't stand for something will fall for anything." I hope CMI keeps up the good work of pointing people to the truth and warning them of the lies of the theory of evolution and other anti-Christ beliefs.
Jordan C.
I thank CMI for such a fine job of destroying arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ in giving answers to all those who seek. I know we are to keep watch because we do not know of the day or the hour, but it does seem more and more that the "fig trees are coming out in leaf", so to speak and the church age of Grace is coming one day closer to the next phase in fulfillment of prophecy in Daniel and Revelation. The stage is setting, the youth leaving the church in record high numbers, Christians are being slaughtered in the middle east, morality is at an all time low and our laws and entertainment reflect this, the God intended family maternal/paternal system becoming a rare statistic, secularism and Islam is on the rise exponentially, global wide deceptions such as evolution, aliens and global warming which is the leading worldview. We do not know the dates or the time, but it seems to me the fig tree branches becoming tender and sprouting leaves, it just seems that summer is drawing nearer. Keep watch! God Bless CMI!
Don Batten
Thanks for your encouragement in what we do. Yes, it is like you say in many of the once-Christian countries. However, we need to keep a global perspective, and the Gospel is advancing in many countries in Africa, Asia, and South America. Even in Moslem countries, many are coming to faith in Christ (e.g. Iran).
Chuck R.
Yet another example of why the 1st Commandment is the most important - " no other gods before Me."
When we turn our backs on Him, it opens the doors for corrupted belief, climate changism, evolutionism, etc. causing us to wander off the Path and find ourselves in the heavy brush of endless problems that seem to have no solution.
The same sin Adam committed, deciding he knew better, is still constantly repeated and we suffer the consequences of it.
Bruce B.
As has frequently been said, 'when people stop believing in God, they don't believe in nothing, they believe anything - even a 16-year girl who has been set up and primed by the true believers of climate change.
Tim L.
On its face, it would seem amazing that people who are anti-God would believe that humans can have a purpose. As Don correctly points out, "Because of the evolutionary brainwashing, the indoctrinated now have no purpose to their lives and no eternal hope or perspective." But then again, it should surprise no one that the worldview that argues that entire universe can come from nothing, that life can come from non-life, that information can come from randomness, and that the personal can come from the impersonal, also argues that meaning and purpose can come from the meaningless and purposeless. When you come from a worldview that says literally everything comes from God, it's hard to wrap your mind around what it would be like to believe that literally everything comes from nothing, but that's the conclusion that one must come to if you eliminate God from the picture. If there is a "God-shaped hole" in every person, these people try to argue that it should be left empty. In practice, they end up trying to fill that hole with themselves.
Bill P.
I'm old enough to remember what 20th century dictators did to get a tighter grip on their power.
Hitler had his Hitler Youth. I remember how he answered some parents who did not agree w/his ideas. He said, "So you don't agree w/my ideas, I don't worry because I have your children. They are young and we are teaching them our ways. You (the parents) on the other hand are old and will soon pass on, while your children will grow up in our camps, learning our ways, and will carry on these ways."
Stalin also had the young children in his camp to indoctrinate them in the ways of socialism for the USSR and eventually the world.
Mao Tse Tong outdid both Hitler, and Stalin. I remember the "Cultural Revolution" of China during the 60's. He used the youth to betray their own parents, hunt down the educated from the earlier generations, and turn in ANY who said one wrong word that went against the govt.
Recently in The U.S. I saw and heard w/my own eyes and ears 2 cabinet members from the previous administration (the Justice Dept., and Dept of Education) express their admiration for Mao and the way he established his nation.
The concept of evolution was embraced by these 3 dictators and forced upon their people, and it has step by step in the West gained power over ALL areas of life. Christianity was totally outlawed in those nation and it is becoming that way here in the U.S.
I heard it said that Hitler was responsible for the "non-war deaths" of 10 million people, Stalin 30 million, w/Mao outdoing both combined w/60 million deaths. I wonder sometimes how many non-war deaths will take place in the west ?
They get their hands on the young and in one generation cause the world to believe the lies of evolution.
Enjoy your work very much, your info needed in these last days.
Egil W.
Hi, thanks again for staying on course.

I think we need to reach these young people, who just actually practice the ‘dead’ message of naturalistic-materialism in a very, - actually - , logically and coherent manner.
Dawkins said something to the effect of as humanist he couldn’t use the ‘we are merely rearranged pondscum’-concept.
He has to choose to practice incoherency in life.
Young people are too little conscious of these things.
They don’t suspect the hidden agendas.
Of course not destroying our planet - the only planet in the entire universe we know of to be life-sustainable - would seem a worthy goal.
Noah was commanded to preserve seven of every clean kind and two of every unclean kind so to give the kinds a chance of prolonged survival.
Protecting nature is not a bad idea as such; but teenagers do not suspect the multilayered political and often, naturalistic and utilitarian agendas, or solutions (?) behind it all.

If we could just reach them to make them ‘radical’ for the love and truth of Jesus, the pure and perfect Jesus, which do not only have promises for this life but for eternity, their energy would be a great asset for the Gospel.
Nathanael L.
As someone with autism, this article is rather marred from the start by calling someone with autism as special needs. Granted, better than calling her mentally ill, as one prominent commentator has done, but still... Whilst some autistic people can justifiably be described as special needs, by no means all can be. Come on CMI. You can do better
Don Batten
Apologies, Nathaniel. I did not intend to insult you, or anyone else with autism. I have removed the offending description.
Susanna H.
I find the angle of this post perplexing. There may be disagreement on the precise role of CO2 emissions. But surely there can be no doubt that the human race is currently doing an excellent job destroying the creation. Some examples would be deforestation rates, extinction rates of plants & animals, earth overshoot day etc.

Further, the present day realities surely fit much better into a worldview based in Genesis. We still, like Adam & Eve, desire to be ‘gods’, to replace the worship of God with the worship of self, to the detriment of all (including the creation & other people in this generation & the next). Thus we disregard the first command God gave to represent Him well in providing appropriate oversight of His creation as His stewards (we are made in His image). Instead we pursue personal gratification & never-ending lifestyle improvements without regard to how we damage what is God’s.

The only thing that doesn’t make sense here, is a culture within the western church that sees the promotion of our rights, lifestyle & worldview as more paramount than the commission of Christ, as though it is Christendom that saves the world, not the gospel. Gospel is founded in Genesis & the great commission (create disciples for God’s glory), is entirely consistent with the original command of God to spread His image & glory (through reproduction of image-bearing, God-glorifying stewards that Adam & Eve’s offspring should have been).

Can I encourage you to use your platform to encourage daily Christian living that is consistent with our beliefs, denying self & glorifying Christ? There is a great case from Genesis that Christian environmentalism should be one aspect of Gospel living, & it is sad to see the western church neglect this. Thank you for your ministry!
Don Batten
The angle of this post is the radicalizing of young people (note the title), and why they are vulnerable to such radicalising by adults due to their evolutionary indoctrination. The article is not about environmentalism or arguing in any way that Christians should not care for the environment. Please see Fouling the nest for a perspective on the Christian responsibility to care for the environment, which I think you would substantially agree with.
Rodney P.
Jesus gave us such a simple but most profound way to test contradictory truth claims. Matthew 7:16 “You will know them [prophets or gurus or teachers etc] by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?” So, Don, by connecting today's hellish anarchy with years of atheistic indoctrination you have surely hit the bullseye!
Luke M.
RE The 'Save the Planet or we're all going to die' deal, if Evolution (molecules to man) were true, would this not be a cause for celebration instead of sorrowing as it should mark another important step in our billions, trillions errr x-illions of extinctions followed by new species arising? Caring for the planet in a non-hysterical way is, I thought, one of the first commands from God fresh after creation. What would happen if the Genesis account and that command was shown/read to the protestors I wonder?

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