INSPIRING THOUGHTS
The Bible says:
**”Ask me and I will tell you remarkable secrets you do not know about things to come.” Jeremiah 33:3
**”The awe of God is the beginning of wisdom” Psalm 111:10
**“Wisdom begins with ·respect [awe] for the Lord, and understanding begins with knowing the Holy One. Proverbs 1:7 (EXB)
**”He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the scholars. He reveals deep and mysterious things and knows what lies hidden in darkness, though he is surrounded by light.” Daniel 2:22
**“He uncovers mysteries hidden in darkness; he brings light to the deepest gloom.” Job 12:22
What worldview is best for us to follow and what type of education will help us learn the most valuable things to be successful in various areas of life and contribute the most to the lives of others and to help keep societies thriving? This is one of the most important questions on earth.
Many Christian writers attest that the Bible has the best wisdom for life, far surpassing any other book. A couple write:
“It is impossible to enslave, mentally or socially, a Bible-reading people. The principles of the bible are the groundwork of human freedom.” ― Horace Greeley, founder and editor of the New-York Tribune
Ellen White, a profound Christian education pioneer, said:
“The highest grade of schooling that any human being can attain to is the schooling given by the Divine Teacher. This is the knowledge that in a special sense we shall greatly need as we draw near the close of this world’s history, and every one will do well to obtain this kind of education.” , SpTEd p. 137
“The teaching of the Bible has a vital bearing upon man’s prosperity in all the relations of this life. It unfolds the principles that are the corner-stone of a nation’s prosperity,—principles with which is bound up the well-being of society, and which are the safeguard of the family,—principles without which no man can attain usefulness, happiness, and honor in this life, or can hope to secure the future, immortal life. There is no position in life, no phase of human experience, for which the teaching of the Bible is not an essential preparation. Studied and obeyed, the word of God would give to the world men of stronger and more active intellect than will the closest application to all the subjects that human philosophy embraces. It would give men of strength and solidity of character, of keen perception and sound judgment,—men who would be an honor to God and a blessing to the world.” Ellen White, CE p. 66
One field that illustrates the value of God’s wisdom for humanity is in the area of Nobel prizes. Jews and Christians have won almost 90% of Nobel prizes in history (last count was ~22-24% Jewish and ~65% Christian). Not only that, the truths they found in their work have saved over 7 billion lives. This is phenomenal!
Wikipedia reports that Jews have won an incredible ~22% of Nobel prizes with only 0.2% of the world’s population. Christians have won over 65% of Nobel prizes with only ~1/3 of the world’s population.
In 1998, researchers said:
“Our statistics show that about 60% of the Nobel laureates had a Christian background. Twenty-four percent of the laureates had a Jewish background, and 16% either had no affiliation or believed in other religions. One of the impressive results is that 24% of the physics laureates were Jewish or had a Jewish background.”
Nobel prize winners in physics from 1901 to 1990: Simple statistics for physics teachers statistics for physics teachers by Weijia Zhang and Robert Fuller
http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1022&context=physicsfuller, p.199
So Jews make up about 0.2% of the world’s population, but have won ~22-24% of Nobel prizes. Christians make up about 33% of the world’s population, but have won ~65% of Nobel prizes. Together, that’s a stunning 87-89% of Nobel prizes won by Jews and Christians, which is phenomenal!
jinfo.org/Nobel_Prizes.html
How many have atheists won? They have won ~3.6-8.9% of Nobel prizes with at times up to 20-25% of world population. And in most cases, those atheists who won the Nobel prize grew up in a Christian family or nation or a nation with a very deep Christian history.
This indicates that Bible based education has the best results BY FAR.
Oxford professor Richard Dawkins said this about the success of Jews:
“The number of Jews who have won Nobel Prizes is phenomenally high…Race does not come into it. It is pure religion and culture. Something about the cultural tradition of Jews is way, way more sympathetic to science and learning and intellectual pursuits than Islam…I don’t know [why]. But I don’t think it is a minor thing; it is colossal…I don’t have the answer to it. I am intrigued by it…I thought it was astounding.”1
1 “Interview: Richard Dawkins Keeps Making New Enemies”, ISAAC CHOTINER
www.newrepublic.com/article/115339/richard-dawkins-interview-archbishop-atheism, October 29, 2013.
Nobel prizes as well as numerous other advances in many areas of research by Jews and Christians have profound effects on the world. They have literally saved billions of lives, at least 5 billion by some estimates. Researchers say that just the effects of Jewish Nobel prizes along have saved between 2.8 and 5.6 billion lives!
“If we enumerate the total number of lives saved by the twenty-six Jewish individuals listed below using a pro rata scheme according to which each of the individuals associated with a given development is credited with an equal share of the total lives saved by that development, then the resulting number comes to about 2.8 billion lives, which is 50% of the estimated total of about 5.6 billion lives saved by all 105 individuals listed. If, on the other hand, we simply enumerate the total number of lives saved by advances for which at least 50% of the principal developers were Jewish, the number comes to about 4.3 billion lives, or roughly 77% of the total number of lives saved.”2
JEWS LISTED AMONG THE CREATORS OF THE GREATEST LIFESAVING MEDICAL & SCIENTIFIC ADVANCES IN HISTORY (25% of listees, accounting for at least 50% of an estimated total of 5.6 billion lives saved) www.jinfo.org/Life_Savers.html
The work of many Christians has also had profound effects and saved billions of lives as well. The work of just 10 Christian scientists and Nobel prize winners (Florence Nightingale, Louis Pasteur, Mendel, Norman Borlaug, Lister, Jenner, Semmelweis, George W. Carver, Franz Haber and SDAs), often based on Bible principles has saved several billion lives, probably even more than the impact of Jewish research. So there are many Jews and Christians who based on awe for God and love for people have contributed major insights that has saved countless lives, possibly even yours!
Before 1900, your lifespan for most of world’s history would have ended in your 40s or even younger. Many secular scientists agree that the health of the entire world has been greatly benefited by the Bible and Christian scientists (who utilized creation science philosophy and/or specific scientific concepts in the Bible in their work). Some Christian/creationists who saved large numbers of lives because of their work based on Bible principles are:
1) Florence Nightingale: Before her, hospitals were mostly places you went to to die and many nurses were completely uneducated, prostitutes or worse. Nightingale heard God’s voice and due to directly to that worked her whole life to radically change medicine forever (as well as women’s rights). She reduced death rates from 42% (and sometimes higher than 60%) down to 2%. Her work and that of other dedicated Christians in medicine has extended YOUR LIFE IN THIS WORLD significantly and the number of lives saved is uncountable, but very likely is in the billions.
https://guideposts.org/angels-and-miracles/miracles/gods-grace/how-florence-nightingale-changed-the-world, https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/florence-nightingale-saving-lives-with-statistics/zjksmfr,https://themobilityforum.net/2021/06/09/florence-nightingale-the-lady-with-the-statistics/, https://theconversation.com/the-healing-power-of-data-florence-nightingales-true-legacy-134649
2) Gregor Mendel is the father of genetics and has been the foundation of mapping the human genome which has enabled us to improve and save lives in many ways, from detecting and fighting cancer earlier and more effectively to improving the food supply to tracking and preventing infections and various diseases. It’s easy to see that the work of Mendel and many other genetic scientists has helped save millions of lives. which has been and is crucial to improve health and whose work is ACTUALLY the foundation of all biology (Darwinism simply isn’t).
http://creationsafaris.com/wgcs_4.htm#mendel
15 Ways Genomics Influences Our World https://www.genome.gov/dna-day/15-ways,
Still Learning from Gregor Mendel after 200 Years James P. Evans
https://online.ucpress.edu/abt/article-abstract/84/1/8/119396/Still-Learning-from-Gregor-Mendel-after-200-Years
3) Norman Borlaug left an indelible mark on the world. The late agronomist’s work in developing new varieties of wheat starting in the 1940s spawned the “Green Revolution,” and is credited with saving at least a billion lives. For his unparalleled contributions in using science to feed the world, Borlaug was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970, the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1977), the Public Welfare Medal (2002) by the National Academy of Sciences, the National Medal of Science (2005), and the Congressional Gold Medal (2007). In 2014 a statue of him was placed in the National Statuary Hall of the United States Congress; he is the sole scientist represented there.
The man who saved a billion lives November 20, 2016
https://twin-cities.umn.edu/news-events/man-who-saved-billion-lives
4) Pasteur: He pioneered vaccinations which have saved millions of lives.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Pasteur
5-6) Ignaz Semmelweis/Joseph Lister: Pioneered antiseptics which made hospitals and surgeries much safer, saving millions or even billions of lives.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semmelweis, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Lister,_1st_Baron_Lister
7) Edward Jenner: He invented the smallpox vaccinations and is often called “the father of immunology”. Some say his work “saved more lives than the work of any other man”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Jenner
8) Franz Haber. was a German chemist, originally Jewish, but converted to Christianity, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918 for his development for synthesizing ammonia, important for fertilizers and explosives. The food production for half the world’s current population depends on this method for producing fertilizer.
https://www.whitepill.pw/p/scientists-who-saved-most-lives
9) George Washington Carver transformed agriculture, the economy of the US south, and had an incredible influence on the whole world. How did he do it? Carver said it starts with a relationship with God and believing that God will reveal secrets if we dedicate time to be with our Creator and study His secrets:
“The Lord always provides me with life changing ideas. Not that I am special. The Lord provides everyone with life changing ideas. These ideas are quite literally a treasure from the Almighty. It is up to each of us however, to choose and dig for the treasure.”
and
“God is going to reveal to us things He never revealed before if we put our hands in His. No books ever go into my laboratory. The thing I am to do and the way of doing it are revealed to me. I never have to grope for methods. The method is revealed to me the moment I am inspired to create something new. Without God to draw aside the curtain I would be helpless.” ~ George Washington Carver
God may speak and use people in different ways, but in Carver’s case, this is some of how it worked. Carver said:
“All my life, I have risen regularly at four in the morning to go into the woods and talk with God. That’s where He reveals His secrets to me. When everybody else is asleep, I hear God best and learn my plan…” ~ George Washington Carver
“The Lord always provides me with life changing ideas. Not that I am special. The Lord provides everyone with life changing ideas. These ideas are quite literally a treasure from the Almighty. It is up to each of us however, to choose and dig for the treasure.”
Carver understands himself and how he hears God. He understands that God’s unseen world is understood by looking at the things which are seen (Romans 1:20). He leans on God for understanding.
“My prayers seem to be more of an attitude than anything else. I indulge in very little lip service, but ask the Great Creator silently, daily, and often many times a day, to permit me to speak to Him through the three great Kingdoms of the world which He has created – the animal, mineral, and vegetable Kingdoms – to understand their relations to each other, and our relations to them and to the Great God who made all of us. I ask Him daily and often momently to give me wisdom, understanding, and bodily strength to do His will; hence I am asking and receiving all the time.” ~ George Washington Carver
“Reading about nature is fine, but if a person walks in the woods and listens carefully, he can learn more than what is in books, for they speak with the voice of God.” ~ George Washington Carver
Carver gives God the credit for his ideas, even though he recognizes his own responsibility to hear and act.
“As I worked on projects which fulfilled a real human need forces were working through me which amazed me. I would often go to sleep with an apparently insoluble problem. When I woke the answer was there. Why, then, should we who believe in Christ be so surprised at what God can do with a willing man in a laboratory? Some things must be baffling to the critic who has never been born again.” ~ George Washington Carver
…
About his work with the peanut, Carver recalls:
“Years ago I went into my laboratory and said, “Dear Mr. Creator, please tell me what the universe was made for?” The Great Creator answered, ‘”You want to know too much for that little mind of yours. Ask for something more your size, little man.” Then I asked, “Please, Mr. Creator, tell me what man was made for.” Again the Great Creator replied, “You are still asking too much. Cut down on the extent and improve the intent.” So then I asked, “Please, Mr. Creator, will you tell me why the peanut was made?” “What do you want to know about the peanut?” And then the Great Creator taught me to take the peanut apart and put it together again. And out of the process have come forth all these products” (from George Washington Carver: His Life and Faith in His Own Words, by William J. Federer)
Carver asked God to show him why he made the peanut. He knew it was the solution for soil health but he needed to know why it was valuable so his crop rotation idea could be implemented.
He told me, ‘separate the peanut into water, fats, oils, gums, resins, sugars, starches, and amino acids. Then recombine these under My three laws of compatibility, temperature, and pressure. Then, the Lord said, ‘you will know why I made the peanut!” ~ George Washington Carver
“Within ten days George Washington Carver had “discovered” more than 300 uses for the peanut. One trip to that special place in the woods to talk with God not only enhanced race relations at the time but also fundamentally changed the agricultural industry as we know it today. All because he listened to and felt the spirit of God in his life.” (Andy Andrews)
Standing before the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee in Washington D.C., in 1921, the Committee Chairman asked, “Dr. Carver, how did you learn all of these things?” Carver answered, “From an old book.” “What book?” asked the Chairman. Carver replied, “The Bible.” The Chairman inquired, “Does the Bible tell about peanuts?” “No, Sir,” Dr. Carver replied, “but it tells about the God who made the peanut. I asked Him to show me what to do with the peanut, and He did.’”
About George Washington Carver, Martin Luther King Jr. said, “From oppressive and crippling surroundings, George Washington Carver lifted his searching, creative mind to the ordinary peanut, and found therein extraordinary possibilities for goods and products unthinkable by minds of the past and left for succeeding generations an inspiring example of how an individual could rise above the paralyzing conditions of circumstance.”
Just these Christian creationist scientists above are directly responsible for saving at least 2 billion lives, more than any other group in all history. And YES, some of their work was inspired directly and/or due to Bible concepts.
10) SDAs: Many health experts pay tribute to Seventh Day Adventists (SDAs) for improving the health of the entire world from living to their 40s-50s in the 1800s to now where average ages are in the 70s-80s. Who are the SDAs? A brief intro is here:
SDAs have been studied by scientists more than almost any other group on earth because they live longer than almost anyone else. They live almost 10 years longer than others in America on average and are the #1 longest living group as National Geographic research on Blue Zones found out (see 11:30+ in this link):
https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_buettner_how_to_live_to_be_100
This article is a good overview
THE ADVENTISTS AND WHAT THEY MEAN TO YOU!
http://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/what-adventists-mean-to-you
SOME EXCERPTS
“You don’t have to be a member of the Adventist religion for them to have a powerful influence on your life… Due in part to their unique dietary habits lowering their risk for certain diseases, they provide a special opportunity for medical science to get answers related to how diet and other habits might affect the rest of us. Add the fact that Seventh-day Adventists live longer than virtually any group of people on the planet and it is easy to understand why they are one of the most heavily researched populations on earth…
Serious studies take years to tabulate and complete and who the subjects are is vital to their success. Almost all of the people that participated in the studies that helped us define what good health means today were Volunteers and many of us are alive today because of them…There has likely never been a series of scientific medical studies that provided more useable health benefits to as many people than those conducted on the Seventh-day Adventists over the last 50+ years. And there have almost certainly been none that have undergone such comprehensive, worldwide scientific peer review. Much of the increased life expectancy of humans over the past century is due to medical research and what is written here about the Adventist Health Studies is based upon documented scientific fact.
We are not Adventists and we have no interest in promoting one religion over another. But we can tell you that the fact that they are a religion, rather than a specific ethnic group, is of enormous value to medical research…It is simply an irrefutable scientific fact that the uniqueness of the Adventist population has allowed and will continue to allow the discovery of relationships between certain lifestyle behaviors, health and disease that are not easily determined from other populations…
The contribution these humble servants of God and mankind have made to the health of us all has gone largely unnoticed, outside the halls of medical science, and what follows is an attempt to give them their due…We think you’ll be as amazed as we were when you discover where so much of what we accept as basic truth about our health comes from and who the people are that provided that information. We also believe that…the contribution the Adventists have made to global health, over such a long period of time, makes them worthy of being singled out in this regard. We hope you agree and will join us in saluting these healthy, happy people for the contribution they’ve made to each of our lives.”
……..One of their core beliefs is they take “God at His word” that your body is your temple and not taking care of it is an insult to God. They point to passages within the Bible related to eating mostly fruits, vegetables, whole grains and nuts and avoiding food that’s bad for you. Having a full day of rest on the Sabbath, which to an Adventist is Saturday instead of Sunday, is a key belief, and so is getting enough exercise.
We believe what delivers such amazing health benefits is that taking care of their bodies is built into their faith, so they follow the rules more carefully than most of us do. The results speak for themselves in the good health they enjoy and since these rewards take place during their lifetime they seem to act as an affirmation that they’ve chosen the right faith….
Before we begin our own review of the data we felt it was important you know we aren’t alone in our admiration for them. The World Health Organization, US National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, National Institute on Aging, the governments of Norway and the Netherlands and many other countries, the Harvard Medical School and numerous other academic institutions we don’t have space to mention, feel the way we do. And of course the role of Loma Linda University, the home of the Adventist Medical School, is vital to this process, without them much of this would not be possible. We provide links to their website at the bottom of the page that will give you access to around 200 abstracts of peer reviewed scientific opinions you may want to review. We decided to begin our own review with their relationship to the “Blue Zones”.
A…RICH HISTORY
From the very beginning, Adventists have focused on the importance of education and healthcare in improving people’s lives. They have championed the poor all over the world and were leaders in the early days of the civil rights movement here in the United States.
One of the founding principles of the Adventist church is a healthy lifestyle—a balanced combination of exercise, diet, and trust in God. They operate successful stop-smoking clinics worldwide and they continue to be active in providing schools and hospitals where they are needed around the world.
“We are not an American church with foreign missions. We are a world church with a world mission.”
BLUE ZONES
A Blue Zone is a “longevity oasis” and the people who live there have the longest life expectancies on earth. There are only five official Blue Zones in the entire world and they are located in regions of different countries where people commonly live active lives past the age of 100…Only one of the Blue Zones is located in the United States. It was found when researchers, who were studying a group of Seventh-day Adventists in Loma Linda, California, discovered they suffered from a fraction of the diseases that commonly kill people in other parts of the United States and throughout the developed world…
WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED FROM THE ADVENTISTS
The first major study of Adventists that benefits us today is known as the Adventist Mortality Study. It began in 1960 and consisted of 22,940 California Adventists. It entailed an intensive 5-year follow-up and a more informal 25-year follow-up. The study (1960–1965) indicated that Adventist men lived 6.2 years longer than non-Adventist men in a concurrent American Cancer Society Study and Adventist women had a 3.7-year advantage over their counterparts. Death rates of Adventists compared to other Californians from the original study:
• Death rates from all cancers was 60% lower for Adventist men and 76% lower for Adventist women
• Lung cancer 21% lower
• Colorectal cancer 62% lower
• Breast cancer 85% lower (in further studies this percentage has changed)
• Coronary heart disease was lower, especially for Adventist men
An additional study (1974–1988) involved approximately 34,000 Californian Adventists over 25 years of age. Unlike the mortality study, the purpose was to find out which components of the Adventist lifestyle give protection against disease. The data from the study has been reviewed for decades and many of the findings linking diet to cancer and coronary heart disease still guide our thinking today. For example:
• On average, Adventist men live 7.3 years longer and Adventist women live 4.4 years longer than other Californians
• Five simple health behaviors promoted by the Seventh-day Adventist Church for more than 100 years including not smoking, eating a plant-based diet, eating nuts several times per week, regular exercise, and maintaining normal body weight, can increase life span up to 10 years
• Increasing consumption of red and white meat was associated with an increase of colon cancer
• Eating legumes was protective for colon cancer
• Eating nuts several times a week reduces the risk of heart attack by up to 50%
• Eating whole meal bread instead of white bread reduced non-fatal heart attack risk by 45%
• Drinking 5 or more glasses of water a day may reduce heart disease by 50%
• Men who had a high consumption of tomatoes reduced their risk of prostate cancer by 40%
• Drinking soy milk more than once daily may reduce prostate cancer by 70%
More information about Adventist Health Studies here:
https://publichealth.llu.edu/adventist-health-studies
More information about the Adventist Diet here:
https://www.sdada.org/position.htm
MORE INFO
See these sites for more info about life saving scientists and innovations.
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/03/the-50-most-important-life-saving-breakthroughs-in-history
https://www.dailygood.org/story/1078/15-humans-that-saved-millions-of-other-humans-kindness-blog
There are many habits in the Bible that contribute to having superior grades and intelligence. Some involve health habits such as exercise and avoiding alcohol which help the brain learn and remember information better. Some involve mental attitudes such as a love for learning and wisdom and testing everything fairly. Some involve human rights such as Jews and Christians pioneered public education as well as most human rights so that whole populations can learn truth and contribute. Many scientific research studies now show that various Bible lifestyle principles of God dramatically improves grades, intelligence, creativity and wisdom. These are some of them.
1) Jews and Christians taught simple principles of great wisdom from God that all can understand and follow if they will take time to read and practice them. They focused education on most important concepts like love, purpose, truth, and action which Jesus said were most important (Mark 12:28-31).
Dr. William Jeynes is professor of the history of education at California State University and found that students with high knowledge of the Bible get about one GPA point higher than students who have low knowledge of the Bible (That’s about 10%). That’s quite phenomenal. Dr. Jeynes says,
“The meta-analysis I conducted indicates that students with high Bible literacy earn a grade point average that is about one point higher than that of students with low Bible literacy….Many classic authors—Dickens, Tolstoy, and Dostoyevsky,—assume the reader’s knowledge of the Bible. A familiarity with the Bible helps students fathom such books as The Grapes of Wrath, Jane Eyre, and Lord of the Rings. One cannot understand the fight against slavery, the women’s suffrage movement, or the Civil Rights movement without knowledge of the Bible…The reasons for the association of Bible literacy with higher academic outcomes are many, but the data remind us that America’s schools cannot claim that their graduates are well educated unless they have knowledge of the Bible.”
The Academic Advantages of the Bible | William Jeynes
https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2017/11/the-academic-advantages-of-the-bible
2) Because they believed that God created everyone equal, Jews educated everyone, not just the top richest and most powerful which was the norm for most of history outside Christianity (usually less than 1% of people had any formal education for most of history).
The articles “World Perfect” have a great overview of this.
https://aish.com/48899267 (good overview)
World Perfect part 1.
https://aish.com/part_1_key_values_for_a_perfect_world
Other parts are here.
https://aish.com/seminars/worldperfect/
3) Jews and many Christians taught education of the whole person (physical, mental, moral), not just memorizing math, language and science. They emphasized that the classroom itself was life, not just preparation for a job.
4) Jews and Christians taught students to question EVERYTHING, including teachers, priests, unbelievers, every claim. 1 Thess. 5:21
5) Jews taught and followed good health principles (this can add ~50% or more to grades compared to those who don’t follow them according to science). Jews have done so better than Christians which explains why they are more successful.
6) Jews pioneered equality and justice for all and pioneered most human rights. They went through many hardships and this motivated them to innovate a lot.
7) Jews emphasized strong, loving families and met in their faith communities weekly (which adds ~14% to grades).
Ellen White writes:
“The word of God should have a place—the first place—in every system of education. As an educating power, it is of more value than the writings of all…ages….There is no position in life, no phase of human experience, for which the Bible does not contain valuable instruction…all may here find lessons of priceless worth…Infinite Wisdom sets before us the great lessons of life,—the lessons of duty and happiness. These are often hard to learn, but without them we can make no real progress. They may cost us effort, tears, and even agony; but we must not falter nor grow weary. It is in this world, amid its trials and temptations, that we are to gain a fitness for the society of the pure and holy angels. Those who become so absorbed in less important studies that they cease to learn in the school of Christ, are meeting with infinite loss.” Fundamentals of Education p. 542-4
SDAs have a much shorter history than the Jews, but a lot of research, such as Cognitive Genesis, shows that Adventist education is far superior to secular education. And if you look at the health principles NEWSTART one by one and what science says about the impact of them on brain function, overall, students who follow NEWSTART habits vs. those who don’t can get up to 50% higher grades. These days most students know that health habits have value for health and some know they help brain function…so few students don’t follow at least a couple NEWSTART principles. But each makes a major difference.
Their work in health should easily have won a Nobel prize as well since it has saved the lives of many millions of people. This scientific site.
http://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/what-adventists-mean-to-you
Almost anything that is good in secular ethics was borrowed/plagiarized from the Jews and Christians who worked and sacrificed, often with their lives, for CENTURIES and MILLENIA before secularism figured out these principles had good value.
The Chinese have a proverb. “Those who drink the water should not forget those who dug the well.” This is basic integrity. Unfortunately, skeptics don’t remember who dug the human rights well, the education well, the science well and many others that they benefit enormously from. Just as important, it was the well of genuine faith in God (which is based on certain truth and proof as in Luke 1/Acts 1, trust that God knows best and action to discover His secrets to protect human lives) that fueled countless advances in history.
It is this same well of genuine faith in God that has by far the best wisdom for us in the future to overcome every challenge and crisis that we face. Nothing from any other source has ever compared to the vast insights that God’s truths have given to the world, repeatedly saving lives and advancing freedom. If we want to do the best to continue that legacy, it is only going to happen as we commune with God.