This episode is packed with answers in Genesis—but, believe it or not, when we say “Genesis” we’re not talking about the group that’s been fronted by Phil Collins since the early 1970s from which Mike + the Mechanics was a spinoff. The focus of this week’s episode is the other Genesis, the one at the top of the table of contents in your Bible. Apologist and author Ted Cabal joins Garrick and Timothy in the first half to discuss the question, “How much does the age of the earth really matter? Or does it?” Along the way, Ted describes the history of the young-earth creationist movement, different perspectives on the age of the earth, and the greatest guitar he’s ever played.
“Let There Be Rock”—AC/DC’s hard-rocking twist on the opening chapters of Genesis—provides the soundtrack for the second half of this week’s episode. On the way to a discussion of classical arguments for the existence of God, Garrick and Timothy discover why AC/DC ended up in Australia in the first place, what fuels Angus Young’s crazy on-stage antics (hint: it’s not alcohol or drugs), how a sewing machine provided AC/DC with their name, and how a pastor once inadvertently intruded on an AC/DC video that was being filmed in his church. Garrick learns the shocking truth about how Australians pronounce “AC/DC,” and he reveals how he once cruelly destroyed the joy that had previously filled a support technician’s stomach and soul whenever the technician ate Kentucky Fried Chicken. Before it’s over, the dynamic duo locates three classical arguments for the existence of God in AC/DC’s “Let There Be Rock,” and Timothy retitles the argument from design such that it shall be henceforth and forever known as “the tassological argument.”
Also, Garrick and Timothy learn that “the Ten Pound Plan” isn’t a diet—but it would make a great name for a band.
This week’s Toybox Hero Tournament turns out to be the strangest one yet—and that’s saying something, since the Toybox Hero Tournament has already pretty much been a never-ending fountain of strangeness. A gluttonous lepidopteran from Garrick’s youngest child goes into battle against a future Jedi on the planet Hoth. This deadly duel reveals a sordid and previously-unknown connection between The Very Hungry Caterpillar and the exogorth that nearly eats the Millennium Falcon in Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. You’ll never be able to look at The Very Hungry Caterpillar or The Empire Strikes Back in the same way again after this week’s tournament.
The new cover art for this season was created by Dani Wallace (daniwallace.myportfolio.com).
This Week’s Guest to Talk about Creation and the Age of the Earth
Ted Cabal has been a street evangelist, church planter, pastor, and educator. He coauthored Controversy of the Ages: Why Christians Should Not Divide over the Age of the Earth (Lexham Press, 2018) and served as the general editor of The Apologetics Study Bible (B and H, 2nd ed., 2017). His special interest in the intersection of faith and reason grows from his coming to faith in Christ as a professional musician and an atheist while reading the Gospel According to Matthew. You can find out more about Dr. Cabal at his personal blog https://tedcabal.com
Links to Click
Come Let Us Reason: book edited by William Lane Craig and Paul Copan
Controversy of the Ages: book coauthored by Ted Cabal
Apologetics Study Bible: study Bible edited by Ted Cabal
Let There Be Rock: album by AC/DC
Let There Be Rock: song by AC/DC
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The Closing Credits about the Creation of This Episode
Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast thanks B and H Academic for their sponsorship. Music for the podcast has been licensed through Artlist.io and performed by Trent Thompson. Brief excerpts of music played in each program are included solely for the purposes of comment and critique as allowed under the fair-use provision of U.S. copyright law. “The fair use of a copyrighted work … for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, … scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright” (U.S. Code § 107, Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use).