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Christianity and Science
Enemies or Friends?
Simple Truth Club, UCLA
October, 20, 2012John Oakes PhD
Thomas Huxley, Darwin’s “bulldog”
“We are as much the product of blind forces as is the falling of a stone to earth, or the ebb and flow of the tides. We have just happened, and man was made flesh by a series of singularly beneficial accidents.”
In the universe of blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt and other people are going to get lucky: and you won’t find any rhyme or reason to it, nor any justice. The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is at the bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good. Nothing but blind, pitiless indifference. DNA neither knows nor cares. DNA just is, and we dance to its music.
Accident or Design?
William Paley
The Teleological ArgumentEvidence for Design in NatureThe Anthropic Principle
Boeing 747Design or Accident?
1. Ideal solvent to support life (dissolves ions and molecules
2. Right boiling and melting points3. High specific heat4. Solid floats on liquid5. Contracts from 0 to 4 degrees centigrade
Water
Designed Elements?
Carbon: The Central Element of Life
3-D molecules
Large, complex yet flexible molecules
The Ozone Layer:Is oxygen a designed element?
a) b)
DNA
Protein
Nature creates order, but not information
A House of Cards: Order and Information.Nature does not spontaneously create information.The simplest conceivable living thing: e-coli have one trillion + pieces of information.
Science before the 1950s:The universe was NOT created.
Hebrews 11:3“By faith we understand that the universe
was created… so that what is seen has been made from things that are not visible.”Genesis 1:3
God said “Let there be light,” and there was light.The Big Bang
· 1929 Hubble. The Red Shift: The universe is expanding.
· 1965 Penzias and Wilson, background microwave radiation.
Physicists now:
The universe was created.
Physics:
The Finely Tuned Universe
.00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001
Fine Tuning of the Universe
Constant A Little Bigger A Little Smaller 1. Gravitational constant very short-lived stars no stars
2. Ratio of electrons to protons no stars or galaxies no stars or galaxies 3. Strong Nuclear Force no hydrogen, fusion only hydrogen 4. Weak Nuclear Force all H2 He at big bang no He at big bang
no heavy elements 5. Electric Force no chemical bonding no chemical bonding 6. Expansion rate of universe no galaxies universe collapses quickly
7. Ratio of matter to antimatter too much radiation for life not enough matterfor galaxies to form
and many more….
A finely-tuned instrument built by humans. Good to one part in a billion?
Fred Hoyle on Fine-TuningFred Hoyle on Fine-Tuning
“… a super-intellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as with chemistry and
biology.”
Antony Flew Considers God...Antony Flew Considers God...
2004 Anthony Flew 2004 Anthony Flew accepts the accepts the Anthropic Anthropic Argument, Argument, concluding that concluding that “some sort of Deity “some sort of Deity brought about this brought about this universe.” He says universe.” He says he has in mind he has in mind something like the something like the God of Aristotle, a God of Aristotle, a distant, impersonal distant, impersonal "prime mover.""prime mover."
Conclusion:“Since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”
Romans 1:20The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour fourth speech. Night after night they display knowledge
Psalms 19:1-2
Part IIScience and the Bible
Delos B. McKown:“Christianity is scientifically
unsupported and probably insupportable, philosophically suspect at best and disreputable at worst, and historically fraudulent.”
Papyrus Ebers
The Ebers Papyrus:
“To prevent hair from turning gray, anoint it with the blood of a calf which has been boiled in oil or with the fat of a rattlesnake.”
“A mixture of six fats, namely those of the horse, the hippopotamus, the crocodile, the cat, the snake and the ibex.... to prevent hair loss.”
Drugs of Choice in Papyrus Ebers:
• Lizards blood• Swine’s teeth• Putrid meat• Moisture from Pigs’ ears• Excreta from animals including human
beings, donkeys, antelope, dogs, cats and flies
“I will not bring on you any of these diseases...”
Exodus 15:26
“The pig... is unclean for you...those that walk on their paws...the weasel, the rat...are unclean for you.”
Leviticus 11
“The sting of a hornet is healed by the house-fly, crushed and applied to the wound.”
“The gnat, feeble creature, taking in food but never secreting it is a specific against the poison of the viper.”
An ancient Hebrew medical manuscript.
“Whoever touches the dead body of anyone will be unclean for seven days. He must purify himself with the water on the third and seventh day...take some hyssop, dip it in the water and sprinkle the tent and furnishings and the people who were there.”
Numbers 19
Semelweiss
Vienna, 1847
• In maternity wards one out of every six women dies.
• Obstetricians ascribe deaths to constipation, fear and poisonous air.
Death Rate falls from 18% to 0.5%
“As long as he has the infection he remains unclean. He must live alone;
he must live outside the camp.”
Quarantine for infectious disease
Leviticus 13:46
LEPROSY
• Killed millions of people in Europe and around the world for thousands of years.
• “Fear of all other diseases taken together can hardly be compared to the terror spread by leprosy.”
—Dr. George Rosen
Leprosy
MEDICAL COMMUNITY HAD NO ANSWERS
They taught that it was brought on by eating hot food, pepper, garlic and the meat of diseased hogs. Other physicians said it was caused by a
malign conjunction of the planets.
Leviticus 13:46“As long as he has the infection he remains
unclean. He must live alone; he must live outside the camp.”
The life is in the bloodLeviticus 17:14 “… the life of every creature is in its blood. That is why I have said to the Israelites, ‘You must not eat the blood of any creature, because the life of every creature is its blood; anyone who eats it must be cut off.’ ”
Bloodletting
The most common medical practice in 1700s and 1800s
Bloodletting Instruments from
1800s
“For the generations to come, every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised...”
Genesis 17:12
Vitamin K
Prothrombrin: a clotting protein.
020406080
100120140
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
days
% o
f nor
mal
Clotting Protein Peaks on Day Eight
Available Prothrombin
Day Day CircumcisedCircumcised
Number of Hebrew Number of Hebrew BoysBoys
Number of DeathsNumber of Deaths
11 823823 44
33 759759 66
55 693693 88
77 855855 33
99 770770 22
1111 698698 44
How Did Abraham Pick the Eighth Day?
“He spreads out the northern skies over empty space; He suspends the earth over nothing”
Job 26:8
The earth is on the back of four elephants standing on top of a turtle, encircled by a serpent, swimming in a sea of milk…
The Sutras
Topics not touched on:
1. The origin of the universe.
2. The origin of life.
3. The origin of species; especially of humans.
4. The age of the earth.
www.evidenceforchristianity.org
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