Science Christian Apologetics

7/29/2019 Science Christian Apologetics

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Science and Christian

Apologetics

JOHN OAKES, PhD



Our Outline

Science and Religion: The Limits of Science

The History of Science and Christianity

The “Christian” Response

The Age of the Universe and the Age of the Earth

Genesis 1 and Creation The Flood

Evolution

The Anthropic Principle: Evidence for Design

Scientific Materialism/Scientism/Naturalism Science and the Bible (other than creation and the flood)

Science and Other Religions



Required Reading

Is There a God By John Oakes

Any other book on the topic of your choosing, but it must be on topic.

Suggestions

Darwin's Black Box by Michael J. Behe

Nature's Destiny by Michael J. Denton, (The Free Press, 1998)

The Science of God, by Gerald L. Schroeder (Broadway Books, 1997) The Privileged Planet, by Guillermo Gonzalez (Regnery Publ., 2004)

The Language of God, by Francis S. Collins (Free Press, 2006)

Coming to Peace With Science, by Darrel R. Falk (InterVarsity Press, 2004)

Intelligent Design: The Bridge Between Science and Theology by William A

Dembski and Michael J. Behe

The Source by John Clayton

The Fingerprint of God, by Hugh Ross, PhD (Whitaker House, 2000)None of These Diseases, by S. I McMillan, M. D. (Revell, 1984)

Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, by Michael Denton

Finding Darwin's God, by Kenneth Miller (Harper Collins, 1999)



Grading (if you are getting credit)

The Reading 30%

Quiz 10%

Exam 30%

Paper 30% A research paper of 5 or more pageson a special topic of your choice.



Two categories of Apologetic Topics

Defending the Faith

History and Archaeology

How We Got the Bible(including response toform criticism, etc.)

Science and the Bible

Contradictions in the Bible

Creating Faith

World View

Prophecy

Miracles/Resurrection

Claims of Jesus



Science and religion




Science and Religion



Science and Religion

What is Religion?

What is Science?



Science

The use of experiment to test theories about thelaws of nature.



Science

Scientific knowledge is a relationship betweenobservations

Scientific knowledge is quantitative The observations are subject to refinement

Scientific knowledge is progressive and tentative

Scientific knowledge is neither true nor false, butrather consistent with the observations andconsistent with prior knowledge



Religion

Religion is a belief in something

The belief is not necessarily substantiated by physical or material evidence

Religious knowledge obtained through holy writings, authority, revelations and religiousexperiences

Religionists have faith or trust in suchknowledge



Religion

Religious knowledge is qualitative notquantitative.

Religious knowledge is not gotten throughmeasurement

In religion knowledge is taken as either true orfalse.

Religious knowledge is neither progressive, nortentative.



Questions Science Can Answer

When?

What?

Where? How many?

By what means?



Questions Science Cannot Answer:(That Religion Does Answer)

Why am I here?

Is that the right thing to do?

How valuable am I?

Does God exist? Does God act (theism)?

Will that God respond if I pray?

Do supernatural events (miracles) happen?



Science, being incapable of answering the question of meaning, will always give the impression of meaninglessness,even though such a conclusion requires metaphysics. AsTorrance notes, “patterns may be created [by science] butnot meaning...” Naturally, science should not be forced into

answering this question – it should be allowed to perform itstask under the guise of materialism, even if this results inmeaninglessness. Science can never be permitted to insertsupernatural or metaphysical explanations into its theories:



A statement a scientist should not make (if he or she is well trainedand is not manipulating you):

Evolution is true. The Big Bang happened.

Better statements:

The theory of evolution is by far the best model we have to explainboth the fossil evidence and the genetic evidence with regard to theorigin of all species.

The Big Bang model is in dramatic agreement will all known factsabout the origin and history of the universe.

Science seeks consistency, not ―truth.‖ What is the simplest and

most consistent explanation of the observation.



Assumptions of Science

There exists a single, unchanging set of laws whichgovern all events in the physical universe.

Human beings are able to understand the workings of the physical universe.

The laws which govern the universe are describable by mathematics.



Why is the universe comprehensible

to humans?

Torrance finds the universe's comprehensibility

astonishing: ―the fact that it [the universe] is

comprehensible at all to us is a miracle, indeedthe most incomprehensible thing about it.‖

Torrance, Reality and Scientific Theology, 53.



Basic Assumptions of Science

Assumptions are accepted without proof

Form the basis of all scientific thinking

In other words, the basic assumptions of science are

accepted on faith.



Predictions Based on Christian Theology:

1. The universe will follow a single, unchanging set of laws.

2. The universe will be understandable to human beings.

3. The universe will be describable by mathematics.

4. The universe will be designed so that we can observe it

- (“The Priveleged Planet” Gonzalez and Richards)



Melvin Calvin (atheist expert on the chemical origin of life):

“The fundamental conviction that the universe isordered [cosmos] is the first and strongest tenet [of scientists]. As I try to discern the origin of that conviction, I

seem to find it in a basic notion discovered 2000 or 3000years ago, and enunciated first in the Western world by theancient Hebrews: namely that the universe is governed by asingle God, and is not the product of the whims of manygods, each governing his own province, according to his own

laws. This monotheistic view seems to be the historicalfoundation of modern science.”



Conclusions about Science and

Religion

Religion and science ask different kinds of questionsand define words differently

Religion and science appear as if they were twoincommensurate paradigms addressing the identicalinformation area

Are they ―Non-Overlapping Magisteria? (NOMA) asStephen Jay Gould suggests? No! They inform one

another to some extent.



Unanswered questions which seemto relate to science

Consciousness (what is consciousness and why are we conscious?)

Origins of life

Origin of the universe. Why is there anything (asopposed to nothing)

Why is this a Goldilocks Universe?



Chaos vs Cosmos

God vs the “gods”

The History of Science and Religion



Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274 )

If Christian theology istrue, then it must belogical (reasonable)

Sought logical proof that God exists.



Roger Bacon (1214-1292) Bacon‟s advice:

To study Natural Philosophy, use;

“External experience, aided by

instruments, and made precise by

mathematics.”

From Christian theology, Bacon

reasoned:

a. A single set of unchanging laws inthe universe

b. The universe should be

understandable

c. The laws of nature should be

describable by mathematics.



William of Ockham (1285-1349)

His philosophy of science:

“Nothing is assumed as evidentunless it is known per se or is evident by

experience, or is proved by authority of

scripture.”

Ockham‟s Razor ;

That which is explained by fewer

assumptions is exlained in vain by more



Nikolai Copernicus (1473-1543)

“True assumptions

must save the

appearances.”



Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)

“The Bible was written to

tell us how to go to heaven,

not how the heavens go”

“In discussions of physical

problems we ought to begin

not from the authority of scriptural passages, but from

the sense-experiences and

necessary demonstrations.”



Galileo on Revelation

―For the Holy Bible and the phenomena of nature

proceed alike from the divine Word, the former as thedictate of the Holy Spirit and the latter as the observant

executor of God’s commands.‖ (the debate over this view rages even today)

Is there such a thing as Natural Revelation/General

Revelation? (as opposed to special revelation) In other words, can we gather genuine knowledge of God fromlooking at his creation?



Sir Isaac Newton(1642-1727)

“The Mechanical

Universe”

Is God the primarymover?

Leibniz….



Voltaire (1694-1778)

Creator of Modern

Religious Skepticism

The Enlightenment: The rise of Deism and

skepticism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Voltaire.jpg



David Hume

(1711-1776)

Says the skeptic:

“Extraordinary

claims require

extraordinary

proof.”



Statue of Joseph Priestley

Founder of the Unitarian Church



LaPlace (1749-1827)

About God:

“I have no

need of that

hypothesis”

http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/photo-credits.html



Hutton Lyell

How Old is the Earth?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:James_Hutton.jpg



How Old isthe Earth?

James Hutton, 1795 Uniformitarianism ―No vestige of a

beginning, no concept of an end.‖



Charles Darwin

“It is mere rubbish

to think at this

point of the origin

of life. One mightas well think of the

origin of matter.”



From World Book © 2002 World Book, Inc., 233 N.

Michigan Avenue, Suite 2000, Chicago, IL 60601.

All rights reserved. (C) Hulton/Archive

“Science

without religionis lame.

Religion

without science

is blind.”

A. Einstein



The Conservative Christian Reaction

Scopes ―monkey trial‖ 1925

Clarence Darrow and

William Jennings

Bryan



1940’s and afterward:

Creationism Movement

Very Bad Science!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:The_Genesis_Flood.jpg



Intelligent Design: An Improvement?

Irreducible Complexity Does this ―disprove evolution?‖ Beware of ―God of the Gaps‖ arguments. Is ID ―scientific‖? Do they do experiments? Are their

conclusions refutable by an experiment?

The Anthropic Principle A possible explanation for ―why‖ the laws of the

universe are what they are. The laws of the universe are what they are so that we (ie

human beings) can exist.



A Christian Response

Remember Galileo vs Roman Curia

Remember Augustine vs Faustus (Manichaeism)

Remember that science and religion are incommensurate

The Bible and science do NOT contradict one another!

Do not overreact 1 Peter 3:15,16 Do not be defensive 1 Peter 2:23

Remember, science is your friend: materialism/naturalism is the―enemy‖

Be confident. The universe was created, life was created and Jesus upholds all creation (Coll 1:15-17)



Can Science and Religion peacefully coexist?

The Language of

God



Reasons Collins believes in God

1. There is something instead of nothing.

2. The unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics.

3. The Big Bang.

4. Nature does not solve the problem of why.5. The existence of time.

6. Fine tuning of the universe. The ―GoldilocksParadox.‖

7. Ockham’s Razor.

8. The existence of moral law.



The Age of the Universe and the Age

of the Earth

Bishop Ussher 1640: The universe wascreated on Sunday October 23, 4004 BC

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_23

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5th_millennium_BC

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5th_millennium_BC

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_23



Cosmic Speedometer

When a galaxy is receding, light waves travelling to us are red-shifted

Hubble measured the spectrumof these galaxies and found thespectral lines to be red-shifted

The faster the recession, thegreater the red-shift

G l i



Galaxies:

islands of stars making up the universe



Hubble constant graph:Distance vs. speed of regression



Expansion of the Universe

… ‘winding’ backwards, the universe must have had a beginning



Image of Cosmic Microwave Background RadiationFrom COBE satellite red = slightly warmer

The “smoking gun” of the Big Bang



Tests of the Big Bang Theory

Expansion of the universe

Cosmic microwave background

Relative abundances of hydrogen, deuterium,

helium and lithium

Obt i i th A f th



Obtaining the Age of the

Universe Extrapolate the current expansion rate

(Hubble constant) back to the Big Bang

13.5 billion years

Look for the oldest stars(in globular clusters)

13.0 billion years old

Best current estimate is13.4 ± 1.6 billion years

M10 Globular Cluster



How Old isthe Earth?

James Hutton, 1787 Uniformitarianism ―No vestige of a

beginning, no concept of an end.‖









WILLIAM SMITH: Index Fossils

―Each stratum contains fossils peculiar to itself‖

Cenozoic (new life) 65 mya to present

Mesozoic (middle life) 250 mya to 65 mya

Paleozoic (old life) 530 mya to 250 mya



William Smith 1769-1839



Index fossils give the relative age of a rock



Radiometric Dating Techniques

mother/daughterisotope pair

half-life

U238 → Pb206 4.5 billion years

U235 → Pb207 704 million years

K40 → Ar40 1.25 billion years

Th232 → Pb208 14.8 billion years



G i Ch O C i



Genesis Chapter One: Creation

Young Earth Theory

In agreement with science

With an appearance of age (disagrees with science)

Day/Age Theory

Framework Theory Literary rather than historical account. Days 1-3 and 4-6 are

parallel triads describing how God created the heavens (1,4),the seas and land(2,5) and life (3,6)

Gap Theory A huge ―gap‖ of time between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2

It’s all just a myth

Each view has its problems



A Quick Summary of Genesis One:

a. God pre-existed the universe

b. God created the universe: ―Let there be light‖

c. God created the earth

d. God created life

e. Last of all, God created mankind

A M r D t il d S mm r f G n i On



A More Detailed Summary of Genesis One

From the Viewpoint of an Observer on the Earth:

a. The earth created and is spinning: night and day. Day 1b. Water covers earth, Very thick atmosphere forms. Day 2c. The earth cools, land appears out of the water. Day 3

d. Life appears on the earth. Day 3e. (Photosynthetic life dramatically changes the chemistry of the

atmosphere from reducing to oxidizing.)f. Finally, the heavenly objects appeared in the sky Day 4g. More advanced life forms; first in the water, later on the land Day 5

h. Even more advanced life forms. Last of all human beings Day 6

Where is the scientific error in this?



Is Genesis 1:1 a Myth?

Yes! It is a true myth.

A myth is a simplified story, given to explain the gods (orGod) to common people.



Creation Myths

Babylonian Creation Myth

Primeval swamp. Marduk kills Tiamat. Blood + mud = humans

Egyptian Creation Myth

Primeval ocean ―Nun‖ from which arrises a Primeval hill. Greek Creation Myth

Prometheus and Epimetheus form clay molds. Earth supported by Atlas.

Iroquois Creation Myth

Enigorio and Enigohahetgea: Good and evil brothers battle

Genesis One is an obvious exception to this pattern



Babylonian Creation Myth:Marduk kills Tiamat



Egyptian Creation Myth



Iroquois Creation Myth:

Enigorio and Enigohahetgea Battling theRonnongwetowanca (Stone Giants)



Is the Metaphorical Day a Reasonable

Interpretation?

Pre-Science Theologians Who Said Yes.

Philo 1st century

Origen early 3rd century

Augustine early 5th century

Thomas Aquinas 13th century

T l i f i h Old T (NIV)



Translations of yom in the Old Testament (NIV)

1181 times as ―day‖ (but with several different connotations of the word, some not being literal)

Isaiah 4:2 In that day the Branch of the Lord will be beautiful…

67 times as ―time‖

30 times as ―today‖

18 times as ―forever‖

10 times as ―continuously‖

6 times as ―age‖

4 times as ―life‖

2 times as ―perpetually‖

The Flood: Genesis 6 8



The Flood: Genesis 6-8

E l i f h Fl d



Explanations of the Flood

Just an unfounded myth.

Worldwide flood.

With a ―scientific‖ explanation A unique and completely miraculous event

Local flood

Did ll thi h i i l t l i fl d?



Did all this happen in a single, cataclysmic flood?





Can an opening of “the fountainsof the deep” explain the flood?

Ancient Cultures With Flood Stories



Ancient Cultures With Flood Stories

Hindus Burma (Myanmar)

New Guinea

Aborigines of Australia

New Zealand

Iroquoi

Incas

Aztecs

Greeks

Babylonians

Sumerians

Celts

Hottentots (Southern Africa)



Common Elements

1. The flood a judgment.

2. Massive or world wide in effect.

3. Some humans saved from this flood andrepopulate the earth.

The Bible and the Flood



The Bible and the Flood

New Testament writers clearly believe this was a historical event.Matthew 24:38-39

It happened as judgment for sin 2 Peter 3:6-7

It is a prefigure of final judgment

It is a miracle, not a ―natural‖ event— like the fire which will destroy the world

Belief in the flood based chiefly on faith in the Bible, certainly not onscience.

Evolution and the Bible



Evolution and the Bible

What does the Bible say?

What does the physical evidence say?

Fossil evidence Genetic/DNA evidence

Is there ―Irreducible Complexity?‖

Human evolution?





Finches discovered And drawn byCharles Darwin

Evidence of Evolution?

Evolution of whales over time?



Evolution of whales over time?

Fossil evidence for elephant evolution



Fossil evidence for elephant evolution



But………..



But………..

The Cambrian Explosion

―Punctuated Equilibrium?‖

Theistic Evolution



Fossilsfromcreatureswhichappearedin the

“Cambrian

Explosion”



http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www-eaps.mit.edu/geobiology/research/images/burgess.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www-eaps.mit.edu/geobiology/research/neoprot.html&h=316&w=430&sz=42&hl=en&start=1&tbnid=uiv_tyN6OWFehM:&tbnh=93&tbnw=126&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcambrian%2Bexplosion%26gbv%3D2%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG





Human

chromosome #2and Great Apechromosome #2 a,2b: evidence forcommon descent.

M G ti E id f C D t



More Genetic Evidence for Common Descent

Pseudogenes

Vitamin C Pseudogene in great apes and humans

Retroposons, SINEs (short interspersed elements), etc.

Virus insertions

table 1 Gene sequence that

codes for protein

Random DNA segment

between genes



Chimpanzee 100% 98%

Dog 99% 52%

Mouse 99% 40%

Chicken 75% 4%

Fruitfly 60% ~0%

Roundworm 35% ~0%

Typical random point mutation rates are about 1x10-5 – 1x10-7 mutations/generation.

5 million years = 250,000 generations.

Sufficient for random mutations to explain the changewithout the intervention of a guiding hand?

Some Tentative Conclusions



Evolution has happened. Microevolution has been observed.

Fossil evidence strongly supports the idea of change over time, but thatchange often happens in surprisingly sudden bursts. The Cambrianexplosion raises real questions.

Genetic evidence gives rather strong support to the idea of commondescent.

Like it or not, this is true of humans as well.

Statistical and other arguments give support for evolution beingtheistic, rather than deistic, but this is not a scientific argument.

God invented evolution; let us give him credit for a great idea.

The Teleological Argument



Evidence for Design in Nature

The Anthropic Principle

Boeing 747

Design or

Accident?

Th Anthr pic Principl




The laws of nature are what they are and the

fundamental constants which underlie them have

the values they have by design; in order that

advanced life forms, such as humans, can exist in

the universe.

Aristotle → Copernicus → Herschel →Hubble Aristotle?

Is the “universe” getting smaller again?

T o Versions of the Anthropic Principle



Two Versions of the Anthropic Principle

WAP Weak Anthropic Principle. The properties of the universe must be extremely precisely fine-tuned so that galaxies, stars, planets,life, and especially advanced self-conscious beings

can exist. In fact, the universe has these necessaryfinely tuned properties.

SAP Strong Anthropic Principle. WAP is trueand this is not a coincidence. It must be because

there exists a purposeful designer whointentionally created the universe we live in so that

we could experience it.



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 beneficialaccidents.”



In the universe of blind physical forces and geneticreplication, some people are going to get hurt andother people are going to get lucky: and you won’tfind any rhyme or reason to it, nor any justice. Theuniverse we observe has precisely the properties weshould 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.

Richard Dawkins

Accident or Design?




William

Paley



Flew is increasingly persuaded

that some sort of Deity brought

about this universe. He says he

has in mind something like the

God of Aristotle, a distant,

impersonal "prime mover." Itmight not even be conscious,

but a mere force. In formal

terms, he regards the existence

of this minimal God as a

hypothesis that, at present, is

perhaps the best explanation

for why a universe exists that

can produce complex life

Physics:



y

The Finely Tuned Universe

Fine T ning of the



.00000000000000000000

000000000000000000000000000000000000000001

Fine Tuning of the

Gravitational Constant

Gravity



Gravity

Dominant force on astronomical size scale.

Need very close balance of gravity and cosmicexpansion for stable universe.

If gravity weaker by 1 in 1060, universe expands tooquickly, no galaxies or stars.

If gravity stronger by 1 in 1060, universe collapses

without forming galaxies or stars. Gravity is fine-tuned to 1 part in 1060.

Fine Tuning of the Universe

Constant A L ittle Bigger A L ittle Smaller



Constant A L ittle Bigger A L ittle 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….

The Strong Force



The Strong Force

Holds nucleus together.

5% weaker, no deuterium, stars won’t burn

5% stronger, diproton stable, stars explode

The strong force is tuned to ±5% on the basis of these considerations alone.

The Weak Force



The Weak Force

Holds neutron together.

Few % weaker, few neutrons, little He, few heavy elements; even these stay trapped in stars.

Few % stronger, too many neutrons, too muchHe, too many heavy elements; but these, too,stay trapped in stars.

The weak force is tuned to a few percent.

Electromagnetism



Electromagnetism

Both repulsive & attractive, due to existence of positive & negative charges.

+ and – charges must be almost exactly equal in

number, to better than one part in 1040

. Yet protons (+) and electrons (-) drastically different

in mass, and froze out at quite different times in theearly universe.

If not for this equality, electromagnetic forces woulddominate gravity, so no galaxies, no stars, noplanets.

Electromagnetic forces tuned to one part in 1040.

Summary on Fine-Tuning



Summary on Fine-Tuning

Combining these cases gives fine-tuning of better thanone part in 10100.

Do we really have any evidence for 10100 universes to

make this likely merely by chance? How big is 10100?

There are estimated to be some 1080 elementary particles inour universe.

So we need to 1020 universes to get 10100 particles. Imagine the chances of randomly picking one marked particle

from all these universes!



A finely-tunedinstrument

built by

humans. Good

to one part in abillion?

Fred Hoyle on Fine-Tuning



Fred Hoyle on Fine-Tuning

“… a super -intellect has monkeyed with

physics, as well as with chemistry and

biology.”

The Right Kind of GalaxySpiral Irregular



g

Eliptical

The Right Galaxy



The Right Galaxy

Our galaxy is a spiral, which produces stars overmuch of its history.

Not an elliptical, where star formation ends

before there are many heavy elements. Not an irregular, where radiation events would

have destroyed life.

The Right Sun: Location



The Right Sun: Location

Right distance from center of galaxy: Closer – too much radiation, disruptive gravity

Further – too few heavy elements

Right relation to supernovae: More or closer – exterminate life

Less or further – too few heavy elements

Right number of stars in system Zero – pretty cold!

Two or more – unstable orbits if planets at all.

The Right Kind of Star



The Goldilocks Star

The Right Sun: Character



The Right Sun: Character

Mass in right range: Heavier – luminosity changes too quickly

Lighter – life zone too narrow, tidal forces too large

Temperature (color) in right range: Redder – insufficient photosynthesis

Bluer – insufficient photosynthesis

The Sun’s main radiation is right in the region where our atmosphere is transparent.

The Right Kind of Planet



Right distance

Rocky planet with plenty of

oxygen and water

Thin, light planetary “crust”

(allowing for plate tectonics)

Huge moon for stable

planetary rotation

Tilted axis to spread energy

around

The Right Planet: Temperature



The Right Planet: Temperature

Varies substantially on Earth, but: Only a few spots above boiling

Some below freezing

Contrast Venus, about 900o

F (500o

C). Contrast Mars, barely above freezing in

midsummer at the equator.

Earth is warm enough for water to be liquid,cool enough not to destroy biomolecules.

The Right Moon: Size &

Di



Distance

Our Moon is unique in the Solar System, one of the largest, and by far the largest compared withits planet.

If it were smaller (or further away), Earth’sclimate would be unstable, and tides too smallfor mixing.

If it were larger (or closer), tidal effects onEarth’s rotation, ocean & atmosphere too large.

The Right Moon & Earth’s Crust



The Right Moon & Earth s Crust

If Earth’s crust thicker, it would eat up theatmospheric oxygen.

If Earth’s crust thinner, too much volcanism

and plate movement. The Moon apparently formed from the Earth’s

crust, when we were struck by a Mars-sized

planet, a very flukey event!



1. Ideal solvent to support life (dissolves ions and

molecules

2. Right boiling and melting points

3. High specific heat

4. Solid floats on liquid

5. Contracts from 0 to 4 degrees centigrade

Water

Designed Elements?



Carbon: The Central Element of



Life

3-D molecules

Large, complex yet flexible

molecules



Iron: an essential element

The Ozone Layer:



y

Is oxygen a designed element?

No uranium, no plate tectonics



DNA



a) b)



Protein

Si l t lif f b k it d



Simplest life form: break it down

• E. coli: about 1 trillion bits of information.

• E. coli have 3000-4000 different proteins.

• DNA and RNA to make and be made bythese proteins.

• Lipids (membrane), Carbohydrates, etc.

• The simplest living cell is an unimaginablycomplex self-regulating nano factory

Fred Hoyle on Living Things



y g g

“The chance that higher life forms might

have emerged [by chance] is comparable

with the chance that a tornado sweeping

through a junk-yard might assemble a

Boeing 747 from the materials therein.”

Nature creates order, but not information





A House of

Cards: Orderand

Information.

A much better

analogy for

living things.



Is prayer simply chemicals moving around in the brain?

If “God is love,” then is God just the firing of particular

neurons?

What you see depends on your “world view.”



The Christian world view predicts that a human brain will

be designed so that those made in God’s image can

experience love, joy, anger, compassion, spirituality,jealousy, empathy, oneness and other feelings, some of

which have an extremely dubious evolutionary advantage.

Conclusion:



Conclusion:

“Since the creation of the world God’s invisible

qualities—his eternal power and divine

nature—have been clearly seen, beingunderstood from what has been made, so that

men are without excuse.”

Romans 1:20

Did we “just happen?”

Scientific Materialism



Only that which can be observed and measuredthrough the technique of Scientific Method is

real, and everything else is unreal.

Scientism



Scientism is the acceptance of scientifictheory and scientific methods as applicable

in all fields of inquiry about the world,

including morality, ethics, art, and religion




Scientific Materialism accepts only one reality: thephysical universe, composed as it is of matter andenergy. Everything that is not physical, measurable,or deducible from scientific observations, is

considered unreal. Life is explained in purely mechanical terms, and phenomena such as Mindand Consciousness are considered nothing butepiphenomena - curious by-products, of certain

complex physical processes (such as brainmetabolism )

Materialism



“We exist as material beings in a materialworld, all of whose phenomena are theconsequences of material relations amongmaterial entities." In a word, the public needsto accept materialism, which means that theymust put God in the trash can of historywhere such myths belong.”

Richard LewontinRetrospective essay on Carl Sagan in the January 9, 1997 New York Review of

Books,

If Materialism/Naturalism is right then:



g

“I” do not exist. Consciousness is just random movingaround of chemicals.

No soul, no spirit, no non-physical reality.

Belief in God is just a “meme” the unfortunate accidentalresult of brain evolution.

Life has no value. Human beings have no value. What is value?

Love is chemicals moving around (vs. God is love)




There is no God, No angels

No Devil

No good

No evil

No survival of physical death,

No non-physical realities, and

No ultimate meaning or purpose to life No Heaven

No afterlife

A Response to Naturalism/Materialism/Scientism



It is a faith/religious belief based on circular

reasoning.

It is patently and demonstrably false.

It is dangerous. It is very bad philosophy.

Circular Reasoning



Unprovable assumptions of science:

There exist universal and inviolable natural laws.

The universe is observable and understandable.

The universe is governed by mathematically precise

laws.

None of these assumptions can be proved by experiment. Ina sense, science is not scientific.

A recent BBC broadcast forum:



Questioner: How do you know that physical reality is allthere is: that there is no God?

Response of a vehement materialist (after much prodding):

I simply believe it to be true.

Questioner: Well, now we at least have it out on the table!

In other words, the strongest argument I have that physicalreality is “all there is” is that I believe physical reality is “all

there is.”

Materialism is Patently False Because….



The universe was created.

Life was created.

The Anthropic Principle. The universe is ridiculously wellfine-tuned for us to exist.

Even the materialist believes in good and evil (for example,

religion is evil)

The Bible is inspired by God.

If the Materialist is right, then…



Religious thought is absolute nonsense. Prayer ischemical moving around in your brain.

Art, Literature, Music have no intrinsic value.

Justice is a meaningless word.

Human rights have no basis.

Etc….

Naturalism is a Dangerous (Evil?) Philosophy



If the naturalist is right then:

Good and evil are meaningless ideas.

Stealing is not wrong.

Any kind of sexual behavior as right or wrong as any other.

There is nothing evil about genocide.

Racism is not only acceptable, it is supported.

If the Materialist is Right Then…



Violence and greed are acceptable behavior.

Justice is a meaningless construct.

The words “ought and should” are meaningless.

There is no such thing as sin or wrong behavior.

Consider the only societies in human historycontrolled by atheists. USSR, Communist China,Khmer Rouge….

Is this where human beings want to head?

An Example: Richard Dawkins



Considered by many the preeminent evolutionist of ourtime. A popularizer of science and an avowed atheist.

River out of Eden

The Blind Watchmaker

The Selfish Gene

And, unfortunately…. The God Delusion.



Key Points of “The God Delusion”



There exists a known mechanism by which organicevolution creates greater complexity through geneticmutation, gene crossing, natural selection etc.

Therefore it is settled that nature can spontaneously create

complexity as a general rule (although he proposes nomechanism for this outside of Darwinism).

By analogy, there must be some sort of complexity-creator

which can explain why the fine-tuned universe we live in was created. (and the multiverse speculation is assumed tobe true, by the way)

Key Points of “The God Delusion”



This being proved (that the universe can spontaneously create complexity and information), then there is noneed to invoke the Anthropic Principle or the idea of adesigner.

Therefore it is proved that there is no God, nosupernatural presence. All of reality can be explained

by random action of material forces.

Key Points in “The God Delusion”



It being proven that there is no designer, nosupernatural presence, then belief in God, in the soul,in spiritual reality is a delusion — a psychological illness.

The tendency — common to almost all humans —

toward religious belief is the result of the formation of a―meme‖. A meme is a gene-like evolved cultural idea.

Like a virus that infects a culture. The religion meme isan artifact of brain evolution — a very unfortunate one.

Key Points in “The God Delusion”



Not only is all religious thought a delusion, it is in fact themost dangerous, pernicious, destructive force in human

culture. It is the natural enemy of the only true source of

knowledge: the scientific method.

Those who refuse to give up all religious belief are at least

indirectly responsible for all the evil in the world. Religion

has had absolutely nothing positive to offer to humanity.

The sooner we abandon belief in morality and absolute

ethical beliefs, the faster humans will approach theirultimate potential.

One More Thing



The existence of God is a scientific hypothesis, to bedecided by empirical scientific experiment.

Problems with Dawkin’s arguments.



Extremely biased and emotional argument.

Religionists are:

“silly”

“weird”

“unworthy”

“the root of all evil”

“not enlightened”

Etc.

Problems With Dawkin’s Argument (cont.)



A prevalent use of logical fallacy to make his argument.

Ad hominem arguments

No True Scotsman

Begging the Question (circular reasoning)

Straw man argument

Etc.

Problems With Dawkin’s Reasoning (cont.)



“The God Delusion” is pseudoscience.

Argument by analogy (virus of the mind)

Claims of persecution

Quoting authors out of context

Bogus use of statistics (correlation vs. cause and effect)

Appeals to mystery and myth (the bicameral mind)

Proposal of theories which have no experimental support at all.



“The God Delusion makes me embarrassed tobe an atheist”

Michael Ruse (world-renowned atheist)

Science and the Bible



Delos B. McKown:

“Christianity is scientifically unsupported andprobably 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 calfwhich has been boiled in oil or with

the fat of a rattlesnake.”

“A mixture of six fats, namely thoseof the horse, the hippopotamus, the

crocodile, the cat, the snake andthe ibex.... to prevent hair loss.”

Drugs of Choice in Papyrus Ebers:



g py

• Lizards blood

• Swine‟s teeth

• Putrid meat• Moisture from Pigs‟ ears

• Excreta from animals including human

beings, donkeys, antelope, dogs, cats andflies



“I will not bring on you any ofthese diseases...”

Exodus 15:26

“The pig... is unclean foryou...those that walk on theirpaws...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 aspecific against the poison of theviper.”

An ancient Hebrew medical manuscript.

Death Rate falls from



Death Rate falls from

18% to 0.5%



“Whoever touches the dead body of anyone will

be unclean for seven days. He must purifyhimself with the water on the third andseventh day...take some hyssop, dip it in thewater 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 toconstipation, fear and poisonous

air.

Thymol



y

Leviticus 13:46

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/44/Thymol.svg/464px-Thymol.svg.png&imgrefurl=http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Thymol.svg&h=600&w=464&sz=10&hl=en&start=1&sig2=JJcL05AH8ZbRwuxpbUfEOw&usg=__4fC-LQiGOGxDpK8NfP0FWYHdQmI=&tbnid=Oh7ML4x1o6jY7M:&tbnh=135&tbnw=104&ei=sK7_SP-JGpTysAOQgZle&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dthymol%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den



“As long as he has the infection

he remains unclean. He must livealone; he must live outside the

camp.”

Quarantine for infectious disease

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



p y

MEDICAL COMMUNITY HAD NO ANSWERS



They taught that it was brought on by eatinghot food, pepper, garlic and the meat of diseased hogs.

Other physicians said it was caused by amalign conjunction of the planets.

Leviticus 13:46

“As long as he has the infection he remainsunclean. He must live alone; he must live

outside the camp.”

The life is in the blood



Leviticus 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.‟ ”



BloodlettingThe most common medical practice

in 1700s and 1800s

Bloodletting Instruments from 1800s

http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/biomed/his/blood/tiemann.html



1693).

George Tiemann & Co. American armamentarium








“For the generations to come,every male among you who is eightdays old must be circumcised...”

Genesis 17:12

Vitamin K

Prothrombrin: a clotting protein.

Clotting Protein Peaks on Day Eight



0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

days

% o

f n

o r m a

Available Prothrombin

Abraham’s Experiment



DayCircumcised Number of HebrewBoys Number of Deaths

1 823 4

3 759 6

5 693 8

7 855 3

9 770 2

11 698 4

The Bible and Cosmology

“The flood was produced by a union of the male



The flood was produced by a union of the male

waters, which are above the firmament, and thefemale waters issuing from the earth. The upper

waters rushed through the space left when Godremoved two stars out of the constellation

Pleaides. Afterward, to put a stop to the flood, Godhad to transfer two stars from the constellation of the Bear to the constellation of the Pleaides. Thatis why the Bear runs after the Pleaides. She wantsher children back, but they will be restored to heronly in the future world.”

— A Jewish manuscript of New Testament times.

“He spreads out the northern skies overempty space; He suspends the earth over



nothing”

Job 26:8

The water cycle...

Job 36:27, Amos 5:8

Science and World Religions



Is this (the seemingly unexplainable scientific wisdom of the Old Testament) the exception or the

rule?

What is the cosmology/view of the natural world of

other major world religions?

Cosmology and World Religions



HINDUISM

Th prin ipl r li i n f Indi

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://pow.reonline.org.uk/images/pic_islam.jpg&imgrefurl=http://pow.reonline.org.uk/islam.htm&h=337&w=352&sz=30&hl=en&start=14&um=1&tbnid=nnfxAmxIPWA9XM:&tbnh=115&tbnw=120&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dislam%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den



The principle religion of India.

Approximately 900,000,000adherents.

Began as animism/polytheism

Evolved into polytheism/pantheism

Syncretistic. Hinduism is not really asingle religion.

Ganesh: a Hindu deity

God of wisdom and

intellect

Hinduism and Time

Time is cyclic. There is a “wheel of time.”



y

World is cyclically created by Brahma, sustainedby Vishnu and destroyed by Shiva.

Creative/destructive cycles called Yugas

A universe lasts for one Brahma day = 4,320,000

years Satya yuga (Krita yuga):- 1,728,000 Human years

(already past)

Treta yuga:- 1,296,000 Human years (already past)

Dwapar yuga:- 864,000 Human years (already past) Kali yuga:- 432,000 Human years (5,110 years have

passed; 426,890 years remain). Kaliyuga started in 3,102B.C.; CE 2008 corresponds to Kaliyuga year 5,110

Hindism and Time (cont)



One full cycle = 100“Brahma years” 311

trillion years.

Then Brahma himself dies and is reborn

Hindu Cosmology



Many different levels of heavens/worlds/hells

These levels are horizontal (flat)

The physical world is illusory and it is evil

Lower levels are even more evil than ours



Angkor Wat: Mount Meru



Popular Hindu Cosmology



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

The physical world is an illusion maya .

Hindu Cosmology



Jainism

Founder: Mahavira ~600-540 BC



Founder: Mahavira 600-540 BC

Last of 24 gurus. Parshva 750 BC?

Location: India mostly.

About 5,000,000 practitioners

A reaction to worldly, priestly Hinduism

Jaina Cosmology

The universe has existed forever.



A cyclic wheel of time. Utsarpini: A period of progressive

happiness and purity. Time spans ages andsizes of people get much larger.

Avsarpini: A period of progressive sorrow

and immorality. Time spans, ages and sizesof people get much smaller.

Great teachers in the past lived for millionsor billions of years and were thousands of meters tall.

In the future, people will be even lessreligious, smaller and live shorter time.

An extremely complicated cosmology withmultiple levels of worlds/heavens.

The Svastika

a symbol of

samsara

(rebirth)

Buddhism

Principle religion of Korea, Japan,Cambodia Vietnam Thailand Burma Sri

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Buddha-Sarnath-sepia.jpg



Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Burma Sri

Lanka and China?

400,000,000 adherents.

A reaction against the rigid priestly systemof Hinduism.

Pantheistic, or arguably non-theistic. A

philosophy, a psychology.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Buddha-Sarnath-sepia.jpg



Buddhist Cosmology



Like Jaina, Hinduism, a vertical cosmology, withmultiple levels/earths/heavens/lokahs

31 planes of existence, each with 3 realms.

Higher ones more blissful, lower ones more like hell.

Endless cycle of time Cosmic wheel.



Buddhist

Cosmology

Borodbur in Indonesia: A Buddhist concept of the world



Questions:



Questions:

Can we take the Eastern ideas about cosmology

seriously in the context of modern science?

How does this compare to biblical cosmology and ideas

about creation?

Islamic Cosmology

Th l f I l i



The cosmology of Islam isnot unlike that of theBible, except that it takesincorrect popular ideasmore literally.

The main difference isthat the Qur’an is notinspired, so thestatements contained in

the Muslim scripture hasrather obvious scientific

problems.

Scientific Errors in the Qur’an



23:14 — Creation from the clot of blood “Then we made the sperm into a clot of

congealed blood; then from that clot wemade a lump; and we made out of that lumpbones and clothed the bones with flesh.”

18:86 — Traveling west…

“… till, when he reached the setting-place of the sun, he found it setting in a muddyspring.”

Scientific errors in Qur’an (II)



21:33 — Sun and stars orbit the earth

41:12 7-- “heavens”, stars, comets in “lowest

heaven

34:9, 52:44 — Piece of sky falls and kills someone

Documents

Science Christian Apologetics