2 the modern science of origins

7/30/2019 2 the Modern Science of Origins

1/27

Scientific Doctrines Materialism

Naturalism

Gradualism

The role of chance

The role of natural selectionsurvival of the fittest

Naturalistic origin of the universe

There is no distinction in kind between humans and

animals. Mankind is master of his own destiny.

Mankind's responsibility is only to himself.

Nature is god.


2/27

Sources of Truth

Christian Revelation Information from the spiritual realm that

cannot be obtained through human efforts.

Scripture

Personal relationship with God

Science

Observable facts

Natural laws

Materialism/naturalism/gradualism has only one

source of information. Science

Observable facts

Natural laws

Unverifiable Hypotheses


3/27

Scientific Method

Curiosity

Hypothesis

Design an Experiment

Execute Experiment

Analyze Data

Interpret Data

Communicate Findings Repeat


4/27

Operational Science

Operational science follows the scientificmethod exactly.

Operational science is what brings us all the

technological advances we appreciate somuch.

Operational science manipulates the material

world in the here and now. Operational science works.


5/27

The Science of Origins

Testable hypotheses are replaced with untestablespeculation.

The past has only happened once and cannot berepeated.

Attempts are made to set up conditions identical toprimeval conditions, but we can't know what primordialconditions were!

We can't set up even one experiment to test the past,much less design repeatable experiments.

I have been a consultant on many research projects.Never once has my position on origins had any bearingwhatsoever on my relationship with other scientists.


6/27

Lets Talk a Minute About Bias

Everyone is biased.

A story ofe coli

A story of milk

I know its true . . .


7/27

Early Life

Realization that Christianity hinges on thebook of Genesis

The challenges I have faced have moldedme.


8/27

Questions

Biology

Physics

Young earth vs. young universe What can we know?

How can we know it?


9/27

Ways of Knowing

Scripture

Personal Revelation

Nature Scientific Lens

Spiritual Lens


10/27

Nature Through the Scientific Lens

For many the scientific lens is so cloudedwith bias that no non-naturalistic conclusionis even possible. The lens is clouded with

the a prioribelief in materialism andnaturalism.

But, for others, the truth is unavoidable.


11/27

Hoyle and Wickramasinghe

No matter how large the environment one considers,life cannot have had a random beginning . . .

From the beginning of this book we have emphasized

the enormous information content of even thesimplest living systems. The information cannot in ourview be generated by what are often called naturalprocesses, as for instance through meteorological

and chemical processes. . . Information was alsoneeded. We have argued that the requisiteinformation came from an intelligence.

Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe, Evolution from Space (1981), p. 148, 150.


12/27

Wickramasinghe

It is quite a shock. From my earliest trainingas a scientist I was very strongly brainwashedto believe that science cannot be consistent

with any kind of deliberate creation. Thatnotion has had to be very painfully shed. I amquite uncomfortable in the situation, the stateof mind I now find myself in. But there is nological way out of it.


13/27

Once we see . . . that the probability of lifeoriginating at random is so utterly minusculeas to make it absurd, it becomes sensible tothink that the favorable properties of physicson which life depends are in every respect

deliberate, or created.I now find myself driven to this position bylogic. There is no other way in which we can

understand the precise ordering of thechemicals of life except to invoke thecreations on a cosmic scale. . .


14/27

We were hoping as scientists that there wouldbe a way round our conclusion, but thereisn't.

Sir Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinge, As quotedin There Must Be A God, Daily Express, August 14,

1981 and Hoyle on Evolution, Nature, November 12,1981, 105.


15/27

Richard E. SmalleyWinner of 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Evolution has just been dealt its death blow.After reading Origins of Life [Fazale Rana andHugh Ross], with my background in chemistry

and physics, it is clear evolution could nothave occurred.


16/27

Interview With Dean Kenyon

Author ofBiochemical Predestination

Leading evolutionary biologist from the1960s and 1970s

Became a reluctant believer in intelligentdesign after a challenge from a student!


17/27

Question: Do many of your colleaguessupport your new position? If not, why not?

Actually very few have been supportive of my new viewson the origin of life and the development of the species. Ithink a rather larger number of my faculty colleagueshowever are willing to allow me to express these new

views in class. But the majority though are unhappy onboth counts I would say.AS to why they hold this view, Idont think there is a simple answer to this. Some of thepossibilities are that the Darwinian way of thinking is sucha deeply engrained habit of thought. Its been prevalentfor such a long time, and it has so many implications forthe whole of the biological sciences. Another aspect tiedto that of course is how graduate students are socializedas they go through their program and hear only the


18/27

Kenyon continued

Darwinian story of origins. And I think that mycolleagues in general, those that are opposedto this, are very reluctant to take time to

examine this issue and maybe they realizethe large reorientation of thought that wouldbe required if they were to change theirviews.


19/27

Through the Lens of Faith

Hebrews 3:34 (ESV)

3 For Jesus has been counted worthy of moreglory than Mosesas much more glory as

the builder of a house has more honor thanthe house itself. 4 (For every house is built bysomeone, but the builder of all things is God.)

This assertion from Scripture is exactly theargument of Intelligent Design!


20/27

Romans 1:1820 (ESV)

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from

heaven against all ungodliness andunrighteousness of men, who by theirunrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 Forwhat can be known about God is plain tothem, because God has shown it to them.20 For his invisible attributes, namely, hiseternal power and divine nature, have been

clearly perceived, ever since the creation ofthe world, in the things that have beenmade. So they are without excuse.


21/27

He who studies most deeply into the mysteries of naturewill realize most fully his own ignorance and weakness.He will realize that there are depths and heights which he

cannot reach, secrets which he cannot penetrate, vastfields of truth lying before him unentered. He will beready to say, with Newton, "I seem to myself to havebeen like a child on the seashore finding pebbles and

shells, while the great ocean of truth lay undiscoveredbefore me."

The deepest students of science are constrained torecognize in nature the working of infinite power. But to

man's unaided reason, nature's teaching cannot but becontradictory and disappointing. Only in the light ofrevelation can it be read aright. "Through faith weunderstand." Hebrews 11:3.


22/27

"In the beginning God." Genesis 1:1. Here alone can themind in its eager questioning, fleeing as the dove to theark, find rest. Above, beneath, beyond, abides Infinite

Love, working out all things to accomplish "the goodpleasure of His goodness." 2 Thessalonians 1:11.

"The invisible things of Him since the creation of theworld are . . . perceived through the things that are made,

even His everlasting power and divinity." Romans 1:20,R.V. But their testimony can be understood only throughthe aid of the divine Teacher. "What man knoweth thethings of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him?

even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spiritof God." 1 Corinthians 2:11.


23/27

"When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He willguide you into all truth." John 16:13. Only by

the aid of that Spirit who in the beginning"was brooding upon the face of the waters;"of that Word by whom "all things were made;"

of that "true Light, which lighteth every manthat cometh into the world," can the testimonyof science be rightly interpreted. Only by theirguidance can its deepest truths be discerned.

Only under the direction of the OmniscientOne shall we, in the study of His works, beenabled to think His thoughts after Him.


24/27

Reference

White, E. G., Education. 1903. Mountain View, CA:Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1952., pp. 133, 134


25/27

Science Shows Us

That there is a Creator

That the Creator is wise beyond words


26/27

What Science Does Not Tell Us

How old the earth is

How old life is

How old the universe is How the universe began


27/27

Faith

Faith is there for all of humankind.

Scientists are all men and women of faith.

It's only a question of faith in what?

2 the modern science of origins

Documents