Faith & Science in the Context of BiologyRob Balza

“It is the mark of an educated man to entertain a thought without accepting it.”-Aristotle (384-322 BC)

Martin Luther (1529) by Lucas Cranach

“[Faith] follows nothing but the bare Word, even if it is contrary to all sense and contends against all human reason, yes, against its own senses and everything that it sees, feels, and hears.”

Weimarer Ausgabe (Weimar edition of Luther's works) 16, 354

Faith vs. Reason

“For although the gospel is a higher gift…than human reason, yet it does not alter or tear to pieces the understanding which God has implanted in human reason.”

Weimarer Ausgabe (Weimar edition of Luther's works) 22, 108

Faith vs. Reason

Incarnation (finite & infinite, man & God?)

Trinity (3 in 1?)

Real Presence (wine & blood?)Baptism (infant faith?)

Resurrection (dead made alive?)

Conversion (no synergism?)Election (predestination & freedom?)

"For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength."

1 Corinthians 1:22-25

Charles Darwin (1809-1882)On the Origin of Species by Natural Selection (1859)

All Darwin’s work is available at http://darwin-online.org.uk/

Evolutionbackground

"Authors of the highest eminence seem to be fully satisfied that each

species has been independently created. To my mind it accords

better with what we know of the laws impressed on matter by the Creator, that the production and

extinction of the past and present inhabitants of the world should have been due to secondary causes like those determining the birth and

death of the individual."-Charles R. Darwin, (1859) On the Origin of Species.

saddleback (abingdoni) tortoise(dry climate with limited vegetation)

domed (porteri) tortoise(wet climate with abundant vegetation)

Caccone, A., et al. (2007) Evolution 56: 2052-66.

Evolutiondefinition

natural variation + natural selection = change in a population over time

Evolutionnatural selection for human skin color

“Differences in the races of man, as in colour... are of the nature of which it might have been expected would it have been acted on by selection.”

-Charles Darwin writing in The Descent of Man (1871)

Jablonski & Chaplin (2010) PNAS 107: 8962-8968.

Microevolutionchange in a population over time below the species level (sub-speciation)

See Parker HG et al (2004) Science 304: 1160-1164.

Li, J.Z.. et al. (2008) Science 319: 1,100-1,104.

(average)

Microevolution

Macroevolutionchange in a population over time above the species level (trans-speciation)

See Lindblad-Toh, K et al (2005) Nature 438: 803-819.

“There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.”

Evolutionbackground

Darwin’s first known sketch of an “evolutionary tree” in his secret notes.

Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species by Natural Selection (1859)

“There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.”

Evidence of evolutiondirected evolution

Lenski, R. (2016) http://myxo.css.msu.edu/ecoli

Everyday since 1988 1% of each flask has been transferred to a fresh flask, resulting in approximately 65,000 generations to date.

Caribbean manatee (T. manatus)

Brazilian tapir (T. terrestris)

Platypus (O. anatinus)

Koala (P. cinereus)Flying fox bat (Pteropus sp.)

All photos taken by R. Balza (2010) at the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History

Evidence of evolutioncomparative anatomy

Limits of Evolutiongenomic “entropy”

"It is a general rule, of which every geneticist and breeder can give numerous examples, that the more drastically a mutation affects the phenotype, the more likely it is to reduce fitness. To believe that such a drastic mutation would produce a viable new type, capable of occupying a new adaptive zone, is equivalent to believing in miracles."

-Ernst Mayr (1970)

Populations, Species, and EvolutionPitx1+/- Pitx1-/-

Lanctot et al. (1999) Development. 126: 1805-10.

“By irreducibly complex I mean a single system composed of several well-matched, interacting parts that

contribute to the basic function, wherein the removal of any one of

the parts causes the system to effectively cease functioning.”

-Michael Behe, Darwin’s Black Box (1996)

Limits of Evolutionirreducible complexity

“But suppose I had found a watch on the ground...the watch must have had a maker:

that there must have existed, at some time, and at some place or other, an artificer or artificers, who formed

it...Every indication of contrivance, every manifestation of design, which existed in

the watch, exists in the works of nature...”-William Paley, Natural Theology (1802)

William Paley (1743-1805)Painting by George Romney, 1789

Paley’s Natural Theology (1802) see www.gutenberg.org/etext/14780

Limits of Evolutiondesign

Atheistic evolution(R Dawkins)

Agnostic evolution(SJ Gould)

Evolutionary creation (theistic evolution)(T Dobzhansky, F Collins)

Metaphorical hermeneutic(symbolic-literary)

(CS Lewis)

Old earth creationism(general literal)

Young earth creationism

(strict literal)(H Morris, K Ham)

Day-age(H Ross)

Gap(R Newman, W Buckland)

Intelligent design(M Behe, P Johnson)

Deistic evolution(C Darwin)

summary of evolution/creation viewpoints

Dysteleological worldviews

Teleological worldviews

Literal hermeneutic(literal)(M Luther)

Neocreationism(general literal)

(K Wise)

Richard Dawkins, DPhil (1941-)

The Selfish Gene (1976)The Blind Watchmaker (1987)

A Survival Machine (1996)River Out of Eden (1996)

Climbing Mount Improbable (1996)The Extended Phenotype (1999)

The Ancestor’s Tale (2005)The God Delusion (2006)

The Greatest Show on Earth (2009)

“Although atheism might have been logically tenable before Darwin, Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually

fulfilled atheist.”-Richard Dawkins in The Blind Watchmaker (1987)

Atheistic evolutionevolution proves the absence of God

"The magisterium of science covers the empirical realm: what the universe

is made of and why does it work in this way. The magisterium of religion extends over questions of ultimate

meaning and moral value. These two magisteria do not overlap. . ."

-Stephen Jay Gould in Rocks of Ages (2002)

Stephen Jay Gould, Ph.D. (1941-2002)Emeritus professor of geology and zoology, Harvard University

Agnostic evolutionnon-overlapping magisteria (NOMA)

"Authors of the highest eminence seem to be fully satisfied that each

species has been independently created. To my mind it accords

better with what we know of the laws impressed on matter by the Creator, that the production and extinction of the past and present inhabitants of the world should

have been due to secondary causes like those determining the birth

and death of the individual."-Charles R. Darwin, (1859) On the Origin of Species.

Charles Darwin (1809-1882)On the Origin of Species by Natural Selection (1859)

All Darwin’s work is available at http://darwin-online.org.uk/

deistic evolutionGod is impersonal or removed from creation

Meredith G. Kline, PhD (1922-2007)Emeritus professor of theology, Westminster Seminary

“Genesis is presenting a poetic framework for discussing the scope of

God’s creation. The ‘yom’ should be understood as topical not temporal.”

-Meredith Kline (1996) Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith 48: 2-15.

formless(tohu)

empty(bohu)

Yom 1separate light & dark

Yom 4create sun & moon

Yom 2separate water above &

water below

Yom 5create flying creatures &

sea creatures

Yom 3separate water & land

(plants)

Yom 6create land animals &

humans (plants for food)

Metaphorical interpretations of Genesisthe framework hypothesis

"I believe that Christianity can still be believed, even if evolution is true. This is where you and I differ. Thinking as I do, I can’t help regarding your advice (that I henceforth include arguments against

Evolution in all my Christian apologetics) as a temptation to fight the battle on

what is really a false issue..."-C.S. Lewis in a personal letter to creationist Bernard Acworth (Dec 9, 1944)

C.S. Lewis (1898-1963)Episcopalian Scholar and Novelist

The Problem of Pain (1940) The Abolition of Man (1943)

Mere Christianity (1952)The Chronicles of Narnia (1950-1956)

Miracles (1960)

theistic evolutionGod has ordained and is sustaining the creation of life through the mechanism of evolution

“Tell all the Truth but tell it slant-Success in Cirrcuit liesToo bright for our infirm DelightThe Truth’s superb surpriseAs Lightening to the Children easedWith explanation kindThe Truth must dazzle gradually Or every man be blind-”

-Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

metaphorical interpretations of Genesisdivine accommodation

". . . evolution could appear to us to be driven by chance, but from God’s perspective the outcome would be entirely specified. Thus, God could be completely and intimately

involved in the creation of all species, while from our perspective, limited as it is by the tyranny of linear time, this would appear a

random and undirected process."-Francis Collins in The Language of God (2006)

Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D. (b. 1950)Director of the NIH

The Language of God (2006)

Theistic evolutionGod has ordained and is sustaining the creation of life through the mechanism of evolution

Thought question

What scientific or theological problems does theistic evolution raise?

1. Death before the fall

2. Wasteful / inefficient

3. Theodicy / problem of painGod is good.God is omnipotent.Yet there exists suffering.

God allows evil.God’s power is self-limited.God uses suffering.

Luke 13:1-5 Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.

Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”

“Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”

Theodicythe problem of pain

Dear Sirs,I am. Sincerely yours,G. K. Chesterton

G.K. Chesterton(1874-1936)

“What is wrong with the world?”

Kenneth A. Ham (b1951)President of Answers in Genesis USA

The Lie: Evolution (1987) One Blood (1999)

Strict-literal interpretations of Genesisyoung earth creationism

“The battle is between these two worldviews—one that stands on God's Word and one that

accepts man's opinions..”-Derby, C. & Ham, K. War of the World Views (2006)

Neocreationismusually allows for limited evolution and/or an old earth

Kurt Wise, PhD (b1959)Truett-McConnell College

Baraminology (1990)

“We…reject the theories of ‘evolution,’ including ‘theistic evolution,’ not only because they lack a sound basis in scientific evidence but especially because they contradict the divinely-inspired account of creation as given by Moses in the Old

Testament…” We Believe, Teach, and Confess, (accessed July 7, 2008), http://www.evangelicallutheransynod.org/believe/els/webtc.html

Interpretations of GenesisLutheran theologians

“We would also be making a very serious error simply to accept the theories of science without question. Many aspects of evolutionary theory are directly

contradictory to God’s Word. Evolution cannot be ‘baptized’ to make it compatible with the Christian faith. Those who attempt inevitably wind up

watering down the teachings of the Bible.”-Alvin L. Barry, President LCMS (1992-2001)

“Even from the viewpoint of reason the account of the Bible regarding the creation of the world is far more believable than all the theories of scientists . . .

What the various schools of evolution have taught, or still teach, are mere theories. They do not teach facts, verified by observation and experience.”

- Edward W.A. Koehler (1875-1951) A Summary of Christian Doctrine Second Revision by Alfred Koehler (1971) p 37.

“In matters that are so obscure and far beyond our vision, we find in Holy Scripture passages which can

be interpreted in very different ways without prejudice to the faith we have received. In such

cases, we should not rush in headlong and so firmly take our stand on one side that, if further progress

in the search for truth justly undermines this position, we too fall with it.”

-Saint Augustine (written circa 401AD), The Literal Meaning of Genesis, as translated and annotated by John H. Taylor (New York: Paulist Press, 1982).

St. Augustine (354-430)

Interpretations of Genesispatristic theologians

Michelangelo Buonarroti, (1512)

“Let no man . . . think or maintain that a man can search too far or be too well studied in the book of God’s word, or in the book of God’s works . . . but rather let men endeavor an endless progress or proficiency in both.”

-Francis Bacon (1605) The Advancement of Learning

Conclusion