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Unexplained Mysteries

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Leap of Faith

Spontaneous generation - that life arose from non-living things, intelligence from non-intelligence

? Is it reasonable to ask that one believes this can happen, and to take it as a scientific fact, without scientific proof?

Spontaneous generation occurred only once in the

history of the universe ? Why only once in all these billions of years?

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Leap of Faith

Natural selection ensures survival of a species - God’s law for preservation ? But never has natural selection been observed where one species evolved into another. Why?

The link between man and apes still missing ? Why still missing after all these years? Looks like it never existed in the first place?

Requires more faith than believing in the Creation account!

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im-Probabilities

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Appreciating Orders of Probability

# Probability for Coins Probability for Dice

3 8 216

10 103 6 x 107

20 106 4 x 1015

100 1030 7 x 1077

Order of Probability # of Coins # of Dice

1050 167 65

10110 366 142

10260 865 335

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Appreciation of Large Numbers

Distance across the universe in centimetres: 1026

Weight of the universe in tons: 1049

Number of grains of dust in the Milky Way: 1053

Number of protons, neutrons and electrons in the whole universe: 1080

Yet, above numbers are small when compared with probabilities in evolution!

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The Lower Limits

Borel’s Basic Law of Chance, Corollary 3: “Any cosmic event whose probability of occurrence is less than 1 chance in 1050 can never happen, regardless of the time allowed for the event to take place or the number of opportunities for the event to take place.” (Emile Borel, “Probabilities and Life”, 1962)

Hence, lower limit of probability for events to be possible is 1 in 1050

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The Lower Limits

Astrophysics Particle-Event Law

Maximum number of microscopic particles within the universe is 1080

Universe is no older than 30 billion years old

Hence, maximum total of trials that could possibly occur in the history of the universe is 10110

Any event whose probability of occurrence is less than 1 chance in 10110 cannot occur in the universe.

(Henry Morris, Impact No. 73, 1979)

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Chance of Spontaneous Generation

Probability of a single living cell arising spontaneously (abiogenesis) calculated over and over again by scientists

Unable to come up with a probability which falls above Borel's limit!

Sir Fred Hoyle, astronomer and physicist, calculated this to be 1 in 1040,000, far smaller than the lower limits of probable events

Recent computation puts this at 1 in 101,000 - still significantly below Borel’s limit

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Chance of Spontaneous Generation

Hence, the supposed spontaneous origin of life is an impossibility!

Probability considerations played a large

role in changing Hoyle’s belief from

a purely evolutionary origin of life to

believing in a Creator. (Fred Hoyle and Chandra

Wickramasinghe, “Evolution from Space”, 1981)

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Probability of Protein Synthesis

Computed by Francis Crick, a non-creationist who shared the Nobel Prize in 1962 with James Watson and Maurice Wilkins for their discovery of the molecular structure of the DNA (“Life Itself, its origin and nature”, 1981)

Consider a protein with 200 amino acids (less than what the average protein has) Molecular construction of a cell require amino acids to be strung in

correct order

Normally a complicated biochemical process, using instructions from the RNA - not a random process!

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Probability of Protein Synthesis

Probability that the correct order of amino acids is formed is 1 in 10260 - again below the Borel limit Estimated number of fundamental particles in

the entire Universe is only 1080!

Probability would be much worse for longer proteins

Consider for the many possible proteins - can a particular amino acid sequence be selected by chance? Impossible

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The Wonders of the Human

Body

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Ernst Heinrich Haeckel’s theory (1834-1919)

A German biologist and philosopher

Dubbed “the apostle of Darwinism in Germany”

Self-taught knowledge in embryology

Claimed that successive stages of individual embryonic development repeat the evolutionary stages of one’s animal ancestry

Claimed human embryo shows that man descended from the fish, the reptile, and the monkey

Embryonic Recapitulation

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Vestiges of Human AncestorsH

um

an A

nce

stry

“Yolk Sac”

“Tail”

“Gill Slits”

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Now a Defunct Theory

“It is now firmly established that ontogeny does not repeat phylogeny” (George Gaylord Simpson, famed Harvard evolutionist, An Introduction to Biology, 1957)

None are vestigial; all have functional purposes “Yolk-sac” – blood forming sac supplying first blood before

formation of bone marrow

“Gill slits” – throat pouches that develop into lower jaw, tongue, thymus gland, middle ear, etc

“Tail (coccyx)” – muscle attachment for upright posture

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Vestiges of Defunct Theory

Darwin said that embryological evidence was “second to none in importance”

Once termed “the fundamental biogenetic law”

Hence, still quite frequently used and quoted as “proof” of the accuracy of the theory of evolution in modern writings (eg Isaac Asimov, The Genesis War, 1981)

But, not only rejected by evolutionists, also turned out this was . . . . . .

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. . . . nothing but a bad hoax

Haeckel had passion for promoting the recapitulation theory

Faked some of his evidence Altered his illustrations of embryos

Printed the same plate of an embryo three times, and labeled one a human, the second a dog and the third a rabbit “to show their similarity”

Went so far as to alter pictures of embryos drawn by others

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A Bad Hoax

Exposed by professor L. Rutimeyer of Basle University.

Charged with fraud by five professors, and ultimately convicted in a university court

During trial, Haeckel admitted that he had altered his drawings, but interesting what he said in his own defence:

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A Bad Hoax

“I should feel utterly condemned and annihilated by the admission, were it not that hundreds of the best observers and biologists lie under the same charge. The great majority of all morphological, anatomical, histological, and embryological diagrams are not true to nature, but are

more or less doctored, schematized and reconstructed.”

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Common Sense TestThe “image of God” contains several features of awesome beauty and highly sophisticated and ingenious design.

Can a thing of beauty result from disorder?

Can these evolve – naturally – from the lower life forms?

Can these just happen?

Above violates not just the common sense test but against scientific observations in nature – 2nd law of thermodynamics

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DNAHuge amount of information contained in human

DNA Instructions for building the material of life DNA in genes from one human cell contains a billion bio-

chemical steps If all DNA in a human were placed end-to-end it would reach

the sun and back 400 times

Highly complex - molecules can unite in 102,400,000,000 ways

Ingenious algorithm to compress all that information

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The Human Genome

Human Genome Project

15 year international project since 1990 to map the “letters” (molecular structure) of the human genetic code in the DNA in the 23 pairs of human chromosomes Race between US government led project and privately funded

project

Important applications in the field of genetics and medicine But also possible abuses

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The Human Genome

3.4 billion “letters” in ~80,000 genes in the human genome to be decoded Identifying all the letters in the genome very near completion

(Time, April 17, 2000)

Only Chromosome 22 has been fully decoded by Dec 99 – first to be deciphered because of its small size

Expect another 50 years before can fully de-code all the chromosomes of the genome

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Chromosome 22

Close to 700 genes with 200-300 additional ones likely to be identified

Gene size vary from 1,000 to 583,000 bases of DNA – average 190,000

34 million letters in the DNA sequence in this!

Yet 11 gaps could not be deciphered because of limitations in current technology!

A number of unexpected findings including even more complexity with repeat sequences of DNA

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Im-Probability of Evolution

Laws of mathematical probability rule out that the DNA, or the gene, or the human chromosome, or the human genome can possibly evolve randomly

Neither can such complex ingenious design simply “happen”

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Cells

Human body has 100 trillion cells All the cells in the human body lined up side-by-side

would encircle the earth 200 times.

Each cell contains enough information to fill 10 million volumes.

Probability of a single bacteria evolving calculated by Yale physicist Harold Morowitz to be 1 in 10100,000,000,000! Yet another impossibility! Let alone the different types of sophisticated human cells.

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The Eye

The human eye can handle 1.5 million simultaneous messages.

In a day, the eye moves 100,000 times The body would have to walk 50 miles to exercise

the leg muscles at an equal amount.

137 million nerve endings pick up every message the eye sends to the brain.

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The Eye

“To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable

contrivances for adjusting the focus to different

distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and

for the correction of spherical and chromatic

aberration, could have been formed by natural

selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the

highest sense.” (Charles Darwin, The

Origin of Species)

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The Heart

The human heart beats about 40 million times a year

In a lifetime, the heart will pump 600,000 metric tons of blood

All veins, arteries and capillaries lined end-to-end would travel 80,000 miles.

The entire circulatory system can be serviced in 20 seconds

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The Brain

The brain has 10 billion circuits, each one being 5-10 times more complex than any computer ever built

Has a memory of 1021 bits with information capacity of nearly 20 million books A machine matching the human brain in memory capacity

would consume enough electrical energy at the rate of 1 billion watts – it would cost $10 billion and fill the Empire State Building.

Science cannot explain consciousness in the brain

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Probability of Man’s Evolution

Probability for the evolution of man calculated by Carl Sagan to be 1 in 102,000,000,000

Mathematics clearly stand against the “fact” of spontaneous generation and the evolution of higher life forms

So why does atheism still persist?

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An im-Probability

“The more statistically improbable a thing is,

the less we can believe that it just happened

by blind chance. Superficially, the obvious

alternative to chance is an intelligent

Designer.” (Richard Dawkins, Professor

of Zoology, Oxford University, atheist)

That paradigm issue, again

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More Unexplained Mysteries

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The Bombardier BeetleDrives away enemies by squirting very hot

(higher than 100o C) liquid with very bad smell Body contains hydrogen peroxide dissolved in water, and

hydroquinine Adds inhibitor to prevent reaction inside body When faced by its enemy, chemicals are mixed in a combustion

chamber Adds catalysts to start reaction and produce quinine - bad smell -

and heat Then it opens its valve and squirts at the enemy

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The Bombardier Beetle

How in the evolution path did the B/Beetle know what chemical is needed as the inhibitor and what as the catalyst? Cannot be by trial and error

Cannot be explained by Darwinism

Many other species that have unique capabilities - all cannot be accounted for by Darwinism

?

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The Archer Fish

Feeds on bugs by aiming and spitting at them from under the water

Able to spit with great accuracy

Problem: from under the water, light is refracted (bent)

How did this fish evolve its senses to be so skillful to compensate for the refraction? - No room for trial and error to evolve!

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Other Unique Creatures

The giraffe Long neck presents special difficulties for heart to keep right

blood pressure to the brain - especially when the giraffe lowers its neck

The bat How did this blind creature come to possess its highly accurate

sonic radar?

Others The kangaroo’s reproductive system Migratory patterns of birds and other animals Cooling system of the gazelle

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Symbiosis

Greek word meaning “life together”

“Any mutually beneficial association between two or more dissimilar organisms”

Example: The sea anemone protects the clown fish which is protected from its sting. The clown fish

attracts predators to the anemone which stings them

and feeds on them.

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Symbiosis

More Examples

The mimosa girdler (a beetle) and the mimosa tree The insect prunes the tree branches and allows it to scatter its

eggs while the pruning enables the tree to live to 40-50 years

The Large Blue Butterfly and the Red Ants The ants feed the caterpillar with their larvae while milking

it of a sweet fluid - without the larvae the caterpillar remains a caterpillar!

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Symbiosis

Even more examples: The honeypod ants and aphids Figs and wasps Devilfish and Portuguese man-of-war Leave bug ad bacteria Cleaning symbioses to keep free of parasites and fungi

Darwinism would have required both species to evolve in tandem. But if evolution in random, how can this happen?

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The Atheist’s Blind Spot

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The Atheist Response

Darwinism defies logic and reason

Yet, in spite of recent findings invalidating Darwinism, the atheist paradigm continues to be stubbornly held

One possible rationalisation may be the “Barrow & Tipler” type of response: “So what? That’s just how things happen to be. No need

for surprises. No need to explain.”

That’s how the river flows

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The Atheist Blind Spot

But we need to be amazed:

Cannot explain the origin or the mechanics Life from non-life, intelligence from non-

intelligence

As with some creatures, cannot explain the sequence by which they acquired their unique characteristics (eg the bombardier beetle)

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The Atheist’s Blind Spot

Cannot explain order and design Randomness cannot produce any order on any

appreciable scale

Design never arises out of chaos

Not simple designs but highly complex and ingenious design – look at the Human Genome

Cannot explain the huge gap between man and the next most intelligent creature

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The Atheist’s Blind Spot

Mechanism can never explain beauty “Why are there flowers?”, Immanuel Kant, 18th century

German philosopher

Above are intuitive and yet consistent withobservations in nature – and verified by recentscientific discoveries

To deny them is to choose the atheist paradigm by blind faith