apologetics 1 lesson 10 origins: evolution and creation

Apologetics 1Origins

Evolution and Creation

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References Scriptural references taken from the following and their

respective copyrights retained: NIV: THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984

by International Bible Society® NASB: Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright ©

1960,1962,1963,1968,1971,1972,1973,1975,1977,1995 by The Lockman Foundation. ESV: The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®) Copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a

publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. HCSB: Holman Christian Standard Bible® Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003 by Holman

Bible Publishers. NLT: Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House

Foundation.

Key Terminology

• Intelligent Design• Young Earth Creation• Old Earth Creation (Progressive Creation)• Theistic Evolution (Evolutionary Creation)• Deistic Evolution• Darwinian Evolution

Young Earth CreationPosition Young EarthPurpose YesUniverse Age 6,000-10,000Micro Evolution YesMacro Evolution NoInteligent Design YesGod's Intervention DirectSpecial Revelation BibleHuman Life Adam & EveSin YesImage of God Yes

Old Earth CreationPosition Old EarthPurpose YesUniverse Age 10-15 BillionMicro Evolution YesMacro Evolution NoInteligent Design YesGod's Intervention Direct & IndirectSpecial Revelation BibleHuman Life Adam & EveSin YesImage of God Yes

Theistic EvolutionPosition Theistic EvolutionPurpose YesUniverse Age 10-15 BillionMicro Evolution YesMacro Evolution YesInteligent Design YesGod's Intervention IndirectSpecial Revelation BibleHuman Life EvolvedSin YesImage of God Yes

Deistic EvolutionPosition Deistic EvolutionPurpose YesUniverse Age 10-15 BillionMicro Evolution YesMacro Evolution YesInteligent Design YesGod's Intervention IndirectSpecial Revelation NoneHuman Life EvolvedSin No Image of God No

Neo-Darwinian EvolutionPosition Neo-Darwinian EvolutionPurpose NoUniverse Age 10-15 BillionMicro Evolution YesMacro Evolution YesInteligent Design NoGod's Intervention Random ChanceSpecial Revelation N/AHuman Life EvolvedSin No Image of God No

“We…do not need to be committed to any particular version of how God created. But the notion that God intentionally created the world because he wanted to is at the heart of the Bible and the Christian worldview… there are those like myself , just plain Christian theists who believe the universe was created by God but not committed to a specific version of how it came to be in its current form.”-James Sire

A Few Key Arguments

3 Problems

• Scientists are working under presuppositions that eliminate the possibility of a creator (bias).

• Science cannot account for the first single cell or event how a single cell would come into existence.

• Time is relative.

“The Cosmos is all that is, or ever was, or ever will be.”- Carl Sagan

Note that Sagan is making a philosophical claim and not stating a scientific fact.

Philosophical Presuppositions

• Materialistic naturalism presupposes that material is all there is.

• Therefore there is nothing supernatural. • There presupposition limits possible

explanations to only natural explanations.• Therefore even if it looks like design it can’t be

designed.• Science is always based on philosophical

presuppositions.

“Our willingness to accept scientific claims that are against common sense is the key to an understanding of the real struggle between science and the supernatural. We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs, in spite of its failure to fulfill many of its extravagant promises of health and life, in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we have a prior commitment, a commitment to materialism. It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counter-intuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.” - Harvard Genetics Professor, Richard Lewontin (Atheist)

“When there is a conflict between methodology and materialism, the philosophy always trumps the facts. Modern science does not conclude from the evidence that design is not tenable. It assumes it prior to the evidence… This is not faith vs. evidence, but evidence vs. evidence.” (G. Koukl, Tactics 171)

“It is best to let the Bible speak on its own terms and not force particular scientific theories out of it. It is best also to let science do its work, occasionally reminding scientist that they cannot claim neutrality.” – William Edgar, Reasons of the Heart: Recovering the Christian Persuasion

“The atheist’s model begins with an even more impressive miracle – the appearance of all the matter in the universe from nothing, by no one, and for no reason.”- Chuck Missler/Mark Eastman, The Creator Beyond Time and Space

Irreducible Complexity

A system performing a given basic function is irreducibly complex if it includes a set of well-matched, mutually interacting, nonarbitrarily individuated parts such that each part in the set is indispensable to maintaining the system's basic, and therefore original, function. The set of these indispensable parts is known as the irreducible core of the system.- William Dembski

A single system which is composed of several interacting parts that contribute to the basic function, and where the removal of any one of the parts causes the system to effectively cease functioning.- Michael Behe

Irreducible Complexity

This work has been released into the public domain by its author, LadyofHats.

Irreducible Complexity• Macro Evolution only addresses change from one species to another.• Evolution does not explain the origin of life.• Neo-Darwinian Evolution requires reproducing life.• Without reproduction evolution is rendered meaningless.• It is through the reproduction process that random changes are

introduced.• The simplest form of reproducing life is a single cell.• A single cell is highly complex.• There is noting simpler than a single cell that is self-replicating.• Building blocks may be found in nature, but none of the bio-machines in

the cell that are required for reproduction, are found in nature outside of a cell.

• None of the criticisms of irreducible complexity answer the fundamental question, how did the first, highly complex, self-replicating cell come into existence?

“An irreducibly complex system cannot be produced directly (that is, by continuously improving the initial function, which continues to work by the same mechanism) by slight, successive modifications of a precursor system, because any precursor to an irreducibly complex system that is missing a part is by definition nonfunctional.”- Michael Behe

Time

• Theory of relativity – Time dilation is an actual difference of elapsed

time between two events as measured by observers.• Motion (speed, direction)• Mass (gravity)

– Scientists proved the hypothesis true in the '70s by sending an atomic clock into orbit.

The universe is expanding.

As the universe aged space and time were stretched.Light between stars also was stretched.

Think of a balloon. Draw two dots and a line going from one to halfway between the two dots. Notice what happens when you blow the balloon up.The line is also stretched.

Gerald Schroeder’s Theory

• We see approximately 15 billion years of history. • The Torah says six days. • In truth, they both may be correct.• Remember the universe (space-time) has been

stretched over time.• The universe is 15 billion years old as seen from

the time-space coordinates of the earth.• The universe is approximately 7 days old as seen

from the time-space coordinates of the big-bang.

http://www.geraldschroeder.com/AgeUniverse.aspx

6 days equals 14.07 billion years

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 60

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Billions of Years

Day 1 Day 2 3 4 56

God’s View