Creation & Evolution Worldviews at War. My Family

Creation & Evolution Worldviews at War

My Family

Not a Side Issue

Brief History of Evolution

Disguised Materialism

Materialism

“The essential feature of this belief is that everything in nature arose spontaneously by a process of self transformation without the necessity of supernatural intervention. Julian Huxley once said: "the whole of reality is evolution, a single process of self…”

Adopted from: Dr. Menton, http://www.gennet.org/facts/metro21.html

Thales (625-546 BC)

Jump

http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/PictDisplay/Thales.html

The French Revolution

James Hutton

From: http://www.strangescience.net/hutton.htm

Erasmus Darwin

From: http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/Edarwin.html

Organic life beneath the shoreless wavesWas born and nurs'd in ocean's pearly caves;First forms minute, unseen by spheric glass,Move on the mud, or pierce the watery mass;These, as successive generations bloom,New powers acquire and larger limbs assume;Whence countless groups of vegetation spring,And breathing realms of fin and feet and wing.

Erasmus Darwin. The Temple of Nature. 1802.

Sir Charles Lyell

The Foundation

Uniformitarianism: The Present is the key to the past

Charles Darwin

“When Darwin published his book, it created a tremendous sensation; it seemed to be the key for which the whole world was waiting…In the hundred years since the publication of Darwin our opinion of Darwin has never been so high as it is now.”

The Ideas of Biology (New York; Harper & Brothers, 1962), p 9

“We have a prior commitment, a commitment to materialism ….Moreover, that we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.”

Richard Lewontin, Billions and Billions of Demons, The New York Review of Books, Jan. 9, 1997

Naturalistic Bias

“Even if all the data point to an intelligent designer, such a hypothesis is excluded from science because it is not naturalistic.”

Scott C. Todd, World Magazine, Feb. 26, 2000, pg 32

“And even as they did not want to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient.” Rom. 1:28

Defining Evolution

Evolution & Biology

“Gradual accumulation of adaptations over

time.”

Biology The Dynamics of Life, 2000

“Biological evolution, simply put, is descent with modification. This definition encompasses small-scale evolution (changes in gene frequency in a population from one generation to the next) and large-scale evolution (the descent of different species from a common ancestor over many generations). Evolution helps us to understand the history of life.”

http://evolution.berkeley. edu/evolibrary/article/0_0_0/evo_02

Your Family Tree

http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/0_0_0/evo_03

Types of Evolution

• Types of Evolution:– Cosmic – How the Universe came to be

– Stellar – How stars form

– Chemical – How the Chemicals came to be

– Organic – How Life began

– Macro – Going from One Kind to Another

– Micro- Small adaptations that create variety in the Kinds

Two Types of Science

• Operational (True Science)– Can be reproduced in a Lab

– Based on observations

– Little to no bias

• Historical (Science Falsely so Called)– Can not be reproduced in the lab

– Based on assumptions

– Biased

Java Man Find

What is a Species?

“Groups of organisms that can interbreed and produce fertile offspring.” Biology Dynamics of Life, 2000.

Does the Bible use the Word Species?

“So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind.” Gen. 1:21

Variation Within a Kind

• Kinds are created with a certain amount of adaptability

• This adaptability allows a kind to survive in a hostile environment

Dog Kind

Limitation to how far they can vary, dogs will always produce dogs.

Jan. 2002

• “The central idea of biological evolution is that all life on Earth shares a common ancestor, just as you and your cousins share a common grandmother.”

• “Evolution means that we're all distant cousins: humans and oak trees, hummingbirds and whales.”

Where Creation Science Draws the Line

Both Quotes From: http://evolution.berkeley. edu/evolibrary/article/0_0_0/evo_02

1 Cor. 15:39

“All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.

Moral Implications of Evolution

• “So God created man in his own image” Gen. 1:27–“Man was to bear

God's image, both in outward resemblance and in character.” PP 46

Image of God

Dominion

• “have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the face of the earth.” Gen. 1:28

“And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:

“Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:” Rom 1:21-26

A Conflict of Authority

Man’s Fallible Word vs.

God’s Infallible Word

Ps. 118:8 “It is better to trust in the

Lord than to put confidence in man.”

A Test for Reliable Scientific Theories

Does it contradict the Bible?

Viewed from a Religious Standpoint

“Science, in order to be fully appreciated, must be viewed from a religious standpoint. Then all will worship the God of science.” Manuscript 30, 1896.

True Science

The Earth Flat?

• This Greek idea that was accepted by the early church was never fully tested to all scripture.

• Is. 40:22 “It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:”

God is Still Upholding all Things

“Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high:” Heb. 1:3

Self Assembly not Possible

“Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. Heb. 11:3

“Moses wrote under the guidance of the Spirit of God, and a correct theory of geology will never claim discoveries that cannot be reconciled with his statements. The idea that many stumble over, that God did not create matter when He brought the world into existence, limits the power of the Holy One.“ 3SM. Pg. 307

Creation Science Differs from Uniformitarianism

• Revelation is the key to the past

• Certain world altering events have dramatically changed the way things look & interact–Creation

–Corruption (Sin)

–Catastrophe (Flood)

Which Worldview is Religious?

What is Religion “Sometimes used interchangeably with

faith or belief system—is commonly defined as belief concerning the supernatural, sacred, or divine; and the moral codes, practices, values, institutions and rituals associated with such belief. In its broadest sense some have defined it as the sum total of answers given to explain humankind's relationship with the universe.”

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

Religious Commonalities

• Basic assumptions that are not empirically provable

• Require a certain amount of faith in those assumptions

• Affects how the person acts and relates to the world around them

• Answers questions about where we fit into the Universe

Christian Assumptions

• “In the beginning God” (Gen 1:1)

• The Bible is the inspired word of God (2 Tim. 3:16)

• God is a rewarder to those that diligently seek Him (Heb. 11:6)

Assumptions of Evolution• Unknown chemicals in the primordial past…through...• Unknown processes which no longer exist…

produced…• Unknown life forms which are not to be found but

could through…• Unknown reproduction methods spawn new life…in

an…• Unknown atmospheric composition…in an…• Unknown oceanic soup complex…at an…• Unknown time and place.

Dr. Henry Morris

“What science educators propose to teach as “evolution”, and label as fact, is based not upon any incontrovertible empirical evidence (scientifically proven facts) but upon a highly controversial philosophical presupposition. The controversy over creation and evolution is therefore not going to go away as people become better educated on the subject”

“On the contrary, the more people learn about philosophical content of what scientist are calling the “fact of evolution” the less they are going to like it.” (Phillip E. Johnson, The Dogma of Evolution)

Science Falsely So Called

“O Timothy keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called.” 1 Tim. 6:20

“…the theory of evolution itself is a theory universally accepted not because it can be proved by logical coherent evidence to be true but because the only alternative is special creation, which is clearly incredible.” D.M.S. Watson, “Adaptation,”

Nature, August 10, 1929, vol. 124, #3119, pg. 231, 233

Though One Rise from the Dead

“But he said to him, If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.” Luke 16:31

The State of Arkansas & Creationism

Popperian Test

• It is guided by natural law.

• It has to be explanatory by reference to natural law.

• It is testable against the empirical world.

• Its conclusions are tentative (i.e. are not necessarily the final word).

• It is falsifiable.

What about the Fundamental Assumptions of Atheistic Evolution

Is it guided by natural law? F

Is it explained by reference to all natural law? F

Is it is testable against the empirical world? F

Are its conclusions tentative? P

Is it is falsifiable? F

Which one is Religious? Evolution Creation

Life can arise from nonliving Matter

God Created Matter

The World is Billions of Years Old

The World is Thousands of Years Old

Man’s Ability to Know Truth in and of Himself

God leads us into Truth

No Absolutes, Man sets the Standards

Absolutes God sets the Standards

Both Views are Religious

So if they have no Evidence Why don’t they Believe?

• 2 Tim. 4:3-4 “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”

• Jude 16 “These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage.”

2 Peter 3:3 “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.”

“It is not enough to believe in law and force, in things, that have no pity, and never hear the cry for help. We need to know of an almighty arm that will hold us up, of an infinite Friend that pities us. We need to clasp a hand that is warm to trust in a heart full of tenderness. And even so God has in His word revealed Himself.” Ed 133

Which Religion will you Choose?