Building Critical Thinkers

Mike Riddle

What Is Evolution?

www.CreationTraining.org

Topics Critical thinking questions Critical thinking and evolution Words have meaning (fuzzy words and

magic words) Analyzing the evidence: asking questions

Three Critical Thinking Questions

How do you know it is true?

Has it ever been observed?

Are you making any assumptions?

One More Question - Fossils

How much of the fossil was actually found and how much

was added (assumed)?

“For instance, modern whales are the descendants of four-legged land animals…”

Biology: Visualizing Life, Holt, Rinehart, Winston, 1998, p. 177.

DeceptionPakicetus: a candidate for

whale evolution?

Artist reconstruction

Only the shaded portions of the skull were found

The Real Pakicetus

A wolf-like land mammal, with legs capable of running

Logical fallaciesFalse assumptions

Misinformation

Be weary of arguments based on:

Evolution

Critical Thinking4 Components

Analysis

Inference

Interpretation

Deductive reasoning

Analysis • Determine the credibility of the evidence.

• Are there any assumptions?• Are there any logical

fallacies?

Ad Hominem – Name callingEquivocation - Different meaningsBifurcation – Either or fallacyStrawman – Distorting the position

Analysis

Inference • What elements are needed to draw the conclusion?

• We need to query the evidence: ask questions

Analysis

Inference

• Decode the argument• Clarify the argument • What is the real issue?

(presuppositional)

Interpretation

Analysis

Inference

• What does the premise really allow us to conclude?

• Draw a logical conclusion based on the evidence presented in the argument.

Interpretation

Deductive Reasoning

Critical Thinking and EvolutionBiological Evolution

The Mechanism for ChangeTOOLS

3 critical thinking questionsFossil question

4 components of critical thinking

How Evolution Happens?Millions of years of mutations

add new information

Selection Process

Amoeba Man

Will millions of years of mutations and natural selection allow for amoeba to man evolution?

Critical Thinking

TOOLBox

3 QuestionsFossil Question4 Components

Critical Thinking

No ambiguity State exactly what is included and

what is not included in the definition domain

In science definitions must be clear and precise.

Evolution

Evolution

Requires the addition of

new genetic

Upward progression

Information

Analyzing Popular Definitions of Evolution

Evolution is change over time. (valid / not valid)

Genetic change in a species over time (valid / not valid)

Any change in the relative frequencies of alleles in the gene pool of a population (valid / not valid)

1. _________________2. _________________3. _________________4. _________________5. _________________

Challenging QuestionWhat is a good definition of

Darwinian evolution?

Random mutationBeneficialAdd new informationMust surviveReproduce more offspring

Analyzing the Mechanisms for EvolutionMutations

Natural Selection

Mutations

No change

No evolution

Disease

No evolution

Add information

Produce more

offspring that survive

Detrimental Neutral BeneficialDetrimental Neutral BeneficialDetrimental Neutral

Information

Natural SelectionWhat is it?

What Is Natural Selection?Charles Darwin

“It may be said that natural selection is daily and hourly scrutinising, throughout the world, every variation, even the slightest; rejecting that which is bad, preserving and adding up all that is good; silently and insensibly working, whenever and wherever opportunity offers.”Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, 1859, p. 84.

Three Assumptions about Natural Selection

1. Assume natural selection is responsible for appearance of design and complexity.

2. Assume an external source as the source of design.

3. Assume natural selection has the capability to choose beneficial mutations (intelligence).

Critical Thinking and Natural Selection

Natural

Caused by nature (natural processes)

Selection

Selector(Intelligence)

Natural Selection

Exposure interface

Pre-programmed information

Environment

3 Questions About Natural Selection

1. What is it that natural selection actually does and how does it work?

2. Selection implies intelligence. Who or what is actually doing or causing the selection?

3. Since selection does not address the origin of information, and mutations are known to cause a loss of information or function, is there any observational evidence for where the vast amount of information in DNA came from?

What Is Natural Selection?

It is an artificial mechanism devised by man to replace the power and intelligence of God.

Words have meaningCritical Thinking

Fuzzy WordsMagic Words

A Lesson in Reading

Fuzzy Words We believe We think Must have Could have Might have Our opinion is We guess Over millions of years

No observable evidence

What Happened

Biology, Miller and Levine, 2002, p. 426.

“Those life forms must have evolved in the absence of oxygen,…”

Fuzzy Words

Life Science, Prentice Hall (Grade 7), 2002, p. 410.

“Paleontologist think that Archaeopteryx and today’s birds descended from some kind of reptile, possibly from a dinosaur.”

April 21, 2010, http://www.physorg.com

“Scientists are reporting discovery of what may be the "ancestral Eve" crystal that billions of years ago gave life on Earth its curious and exclusive preference for so-called left-handed amino acids. .”

Biology: Visualizing Life, Holt, Rinehart, Winston, 1998, p. 193.

RNA was probably the first genetic molecule.”

Joseph Silk, Ph.D. Astronomy, The Big Bang, 2001, p. 170.

“Imagine that infinitesimal fluctuations in density were present in the early universe…. The expansion of the universe must have exerted a stabilizing influence on such irregularities. The expanding universe has the effect of greatly impeding what otherwise might have been catastrophic forces…. Nevertheless, the process of growth of fluctuations went on for a very long time,…”

“The first cells could not have needed oxygen to survive. They probably were heterotrophs that used the chemicals in their surroundings for energy….. At some point, some of the cells may have developed the ability to make their own food.”

Prentice Hall, Science Explorer: Life Science, 2002, p. 46.

Magic Words Appeared Emerged Arose Gave rise to Was on the way to becoming Burst onto the scene Evolved itself Was making a transition to

How It Happened

“Evo-devo proposes that genes involved in cobbling together flesh and bone during early growth were repurposed to develop new structures throughout evolution's history, by combining their functions in new ways.”

USA Today, “Why did bugs grow wings to fly?”, Mar 29, 2010.

“All [dinosaurs] probably evolved from a scurrying, bipedal, pheasant-size reptile.”

National Geographic, January 1993, p. 12.

“Into this world came the dinosaurs, initially small bipedal carnivores, and they rose to dominance at some point during the Triassic.”

The Complete Dinosaur, Edited by James O. Farlow and M. K. Brett-Surman, 1997, p. 204.

Critical Thinking

Asking Questions

Asking QuestionsLife originated about 3.7 billion years ago in a pool of chemicals.

Asking Questions“About 6 million years ago, the hominoid line gave rise to a branch that ultimately led to the ancestors and closest relatives of modern humans.” - Biology, Miller and Levine, 2002, p. 835.

Asking QuestionsNAS, Science and Creationism, 1999, p. 11

Finches: Different beak shapes

“The different species of finches on the Galapagos islands, now known as Darwin’s finches, have different-sized beaks that have evolved to take advantage of distinct food types.”

Asking Questions

Normal fruit fly

Short-winged fruit fly

Curly-winged fruit fly

Yellow fruit fly

Orange-eyed fruit fly

White-eyed fruit fly

Eyeless fruit fly

Asking Questions

Wingless beetle

Eyeless fish

Caterpillar to butterfly

Asking Questions

What questions could I ask?

Dinosaurs evolved into

birds.

Asking Questions

What questions could I ask?

Natural selection is one of the

basic mechanisms of

evolution.

Asking Questions

Do you believe in evolution?

Critical Thinking and the Challenge of Relativism

Why are you Christians against a woman’s right

to choose?

Critical Thinking and the Challenge of Relativism

Do you take the Bible literally?

The EndBuilding

Critical Thinkers

Mike Riddlewww.CreationTraining.org

Answers Book 1, 2, & 3

Apologetics DVDsby Mike Riddle

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© Answers in Genesis-USA

Ask Them Whyby Jay Lucas

Apologetics

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The Rights FightJay Lucas

ApologeticsDefending our Christian rights

4 Power QuestionsBy Mike Riddle

Basic Creation TrainingA course on creation for teens and above. Learn about God’s creation and how to refute the claims of evolution and theistic evolution.

Advanced Creation ApologeticsLearn how to ask probing questions andrecognize and respond to logical fallacies used by evolutionists. Learn to use presuppositional apologetics in discussions.

Christian Teacher/Leader TrainingTraining that goes beyond what is taught in “teacher colleges”. Sharpen your Sunday school teaching skills. Also, how to create a Sunday school program that is life changing.

Building an “Army” of Christian Educators

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