Creation vs Evolution

Roger L. Salstrom, Ph.D

William Jessup University

rsalstrom@jessup.edu

www.salstroms.com

Romans 1:20

• “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”

Creation Vs Evolution

• Why Should We Care?• Public School Situation • Key Players & Web Sites• Terms/Definitions• Evolutionist Arguments• Criticism of Evolution• Creationism/Intelligent Design• Where to go from here.

Are the Christian Faith and Evolution mutually exclusive?

• Statements concerning the issue

• National Association of Biology Teachers

• California Journal of Science Education

• Pope John Paul II

• Moral Darwinism

• Lee Strobel

• Biologist Christian de Duve there is “no sense in which atheism is enforced or established by science”

• Biology professor Kenneth Miller evolution “is not anti-God”

• Philosopher Michael Ruse “No sound argument has been mounted showing that Darwinism implies atheism.”

National Association of Biology Teachers

• “Teachers should respect diverse beliefs. Science teachers can, and often do, hold devout religious beliefs, accept evolution as a valid scientific theory, and teach the theory's mechanisms and principles. Students can maintain their religious beliefs and learn the scientific foundations of evolution.”

California Journal of Science Education

• “Theistic Evolution is the view of creation taught at mainline Protestant seminaries, and is the official position of the Catholic Church.”

Pope John Paul II Pontifical Academy of Sciences

October 23, 1996

• "Today, almost half a century after the publication of the encyclical, new knowledge has led to the recognition of the theory of evolution as more than a hypothesis."

• Fifty years ago Pope Pius XII said almost the same thing in the encyclical Humani generis: "The Teaching Authority of the Church does not forbid that, in conformity with the present state of human sciences and sacred theology, research and discussions, on the part of men experienced in both fields, take place with regard to the doctrine of evolution, insofar as it inquiries into the origin of the human body as coming from pre-existent and living matter."

Moral DarwinismBenjamin Wiker

• “Darwinism is not morally neutral”• “Epicurus was the first Darwinist” (341-

271 B.C.)• “…there can be no compromise in the

current culture wars between Christianity and Darwinism.”

• “…are human beings created by God, or are they the mere products of chance? On this question, everything else hangs.”

Lee Strobel Case for Christ

• “Personally, however, I couldn’t understand how the Darwinism I was taught left any meaningful role for God.”

Stephen Meyer

• “Many evolutionary biologists admit that science cannot categorically exclude the possibility that some kind of deity still might exist Nor can they deny the possibility of a divine designer who so masks his creative activity in apparently natural processes as to escape scientific detection. Yet for most scientific materialists such an undetectable entity hardly seems worthy of consideration.”

Nancy Pearcey

• “you can have God or natural selection, but not both.”

Phillip Johnson

• “the whole point of Darwinism is to show that there is not need for a supernatural creator, because nature can do the creating by itself.”

Early Scientists of Faith

• o Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543)

o  Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) o  Galileo Galilei's (1564-1642) o  Isaac Newton (1642-1727) o  Robert Boyle (1791-1867) o  Michael Faraday's (1791-1867) o  William Thompson Kelvin (1824-1907) o  Max Planck (1858-1947)

Early Scientists of Faith

• Lord Francis Bacon• Robert Boyle• Leonardo DaVinci• Lord William Kelvin• Carolus Linnaeus• Joseph Lister

• Samuel F. B. Morse• Sir Isaac Newton• Blaise Pascal• Louis Pasteur• Sir William Ramsey• Sir James Simpson

Public School Situation

• Roseville

• California

• Across the country

Roseville

• Proposed Quality Science Education Policy– “help students analyze the scientific strengths and

weaknesses of existing scientific theories, including the theory of evolution.”

– Did not propose teaching creationism

• Proposal was rejected. A federal lawsuit has been filed. Pacific Justice Institute joined the suit.

California Journal of Science Education

• “ ‘Scientific creationism’ and its nonsensical arguments aside, most reasons for denying organic evolution are not rational disagreements with methods or conclusions, but pseudo-rational disagreements on moral or ethical grounds.”

California Journal of Science Education

• “There is not escaping the fact that Biblical man-out-of-mud creation is in direct opposition to scientific humankind-out-of-bacteria theory.”

• “Evolutionary biology has unequivocally established that all organisms evolved from a common ancestor over the last 3.5 billions years”

California Journal of Science Education

• “There is very little doubt among anthropologists and Biblical scholars that many of the creation stories in the Bible are really pre-Biblical, going back thousands of years.”

• “In the eyes of anthropology, no culture holds a privileged position. None is thought to be the unique recipient of divine knowledge or benevolence.”

Science Content Standards

• “Genetic changes can result from gene recombination during gamete formation and from mutations. These events are responsible for variety and diversity within each species.”

• “Analysis of the fossil record reveals the story of major events in the history of life on earth, sometimes called macroevolution…”

Georgia, Cobb County School District

• “This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully, and critically considered.”

Dover, Pa

• “The school board has ordered that biology teachers at Dover Area High School make students’ aware of gaps/problems’ in the theory of evolution. Their ninth-grade curriculum now must include the theory of ‘intelligent design’…”

Grantsburg, Wis

• “School board revised its science curriculum to teach ‘various scientific models of theories of origin.’”

Ohio

• “state Board of Education voted in 2002 to require students to learn that scientists ‘continue to investigate and critically analyze aspects of evolutionary theory.’”

Tennessee

• “Blount County’s Board of Education votes not to adopt three high school biology textbooks because they do not present creationism alongside evolution.”

Kansas

• “In Kansas, debate continues over how and whether to teach evolution in schools. The state Board of Education appears likely to adopt a proposal to change the state's science standards to accommodate proponents of a new creationist movement.”

• http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4490224&sourceCode=RSS

Minnesota & New Mexico

• Science standards that require students to learn about the scientific evidence both for and against Darwinian evolution.

Key Players & Web Sites

• Evolutionists– Charles Darwin– Jay Gould– Richard Dawkins

• Vast majority of scientists

Key Players & Web Sites

• Creationists/Intelligent Design– Phillip E. Johnson

– William A. Dembski

– Michael Denton

• Michael J. Behe

• Stephen C. Meyer

• Ken Ham

• Lee Strobel

• Jonathan Wells

Terms/Definitions

• Evolution-is gradual change from one kind of animal to another

• Ex: fish-amphibian-reptile; ape-man

• Microevolution-small changes within a species – believed to account for diversity in a species

• Ex: variations in moth wings

• Macroevolution-changes from one species to another

• Creationism-The earth was created by Intelligent Design

• Intelligent Design-earth and biological life owe their existence to an intelligent designer

• Scientific Creationism-adds the component of a young earth, no more than 10,000 years old

• Darwinism-belief that Random Mutation and Natural Selection accounts for all the diverse and complex living organisms that exist.

• 1St Law of Thermodynamics– Natural processes can neither create nor destroy

matter/energy

• 2nd Law of Thermodynamics– Everything goes from order to disorder, from

complexity to decay

• Law of Biogenesis– Matter and energy do not possess the attributes of

life, and therefore cannot be the cause of life

Evolutionist Arguments

• Evolution has been proven true and is widely accepted.

• Natural selection working on chance variation can scale impossibly high peaks.

• Intelligent design is not acceptable science.

Evolutionist Arguments

• And the study of genes, proteins, and other molecular evidence has added to the understanding of evolutionary descent and the relationship between all living things. Research in all these areas has led to overwhelming support for evolution among scientists.

• © 1993-2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Criticism of Evolution

• Icons of Evolution – Jonathon Wells– Miller-Urey– Haeckel’s Embryos– Archaeopteryx– Peppered Moths– Ape to Human

• Cambrian Explosion

Miller-Urey Experiment (1953)

• Early atmosphere not like the experiment

• Using accurate atmosphere do not get amino acids

• Still get “organic molecules”

Haeckel’s Embryos

Haeckel’s Embryos

• Similarities were faked.

• Current Biology Text “Although modern embryologists have discovered that Haeckel exaggerated some features in his drawings, it is true that early embryos of many different vertebrate species look remarkably similar.”

Archaeopteryx

• So the best explanation for Archaeopteryx is that it is descended from the same common ancestor from which modern birds are descended from. As such, while it is not ancestral to modern birds, it does share many features with modern birds, features it acquired from the common ancestor.

• http://www.nmsr.org/text.htm#archy

Modern Biology

• “In this fossil of Archaeopteryx lithographica (a), one can see the link between birds and dinosaurs…Archaeopteryx is the oldest bird; it still had claws on its wings.”

Peppered Moths

Ape to Human

• Java Man– Skull Cap & Femur

• Arguments that all fossils are either ape or human.

Lucy

• Was just an ape

Cambrian Explosion

• “Virtually everyone agrees that the Cambrian started almost exactly 543 million years ago and, even more startling, that all but one of the phyla in the fossil record appeared within the first 5-10 million years.”

» Time (1995)

Cambrian Explosion

• Article in Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington in August 2004 titled, “The origin of Biological Information and the Higher Taxonomic Categories,” in favor of intelligent design.

• Managing editor gave up his post in September due to problems after publishing this.

Creationism/Intelligent Design

• Physics

• Astronomy

• Biochemistry

• Origin of Life

Physics

• Fine Tuned Universe

• Fine Tuned Galaxy, Solar System

“Just Right Universe”

• 29-35 Fine-tuned Parameters to the Universe– Gravity, electromagnetism, strong and weak

nuclear forces– Ratio of proton to electron mass– Difference in mass of neutrons and protons

“Just Right Universe”• 51-66 fine-tuned parameters to our

Galaxy, Solar system, and Planet– Distance from sun– Size, temperature, and type of sun– Size, axial tilt, rotation speed, moon, &

composition of earth– Stability of Jupiter & Saturn

“Just Right Universe”

10 -53 Probability of all 80 fine-tuned parameters occurring by chance

Just Right Universe

10 22 Upper limit for number of stars in the universe

Assume 1 planet per star

Therefore 1022 planets in the universe

Just Right Universe

So how do we determine how many planets may be suitable for life?

10 -53 x 10 22 = 10 -31 or

0.0000000000000000000000000000001 planets suitable for life

Just Right Universe

• “Rather than being one planet among billions, Earth now appears to be the uncommon Earth.

Biochemistry and DNA

• Darwin stated in his Origin of Species.– “If it could be demonstrated that any complex

organ existed which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down.”

Irreducible Complexity

• Mike Behe introduced the concept of irreducible complexity in his book, Darwin’s Black Box.

• Something is irreducibly complex if it is composed of two or more necessary parts. Remove one part and function is not just impaired but destroyed.

• A mousetrap is irreducibly complex.

Irreducible Complexity

Irreducible Complexity-an Evolutionist Explanation

Human Eye

Irreducible Complexity

• Cilium

• Flagellum

Flagellum

•

Behe’s Key Points

• Design not mystical: Deduced from physical structure

• Everyone agrees aspects of biology appear designed

• Structural obstacles to evolution• Evolution claims rest on undisciplined

imagination• Strong evidence for design-little evidence

for Darwinism.

Origin of Life/Biological Information

Impossible for DNA to Self-produce - It could not come about by chance

Devastating Math Probabilities - Forget the possibility

DNA Barrier Forbids Change - One species could never change into another

Vast Information within It - Too much data within each molecule to permit switchovers

Conclusion - Not chance, but Someone made DNA

• Protein – minimum of 75 amino acids

• Amino acids are left & right handed – just want left handed

• Amino acids must line up in a specified sequence

• Probability one in 10125

• Just one protein molecule – a minimally complex cell needs 300-500

Young Earth Scientific Data

• 60-70 ways of dating the earth’s age• The Great Flood• Deterioration of Magnetic Field• Mississippi River Delta• Petroleum/Natural Gas in earth’s reservoirs• Earth Rotation• Recession of the moon from the earth• Atmospheric Helium• Helium in granite rock crystals• Meteoric Material• Population Growth

Summary

• This debate does matter

• Bias in media & public schools

• Many Problems with Evolution

• Strong Evidence for Intelligent Design

Where do we go from Here?

• Read books & visit web sites

• Conduct Studies at Church

• Change School Curriculum– Visit School Boards

• Home School

• Local Talk Shows

• Opinion Editorials

“…At the name of Jesus every knee should bow,…and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord”

Philippians 14:10