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God and Science
Science and the Bible
King’s College, London
6/11/2014
John Oakes PhD
www.evidenceforchristianity.org
Thomas Huxley, Darwin’s “bulldog”
“We are as much the
product of blind forces
as is the falling of a
stone to earth, or the
ebb and flow of the
tides. We have just
happened, and man was
made flesh by a series
of singularly beneficial
accidents.”
RICHARD DAWKINS
In the universe of blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt and other people are going to get lucky: and you won’t find any rhyme or reason to it, nor any justice. The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is at the bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good. Nothing but blind, pitiless indifference. DNA neither knows nor cares. DNA just is, and we dance to its music.
The Teleological Argument
Evidence for Design in Nature
The Anthropic Principle
Boeing 747
Design or
Accident?
1. Ideal solvent to support life (dissolves ions and
molecules
2. Right boiling and melting points
3. High specific heat
4. Solid floats on liquid
5. Contracts from 0 to 4 degrees centigrade
Water
Simplest life form: break it down
• E. coli: about 1 trillion bits of information.
• E. coli have 3000-4000 different proteins.
• DNA and RNA to make and be made by
these proteins.
• Lipids (membrane), Carbohydrates, etc.
• The simplest living cell is an unimaginably
complex nano factory
Charles Darwin
“It is mere rubbish
to think at this
point of the origin
of life. One might
as well think of the
origin of matter.”
Science before the 1950s:
The universe was NOT created.
Hebrews 11:3
“By faith we understand that the universe was
created… so that what is seen has been made from things that are
not visible.”
Genesis 1:3
God said “Let there be light,” and there was light.
The Big Bang
· 1929 Hubble. The Red Shift: The universe is expanding.
· 1965 Penzias and Wilson, background microwave radiation.
Physicists now:
The universe was created.
.00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001
Fine Tuning of the Universe
Constant A Little Bigger A Little Smaller
1. Gravitational constant very short-lived stars no stars
2. Ratio of electrons to protons no stars or galaxies no stars or galaxies
3. Strong Nuclear Force no hydrogen, fusion only hydrogen
4. Weak Nuclear Force all H2 He at big bang no He at big bang
no heavy elements
5. Electric Force no chemical bonding no chemical bonding
6. Expansion rate of universe no galaxies universe collapses quickly
7. Ratio of matter to antimatter too much radiation for life not enough matter
for galaxies to form
and many more….
Fred Hoyle on Fine-Tuning
“… a super-intellect has monkeyed with
physics, as well as with chemistry and
biology.”
Antony Flew Considers God...
Flew is increasingly persuaded that some sort of Deity brought about this universe. He says he has in mind something like the God of Aristotle, a distant, impersonal "prime mover." It might not even be conscious, but a mere force. In formal terms, he regards the existence of this minimal God as a hypothesis that, at present, is perhaps the best explanation for why a universe exists that can produce complex life
The Right Galaxy
• Our galaxy is a spiral, which produces
stars over much of its history.
• Not an elliptical, where star formation ends
before there are many heavy elements.
• Not an irregular, where radiation events
would have destroyed life.
The Right Star Location
• Right distance from center of galaxy:
- Closer: too much radiation, disruptive gravity
- Further: too few heavy elements
• Right relation to supernovae:
- More or closer: exterminate life
- Less or further: too few heavy elements
• Right number of stars in system
- Zero – pretty cold!
- Two or more – unstable orbits if planets at all.
The Right Kind of Planet
Right distance
Rocky planet with plenty of
oxygen and water
Thin, light planetary “crust”
Huge moon for stable
planetary rotation
Conclusion:
“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.”
Romans 1:20
The heavens declare the glory of God; the
skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day
after day they pour fourth speech. Night
after night they display knowledge
Psalms 19:1-2
Part II
Science and the Bible
Delos B. McKown:
“Christianity is scientifically unsupported and
probably insupportable, philosophically suspect at
best and disreputable at worst, and historically
fraudulent.”
The Ebers Papyrus:
“To prevent hair from turning gray, anoint it with the blood of a calf which has been boiled in oil or with the fat of a rattlesnake.”
“A mixture of six fats, namely those of the horse, the hippopotamus, the crocodile, the cat, the snake and the ibex.... to prevent hair loss.”
Drugs of Choice in Papyrus Ebers:
• Lizards blood
• Swine’s teeth
• Putrid meat
• Moisture from Pigs’ ears
• Excreta from animals including human
beings, donkeys, antelope, dogs, cats and
flies
“I will not bring on you any of these diseases...”
Exodus 15:26
“The pig... is unclean for you...those that walk on their paws...the weasel, the rat...are unclean for you.”
Leviticus 11
“The sting of a hornet is healed by the house-fly, crushed and applied to the wound.”
“The gnat, feeble creature, taking in food but never secreting it is a specific against the poison of the viper.”
An ancient Hebrew medical manuscript.
“Whoever touches the dead body of anyone will be unclean for seven days. He must purify himself with the water on the third and seventh day...take some hyssop, dip it in the water and sprinkle the tent and furnishings and the people who were there.”
Numbers 19
Vienna, 1847
• In maternity wards one out of
every six women dies.
• Obstetricians ascribe deaths to
constipation, fear and poisonous
air.
Thymol: A Powerful Disinfectant
“As long as he has the infection he
remains unclean. He must live alone;
he must live outside the camp.”
Quarantine for infectious disease
Leviticus 13:46
LEPROSY
• Killed millions of people in Europe and
around the world for thousands of years.
• “Fear of all other diseases taken together
can hardly be compared to the terror
spread by leprosy.”
—Dr. George Rosen
MEDICAL COMMUNITY HAD
NO ANSWERS
They taught that it was brought on by eating hot food, pepper, garlic and the meat of diseased hogs.
Other physicians said it was caused by a malign conjunction of the planets.
Leviticus 13:46
“As long as he has the infection he remains unclean. He must live alone; he must live
outside the camp.”
The life is in the blood
Leviticus 17:14 “… the life of every
creature is in its blood. That is why I have
said to the Israelites, ‘You must not eat the
blood of any creature, because the life of
every creature is its blood; anyone who eats
it must be cut off.’ ”
1693).
George Tiemann & Co. American armamentarium
Bloodletting Instruments from 1800s
“For the generations to come, every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised...”
Genesis 17:12
Vitamin K
Prothrombin: a clotting protein.
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
days
% o
f n
orm
al
Clotting Protein Peaks on Day Eight
Available Prothrombin
Day
Circumcised
Number of Hebrew
Boys
Number of Deaths
1 823 4
3 759 6
5 693 8
7 855 3
9 770 2
11 698 4
How Did Abraham Pick the Eighth Day?