Christian Worldview Development

Series on

Creation-Evolution-Science and the Bible

Introduction

Prepared byEd van Ouwerkerk

campus staff at Iowa State University campus

EvolutionismCreationism

Theistic Evolution

-BioLogos

Intelligent Design

Word of God word of manscience

Four main worldview families

Creationism Intelligent Design Evolutionism

Theistic Evolutionism – BioLogos

Some of the many books/authors about this subject

Song of a Wanderer, by Li Cheng, Chinese manuscript 1998, translated into English in 2002.

The Language of God, by Francis Collins, 2006

The Reason for God, by Tim Keller, 2008, chapter eight "The clues of God".

Already Compromised, by Ken Ham & Greg Hall, 2011.

On the origin of species,by means of natural selection, or the preservation offavored races in the struggle for life. by Charles Darwin, 1859.

The Bible, by God

The Blind Watchmaker , by Richard Dawkins, 1986.

The God Delusion, by Richard Dawkins, 2006.

Darwin's Plantation, evolution's racist roots, by Ken Ham and A. Charles Ware, 2007.

The Case for a Creator, byLee Strobel

Of Pandas and People, byDean Kenyon, 1989The Privileged Planet, 2004, by Jay Richards and Guillermo Gonzalez

The Religious Trojan Horse,by Brannon Howse, 2012

The New Answers Book,3 Volumes, by Ken Ham,2006

The End of Faith, bySam Harris, 2004

Why Darwinism is false, byJonathan Wells, 2009

Where the conflict reallylies, by Alvin Plantinga, 2011

Creationism Intelligent Design Evolutionism

Theistic Evolutionism – BioLogos

Websites

AnswersInGenesis.org

AllAboutCreation.org

Institute for Creation Research

Creation.com

IDtheFuture.com

Discovery.org

IntelligentDesign.org

DissentFromDarwin.org

BioLogos

Evolution News and Views

a) Li Cheng, 2002. Song of a Wanderer, beckoned by eternity; Chapter 6: Creationism and Evolutionism

Evolution spread like wildfire among philosophers and scientistswhen Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species in 1859. a)

Even though archeology has proved the historicity of the Biblemany skeptics still view the evolutionary theory as scientific truthand view creationism as non-scientific.

A couple of questions need to asked to determine whether evolution is science (factual scientific law) and creationism is not and what is required for scientific research.

Objective scientific research, especially experimental sciencerequires reproducibility.

The universe, the existence of life, and the origin of humans arecompleted and are not reproducible.

Evolution is not a scientific law but a set of observations turned into a hypothesis by Darwin and is not reproducible.

Whether the universe was a product of evolution or the handiwork of God can never be answered through scientific research.

On this point creationists and evolutionists are in complete agreement.

Since neither creationism nor evolution can be provenor disproven by scientific means, the viewpoints regardingthe origin of species depend on faith and not on sight.

However, that does not mean we cannot discuss this topicobjectively or scientifically.

Faith, both creationist and evolutionist faith, ought to depend onobjective observations, analyses, and ideas instead of onblind subjectivity.

While discussing this topic we need to make a clear distinctionbetween proof and evidence.

Two universe origin modelsCreation Evolution

Creationists believe that:- They have sufficient evidence that the Bible is the infallible Word of God.- God’s two revelations, nature and the Bible, complement each other, they cannot be contradictory. - Scientific developments will further the understanding that everything in the universe was created in the beginning and is completed and is (ongoing) maintained by God.

Evolutionists believe that:-The universe is a closed system that is autonomous and self- sufficient, in which laws govern life and growth, without beginning nor end, and evolves through random chance and natural selection from the simple to the complex, from disorder to order, and from a lower level to a higher level.

The validity of both universe origin models observing the laws of thermodynamics

The first and second laws of thermodynamics are recognized by thescientific world as universal laws.

Since Einstein’s discovery that energy can be transformed into mass,the first law of thermodynamics was changed to the law of conservation of energy and mass. The quantity of energy and mass(in a closed system) can neither be created nor destroyed. Atheists,who believe that the universe can be seen as a closed system, onceused this law as ‘proof’ that the universe was eternal (had nobeginning and has no end).

Laws of thermodynamics

Entropy is the heat energy that cannot be transformed intomechanical energy. The change of entropy equals the changeof heat energy divided by absolute temperature (-273 °C = 0 °K). When high-temperature matter and low-temperature matter gather, the entropy is low. When high-temperature matter mixes with low-temperature matter, entropy is high. When matter isarranged in a disorderly manner, entropy is high.

The second law of thermodynamics describes the transmissive direction of heat energy. The orderly mechanical energy ofmolecules can be completely transformed into the disorderlyheat energy of the same molecules. However, heat energy cannot be completely transformed into mechanical energy.

The usual expression of this second law is that a spontaneous physical or chemical process the entropy increases over time.

Laws of thermodynamics

According to Li Cheng, Northwestern University Professor Dr. Epson Peck has stated that ”the entropy of the universe has a tendency to increase; therefore, we have enough reasons to believe the universe is similar to a clock that is winding down”, so it has an end.PS. I couldn’t check this on the internet, have asked the publisher, EvO

This is in accordance with Isaiah 51:6 which says: “Lift u your eyesto the sky, then look to the earth beneath; for the sky will vanish like smoke, and the earth will wear out like a garment, and its inhabitants will die in like manner, but my salvation shall beforever, and my righteousness shall not wane”

Laws of thermodynamics

This in accordance with the scientific theory of the heat death of the universe.

and with Psalm 102:25-26: “In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded. But you remain the same, and your years will never end.”

There are some exceptions to the second law of thermodynamics,such as the phenomena of life.

A living animal develops from simple to complex stages within itskind, from non-divisible work to divisible work, and becomes afully developed animal. However, this process is temporary because the animal eventually becomes old, dies, and decomposes.

Two conditions must be met before temporary, natural, life-producing phenomena work against the second law of thermodynamics:1. The first condition requires that there must be a set of blueprints and commands, which contain the genetic codes of the DNA from the sperm and ova of both parents. Under the commands of the genetic codes a chicken egg will hatch into a chicken.2. The second condition requires that there must be energy trans- formation systems, which provide energy needed for the develop- ment of new life, such as digestion, blood circulation, and respiration or photosynthesis for plants.

Laws of thermodynamics

Evolutionists believe that the universe can be seen as a closed system,in which the earth can be seen as an open system. The earth, in theiropinion, can absorb energy from the sun to compensate for theenergy loss from the entropy processes. Therefore they claim thatevolution and the second law of thermodynamics do not contradicteach other.

However, evolutionists are confused about two things:1. How the energy of the sun is transformed into workable energy to maintain the evolutionary processes.

2. The universe should house a command center and a energy transformation center. These two centers would allow things to evolve against the second law of thermodynamics, so that they could evolve from disorder to order and from a lower level to a higher level. These control centers have not been found.

Laws of thermodynamics

Conclusion about the origin of the universeobserving the laws of thermodynamics

The first law describes the conservation of energy and mass,which means that the universe could not have originatedby itself.

The second law says that the universe must have a beginning.Thus, the universe could only have a supernatural beginningthat was not controlled by the first law.

This beginning could not have been from evolution, but onlyby the creation of God.

Laws of thermodynamics

If the universe has a beginning, scientific questions arise abouthow the universe began, which led to the Big Bang theory, whichhas now been accepted in the scientific community.

Big Bang theory

In 1917, Einstein published an article on general relativity.Some scientists checked his formula, and concluded thatEinstein believed that the universe was unstable. Einsteindisagreed and added a constant to erase the tendency thatthe universe was continuously expanding.

In 1931 astronomer Hubble made the discovery that there aremillions of other galaxies in the universe besides our ownMilky Way that are clearly expanding.

Einstein had to admit that adding the constant in his relativityformula was his greatest mistake, and accepted the hypothesisthat the universe must have had a beginning. From thenscientists could no longer doubt that the universe is expanding.

In 1946 Gamow discovered that only a rapid cooling of the cosmosfrom very high temperatures could account for how protons andneutrons fused together, forming a universe that today consistsof 73% hydrogen, 24% helium and 3% heavier elements.

Big Bang theory

In 1964 Penzias & Wilson at Bell Laboratory and Dicke at Princetondid (unaware of each other’s research) measurements onelectronic waves in the Milky Way and microwave backgroundresidual radiation directly after the ‘big explosion’. They came to theconclusion that the background temperature in the universewas between -263 and -273 °K. With that they discoveredthat the static was residual microwave radiation following theBig Bang and proved the Big Bang theory predicted by Gamow in 1946. Penzias & Wilson received the Nobel Prize in physics in 1978.

Creation-Evolution-Science and the Bible

IntroductionPart 3 of 3

The last two Sundays we discussed a couple of topics as an introduction on our series of Creation-Evolution-Science andthe Bible:

• Four Worldview families• Books, authors and websites

• Charles Darwin and ‘The Origin of Species’

• Two models: creationism and evolutionism

• The two models and the laws of thermodynamics

• The Big Bang theory

Today we will discuss in our series of Creation-Evolution-Science andthe Bible, a couple of shifts in the four worldview families ->

• Movie How Great Is Our God by Louie Giglio

Creationism Intelligent Design Evolutionism

Theistic Evolutionism – BioLogos

Some of the many books/authors about this subject

Song of a Wanderer, by Li Cheng, Chinese manuscript 1998, translated into English in 2002.

The Language of God, by Francis Collins, 2006

The Reason for God, by Tim Keller, 2008, chapter eight "The clues of God".

Already Compromised, by Ken Ham & Greg Hall, 2011.

On the origin of species,by means of natural selection, or the preservation offavored races in the struggle for life. by Charles Darwin, 1859.

The Bible, by God

The Blind Watchmaker , by Richard Dawkins, 1986.

The God Delusion, by Richard Dawkins, 2006.

Darwin's Plantation, evolution's racist roots, by Ken Ham and A. Charles Ware, 2007.

The Case for a Creator, byLee Strobel

Of Pandas and People, byDean Kenyon, 1989The Privileged Planet, 2004, by Jay Richards and Guillermo Gonzalez

The Religious Trojan Horse,by Brannon Howse, 2012

The New Answers Book,3 Volumes, by Ken Ham,2006

The End of Faith, bySam Harris, 2004

Why Darwinism is false, byJonathan Wells, 2009

Where the conflict reallylies, by Alvin Plantinga, 2011

Shifts between worldview families and other topics of introductiontoday are:

• An atheist journalist, whose wife became a Christian, andstarted a journey interviewing scientists and who became aChristian as well.

• Cosmology

• Paleontology

• Origin of life

• Molecular biology

• Calculation of probability

• The Bible and the ‘image of God’

• Christian worldview in education

Today we are following a bit of the journey that journalistand atheist Lee Strobel took to become a believer.He interviewed many scientists and draw a personal conclusion.Lets watch the 5-minute clip of part 4 of his documentary ‘The Case for a Creator’, in which he looks for evidence from the fossil record and speaks with Dr. Jonathan Wells (PhD in molecular and cell biology).

If all evolution processes were gradually, continuously, and trueshouldn’t we find any intermediate stages of evolving speciesin the fossil record?

Taxonomists today, like Noah back then, haven’t any problem to classify animal species in very clear classes.

Last week we discussed the Big Bang Theory

cosmology

Today we’ll watch a few clips from the movie made by astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez and philosopher and theologian Jay Richards, who wrote the book, documentary and movie ‘The Privileged Planet’.

Let’s watch the 7-minute part 2 (of 12 parts) in which the history of astronomy of our solar system is explained; a journey along the theocentric and geocentric theories of Aristotle and Ptolemaeus,the discoveries of Copernicus, and the works of the astronomer, writer, and agnostic Carl Sagan. Sagan asserts that the Earth is nota privileged place.

Let’s watch the 7-minute part 10 (of 12 parts) in which is explained in which zone of the Milky Way galaxy we live, a privileged place.

There is one exception in the fossil record, the Archaeopteryx, an extinct species, that keeps the discussion about intermediatespecies in evolution alive. This is believed to be a transitional fossil between dinosaurs and birds.

Chinese scientists in Liaoning Provincea have discovered fossils of modern birds that lived at the same time as Archaeopteryx(late Jurassic Period), conclusively demonstrating that Archaeopteryx was not the ancestor of birds.

a Science News, October 28, 1995: 277; “Birds did not evolve from dinosaurs”, People’s Daily News (overseas edition) 19 Nov. 1996.

Who do you think, wrote this:

“To suppose that the eye with all its contrivances foradjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems absurd in the highest degree”.

Its was Charles Darwin in chapter 6 of ‘The Origin of Life’, on the weaknesses of his theory.

If all organs were evolved gradually, how could a 10%, or 40% or 80% developed eye see?

Problems of natural selection

Darwin believed, that there are endless variances within livingorganisms and that they continuously develop new characteristics;some variances survive in a certain environment and others becomeextinct: survival of the fittest, which includes that living organismsevolve from a lower species to a higher.

Molecular biology, as developed from the 1960s, is about understanding the interactions between the various systems of a cell, including the interactions between the different types of DNA, RNA and protein biosynthesis as well as learning how these interactions are regulated.

See 9-minute video by Dr. Dean Kenyon, watch

Problems of natural selection

What is the chance that natural selection and mutation leads toliving organisms to evolve vertically into another species?

Genetic mutation is a common phenomenon for living organismsto adapt for survival to a changing environment in a horizontal way(within species). However, the mutation rate is very slow: 10-4 to 10-6 per generation. More important 99% of these mutations lead to death or are very harmful.

So 0.01 – 1.0 % of genetic mutation may be beneficial. If the regeneration time were 10.000 times per second, still300 million years would still not be enough for a simple DNA moleculeto form.

There is a likely chance that genetic mutation leads to diversifiedspecies (white chickens to brown chickens), but a mutation acrossspecies is unlikely, also because energy transformation and commandsystems to control that have never been found.

If evolution is so easy to understand and so easy to disproof,then why was it so easy for Darwinists to persuade the scientific community and political movements in the non-Judeo-Christianworld?

The answer can be found in the philosophical and spiritual battlefield, the clash between worldviews.

Creationists in the Judeo-Christian tradition, believe that God created people in His own image and form, as living creature with spirits. Christian creationists believe: “and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness”(Ephesians 4:24) and “and have put on the new self, which is beingrenewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator” (Colossians 3:10).

Summit Ministries is a Christian organization that promotesChristian worldview in education. This 5-minute video is about Christianity and Science.

From their birth, people long for eternity and to worship theeternal God. These characteristics are unique to humans.

There are clearly essential differences and an unbridgeable gapbetween people and animals. Animals could never become people,and people could never have evolved from apes.