Sunday, June 18, 2006

 

Faith and Science

The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge.
There is no speech or language
where their voice is not heard.
Their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
Psalm 19:1-4.

Recently I've been doing some studying on the topic of Intelligent Design. Until about six months ago, I did not even understand the term. I thought it was a politically correct term for creationism. Then at church, Mr. Steve Wilson, a Prof. at PRBI, taught a class on origins. This exposed me to some fresh material on the subject.

There are basically four views of how we got here.
1) Young earth creationism: that the universe, including us humans, was created during a six day period some 10 to 15,000 years ago.
2) Old earth creationism: that the universe and life, etc. were created over a much longer period of time. (Sometimes called "the day age theory" of creation.)
3) Evolution: that complex life, including us humans, evolved over millions of years from simple life forms, which evolved from chemicals on the earth, which evolved (along with the rest of the universe) out of the big bang, probably taking billions of years.
4) Intelligent Design: that the evidence of complexity, particularly in micro- biology and cosmology, points to a intelligent designer rather than gradual evolution.

My interest in origins began when I was in junior high school. Having been taught the Scriptures from a young age, I never questioned that I was created by God. And being an analytical thinker, I applied my education in the sciences to this belief.

So when a friend at school got into some discussions with me about evolution vs. creation, I started doing my homework. Actually it was both Ted and me, and we got a lot of books from places like Back to the Bible and studied up on the problems with evolution. In discussing these with our friend at school, he once replied: "I have to get some books on evolution." He was facing up to the challenge.

About that time, as I recall, our grade eight teacher referred to evolution as a fact. I did not have the confidence to challenge him on that point. But in grade ten I did. When I spoke up I glanced across the isle at a Christian girl in the class. Her look of support seemed to say to me: "Go for it, Ed!"

About this time I witness my first birth. It was of a calf that we had to help deliver. This new life was such an amazing thing to me that my first reaction was: "How could anyone think this all happened by chance?"

There are two lines of reasoning about the issue of origins. One is philosophical and the other is scientific. My frustration with the current debate is that the two basis of argument are used, by all sides, to sidestep the hard issues at stake.

For example, the evolutionist, instead of dealing scientifically with the challenges put forth by the intelligent designers, argues from his presupposition that all things must have a natural cause. Therefore, he concludes that intelligent design is unscientific. On the other hand, creationists (especially young earthers) sometimes sidestep the evidence by going to the Bible.

THE EVIDENCE
Now to the evidence! In recent months I have been fascinated by the complexity of God's creation. Oops, that's my presupposition! OK, by the complexity of things in our universe.

Did all of this come out of a "big bang?" Or should I say: "The Big Bang?" If it did, that explosion had to be extremely, extremely precise. How precise? Like hitting a bull's eye on earth by throwing a dart from outer space. And the bull's eye is the size of an atom! Otherwise the universe would either collapse or be blown to bits!

And the earth, to sustain life, has to meet some amazing requirements too. Its proximity to the sun, its very round orbit, the sun's size and stability, its position in the Milky Way, and even the composition of our galaxy are all necessary factors. For example, if there was a nearby star, its gravity would pull the earth into an oval orbit around the sun and we'd either freeze or roast, or both!

What about life? Well, evolutionists hoped to find that the living cell was quite simple. But its just the opposite! To give one example among many, the transportation system within the cell rivals that of Fed Ex. Then there's the clotting process, and the immune system, repair and maintenance, waste disposal, and the list goes on. Way too complex to happen by chance.

Did I mention DNA? Our DNA molecule is six feet long, and is curled up in every cell of our body. By simply using four amino acids in different sequences (like letters) that one molecule spells out everything about my biological makeup from my dark hair to my inability to sing.

That's just the tip of the scientific iceberg. I've found this study most enlightening. And I recommend two books to you. "Darwin's Black Box," by Michael Behe, is about the complexity of the cell. And in "The Case For A Creator," Lee Strobel interviews scientists and philosophers from various disciplines. Fascinating reading.

For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
Psalm 149: 13-16

Comments:
Absolutely fascinating! I'm totally amazed by this stuff, and also totally stumped by the complexity of it, apart from faith--pure and simple trust in the God who claims to have created it by simply speaking the Word, and it began to exist--in it's fully-completed form--from the very moment of its actual point of "beginning".

Do I understand how it happened? Of course not! I don't claim to have even the smallest handle of understanding in any of it! After all, if I (a mere human) could understand it, how big would my God be?

Thanks, Ed, for spending the time writing out this post! It was well worth your time and effort!
 
Hi, pretty good post. You made some precise points there, but I would have to disagree with one of them.

On the other hand, creationists (especially young earthers) sometimes sidestep the evidence by going to the Bible.

We say that the Bible is our source of information and the truth, but we don't sidestep the facts. When there is something that hasn't been researched very much, we resort to the Bible and say that whatever-it-is must be false because the Bible does not support it. But when the facts do come out, we present those as additional support for creation.

All you have to do is read some creationist literature to see that creationists do not sidestep the facts (e.g. The Revised and Expanded Answers Book by AIG, is loaded with facts that deal with the issues).
 
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