Sound Doctrine Class 3: Creation, Humanity & Angels

Transcription

1 Sound Doctrine Class 3: Creation, Humanity & Angels Creation 1) God is the Creator of all things a. Genesis Chapter 1 describes the Creation Week from chaos to divine order i. Day One: Heavens and the earth (Space, Time, Matter, and Energy) ii. Day Two: Firmament (expanse / sky) and Dry Ground iii. Day Three: Plant Life grass, herbs, and trees iv. Day Four: Cosmos Sun, Moon, Stars, and Seasons v. Day Five: Life for the Seas and Skies Fish, Water Mammals, and Birds vi. Day Six: earth dwelling creatures and Man 1. Beasts, Cattle, and Insects 2. Man & Woman in God s own image 2) The Creation Week is presented as six (or seven) literal days (Ex. 20:8 11) 3) According to their kind immutability of the species (precludes macro evolution) 4) Man is the crowning achievement of Creation (1:26 27; Psalm 8) 5) Creation, and its obvious marks of design, are referred to as the General Revelation of God (Ps. 19:1 4; Rom 1:18 23) 6) Jesus Christ s role was and is vital to the Creation process (John 1:3 4, Col 1:15 17) Refuting Darwinian Evolution 1) Scientific reasoning on evolution fails to use the scientific method a. Hypothesis yes b. Observe and experiment under controlled conditions no c. Testing to disprove the hypothesis no d. Repeatability no 2) Fatal flaws of the religion of Darwinian evolution a. The universe is not eternal; it had a beginning first there was nothing, and then it exploded. A beginning requires a beginner. [Miracle] b. Time does not equal infinity. Not having infinity to account for statistical probabilities (anything can statistically happen if given enough time) destroys the fundamental principles of Darwinian evolution (monkeys and typewriters hypothesis). [Miracle] c. Unguided evolutionary processes require infinite time, infinite source material, and no penalty for failed attempts in order to successfully progress from one state to another, more favorable state. Such conditions are not available in the finite universe. [Miracle] d. Violates the First Law of Thermodynamics Conservation of matter and energy. [Miracle] 1 P age

2 2 P age e. Violates the Second Law of Thermodynamics Entropy / decay [Miracle] f. Requires an oxygen free atmosphere for the primordial life forms to begin without being destroyed [Miracle] g. Requires an oxygenated environment as all forms of life require oxygen for survival [Miracle] h. Proteins and DNA. Protein is manufactured by DNA, but DNA is comprised of proteins. [Miracle] i. Requires a violation of the Law of Mass Action and Chemical Equilibrium [Miracle] j. Requires long amino acid chains to form in a watery environment [Miracle] k. Statistical impossibility [Miracle] related to the chirality of amino acids and nucleotides. Both left and right handed forms exist in equal proportions, however: i. Only left handed amino acids are found in living systems while only righthanded nucleotides ii. Right handed amino acids are fatal to living systems and left handed nucleotides are fatal to living systems l. Origin of information. Proteins and DNA are meaningless to living systems unless they convey information useful to the organism. The information needed has to come from an outside, intelligent source. [Miracle] m. Lack of transitional forms. The hypothesized trial and error mechanism of unguided evolutionary processes must have more failures as a result of genetic mutations than successful new forms of life. Where is the fossil evidence of the thousands or millions of almost giraffes that grew long necks to find sources of food in tree canopies, but lacked the heart and circulatory system necessary to pump blood up to the animal s brain without the head exploding? Where are the millions of transitional elephants with less than developed trunks containing fewer than 40,000 muscles needed to make it functional? [Miracle x the millions of fully developed species we see today] n. Reproduction. If all species are the presumed result of favorable mutations, then the survivability of the species requires, in most cases, that both a male and female with compatible mutations exist and mate within the same generation. [Miracle x the millions of fully developed species we see today] o. Atomic stability what holds atoms together? Current scientific hypothesis is that there must exist an incredibly powerful force outside of the observable universe that holds atomic structures together within the universe [Miracle] p. Every multi organ living system i. Visual systems [Miracle] ii. Digestive systems [Miracle] iii. Brains (ant vs. supercomputer) [Miracle]

3 iv. Nervous system [Miracle] v. Circulatory systems [Miracle] vi. Respiratory systems [Miracle] vii. Reproductive systems [Miracle] viii. Sonar systems (bats, dolphins) [Miracle] q. Anthropic Principle The earth, its place in the solar system, and the solar system s place in the galaxy, and the galaxy s place in the universe are all vital and necessary for life, especially man, to exist i. Strong nuclear force [Miracle] ii. Weak nuclear force [Miracle] iii. Electromagnetic coupling constant [Miracle] iv. Electron to proton mass ratio [Miracle] v. Proton stability [Miracle] vi. Size of the sun in our solar system [Miracle] vii. Color of the sun [Miracle] viii. Age of the sun [Miracle] ix. Mass of the sun [Miracle] x. Distance of earth from the sun [Miracle] xi. Surface gravity [Miracle] xii. Thickness of the earth s crust [Miracle] xiii. Rotation period of the earth (24 hours) [Miracle] xiv. Gravitational interaction between the earth and its moon [Miracle] xv. Earth s magnetic field [Miracle] xvi. Axial tilt of the earth [Miracle] xvii. Albedo (reflectivity) of the earth [Miracle] xviii. Oxygen to nitrogen ratio [Miracle] xix. Carbon dioxide to water vapor ratio [Miracle] xx. Presumed age of the universe [Miracle] xxi. Presumed expansion rate of the universe [Miracle] xxii. Entropy level of the universe [Miracle] xxiii. Mass of the universe [Miracle] xxiv. Number of stars in the universe [Miracle] xxv. Ozone layer of the earth [Miracle] 3) Catch 22s (chicken or the egg) of Darwinian Evolution theories a. Oxygen in the early atmosphere b. DNA or Proteins c. DNA or Information / Instruction d. Time (how old can the universe be?) 4) Summary of Darwinian Theory and its Fatal Flaws 3 P age

4 a. Fundamentally, the theory attempts to explain why all living things have the appearance of design without actually requiring a designer / creator. b. Relies on the premise of unguided natural selection to explain why all members of the animal and plant kingdoms seem to be so perfectly adapted for the environments in which they live. c. Assumes that mutations (genetic anomalies or deviations from the genetic features of the parents) can be either detrimental or beneficial to the living organisms. The benefit or detriment is determined by suitability and survivability in the environment where the organism lives. d. Assumes that small, gradual mutations will be passed on to successive generations that aid the survival of the species, if the mutation is beneficial. e. Darwin assumed the cell to be a simple, rather than complex, structure that could easily self organize by random processes using readily available fundamental materials. He also assumed the cell was the smallest fundamental element f. Basic evolutionary equation: Genetic Variability + Chance + Natural Selection + Infinite Time = Beneficial Outcome (all living systems) g. Darwin hypothesized that the fossil record would manifest innumerable transitional forms to ultimately reveal an unbroken record of how each existing species came to survive compared to those genetic mutations that failed to provide a survivability benefit from the genetic mutation from the original species. h. The Cambrian explosion reveals millions of fully formed species instantaneously entering the fossil record with no transitional forms. This event marks the beginning of the fossil record, not the result of billions of years of failed species leading up to it. i. Irreducible Complexity, by Darwin s own admission, destroys the theory of Darwinian evolution. Because of this secular science has adopted modifications to Darwin s ideas to include hopeful monsters, directed panspermia, and multiverses, just to name a few. 5) Honest science agrees with the biblical account of creation and admits that the Big Bang and evolutionary models are wholly inadequate to explain the existence of the universe and all it contains. a. One only has to contemplate the magnitude of this task [evolution] to concede that spontaneous generation of a living organisms is impossible; yet, I choose to believe that which I know to be impossible rather than accept the unthinkable, special Creation. Dr. George Wald, Professor of Biology, Harvard 4 P age

5 b. When it comes to the origin of life there are only two possibilities: Creation or spontaneous generation. There is no third way. Spontaneous generation was disproved one hundred years ago, but that leads us to only one other conclusion, that of supernatural creation. We cannot accept that on philosophical grounds, therefore, we chose to believe the impossible: That life arose spontaneously by chance! George Wald, Harvard University biochemist & Nobel Laureate (1954) c. The origin of the genetic code presents formidable unsolved problems. The coded information in the nucleotide sequence is meaningless without the translation machinery, but the specification for this machinery is coded in the DNA. Thus without the machinery the information is meaningless, but without the coded information the machinery cannot be produced. This presents a paradox of the chicken and egg variety, and attempts to solve it have so far been sterile. John Walton, chemist d. The possibility of life arising by chance is about the same as the probability that a tornado sweeping through a junkyard could assemble a [Boeing] 747 from the contents therein. Sir Fredric Hoyle, Evolution from Space i. After calculating the possibility of spontaneous generation of a single cell to be 1:10 40,000 ii. Perspective: If we actually live in a 15 Billion year old universe, the total number of seconds experienced so far is only iii. Perspective: winning lottery = 10 7,whereas winning the lottery every week for 1000 years e. The scientist s pursuit of the past ends in the moment of Creation [First Cause]. We cannot get past that to answer any questions. This is an exceedingly strange development; unexpected by all but the theologians. They have always accepted the words of the Bible: In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth. For the scientist who has lived by his faith in evolution and reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance, he is about to conquer the highest peak, and as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries. Robert Jastrow, Founder NASA s Goddard Space Institute Homework Read: 1) Read a. Psalm 8, 19, Job 38, John 1:1 3, Jeremiah 10:12 2) Memorize 1) Genesis 1: ) Psalm 19:1 3 5 P age