Creation Or Evolution: Where Does The Science Lead?

Gen.1:1 – “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” “Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge.” - Charles Darwin. You’ve heard evolution referred to as a fact, and anyone disagreeing with it is a fool. That confidence based in ignorance. Intellectual honesty requires an objective look at the evidence. Good science maintains scientific integrity and considers all options. Today’s seminar is a type of “Closing Argument.” Darwin wouldn’t believe in Evolution today. (More later). Scientific integrity = scientific method must be followed. The theory of evolution cannot be tested or reproduced under laboratory conditions and therefore does not follow the scientific method  it isn’t science. Good science never conducted in order to prove a point. Good science never starts with excluding options that one dislikes. All theories of origins require faith (Some more than others). Evolution can’t be reproduced in a lab. Poor theories often exist for long periods. Lavoisier and Laplace - the caloric theory of heat (1786). Theory persisted despite evidence. To any evolutionist: Are you willing to objectively look at the facts and follow them wherever they lead even if that includes areas you’ve previously eliminated as possibilities? Before we get to far: A quick note about time (WHY). You’ve heard about Radiometric Dating (dating the isotopic ratios of materials). Assumptions: 1decay rates, 2original isotope ratios, 3closed system (no outside influence on those rates) and 4heat hasn’t affected ratios. (starlight question) Old starlight in young universe is possible. Event horizons, white holes and time “bending and stretching.” Starlight and time, D.Russell Humphreys. The bottom line about time: there’s no need to get hung up on it. Focus on the major issues. Fundamental issue #1) Where did matter come from? Their answer - the Big bang. Matter created out of its components. Where did the components come from? 1st Law of Thermodynamics: Energy and matter cannot be created or destroyed. Evo. assertion: energy and matter eternal. Not possible. 2nd Law of Thermodynamics: The entropy (disorder) of an isolated system will increase. The universe as a whole is an isolated or closed system. That process taken to infinity would result in complete entropy (no order) across the universe. Not eternally existent, The universe had a beginning, Supernaturally created. I’ll challenge anyone from the community of evolutionists to give one explanation for the existence of matter, in conformity with the 1st 2 laws of thermodynamics. As Creationists we agree that the 1st and 2nd laws of Thermodynamics are valid and that accordingly a supernatural explanation for the existence of an ordered universe is necessary. Fundamental Issue #2) Where did order, design and information come from? Universe is full of order, design and info. William Dembski’s criteria: Complexity & improbability, specificity & pattern constitute design. DNA is an exquisite example. The SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) institute monitoring signals from outer space since 1984. Prime numbers would be construed as evidence of intelligence. Intelligence and design in this universe don’t get that treatment. Design present throughout universe: Anthropic principal: Over 150 universal factors necessary in perfect accuracy for life on earth – 10 – 15 new factors found each year). Ex. Water. Other examples (from God the Evidence by Patrick Glynn): Relationship between nuclear weak force and gravity any different and hydrogen in the universe would have turned to helium. No water! No life. If difference in mass between a proton and a neutron weren’t exactly as is, all neutrons would become protons or vice versa. No Chem. No life. Ex. Human body synthesizes ~ 150 x 1018 amino acids each second with precise accuracy. Can’t presuppose natural explanation for universe. No natural explanation for origin of a computer chip or the pyramids. Information and design  require intelligent source. Design  intelligent designer. Dr. Stephen C. Meyer describes it like this, “We know that Bill Gates does not employ wind or erosion or random number generators to generate his software, instead he employs intelligent engineers.” Einstein put it this way: “Everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the Universe - a spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble.” I’ll challenge anyone from the community of evolutionists to give one example of information and design arising through random, natural processes. As Creationists we agree with the evidence that intelligence and intentionality are always behind the information and design observed in the universe. Fundamental Issue #3) Where did life come from? Life is not simple. Complexity of the cell: Before life you need DNA. DNA requires nucleotides and amino acids. Nucleotides and amino acids wouldn’t form in a primordial soup. (Following Stats from Dismantling Evolution by Ralph O. Muncaster) The probability of the formation of those nucleotides and amino acids has been calculated to be 1 in 1040,000. 5714 state lotteries in a row with 1 tic. each! 1 in 1045 is statistically impossible. If they did miraculously form they would have to line up correctly before they could make DNA. Chirality big word for “molecule handedness” Train example. Probability that 100,000 nucleotides and 10,000 amino acids would line up = 1 in 1033,113. 4700 state lotteries in a row with one ticket each! 1 in 1045 is statistically impossible. Even if they did line up that would only be the 1st few components of a very complex cell. Probability of all the components of the simplest imaginable cell coming together – 1 in 10112,827. 16,119 state lotteries in a row with one ticket each. 1 in 1045 is statistically impossible. Even if those components could be assembled into one place it still wouldn’t be living! Life is still a mystery! Take a living cell with all the right components in place... I’ll challenge anyone from the community of evolutionists to give one example of life coming to exist through natural processes. As Creationists we agree with the evidence that no natural processes can create life and a supernatural explanation is necessary. Fundamental Issue #4) How did Evolution happen. Every theory requires a mechanism. Otherwise just-so-stories. If a mechanism exists it isn’t impossible to find. Natural selection is not a sufficient mechanism. Natural selection is simple and real. Some organisms better suited for environment than others. ex.10% brown mice, 90% white mice in a brown home. Add a predator, a cat, into the home. Population shifts. But mice are still mice. Peppered moth example. Natural selection works only within the genes already there. Information can be lost not added. They know that, so they claim mutations add the info. Mutations do not provide the amount of biological change necessary evolution to occur. Ex. Lot’s of info: 100,000 nucleotides to over 3 Billion. After research by numerous scientists, for over 20 years, into the possibility that cultures of bacteria could add information through mutations, they concluded: “We see that no new information got into the genome. Indeed it turns out that each of those mutations actually lost information. They made the gene less specific. Therefore, none of them can play the role of the small steps that are supposed to lead to macroevolution.” Dr. Lee Spetner in Not by Chance, page 150, discussing 6 peer reviewed journal studies. There are no examples of positive mutations (or series of mutations) which increase genetic information, resulting in physiological changes, that are evolutionarily advantageous and are passed on to offspring and preserved. “In all the reading I’ve done in the life sciences literature, I’ve never found a mutation that added information...all point mutations that have been studied on the molecular level turn out to reduce the genetic information and not increase it.” Dr. Lee Spetner, The problem of a mechanism continues: Irreducible complexity (Michael Behe, Darwin’s Black Box). Irreducible complexity: life can’t evolve small part by small part, because each of those parts needed together for survival. A great example of irreducible complexity: Mouse trap example. 5 components: 1Platform, 6hammer, 3spring, 4catch and 5holding bar. If any component is missing or inadequate the trap won’t work. Each component alone would be useless. Lets look at a cellular example. The flagellum is the bacterium motor - without it bacteria would get stuck and die. Components to the irreducibly complex structure: The stator, C ring, the rotor (S ring and M ring), the rod, the bushing (L ring and P ring), junction, hook, export apparatus, filament and cap. If any component is missing or inadequate the trap won’t work. Each component alone would be useless. A non-working flagellum would most likely kill the bacterium. An animal example: Bombardier beetle. Darwin admitted, “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.” Historically there has been a decrease in biodiversity (info lost not added). 50 phyla (organisms with distinct body types) existed at the time of the Cambrian explosion and only around ~30 something exist now, no new phyla since. No significantly different new species. Minor speciation, by definition, does occur, within the existing genus (examples!). Evolution must go further than speciation by definition: New genetic info. Significant physical additions outside of the existing Genus, Family, Order, Class or Phylum. George Gaylord Simpson, the most influential paleontologist of the twentieth century, wrote - "...Every palaeontologist knows that most new species, genera, and families, and that nearly all categories above the level of family appear in the record suddenly and are not led up to by known, gradual, completely continuous transitional sequences.” Stephen J. Gould wrote, the theory of evolution by gradual mutation “…is effectively dead despite its persistence as textbook orthodoxy.” I’ll challenge anyone from the community of evolutionists to give one example of positive mutations (or series of mutations) which increase the genome, resulting in physiological changes, that are evolutionarily advantageous and are passed on to offspring and preserved leading to new organism types anywhere. As Creationists we agree with the evidence that like begets like - a biological law! Fundamental Issue #5) What does the fossil record say? The fossil record is in stark opposition to the theory of evolution. Darwin acknowledged the problem, in the origin of species, Ch.10, writing: “Why then is not every geological formation and every stratum full of such intermediate links? Geology assuredly does not reveal any such finely-graduated organic chain; and this, perhaps, is the most obvious and serious objection which can be urged against the theory." Because of this, peculiar methods are employed to achieve desired results: Circular reasoning in dating: Date the fossils by the rock layer they are in and date the rock layer by the fossils in it. Again, issues with radiometric dating. The late Dr. Colin Patterson, senior palaeontologist of the British Museum of Natural History, stated in a letter to Luther Sunderland (April 10th, 1979): “I fully agree with your comments about the lack of direct illustration of evolutionary transitions in my book. If I knew of any, fossil or living, I would certainly have included them … . I will lay it on the line—there is not one such fossil for which one could make a watertight argument.” The Cambrian explosion: One big example of the fossil problem. Explain. Since then biodiversity has only decreased as no new Phyla or major types of living organisms have come into existence. Darwinian evolution Stumped. Gould & Niles Eldridge Punctuated Equilibrium. PE still hotly contested. I believe flood is best explanation for the fossil evidence concerning the Cambrian Explosion. The smallest bottom dwelling organisms would have been the 1st organisms entombed in a catastrophic event like the flood, followed by progressively larger organisms better equipped for survival. You’d expect to see smaller, less complex organisms at bottom followed by larger more complex organisms as you worked your way up. That is basically what you see. A ton of evidence for a flood, but my favorite: Polystrate Fossils: fossils existing through multiple strata. The evolutionists struggle with the observations, refusing to consider catastrophes and come up with: Uniformitarianism. Uniformitarianism: Assume only gradual processes occurring today can tell us about the past. Bad science to start research with presupposed conclusions (don’t exclude options - follow the science). Global catastrophes must be considered. Possibility of different processes in past must also be considered. Do we see all supposed events occurring today? Cambrian explosion?Polonium 218 radio halos in granites on every continent. Radio halos confirm granites solidified quickly (quick enough for the decay process to be “trapped.” Hutton Symposium on the Origin of Granites (6 mtgs). No explanation and no rebuttal in 35 years.Show no parent Uranium rings  Polonium existed aside from Uranium & Uranium decay process in the past. More evidence to reject Uniformitarianism. Another big prob. for Uniformitarianism: Kaibab uplift. Grand Canyon cuts through southern slope of Kaibab Uplift, the Colorado river doesn’t flow downhill to the south but instead flows west, cutting through the entire Kaibab Uplift. Sediments at bottom of canyon younger than those at the top making multiple natural erosion theories obsolete. These facts completely stump the Geologic community as far as non-catastrophic theories. The fossil record and human evolution. Many supposed ape-men have been shown to be complete fabrications and hoaxes created with the intent of supporting a theory in crisis. Nebraska Man – formed from one tooth and a couple bone fragments from a pig. Now known to be a fake but still included in some textbooks. The other intermediary “species” are crafted from minimal bone findings with an adequate supply of imagination. Dr. Henry Gee put it this way, “Fossil evidence of human evolutionary history is fragmentary and open to various interpretations. Fossil evidence of chimpanzee evolution is absent altogether." Nature, Vol. 412, 12 July 2001, p. 131. Fully Ape – now extinct: Ramapithecus (extinct ape) – Entire creature formed from a couple teeth and a few bone shards. There has since been one intact jaw bone found, and it is fully ape. Australopithecus (extinct ape) – A fully ape skull assumed to be pre-human because tools were found in the general area. Some evolutionists (ex. Richard Leaky) have renounced this one. Ex. Lucy. Originally thought to walk upright because of a fossilized knee, found 2 km away and multiple strata above Lucy, had no locking mechanism. Since then joints have been found with locking mechanisms disproving. The “Lucy Child” discovered recently... Very little fossil evidence for any of these. Researchers have concluded Austrolopithecines not intermediaries between ape and human. Fully Human: Homo-Sapien – Fully human, include Cro-Magnon Man, Neanderthal. Cro-Magnon Man – Anatomically identical to modern humans - Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Neanderthal man – had larger brains than most people today and assumed to be pre-human because of bad posture – (osteoporosis?). Neanderthals and modern humans 99.5% identical DNA. Modern findings date both Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon man concurrent with humans. The transitional fossils – The missing links (only 2 supposed). Homo-erectus – Almost identical to current human anatomy, only a bit stouter and somewhat smaller brain. Originally fashioned from Peking man and Java man. Peking man – skull constructed from 3 teeth and a few other bones found in different areas of the same region between 1921 and 1936. Java man – Fabricated from a skull shard, a human leg bone and 2 teeth (found 50 ft apart and over several years). Current research near the Solo River in Java dates many H. Erectus fossils concurrent with humans (23,000 to 50,000 years ago). Homo-habilis – KNM-ER 1470 Found by Richard leaky in ’72 – supposed to be 2.8 million years old but was a fully human skull thus predating many of the supposed pre-human skulls. Leaky’s quote in June 1973 issue of National Geographic, “Either we toss out the 1470 skull or we toss out all our theories of early man. It simply fits no previous models of human beginnings. 1470 leaves in ruin the notion that all early fossils can be arranged in an orderly sequence of evolutionary changes.” KNMER 1470 is the largest, best preserved Habilis skull but still debated and could be either a human or ape skull. Current research also indicates Erectus and Habilis lived concurrent with each other. Again, “Fossil evidence of human evolutionary history is fragmentary and open to various interpretations. Fossil evidence of chimpanzee evolution is absent altogether" Henry Gee, Nature. Stephen Jay Gould wrote, in Natural History, Vol LXXXVI (6), June-July, 1977 “All paleontologists know that the fossil record contains precious little in the way of intermediate forms; transitions between major groups are characteristically abrupt.” Dr. Steven Stanley, an evolutionist, writes - “The known fossil record fails to document a single example of phyletic evolution accomplishing a major morphologic transition and hence offers no evidence that a gradualistic model can be valid.” [Steven M. Stanley, Macroevolution: Pattern and Process. San Francisco: W. M. Freeman & Co., 1979, p. 39.] I’ll challenge anyone from the community of evolutionists to give one irrefutable example in the fossil record of a series of all the intermediaries between 2 related species. As Creationists we agree with the evidence that all species appear fully intact - exactly what we see. Many Evolutionists are struggling with the evidence. Many evolutionists point to the other scientific fields. Few are confident in the evidences of their own field. Key Scientists admit the shortcomings of Evolution. Francis Crick (Nobel Prize winner for discovery of the double helix structure of DNA – one of the most important discoveries of the past century), proposed “directed panspermia” was responsible for life on earth. He can say inteligent aliens shot a life missile to earth but we can’t claim an inteligent creator created life? Again, Stephen J. Gould – Providing impetus for Punctuated Equilibrium. The theory of evolution by gradual mutation “…is effectively dead despite its persistence as textbook orthodoxy.” (Paleobiology, Vol.6, 1980, p.120) If the theory is so solid why is there dissent among top scientists? Why did Gould have to come up with a new theory? Like I said in the beginning Darwin wouldn’t believe it: he was a man of scientific integrity - Darwin admitted, “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.”“Why then is not every geological formation and every stratum full of such intermediate links? Geology assuredly does not reveal any such finely-graduated organic chain; and this, perhaps, is the most obvious and serious objection which can be urged against the theory." Creation fits better with the evidence.5 Fundamental issues evolution is stumped on: Origin of matter, origin of design and information, origin of life, mechanism of evolution and the fossil record. Creation fits better with the evidence. For reasons listed above and many more not listed. What other scientific theories would we prevent all the evidence from being discussed. Refusal to do so is simply intellectual dishonesty or blatant ignorance. What are the implications of an evolutionary worldview? Many of the worlds most feared dictators were devout evolutionists. Their actions were logical outcome of an evolutionary worldview. An example: If evolution explains origin, what follows? No purpose, except to survive and eventually die, no destiny and therefore no morality or theology. Are you O.K with that?Bad implications doesn’t mean that it is a false theory. It does have negative implications though. 2 reasons to reject this theory - Evolution fails both tests – The theory doesn’t line up with evidence. The theory also has very negative consequences. Sources for future study. Darwin on Trial – Phillip E. Johnson, Dismantling Evolution – Ralph Muncaster, Darwin’s Black Box – Michael Behe, Unlocking the Mystery of life - Illustra Multimedia DVD, Starlight and Time – D. Russell Humphreys. Just for fun! Einstein discussing Jesus Christ (The Saturday Evening Post, October 26, 1929): "To what extent are you influenced by Christianity?""As a child I received instruction both in the Bible and in the Talmud. I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene.""Have you read Emil Ludwig’s book on Jesus?""Emil Ludwig’s Jesus is shallow. Jesus is too colossal for the pen of phrasemongers, however artful. No man can dispose of Christianity with a bon mot.""You accept the historical Jesus?" "Unquestionably! No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life."