Recap: - War – barrage of msg “blind faith”, need to counter it & help those affected by it - Truth can be known, Bible is historically accurate, Jesus was resurrected, & there is a God Reinforce: - PegramChurch.org/BeliefsWar - Personal testimony of faithful life more powerful (pot. bad if unfaithful) than Logic & Reason. STILL, this class is focused on L&R to overcome barriers to people receiving such, or MORE IMPORTANTLY falling away on account of such barriers growing - Many scholars (esp. scientists & historians) disallow supernatural (can’t say “miracle”, even if so) Most consumers of their works don’t realize this inherent limitation So focus on relatively little evidence, strong even by their “rules”, to come alongside This session: Design –

How can you believe everything was just created? Doesn't evolution discredit even design? Related to previous session, but Origin of Life vs. Origin of World (previous session) Mainly from The Questions Christians Hope No One Will Ask – Chapter 2

(“Didn’t evolution put God out of a job? Why rely on religion in an age of science and knowledge?”) (or just “Didn’t evolution put God out of a job?”)

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Open Question Environment, Origin, Information (Place, Source, Data – or Dirt, Seed, Instructions)

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To start growing a plant Need 1. Good soil 2. Good seed 3. How to plant

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I. Where did the stuff to make life come from? / Powerful Intelligent First Cause 1. Evolution? – needs ORIGIN

- (Intro) Darwin’s theory of evolution assumed first life and described changes of life from that point - (Intro) At least partly right – microevolution generally accepted even by Christian scientists

- examples observed like finch beaks in Galapagos Islands, peppered moths lightening and darkening, etc.

- (Intro) Doesn’t mean macroevolution (a species turning into another) happens - (Intro) For process to even start, needs (1) ingredients, (2) first life, (3) information

2. Origin? – needs ORDER - “Matter matters” - “If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” [Sagan] - Where did the stuff come from?

- Most scientists say Big Bang, describing <> explaining though - Per last session, that in itself points to a god - “They” say no, but they’re only considering natural explanations, not supernatural

- Only looking at part of the picture - “[The Big Bang] was a supernatural event that cannot be explained within the realm of physics as we know it.” [Sandage] - Something must have always been, unless everything came from nothing

3. Order? – needs ORDERER - Why conducive to life in the first place?

- Appearance of fine tuning, ultra precise balance, and design in universe has “converted” (mostly deists) many skeptic scientists

- See previous session…

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Open Question “John Loves Mary” in beach sand – 13 letter accident?

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DNA = 3 billion letter long code in 4 letter sets

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II. What made first life start? / Spark of Life 1. Chance? – NOT A

- Ideas incl sheer chance, inherent attraction of life chemicals (disproven), “riding in on the backs of crystals”, panspermia (planted by aliens)

- “Nothing illustrates more clearly just how intractable a problem the origin of life has become than the fact that world authorities can seriously toy with the idea of panspermia.” [Denton]

- Most evolutionists won’t even venture a serious guess - “More than thirty years… better perception of immensity of the problem… than to its solution. At present all discussions… end in stalemate or in a confession of ignorance.” [Dose] 2. Gradual? – EXPLOSION

- Clues it was sudden, not gradual (not traceable back through simpler forms) - “certain types of bacteria appear suddenly and abundantly” [Dembski]

- Simplest forms unimaginably complex - “smallest element… functional protein or gene–is complex beyond our own creative capacities” [Denton] - “probabilities… [10^125]… would only be one protein molecule… cell would need [300-500 of them]” [Meyer]

3. Informed? – INCREDIBLY (Origin of information – DNA) - “simple bacterial Cells… require hundreds of thousands of bits of information… In the entire history of the universe, chance can only produce 400” [Dembski] - human DNA (human body contains millions of advanced and specialized cells)

- EVERY human cell contains DNA – “3 billion letters long… four letter code… live reading… three letters per second… thirty-one years… reading [24/7]” [Collins] - “John loves Mary” on beach – 13 letter accident? - “[Kenyon] repudiated the conclusions of his own book” [] “molecular genetics… most compelling evidence of design” [Kenyon]

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Open Question Who’s to say He didn’t use it?

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Mother’s heart – feeds placenta Placenta – feeds specially modified blood to baby’s heart Baby’s heart – becomes mother’s heart…

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III. But what about evolution? / Science AND/OR God 1. Matter? – NOT REALLY - Haven’t addressed Darwin’s theory – it needs (1) environment, (2) life, (3) information, to start

- intentional – belief in evolution doesn’t prevent one from belief in God & Jesus - patience: allow time for growth – goal: lead to faith in Jesus, not agree on every topic - recommend not making Darwin’s theory focus – but philosophical naturalism and subsequent difficulty even explaining how conditions for evolution came about - even if Darwin’s correct, would not hurt truth that God exists - “theory of evolution is irrelevant to the truth of the Christian faith.” [Craig]

2. Christian Stance? – VARIES - Even Christians hold widely different views on how creation occurred

- Young Earth Creationism (literal Genesis, 8-12k years ago), - Progressive (or Old Earth) Creationism (guided evolution over billions of years), etc. - Don’t have to agree, but should still accept believers who do (Rom14)

- Why force a potential believer, on something believers debate among each other? - “Since Christian believers [disagree], those who are considering Christianity as a whole should not allow themselves to be distracted by this intramural debate.” [Keller]

3. Scientist Stance? – ALSO VARIES - Still, good reasons to doubt macroevolution (science not contradictory to religion [Elst])

- almost complete lack of evidence for such “Tree of Life”, - many scientists see everything through evolutionary filters, but common descent could be common designer (Picasso paintings recognizable due to common artist) - 150 yrs, fossil record still lacks transitionals, instead, “Cambrian Expl.” new fully formed life

- Irreducible Complexity (eye, etc.) [Behe] – Interdependence (“chicken/egg” – protein synthesis requires cell membrane, and vice-versa; DNA/protein, etc. [ICR]), Specified Complexity [Dembski]

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Arguments presented point strongly toward some intelligent designer like God, not necessarily to God of Bible For that, we turn to evidence of Bible, Jesus, etc. (Extra) Overview of apologetics w/useful categorized resources toward bottom [BeThinking] (Extra) And some more articles [KeithHunt.com] (at least the few pages I read seemed unusually well researched – James) (Extra) In case you missed it, these parts of this Hunt page seemed particularly telling: 1. the intro about Sandage first publicly stating the theistic implications of The Big Bang, and 2. the section of the interview with Stephen Meyer titled “The Motives of Scientists”

(about ¾ of the way down)

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- Bible Says - Miracles - Prophecies - Contradictions - Truth and Hypocrisy - Pantheism (Zen, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc.) - Monotheism (Judaism, Islam, Christianity, etc.) - One Way

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