Stephen Hawking Theoretical Physicist “The odds against a universe like ours emerging out of something like the Big Bang are enormous. I think there are

Stephen Hawking Theoretical Physicist

“The odds against a universe like ours emerging out of something like the Big Bang are enormous.

I think there are clearly religious implications whenever you start to discuss the origins of the universe. There must be religious overtones. But I think most scientists prefer to shy away from the religious side of it.”

Stephen Hawking, Stephen Hawkings’s Universe, Boslough, 109.

Are There Good Reasons to Believe God Exists?

Origin and design of the universe points to a Creator

Design in genetics points to a Creator Personal experience and historical

evidence surrounding Jesus Christ indicates He is God

1. The scientific evidence indicates that the universe had a beginning to its existence

2. Our whole system of science is based on the premise that if something has a beginning to its existence then it must have a cause (cause: produces an effect)

3. Therefore, the universe must have a cause

4. The cause of the universe must be independent of what it produced (space-time, matter and energy

5. Something independent of the dimension of time is timeless and beginningless

6. Therefore, the cause of the universe is timeless and beginningless (from 4 & 5)

7. An entity can have a cause only if it has a beginning (one cannot cause a state of affairs if that state of affairs already exists)

8. Therefore, the cause of the universe cannot, itself, have a cause (6 & 7) Sub-conclusion (B)

9. Anything existing outside of space and timemust be eternal and immaterial.

10. Therefore, the cause of the universe must be eternal (6 & 9) Sub-conclusion (C)

12. Therefore, the cause of the universe cannot be a natural process of any kind (4 & 11)

13. An effect must be caused by either natural processes or a free agent

14. Therefore, the cause of the universe is a free agent (12 & 13) Sub-conclusion (D)

11. No natural processes of any kind can occur independent of the dimension of time

17.The cause of the universe is a free agent who is uncaused, eternal and immaterial (8,10

& 14) Addition of the three sub-conclusions

Advances in science are increasingly pointing to what people in most societies throughout history have always intuitively known: There is a Creator.

Not only has the universe been created, but the scientific evidence indicates that any universe capable of supporting life must be fine tuned to a staggering degree.

Sir Roger Penrose

Mathematical Physicist

The ‘accuracy of the Creator’s aim’ would have had to be one part in 1010(123)

Hawking, S. and Penrose, R., The Nature of Space and Time, Princeton: Princeton University Press (1996), 34,35.

Advances in genetics are increasingly indicating that organic life required an intelligent designer.

"even the most hardened atheist must agree that plants and animals are design-like in appearance in a way that rocks and planets are not."

Michael Ruse, Philosophy of Biology, Prometheus Books, Amherst, NY, (1998), 16.

Life has the appearance of being designed

Developing a scientific method

For a more sophisticated method, we need:

1.An objective method to measure design

2.An upper limit beyond which ID is required

Developing a scientific method

Claude Shannon1 has provided an objective method for quantifying functional anomalies in terms of 'bits' of information:

1. Shannon, C. (1948). A mathematical theory of communication. Bell Syst. Tech. J. 27, 379-423; 623-657.

A scientific method to measure design

From Shannon's theorem, functional (meaningful) Information:

If (bits)= -log2 (n'/n)

n' = number of functional configurations

n = total number of configurations


Example 1: "methinks it is like a weasel"

n' = 1

n = 2728 = 1.2 x 1040

If = - log2 (1/1.2 x 1040) = 133 bits


Example 2: radio signal from deep space, specifying the first 20 prime numbers (71 beeps, with longer beeps at primes).

n' = 1

n = 271 = 2.4 x 1021

If = - log2 4.2 x 10-21 = 71 bits

Developing a scientific methodSince 71 bits is a certain indication of an intelligent origin, let us set the bar at 70 bits.

Note: This means that some configurations produced by ID will not be identified.

A scientific method to identify ID

We now have a scientific method to test for intelligent design.


Step One: quantify the information carried by a functional anomaly using,

If (bits)= -log2 (n'/n)

Step Two: If If is greater than 70 bits, then ID has been involved in producing the configuration.


Prediction:

For any configuration observed to be produced by natural processes, the information required to produce that configuration will not exceed 70 bits.


Note: This method is based on two empirical facts:

1.nature cannot produce configurations requiring more than 70 bits of information,

2.ID can.

Application• NaCl crystal: 0 bits

• atactic polystyrene: 0 bits

• patterns arising out of chaotic interactions: 0 bits

• sand ripples formed by wave action: 0 bits

• Radio signal from deep space containing the first 20 prime numbers: 71 bits

• Mass spectrometer at the U of Toronto: 85,000 bits

Simplest known life formM. genitalium is the simplest known life form, with 480 genes (480 kb).

If = 120,000 bits

Probability of natural processes assembling the simplest genome is, at best, 10-38,000.

To appreciate this, the most improbable event we could reasonably expect to observe in the history of the universe is about 10-141.

Summary

simplest known life form 120,000 bitshuman genome 14.3 million bits

070bits Information required (bits)

Threshold

• Natural processes cannot produce more than 70 bits of information

• It is an empirical fact that ID can produce configurations that contain vastly more than 70 bits of information

• The most rudimentary life form requires at least 120,000 bits

• Therefore, ID is essential for the origin and diversity of organic life

ID was involved in the origin and diversity of organic life

Darwinian evolution and ID

Micro-evolution: variation of allele frequencies in a population over time, including the introduction of new alleles through mutation.

Example: First mentioned in the Bible, in the book of Genesis (BC 1400), when Jacob varied the allele frequency in his father-in-law’s goats and sheep.

Two radically different types of evolution:


Macro-evolution: the production of a gene that codes for a novel protein (a new three dimensional structure) that is functional.

Darwinian evolution and IDDarwinian scenario:• a gene is duplicated within a genome,

making it redundant

• the redundant gene is free to evolve via mutations

• eventually, the evolving gene codes for a novel protein (new 3-D structure)

• the entire process is guided by natural selection


Work by Blanco et al., published in 1999, has shown that the regions in between islands of functional sequence space produce non-folding, non-functional proteins.

Blanco, Angrand & Serrano (1999) 'Exploring the conformational properties of the sequence space between two proteins with different folds: and experimental study' J.Mol.Biol. 285, 741-753.


Blanco et al. conclude, "the appearance of a completely new fold from an existing one is unlikely to occur by evolution through a route of folded intermediate sequences."

Functional and non-functional sequence space for a given gene

functional sequence space, microevolution can optimize sequences in this area of sequence space

non-functional sequence space

Functional and non-functional sequence space for a given gene

From Taylor et al., if the top of the island were 1 kilometer square, the next nearest island would be at least 56 billion kilometers away.


Natural selection can only work on folding, functional intermediates.

Blanco et al. Have found that there may be none.

Virtually all of macro-evolution is going to have to occur without the aid of natural selection. (99.9999999999999999999999%)


The evolution of a novel protein will require an evolutionary trajectory that is almost entirely in non-folding, non-functional sequence space.

Without the aid of natural selection, a new gene must evolve via a random walk.

The probability of crossing sequence space via a random walk is

n'/n(N!/NN)

Where N = # of residues

e.g., 3.3 x 10-141 (compare 4.2 x 10-141)

The probability of crossing sequence space in a single recombination is

n'/n

e.g., 2 x 10-22 for a simple enzyme

Darwinian evolution and ID• the informational gap between functional

proteins cannot be crossed by natural selection, as it is inoperative in those regions

• the informational gap is too large to be crossed by chance or a random walk

• it is an empirical fact that ID can be used to cross non-functional sequence space (Taylor et al.)


Conclusion:

Intelligent design appears to be required for the origin and diversity of organic life.

Philosophical Implications

We must not curtail the advancement of science because we prefer to 'shy away' from the philosophical implications.


There are two issues here:

1. Scientific issue: was ID involved in the origin and diversity of organic life?

2. Philosophical issue: if ID was involved, what are the philosophical implications?


Two large philosophical implications:

1. The intelligent designer is God (consensus)

2. There must be some purpose and meaning to life

Argument from Personal Experience

1. If just one person in history has actually experienced God, then God exists

2. At least one person in history has actually experienced God

Therefore, God exists

There are only Three Options: I am lying I am insane I am telling the truth

Rational justification for belief in Rational justification for belief in the Christian experience of Godthe Christian experience of God

Jesus of Nazareth claimed to be GodJesus of Nazareth claimed to be God There is warrant for taking His claim There is warrant for taking His claim

seriouslyseriously Therefore, there is warrant for believing Therefore, there is warrant for believing

that the God existsthat the God exists

Warrant #1: Jesus fulfilled ancient propheciesWarrant #1: Jesus fulfilled ancient prophecies

The Old Testament was completed prior to the The Old Testament was completed prior to the time of Christ time of Christ

There are hundreds of prophecies in the Old There are hundreds of prophecies in the Old TestamentTestament

They can be classified into two groups: They can be classified into two groups: prophecies concerning the first coming of the prophecies concerning the first coming of the Messiah, and prophecies concerning the end of Messiah, and prophecies concerning the end of human history.human history.

Jesus fulfilled the first set against impossible Jesus fulfilled the first set against impossible oddsodds

Therefore there is warrant for taking His Therefore there is warrant for taking His statements about being God seriously.statements about being God seriously.

Some Messianic Prophecies The Messiah would come from

Bethlehem and have existed from eternity past.1 BC 700

The Messiah would make his entrance on the landscape of history 483 years after the decree was issued to rebuild Jerusalem (AD 19 - AD 39).2 BC 500

1. Micah 5:22. Daniel 9:25, (Correlate Daniel 9:27 and 12:11)

Shortly after his arrival in Jerusalem, the Messiah would be killed.1

God would one day be valued at 30 pieces of silver.2

The Messiah would die for the sins of all humanity.3

The Messiah would be despised by the Jewish nation.4

1. Daniel 9:262. Zechariah 11:12,133. Isaiah 52:11,12; 53:5,6,10,114. Isaiah 53:3

Warrant #2: There are three lines of

historical evidence that Jesus of Nazareth rose from the

dead

The conclusion of scholars

One of the foremost scholars in the area of the historical evidence for the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. William Lane Craig … Assessing the New Testament Evidence for the Historicity of the Resurrection of Jesus, (Edwin Mellen Press, 1989).

Orthodox Jewish Scholar, Pinchas Lapide The Resurrection of Jesus: A Jewish Perspective, trans. Wilhelm C. Linss (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1983);

Three historical facts

The tomb was empty on the third day even though it had been under Roman guard

History indicates that hundreds of people saw and interacted with Him after His death

The explosion of Christianity within weeks of His death, coupled with the belief that He had risen from the dead

Rational justification for belief in the Christian God

Jesus of Nazareth claimed to be God

There is warrant for taking His claim seriously

Therefore, there is warrant for believing that God exists

Given:

1. the scientific evidence for the existence of God and,

2. the historical evidence for the Judeo-God,

there are good reasons to believe that God exists.

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Stephen Hawking Theoretical Physicist “The odds against a universe like ours emerging out of something like the Big Bang are enormous. I think there are