july – august, 2013 1 darwin vs. genesis eastern christadelphian bible school 2013 john c. bilello...

July – August, 2013 1

Darwin vs. Genesis

Eastern Christadelphian

Bible School

2013

John C. Bilello - Ann Arbor, Michigan


Disclaimer

* I know the subject of creation is considered very controversial in some quarters and there are some who have extremely strong views. Anyone not agreeing with them is obviously condemned. This talk assumes that my audience is composed of reasonably tolerant people who are willing to listen, weight the evidence, and have open minds. If I’ve assumed wrong in any individual cases I apologize.


More Disclaimers*#

* I apologize in advance to any who feel the science is too simple. This is deliberate on my part. I would like the concepts expressed in this presentation to be understood by any reasonably intelligent person, period. No specific scientific training is assumed.

# I also apologize to those who may have heard this talk before – it has been given at many places around our community both in North America and overseas.


Darwin vs. Genesis


What do religion and science say about the origin of life and its

subsequent evolution?


Nobel Laureate George Wald (1906–1997) wrote in a Scientific American in 1954 about the origin of life that, however improbable:‘Time itself performs the miracles’—“ … given enough time it will almost certainly happen at least once … . Time is in fact the hero of the plot … . Given so much time, the ‘impossible’ becomes possible, the possible probable, and the probable virtually certain. One has only to wait; time itself performs the miracles.”

Evolutionists Make the following assertion – “Time is the Hero?”

This is a false assumption – if something is contrary to the laws of Physics it will never happen, period.


Created with Appearance of age?

Some creationists make this argument because they feel if they concede that the Earth and the Universe are very old that this justifies the Evolutionist’s argument that sooner or later chance will allow life to be created and evolve. So they presume a “young earth/universe” model, i.e. all of creation is only six thousand years old. They claim this is the correct literal interpretation of the Genesis.


Objections to literalist viewThis creationist view actually does a great injustice to what

the Bible has actually revealed. Consider:

• 1) Genesis 1:1 – The heavens and the earth are said to have been created “in the beginning” – NOT on day one of the present order.

• 2) The Elohim or Angelic host carried out the LORD’s actual creative process on earth. Since the LORD “alone has Immortality” (1Tim.6:16 ESV) – then where did the Elohim come from if there was no prior existence?

• 3) If heaven and earth were created with “appearance of age” then in view of Psalm 19:1 we would, in effect, be accusing God of deliberately deceiving mankind!


Darwin vs. GenesisHow did life originate?

What is Darwinism?

Why has it failed?

What is Neo-Darwinism?

What are the views generally held by believers?

What are the weaknesses in the arguments on both sides?

Does it matter?


How did life originate?

Primitive life arose from a chemical combination in an organic “soup” that existed in on this planet many millions of years ago. Activated by lightning this organic mix eventually formed living cells. Somehow these cells ‘learned’ to manufacture energy and to replicate themselves. Cell complexity grew and eventually assembled into larger scale beings. These simple living things further evolved over eons till we have the world we observe today. Darwin’s key idea was the concept of ‘natural selection’, i.e. survival of the fittest. By this means organisms of lesser adaptability to the environment die out and hence only the successful organisms populate the earth.

E Rodriguez

I would simplify this slide a bit more. In fact darwinism does not directly explain the beginning of life but instead it is focused toward an explanation of how biological diversity came to be.


Naturalistic Model of Origins

Primitive Atmosphere

CH4 , NH3 , H2O, etc.

Soup of Organic Matter,

Amino Acids, Sugar,

Nucleic Acid bases, etc.

Protein

Nucleic Acids,

(RNA, DNA)

Cells (life)

* Protein Synthesizing

* 2000+ Enzymes

* Cell reproduction etc.

?Lightning ?


Experiments to prove origin of life by chance

Harold Urey and Stephen Miller - Tried to simulate the effect of lightning on the organic “soup” that presumably existed in the early earth atmosphere several billion years ago.

Results - NOT MUCH!


“…Dr. Stanley Miller was doubly fortunate in making an outstanding discovery at a young age and in having a supervisor generous enough to let him have full credit for it. His finding was published in the same year as James Watson’s and Francis Crick’s discovery of the structure of DNA. But it has proved much harder to build on, and the origins of life on earth remain obscure despite Dr. Miller’s impressive initial assault on the problem.”

From May 23, 2007 Obituary in the New York Times


Quotations from Darwinists“Evolution:…In evolutionary biology, as in all active areas of research, there is lively debate among scientists. But such argument focuses on the mechanism by which evolution has taken place, not upon the concept of evolution itself. …….

Year dates are generally obtained from the rocks in which the fossils are found rather than from the fossils themselves; of available methods the carbon-14 (useful only in the last 40,000 years) and the potassium argon (for rocks older than about 250,000 years) techniques are the most widely used in human paleontology. ….

Not all fossils can be radioactively dated, and their age must therefore must be estimated by geological and paleontological comparisions with other regions.” (American Museum of Natural History, New York)


More from Darwinists

“THE ORIGIN OF MODERN HUMANS

All modern humans share a distinctive skull anatomy that includes such features as a protruding chin, a vertical forehead unadorned with brow ridges, a high rounded braincase of thin bone, and small teeth. The origin of this unique physical type is an unresolved question in paleonanthropology.”

(American Museum of Natural History, New York)


Classical Darwinism


Concept of Panspermia as an alternative to random chance

Strong version of the panspermia idea is the one proposed by Crick and Orgel. They postulated that life on earth was seeded by the deliberate action of alien visitors who traveled here in a space ship in the distant past. While this might sound like science fiction, the interesting thing to note is that Crick shared the Nobel Prize for discovering DNA and if anyone should realize the nature of its complexity it would be him.

F. H. C. Crick and L. E. Orgel, "Directed Panspermia" Icarus, v 19, p 341-346, (1973).


Why has Darwinism failed?Answer:

Simply put -- the fossil evidence doesn’t verify classical Darwinism!

Hence, the new buzz word is “Neo-Darwinism” which is an attempt to rescue the field and explain the origins of life and subsequent flowering without the need to invoke a creator.

(Leading Proponents, Stanley, Johns Hopkins University, the late Stephen Jay Gould, Harvard & Richard Dawkins, Oxford University)


What is Neo-Darwinism?Decoding the Cambrian

“ The Cambrian has always been a mystery, a highway starting in a desert. Now we have pathways converging to feed it, and it turns out to be a broader road than we knew. Yet it is no gradual story that our discoveries reveal, but a revolutionary episode, crammed with new animals, some big and some small, some with skeletons, and some without. Can we account for the sudden appearance of so many fundamentally different kinds of animals - the basic phyla? And why did the variety of animals within each phylum rocket so steeply upward? Scientists would like to know……

What happens when animals flood and empty ecological space is a sequence well known in life’s history. Not only individuals, but also species, begin to climb at a geometric rate: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 …. As Geerat Vermeij puts it, new species are basically accidents that happen as populations of individuals adapt to local environments.”

(The Book of Life, editor Stephen Jay Gould, W. Norton & Co, NY, 1993, p56-57)


Ascent of Man from Apes!


Some recent thoughts -

Scientific American, September 2009, pg. 56

No longerClaiming – ‘Time as the hero’!


Neo-Darwinism


Evolutionary Model for Neo-Darwinism.

The neo-Darwinist would say that it isn’t the individual animal species that evolves, but rather it is DNA in the population that evolves in response to environmental and ecological stimuli. Natural selection finishes the job!

E Rodriguez

This statement is a bit misleading. In biology, evolution is only considered to take place in populations, not individuals. It is true that changes at the genetic level must take place, however, these must be expressed at the phenotypic level in a significant percentage of the population.


Natural Selection Challenged!

This recent book by, ostensibly two non-believers, challenges the most fundamental aspect of the theory of evolution, i.e.. natural selection (NS). Many examples are shown in nature that appear to run counter to NS. They point out that using breeding experiments as proof of NS neglects the logic that breeding requires a “breeder”!


The new Evolutionary Model

• Mutations atoms/molecules in DNA rewrite the genetic code.

• Mutations presumably occur by irradiation or chemical interference.

• The beneficial ones survive (i.e. survival of the fittest).


One simple problem with this model - doubtful evidence!

In fact experiments to prove the mutation model have done

quite the contrary.

For example Consider the famous Fruitfly experiments:


SPEEDING UP THE EVOLUTIONARY PROCESS Fruit fly generations have been studied longer than the presumed time man has been on earth.

According to evolution, man has lived on the earth for a little over a million years. Yet experiments on fruit flies have already exceeded the equivalent of a million years of people living on earth. Here is a clear statement of the problem: "The fruit fly has long been the favorite object of mutational experiments because of its fast gestation period [twelve days]. X rays have been used to increase the mutation rate in the fruit fly by 15,000 percent. All in all, scientists have been able to "catalyze the fruit fly evolutionary process, such that what has been seen to occur in Drosophila is the equivalent of the many millions of years of normal mutations and evolution.” (from http://www.pathlights.com/ce_encyclopedia)


The recipients of the 1995 Nobel prize for medicine were Drs. Edward Lewis, of the California Institute of Technology; Christiane Nuesslein-Volhard, of Germany's Max-Planck Institute; and Eric Wieschaus, at Princeton. Each of the three were involved in the early research to find the genes controlling development of the Drosophila fruit fly. The fruit fly, now a standard model in genetic research, is an ideal research

animal since it develops from fertilized egg to embryo within nine days.


Summary Possible Biblical views1. Universe and Earth Created in seven twenty-four hours days approximately 4004 BC. All geology due to the flood in Noah’s time. (Literalists).

2. Two creations, one at the “beginning” (billions of years ago?), this world destroyed. Second creation at the time of Adam refilled the earth. (Bro. John Thomas, 1848).

3. The seven days in Genesis record God’s fiats, the actual period carrying out each edict could have been millions of years for each. (Bros. Peter Watkins & Alfred Norris, 1964).


Does it matter what we believe?Yes of course it matters, Genesis the foundation of the entire Bible, both Old and New testaments. Atheists know that if you knock out the validity of Genesis, and specifically the creation story, all else will fall. That is why they so vociferously attack the Creation Story. If we are not created by God, and responsible to Him as Lord of creation, then we might as well eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.

Unfortunately, our children are exposed in their schools, on television, in museums, and in the media to the idea that evolution is a fact, period. We can either take the path of ‘blind faith’ or we can become informed and fight from reason.


Creation story permeates OT• Neh. 9:6 “You are the LORD, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you.” (ESV)

• Psa. 33:6 “By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.” (ESV)

• Psalms 102:25 “Of old you laid the foundation of the earth,and the heavens are the work of your hands.”

•And more: Job 26:7, Psa. 90:1-3, , Isa. 45:12, & many others.


Testified by the Apostles• Acts 4:24 “And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them” (ESV)

• Acts 14:15 “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of like nature with you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them.” (ESV)

• Heb.11:3 “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.” (ESV) --- And others


The Authority of Jesus Christ on Genesis

• Matt. 19:4 “He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female” (The Creation) • Matt. 23:35 “so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zechariah …” (Murder of Abel by Cain)• Luke 17:26 “Just as it was in the days of eNoah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man.” (Noah & the Flood)• Luke 17:29 “but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all –” (Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah)

All above quotes from ESV


Conclusion - Darwin or Genesis?To believe in Darwin you have to take on “faith” that ‘accidents’ happen to mutate DNA to produce new species and to allow organisms to evolve in response to external stimuli. You have to accept that evolution happens even though fossil evidence is disputable and the exact mechanism is unknown. You have to have ‘faith’ that these serious scientific flaws will eventually be resolved.

To believe in Genesis you have to have ‘faith’ in GOD; a faith backed by the ethical, historical, & prophetic evidence presented to us in our Bibles.

july – august, 2013 1 darwin vs. genesis eastern christadelphian bible school 2013 john c. bilello...

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