Science: What is True?
Notes
Transcript
Science: What is true?
Science: What is true?
Have you ever looked at God’s creation and been amazed by it? Give an example
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The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun,
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
We are going to look at the idea of creation vs evolution or a better way to put it would be design vs randomness. This is by no means going to be a science lecture or a detailed dissertation of either side, but I hope to take a mid level view of this issue to help us see what is true.
To believe that the universe was created by design implies that everything has a purpose and that everything was created in just the right way with just the right amount of parts to work properly.
To believe that the universe was created by randomness means you don’t believe in design but rather it just happened.
Someone give me a sentence phrase?
Imagine if you would, that I drop these pieces onto the floor—what are the odds that these letter would land in a way that spell out that phrase?
Imagine now that these tiles are actually blank, and I take a paint brush and i drop the paint brush on a plate, pick it up and flick the brush so that it splatters the tiles. What are the odds, or how long would it take for the tiles to have some sort of letter on them, let alone the letters I need. Now you then need to put them in the bag, drop them and see if they land in the phrase. That is argument for randomness, that is just happens.
Science is growing, they know much more now then they did 1500 years ago. Did you know in 1600 AD, Kepler (a famous scientist) counted 1,005 stars.
Does anybody know how many stars we have successfully counted?
in 2003 the Hubble space telescope counted 70 sextillion starts (70x10 21) (21 zeros after it)
There are more stars than grains of sand in every desert and beach in the world; that is the ones we know
Million, billion, trillion, quadrillion, quintillion, sextillion
We cannot fathom how many stars there are in the world. There are so many questions like this, if you have ever been around a child they ask all these questions:
Why does it rain, where does the rain come from, how does a capetapiller become a beautiful butterfly, how does the brain signal to the mouth to speak and how to do it?
There are only two options when it comes to the cosmos and where they came from 1) the have always existed or 2) they have a beginning
If they always existed, the laws of thermodynamics tells that at some point the energy will run it, it always losing energy and at some point it will cease to exist.
If it was created, who created it? And was there before? If the universe just came out of nowhere, something had to be there before to cause the universe to be created.
So when we think of this all sorts of questions come up in our mind:
why is there something rather than nothing?
Why is anything in motion rather than everything being still? Why is everything hot or cold and not the opposite?
Why is there order rather than chaos?
Why is there life rather than deadness?
Why is there music?
We believe that God exsists. It has been revealed to humans in two ways
God reveals it to everyone through general revelation, we saw that in Romans 1. Creation, nature, government all point to a creator God.
What is the other way it has been revealed to us?
Special revelation, through his scripture
Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
God’s word reveals to us who he is and what he has done. We can learn about creator, sustainer, redeemer God through his word.
Before we move on its going to be helpful to define some terms:
Science: the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment
Does anyone know anything about the scientific process? Specifically how someone becomes a law? There are three steps
What is the first step: hypothesis: early assumption based on limited evidence.
Second step: theory: idea or belief about something formed by speculation, conjecture, or deduction from certain facts within certain parameters. You predict what will happen
Third step is law. It is proven 100% of the time under given circumstances. It cannot be a law it there is any variation to it.
Have you ever wondered why two people can look at the same thing and have two different thoughts or deductions. Who in here as ever been to a football or basketball game? Isn’t it amazing how that touchdown catch in the back of the end zone as he is going out of bounds. As soon as it happens to offense and the thousands of fans there for that team immediately celebrate its a touchdown. While the defense and its thousands of fans immediately say incomplete. They say the same thing!
Both are convinced, but they both can’t be right.
Richard Dawkins, one of the leading evolutionists, said this, “Natural selection; the blind, unconscious automatic process which Darwin discovered and which we now know is the explanation for the existence and apparently purposeful form of all life, has no purpose in mind. it does not plan for the future, it has no vision, no foresight, no sight at all. it can be said to play the role of watchmaker in nature, it is the blind watchmaker.”
He went on to say, “Biology is the study of complicated things that give the appearance of having been designed for a purpose.”
Dawkins, “It is absolutely safe to say that if you meet somebody who claims not to believe in evolution, that person is ignorant, stupid or insane. (or wicked, but I’d rather not consider that.)
There you go, we are ignorant, stupid or insane. Also by the way we are all wicked—the heart is desperately wicked, who can know it.
I bring all this up because evolution argues that things just happen, it was random happenings. They believe this so much so that no matter how much evidence is given they still argue against creation because they have to. its like an arson investigator who can see the accelerant maybe gasoline, the lighter, the point of ignition, they can clearly see that someone doused the house and light it on fire and yet they argue it must be an accident.
It would be like looking at mount rushmore and saying wow, just the right amount of wind and rain and snow wore that rock down just enough to create perfect replicas that happen to look like washington, lincoln, roosvelt and jefferson.
By the way it is made of granite that is eroding at a rate of 1 inch every 10,000. It would take 240 million years for their nose to be destroyed.
If you look around you see intelligent design, it is plain to us.
I brought up the scientific method on how things become a law because to be a law it has to be true every-time. You will notice even the great scientist who argued for evolution didn’t use terms like law because they couldn’t prove it without fail. They labeled it as fact or true to preserve their scientific integrity.
Evolution has two main supporting arguments: molecular biology and fossil record.
In molecular biology they argue that everything happened by chance. A cell would not exist if it was missing just one part and wouldn’t function if any part of it was not working. And yet all these pieces supposedly fell together in perfect order and function in just the right way “randomly”.
Its so complex that science tells you it can’t happen by chance—yet Francis Crick (who discovered DNA) when confronted with it instead of agreeing there was creator argued that the cell must have come from another planet outside our solar system and that is what created our universe. It doesn’t even answer the problem—where did that solar system come from and who created that?
Have you ever cut yourself? Why did you not bleed to death? Why doesn’t your blood clot and hardened inside you and stop your heart?
Your body is looking for a state of homeostasis which means balance or stability and your body automatically adjust to maintain that.
Our blood supplies oxygen and nutrients to our body, it transports hormones, maintains core body temperature, etc.
Our blood is so complex that it knows when to coagulate to protect itself (i.e. so you don’t bleed out) and when to thin out to travel through your body.
Do you know why we sweat? To release heat to help lower our body temperature—its a self-defense mechanism.
Cells have very specific ways they have to be made and if not done that way they don’t work. Have you every seen a mousetrap? It has very few parts—but if one of them is missing or broken, the trap is useless.
A house is built in a very specific order. it doesn’t work if you put the walls up before you install the electric, you can’t do it that way. You have to put the sheathing up before you instal shingles. Without windows and doors you can’t do the siding. It has a way it has to go.
All of this points to a creator and unique design to how we are made.
The second area of evolution that we will look at quickly is fossil record.
I don’t have time to talk about this much but I will look at it very high level.
Scientist agree to there are lots of changes that have to happen if you want to morph or evolve from one thing to another. If a dog wants to become a whale there are 50,000 changes that must happen. Almost every part of it has to change. And yet if you see a skeleton of a dog and of a whale, that is only two parts of this process, where are the other 49,999 steps of this process? Where are the fossils showing this process of the creature evolving from one thing to another over time. It doesn’t exist. Somewhere should be fossils and evidence to support this but there is not.
With all this in mind I want to ask a question: not why would we believe this, but why do you think they reject this? Why do they reject that there is intelligent design?
Because if it is true, than there is a creator. And if there is a creator than they will be face to face with the creator one day.
This issue isn’t about how things got here, it is about rejecting the truth that we have to answer to someone some day. If you push off or reject or ignore the creator you hope to ignore the consquences but we know that is not the case.
We read in Hebrews earlier about revelation but it goes on
He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
The heavens proclaim his righteousness, and all the peoples see his glory.
“But ask the beasts, and they will teach you; the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you; or the bushes of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind. Does not the ear test words as the palate tastes food? Wisdom is with the aged, and understanding in length of days.
Listen this isn’t about people knowing the truth. The truth is there and they have suppressed it. One day we each will give an account before a holy God. Creator, sustainer God made all things and in him all things hold together. Adam fell and sinned and through Adam all our born into sin, condemned for their sin. But God who created all things also created a way out. Through his son Jesus who came and lived a perfect life and died on the cross for our sins, was buried and rose again defeating death. For those who are called, for those who cry out to this great creator can be redeemed and are lavished with the righteousness of Jesus.
Listen God created and sustains this world—but do you know what is coming for those who are not in him? A eternity of punishment and judgement, separated from Christ