Faith and Reason in an age of doubt

1. Faith and Reasonin an age of doubt “Always be ready to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” – 1 Peter 3:15 • The Argument from Design • Week 5, 7/29/2012 • Gene Wright, GeneLA@comcast.net

2. Faith and Reason in an age of doubtThe argument from Design • This argument asserts the necessary existence of God from the design found in nature. • Plato and Aristotle argued for the existence of “God” because of the design they saw in nature. • One formulation of this argument was by a man named William Paley in 1804.

3. Faith and Reason in an age of doubtThe argument from Design • “In crossing a field, suppose I pitched my foot against a stone, and were asked how the stone came to be there. I might possibly answer, that, for anything I knew to the contrary it had been there forever nor would it perhaps be very easy to show the absurdity of this answer. • But suppose I had found a watch upon the ground…

4. Faith and Reason in an age of doubtThe argument from Design • “For this reason, and for no other, that, when we come to inspect the watch, we perceive (what we could not discover in the stone) that its several parts are framed and put together for a purpose. • They are so formed and adjusted as to produce motion, and that motion so regulated as to point out the hour of the day. If the different parts had been differently shaped from what they are, of a different size from what they are, or placed after any other manner, or in any other order, than that in which they are placed, either no motion at all would have been carried on in the machine, or none which would have answered the use that is now served by it.”

5. Faith and Reason in an age of doubtThe argument from Design • “This mechanism being observed and understood produces an inevitable inference: that the watch must have had a maker; that there must have existed, at some time, and at some place or other, someone who formed it for the purpose which we find. Someone who comprehended its construction, and designed its use.” • There was a designer.

6. Faith and Reason in an age of doubtThe argument from Design • This conclusion would not be weakened if we had never actually seen a watch being made nor knew how to make one. • For we recognize the remains of ancient art as the products of intelligent design without having ever seen such things made, and we know the products of modern manufacture are the result of intelligence even though we may have no inkling how they are produced.

7. Faith and Reason in an age of doubtThe argument from Design • Nor would our conclusion be invalidated if the watch sometimes went wrong. The purpose of the mechanism would be evident even if the machine did not function perfectly. • Nor would the argument become uncertain if we were to discover some parts in the mechanism that did not seem to have any purpose, for this would not negate the purposeful design in the other parts.

8. Faith and Reason in an age of doubtThe argument from Design • Conclusions. Nor would anyone in his right mind think that the existence of the watch was accounted for by the consideration that it was one out of many possible configurations of matter and that some possible configuration had to exist in the place where the watch was found. • Nor would it help to say that there exists in things a principle of order, which yielded the watch. For one never knows a watch to be so formed, and the notion of such a principle of order that is not intelligent seems to have little meaning. • Nor is it enough to say the watch was produced from another watch before it and that one from yet a prior watch, and so forth to infinity. For the design is still unaccounted for. • Each machine in the infinite series evidences the same design, and it is irrelevant whether one has ten, a thousand, or an infinite number of such machines—a designer is still needed.

9. Faith and Reason in an age of doubtThe argument from Design • Consider: What if you walked along a beach and found this? • If your friend were to say: “How interesting that in the infinity of time and space a chance arrangement of sand grains would randomly form to appear like the Statue of Liberty!” • No, you would look around for the artist! • And you would think your friend needed a rest.

10. Faith and Reason in an age of doubtThe argument from Design • Some disciplines of Science do this too. Consider: • Archeology: Is that rock formation natural or due to intelligent design? • Anthropology: Do sharp, pointed rocks occur naturally or are they designed by intelligent beings? • Forensics: Intelligent cause of death or natural circumstances? • SETI: Are those radio signals natural or caused by intelligent beings?

11. Faith and Reason in an age of doubtThe argument from Design • Now the point of the analogy of the watch is this: just as we infer a watchmaker as the designer of the watch, so ought we to infer an intelligent designer of the universe. • For every indication of planning, every manifestation of design, which existed in the watch, exists in the works of nature. • Since there is evidence of design in the Universe, there must be a designer. This divine “watchmaker” is God.

12. Faith and Reason in an age of doubtExamples of Design: The stomach • Why doesn't the stomach digest itself? • Your stomach secretes a mixture of digestive juices that are so strong that they can dissolve zinc. The main components of the digestive juices are pepsin and hydrochloric acid. • Pepsin, which is used to digest protein, is not very corrosive. • Hydrochloric acid, on the other hand, is an extremely corrosive liquid. It will eat through skin or muscle or even metal plates of zinc, magnesium, or aluminum. • How can the stomach secrete an acid like this and not dissolve itself?

13. Faith and Reason in an age of doubtExamples of Design: The stomach • There are three separate systems that the stomach uses to protect itself from the hydrochloric acid. • The first of these is the lining of the stomach called the gastric mucosa. This layer of cells is very dense and reproduces itself very rapidly. The cell reproduction is so fast that it can regenerate 500,000 cells a minute. The gastric mucosa can actually be totally replaced in only three days. • The second factor is that the cells of the gastric mucosa are made up in such a way that the cell walls are made up of lipids. Lipids are fatty substances which ionic acids like hydrochloric acid have a hard time penetrating. • The third protective mechanism in the stomach is that the outer layer of cells are covered with a layer of carbohydrates which reduce the corrosive action of the acid on the stomach wall.

14. Faith and Reason in an age of doubtExamples of Design: The stomach • Because of this carefully designed structure, you and I can eat everything from jalapeno peppers to orange juice to vinegar to pickles and not have our stomach fall out. • Explaining the origin of an organ like this on the basis of trial-and-error chance seems to ignore the lethal factor of eating something we can't digest or having our stomach dump corrosive material into our body cavity. • Is it not more realistic to realize that “I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14) by an intelligent plan and design. • A part of that plan has been a digestive system that is able to absorb a great deal of abuse and yet still provide my body with the nutrients it needs to survive.

15. Faith and Reason in an age of doubtExamples of Design: Houseflies • Flies. A nuisance, but an expression of design. Probably all of us have had our frustrations with the common housefly. • Flies seem to be able to get into our houses and irritate us no matter how hard we work at keeping them out. • It is important to realize that flies provide an important function in the processing of organic materials in nature. By laying their eggs in decaying carcasses the flies speed up the removal of dangerous material from that carcass. • Sometimes the things built into nature to help preserve man and to make nature pleasant can be irritations to man and sometimes the things we do make their irritation even more profound.

16. Faith and Reason in an age of doubtExamples of Design: Houseflies • One interesting question is how do flies land on the ceiling. Recent studies have shown that when a fly approaches the ceiling, they are flying so that their top is facing the ceiling. What they do is to bring their forelegs up above their heads and make contact with the ceiling with their forelegs. • Once their front legs stick to the ceiling they then tuck their bodies and let their momentum roll them to a safe landing. • Basically, what is happening is that this versatile insect is flipping in order to land on the ceiling. • Like a lot of things in nature that may be irritations to man a closer look reveals an incredibly well designed creature that, in its proper role, serves a valuable function and is designed to exist under a variety of conditions.

17. Faith and Reason in an age of doubtExamples of Design: Honey • The Golden Elixir. What would you guess would be the commercial value of a sweetener that is sweeter per gram than sugar and yet has 25% fewer calories? • This miracle substance is golden in color and is one of the most common materials in the world—it is honey. • In 1989, more than 211 million pounds of honey were produced in the USA alone. In 2012, this had dropped to 189 million pounds. • The bees that produce this honey pollinate 90% of all agricultural crops, and 1/3 of the human diet is directly or indirectly benefited by honeybee pollination. • With all of man's attempts to produce lower calorie, more efficient, more nutritious foods it is ironic that nature's oldest sweetener still ranks as one of the best if not the best. God has provided for us in some incredible ways.

18. Faith and Reason in an age of doubtExamples of Design: Blood clotting • Question: Does your blood clot when you get a cut? Where did the first animal that could make its blood clot get that ability? The crystal clear answer is; it had to have the right DNA. Processes like blood clotting only happen because DNA had the right code. • Darwinian evolution demands that the right mutations happened undirected and by pure chance and one at a time. • David Noonan (an evolutionist) wrote about the blood clotting process: • “It is a host defense system that evolved over millions of years. As the earliest living organisms evolved from single cells to more complex forms, they developed circulatory systems to supply oxygen and other vital nutrients to their multicelled bodies. Without a clotting response to protect against injury, these circulatory systems would not have been able to prevent fatal leaks: evolution as we know it would have been impossible; and only the simplest forms of life, such as algae and bacteria, would exist” (D. Noonan, "The Perils of Hemophilia", in Blood-Bearer of Life and Death, 1993).

19. Faith and Reason in an age of doubtExamples of Design: Blood clotting • Creationists say that God designed animals with the ability to form effective blood clots. How does blood clot? • When you get a cut your body tries to stop the loss of blood in three ways. • First, the blood vessels around the cut contract, thus decreasing the flow of blood. • At the same time platelets adhere to collagen fibers of the damaged blood vessel's wall. This produces a temporary plug of platelets. • Third, damaged cells and platelets activate a series of chemical reactions that are known as the clotting cascade.

20. Faith and Reason in an age of doubtExamples of Design: Blood clotting • The final goal of clotting is to produce intertwining threads of fibrin. These threads strain the leaking blood until enough platelets and red and white blood cells accumulate and plug the leaking wound. • Clotting enzymes are proteins called factors. In order to do anything, each enzyme must be turned on or activated. Enzymes are activated by another chemical removing the specific site on the enzyme. • A mouse trap that is set in comparison to one that is not set is a good analogy of non-activated enzymes. A set mouse trap looks an awful lot like one that is not set; but, on the other hand, it can do things the other can not. The same is true of activated enzymes. They can do things that non-activated enzymes can not.

21. The Blood Clotting Cascade • 1. A cut occurs and Hageman Factor sticks to the surface of cells near the wound. Bound Hageman Factor reacts with another enzyme called HMK to produce Activated Hageman. • 2. Pre Kallikrein reacts with Activated Hageman to produce Kallikrein. • 3. Hageman Factor also reacts with HMK and Kallikrein to form Activated Hageman • 4. PTA reacts with Activated Hageman and HMK to produce Activated PTA • 5. Christmas Factor reacts with Activated PTA and Convertin to produce Activated Christmas Factor • 6. Antihemophilic Factor is activated by Thrombin to produce Activated Antihemophilic Factor. • 7. Stuart Factor reacts with Activated Christmas Factor and Activated Antihemophilic Factor to produce Activated Stuart Factor. • 8. Proconvertin is activated by Activated Hageman Factor to produce Convertin. • 9. When a cut occurs, Tissue Factor (which is only found outside of cells) is brought in near the wound where it reacts with Convertin and Stuart Factor to produce Activated Stuart Factor. (Note that step 9 involves an extrinsic process whereas step 7 is an intrinsic process.) • 10. Proaccelerin is activated by Thrombin to produce Accelerin. • 11a. GLU-Prothrombin reacts with Prothrombin Enzyme and Vitamin K to produce GLA-Prothrombin. (Note that Prothrombin cannot be activated in the GLU form so it must be formed into the GLA form. In this process ten amino acids must be changed from glutamate to gama carboxy glutamate.) • 11b. GLS-Prothrombin is then able to bind to Calcium. This allows GLA-Prothrombin to stick to surfaces of cells. Only intact modified Calcium-Prothrombin Complex can bind to the cell membrane and be cleaved by Activated Stuart and Accerlerin to produce Thrombin. • 12. Prothrombin-Ca (bound to cell surface) is activated by Activated Stuart to produce Thrombin. • 13.Prothrombin also reacts with Activated Stuart and Accelerin to produce Thrombin. (Step 13 is much faster than step 12.) • 14. Fibrinogin is activated by Thrombin to produce Fibrin. Threads of Fibrin are the final clot. However, it would be more effective if the Fibrin threads could form more cross links with each other. • 15. FSF (Fibrin Stabilizing Factor) is activated by Thrombin to form Activated FSF. • 16. Fibrin reacts with Activated FSF making many more crossties with other Fibrin filaments forming a more effective clot.

22. Faith and Reason in an age of doubtExamples of Design: Honey • Caution • People sometimes see design in randomness. Examples?

23. Faith and Reason in an age of doubtThe argument from design • Formally… • 1) Design requires a designer. • 2) Design exists in the universe, on the earth and in the human body. • 3) A Designer must exist. • Next week? Another view of the approach from design. See you then!