Science and Evolution: Four Christian Views

1. Science and Evolution:Four Christian Views JOHN OAKES, PhD Proyecto Esdras May 8, 2010

2. 2010 ICEC Concordia University, Irvine CAJune 11-13 Featured Speaker: John Clayton International Christian Evidences Conference www.evidenceforchristianity.org joakes01@san.rr.com

3. Public Forum:Four Christian Views of EvolutionJune 12 7:00$12/$10 Students10 Goodyear, Irvine CA Kevin Anderson John Clayton Young Earth Creationism Denis Lamoreax John Oakes Intelligent Design Progressive Creationism Evolutionary Creationism

4. Our Outline • Science and Religion: The Limits of Science • The History of Science and Christianity • The Age of the Universe and the Age of the Earth • Genesis 1 and Creation • Evolution: The Evidence • Four Christian Views of Evolution

5. Science The use of experiment to test theories about the laws of nature. Science is about things which can be measured.

6. Science • Scientific knowledge is quantitative • Scientific knowledge changes and improves over time • Scientific knowledge is neither true nor false, but rather consistent with the observations and consistent with prior knowledge

7. Religion • Religion is a belief in something • The belief is not necessarily substantiated by physical or material evidence • Religious knowledge obtained through holy writings, authority, revelations • Religious believers have faith or trust in such knowledge

8. Religion • Religious knowledge is qualitative not quantitative. • Religious knowledge is not gotten through measurement • In religion knowledge is taken as either true or false. • Religious knowledge is neither progressive, nor tentative.

9. Questions Science Can Answer • When? • What? • Where? • How many? • By what means?

10. Questions Science Cannot Answer:(That Religion Does Answer) • Why am I here? • Is that the right thing to do? • How valuable am I? • Does God exist? Does God act (theism)? • Will that God respond if I pray? • Do supernatural events (miracles) happen? • In other words, Religion answers the questions people actually care about!

11. A statement a scientist should not make (if he or she is well trained and is not manipulating you): • Evolution is true. • The Big Bang happened. • Better statements: • The theory of evolution is by far the best model we have to explain both the fossil evidence and the genetic evidence with regard to the origin of all species. • The Big Bang model is in dramatic agreement will all known facts about the origin and history of the universe. • Science seeks consistency, not “truth.” What is the simplest and most consistent explanation of the observation.

12. Conclusions about Science and Religion • Religion and science ask different kinds of questions and define words differently • Religion and science are two very different world views but at times they address the identical information area • If Christianity is true, then the Bible should not contradict what we know from science.

13. Unanswered questions which seem to relate to science • Consciousness (what is consciousness and why are we conscious?) • Origins of life • Origin of the universe. Why is there anything (as opposed to nothing) • Origin of Species* (this is our topic)

14. Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) “The Bible was written to tell us how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go” “In discussions of physical problems we ought to begin not from the authority of scriptural passages, but from the sense-experiences and necessary demonstrations.”

15. Galileo on Revelation • “For the Holy Bible and the phenomena of nature proceed alike from the divine Word, the former as the dictate of the Holy Spirit and the latter as the observant executor of God’s commands.” • Is there such a thing as Natural Revelation/General Revelation? (as opposed to special revelation) In other words, can we gather genuine knowledge of God from looking at his creation?

16. Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) “The Mechanical Universe” Introduced idea of deism (an uninvolved God)

17. LaPlace (1749-1827) About God: “I have no need of that hypothesis”

18. “It is mere rubbish to think at this point of the origin of life. One might as well think of the origin of matter.” Charles Darwin Might the origin if species be deistic—governed by natural processes?

19. The Conservative Christian Reaction Scopes “monkey trial” 1925 Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan

20. 1940’s and afterward: Young Earth Creationism Movement Very Bad Science!

21. Can Science and Religion peacefully coexist? • The Language of God • Head of Genome Project • Head of National Institutes of Health (NIH)

22. Reasons Collins believes in God 1. There is something instead of nothing. 2. The unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics. 3. The Big Bang. 4. Nature does not solve the problem of why. 5. Fine tuning of the universe. The “Goldilocks Paradox.” 6. The existence of moral law. 7. Let me add: The obvious inspiration of the Bible.

23. The Age of the Universe and the Age of the Earth Bishop Ussher 1640: The universe was created on Sunday October 23, 4004 BC

24. Cosmic Speedometer • When a galaxy is receding, light waves travelling to us are red-shifted • Hubble measured the spectrum of these galaxies and found the spectral lines to be red-shifted • The faster the recession, the greater the red-shift

25. Galaxies: islands of stars making up the universe

26. Hubble constant graph:Distance vs. speed of regression

27. Expansion of the Universe … ‘winding’ backwards, the universe must have had a beginning

28. Image of Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation From COBE satellite red = slightly warmer The “smoking gun” of the Big Bang

29. Tests of the Big Bang Theory • Expansion of the universe • Cosmic microwave background • Relative abundances of hydrogen, deuterium, helium and lithium

30. Obtaining the Age of the Universe • Extrapolate the current expansion rate (Hubble constant) back to the Big Bang • 13.5 billion years • Look for the oldest stars (in globular clusters) • 13.0 billion years old • Best current estimate is 13.4 ± 0.4 billion years M10 Globular Cluster

31. How Old is the Earth? • James Hutton, 1787 Uniformitarianism “No vestige of a beginning, no concept of an end.”

32. Deep Time

33. Index fossils give the relative age of a rock

34. Radiometric Dating Techniques

35. Genesis Chapter One: Creation • Young Earth Theory • Earth is young and science supports this conclusion. • Earth is young because God created it “with an appearance of age.” • Day/Age Theory • Gap Theory • A huge “gap” of time between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 • Literary Theory • It’s all just a myth Each view has its problems

36. A Quick Summary of Genesis One: a. God pre-existed the universe b. God created the universe: “Let there be light” c. God created the earth d. God created life e. Last of all, God created mankind

37. A More Detailed Summary of Genesis OneFrom the Viewpoint of an Observer on the Earth: a. The earth created and is spinning: night and day. Day 1 b. Water covers earth, Very thick atmosphere forms. Day 2 c. The earth cools, land appears out of the water. Day 3 d. Life appears on the earth. Day 3 e. (Photosynthetic life dramatically changes the chemistry of the atmosphere from reducing to oxidizing.) f. Finally, the heavenly objects appeared in the sky Day 4 g. More advanced life forms; first in the water, later on the land Day 5 h. Even more advanced life forms. Last of all human beings Day 6 Where is the scientific error in this?

38. Is Genesis 1:1 a Myth? • Yes! It is a true myth. • A myth is a simplified story, given to explain the gods (or God) to common people.

39. Is the Metaphorical Day a Reasonable Interpretation?Pre-Science Theologians Who Said Yes. • Philo 1st century • Origen early 3rd century • Augustine early 5th century • Thomas Aquinas 13th century

40. Evolution and the Bible • What does the Bible say? • God created all life in its various forms, but how did he do this? Remember, the Bible is not a science book. • What does the physical evidence say? • Fossil evidence • Genetic/DNA evidence • Is there “Irreducible Complexity?” • What about human evolution?

42. Finches discovered And drawn by Charles Darwin Evidence of Evolution?

43. Evolution of whales over time?

44. Evolution of horses?

45. Morphological Evidence of Common Descent

46. Human chromosome #2 and Great Ape chromosome #2p, 2q: evidence for common descent.

47. More Genetic Evidence for Common Descent • Pseudogenes • Vitamin C Pseudogene in great apes and humans • Retroposons, SINEs (short interspersed elements), etc. • Viral insertions • Bottom line, genetic evidence, at least in the big picture, strongly supports common descent.

48. Typical random point mutation rates are about 1x10-5 – 1x10-7 mutations/generation. 5 million years = 250,000 generations. Sufficient for random mutations to explain the change without the intervention of a guiding hand?

49. But……….. • The Cambrian Explosion • “Punctuated Equilibrium?” • Theistic Evolution

50. Fossils from creatures which appeared in the “Cambrian Explosion”