chapter 14 creation and evolution. science and faith rejecting the truth biblical truths the earth...

Chapter 14

Creation and Evolution

Science and Faith

Rejecting the Truth Biblical truths

The earth was created in a perfect state

Because of man’s fall into sin the world plunged into imperfection and death

Plants and animals all had to struggle to survive

Science and Faith

A great variety of animals can develop from the limited number of animals on the ark

In the 1700’s people started to mix Biblical truths with false philosophies.

Science and Faith

This caused people to question the truth of scriptures.

Naturalism – A belief that states that the universe consists of matter and energy and that there are no spiritual or supernatural aspects.

Men Who Paved the Way for Evolution

Charles Darwin (1809-1882) A British naturalist that has been given credit for the theory of macro evolution.

He went to school to become a doctor, but didn’t cut it. He then got his theology degree to become a minister. His real passion was nature and was a very good observer.

Men Who Paved the Way for Evolution

Charles Lyell (1797-1875) Naturalist that wrote Principles of Geology and popularized the theory of uniformitarianism, which is the belief that the present is the only key to the past and all things continue by a natural process at the same rates as they have always done. Darwin applied this idea to the variety of different plants and animals he saw.

One of Darwin’s Books

The Origin of Species – The book Darwin wrote from the observations that he made on the voyage on the Beagle.

Natural Selection – The idea that the fittest and the strongest of a species were more likely to survive and reproduce than the weaker animals. “Survival of the fittest”

Variety within kinds has definite boundaries. Natural selection acts to preserve existing kinds not create new kinds.

Science, Religion, and Darwin

Some people embraced Darwinism because they wanted to remove God from their world.

Science was doing wonderful things and some people would believe anything that came from science.

There were many Scientists in Darwin’s day that rejected what he wrote, because it was based on speculation and not on science.

Effects of Darwinism

Much of our world has a naturalist (secular) view.

Humans are no longer considered a special creation of God

Right and wrong became relative. Some people wanted to improve the

human species by selective breeding (eugenics)

Effects of Darwinism

Racism Sanctity of life is no longer important Darwin’s Origin of Species was a battle

of chance verses purpose.

Paleontology: Evidence against Evolution

Fossils – The remains or impressions of plants, animals, and humans preserved in sedimentary rock.

Paleontology – The study of fossils.


The fossil record, when viewed from a Biblical perspective, is actually one of the most powerful evidences against evolution.

Transitional Forms (“Missing Links”) – Fossils that connect one kind of organism with another kind by a series of tiny steps.

The lack of these transitional forms is great evidence against evolution.


No true “missing links” have ever been found to bridge the gaps between different kinds of organisms.

Punctuated Equilibrium Hypothesis – Evolution happened in sudden spurts followed by long period of no noticeable change.


Macromutations – Drastic genetic restructuring that changes one creature into another.

Geologic Column – The belief that the “primitive” organisms are deep in the earth’s crust and the more “modern” organisms are nearer to the surface.


There is not a single place on earth that you can see the Geologic Column.

The Geologic Column is based on assumptions made from evolution.


Circular Reasoning – An argument that is based on the very assumption that it attempts to prove.

Fossils are aged by the rock layers, and rock layers are aged by the fossils that are in them.


Index Fossil – A specific fossil that are considered specific to a certain time period.

Radiometric Dating – Decay of radioactive elements is relatively constant, so to find out how many radioactive elements are in the organism ages that organism.


The age of the object that has the radioactive element in it cannot be dated unless you know the starting and ending amount of that element.

Cambrian Explosion – The large amounts of living things that have a great variety in Cambrian rocks.

“Missing Links”

Unusual extinct animals have often been passed off as “transitional forms.”

Coelacanth – An unusual 6-foot-long fish. The fins are attached to the body by thick fleshy lobes.

Thought to be an ancestor of the first amphibians. When a live coelacanth was caught in the Indian Ocean, in very deep water, this theory was no longer valid.

“Missing Links”

Archaeopteryx – A fossil bird that is often presented as a link between reptiles and birds.

Has the “modern” flight feather and hollow bones. However it also had a small breastbone, teeth, elongated tail, and claws on its wings.

“Missing Links”

Horse Series – The extinct animals that were thought to be ancestors of the horse have varying amounts of ribs.

Also the fossils that make up the series were found all over the world.

Hominid Fossils

Most important difference between humans and apes is that man is created in the image of God (Gen 1:27)

Hominid Fossils

Eoanthropus (Piltdown Man) – Fragmented bones of a humanlike skull and an apelike jaw found between 1908 and 1911.

This was a hoax of someone who tampered with some bones and left them to be easily found.

Hominid Fossils

Hesperopithecus (Nebraska Man) – A man reconstructed from a single tooth in Nebraska found in 1922. The tooth was found out to have come from an extinct pig.

Hominid Fossils

Ramapithicus (Rama’s Ape) – A medium sized ape that was reconstructed from a few teeth, a heavy jawbone, and fragments of facial bones.

The bones were assembled incorrectly to show that it looked like a human. No leg or hip bones were found.

Hominid Fossils

Australopithecus (Southern Ape) – A skull found that was later found to be juvenile. In the early 1970s it was dismissed as an extinct ape.

Astralopithecus afarensis (Lucy) – Had long toes that were used for grasping and a chimpanzee like skull.

Hominid Fossils

Homo habilis (Handy Man) – Actually a mixture of ape and human fossils found at different locations.

Hominid Fossils

Homo erectus (Upright Man/Java Man) – Skull cap and femur found 50 feet apart. A human skull was found in the same rock layer.

Hominid Fossils

Other fossils classified as Homo erectus are found in Africa and Asia, and are fully human.

Sinanthropus pekinenses (Peking Man) – Fossils lost in WWII, but were very similar to Homo erectus.

Hominid Fossils

Homo neannderthalensis (Neanderthal man) – Fossils that had “apelike” features that were found in Western Europe.

They were fully human and were actually bigger and stronger than today’s humans.

Hominid Fossils

Cro-Magnon Man – Discovered in France in 1868. Evolutionists now admit that they were identical to modern humans.

Hominid Fossils

There is controversy in the evolutionary community about the different ancestry of humans. However, from a Biblical perspective, man has always been man, and all of the “missing links” are fully ape or fully human.

Biology: Evidence against Evolution

Impossibility of Transitional Forms According to the theory of evolution,

structures had to develop one step at a time and remain fully functional at each step.

Evolution states that bats evolved from shrew like rodents. As the bat’s fingers are getting longer and skin grows between them, it makes them useless to run, walk, hold food, or fly. This is not an advantage at all.


Evolution states that amphibians evolved into reptiles. The egg of an amphibian is made of a jelly substance, has the yolk attached to the embryo, and is in water.

The reptile egg has a shell, a yolk separate from the embryo, and is on land. The organism would have to develop these characteristics simultaneously to survive.


Evolution states that reptiles evolved into birds. For this to happen air sacs would have to be created in the body cavity, muscles would have to be redesigned, and the attachment of the lungs to the chest wall would have to be changed. All of this would have to happen simultaneously for the creature to survive.


Comparative Anatomy – The study of similarities and differences in the body structure of organisms.


Georges Cuvier came up with this science and believed it showed the bodies of man and animals have certain basic similarities in their overall designs.


Evolutionists use comparative anatomy to say that one organism evolved from another because they are similar.

There are some parts of organisms that are very similar but are not evolutionarily close.

According to Christians, comparative anatomy shows a Creator.


Molecular Biology – The science which seeks to discover how the mechanisms of a living cell work

The recent explosion of information of cellular components and activities have caused problems for the theory of evolution.


In Darwin’s day the understanding of cells was very simple. They thought that each cell was filled with protoplasm that had a “vital force,” which mysteriously powered the cell.

It is now obvious that these intricately designed mechanisms could not have been constructed by chance.

Genetics

Very little about heredity and genetics was known in the time of Darwin. He knew that parents passed on traits to their offspring, but he did not know how.

In his ignorance he thought that there was not a limit to the variability of traits.

Genetics

Variety within kinds generally results from preexisting genetic variety.

It was then thought that mutations would cause a change of genetic variety.

However, mutations cause genetic information to be lost, not gained.

Natural Selection and Genetic Variety

Natural selection does not produce new characteristics; it just reveals hidden characteristics.

Examples:Finches on the Galapagos Islands


The Peppered Moth


Insects that are resistant to pesticide

Bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics.

Bacteria DNA is almost identical to that of the bacteria fossilized in amber.


New life forms were not created; there was just a shift in population.

Embryonic Recapitulation – An unborn baby goes through various stages of development that resemble other animals


Ernst Haeckel deliberately falsified the pictures he published of certain embryos. The findings were published in 1868.

They were found to be false 6 years later. They still appear in textbooks today.

Evolution is Not Science

Evolutionists admit that evolution is based on assumptions.1. Nonliving things gave rise to living material; that is, spontaneous generation occurred.2. Spontaneous generation occurred only once.)


3. Viruses, bacteria, plants, and animals are all interrelated.4. The Protozoa [one-celled animals] gave rise to Metazoa [multicellular animals] .5. The various invertebrate phyla are interrelated.


6. The invertebrates gave rise to vertebrates.7. Within the vertebrates the fish gave rise to the amphibia, the amphibia to the reptiles, the reptiles to the birds and mammals…

These seven assumptions are not able to be verified by experiment. Any evidence is limited and circumstantial.

What makes Science?

Theoretical Speculation – Coming up with general principals to explain what happens in the universe.

Observation – Looking very close at the universe to gain knowledge from it.

What makes Science?

Experimentation – Testing of a theoretical speculation in a controlled systematic way.

Testing is needed to confirm theories. If testing fails to confirm the theory, the theory must be discarded or modified.

Testing ensures that over the long run scientific theories that contain errors will be eliminated.

What makes Science?

Direct observation – Being able to observe using your senses.

Indirect observation – Using scientific tools to make an observation.

A scientific observation must be both repeatable and free from bias.

What makes Science?

A variety of experiments have been attempted to try to show evolution is possible. A few examples:Synthesis of amino acidsSynthesis of sugars, nucleotides,

and other simple moleculesLinking of amino acidsSynthesizing Cells

What makes Science?

Evolution is not observable or able to be proven by experiment.

Evolution is a Threat to Modern Science

Scientific integrity is declining. Because scientists present evolution without proof, … other scientists are putting forth “theories” without proof to back them up.

Gaia hypothesis – A hypothesis that states that the Earth and the living things that are on it make one living thing.

Evolution is a Threat to Modern Science

Evolution has to be accepted by faith just like creation. We have no human witness to tell us what happened.

chapter 14 creation and evolution. science and faith rejecting the truth biblical truths the earth...

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