Christianity: Understanding our Faith

1. Christianity: Understanding our Faith Austin Coptic Youth 2/19/2011

2. Introduction • Science and Faith • Scientific Truth in the Bible • Science vs. Creation • Big Bang Theory • Evolution

3. Science and Faith

4. What is science? • Science is an enterprise that builds and organizes knowledgein the form of testableexplanationsand predictionsabout the world. Wikipedia • Aristotle believed scientific knowledge was a body of reliable knowledgethat can be logicallyand rationallyexplained. Wikipedia

5. What is science? • Branch of knowledgeor study dealing with a body of facts or truths systematicallyarranged and showing the operation of general laws. Dictionary.com • Systematic knowledgeof the physical or material world gained through observationand experimentation. Dictionary.com

6. What is science? • Deals with observable, testable, reproducible, consistent facts that can be verified by several parties • Science vs. the study of science • Science is physical truth • The study of science is our perception of that truth • The study of science has been wrong – nature didn’t change, but our understanding of it has

7. What is science? • The purpose of science is to gain more knowledge for the advancement and betterment of man. • To control nature for the purposes of man.

8. What is faith? • Hebrews 11:1,3 - Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen…By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. • Faith is the belief of something we cannot see (i.e. there is no direct evidence for) • 2 Corinthians 5:7 - For we walk by faith, not by sight.

9. What is faith? • Matthew 14:28-31 - And Peter answered Him and said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!” And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” • Faith allowed him to do what was impossible

10. What is faith? • Matthew 8:8-10 - The centurion answered and said, “Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said to those who followed, “Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel! • Miraculous healing has no scientific explanation

11. What is faith? • What do we have faith in? God. • God is a person, not a concept. • He has a personality and character. • He makes decisions. • He has thoughts. • He is not a mathematical concept that can be predicted any more than we are • Can you predict what your friend will do 100% of the time? Why? He/she has a mind. • How much more then is it difficult to predict God?

12. What is faith? • Not only does God have a mind, but it is very different than ours • Isaiah 55:9 - "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts. • 1 Corinthians 2:16 - For "who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?" But we have the mind of Christ.

13. What is faith? • Athiest’s “scientific proof” that God does not exist • We cannot assume that God will act the way that we would if we were in His place. • John 6:15 - Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone.

14. What is faith? • Romans 11:33 - Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! • God reveals Himself to those that truly seek the truth • Jeremiah 29:13 - And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

15. What is faith? • Faith involves a relationship with God, not just a belief in His existence • James 2:19 - You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!

16. Science vs. Faith *Luke 17:20-21 - Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.” • Conclusion: Science and faith are radically different

17. Science vs. Creation • So does science support the biblical account of creation? • If Christianity is true then nature must be inline with the biblical account • Study of science is not always an accurate picture of nature • And what if there are apparent conflicts? • Bible has science, but is not a science book • God spoke to a scientifically unsophisticated people • Misunderstanding the meaning of the Bible • Inaccurate understanding of nature

18. Scientific Truth in the Bible

19. Astronomy • Jeremiah 33:22 - As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, nor the sand of the sea measured, so will I multiply the descendants of David My servant and the Levites who minister to Me."‘ • There are only about 1000-3000 visible stars in the sky.

20. Astronomy • Job 26:7 - He stretches out the north over empty space; He hangs the earth on nothing. • The earth is floating in space. • Greek mythology believed that a Titan (Atlas) carried the earth on his back.

21. Meteorology • Ecclesiastes 1:6 - The wind goes toward the south, And turns around to the north; The wind whirls about continually, And comes again on its circuit. • How could this have been measured at the time without the elaborate wind measuring equipment that came much later?

22. Meteorology • Job 28:25 - To establish a weight for the wind, And apportion the waters by measure. • It was discovered only 300 years ago that wind has weight

23. Biology • Leviticus 17:11 - For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.‘ • In 1616, William Harvey discovered that blood circulation is the key factor in physical life

24. Hydrology • Job 36:27-29 - For He draws up drops of water, Which distill as rain from the mist, Which the clouds drop down And pour abundantly on man. Indeed, can anyone understand the spreading of clouds, The thunder from His canopy? • This describes evaporation, cloud formation, cloud movement, condensation with electrical discharges, and precipitation. • Perrault & Mariotte discovered it in the 1700s

25. Hydrology • Job 26:8 - He binds up the water in His thick clouds, Yet the clouds are not broken under it. • Clouds are made up of moisture

26. Hydrology • Ecclesiastes 1:7 - All the rivers run into the sea, Yet the sea is not full; To the place from which the rivers come, There they return again. • Accurately describes the worldwide circulation of water

27. Geology • Isaiah 40:22 - It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. • This was written ~750 BC before any civilization had accepted that the earth was round

28. Science vs. Creation

29. Science vs. Creation • We have seen many scientific truths mentioned in the Bible, but what about Creationism?

30. Big Bang Theory

31. Big Bang Theory • Nothing existed • Explosion from a fixed point resulting in matter, energy, time, and space being created and expanding rapidly • Hydrogen gas gravitational attract forms large gas clouds • Clouds become dense enough to start fusion and become stars • Other debris form planets to form solar systems • Stars attract one another to become galaxies

32. Big Bang Theory

33. Big Bang Theory • Problem: Modern scientists were shocked to find that not only are all galaxies moving apart from one another, but their speed is accelerating • This cannot be explained by the amount of physical matter in the Universe • 95% of the required mass is missing • Science invented undiscovered theoretical concepts of dark energy and dark matter to give the credit to the Big Bang Theory

34. Big Bang Theory • Dark matter and energy are not measurable or observable • There is no reason to believe that they exist, except that they MUST exist for the Big Bang to be true • 95% of the Universe is made up of a theoretical invisible substance • Is this science at all?

35. Big Bang Theory • Even if we say that God could have created the Universe through the Big Bang, there is still a lot of unanswered questions about the theory • SCIENCE HAS AN AGENDA

36. Evolution

37. Macro vs Micro Evolution • Macroevolution - A naturally occurring, beneficial change that produces increasing and inheritable complexity. • Microevolution, on the other hand, does not involve increasing complexity. It involves changes only in size, shape, or color, or minor genetic alterations caused by a few mutations.

38. Law of Biogenesis • Spontaneous generation (the emergence of life from nonliving matter) has never been observed. All observations have shown that life comes only from life. • This has been observed so consistently it is called the law of biogenesis. The theory of evolution conflicts with this scientific law when claiming that life came from nonliving matter through natural processes.

39. Mutation • Mutations are the only known means by which new genetic material becomes available for evolution. • Rarely, if ever, is a mutation beneficial to an organism in its natural environment. • Almost all observable mutations are harmful; some are meaningless; many are lethal. • No known mutation has ever produced a form of life having greater complexity and viability than its ancestors.

40. Fully-Developed Organs • All species appear fully developed, not partly developed. • There are no examples of half-developed feathers, eyes, skin, tubes (arteries, veins, intestines, etc.), or any of the vital organs (dozens in humans alone). • If a leg of a reptile were to evolve into a wing of a bird, it would become a bad leg long before it became a good wing

41. Barriers, Buffers, and Chemical Pathways • Living cells contain thousands of different chemicals, some acidic, others basic. • Many chemicals would react with others were it not for an intricate system of chemical barriers and buffers. If living things evolved, these barriers and buffers must also have evolved—but at just the right time to prevent harmful chemical reactions. • How could such precise, seemingly coordinated, virtually miraculous events have happened for each of millions of species?

42. Missing Trunk • The “evolutionary tree” has no trunk. In what evolutionists call the earliest part of the fossil record (generally the lowest sedimentary layers of Cambrian rock), life appears suddenly, full-blown, complex, diversified, and dispersed—worldwide. • Evolution predicts that minor variations should slowly accumulate, eventually becoming major categories of organisms. Instead, the opposite is found. Almost all of today’s plant and animal phyla—including flowering plants, vascular plants, and vertebrates—appear at the base of the fossil record.

43. Missing Trunk • In fact, many more phyla are found in the Cambrian than exist today. Complex species, such as fish, worms, corals, trilobites, jellyfish, sponges, mollusks, and brachiopods appear suddenly, with no sign anywhere on earth of gradual development from simpler forms. • Insects, a class comprising four-fifths of all known animal species (living and extinct), have no known evolutionary ancestors. • The fossil record does not support evolution.

44. Ape-Men? • For over a century, studies of skulls and teeth have produced unreliable conclusions about man’s origin. Also, fossil evidence allegedly supporting human evolution is fragmentary and open to other interpretations. Fossil evidence showing the evolution of chimpanzees, supposedly the closest living relative to humans, is nonexistent. • Stories claiming that fossils of primitive, apelike men have been found are overstated. • It is now universally acknowledged that Piltdown “man” was a hoax, yet Piltdown “man” was in textbooks for more than 40 years. • Before 1977, evidence for Ramapithecus was a mere handful of teeth and jaw fragments. We now know these fragments were pieced together incorrectly by Louis Leakeye and others into a form resembling part of the human jaw. Ramapithecus was just an ape.

45. Ramapithecus

46. Ape-Men? • The only remains of Nebraska “man” turned out to be a pig’s tooth.

47. Ape-Men? • Forty years after he discovered Java “man,” Eugene Dubois conceded that it was not a man, but was similar to a large ape. In citing evidence to support this new conclusion, Dubois admitted that he had withheld parts of four other thigh bones of apes found in the same area. • For about 100 years the world was led to believe that Neanderthal man was stooped and apelike. This false idea was based upon some Neanderthals with bone diseases such as arthritis and rickets. Recent dental and x-ray studies of Neanderthals suggest that they were humans who matured at a slower rate and lived to be much older than people today. Neanderthal man, Heidelberg man, and Cro-Magnon man are now considered completely human. Artists’ drawings of “ape-men,” especially their fleshy portions, are often quite imaginative and are not supported by the evidence.

48. Coelacanth • Thought to have been extinct for 70,000,000 years, the coelacanth was first caught in 1938, deep in the Indian Ocean, northwest of Madagascar. Hundreds more were caught and sold. In 1998, they were also found off the coast of Indonesia. • Before coelacanths were caught, evolutionists incorrectly believed that the coelacanth had lungs, a large brain, and four bottom fins about to evolve into legs. • Evolutionists reasoned that the coelacanth, or a similar fish, crawled out of a shallow sea and filled its lungs with air, becoming the first four-legged land animal. Millions of students have been incorrectly taught that this fish was the ancestor of all amphibians, reptiles, dinosaurs, birds, and mammals, including people.

49. The Elephant in the Living Room • Writer George V. Caylor interviewed Sam, a molecular biologist. George asked Sam about his work. Sam said he and his team were scientific “detectives,” working with DNA and tracking down the cause of disease. Here is their published conversation. • G: Sounds like pretty complicated work. • S: You can’t imagine how complicated! • G: Try me. • S: I’m a bit like an editor, trying to find a spelling mistake inside a document larger than four complete sets of Encyclopedia Britannica. Seventy volumes, thousands and thousands of pages of small print words. • G: With the computer power, you can just use ‘spell check’! • S: There is no ‘spell check’ because we don’t know yet how the words are supposed to be spelled. We don’t even know for sure which language. And it’s not just the ‘spelling error’ we’re looking for. If any of the punctuation is out of place, or a space out of place, or a grammatical error, we have a mutation that will cause a disease.

50. The Elephant in the Living Room • G: So how do you do it? • S: We are learning as we go. We have already ‘read’ over two articles in that encyclopedia, and located some ‘typo’s’. It should get easier as time goes by. • G: How did all that information happen to get there? • S: Do you mean, did it just happen? Did it evolve? • G: Bingo. Do you believe that the information evolved? • S: George, nobody I know in my profession truly believes it evolved. It was engineered by ‘genius beyond genius,’ and such information could not have been written any other way. The paper and ink did not write the book. Knowing what we know, it is ridiculous to think otherwise. A bit like Neil Armstrong believing the moon is made of green cheese. He's been there! • G: Have you ever stated that in a public lecture, or in any public writings?