Science and Christian Apologetics

1. Science and Christian Apologetics JOHN OAKES, PhD

2. Our Outline • Science and Religion: The Limits of Science • The History of Science and Christianity • The “Christian” Response • The Age of the Universe and the Age of the Earth • Genesis 1 and Creation • The Flood • Evolution • The Anthropic Principle: Evidence for Design • Scientific Materialism/Scientism/Naturalism • Science and the Bible (other than creation and the flood) • Science and Other Religions

3. Suggested Reading • Is There a God By John Oakes Darwin's Black Box by Michael J. BeheNature's Destiny by Michael J. Denton, (The Free Press, 1998)The Science of God, by Gerald L. Schroeder (Broadway Books, 1997)The Privileged Planet, by Guillermo Gonzalez (Regnery Publ., 2004)The Language of God, by Francis S. Collins (Free Press, 2006)Coming to Peace With Science, by Darrel R. Falk (InterVarsity Press, 2004)Intelligent Design: The Bridge Between Science and Theology by William A Dembski and Michael J. BeheThe Source by John ClaytonThe Fingerprint of God, by Hugh Ross, PhD (Whitaker House, 2000)None of These Diseases, by S. I McMillan, M. D. (Revell, 1984)Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, by Michael DentonFinding Darwin's God, by Kenneth Miller (Harper Collins, 1999)

4. Science and religion • Science and religion • Science and religion • Science and religion • Science and Religion

5. Science and Religion • What is Religion? • What is Science?

6. Science The use of experiment to test theories about the laws of nature.

7. Science • Scientific knowledge is a relationship between observations • Scientific knowledge is quantitative • The observations are subject to refinement • Scientific knowledge is progressive and tentative • Scientific knowledge is neither true nor false, but rather consistent with the observations and consistent with prior knowledge

8. 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 and religious experiences • Religious believers have faith or trust in such knowledge

9. 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.

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

11. 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?

12. 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.

13. Assumptions of Science • There exists a single, unchanging set of laws which govern all events in the physical universe. • Human beings are able to understand the workings of the physical universe. • The laws which govern the universe are describable by mathematics.

14. Basic Assumptions of Science • Assumptions are accepted without proof • Form the basis of all scientific thinking • In other words, the basic assumptions of science are accepted on faith.

15. Predictions Based on Christian Theology: • The universe will follow a single, unchanging set of laws. • The universe will be understandable to human beings. • The universe will be describable by mathematics.

16. Conclusions about Science and Religion • Religion and science ask different kinds of questions and define words differently • Religion and science appear as if they were two incommensurate paradigms addressing the identical information area • Are they “Non-Overlapping Magisteria? (NOMA) as Stephen Jay Gould suggests? No! They inform one another to some extent.

17. 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) • Why is this a Goldilocks Universe?

18. 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.”

19. 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.” (the debate over this view rages even today) • 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?

20. Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) “The Mechanical Universe” Is God the primary mover? Leibniz….

21. The Enlightenment: The rise of Deism and skepticism Voltaire (1694-1778) Creator of Modern Religious Skepticism

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

23. “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

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

25. 1940’s and afterward: Creationism Movement Very Bad Science!

26. Intelligent Design: An Improvement? • Irreducible Complexity Does this “disprove evolution?” • Beware of “God of the Gaps” arguments. • Is ID “scientific”? Do they do experiments? Are their conclusions refutable by an experiment? • The Anthropic Principle • A possible explanation for “why” the laws of the universe are what they are. • The laws of the universe are what they are so that we (ie human beings) can exist.

27. A Christian Response • Remember Galileo vs Roman Curia • Remember Augustine vs Faustus (Manichaeism) • Remember that science and religion are incommensurate • The Bible and science do NOT contradict one another! • Do not overreact 1 Peter 3:15,16 • Do not be defensive 1 Peter 2:23 • Remember, science is your friend: materialism/naturalism is the “enemy” • Be confident. The universe was created, life was created and Jesus upholds all creation (Coll 1:15-17)

28. Can Science and Religion peacefully coexist? • The Language of God

29. 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. The existence of time. 6. Fine tuning of the universe. The “Goldilocks Paradox.” 7. Ockham’s Razor. 8. The existence of moral law.

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

31. 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

32. Galaxies: islands of stars making up the universe

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

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

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

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

37. 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 ± 1.6 billion years M10 Globular Cluster

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

40. William Smith 1769-1839

41. Index fossils give the relative age of a rock

42. Radiometric Dating Techniques

43. 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 • It’s all just a myth Each view has its problems

44. 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

45. 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?

46. 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.

47. Creation Myths • Babylonian Creation Myth • Primeval swamp. Marduk kills Tiamat. Blood + mud = humans • Egyptian Creation Myth • Primeval ocean “Nun” from which arrises a Primeval hill. • Greek Creation Myth • Prometheus and Epimetheus form clay molds. Earth supported by Atlas. • Iroquois Creation Myth • Enigorio and Enigohahetgea: Good and evil brothers battle Genesis One is an obvious exception to this pattern

48. Babylonian Creation Myth: Marduk kills Tiamat

49. Egyptian Creation Myth

50. Iroquois Creation Myth: Enigorio and Enigohahetgea Battling the Ronnongwetowanca (Stone Giants)