"An outlook through this peephole at the vast mysteries of the universe should only confirm our belief in the certainty of its Creator."

- Werner Von Braun

"Atheism is so senseless. When I look at the solar system, I see the earth at the right distance from the sun to receive the proper amounts of heat and light. This did not happen by chance."

- Sir Isaac Newton

"…it was to be expected that all phenomena of nature would follow one master plan. One mind designing a universe would almost surely have employed one set of basic principles to govern all related phenomena."

- Morris Kline

"Since we astronomers are priests of the highest God in regard to the book of nature, it befits us to be thoughtful, not of the glory of our minds, but rather, above all else, of the glory of God."

- Johannes Kepler

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

- The Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776

 

 

Where did man come from?
10) creation science

 

"It would be very difficult to explain why the universe should have begun in just this way, except as the act of a God who intended to create beings like us."

- Stephen Hawking

"Louisiana's creationism law, which requires creationism be taught wherever the theory of evolution is explained, is unconstitutional, a U.S. Court of Appeals ruled yesterday..."

- Associated Press, July 9, 1985

 

10.31 What is creation science?

Creation science is the study of origins with respect to the Bible's account of God's creative acts. Creation science, to a degree, is also amenable to the presuppositions of assorted theists outside of Bible-based Christianity. Creation science is based in part on the following observations/arguments:

• the universe (which is space, time, and matter) had a beginning, thus it had to have been effected by a pre-existing cause,
• the cause (which had to pre-exist space, time, and matter) must have been independent of the space, time and matter it preceeded: i.e., was independent of space (limitless), independent of time (eternal), and independent of matter (immaterial).
• the more than 150 "coincidences" of extremely fine margins and interrelated relationships by which the properties of the earth and universe provide habitable conditions,
• discoveries indicating earth's primordial conditions were likely similar to today's conditions,
• the impossibility of living cells to arise by chance (as even attested to by the discoverers of DNA),
• the virtual impossibility of mutations to favorably add to the genetic code,
• the incapability of natural selection to advance and improve pre-biological systems into biological ones,
• multiple and complex life forms and all the animal phyla appearing abruptly in the fossil record (the Cambrian explosion),
• the fossil record displaying zero species-to-species transitional forms (as attested by scientists from Darwin himself to modern day paleontologists),
• the reduction in the number and type of animal species rather than the increase as evolutionary models predict,
• the irreducible complexity of numerous biological systems (which Darwin stated would refute his theory if existant),
• information-intensive structures such as DNA requiring an intelligent design agent,
• planetary geology more or less according to the geologic model of catastrophism,
• the history of erroneous and falsified findings by evolutionists, and the ongoing maintenance of those falsifications,
• the absence of evidence for any material, extraterrestrial ancestors,
• the presence of parallel accounts between the Bible and scientific observations concerning the origin of the universe,
• the presence of parallel accounts between the Bible and scientific observations concerning the earth,
• the presence of parallel accounts between the Bible and scientific observations concerning humanity, and...
• belief in Scripture to be the word of God.

10.32 How important is Scripture to creation science?

The belief in Scripture to be the word of God is foundational to creation science; it is the starting point. Creation science begins with the belief that God is our progenitor, and from there applies the natural sciences to confirm that belief.

Intelligent design theory, by contrast, neither employs Scripture nor invokes any presupposed being as part of its worldview. IDT evaluates the physical universe on the basis of whether or not it bears any evidence or characteristics of having been intentionally designed.

Generally speaking, creationists affirm nearly every aspect of intelligent design theory. The only substantial difference is that creationists begin with Scripture-based reasoning which declares God is be our designer, and wax certain of it as they see it confirmed in the evidences of the natural sciences. (See natural revelation for more explanation.)

10.33 The last word on evolution vs. creation

As mentioned before, Darwin was concerned about the lack of evidence for his conjectures and hoped confirming evidence would eventually be found. After well over a century of searching for the first of what was expected to be billions and billions of transitional specimens, not one has been found. This did not send evolutionist's running to the Bible, but it did cause them to abandon Darwinism for punctuated equilibria, and later punctuated equilibria for directed panspermia.

Now with the latest progress of science and study by Hoyle, Behe, Denton, Crick, Wickramasinghe, and others, the very foundation of all non-theistic theories of life's origin has been shaken with the conclusion that life could not have arisen by chance.

Evolutionists' writing increasingly attribute life and the cosmos' origination to "god". Not god in the sense of the God of the Bible, but god in the sense of an indescribable cause which has effected the universe and all life contained therein; a cause some conclude cannot be physically or scientifically ascertained.

This unknown god is one that non-theists can comfortably reference because, for them, it is simply a place-card until such time a preferred answer comes along. Their unknowable, unidentified god is one they call upon to fill in the gaps in their evolutionary worldview as did medieval scientists who invoked a god for their own shortcomings. Such a god makes no demands of them, does not care how they live, and can be as influential or comfortably non-existent as they want.

As was explained in Introduction 6.3, all premises are matters of faith. The premise taken in believing the Bible (that there is a God) has been shown to result in a reasonable explanation of the universe, the planet, and life around us. The reasonableness of this belief was the goal of these sections, although much more may have been accomplished.

Meanwhile, the premise of no-God has been shown to result in a conclusion that approaches irrationality. The no-God worldview is such that it still requires invoking a god to bridge gaps of logic and evidence. Of course, it is to be expected that some version of a no-God origin will always be believed. Owen Chadwick writes of Darwin's time,

The public accepted the doctrine of evolution for a bigger reason than the simple probability established by Darwin, namely that, if they did not, their mental picture of the origins suddenly became an intolerable blank. 65

In other words, evolution is the crutch of atheism. For lack of amenable evidence, a committed atheist has nothing else on which to lean but the leading evolutionary belief of the day. Today's evolutionary belief appears to prefer the logical error of either infinite regression (or spontaneous generation) to the sound conclusion of believing that life was created by the God of the Bible; the same God who has evidenced himself in history, in Scripture, and in person. Once again, the frustrated surrender to illogic by George Wald, the 1971 Nobel prize winner for biology:

I will not accept [creation] philosophically because I do not want to believe in God. Therefore I choose to believe in that which I know is scientifically impossible - spontaneous generation arising to evolution.

Is not the evidence that does exist - evidence which points to creation - a better foundation for belief than blind and unevidenced faith in erroneous logic? It is, for those who believe in evidence and have the courage to accept the conclusion regardless of their presuppositions.

 

 

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NEXT: What is the nature of Life?

See also:

Where did the earth come from?

Where did the universe come from?

WHY THIS CHAPTER?

This section explains creation science. It is very similar to intelligent design theory, but with the inclusion of Scripture to prove that it was God who was our intelligent designer.