G od and S cience

1. God andScience International Apologetics Conference June 6, 2008 John Oakes PhD

2. Thomas Huxley, Darwin’s “bulldog” “We are as much the product of blind forces as is the falling of a stone to earth, or the ebb and flow of the tides. We have just happened, and man was made flesh by a series of singularly beneficial accidents.”

3. In the universe of blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt and other people are going to get lucky: and you won’t find any rhyme or reason to it, nor any justice. The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is at the bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good. Nothing but blind, pitiless indifference. DNA neither knows nor cares. DNA just is, and we dance to its music. Richard Dawkins

4. Accident or Design? The Anthropic Principle William Paley

5. Roger Bacon 1214-1292 To study nature, use “External experience, aided by instruments, made precise by mathematics.”

6. Basic Assumptions of Science: • The universe follows a single, unchanging set of laws. • WHY? • The universe can be understood by human beings. • WHY? Can evolution explain this? • The universe can be described by mathematics. • WHY?

7. 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. • The universe will be designed so that we can observe it

8. Water • Ideal solvent to support life (dissolves ions and molecules • Right boiling and melting points • High specific heat • Solid floats on liquid • Contracts from 0 to 4 degrees centigrade

9. Designed Elements?

10. Carbon: the Element of life

12. The Ozone Layer: Is oxygen a designed element?

13. No Uranium, no plate tectonics

14. DNA a) b)

15. Protein

16. Simplest life form: break it down • E. coli: about 1 trillion bits of information. • E. coli have 3000-4000 different proteins. • DNA and RNA to make and be made by these proteins. • Lipids (membrane), Carbohydrates, etc. • The simplest living cell is an unimaginably complex nano factory

17. “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

18. Science before the 1950s: The universe was NOT created. Hebrews 11:3 “By faith we understand that the universe was created… so that what is seen has been made from things that are not visible.” Genesis 1:3 God said “Let there be light,” and there was light. The Big Bang · 1929 Hubble. The Red Shift: The universe is expanding. · 1965 Penzias and Wilson, background microwave radiation. Physicists now: The universe was created.

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20. Fine Tuning of the Universe Constant A Little Bigger A Little Smaller 1. Gravitational constant very short-lived stars no stars 2. Ratio of electrons to protons no stars or galaxies no stars or galaxies 3. Strong Nuclear Force no hydrogen, fusion only hydrogen 4. Weak Nuclear Force all H2He at big bang no He at big bang no heavy elements 5. Electric Force no chemical bonding no chemical bonding 6. Expansion rate of universe no galaxies universe collapses quickly 7. Ratio of matter to antimatter too much radiation for life not enough matter for galaxies to form   and many more….

21. The Right Kind of Galaxy Spiral Irregular Eliptical

22. The Right Kind of Star The Goldilocks Star

23. The Right Kind of Planet Right distance Rocky planet with plenty of oxygen and water Thin, light planetary “crust” Huge moon for stable planetary rotation

24. Conclusion: “Since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” Romans 1:20 Did we “just happen?”

25. Part II Science and the Bible Delos B. McKown: “Christianity is scientifically unsupported and probably insupportable, philosophically suspect at best and disreputable at worst, and historically fraudulent.”

26. Galileo Galilei 1564-1642 “The Bible was written to tell us how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go”

27. Papyrus Ebers

28. The Ebers Papyrus: “To prevent hair from turning gray, anoint it with the blood of a calf which has been boiled in oil or with the fat of a rattlesnake.” “A mixture of six fats, namely those of the horse, the hippopotamus, the crocodile, the cat, the snake and the ibex.... to prevent hair loss.”

29. Drugs of Choice in Papyrus Ebers: • Lizards blood • Swine’s teeth • Putrid meat • Moisture from Pigs’ ears • Excreta from animals including human beings, donkeys, antelope, dogs, cats and flies

30. “I will not bring on you any of these diseases...” Exodus 15:26 “The pig... is unclean for you...those that walk on their paws...the weasel, the rat...are unclean for you.” Leviticus 11

31. “The sting of a hornet is healed by the house-fly, crushed and applied to the wound.” “The gnat, feeble creature, taking in food but never secreting it is a specific against the poison of the viper.” An ancient Hebrew medical manuscript.

32. “Whoever touches the dead body of anyone will be unclean for seven days. He must purify himself with the water on the third and seventh day...take some hyssop, dip it in the water and sprinkle the tent and furnishings and the people who were there.” Numbers 19

33. Semelweiss

34. Vienna, 1847 • In maternity wards one out of every six women dies. • Obstetricians ascribe deaths to constipation, fear and poisonous air.

35. Death Rate falls from 18% to 0.5%

36. Thymol

37. Leviticus 13:46 “As long as he has the infection he remains unclean. He must live alone; he must live outside the camp.” Quarantine for infectious disease

38. LEPROSY • Killed millions of people in Europe and around the world for thousands of years. • “Fear of all other diseases taken together can hardly be compared to the terror spread by leprosy.” • —Dr. George Rosen

39. Leprosy

40. MEDICAL COMMUNITY HAD NO ANSWERS They taught that it was brought on by eating hot food, pepper, garlic and the meat of diseased hogs. Other physicians said it was caused by a malign conjunction of the planets. Leviticus 13:46 “As long as he has the infection he remains unclean. He must live alone; he must live outside the camp.”

41. The life is in the blood Leviticus 17:14 “… the life of every creature is in its blood. That is why I have said to the Israelites, ‘You must not eat the blood of any creature, because the life of every creature is its blood; anyone who eats it must be cut off.’ ”

42. Bloodletting The most common medical practice in 1700s and 1800s

43. Bloodletting Instruments from 1800s 1693). George Tiemann & Co. American armamentarium

44. “For the generations to come, every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised...” Genesis 17:12 Vitamin K Prothrombrin: a clotting protein.

45. Clotting Protein Peaks on Day Eight Available Prothrombin

46. Abraham’sExperiment

47. “He spreads out the northern skies over empty space; He suspends the earth over nothing” Job 26:8 The earth is on the back of four elephants standing on top of a turtle, encircled by a serpent, swimming in a sea of milk… The Sutras

49. Buddhist Cosmology