DARWIN AND GOD

Thyis angle is not covered in the things you are reading but will be played out in the Youtube debate you will watch. Still, I want to prvide a brief overview for you as a guide to this argument.

But rather than weigh in myself at first I will offer you a nice synopsis, written by a Christian, to help you. He is fair to the Darwinian position:

From:

http://www.windmillministries.org/frames/CH2A.htm

1. Can We Prove God Exists?

Creation vs. Evolution

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.”

Exodus 20:2  

Where did I come from?

How can we prove God exists? Would it not be great if He would show Himself every morning, say around seven a.m., and greet us from the clouds with a “Good morning, America”? That would certainly tell us that God exists. Too bad He does not do that. Well, even if He would appear on this cloud, still many would explain this as only a freak natural phenomenon, or mass hypnosis, or the result of drug abuse.

During my research I asked many Christian believers: “Why do you believe that God exists? What is, for you, the evidence that God exists?” After a few moments of thinking, I usually would get one of the following answers:

    * I just know it.

    * I feel it in my heart.

    * I have seen Him at work in my life.

    * God has answered prayers.

    * Because the Bible reveals Him.

These are all good answers, and after I myself became a Christian, I also experienced God “at work” in my life. As a skeptic, however, looking for hard evidence, these answers are not sufficient. They are all purely subjective. As such, they relate to personal experiences and convictions, but none is based on hard and objective evidence that proves God exists.

And that’s just exactly what I needed, objective evidence. In order to commit and submit my life to God I required solid, hard, undeniable, objective evidence for God's existence. And I also believed that, if God exists, and He indeed created us, He must have made sure to reveal Himself to us in some manner; if not in person, then at least through His creation – the world around us. It would be logically inconsistent to me that God exists and would not communicate to His creation.

As many others before me – I realized that I could turn to science to prove God's existence by researching the origins of our existence.

Studying our origins has, over the centuries, always attracted much attention and only three serious alternatives have ever been proposed:

   1. We’ve always existed and will always exist – a steady state universe.

   2. We are created by a Creator God.

   3. We are the product of natural processes solely influenced by chance and time.

It is interesting to realize how these three views of origins are reflected in the three main views of the world religions: Pantheism believes we’ve always existed, Monotheistic religions such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam believe we are created by a Creator God. And finally Atheism rejects the existence of any intelligent force (Creator) in the universe.

How can modern science help us find clues to our origins?  

Let’s start by eliminating the first alternative view – that we have always existed. Through astronomy we know as a virtually undisputed fact, that the universe, our solar system and our planet have not always existed and also that our sun and earth at some point in the future will cease to exist. We can also prove that the universe is expanding, showing that there was some central point of beginning. Also through paleontology (studying early life on earth) and archaeology we know that mankind has not always existed on earth, but has only been around for a relative short period of time. So, no serious scientist believes anymore in a steady state universe, and we can focus our research on studying:

How did we come into existence?  

Creation vs. Evolution

Before mankind became “enlightened” there was never a question demanding proof for God's existence. However, over time, man has grown more impressed with himself at the center of the universe. In 1859 Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species[1], presenting an alternative theory to explain our existence. Darwin’s theory became the basis for a belief system independent from God.

It has been said that Darwin has done more harm to the Christian faith than any persecution in history. The evolutionary model, largely due to its posture as the “scientific” explanation for the origins of life, caused many believers to doubt the existence of God and the truthfulness of the Bible. It planted a serious seed of doubt as to the credibility of the Bible: “If the first chapter of the Bible is not true, then likely the rest of the Bible is questionable as well!”

We need to emphasize up front that – despite many claims – evolution is NOT a fact. Neither evolution nor creation is a natural law or a scientific fact, but each is merely a model. What does this mean?  The process of evolution, just as the act of creation, cannot be observed or repeated, so both models remain unproved by science. Therefore neither can be called a natural law (such as the law of gravity or the laws of thermodynamics, which describe well proved and observed behavior subject to laws of nature) nor a scientific theory (which requires the possibility and evidence of repeated observations).  So evolution – just as creation – is only a model used to explain the observations in the world as we know it. It is not a fact, not a natural law, not even a scientific theory, but just a model!

I would also like to emphasize, that there are only two possible models for the origins of life: evolution or creation. There is no alternative, and these two are mutually exclusive. Either our space/time based universe needed a Creator God or it did not.  This has an important implication: If we can prove that evolution is NOT a viable model/explanation, than we have indirectly found proof that God exists! Therefore in studying the evidences we will focus both on evidence to show that evolution is a faulty model as well as evidence pointing to the existence of a Creator God. More on the Evolutionary theory.....

What is Evolution?

In the evolution model, the entire universe is considered to have evolved by natural processes and random selection into its present state of high organization and complexity. In this model the universe began in a state of pure randomness.  Gradually it has – by “survival of the fittest” – become more ordered and complex. In order for the complex structure of the universe to have been produced by present natural processes, a vast amount of time was required.

As taught in our public schools today, the Organic Theory of Evolution account for the origin of mankind goes something as follows:

“Life on this planet originated several billion years ago, when electrical disturbances caused reactions in the chemicals of the primeval ocean. These reactions produced amino acids, which organized themselves into living cells. In time, the descendants of these one-celled organisms at random began to mutate, developing into various multi-celled plants and animals. As each new organism appeared, a natural selection would occur.  Each life form was either better or less suited to its environment, and accordingly it would flourish or disappear.  Those species of plants and animals more adaptable to their environments developed; those that could not adapt simply died. Man is the highest product of this development. He descended from the same ancestors as did the apes; more remotely, from the same ancestors as all mammals. He is himself still developing; that process is stalled by our present lifestyle, but biologically ongoing evolution is inevitable.”

The concept of evolution is associated with Charles Darwin, who set forth evolution in The Origin of Species and further developed his ideas in the later The Descent of Man. These concepts have been applied to many scientific disciplines, and the theory has been revised along the way.  More recently its tenets have been upgraded with more recent scientific discoveries especially in the areas of genetics/DNA (usually called Neo-Darwinism).

The basic elements of the evolutionary model remain:

    * Change over long periods of time: entities/organisms change over time. These changes are random and are only based on pure chance.

    * Natural Selection: positive changes strengthen the organism and increase its chances for survival. Therefore (random) positive changes will be preserved and even favored over the original organism.

    * The only forces at work are random change (chance) and (long periods of) time: evolution is completely controlled by natural processes and the natural environment. There is no controlling power or other influence.

Simplified, evolution’s equation for mankind becomes this:

Change + Time  à  Mankind

Many education systems have spoon-fed and brainwashed us with these concepts. These ideas sound so reasonable and have been taught by many highly educated people, therefore many believe it is the truth. However, is it actually true? In the following chapters we will examine the concept to find if scientific observation does support this model.

We like to believe in chance!

Have you noticed how many people tend to think that if there’s a chance something can happen, it actually will occur? The statistical probability might be very small, and all odds are against it, yet many still are willing to wager. That’s the idea behind gambling. The odds are against us – we all know that – but we might be …. lucky. So many folks are willing to bet their money on it. Casinos and lotteries capitalize on this tendency of many to think that if they only try, and keep trying, they have a good chance at winning.

Evolution is an identical concept.  This idea is that, even if its chances are tiny, it could happen, and if you just try enough times it will happen; that’s exactly the idea behind evolution. That’s probably why it appeals so strongly to so many.

What is the Creation model?

The Creation model, on the other hand, postulates a Creator God or Intelligent Designer. Random chance and lots of time simply cannot combine to create life. Intelligent intervention is required. This occurs either by a comprehensive act of creation, bringing basic systems of nature into existence at once, fully functioning at the start, or by a process directed over time by the Creator God towards completion.

Among Christians there are different models on HOW God created our world. These differences largely relate to timing; that is, did God directly and immediately create the world, or did He only design and guide the natural processes? To simplify, we identify two main views:

    * Creationism (also called Scientific Creationism, Young Earth Creation, and Six Day Creation). This view believes God created everything in six literal 24-hour days. Everything was created by the direct act of God. The creative sequence is described precisely in Genesis chapter 1 and occurred 6,000-10,000 years ago. Proponents base this view on the literal reading of the Bible and support this interpretation by data from natural sciences interpreted to show a young age of planet earth. Well known creationist organizations are the Institute for Creation Research[2], Answers in Genesis[3] and the Creation Research Society[4] which present programs to demonstrate the evidences for a young world, limits to the original created species, the uniqueness of human life, and a global flood about 5,000 years ago.

    * Intelligent Design (also called Theistic Evolution, Old Earth Creationism or Progressive Creationism). This view accepts the majority view of scientists that the universe is old; several billions of years old, in fact. Proponents agree with evolutionists that species of organisms formed over extraordinarily long periods of time, but dispute and deny that this happened only by random chance. Divine interventions and/or guidance over the course of time have brought about present life forms. There are a number of different approaches within this view.

Dialogue, existence of God

Evolution vs. Creation and the Role of the Creator

          o The Intelligent Design movement argues that certain features of the universe and living organisms can be explained logically only by an intelligent cause and certainly not by undirected natural forces. A well-known organization in this movement is the Discovery Institute[5].

          o Proponents of the Gap Theory believe in direct creation by God, but also in an old earth, explaining the age of the earth by postulating a large time gap between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2.

          o The Day-Age Theory is probably the most popular view among Old Earth believers. To explain the age of the universe and earth, adherents translate the Hebrew word “yowm” as period or age rather than day. Thus God created the earth as described in Genesis, however each creation “day” lasted an entire age. Various Christian organizations are proponents of this view. Reasons To Believe[6] is likely the most well known.