Evolution

November 27, 2016
 

Logical Faith

The Theory of Evolution

Today, we’re going to be talking about the theory of evolution and how that effects us as Christians.  What we’re looking at is the THEORY of Evolution. Regardless of how widely it is taught, evolution is just a theory and is not scientific fact.  We’re going to talk about what parts of the theory of evolution are true, and what parts really have no tangible evidence.

Genesis 3:1-7
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Satan didn't just lie to Adam and Eve, he twisted the truth so there was some validity to what he was saying.  That’s exactly what he does still today.  Satan takes something that is partially true, or sounds rational and logical and gets us to fall for it.

Charles Darwin -
In 1831 he was selected to be a part of a voyage to map the coast line of South America for the Royal Navy. On his trip, he collected: 300 pages of travel notes, 1529 species of animals and insects, 3907 skins of animals and insects, 12 catalogs of animals and plants.  Darwin discovered genetic changes in animals on his trip and published the basis for the theory of evolution in a paper called “The Origin of Species.”
- Of the 3,878 sentences in the first edition nearly 3000, about 75 per cent, were rewritten between 1-5 times each
- Over 1,500 sentences were added, and nearly 325 were dropped.
- There were almost 7,500 variants in the text between editions.
- The sixth edition is nearly a third as long again as the first.
- The word “evolution” was not used at all until the 6th edition

Between going on the voyage and studying the results and the 6th edition of “The Origin of Species” we see a huge jump from observation to belief system.

Parts of The Theory of Evolution that are true:

Natural Selection: The process whereby organisms better adapted to their environment tend to survive and produce more offspring
Adaptation: The process of adapting to your surroundings
Speciation: The formation of new and distinct species in the course of evolution 

These 3 parts of evolution are what most would call “Micro-Evolution” - the parts that you can observe and experience in a relatively short period of time.

The rest of evolution is often called “Macro-Evolution” - the parts that are inferred based on Micro-Evolution and are really more of a belief system than a direct science based on evidence.

Micro-Evolution says: Animals adapt and change over time to be better equipped to handle their surroundings.

Macro-Evolution says: Everything living on earth came from one single-celled organism (or something more simple).

Genesis 1:25
God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

Genesis 7:1-3
The Lord then said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. 2 Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, 3 and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth.

In both of those circumstances, we see the word “kind”.  But the way we classify it now, “kind” would most likely refer to “family” or possibly “order” in the animal classification system: Kingdom - Phylum - Class - Order - Family - Genus - Species.

So, the creationist model is that a male and a female of the Family Canidae (dogs) were taken on the ark, and after the flood, they repopulated the earth with dogs .  Through micro evolution (natural selection, adaptation, speciation) we now have many many different types of dogs . So, evolution is a real thing, but that's basically where the observable scientific evidence ends (micro-evolution) and the belief system that is actually unsupported by true observational science starts (macro-evolution).

List of scientists with a Ph.D. in biology, chemistry, mathematics, engineering, computer science or a natural science, or M.D.s that serve as a professor of medicine that think that evolution can account for the complexity of life: dissentfromdarwin.org

All 1000+ doctors agree with the following statement:
"We are skeptical of claims for the ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for the complexity of life. Careful examination of the evidence for Darwinian theory should be encouraged.”

Geology

Cambrian Explosion -
The Cambrian sedimentary deposits contain billions and billions of fossils of highly advanced and developed life-forms.  Every one of the major invertebrate forms of life have been found in Cambrian rocks. 

If evolution is true, we should expect to find billions of evolutionary ancestors of the Cambrian life-forms in Precambrian rocks. Not a single, indisputable, multicellular fossil has ever been found in Precambrian rocks!

Dr Richard Dawkins in his book the Blind Watchmaker:
“the Cambrian Strada rocks, engaged about 600 million years ago, are the oldest ones in which we find most of the major vertebrate groups, and we find many of them already in an advanced state of evolution, the very first time they appear. It is as though they were just planted there without any evolutionary history.”

Right now, we know around 30 phyla of animals and at the time of the Cambrian Explosion, we had over double that.  

Kevin J Peterson, Professor of Biological Sciences at Dartmouth:
“Elucidating the materialistic (non theistic) basis for the Cambrian explosion has become more elusive, Not less, The more we know about the event itself.”

- Geology DOES NOT point to evolution -

Biochemistry

Primordial Soup Theory -
Says that pre-biotic molecules (non living) on earth came together to make a soup. When that soup sat for a billion years, through natural processes, the molecules would arrange themselves into a simple life form.

Even in earths oldest rock samples, we’ve never found more carbon 13 than carbon 12 anywhere where life has been found, meaning there is no evidence of earth having a pre-biotic (or pre-living) state.

Amino Acids and Nucleotide Sugars - 
A requirement of living systems is that  all amino acids and all nucleotide sugars have to be homochiral .  Both come in left-handed and right-handed configurations .  For life to exist, amino acids have to be left-handed and sugars have to be right-handed. If you mix it up, the amino acids and the nucleotides won’t assemble, and you won’t get proteins or RNA/DNA. Any and all amino acids created in a lab with electric shock have been 50/50 left/right.

William Bonner professor emeritus of chemistry at Standford said after 25 years of trying to research the source of homochirality on earth, that:
“terrestrial explanation are impotent or nonviable”

- Biochemistry DOES NOT point to evolution -

Cosmology

Interstellar Gas Clouds -
The theory says life must have originated in interstellar gas clouds, but there is no water or ammonia so there is no chemical pathways to make the sugars or amino acids in great enough levels to produce life.

Dust Particles -  
Theory says ife must have existed in dust particles in space that traveled to our planet via light pressure. They would get destroyed by x-ray and ultra violet radiation.  Also, any theories of DNA or RNA coming into our atmosphere in a rock are refuted.

- Cosmology DOES NOT point to evolution -

Physics

4th Law of Thermodynamics -
The theory says that there is a 4th Law of Thermodynamics that we don’t know about yet, and the unknown is our proof.  This is illogical and would refute the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics saying that things go from order to chaos.

- Physics DOES NOT point to evolution -

Mathematics

Odds of Life Forming By Natural Processes - 
Two scientists calculated the odds of life forming by natural processes and estimated that there is less than 1 chance in 10^40,000 that life could have originated by random trials

Mathematicians agree that statistically, any odds beyond 1 in 10^50 have a zero probability of ever happening.

In the 1970’s, only 1% of biologists believed in a higher power and since math has become a requirement of most masters degrees in biology, almost 25% of biologists say they believe in a higher power.

- Mathematics DOES NOT point to evolution -

Anthropology

Evolution Diagram -
There is no evidence for any of the beings in the evolution diagram except chimpanzee and human. Any and all “proof” of a missing link has been completely refuted: 

Nebraska Man - 
Found a tooth. Turned out to be a tooth of an extinct pig species.

Southwest Colorado Man -
Found a tooth.  Turned out to be a horses tooth. 

Java-Ape Man - 
Found a small piece of the top of a skull, a fragment of a left thigh bone, and three molar teeth.  The pieces were not found together or at the same time and were mixed with many other bones of extinct animals.  Turned out to be mostly elephant pieces.

The Piltdown Man - 
Found bones, teeth.  Turned out to be a hoax.  It was a jawbone from an ape who died 50 yrs earlier - the teeth had been filed down and bones were discolored.

Neanderthal Man -
Found almost a full Semi-erect, barrel-chested body.  Turned out he was crippled with osteo-arthritis and rickets, and a normal modern human.

Lucy -
Found a thigh bone, knee joint, arm bones, rib cage parts.  The knee joint had been found 200 feet lower in the strata and over two miles away (so its next to impossible that its the same animal). The knee joint end had been severely crushed so any guesses of her walking upright were just guesses. Many scientists believe that these animals are closely related to the Chimp.

- Anthropology DOES NOT point to evolution -

Biology

Shared DNA -
- We share 96% of our DNA with chimpanzees
- 99.9% with all other humans
- 90% with cats
- 80% with cows
- 60% with bananas

There is no evidence to say we evolved from chimps

Long Term Evolutionary Testing -
Scientists set up certain bacterial colonies to see how they adapt and evolve over 30 years. 30 years of evolution in bacteria would be compatible to about 1.5 million years of human evolution. There has never been a significant change recorded in the evolution of bacteria in one of these 30 year tests.

Giraffes -
Have a heart powerful enough to pump blood up their long necks and have a sponge in their head that soaks up blood when they bend down to drink, so the pressure of their huge heart doesnt destroy their brains.  NO WAY to explain that with evolution.

Bombardier Beetles -
Have 2 chemical compounds in them (hydroquinone and hydrogen peroxide) that when shot out of their abdomen combine and explode in a chemical reaction killing attacking insects.  NO WAY to explain with with Evolution - there is no way to evolve in steps while creating 2 chemicals that explode when they touch.

Human Eye -
“To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree.”
- Charles Darwin

Biology DOES NOT point to evolution -

The truth is, we have a personal, loving Creator

Luke 12:7
Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered

Psalm 119:13
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.

Communication Card
- I will study more about how science doesn't prove macro-evolution this week.
- I will take these facts and use them to share about Jesus.
- I will be back next week to hear more about our Logical Faith.