Information Related to "10 Questions to Ask About Evolution,Part 2"
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10 Questions to Ask About Evolution, Part 2 By Dr. Allen Stout What is the difference between science and biblical faith? Can science prove that the Bible is not true? Has science proven that the worldwide floods described in the Bible did not occur? Has science proven the assumptions that age dating methods are based on?
ast time we examined three fundamental issues about what science can and cannot prove about the existence of God, how the universe came into existence and how life originated. Now let's look at four more fundamental questions to ask. 4. What is true science and how is it proven? And what is the difference between science and biblical faith?
Scientific investigation, however, can be speculative, sometimes based on hypotheses that have not been adequately tested. According to E. Bright Wilson in his book An Introduction to Scientific Research, "The collective judgment of scientists, insofar as there is substantial agreement, constitutes the body of science. The fact that there are very large areas of agreement, in spite of the individualistic anti-authoritarian nature of science, is partial evidence for the validity of scientific methods. However, there are cases where universal agreement has been attained for an untruth... Unfortunately, in many fields, especially on the borderlines of science, hypotheses are often accepted without adequate tests... "The difficulty of testing hypotheses in the social sciences has led to an abbreviation of the scientific method in which this step is simply omitted. Plausible hypotheses are merely set down as facts without further ado. To a certain deplorable extent this same practice occurs in medicine as well" (1991, pp. 26-27).
Unfortunately many of these theories and "educated guesses" become accepted as fact and are taught as such in schools even though they can't be supported by scientific proof. Statistical analysis of tests is used to determine the scientific significance of a hypothesis. Results such as 99.9 percent probability would indicate high significance, with only 1 possibility in 1,000 that the results were due to just random chance. But the evidence for life coming from nonliving matter is 0.00 percent probability, making the probability for a Lifegiver 100 percent. (In contrast, evolutionist Richard Dawkins would propose a probability of 0.0000001 percent.) Though the odds are completely against them, evolutionists won't give up trying to prove the opposite, even if they consider it as only 1 chance in a billion as proposed by Professor Dawkins. Is that science or is it a blind faith in Darwinian evolution?
True biblical faith is a spiritual gift (1 Corinthians 12:1,4,9) that encourages the same three steps as the scientific method, except that the hypotheses are revealed by God throughout the Bible. The first step is to examine the evidence: "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1, emphasis added; see also Psalm 19:1). For the second step God says, "Come now, and let us reason together" (Isaiah 1:18). The law of cause and effect is fundamental to true faith as it is to true science: "A curse without cause shall not alight" (Proverbs 26:2). The third step is to "test all things; hold fast what is good" (1 Thessalonians 5:21). You prove it by applying it (Psalm 111:10; Malachi 3:10; see also the promised blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience listed in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28).
God inspired the Bible as a revelation to provide mankind with a foundation for understanding all truth: "Your [God's] word is truth" (John 17:17). The psalmist was inspired to write: "The fear [reverence] of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding have all those who do His commandments" (Psalm 111:10). "You, through Your commandments, make me wiser than my enemies... I have more understanding than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients, because I keep Your precepts" (Psalm 119:98-100). 5. Can science prove that the Bible (the original Hebrew and Greek Scriptures; translations often contain errors) was not inspired by God or prove that it is not true? To give some scientists, such as Copernicus and Galileo, the credit they deserve, let's acknowledge that they disproved some of the errors of authoritarian theologians. These religious leaders were adamant that the sun revolved around the earth and the earth was the center of the universe. Theologians have often misinterpreted the Scriptures, even as many still do today. However, neither scientists nor historians have disproven the validity of the Holy Scriptures. Archaeologists continue to unearth more and more evidence verifying biblical history and fulfilled prophecies, which historians had written off as myths. (For more on this subject, see ) 6. The Bible reveals two worldwide floods (Genesis 1:2 and Genesis 6-8). Has science proven they didn't occur? What is the evidence?
Scientists formulated a theory of uniformitarianism, popularized by Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology in 1830, stating "the present is the key to the past." This theory that geologic strata were laid down gradually, as opposed to through the catastrophic floods of the Bible, heavily influenced Charles Darwin and his ideas about gradual evolutionary changes. But now even many supporters of the theory of uniformitarianism acknowledge the role of occasional catastrophic events (see "Mystery of the Megaflood," NOVA and Psalm 104:5-9,29-30; Matthew 24:37-39; 2 Peter 3:3-6).
"In a beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth [became; from the Hebrew hayah, to exist, be or become] without form, and void [tohuw, a desolation, and bohuw, ruin]; and darkness was on the face of the deep [tehom, depth, abyss -- as a surging mass of water]. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters" (Genesis 1:1-2). Isaiah 45:18 shows that God did not originally create the earth in "vain" (also from the Hebrew word tohuw). So something happened after the original creation to ruin the earth. This is explained in detail in "Earth's Age: Does the Bible Indicate a Time Interval Between the First and Second Verses of Genesis?" Some strata of the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras could be evidence of the worldwide flood described in Genesis 1:2. This destruction was apparently caused by the rebellion of angelic spirits who became the adversaries of God and man (Isaiah 14:12-15; Ezekiel 28:12-17; Luke 10:18; Revelation 12:3-4,7-9). Genesis 1:3-31 reveals the beginning of God's restoration to renew the face of the earth to prepare it for man (see also Isaiah 45:18; Psalm 104:30). Genesis chapters 6, 7 and 8 describe the events of a worldwide flood in Noah's time. Some strata of the Cenozoic Era are evidence of this worldwide flood. They contain fossils of the mammals and man created by God in the six days described in Genesis 1. (For more about Noah's Flood, see "Was Noah's Flood Universal?") 7. Science uses assumptions to formulate theories to explain the unknown. Has science proven the assumptions that age dating methods are based on?
Strata were originally dated by "guesstimations" based on the assumptions of uniformitarianism, and fossils were then dated by the age of the strata, and then strata began to be dated by the fossils! This circular reasoning was all based on the original assumptions and guesses. Radioactive dating methods hold more promise for accuracy, but still are based on some unproven assumptions. For example, one of the assumptions of the radioactive carbon-14 dating method is that the ratio of atmospheric carbon-12 to carbon-14 was constant historically. But this would only be true if the amount of cosmic radiation converting nitrogen in the atmosphere to carbon-14 were constant and carbon-12 levels were constant in the atmosphere.
Next time we will address three more important questions. Dr. Stout was trained as a scientist and has worked as a veterinarian, college professor, researcher and consultant. Copyright 2009 by United Church of God, an International Association All rights reserved. |
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Keywords: evolution scientific method Biblical historicity flood worldwide floods carbon dating
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