Evolution? (Aired 07/22/12)

Last week we stopped in verse 26 of Genesis which describes how God created Adam. So this week we're going to start talking about  Evolution. Now this is a very delicate and very complex subject, I mean it’s a subject that most Christians I know personally completely avoid either because they think it’s too complicated, or they get a headache from it, I’ve heard them say all they need to know is that we’re here, God created us and that he loves us, and that sums that up. And you know that’s great for them to have that blind faith! I’m not saying we have any less faith for researching and trying to clear some doubts, we’re not doubting God, or the fact he’s created us, we’re just trying to make a bit of sense of it all, because every day we’re confronted with ideas and facts that sometimes don’t exactly match what we grew up hearing. So the conclusions we’re going to share with you today are exclusively ours, this wasn’t taught to us. 

For starters, we’d have to ask, what does science say was the first life form? The answer is simply they don’t really know, much like what exactly originated the Big Bang. In text books you will find something along the lines of a 'unicellular organism' but this is based on an assumption, for when asked how exactly this came into existence, they give us a far-fetched explanation. They labeled it ‘spontaneous generation’ which is the idea that living creatures can be produced naturally from non-living substances. It’s important to highlight though that science has never actually observed such an occurrence. No one has ever found an organism that has never had a parent of some sort, I mean today one of the most accepted facts within biology is that all living things are produced from one or more parents. So scientists assume that life spontaneously arose somewhere in the ancient Earth’s water supply. Water which contained absolutely no life, just minerals and chemicals substances. Now because oxygen in the atmosphere would destroy all possibility of life arising by NATURAL processes, they assume that at the time the atmosphere contained no oxygen. They also assume that it contained certain necessary ingredients such as ammonia, nitrogen, hydrogen, water vapor and methane. However it is well known that mixing these ingredients does not form life, so they theorized that perhaps these were helped along by a bolt of energy. So, when looking at the subject objectively, I think we all agree those are a lot of assumptions to make. 

Now back in the day, Dr. Stanley Miller and Dr. Sidney Fox, who where the first two scientists to attempt laboratory experiments, tried proving that life could arise spontaneously, what they did was design a sort of pyrex-apparatus containing methane, ammonia, and water vapor but no oxygen, and then they passed electric sparks to simulate lighting strikes, the result, not surprisingly, was that no life was produced, but the electricity did combine some atoms and form amino acids. Now, amino acids are compounds, the simplest units from which proteins can be assembled, and for life to occur there would be the need for proteins, but also a DNA code. The only thing Dr. Miller and Fox proved was that the mixture of amino acids and other chemicals was not correct for producing life.

Chemists have calculated the immense odds against amino acids ever combining to form the necessary proteins by undirected means, they estimated the probability to be more than 10 to the 67th to 1, against even a small protein forming by time and chance, within an IDEAL mixture of chemicals, in an IDEAL atmosphere, and given up to 100 BILLION years, which is almost 20 times GREATER than the age of the earth itself. You know mathematicians generally agree that any odds beyond 1 in 10 to the 50th have a zero probability of ever happening. Various highly qualified researchers feel they have scientifically proved beyond question that the proteins needed for life could never have come into existence by chance of natural processes. 

So the bottom line is, during all the recorded human history, there has never been a case of a living thing being produced from anything other than another living thing, period. And evolutionism has not produced a scientifically credible explanation for the origin of such immense complexities such as DNA, so it’s highly premature for them to claim that all living things evolved into existence spontaneously when science has yet to discover how even one protein molecule could actually have come into existence by natural processes. So there is actually no scientific proof that life did evolve into existence from non-living matter, it's logical reasoning and a lack of a better explanation that has lead these assumptions to become a wide spread belief; but the bottom line is only DNA is known to produce DNA, no chemical interaction of molecules has ever come close to producing this ultra-complex code which is so essential to all known life. 

Now that we’ve cleared up that science can’t actually prove (yet) how the first life form emerged, we’re going to move on to talk about how they assume that everything evolved from this presumed first life form, and this is where evolution comes in. When most people talk about evolution they automatically think about Darwin and human evolution, nevertheless,  most theists sometimes argue that there are two branches of evolution, but isn’t entirely true. It would be more accurate to state that there are two stages of evolution: micro-evolution and macro-evolution. Micro-evolution is the adaptations and changes within a species during a somewhat short amount of time, this process might take a couple of lifetimes, it is currently observable in much of today’s wildlife, this has been witnessed and can be proven by science, while macro-evolution would be the process that includes the addition of new traits or a transition to a new completely new species, this process is likely to take anywhere from thousands to billions of years and hasn’t been WITNESSED by scientists, which makes perfect sense since humans are a relatively new species themselves and haven't been around the earth for that long. The only proof we find is by the fossil left behind by species that are no longer alive and lived millions of years ago. Micro-evolution is a fact that is plainly observable throughout nature, while macro-evolution has never been observed in science, but is based solely on archaeological findings. 

Micro-evolution is the alteration of a specific trait due to natural response, it is the change Darwin observed on Galapagos Island, since Natural Adaptation is the function of micro-evolution. There are three plainly observable principles to micro-evolution. 1. A trait will alter because of a stimulus. 2. The trait will return to the norm if left to nature or returned to its original conditions. 3. No new information is added to the DNA. Macro-evolution on the other hand is when a species changes slightly over time until eventually it’s changed into something completely different and becomes a new species altogether. The evolutionary theory suggests that when the DNA ceiling is reached over time, the species becomes weak.  Natural selection then thins the gene pool, but evolution demands that information be added. No short-term evolutionary change (i.e. micro evolution) ever adds information to the genetic material. The only way the evolution into a new species (i.e. macro evolution or evolution over a long period of time) could be possible is if new information were to be added to the DNA.

Hybrids are often used as examples of how simple it is for evolution to change the DNA of plants or animals. You can cross pollinate two types of tomato plants to produce a new tomato plant that produces larger fruit. However, there are three problems with how evolutionists interpret this observation. The first problem is the most obvious; nature is not making a change, human intelligence is forcing the change and must prevent nature from reverting back. Second, the next generation of seeds is both sterile and unable to reproduce, or it reverts back to an inferior fruit. The third problem is that you are not taking on new information; you are combining two plants that already possess the necessary information and have compatible DNA structures. For evolution to be possible, there must be new information added that did not previously exist. In other words, information must come into the existing genetic material without any pre-arranged order, combine with the DNA that is already present and create a new or better code than that which already existed. So I think it is fair to say that the theory of evolution has many flaws, and is not perfect.

Now that we’ve already talked about how science doesn’t really know how the first life form came into existence, and how evolution from that first life form onward isn’t probable, the question arises then what do we make of all the fossil records of bipedal hominids, that are supposedly the ancestors of humans, fossils which date back to almost 4 million years ago?

Well, in our last article we discussed how God created many things before be created humans, and we believe these species we part of that creation, the fact we don’t know which method God employed in order for them to go forth and multiply the earth. The Bible is very vague and not particularly clear on the subject. It could very well have been through an evolutionary process that life on earth exists. As we observed before, much like science God began all life on earth in the waters, and from there moved on to creating land creatures and finally those that soared the air. 

A while back a friend of mine asked me, if I could present you with irrefutable proof that evolution really is the answer what would you say to that? And my answer was I would actually not have a problem at all, as we mentioned before creation wasn’t spontaneous, the Bible shows us that it was a lengthy process that took billions of years, however because our God lives in a realm not bound by time and space to Him it was but an evening. 

I’ll get to my personal belief in a minute, but I would like to make a point and say that in the end, it really doesn’t matter. Let me explain what I mean by that. When I was young, I was taught that if I didn’t believe exactly in the literal words of Genesis that somehow I was committing a sin by not taking the Word of God at face value, and I want to let you know, that even if you choose to believe in the theory of evolution, that doesn’t negate or interfere with the FACT that the Son of God, came to this earth, became a man, walked among us, died for all of mankind, and presented us with the gift of salvation. The miracle of life will never be explained by science, and how you choose to believe on how we evolved into what we are today doesn’t negate the fact that God exists, or that He’s real, or that he loves us. Every time I watch a nature or science documentary, and they talk about the marvels of space and earth, I’m amazed and realize that I’m looking at God’s handiwork, to me it’s the only logical conclusion. Everything in this solar system, from the first second, has contributed and occurred to we could be here today. You could either believe that we are the work of a highly unlikely, highly improbable strings of coincidences, which border on mathematical impossibility, or that we are simply the masterpiece of a Higher Intellect. 

My only and absolute believe however when it comes to the subject of evolution is this: as humans we were made different and unique, apart from the rest of creation in the likeliness of the Creator himself formed by His very hands, and given life with His breath. 

 Unlike the rest of creation which God gave the order to ‘go forth and multiply,’ the Bible is actually very specific when it talks about the creation of man, there was nothing that precluded that event. So personally we do believe in a literal Adam and Eve, we don’t believe they lived millions of years ago, for the Bible indicates that Adam and Eve had a relationship with God, that’s what made them different from the rest of creation, he made them in his own image, as it says in Genesis 1:26 “Then God said: Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, ...” and it continues in verse 27 to say “And God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female, he created them.”

We believe that Homo Sapiens are different because they were made in the image of God, in that we have a spirit and soul, which made us different from all the other creatures He created. Animals can experience sensations, colors, shapes, sound, movement, and touch, but as human beings we can do all those things but we were gifted with intellectual knowledge and free will. We possess an intellectual spiritual soul, we understand the nature of things, make judgements and possess reason. So while animal cognition is forever bound to the experiences of his immediate surroundings, human intellectual knowledge transcends sensation to grasp the universal truth of the cosmos itself, to write poetry, to erect civilizations and investigate science and theology. Man alone consciously reflects on the meaning of his own existence talks and about his possible evolutionary origins. God made us different, God made us unique, God made us in his image, beings of free will. 

Are The Six Days of Creation Literal? (Aired 07/15/12)

Over the years I’ve met people on both sides of the argument, some who claim that everything was created in six 24 hour days, and that this clearly demonstrates God’s creational power, but I’ve also met people that have deeply analyzed the text and reached the conclusion that the process of creation lasted billions of years. 

I know most of us have heard people say, especially non-Christians, that Creationism is scientifically inaccurate because it says that everything existed in the same time period, and we know for a fact that many species did not co-exist with each other, because fossil records prove this, we didn’t have poodles and dinosaurs on the earth at the same time! In fact the time frame from one to another is of millions of years. Unfortunately however, studies show that the most common interpretation of Genesis in the United States is ‘Young Earth Creationism’ which claims that the earth and the entire universe was created within the last 10,000 years. If you've face-palmed yourself, you are not alone. Needless to say, I personally think this interpretation is both biblically and scientifically incorrect. 

For years, I've had problems with Christians that believe that scientists make up the facts about the age of the universe (13.7 billion years old), or are skeptic when told the earth is approximately 4.6 billion years old. I'm not quite sure if they think it's all an elaborate hoax in which all the scientific community both past and present decided to participate in, or exactly how far they think this conspiracy goes, but by going up against these facts most Christians make the rest of us look like illiterate fanatics.  When in fact there are those whom try to rationalize and reconcile what we believe is the truth of the bible, with the facts that science provides us. There is such a thing as an informed theist! I would like to point out that this isn't because we have little faith in God, on the contrary, we do this because the complexity of the world around us only makes us more astonished at its Creator. It also saddens me however, when atheists such as Richard Dawkins and Stephen Hawkins, use their intelligence to insult those that believe in the notion of a Divine Creator, let's be honest shall we? When looking at it from a mathematical point of view, the odds of life arising spontaneously due to a seemingly improbable string of unbelievably lucky and precise coincidences and the idea of a Higher Intellect in our universe are quite on the same level: virtually impossible ... and yet here we are. 

In this article we’re going to analyze and read Genesis chapter 1 with more detail. The first thing you’ll find is that God created progressively, whether or not you believe He populated the earth using 24 hour days or long periods of time, the fact is He did NOT create everything instantaneously. 

Now as we all know the creation of the universe, the earth and all of biological life is described in the first chapter of Genesis in an ordered account describing what God did every single day. For starters I'd like to begin by analyzing the word used to describe a “day” in Genesis. The Hebrew word ‘Yom,’ can be interpreted in many different ways and can refer to a long period of time, such as a year, or even a lifetime. 

Now on our previous article we mentioned Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth,”  from this we talked about how God created time, space and all the matter of the universe through the Big Bang and how science tells us how this process came into existence in fractions of a second. Now we’re going to analyze from Genesis chapter 1 verse 2, here we see that it starts with a conjunction, is says: “AND the earth was formless and void [...]” this fact tells us that Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 are part of a continuous thought, this is still part of the FIRST day of creation, so from verse 1 to verse 2 the universe aged 9.1 billion years! That's the amount of time estimated between the creation of time, space and matter, to the formation of the earth itself. Amazing isn't it? Now verse 2 goes on to say: “and the darkness was over the surface of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters,” many people ask why was the earth dark? Now both science and the bible tell us that at the beginning of time when the earth was forming, it was covered with a dense layer of clouds and gases which would have made it’s surface dark. God himself tells us this in Job 38:4 when He says, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? When I made a cloud it’s garment and wrapped it in thick darkness.” Interesting how only in the 21st century science came to appreciate a fact that dates back to the 6th century BCE. 

Genesis 1:3 also begins with another conjunction, so we know it’s still part of the continuing action: “And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light,” so here the light reaches the surface of the earth for the first time, this was the light of the sun which had been previously created, and then in verse 4 and 5 it says: “and God separated the light from darkness, and God called the light day, and the darkness he called night, AND there was evening, and there was morning, one day.” So from these verses we know that the earth was already rotating on its axis and receiving partial sunlight, and that God accomplished all these things in a single day. 

On the second day, God creates a stable water cycle, as we read in verse 6 onward: God said, “And God made the expanse and separated the waters which were above the expanse, and God called the expanse heaven, and there was the evening and the morning, a second day.” The texts explains how the waters above (the clouds) are separated from the waters below (or the deep mentioned in verse 2) and the separation is called heavens (also translated to skies). So this is the day where God creates all the different atmospheres.

On the third day, God begins with the formation of continents through tectonic activity, we can see that He “let” the dry land appear so it already existed underneath the surface of the waters, we read this in verse 9, and in the same day plant life was created, in verse 11 and 12 where it says: “Then God says, “Let the earth sprout vegetation plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit after their kind, and the earth brought forth vegetation, seeds after their kind and trees bearing fruit,”

This verse quite literally says that the earth sprouted vegetation and fruit trees which bared fruit, and as we know, for a tree to bear fruit it takes years, even recent scientific evidence shows that plant life began approximately 1 billion years ago on earth, so we for sure know that this third day couldn’t possibly have been of 24 hours. 

Now on the fourth day, many people believe that God created the Sun, Moon and Stars, but that is not what the text actually says: 

“Then God said “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night and let them be for signs  and for season and for days and years”  so in this verse we see the words “let there be,” which is not a statement of creation but a statement of appearance, in this moment the clouds that had been partially removed in the second day were completely removed so that the sun and moon could be visibly seen from earth, it tells us that this was so the season days and years could be established. 

And on the fifth day, God created the first life on earth, aquatic beings, which is also consistent with science, in verse 20 we read: “Then God said, “Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures that move,” and later on in verse 22 He tells all the creates He’s created to: “Be fruitful and MULTIPLY, and FILL the waters of the seas and multiply on the EARTH.” 

Now for these creatures to fulfill God’s word, to be able to reproduce themselves and multiply enough to populate and fill the waters of the seas around the earth, they would need a bit more than 24 hours. It took these species millions of years to develop, science tells us that there is a 650 million year time frame from the first biological life forms to human beings, in that time frame things lived, died, and became extinct. 

And finally we arrive on the sixth day of creation, where God begins by creating the more domesticated animals, the ones we are familiar with, land mammals that interact with humans; and last but not least, after all this process that took billions of years, his last act was to create mankind, in his own image. 

“Then God said: “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind, cattle, creeping things and beasts of the earth, and it was so,” and in verse 26 he finishes his work by creating his masterpiece “Then God said, “Let us make man in OUR image, according to OUR likeness, .. and God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” 

What we sometimes fail to appreciate is that God's timeframe is not the same as ours. The Bible clearly states that with God a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day (Psalm 90:4). God's power is in no way limited because it took billions of years to create the universe, on the other hand it just shows, that not being limited by space nor time, He was there present at every moment, up close and personal, detailing everything to make sure it was perfect for our arrival. As King David once quoted, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb, I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” 

Is The Big Bang Biblical? (Aired 07/08/12)

For those of you out there, that like myself haven’t been in a science classroom recently or simply slept through most of middle school, here’s a little reminder of what the Big Bang theory is. The Big Bang explains that billions of years ago the universe began as a dense point called a singularity and has been expanding ever since. The universe itself is thought to be around 13.7 billion years old originated by the Big Bang which is the moment where time and space came into existence. So summing it all up, the Big Bang is where time and space originated from, but it begs the question, do scientists have an idea of what came before it? There is little evidence regarding the earliest instant of the expansion. So the Big Bang theory cannot and does not provide any explanation for the initial condition, it just basically describes and explains the general evolution of the universe going forward from that point on.  Many times have I debated this subject with other Christians and the question they was always postulated was: “Is the Big Bang taught in the Bible?” to which the obvious answer would be no, however,  had they asked me if the theory lends scientific support of the Scriptural teaching that God created the universe ex nihilo (out of nothing) then we would be allowing ourselves to approach the subject from a whole different perspective, one that consolidates our faith with the facts that modern science has been teaching for years. I've always said that science and faith are two sides of a same coin, one explains the 'why,' while the other is more preoccupied trying to decipher and explore the facts behind the 'how'. 

Much like the Bible the Big Bang postulates that the universe had a beginning, and if the universe had a beginning it had to have a cause, for according to empirical science whatever begins to exist must have a cause equal or greater to itself, so actually the Big Bang flies in the face of the philosophically preposterous proposition that the universe sprang from nothing apart from an uncaused first cause. 

At the dawn of time the universe explodes into existence from nothing into everything the universe is now, it started as a single point, infinitely small, unimaginably hot, a super dense spec of pure energy, all of the mass and all of the energy contained in the 400 billion galaxies existed in a region smaller than the size a single atom. In that instance of creation all the forces and all the laws of physics that engineer our universe began to take shape, the first force to emerge was gravity. Ironically, if gravity were weaker than it is, everything would be falling apart, if gravity was stronger we’d end up in black holes, it had to be the perfect amount of gravity which is exactly what we have, coincidence? 

In the fraction of a second after the Big Bang the universe was so small it could fit into the palm of your hand. It’s a raging storm of super heated energy, but as the universe continues to expand it also starts to cool, the raw energy of the explosion transforms into tiny sub-atomic particles of the first matter in the universe, like theorized by Albert Einstein in his famous equation (e=mc2 —  where he states that energy transforms into matter), the raw energy interacted with these sub-atomic particles causing an organized chaos.

At this crucial phase in the moment of creation not only matter came into existence but also a force that could have altogether annihilated the idea of creation. Anti-matter was born, to give you a quick explanation, matter is positively charged, while anti-matter was negatively charged, when these two arch-enemies collide,  there and then the fate of the universe hanged in this epic battle,  in this collision where equal amounts of matter and anti-matter stated canceling each other out, but the side with the most soldiers won,  the scores were very close, because for every billion particles of anti-matter, there was a billion and one particles of matter, that was the moment of creation, that one extra particle of matter in each little volume survived, enough to form all the matter in stars and galaxies we see today, one in a billion might not sound like much but it was enough to build a universe. And here the first stage into building a universe commenced, by assembling those tiny surviving particles of matter into the atoms of the first elements. 

Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” It’s mesmerizing to think that this small sentence, holds so much knowledge, and is so powerful for it tells us that God was before the beginning, as John 1:2 says that “He was in the beginning, and all things were made through him,” it goes on to tell us in verse 3 that without Him nothing that was made would have come into existence. So it’s specifying that God existed before the beginning, in a realm not bound by time nor space, for he created both and is part of neither. Now, Genesis 1:1 is also where the scriptures and modern science compliment each other. 

In the beginning, (beginning of time) God created, (supernatural event) the heavens, (creation of space) and the earth (and matter).

And out of nothing, God, who exists in a realm beyond time and beyond space, decides to create this infinitely small spark of raw energy, tinier than the size of an atom, which in fractions of seconds expands and gradually transforms in to everything the universe is today, and He did not do this without a cause, in that defining moment when He gave birth to both time and space, He was thinking of you, as John 17:24 says “For you loved me before the foundation of the world.” 

“Once upon a time, the artist decided to paint a masterpiece, he looked at the empty canvas and as the brush made the first stroke, he smiled thinking of the aftermath, from nothing, suddenly spirals of different colors, shades and tones began taking form as he delicately painted the heavens, naming every star, every constellation, every galaxy, then he begun his work on what would become home, inspired he transformed it into a paradise, detailing every blade of grass, texturizing every petal of flower, then ultimately the moment came, his last creation he decided would be in his own image crafted from the work of his hands, meticulously and beautifully made, he poured out his heart and his soul, breathing into this creation and giving it the gift of life. He stepped back, as the painting with a life of its own began developing before his eyes. Yet when he stretched out his hand to stroke his masterpiece and show them his love, it turned away from him, blinded and deaf, it did not heed his attempts at communication, so the artist drew himself into the painting becoming a part of his creation, even so, he walked beside it, spoke to it, but it did not recognize him, therefore, in a last attempt to prove just how deep he loved it, he made the ultimate sacrifice by giving his life and staining the canvas with his own blood. That artist is no longer in the painting, but he continues to watch his creation from above, patiently awaiting the moment when it will finally acknowledge his existence." 

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