An introduction to the world we think we know

CREATION - SCIENCE - EVOLUTION
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE WORLD WE THINK WE KNOW
GENESIS 1:1-51 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 3 And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day. There's no mystery as to what God is doing, or who he is. He is the Creator; and, unlike all the other mysteries he holds secret, this is not one of them. > Day 1: God creates both heaven and the earth, and light.* Heaven is created: Although there is no real human knowledge as to the creation of Heaven, we know it exists because God describes it in the Bible. In the beginning, before the creation of any of the visible world and of man, God created Heaven, that is, the spiritual, invisible world of the angels, out of nothing. Angels are bodiless and immortal spirits, gifted with a mind, will and strength. God created an innumerable multitude of them. They differ among themselves according to degrees of perfection and types of service and are divided into a number of orders. The highest of these are called the seraphim, cherubim, and archangels.*Just how big is the Earth? The total circumference of the Earth is approximately 25,000 miles in diameter. More than six times the size of the moon (which is about 4,000 miles in diameter). From space, the astronauts call it the Blue Planet.*What would happen if the Earth lost its tilt? One answer is this: We must be assume that this change in the earth's orbital axis is a thought experiment. The earth can be thought of as a gigantic gyroscope, spinning at over 1000 miles per hour at its equator. If its axis were to be suddenly shifted from its normal inclination, inertial forces produced in such a change would literally tear the earth apart. Another answer is this: The tilt of the earth's spin axis is the reason for the seasons. If there were no tilt to the earth's axis, the sun would rise and set at the same time every day, and the weather would never change. It would be "spring-like" year-round.*What is light? Light consists of weightless particles (that contain no mass) traveling at about 186,000 miles or 300,000 kilometers per second. These particles of light are called photons. But light also exhibits the characteristics of a wave. Light is a wave, just like sound is a wave. But unlike sound waves, light is a transverse wave (like a water wave). Imagine a long rope tied to the side of a wall and a girl shaking rhythmically one end of the rope up and down. Each up and down shake of the rope is a cycle and the number of cycles per second is the wave’s frequency. If you observe the rope from the side, you will see a wave pattern of alternating crests and troughs. The distance from one crest to another is the wavelength. When the girl shakes the ropes more rapidly, the frequency will naturally increase, but the wavelength will shorten. Light acts in many ways similarly to the shaking rope. It also has a frequency and a wavelength. As thefrequency increases, the wavelength decreases and as the frequency decreases, the wavelength increases. The frequency of light determines its color. Blue light has a higher frequency and a shorter wavelength than red light. Our eyes are sensitive to only a small part of the spectrum of frequencies. There is ultra-violet and infra-red light just beyond our eyes’ range, radio waves with much lower frequencies than light, and gamma rays with much higher frequencies. Sunlight contains many different colors which can be separated through a prism or a rainbow into different colors. But where does light come from? No matter what the source, light is generally produced via the same mechanism: electrons changing their orbits around nuclei. Light is just energy and thus light can be given off in this process. This process, by the way, is called radiation. It's not the same thing as the stuff that will kill you, but it's similar. The Sun is the largest lightsource in our galaxy.GENESIS 1:6-86 And God said, "Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water." 7 So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the expanse "sky." And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day. > Day 2: God creates the sky.*What is the sky? The sky is often defined as the place a person sees when he or she looks up from the earth. Although almost everyone has seen it, the sky is hard to define precisely. The concept of the sky, as it is applied here on Earth, can be generalized to mean the hemisphere above the horizon, or above the visible surface of the planet and objects attached to it. It can be seen when one looks upward from the surface of a planet. (No one is really sure how describe what the sky is).*Why is the sky blue? The atmosphere around the Earth is largely made up of two colorless gases: oxygen and nitrogen. Red and blue light reacts very different from each other to oxygen. Because the wavelength of blue light is roughly the size of an atom of oxygen, blue light interacts with the oxygen and is scattered by it, while red light, with its longer wavelength, goes right pass the oxygen atoms. If the Earth had no atmosphere, the sun’s light would travel directly from the Sun in a straight line towards our eyes and we would see the Sun as a very bright star in sea of blackness. But because the Sun’s blue light is scattered by the oxygen in the atmosphere, blue light from the Sun enters our eyes from all sorts of different angles and we see the entire sky as blue. The atmosphere scatters violet light even more effectively, but our eyes are more sensitive to blue. Wherever we look towards the sky, some light is bouncing off an oxygen atom andentering our eyes, making the sky appear to be blue. GENESIS 1:9- 139 And God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear." And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground "land," and the gathered waters he called "seas." And God saw that it was good. 11 Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so. 12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.> Day 3: God creates land and the sea; He also creates vegetation, plants, trees, and fruit from the trees.*How much dry land is on Earth? Land only takes up 30 percent of Earth. This is very little land. The highest point on land is Mount Everest and the lowest is the Dead Sea. The land around the middle latitudes usually have hot summers and cold winters. The percentages of earth's land surface can be divided into different types: 20% covered by snow land, 20% mountains, 20% dry land, 30% good land that can be farmed, 10% land doesn't have topsoil.*How much of Earth is ocean? The earth is mostly blue because its large surface area of oceans. The surface area of the bodies takes up 70 percent of earth's total surface area. The ocean contains 328,000,000 cubic miles of salt water. *Why is there more water than land on Earth? Because all life depends on water. Without water, nothing would survive. God would have created the earth with more land if life depended on it more than water.*How many species of plants and trees are on Earth? There is no such answer. One guess was there was about 2 million different classified plants and animals on earth. This answer was not 100% accurate.GENESIS 1:14-1914 And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth." And it was so. 16 God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.> Day 4: God creates the sun, moon, and stars.* How big and hot is the sun? The Sun is 810,000 miles in diameter. That is 32 times the size of Earth. It is the largest member of our planetary system. It is the only star in our system large enough to undergo nuclear fusion. It is able to produce so much energy it shines. The sun at its core is 15 million degrees celcius, or 27 million degrees farenheit. The sun is 380, followed by 24 zeros, watts. That is brighter than all the light bulbs on earth. It is the center of our solar system. Again, the Sun is the largest source of light in our galaxy.* The Moon: The Moon is the only natural satellite of Earth. It is the second brightest object in the sky after the Sun. Due to its size and composition, the Moon is sometimes classified as a terrestrial "planet" along with Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. The Moon is volcanic in origin.* How many stars are in our galaxy? The exact number of stars in our Milky Way Galaxy is virtually impossable to determine, but best estimates put the number at over 100 billion stars. The reason its so hard to determine the number of stars is three fold. First the galaxy is so large we can't really use measurements in miles or kilometers, we use instead light years. The distance light travels in one year is one light year. The Milky Way is about 80,000 light years across.GENESIS 1:20-2320 And God said, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky." 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth." 23 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.> Day 5: God creates living creatures in the waters and birds.* How many living creatures in the waters? There are almost 28,000 known extant species of fish, of which almost 27,000 are bony fish, with the remainder being about 970 sharks, rays, and chimeras and about 108 hagfishes and lampreys. Modern marine mammals include the order Cetacea (whales, dolphins, and porpoises), the order Sirenia (dugongs and manatees), and members of the order Carnivora (the polar bear and otters), and the pinnipeds (seals and sea lions). There are 19 + sub-species of marine mammals in our oceans.* How many species of birds? There are over 10,000 species of birds in the world. About 925 have been seen in the U.S. and Canada. About 1,000 have been seen in Europe. By far the largest concentration of bird species are found in South America. Over 3,200 species have been seen there. In Colombia, Bolivia and Peru the species count for each country tops 1,700. Here are some very general figures for the species count for each continent: 3,200 South America; 2,900 Asia; 2,300 Africa; 2,000 North America (from Panama north + Caribbean); 1,700 Australia + surrounding islands; 1,000 Europe; 65 Antarctica.GENESIS 1:24-3124 And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind." And it was so. 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. 26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground." 29 Then God said,"I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food." And it was so. 31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.> Day 6: God creates livestock, wild animals, and man.To many animal species to define. We will get into the make-up of man in the series.THE BIG BANG THEORYThe Big Bang Theory is the dominant scientific theory about the origin of the universe. According to the big bang, the universe was created sometime between 10 billion and 20 billion years ago from a cosmic explosion that hurled matter and in all directions. In 1927, the Belgian priest Georges Lemaître was the first to propose that the universe began with the explosion of a primeval atom. His proposal came after observing the red shift in distant nebulas by astronomers to a model of the universe based on relativity. Years later, Edwin Hubble found experimental evidence to help justify Lemaître's theory. He found that distant galaxies in every direction are going away from us with speeds proportional to their distance. The big bang was initially suggested because it explains why distant galaxies are traveling away from us at great speeds. The theory also predicts the existence of cosmic background radiation (the glow left over from the explosion itself). The Big Bang Theory received its strongest confirmation when this radiation was discovered in 1964 by Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, who later won the Nobel Prize for this discovery. Although the Big Bang Theory is widely accepted, it probably will never be proved; consequentially, leaving a number of tough, unanswered questions. CARBON DATINGCarbon dating is a dating technique predicated upon three things: 1. The rate at which the unstable radioactive C-14 isotope decays into the stable non-radioactive N-14 isotope, 2. The ratio of C-12 to C-14 found in a given specimen, 3. And the ratio C-12 to C-14 found in the atmosphere at the time of the specimen's death. It takes about 5,730 years for half of a sample of radiocarbon to decay back into nitrogen. It takes another 5,730 for half of the remainder to decay, and then another 5,730 for half of what's left then to decay and so on. The period of time that it takes for half of a sample to decay is called a "half-life." YOUNG (NEW) EARTH CREATIONIST vs. OLD EARTH CREATIONISTYoung Earth creationism is a religious doctrine that teaches that the Earth and life on Earth were created by a direct action of God relatively recently (about 6,000 years ago). It is held by those Christians who believe that the Hebrew text of Genesis can only mean a literal account of Earth's creation in six 24-hour days, that evidence for a strict interpretation of scripture as historical fact is present in the world today, and that scientific evidence supporting Darwinian evolution, geological uniformitarianism - or any other theory at odds with a literal interpretation of the Genesis creation account - is either flawed or misinterpreted. Young Earth creationists believe that the Earth is "young", on the order of 6,000 to 10,000 years old,[15] rather than the age of 4.5 billion years estimated by modern geology using scientific methods including radiometric dating. YECs believe that life was created by God 'each after their kind' in the universe'sfirst six normal-length (24-hour) days. Additionally, they believe that the biblical account of Noah's flood is historically true, maintaining that there was a worldwide flood (circa 2349 BC) that destroyed all terrestrial life except that which was saved on Noah's Ark.Old Earth creationism is a variant of the creationist view of the origin of the universe and life on Earth. As a theory of origins it is typically more compatible with mainstream scientific thought on the issues of geology, cosmology and the age of the Earth, in comparison to Young Earth creationism. However, it still generally takes the accounts of creation in Genesis more literally than theistic evolution (or evolutionary creationism). Old Earth creationism is in fact an umbrella term for a number of perspectives, including Gap creationism and Progressive creationism. MACRO-EVOLUTION/MICRO-EVOLUTIONIn evolutionary biology today, macroevolution is used to refer to any evolutionary change at or above the level of species. It means at least the splitting of a species into two (speciation, or cladogenesis, from the Greek meaning "the origin of a branch") or the change of a species over time into another (anagenetic speciation, not nowadays generally accepted.Microevolution refers to any evolutionary change below the level of species, and refers to changes in the frequency within a population or a species of its alleles (alternative genes) and their effects on the form, or phenotype, of organisms that make up that population or species. It can also apply to changes within species that are not genetic.Another way to state the difference is that macroevolution is between-species evolution and microevolution is within-species evolution.INTELLIGENT DESIGNCould life evolve randomly from inorganic matter? Not according to mathematicians. In the last 30 years a number of prominent scientists have attempted to calculate the odds that a free-living, single-celled organism, such as a bacterium, might result by the chance combining of pre-existent building blocks. Harold Morowitz calculated the odds as one chance in 10100,000,000,000. Sir Fred Hoyle calculated the odds of only the proteins of an amoebae arising by chance as one chance in 1040,000. ...the odds calculated by Morowitz and Hoyle are staggering. The odds led Fred Hoyle to state that the probability of spontaneous generation 'is about the same as the probability that a tornado sweeping through a junk yard could assemble a Boeing 747 from the contents therein.' Mathematicians tell us that any event with an improbability greater than one chance in 1050 is in the realm of metaphysics -- i.e. a miracle.Harold Marowitz, an atheist physicist, created mathematical models by imagining broths of living bacteria that were superheated until all the complex chemicals were broken down into basic building blocks. After cooling the mixtures, Marowitz used physics calculations to conclude that the odds of a single bacterium reassembling by chance is one in 10100,000,000,000. 2 Wow! How can I grasp such a large statistic? Well, it's more likely that I would win the state lottery every week for a million years by purchasing just one ticket each week. In response to the probabilities calculated by Marowitz, Robert Shapiro, author of Origins - A Skeptic's Guide to the Creation of Life on Earth, wrote: The improbability involved in generating even one bacterium is so large that it reduces all considerations of time and space to nothingness. Given such odds, the time until the black holes evaporate and the space to the ends of the universe would make no difference at all. If we were to wait, we would truly be waiting for a miracle. Sir Fred Hoyle compared the probability of life arising by chance to lining up 1050 (ten with fifty zeros after it) blind people, giving each one a scrambled Rubik's Cube, and finding that they all solve the cube at the same moment. I. L. Cohen is a mathematician, researcher and author -- a member of the New York Academy of Sciences and officer of the Archaeological Institute of America. In his book, Darwin was Wrong -- A Study in Probabilities, Cohen writes: In a certain sense, the debate transcends the confrontation between evolutionists and creationists. We now have a debate within the scientific community itself; it is a confrontation between scientific objectivity and ingrained prejudice - between logic and emotion - between fact and fiction. 1 ...In the final analysis, objective scientific logic has to prevail -- no matter what the final result is - no matter how many time-honored idols have to be discarded in the process. 2 ...after all, it is not the duty of science to defend the theory of evolution, and stick by it to the bitter end -- no matter what illogical and unsupported conclusions it offers... if in the process of impartial scientific logic, they find that creation by outside superintelligence is the solution to our quandary, then let's cut the umbilical cord that tied us down to Darwin for such a long time. It is choking us and holding us back. 3 …every single concept advanced by the theory of evolution (and amended thereafter) is imaginary and it is not supported by the scientifically established facts of microbiology, fossils, and mathematical probability concepts. Darwin was wrong. 4 ...The theory of evolution may be the worst mistake made in science. How can nothing explode? Where did all that matter and energy come from? What caused its release? How did this explosion of everything (from nothing) order itself? How can simplicity become complexity? Where did the chemical elements come from? Where did the mathematical laws and physical properties come from? How do we explain the design, complexity and fine-tuning inherent in spiral galaxies, solar systems, and stars? How did life come from a rock? How did a bird come from a lizard? Why don't we see birds come from lizards today? Why are there no transitional fossils in our museums today? Why have we never observed beneficial mutations? Where did the information code in DNA come from? Where did the language convention that interprets DNA come from? How can we explain the random development of the human eye, reproductive system, digestive tract, brain, heart and lungs? What about the subconscious mind? What about love, morality, ethics, and emotions? Can these things really evolve gradually and randomly over time? Don't be fooled into thinking that scientists know everything, and can explain everything. In fact, the more they dig, the harder it is becoming for the scientist to explain their discoveries in any other category but divine. They are starting to lean toward a creator, a law giver, an intelligent designer. Sounds a lot like God, doesn't it?MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE by Richard A. Swenson, M.D.From the back cover Is God just watching from a distance? Or is He intimately involved in every detal of His creation--including your life?The Psalmist exclaimed, "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands" (Psa 19:1). Dr. Richard Swenson asserts that, in fact, all of nature reveals a God who constantly nurtures and sustains His creation--including our own bodies--in ways that we can scarcely comprehend.Drawing on his background in medicine and the natural sciences, Dr. Swenson examines the wonders of creation and explains how they reveal a majestic God whose mastery of detail is evident everywhere, from the breathtaking complexity of living cells to the awesome grandeur of the cosmos. He shows us a God whose genius, power, sophistication, and artistry shout from every element of our universe. With evidence from both science and Scripture, Swenson helps us see ourselves as God sees us--treasured creations with whom He desires initmate relationship.Table of ContentsChapter 1: The Human Body and BiologyChapter 2: Our Body in ParticlesChapter 3: The Heart, Blood, and LungsChapter 4: The SensesChapter 5: The Brain and Nervous SystemChapter 6: The Cell, Genes, and DNAChapter 7: The Skin, Stomach, Skeleton, and SpermChapter 8: The UniverseChapter 9: Physics and ChemistryChapter 10: MathematicsChapter 11: Astronomy and CosmologyChapter 12: Time, Space, and LightChapter 13: The KingdomChapter 14: Seeing Through a Glass DarklyChapter 15: God's Power in ScripturesChapter 16: I Will Build My KingdomWhere do you stand on all these subjects? I stand on God's side. Whether the earth was formed by God billions of years ago, or just 6,000 to 10,000 years ago, really makes no difference to me. It doesn't change that God created all things. Whether it happened in six 24 hour days, or six 1000 hour days, it doesn't change that God is the creator. I believe people are so hung up on detailed specifics that have nothing to do with having a relationship with Jesus Christ. Here's what the Bible says about creation:Mark 10:6 "But at the beginning of creation God 'made them male and female.John 17:24 "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.Romans 1:20 For 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.Psalm 8:6-8 (6) You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: (7) all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, (8) the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.Isaiah 43:7 everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made."Psalm 148:4-5 (4) Praise him, you highest heavens and you waters above the skies. (5) Let them praise the name of the LORD, for he commanded and they were created.Jeremiah 27:5 With my great power and outstretched arm I made the earth and its people and the animals that are on it, and I give it to anyone I please.Colossians 1:15 (The Supremacy of Christ) He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.Hebrews 4:4 And yet his work has been finished since the creation of the world. 4For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: "And on the seventh day God rested from all his work."Revelation 21:1-8The New Jerusalem (1)Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. (2)I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. (3)And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. (4)He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." (5)He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." (6)He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. (7)He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. (8)But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death."