Transcript Document

Genesis, Science and
History
John Oates
July 20, 2015
What this Class is About

What this class is NOT about


This class is not an attempt to prove that God exists through science or
reasoning
Several books take this approach by highlighting




Thesis:



Archaeological discoveries proving the accuracy of the Bible
Dietary laws of the Jews
Apparent design in nature
God has so designed the universe that you will not find explicit evidence in
nature for his existence
He has never desired mere intellectual belief, never sought that kind of faith:
“The demons believe in God, and shudder.”
What this class IS about



Understand what the author is trying to communicate
Show that there is no fundamental inconsistency between science and
the Bible
All apparent inconsistencies arise from either



Incorrect “scientific” assumptions
Incorrect Biblical interpretations
Many traditional Biblical interpretations are inconsistent with science
2
Outline of Topics to be Covered



1) Introduction
2) Creation, the Age of the Earth and the
Big Bang
In Search of Adam






3) The Hominid Fossil Record
4) The Human Diaspora
5) Adam, Lost and Found
6) The Flood
7) Evolution
8) The Origin of Life and Intelligent Design
3
Overview for Tonight




Importance of reconciling
the Bible with science
The history of the conflict
between science and the
religion
The Bible must be
correctly interpreted
Scientism
4
Importance

Most issues of Science and the Bible are not essential points of doctrine



Believing in the resurrection is an essential point of doctrine
Believing the earth to be 4.5 billion years old rather than created in six days
around 4004 B.C. is not
Yet in some cases scientifically-minded people have been driven away
from the church for rejecting traditional interpretations

We need to know what beliefs do and do not contradict the Bible






A 4.5 billion year old earth does not contradict the Bible
Believing humans to be merely biological machines does contradicts the Bible
Does evolution contradict the Bible?
What about the naturalistic origin of life?
What should we believe about the Flood, miracles, the Big Bang, …
Bible directives


“Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give
the reason for the hope that you have.” – 1 Peter 3:15
“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who
does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.”
– 2 Tim 2:15
5
Importance

Scientific education – What should we teach our kids?





Many of our kids will lose their faith between their freshman and
senior years in college (James Leuba, 1916)
Scientific ideas taught in schools, if not well-addressed, can be a
serious stumbling block to our children, if not ourselves
Alan Hayward: “But it is quite another matter for recentcreationists to argue that the astronomers, the astrophysicists,
the nuclear physicists, the geologists, the geochemists and the
geophysicists are all on the wrong track, too! When they have
had the time to ponder the implications, how many educated
young people will accept such a sweeping dismissal of so large a
part of science? And what will happen when they finally turn and
reject it? Is there not a danger that many of them will swing to
the other extreme and reject the Bible altogether?”
If we fail to handle this correctly our kids may brand us as
simpletons and find reason to ignore Christ
Our own faith

Some of us undoubtedly are insecure regarding some of the
apparent inconsistencies between the Biblical and scientific
teachings
6
Overview for Tonight




Importance of reconciling
the Bible with science
The history of the conflict
between science and the
religion
The Bible must be
correctly interpreted
Scientism
7
Conflict Between Science and Religion

The “war” between Science and Religion



John William Draper: History of the Conflict
Between Religion and Science, 1875
Andrew Dickson White: A History of the Warfare
of Science With Theology in Christendom, 1896
That Science and Religion have always been at
war is contentious

Nevertheless, everyone acknowledges that the
current relationship is accurately described by war
8
Flat Versus Round Earth


Did man from his earliest day
believe that the Earth was flat?
Early Greek philosophers knew the
world was round


Aristotle (~350 BC) reasoned that the
earth was spherical since only a
sphere would cast a circular shadow
on the moon regardless of geometry
Combining astronomical observations
with geometry the early Greek
philosophers calculated




The earth’s diameter, with high
accuracy
The distance from the earth to moon,
more or less correctly
The distance from the earth to the sun
(less accurately)
By 1492 it was generally agreed
that the world is round, at least by
the educated classes
Eratosthenes (ca. 276 - 194 BC)
9
Flat Versus Round Earth

Several of the early church fathers believed that
the earth is flat based on a literal reading of the
Bible




Flat-earth scriptures:




“He set the earth on its foundations; it can never
be moved.” – Psa 104:5
“He shakes the earth from its place and makes its
pillars tremble.” – Job 9:6
“After this I saw four angels standing at the four
corners of the earth, …” – Rev 7:1
The Flat-Earth Society is still alive today


Cosmas Indicopleustes (547 AD)
Lactantius (245-325 AD)
…
Their beliefs again based on a literal reading of the
Bible
The Bible does not say that the earth is flat – the
early church fathers misinterpreted poetical
passages as literal

“Have you ever given orders to the morning, or
shown the dawn its place, that it might take the
earth by the edges and shake the wicked out of it?”
– Job 38:12-13
Charles K. Johnson, president
of the International Flat Earth
Research Society
10
The Ancient’s View of the Cosmos
“He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people
are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a
canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in.” – Isa 40:22
11
The Antipodes

Augustine (~400 AD)


Augustine’s deductions




“But as to the fable that there are Antipodes, that is to say,
men on the opposite side of the earth, where the sun rises
when it sets to us, men who walk with their feet opposite
ours, that is on no ground credible. … For Scripture, which
proves the truth of its historical statements by the
accomplishment of its prophecies, gives no false
information; and it is too absurd to say, that some men
might have taken ship and traversed the whole wide ocean,
and crossed from this side of the world to the other, and
that thus even the inhabitants of that distant region are
descended from that one first man. (City of God, XVI.9).”
Verses like Acts 17:26 – “From one man he made every
nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth” –
indicate that all men are derived from Adam
Given, therefore, that the antipodes where unreachable
from Eden, if they exist, they must be uninhabited
Augustine used the scriptures to support the view that
there were no people on the opposite side of the earth,
yet at that time the Mayan and Teotihuacan (Mexico)
cultures were fully established
Alan Hayward (Creation and Evolution):

“Augustine, of course, believed that he was demolishing bad
science with Scriptures. In fact, he was unsuccessfully
opposing good science with his own incorrect deductions
from Scripture – a mistake which has been repeated all
through history”
Augustine of Hippo
12
http://www.philosophypages.com/ph/augu.htm
Nicolaus Copernicus

Copernicus published De Revolutionibus in 1543,
supporting the idea that the earth rotates every 24
hours and that it orbits the sun every year



Deferent
Epicycle
Planet
Earth
Passages Luther and his contemporaries used include




He immediately came under attack from both Catholics
and Protestants
“People give ear to an upstart astrologer who strove to
show that the Earth revolves, not the heavens or the
firmament, the sun and the moon … This fool Copernicus
wishes to reverse the entire science of astronomy; but
sacred Scripture tells us that Joshua commanded the sun
to stand still and not the earth.” – Martin Luther
Ptolemaic System
"So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, …" –
Joshua 10:13
“In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun, which
is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a
champion rejoicing to run his course. It rises at one end
of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing
is hidden from its heat.” – Psalm 19:4-6
"The Earth is firmly fixed; it shall not be moved" – Psalm
104:5
Just like Augustine, Luther misinterpreted the
scriptures, ridiculing those who held the truth


“and it is too absurd to say …” – Augustine
“This fool Copernicus …” – Luther
Copernican System
Statue of Aristarchus at
Aristoteles University in
Thessaloniki, Greece
13
Galileo Galilei

Galileo Galilei became persuaded of, and championed, the
heliocentric solar system



In 1610 he discovered 4 moons orbiting Jupiter, now known as
the Galilean moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto
He also found that Venus was a planet, with phases like the
moon
In 1616 Pope Paul V notified Galileo in writing to “not hold
or defend” the Copernican theory

Under the Copernican theory man and the earth were no longer
at the center of the Universe

In 1632 Galileo published his Dialogue on the Great World

Immediately the wrath of the catholic church fell on Galileo
Systems, The Ptolemaic and Copernican





Galileo Galilei
He was summoned to Rome to appear before the Inquisition
The church produced a written memo, purportedly given to
Galileo in 1616 indicating that he “not hold nor defend nor
teach in any way whatsoever, verbally or in writing …” the
Copernican theory
He was sentenced to recant his views under a charge of heresy
and then placed under house arrest
Compared to Giordano Bruno Galileo got off easy – Bruno had
been burned at the stake as a heretic in 1600
The Dialogue was added to the index of banned books
where it remained until 1832
Giordano Bruno
14
From Conflict to all-out War












In 1650 Irish Archbishop James Ussher (1581-1656) arrived at
a date 4004 BC for creation, 2349 for the Flood
By the mid-1800s the Uniformitarianism of James Hutton
(1726-1797) and Charles Lyell (1797-1875) became the
universally accepted geological theory
In the second half of the 19th century various interpretations
of the creation days were proposed to reconcile the Genesis
account with geology
In 1859 Charles Darwin (1809-1882) published the Origin of
James Ussher
Sir Charles Lyell
Charles Darwin
John Scopes
the Species
By the beginning of the 20th century evolution was accepted
almost universally by scientists and churchmen alike
The beginning of Fundamentalism is marked by the
publication of The Fundamentals in 1909
At this same time a strong anti-evolutionist movement was
mounting in the United States
The Scopes “Monkey Trial” of 1925 propelled the ScienceReligion conflict to the forefront of the public’s attention
worldwide
“Creation Science” took root in the early part of the 20th
century, but had little support until the publication of Henry
Morris’ “The Genesis Flood” in 1961
Throughout the second half the 20th century numerous court
and school-board battles were fought over the Evolution vs.
Creationism
In 1964 Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson discovered the CMB
radiation and measured its temperature – the first
experimental confirmation of the Big Bang theory
The Intelligent Design movement began with the publication
of Darwin on Trial, by Phillip Johnson, 1991
Henry Morris
Phillip E. Johnson
15
What can we learn from the conflict?


The Bible has been misused

to support a flat earth

to preclude people on the opposite side of the earth

to support a geocentric solar system
Conclusions

The Bible has been REPEATEDLY misinterpreted

Caution must be exercised in interpreting the Bible

The conflict has become increasingly acrimonious
with time
16
Overview for Tonight




Importance of reconciling
the Bible with science
The history of the conflict
between science and the
religion
The Bible must be
correctly interpreted
Scientism
17
The Bible Must Be Correctly Interpreted

Examples where the Bible must be interpreted



“By the seventh day God had finished the work he
had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested
from all his work.” – Gen 2:2
“Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the
wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you
will eat dust all the days of your life.” – Gen 3:14
How should we read the Bible?


Literally? At face value? Seriously?
There is no simple answer, except to earnestly seek
after the truth using



all the resources and
all the faculties that God has given us
God has always intended that we use our minds in
reading the Bible



“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with
all your soul and with all your mind” – Mat 22:37
Jesus’ parables (Mat 13:13) and the Proverbs (2:1-5)
were apparently design to make people search for
the meaning
Many Old Testament passages, while historical, were
also allegorical (Col 2:17, Heb 8:5, 1Cor 2:10)
18
The Bible Must Be Correctly Interpreted

We must recognize the genre and
artistic methods being employed




The genre is sometimes apocalyptic
Biblical language is poetical or
allegorical
The scriptures are sometimes
phenomenological
The Bible often speaks in hyperbole



“Even from birth the wicked go astray;
from the womb they are wayward and
speak lies” – Psalm 58:3
“This is the gospel that you heard and
that has been proclaimed to every
creature under heaven, …” – Col 1:23
“If your right eye causes you to sin,
gouge it out and throw it away” – Mat
5:29
19
The Bible Must Be Correctly Interpreted

Ken Ham


Derek Kidner


“For me to accept an old age (billions of years) for the
earth is to accept that fallible man’s fallible methods are
in authority over God’s infallible Word. I can’t do that!”
“We are asserting our own infallibility, not that of the
scriptures, when we refuse to collate our factual answers
with those of independent inquiry.”
Suggestion for Biblical interpretation in the light of
extra-Biblical knowledge



Does the Bible really exclude evolution?
What about a local rather than global flood?
Suggestions:

If we can find a reasonable interpretation of the Scriptures
that accommodates the scientific observations, the problem
is solved


If not we have a paradox – that’s ok
If scientific evidence is stacked against a literal reading to
such a great extent that the only alternatives are



Ken Ham, Executive
Director, Answers in
Genesis
(a) science must be correct, or
(b) God must intentionally be deceiving us
then the conclusion must be that science is correct
20
Disputable Matters

Biblical injunctions






“Accept him whose faith is weak, without
passing judgment on disputable matters.” –
Rom 14:1
“All of us who are mature should take such
a view of things. And if on some point you
think differently, that too God will make
clear to you.” – Phil 3:15
“It is not good to have zeal without
knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the
way.” – Prov 19:2
“When pride comes, then comes disgrace,
but with humility comes wisdom.” – Prov
11:2
“The first to present his case seems right,
till another comes forward and questions
him.” – Prov 18:17
“Let us therefore make every effort to do
what leads to peace and to mutual
edification.” – Rom 14:19
21
Overview for Tonight




Importance of reconciling
the Bible with science
The history of the conflict
between science and the
religion
The Bible must be
correctly interpreted
Scientism
22
Scientism / Naturalism

William Provine

“Naturalistic evolution has clear
consequences that Charles Darwin
understood perfectly.






No gods worth having exist;
no life after death exists;
no ultimate foundation for ethics exists;
no ultimate meaning in life exists; and
human free will is nonexistent.”
Steven Weinberg


1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
“As far as we have been able to discover
the laws of nature, they are impersonal,
with no hint of a divine plan or any
special status for human beings”
Richard Dawkins

“The universe that we observe has
precisely the properties we should expect
if there is, at bottom, no design, no
purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but
blind, pitiless indifference.”
Richard Dawkins
Steven
WilliamWeinberg
Provine
23
Scientism / Naturalism

There is nothing outside of the physical
world







There is nothing special about man




Moral ideas are nothing more than societal
rules that man has found convenient for
the smooth operation of society
We are all merely biological machines
We have no free will and we are not
responsible for our actions
There is no absolute good and evil
There is no purpose for what happens in
the universe
Miracles do not happen and never have
happened
Man is no different from the animals
Man does not have either a soul or a spirit
At death we simply cease to exist
“God” is a concept invented by ignorant
man who did not know better
24
Scientism / Naturalism



William Newsome
The core assumption of science is that effects are due to
causes, and that by repeatedly reproducing the causes we can
repeatedly reproduce the effect.
A second common assumption made by scientists is that there
is nothing outside of the natural world, and therefore the only
way to gain knowledge is through scientific investigation
William Newsome, Professor of Neurobiology at Stanford
University


Matt Cartmill, president of the American Association of Physical
Anthropologists, Discover magazine, 1998


“Conflict arises when the additional assumption is introduced that
the scientific process is the only reliable way to acquire truth that
is meaningful and universal. This radically materialist proposition
is, of course, fundamentally incompatible with most traditional
forms of religious belief and practice. At one fell swoop, it
dismisses the existence of God, the possibility of divine revelation Matt Cartmill
to humanity, any notion of universal grounding for right action Michael Ruse
(ethics), or any possibility that humanity can participate in a reality
that transcends itself—none of which is testable by scientific
method or required for understanding the mechanics of nature.”
“Many scientists are atheists or agnostics who want to believe that
the natural world they study is all there is, and being only human,
they try to persuade themselves that science gives them the
grounds for that belief … It’s an honorable belief, but it isn’t a
research finding.”
Michael Ruse, philosopher-historian, himself a Darwinist, calls
this Naturalism “a religion”
25
Conclusions

Importance




Conflict between science and religion




The conflict dates back at least to the 4th century AD
It continues to this day, the conflict becoming increasingly acrimonious
Scientists have become alienated with prospects of outreach limited
The Bible must be interpreted




We must not shut the doors of the church to the scientifically-minded or
the atheist
We need to know what beliefs do and do not contradict the Bible
Many of our kids will lose their faith between their freshman and senior
years in college
The genre of the writings need to be understood
Literary devices need to be identified
There is no simple rule of interpretation
Are science and religion fundamentally at odds? What is the source of
the conflict?


On the part of the religious, the Bible has been often misinterpreted
On the part of scientists, the assumption of naturalism is misrepresented
as science
26
Creation, the Age of the Earth and the Big Bang

Is the Earth merely 6000 years old?



How do scientists determine the age
of the Earth?





What is the evidence for an old earth?
Is radiometric dating reliable?
What are the supposed evidences for
a young Earth?
What is the Evidence for the Big
Bang?
Can the Bible be reconciled with a
13.6 billion year old universe?



Does the Bible really indicate a young
Earth?
What was the original intent of the
author(s)?
Does the order of events recorded in
Genesis 1 agree with science?
How have the seven days of creation
been variously interpreted?
Do Genesis 1 and 2 represent two
contradictory creation accounts?
27
The End