GOD, THE SCIENCE, THE EVIDENCE

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As debates over science, meaning, and morality grow ever more polarized, a ground-breaking, accurate, and easy-to-read new book in English invites readers to reconsider one of humanity’s most profound questions: could science itself now point us back to God?

The international bestseller God, the Science, the Evidence, an accessible yet rigorous investigation, has sold more than 400,000 copies across Europe. Now, this landmark work comes to the English-speaking world in an updated and expanded version.

The publication of God, the Science, the Evidence marks a major milestone in the renewed global interest in the scientific evidence for the existence of God. Representing years of research and reflection, it presents complex ideas in a clear and engaging style, one that has already made it a cultural phenomenon throughout Europe.

At its core, the book tackles one fundamental question: Is there a Creator God? And it approaches that question through a single lens—rationality—by examining twelve independent fields of knowledge.

Get the book and use it to brings others to the truth of our Creator God who loves us. When people come to realise that evolution is a failed theory and they were created in the image of their Creator God, a God who loves them it will change their lives forever.

BIOLOGICAL SYSTEMS ARE INCOMPREHENSIBLE WITHOUT TAKING GOD INTO ACCOUNT

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Hundreds of different programs are used by cells to function efficiently. Who designed and created these programs? And what about all the manufacturing units and distribution machinery in every cell the programs control?

Mass media, YouTube, and the modern form of (mis)education

Much of the indoctrination in evolution, defined as litter → LUCA (Last Universal Common Ancestor) → Laureates, is currently being conducted through mass media and YouTubers. Very few read or are qualified to understand, the primary evolutionary literature. Middlemen produce interpretations, having a veneer of vague, conceptual plausibility, with a generous sprinkle of technical terms thrown in.

One YouTuber who has engaged in many online video debates with creation scientists and Intelligent Design supporters reviewed Maury’s paper and educated his followers with the missing details for how amyloids supposedly led to the modern genetic system. Disturbingly, more people see videos like these than are critically evaluating the primary literature.

With supreme confidence, the YouTuber explained:

“And ATP is another naturally occurring energy source near hydrothermal vents. So, we know that amyloids have ATPase activity they can utilize the energy of ATP to do work. And once you develop this interaction between amyloids and ATP, it’s only a matter of time until you start having refinements into the information storing system. The stringing of ATP and different triphosphate nucleotides together into DNA and RNA, the incorporation of lipids which are again found naturally at hydrothermal vents and which spontaneously formed bilayer membranes; as well as the creation of protein enzymes to do specific function.” 

Addressing all the errors in this one paragraph alone required a full paper (Truman, R., Amyloids and ATP fictitious chemistry)

Our concern is that careless wording by evolutionary scientists and those embellishing and passing on errors are seriously misguiding many.

Evolution theory and the influence of science fiction

Norbert Wiener, the founder of Control Theory, showed that information is a real entity and that reality can only be understood by considering the effects of matter, energy, and information. Downgrading the meaning of information instead of using well-understood concepts to describe matter leads to serious mistakes. Not only is what philosophers call a category mistake created, but a tendency is increasing in the origin of life community to replace hard scientific work with vague imagery.

If design is so readily detectable outside science, and if its detectability is one of the key factors keeping scientists honest, why should design be barred from the content of science? Why do Dawkins and Crick feel compelled to constantly remind us that biology studies things that only appear to be designed, but insist they are not designed? Why couldn’t biology study things that are designed?

The biological community’s response to these questions has been to resist design absolutely, which is absurd.

Dr. Scott Todd, an immunologist at Kansas State University, said: “Even if all the data point to an intelligent designer, such a hypothesis is excluded from science because it is not naturalistic.” Ref: Todd, Scott C., correspondence to Nature 401, num. 6752 (September 30, 1999):423

“For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.”For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.” Romans 1:19-23

SHARING THE TRUTH WITH A SKEPTIC

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It can be discouraging to share the truth with a skeptic only to have them ignore it. It doesn’t seem to matter how much—or how good—our evidence is. Some people just do not want to believe as they do not want to give up control of their lives. They want to be the God of their world just as Satan did. So, do they need more evidence?

No, decidedly not. You see, it’s not a matter of the evidence. It’s a spirit/heart problem. The people of Jesus’ day saw him heal people—and even raise the dead! And yet many refused to believe. When Jesus’ body disappeared from the tomb, instead of believing, the religious leaders made up a story to explain away the evidence.

Yes, it’s a spirit/heart problem!

Did you know that our spirit was originally designed to be the lamp of the Lord? It was always meant to contain the Holy Spirit so that man could commune with God as Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden.

“The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all his innermost parts.” Proverbs 20:27

When Adam and Eve rebelled against God the Holy Spirit departed their spirit. It was no longer the lamp of the Lord. A lamp requires oil to function and the oil (Holy Spirit) was no longer available to them.

When we repent and accept Jesus as our Lord and Saviour then our Heavenly Father sends the Holy Spirit to indwell our spirit so that it can function again as the lamp of the Lord. He produces the fruit of the Spirit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, faithfulness, gentleness, goodness, kindness, and self-control. He is also the one who provides the gifts of the Spirit for ministry (1 Corinthians 12).

So what’s the answer for sharing with the skeptic? Pray, keep sharing truth, and trust God to send the Holy Spirit to convict them of their sin of rebellion against God.

From a biblical perspective, all true wisdom and understanding is found in Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 1:30) as God, Creator, and Savior (John 1:1–4).

“The true light (Jesus), which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God (by the Holy Spirit).” John 1:9-13

You can choose to place your trust in the changing opinions of man or believe the unchanging, infallible words of God. God’s understanding is eternal (Isaiah 40:28) and fixed (Hebrews 13:8), which is why we must let Scripture be our final authority in all matters of life. Only then does life and science make sense!

It amazes me how the atheist does not consider the invalidity of his own position. The atheist calls for real science and knowledge, but he denies the God who makes it possible to even do scientific research because He promised to maintain the universe in a uniform way (Genesis 8:22). In a world with no God where everything came about from nothing by chance, how could we observe and repeat experiments consistently from day to day?

How does knowledge, which is immaterial, exist in an atheistic, strictly material world? Love, knowledge, self-awareness, and other abstract or immaterial concepts do not make sense in an atheistic worldview where only the material exists. Besides, if God does not exist and there are no absolutes and no ultimate answers for the meaning of life, then why do science at all?

Scripture addresses man’s biggest problem, which is that he is a sinner who has rebelled against God and needs a Saviour. Check out the Bible to see that it is indeed an operation manual for our lives, starting with the need for every person to repent of their sins and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, His death on the Cross for our sins, and His Resurrection from the dead. This is the first step to real understanding and true knowledge (Proverbs 1:7, 9:10).

From the first two chapters in Genesis and throughout the rest of Scripture, only the Bible lays down an accurate framework for correctly understanding the origin, structure, and laws that govern the universe. The Answers in Genesis (http://www.answersingenesis.org) and Creation Ministries (http://www.creation.com) websites contain literally hundreds of articles demonstrating operational science is consistent with the Bible.

SIGNPOSTS TO GOD

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Another great article in Creation Magazine 2023, Vol 45, Issue 2, this time by Peter Howe Dip. Th., B.Th., M.A. A trained primary school teacher, Peter pastored several churches as an ordained minister in the Wesleyan Methodist Church of Australia.

Evidence of design

Flicking through a magazine one day as a child, I came across a photograph of Mount Rushmore, South Dakota, with the unmistakable likenesses of four American presidents carved into the rocks. Knowing nothing of how these came to be there, I remember thinking, “How strange! These can’t have happened by accident.”

Precisely! No one could seriously suggest that these shapes resulted from wind or rain or glacial erosion. These carved faces are clearly the result of creative design and effort.

Though not professing a commitment to anything like the God of the Bible, Paul Davies, former professor of theoretical physics at The University of Adelaide, writes in his book The Mind of God:

“Through my scientific work, I have come to believe more and more strongly that the physical universe is put together with an ingenuity so astonishing that I cannot accept it merely as a brute fact … I cannot believe that our existence in this universe is a mere quirk of fate, an accident of history, an incidental blip in the great cosmic drama.“

The humblest believer in God as Creator must exercise far less credulity, and has far less explaining to do, than the most ardent evolutionist materialist.

Of course, fallen humanity has devised many increasingly sophisticated speculations of how nature could nonetheless have made itself. Ministries like CMI provide people with specific answers to such challenges. Even so, it pays to step back and contemplate the ‘big picture’ of what is claimed, and its affront to common sense itself.

The evidence within

Another signpost is human nature. We have been made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). Thus, we have spiritual capacities that cannot be explained apart from God. Language, reason, ambition, creativity, humour, wonder, worship—all these have no counterpart in the natural world. These qualities mark us out as different from the rest of God’s handiwork. This is another way of saying that our Creator has endowed us with the capacity to relate to Him at a personal level.

Within human nature, conscience is another sign pointing to God. Proverbs 20:27 says of the human spirit that it is “the lamp of the Lord, searching all [man’s] innermost parts.”. Our conscience is responsible for our intuitive knowledge of right and wrong, good and evil. The Apostle Paul states that even those who don’t have God’s law in written form still have a conscience that commends them when they instinctively do what it commands and accuses them when they don’t (Romans 2:14–15).

An image of hand

Even without a ‘book of rules,’ we know it’s wrong to lie, steal, covet, and murder. Conscience ‘puts a pebble in our shoe’ whenever we violate it. The standard it sets and the guilt it inflicts point us to God—the Source of all good and the Judge of all evil.

Eternity in our hearts

Our longing for eternity is another pointer to God. Somehow, we know and feel that this life is not all that there is. Archaeologists have discovered how carefully and elaborately the ancient Egyptians prepared for the afterlife, and they had no Bible to tell them about a life to come. Where does this longing for eternity come from? Everything on Earth is subject to change and decay:

“Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, but you are the same, and your years have no end.” Psalm 102:25–27

These ‘immortality longings’ we all feel at various moments are pointers to the God who created us in His own image.

Hunger of the soul

Another signpost to God is our longing for meaning and purpose. We always knew when our cat Simba was hungry and wanted to be fed. (Any cat owner knows that dogs have masters, but cats have staff!) He would eat his prescription dry food and go away content; his next meal seemed to be the limit of his horizon. But we can’t live at that bare, subsistence level—at least, not for long. We crave meaning and purpose in our lives; we long to enjoy significant and satisfying relationships.

This sense of longing is often called ‘the homesickness of the soul’—and rightly so, for that’s precisely what it is. The true object of our longing is God. The words of the psalmist reflect this truth:

“As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?” Psalm 42:1–2

Of all the signposts pointing to God, the Bible is by far the clearest. When a British monarch is crowned, he or she is given a copy of the Bible, and told, “This Book is the most valuable thing that this world affords. This is the royal law; these are the lively oracles of God.” When we read the Bible with a humble and teachable attitude, we find it to be a source of supernatural wisdom and power. The psalmist prayed: “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law” (Psalm 119:18). Paul reminded his young associate Timothy that Scripture provides the wisdom and instruction that leads to “salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15).Scripture’s major theme is Jesus Christ, God’s only Son. As “image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15), Jesus is the clearest and most compelling witness to the existence and greatness of God the Father. Jesus Himself said: “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). He is the perfect transcript of what God is like.

But the supreme demonstration of God’s love and care is the sending of His Son into the world to suffer death on the cross, to save us from our sins, and to reclaim us for Himself. The Cross is more than enough to convince us that God loves and cares for lost people (Romans 5:8). Jesus Himself said that He came “to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).

To help us find our way to God, there are signposts everywhere, but the most vital one is Jesus. He said: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

IS DESIGN DENIAL OF LIVING THINGS DEFENSIBLE?

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Living things certainly look designed. Some people are surprised to learn that even well-known, militant atheists and evolutionists will admit this fact, as the following three cases illustrate. Let’s hear first from British biologist Richard Dawkins: An increasing number of people in our secular society … are persuaded that design denial is an entirely sensible position. “Living things are not designed, but Darwinian natural selection licenses a version of the design stance for them. We get a shortcut to understanding the heart if we assume that it is ‘designed’ to pump blood.”2

Director of The Skeptics Society (US) Michael Shermer agrees: “The design inference comes naturally. The reason people think that a Designer created the world is because it looks designed.”3

So does American evolutionary biologist and Intelligent Design critic Jerry Coyne: “If anything is true about nature, it is that plants and animals seem intricately and almost perfectly designed for living their lives.”4

In the above instances, Dawkins, Shermer, and Coyne had living organisms in mind. But on a cosmic scale, too, top scientists affirm design. Charles Townes (1915–2015), who shared the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1964, unashamedly affirmed the universe was God-made: “Intelligent design, as one sees it from the scientific point of view, seems to be quite real. This is a very special universe: it’s remarkable that it came out just this way. If the laws of physics weren’t just the way they are, we couldn’t be here at all. The sun couldn’t be there, the laws of gravity and nuclear laws and magnetic theory, quantum mechanics, and so on have to be just the way they are for us to be here.”5

So, to repeat, wherever we care to look we observe design. This being so, why is it that many people today seem unable (or unwilling) to accept the evidence of their eyes?

Living things certainly look designed—like the intricacies of a peacock’s tail.

Design denial

Recall that Richard Dawkins actually admits that “a shortcut to understanding” living things is gained by assuming that they are designed—even though he emphatically rejects that any designing intelligence was involved; and certainly not the God of the Bible. He is very insistent upon this point, but also inconsistent! And those who disagree with him—who believe instead that the Creator God is behind all the design we see—he calls deluded. Of course, not all atheists and skeptics go as far as Dawkins in their rhetoric. Nevertheless, an increasing number of people in our secular society are buying into the lie that design denial is synonymous with (even necessary for) scientific integrity. They are persuaded that design denial is an entirely sensible position.

“In their case the god of this world (Satan) has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” 2 Corinthians 4:4

“For they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.” John 12:43

‘Talk about design if you really must, but whatever you do, don’t bring God into the discussion.’ That, they claim, is bad science! I am reminded of the line from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.” You can substitute “lady” with any spokesperson for the secular scientific establishment who claims that it is unscientific to follow the trail from designed things to the Designer—a claim that is contrary to the Bible (e.g. Romans 1:20). No, we really should follow where the scientific evidence leads us. We have nothing to fear from facts, only fact-denying dogma. Beware of those who say otherwise, whatever their credentials.

“For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” Romans 1:20

The Maker’s marks

The hallmarks of design are everywhere we care to look. In making the point that Jesus was far greater than Moses, one Bible writer wisely affirmed, “For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God” (Hebrews 3:4). This is not the place to delve further into that passage, but don’t miss the message: if the architect and construction workers are the ones who deserve the credit for an impressive house, the One who is “builder of all things” even more so. When something “looks designed” (Shermer), even “perfectly designed” (Coyne), we do indeed get “a shortcut to understanding” (Dawkins) if we acknowledge it to be so. Trying to avoid this leads to a sort of cognitive dissonance

When something “looks designed” (Shermer), even “perfectly designed” (Coyne), we do indeed get “a short cut to understanding” (Dawkins) if we acknowledge it to be so. Trying to avoid this leads to a sort of cognitive dissonance, a conflict between two contradictory ideas—as in, ‘it looks designed, let’s pretend it’s designed as it’ll help us understand it, but let’s be sure to keep telling ourselves it is not designed.’

In his most recent book, Return of the God Hypothesis (2021),7 Stephen Meyer reminds his readers that: “… many of the founders of modern science did not just assume that the universe had been designed by an intelligent agent. They also argued for this hypothesis based on discoveries in their fields of study. Johannes Kepler … Robert Boyle … Carl Linnaeus. Many other individual scientists made specific design arguments based upon empirical discoveries in their fields.”8

These great scientists of the past, rather than denying the design that stared them in the face (and suffering cognitive dissonance), delighted in it! This was a vital factor in their fruitfulness as outstanding scientists.

‘Delighting in design’ is certainly true of the editorial team of CMI’s Creation magazine, as well as the many authors and graphic artists who contribute to each new issue. Consider subscribing if you don’t already receive it—read, learn, and share it with others.

Let us avoid the foolish mistake of ascribing greatness to the things that are made. Christians should also help friends, colleagues, and family members to avoid this pitfall. Instead, we must be sure to worship the Maker whose marks we have observed in His manufactured creatures—evidence for God’s Grand Design is all around us. Merely to delight in the created designs themselves, while robbing our Creator of the glory that is rightfully His, is sheer idolatry (see Romans 1:25).

“Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.” Romans 1:24-25

References and notes

  1. This first appeared in CreationExtra, CMI-UK/Europe, March 2022.
  2. Dawkins, R., The God Delusion, Bantam Press, London, p. 182, 2006 (emphasis added). 
  3. Shermer, M., Why Darwin Matters, Henry Holt and Company, New York, p. 65, 2006 (emphasis original).
  4. Coyne, J., Why Evolution is True, Viking, New York, p. 1, 2009. 
  5. Quoted in: Meyer, S.C., Return of the God Hypothesis: Three scientific discoveries that reveal the mind behind the universe, HarperOne, New York, p. 146, 2021.
  6. Bell, P. (ed) and 10 others, Does Evolution Explain Everything About Life? Answers from Ph.D. scientists, Creation Book Publishers, Power Springs, GA, 2020.
  7. See Woodmorappe, J., The existence of specified information in the universe points to a creator God, A review of Return of the God Hypothesis: Three scientific discoveries that reveal the mind behind the universe (Stephen C. Meyer), J. Creation 36(1):26–29, April 2022.
  8. Meyer, ref. 5, p. 47.

adapted from a CMI article Delighting in Design – and in its Originator by Philip Bell1 Check out http://www.creation.com

DESIGN IS ALWAYS TOP DOWN IT DOES NOT EVOLVE

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Taken from the new bible study for “Is Genesis History?” The full bible study is available here: http://bit.ly/ighbiblestudy

Dr. Stuart Burgess completed an engineering apprenticeship with Stothert and Pitt Cranes in Bath while completing a degree in mechanical engineering. After completing his PhD in the area of machine design he worked for the European Space Agency for five years mainly working on the ENVISAT earth observation satellite which is the largest earth observation civilian satellite in the world. He designed the solar array deployment mechanism including inventing a new type of gearbox – the double action worm gear set. He spent three years at Cambridge University as an Assistant Director of Research and Bye-Fellow of Selywn College. He led the design of the chain drive on the bicycles used by Team GB in the Rio Olympics where the cycling team won 6 gold medals and broke two world records. He has been at Bristol University since 1997 mainly working in the area of design optimisation of mechanical systems and bio-mechanical systems. I hope this in depth background on Stuart convinces you he has something worthwhile to say on a topic which determines where you will spend eternity.