Lesson 10 of a multipart series. A survey of the various competing theories. Young Earth, Old Earth, Theistic Evolution, and Darwinian Evolution. Also covering the philosophical presuppositions that guide interpretation of the data.

2. Third Column Ministries
www.slideshare.net/ThirdColumnMinistries
www.facebook.com/LearnApologetics | Twitter: @LApologetics
www.ThirdColumnMinistries.org
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License..

4. Key Terminology
• Intelligent Design
• Young Earth Creation
• Old Earth Creation (Progressive Creation)
• Theistic Evolution (Evolutionary Creation)
• Deistic Evolution
• Darwinian Evolution

5. Young Earth Creation
Position Young Earth
Purpose Yes
Universe Age 6,000-10,000
Micro Evolution Yes
Macro Evolution No
Inteligent Design Yes
God's Intervention Direct
Special Revelation Bible
Human Life Adam & Eve
Sin Yes
Image of God Yes

6. Old Earth Creation
Position Old Earth
Purpose Yes
Universe Age 10-15 Billion
Micro Evolution Yes
Macro Evolution No
Inteligent Design Yes
God's Intervention Direct & Indirect
Special Revelation Bible
Human Life Adam & Eve
Sin Yes
Image of God Yes

7. Theistic Evolution
Position Theistic Evolution
Purpose Yes
Universe Age 10-15 Billion
Micro Evolution Yes
Macro Evolution Yes
Inteligent Design Yes
God's Intervention Indirect
Special Revelation Bible
Human Life Evolved
Sin Yes
Image of God Yes

8. Deistic Evolution
Position Deistic Evolution
Purpose Yes
Universe Age 10-15 Billion
Micro Evolution Yes
Macro Evolution Yes
Inteligent Design Yes
God's Intervention Indirect
Special Revelation None
Human Life Evolved
Sin No
Image of God No

9. Neo-Darwinian Evolution
Position Neo-Darwinian Evolution
Purpose No
Universe Age 10-15 Billion
Micro Evolution Yes
Macro Evolution Yes
Inteligent Design No
God's Intervention Random Chance
Special Revelation N/A
Human Life Evolved
Sin No
Image of God No

10. “We…do not need to be committed to any
particular version of how God created. But the
notion that God intentionally created the world
because he wanted to is at the heart of the Bible
and the Christian worldview… there are those like
myself , just plain Christian theists who believe the
universe was created by God but not committed to
a specific version of how it came to be in its current
form.”
-James Sire

12. 3 Problems
• Scientists are working under presuppositions
that eliminate the possibility of a creator
(bias).
• Science cannot account for the first single cell
or event how a single cell would come into
existence.
• Time is relative.

13. “The Cosmos is all that is, or ever was,
or ever will be.”
- Carl Sagan
Note that Sagan is making a philosophical claim and not stating a
scientific fact.

14. Philosophical Presuppositions
• Materialistic naturalism presupposes that
material is all there is.
• Therefore there is nothing supernatural.
• There presupposition limits possible
explanations to only natural explanations.
• Therefore even if it looks like design it can’t be
designed.
• Science is always based on philosophical
presuppositions.

15. “Our willingness to accept scientific claims that are against common sense is
the key to an understanding of the real struggle between science and the
supernatural. We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of
some of its constructs, in spite of its failure to fulfill many of its extravagant
promises of health and life, in spite of the tolerance of the scientific
community for unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we have a prior
commitment, a commitment to materialism. It is not that the methods and
institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation
of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our a
priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation
and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how
counter-intuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover,
that materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.”
- Harvard Genetics Professor, Richard Lewontin (Atheist)

16. “When there is a conflict between
methodology and materialism, the
philosophy always trumps the facts. Modern
science does not conclude from the evidence
that design is not tenable. It assumes it prior
to the evidence… This is not faith vs.
evidence, but evidence vs. evidence.”
(G. Koukl, Tactics 171)

17. “It is best to let the Bible speak on its own
terms and not force particular scientific
theories out of it. It is best also to let science
do its work, occasionally reminding scientist
that they cannot claim neutrality.”
– William Edgar, Reasons of the Heart:
Recovering the Christian Persuasion

18. “The atheist’s model begins with an even more
impressive miracle – the appearance of all the
matter in the universe from nothing, by no one,
and for no reason.”
- Chuck Missler/Mark Eastman, The Creator
Beyond Time and Space

19. Irreducible Complexity

20. A system performing a given basic function is irreducibly
complex if it includes a set of well-matched, mutually
interacting, nonarbitrarily individuated parts such that each
part in the set is indispensable to maintaining the system's
basic, and therefore original, function. The set of these
indispensable parts is known as the irreducible core of the
system.
- William Dembski
A single system which is composed of several interacting
parts that contribute to the basic function, and where the
removal of any one of the parts causes the system to
effectively cease functioning.
- Michael Behe

21. Irreducible Complexity
This work has been released into the public domain by its author, LadyofHats.

22. Irreducible Complexity
• Macro Evolution only addresses change from one species to
another.
• Evolution does not explain the origin of life.
• Neo-Darwinian Evolution requires reproducing life.
• Without reproduction evolution is rendered meaningless.
• It is through the reproduction process that random changes are
introduced.
• The simplest form of reproducing life is a single cell.
• A single cell is highly complex.
• There is noting simpler than a single cell that is self-replicating.
• Building blocks may be found in nature, but none of the bio-
machines in the cell that are required for reproduction, are found in
nature outside of a cell.
• None of the criticisms of irreducible complexity answer the
fundamental question, how did the first, highly complex, self-
replicating cell come into existence?

23. “An irreducibly complex system cannot be
produced directly (that is, by continuously
improving the initial function, which
continues to work by the same mechanism)
by slight, successive modifications of a
precursor system, because any precursor to
an irreducibly complex system that is missing
a part is by definition nonfunctional.”
- Michael Behe

24. Time
• Theory of relativity
– Time dilation is an actual difference of elapsed
time between two events as measured by
observers.
• Motion (speed, direction)
• Mass (gravity)
– Scientists proved the hypothesis true in the '70s
by sending an atomic clock into orbit.

26. The universe is expanding.
As the universe aged space and
time were stretched.
Light between stars also was
stretched.
Think of a balloon.
Draw two dots and a line going
from one to halfway between the
two dots.
Notice what happens when you
blow the balloon up.
The line is also stretched.

27. Gerald Schroeder’s Theory
• We see approximately 15 billion years of history.
• The Torah says six days.
• In truth, they both may be correct.
• Remember the universe (space-time) has been
stretched over time.
• The universe is 15 billion years old as seen from
the time-space coordinates of the earth.
• The universe is approximately 7 days old as seen
from the time-space coordinates of the big-bang.
http://www.geraldschroeder.com/AgeUniverse.aspx

28. 6 days equals 14.07 billion years
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6
Billions of Years

29. Day 1 Day 2 3 4 5 6