GOD AND SCIENCE A STUDY OF THE COMPATIBILITY BETWEEN THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE 1

OUTLINE What is science? Is science fallible? Where do science and Christianity appear to conflict? Evolution vs Intelligent Design What’s the real problem? How do we deal with non-believers who quote science as fact? 2

HAS ALL LIFE EVOLVED? 1.Pope Francis is not the first pope to address evolution and faith 2.While 60% of adults in the US believe that living things evolved over time, only half of those believe evolution occurred completely due to the processes of natural selection 3.For white evangelicals, 64% reject evolution, with Protestants in that demographic being the likeliest to do so 4.Among white Catholics, one in four (26%) reject evolutionary theory even though the Catholic Church accepts it 5.Teaching creationism or intelligent design in public schools has been prohibited by several court cases 3 The 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.” Genesis 1:26 news/christianity/five-facts-about-human- evolution-and-religion

EVOLUTION – WHICH DEFINITION? 1.Change over time 2.Natural selection acting on random variations and mutations 3.Limited common descent – particular organisms descended from a common ancestor 4.Universal common descent (UCD) – all organisms descended from a single ancestor 5.Blind watchmaker thesis – an unguided, purposeless, undesigned process of natural selection acting on random mutations is sufficient to account for UCD 4

HAVE HUMANS EVOLVED? Despite the “accepted doctrine” about human evolution, we have to question how could people evolve from apes to our current form in a few million years? – More on this next week Last time we saw how the majority of phyla came into existence in the span of maybe a few million years, not over a long period of time How could the systems we see in a person “evolve?” 5 Case for a Creator Video

INTELLIGENT DESIGN The study of patterns in nature that are best explained as the result of intelligence. Archeology Forensic science SETI research Biology??? 6

IRREDUCIBLE COMPLEXITY Irreducible complexity (IC) is a pseudoscientific argument that certain biological systems cannot evolve by successive small modifications to pre-existing functional systems through natural selection. Central to the creationist concept of intelligent design, IC is rejected by the scientific community, which regards intelligent design as pseudoscience. Irreducible complexity is one of two main arguments used by intelligent design proponents, the other being specified complexity. 7

IRREDUCIBLE COMPLEXITY Michael Behe, a professor of biochemistry at Lehigh University, first argued that irreducible complexity made evolution purely through natural selection of random mutations impossible. However, evolutionary biologists have demonstrated how such systems could have evolved. 8

IRREDUCIBLE COMPLEXITY Co-Option? 9

SPECIFIED COMPLEXITY Specified complexity is a pseudoscientific concept proposed by William Dembski and used by him and others to promote intelligent design.William Dembskiintelligent design According to Dembski, the concept can formalize a property that singles out patterns that are both specified and complex, in specific senses defined by Dembski. Dembski states that specified complexity is a reliable marker of design by an intelligent agent - a central tenet to intelligent design, which Dembski argues for in opposition to modern evolutionary theory.modern evolutionary theory 10

SPECIFIED COMPLEXITY The concept of specified complexity is widely regarded as mathematically unsound and has not been the basis for further independent work in information theory, in the theory of complex systems, or in biology. [1][2][3] information theorycomplex systemsbiology [1][2][3] Proponents of intelligent design use specified complexity as one of their two main arguments, alongside irreducible complexity.irreducible complexity 11

SPECIFIED COMPLEXITY 12

HERE IS WHAT WE ARE FIGHTING Evolution is a cornerstone of modern science, accepted as one of the most reliably established of all facts and theories of science, based on evidence not just from the biological sciences but also from anthropology, psychology, astrophysics, chemistry, geology, physics, mathematics, and other scientific disciplines, as well as behavioral and social sciences. Understanding of evolution has made significant contributions to humanity, including the prevention and treatment of human disease, new agricultural products, industrial innovations, a subfield of computer science, and rapid advances in life sciences. [23][24][25] subfield of computer science [23][24][25] Discoveries in evolutionary biology have made a significant impact not just in the traditional branches of biology but also in other academic disciplines (e.g., biological anthropology and evolutionary psychology) and in society at large. [26][27]biological anthropologyevolutionary psychology [26][27] 13

BOTTOM-LINE The “scientific community” will fight to keep evolution as the main theory (accepted as fact) We can look at the arguments against “irreducible complexity” Is it easier to accept intelligent design or the theory of evolution? 14

NEXT WEEK Evolution Part 3 – Genetic information and Human Origins 15