From Last Week… When the Big Bang theory was first proposed, it was met with much theological backlash—from atheists. Why do you think this happened?

From Last Week… As we’ve seen from the Fine-Tuning argument, the odds of a life-supporting Earth happening by chance are extremely low. What problems does this present for the theory of evolution?

From Last Week… Why do you think someone who believes in God and the Bible would be inclined to accept an Old Earth Creationist (OEC) position?

Evolution, Intelligent Design, and the Origin of Life

 Darwinian Evolution ◦ Explain variety of life (mutation, variation) ◦ Origin from a common ancestor ◦ God not necessary, only time and chance  Neo-Darwinists—addition of genetics ◦ Mutations in DNA ◦ Genetics as the vehicle, not just natural selection ◦ More widely accepted today

 Cultural ◦ Widely accepted (public education) ◦ Entertainment—TV, movies, news ◦ Politics ($$$)  Religious ◦ Some reject religion (atheism, etc.) ◦ Some adapt their religion (theistic evolution)  But most don’t study it beyond the classroom

 There are many apologetic approaches ◦ Refuting claims (through scientific debate) ◦ Observing inconsistencies with scientific laws ◦ Addressing foundational claims  Remember your audience! ◦ Most barely remember biology class ◦ Ideas supported by Discovery Channel, etc. ◦ We will examine three shaky “icons”

 Origin of life experiment (1953) ◦ Simulation of early Earth atmosphere ◦ Introduction of electrical spark (lightning) ◦ Amino acids (building blocks) were formed  The conclusion ◦ Life from non-life (abiogenesis) ◦ Proteins created from a chemical “soup”

 The problems ◦ Incorrect atmosphere  No oxygen (would have oxidized the amino acids) ◦ Insufficiency of amino acids  Acids  Proteins  DNA or cell ◦ “Humpty-Dumpty”  Good material in order while bad material out  Abandoned by scientists long ago

 Similarity in early stages of life ◦ Embryo replays steps of evolution ◦ Fish, birds, reptiles, mammal embryos ◦ Similarities between species  The conclusion ◦ Similarity of embryos  common ancestor ◦ Gill slits, tails, etc.

 The problems ◦ The similarities were faked!  Some embryos came from the same pictures ◦ Cherry-picking examples  Only one type of mammal (there are 3)  Salamander over frog, etc. ◦ Midpoint, not early stage development  Haeckel was accused of fraud… in the 1860s!

 Road map of species ◦ Showed development of species from one point ◦ “Branched” out into more species ◦ Illustrates natural selection  The claim ◦ All life followed the tree pattern ◦ Fossil record would provide “missing links”

 The problems ◦ The fossil record shows the opposite!  Cambrian explosion  Dramatic variety of life in a short period of time ◦ No (non-hoax) missing links have been found ◦ Darwin even admitted this issue  More unlikely by the day

 Read the first chapter of Genesis and reflect back on the days of creation. Why do you think God created everything in the order that He did?

 One observation used to support common ancestry in animals is homology—a similarity in the bone structure of limbs like a wing, a flipper, and a hand. What response would you give to this objection?

 As we discussed in class, the Cambrian Explosion shows a huge variety of life appearing at the same time in the fossil record, challenging the notion that life today developed over very long periods of time. How, then, do you think this happened?