1. LOGIC AND SCIENCE IN THE STUDY OF ORIGINS
By David A. Prentice, M.Ed., M.A.S.T.

2. “In the beginning God created.”
WHICH PART OF GOD’S WORD IS UNDER THE GREATEST ATTACK?
“In the beginning God created.”
A number of school districts across the nation have tried to include “intelligent design” -- the mere possibility that an intelligence could be responsible for the universe -- in their curriculum.
Every single one of them has been forbidden by the courts to even mention the possibility to students. The courts have decreed that we are an atheistic nation.

3. DOES EVOLUTION MATTER?
Nationwide reports indicate that a high percentage of Christian students – some say over 70% -- abandon the Christian faith within their first year of college. The most common reason: they cannot respond to evolutionary claims that contradict their faith, so they conclude Christianity is all a lie! How many Christian youths are “ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you” (1 Pet. 3:15)?

4. THE FASTEST-GROWING RELIGION IN AMERICA:
“NO RELIGION!”
A 2009 survey by Trinity College shows that those who call themselves Christians have decreased to 76%, while “No religion” has increased to 15%.
The biggest drop has been in churches that have abandoned the Bible.

5. Why such a decrease in many churches? BUT HOW POWERUL IS THEIR GOD?
This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves… Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof… Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. (2 Tim 3:1-8)
Is there a “form of godliness” in the shrinking churches? Of course! They are churches!
BUT HOW POWERUL IS THEIR GOD?

6. that they believe in evolution.
As of 3/27/09, almost 12,000 American MINISTERS signed the “Clergy Letter Project” stating
that they believe in evolution.
1,049 congregations held “Darwin Day” in February.
Their God either:
1. Doesn’t care if he tells the truth about how everything began,
2. Lied about it on purpose, or
3. Was not intelligent enough to tell the truth until Darwin did it for him.
Having a form of godliness but denying its power!

7. WHAT WE ARE CONSTANTLY TOLD:
EVOLUTION IS SCIENCE
INTELLIGENT DESIGN AND CREATION ARE RELIGION

8. HOW DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU KNOW? Or at least what you think you know?

9. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO “KNOW” SOMETHING?
1. Personal Experience
through the five senses.
I know a bee sting hurts;
I know how to ride a bike.
2. Reliance on Authority.
I know the sun is 93
million miles away;
Jesus loves me, this I know,
for the Bible tells me so.
3. Logic.
I know 2 million + 2 million =
4 million, even though I’ve
never counted that high.
I know I have a brain, even
though I’ve never seen it.
4. Feeling or Intuition.
I know she’s the one for
me; I know God has called
me to the ministry.
6. Bluffing (lying) - you try to persuade
others for an ulterior motive.
You should buy these tickets from me
because I know this team is going
to the Super Bowl this year;
I know evolution is a fact!
5. Wishful Thinking (you
really want it to be true)
I just know I’m going to
win the lottery!

10. WHAT CAN YOU BE ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN OF? Are you absolutely sure?
If someone tells you “There is no such thing as absolute truth,” ask them:
Are you absolutely sure?
The concept that each observer creates his own reality is not scientific, but religious! It is a fundamental part of Eastern philosophy (e.g., Hinduism), which assumes without proof that there is no personal God who determines truth.

11. WHERE DID SCIENCE COME FROM?
Eastern Religions
Western Religions
1. The physical universe
is an illusion.
1. The physical universe
is real.
2. There is no such thing
as objective reality.
2. There is such a thing
as objective reality.
3. Because of this, it is
not possible to accu-
rately measure the uni-
verse or know things
about it with certainty.
3. It is possible to accu-
rately measure the uni-
verse and know things
about it with varying
degrees of certainty.
RESULT:
There is no point in studying nature.
RESULT:
The Scientific Method.
Science owes its very existence
to Western religious belief.

12. They know those cars are really real!
Though Eastern religions say the universe is just an illusion, those who claim to believe those religions still look both ways before they cross the street.
They know those cars are really real!

13. WHAT MOST PEOPLE THINK:
EVOLUTION IS SCIENCE
INTELLIGENT DESIGN AND CREATION ARE RELIGION
BUT EXACTLY WHAT DO THE WORDS “CREATION”
AND “EVOLUTION” IMPLY?

14. EVOLUTION: Initial Disorganization
with later increase in complexity and unlimited diversification.
Not just change, but change in the direction of increasing complexity. T I M E
Evolutionary “Tree”
All life came from one simple cell

15. 2 GENERAL MODELS OF EVOLUTION:
Materialistic (Atheistic) Evolution
Everything evolved by purely
natural processes
Theistic Evolution
God used evolution as His method of creating
2 Specific Models About
Evolution of Living Things:
Neo-Darwinism:
Evolution occurred slowly and gradually.
Many have abandoned this belief because of the fossil evidence.
Punctuated Equilibria: Evolution occurred in sudden jumps.
The biological evidence against
this belief is overwhelming.

16. “Evolution is only a theory.”
BIG MISTAKE: saying
“Evolution is only a theory.”
1. In science, the word “Theory” is a very powerful term. It means that an idea has been tested over and over and has never failed a single test. Calling an idea a Theory is a high compliment.
2. Evolution is not a scientific theory because it is impossible to test! It is a HYPOTHESIS instead.
There is no way we could perform an exper-iment to make apes evolve into humans. Likewise, the “big bang” is not testable. It relies on computer models rather than experimentation. It, too, is a hypothesis rather than a theory.

17. CREATION: Initial Complexity with later deterioration and
diversification within limits
Not just change, but change in the
direction of decreasing complexity. T I M E
Creationist “Forest”
All life came from multiple complex ancestors.

18. 3 VARIATIONS OF CREATION:
Recent Rapid Creation
(perhaps within the last 10,000 years)
The Gap Theory
(creation and ruin in the distant
past, recent re-creation)
Progressive Creation or the “Day-Age” Theory
(creation spread out over billions of years
-- really a theistic version of Punctuated Equilibria evolution)
All are forms of Intelligent Design.

19. CONTRAST OF BASIC MODELS:
CREATION:
Initial Complexity
with later deterioration and diversification within limits
(complex to simple)
EVOLUTION:
Initial Disorganization
with later increase in complexity and unlimited diversification
(simple to complex)

20. CAN SCIENCE (AND SCIENTISTS) ALLOW US TO KNOW FOR SURE WHAT HAPPENED AT THE BEGINNING OF THE UNIVERSE, EARTH, AND LIFE?

21. REASONS TO BELIEVE OTHERS WHO TRY TO PERSUADE US OF WHAT THEY “KNOW”
IS IT BECAUSE:
(1) They claim to have personal experience, OR
(2) They appeal to an authority we trust, OR
(3) We have checked out their logic and
found it trustworthy?
OR are we willing to trust their (4) intuition,
(5) wishful thinking, or (6) bluffing?

22. THE PREHISTORIC PAST 1. No living person has personal experience.
2. There are no eyewitness accounts except the Bible, which is unacceptable to skeptics.
SO HOW DO WE “KNOW” ABOUT THE
BEGINNING? Through LOGIC ONLY.

23. A FALSE CHALLENGE TO CREATIONISM “There is no evidence for creation.”
Such a statement shows a misunderstanding of what evidence is. Evidence is not “for”
one side or the other.
In a court of law, the prosecution and the defense refer to the same evidence – they just interpret it differently.
Likewise, both sides in the creation/evolution controversy use the same evidence, whether it be pieces of bone, rock strata, or the light from distant stars. We just interpret it differently.

24. logical premises to interpret it.
Both sides
look at the
same evi-
dence…
We just start
with different
logical premises to interpret it.

25. This is the basis of mathematics, NOT science.
THE TWO TYPES OF LOGIC
1. INDUCTIVE.
Look at many phenomena and try to discover a pattern that points to a general principle. Inductive logic tries to determine the most reasonable (most likely) conclusion.
This is the heart of the scientific method.
2. DEDUCTIVE.
Start with general principles accepted as true and apply them to specific cases.
Deductive logic tries to establish absolute truth, i.e., the conclusion MUST be true.
This is the basis of mathematics, NOT science.

26. CONTRASTING LOGIC The conclusions of inductive logic result
from examination of observable phenomena
(a posteriori). They are testable.
The premises of deductive logic may come from inductive conclusions, or they may
just be statements accepted as
self-evident (a priori). They are
not necessarily the result of testing.

27. SCIENCE” UNTIL THE MIDDLE AGES:
Based on the deductive logic of the ancient Greeks,
who believed that logic always leads to truth.
Testing was unimportant to them.
Most famous Greek philosopher:
Aristotle (inventor of the logic still used today),
whose ideas were taught as fact for about
2,000 years throughout Europe,
west Asia, and Africa.

28. EXAMPLES OF INCORRECT CONCLU-SIONS BASED ON FAULTY LOGIC
“Scientific” ideas of Aristotle TAUGHT AS FACT in European Universities for 2000 YEARS:
1. The earth is the center of the solar system.
Falsified by Copernicus.
2. Heavier objects fall faster.
Falsified by Galileo.
3. All objects possess an innate tendency to come to rest.
Falsified by Newton.

29. ARISTOTLE’S MOST BASIC MISTAKE IN LOGIC:
1. He reasoned that if the stars were different distances, they should display parallax.
2. He could not detect any parallax.
3. Therefore he decided “If I cannot see parallax then it does not exist.”
Assuming there was no parallax led him to be wrong about EVERYTHING ELSE!

30. Common Errors in Logic: Converses
If I am at Mount Everest,
then I am at the highest mountain in the world.
TRUE.
THE CONVERSE:
If I am at the highest mountain in the world,
then I am at Mount Everest.
ALSO TRUE.
A converse is ONLY reliable
if there is an exact one-to-one match
between the “If” and “Then” parts.

31. Common Errors in Logic: Converses
If I am at Victoria Falls,
then I am at one of the largest waterfalls in the world.
TRUE.
THE CONVERSE:
If I am at one of the largest waterfalls in the world,
then I am at Victoria Falls.
FALSE.

32. AT ONE OF THE LARGEST WATERFALLS
PROPER LOGIC FLOW
AT ONE OF THE LARGEST WATERFALLS
IF AT NIAGARA FALLS
IF AT VICTORIA FALLS
IF AT ANGEL
FALLS
IF AT KAIETEUR FALLS
IF AT OTHER
LARGE WATER-
FALL

33. Common Errors in Logic: Converses
If I am at Victoria Falls,
then I am at one of the largest waterfalls in the world.
TRUE.
THE CONVERSE:
If I am at one of the largest waterfalls in the world,
then I am at Victoria Falls.
FALSE.
If evolution is true, then the universe and life would exist.
TRUE.
THE CONVERSE:
If the universe and life exist, then evolution is true.
FALSE.
All teaching of “evolution only” in schools rests
on the invalid use of a logical converse.

34. POSSIBLE EXPLANATIONS FOR THE UNIVERSE
UNIVERSE EXISTS
THEISTIC EVOLUTION CORRECT
YOUNG-EARTH CREATION CORRECT
ATHEISTIC EVOLUTION CORRECT
OLD-EARTH CREATION CORRECT
SOMETHING
ELSE CORRECT

35. EVEN WITH CORRECT LOGIC, FALSE PREMISES CAN LEAD TO FALSE CONCLUSIONS.
All dogs bark. (Or, “If an animal is a
dog, then it barks.”)
Fido is a dog.
Therefore, Fido barks.
Not if
Fido is a
Basenji!
Basenjis do
not
bark.
If any one of our premises is wrong, then our conclusion is unreliable.

36. DEDUCTIVE LOGIC AND SYLLOGISMS
If P is true, then Q is true. (Major premise)
P is true. (Minor premise)
Therefore, Q is true. (Conclusion)
live on earth
then Q
live in U.S.
live in La.
if P
if live in New Orleans
To represent a syllogism graphically, anything inside the inner circle (“if”) is automatically
inside the outer circle (“then”).
Syllogisms can also be
chained (transitive logic).

37. POSTULATES - Premises that are taken as self-evident and accepted without proof.
Euclid’s Parallel Line Postulate says that for any line, there can be only one parallel line through a point not on the first line.
Point not on the first line
Only one parallel line
First line
BUT IS IT REALLY SELF-EVIDENT?
Riemannian and Lobachevskian geometry say that space is curved,
so there is no such thing as an infinitely long straight line in the
sense that we understand “straight.”
One says space is positively curved, so there are an infinite number of parallel lines through a point not on a line.
The other says space is negatively curved, so there are no parallel lines. All lines intersect at infinity.
EACH OF THE THREE IS THE BASIS OF A DIFFERENT
VERSION OF GEOMETRY, BUT NONE CAN BE PROVEN.

38. IT TAKES ONLY ONE COUNTEREXAMPLE TO DISPROVE A PREMISE.
“If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed which could not possibly have been formed by numerous successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely
break down.”
Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species

39. BASIC PREMISES OF EVOLUTION AND CREATION
1. Everything must be explainable by purely natural processes.
a. Atheistic evolution: There is no God.
b. Theistic evolution: Since the Big Bang,
God has had little involvement with
nature.
1. A supernatural intelligence created the
universe. Though most things are
explainable by natural processes, some
things may not be.
This is as far as Intelligent Design goes;
Creation specifies that the intelligence is
God.
Known as either NATURALISM, MATERIALISM, or ATHEISM.
LIKE THE POSTULATES OF GEOMETRY, NEITHER SET OF PREMISES CAN BE PROVEN. THEY MUST BE ACCEPTED BY FAITH AS SELF-EVIDENT.

40. THE FUNDAMENTAL PREMISE OF EVOLUTION:
EVERYTHING must be explainable by PURELY NATURAL PROCESSES.
(If something is a physical phenomenon,
then it must have a physical cause.)
But what if evolutionists find something that is NOT explainable by natural processes?
Sure it is -- they just make up an expla-nation! And since they are smart enough to make up a clever story, therefore their story must be true.

41. EVOLUTION: Natural Processes Only!
"Even if all the data point to an intelligent designer, such a hypothesis is excluded from science
because it is not naturalistic."
Immunologist Scott C. Todd in a letter to
Nature magazine, Sept. 1999
“... the theory of evolution itself [is] a theory universally accepted not because it can be
proved by logically coherent evidence to
be true but because the only alternative,
special creation, is clearly incredible.”
D.M.S. Watson, “Adaptation,” Nature, Vol. 123 (1929), p.233

42. EVOLUTION: Natural Processes Only!
"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 counterintuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is an absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.”
Richard Lewontin, Billions and billions of demons, The New York Review, p. 31, 9 January 1997
* A reference to Rudyard Kipling’s 1902 book “Just-So Stories”

43. NECESSARY CHARACTERISTICS
GOD
1. Only seen by what He does -
INVISIBLE.
2. Established natural laws, so
is not subject to those laws -
SUPERNATURAL.
3. Preceded the universe -
ETERNAL.
4. Influence extends throughout
the universe - OMNIPRESENT.
5. Directly or indirectly responsi-
ble for everything that has ever
happened - OMNIPOTENT.
6. Nobody made Him - SELF-
EXISTENT.

44. IF THERE IS NO GOD, THEN WHAT?
What if there is no God? Then the universe would have to be the result of a series of forces, processes, and events operating with no particular purpose for billions of years.
We could call the whole series “evolution,” “quantum fluctuation,” or “accident.” Let’s use the term “Random Chance,” with the understanding that it represents the whole multibillion year series of forces, processes, and events.
What characteristics would Random Chance have to have?

45. NECESSARY CHARACTERISTICS
GOD
1. Only seen by what He does -
INVISIBLE.
RANDOM CHANCE
1. Only seen by what it does -
INVISIBLE.
2. Established natural laws, so
is not subject to those laws -
SUPERNATURAL.
2. Established natural laws, so
is not subject to those laws -
SUPERNATURAL.
3. Preceded the universe -
ETERNAL.
3. Preceded the universe -
ETERNAL.
4. Influence extends throughout
the universe - OMNIPRESENT.
4. Influence extends throughout
the universe - OMNIPRESENT.
5. Directly or indirectly responsi-
ble for everything that has ever
happened - OMNIPOTENT.
5. Directly or indirectly responsi-
ble for everything that has ever
happened - OMNIPOTENT.
6. Nobody made Him - SELF-
EXISTENT.
6. Nobody made it - SELF-
EXISTENT.
It is logically necessary to believe in SOME sort of God-like entity.

46. BASIC PREMISES OF EVOLUTION AND CREATION
1. Everything must be explainable by purely natural processes.
a. Atheistic evolution: There is no God.
b. Theistic evolution: Since the Big Bang,
God has had little involvement with
nature.
1. A supernatural intelligence created the
universe. Though most things are
explainable by natural processes, some
things may not be.
2. Since there could be no other natural
processes besides evolution, evolution
is the only possibility.
2. God is powerful enough to use any
method he chooses, including
instantaneous creation.
LIKE THE POSTULATES OF GEOMETRY, NEITHER SET OF PREMISES CAN BE PROVEN. THEY MUST BE ACCEPTED BY FAITH AS SELF-EVIDENT.

47. ARE THERE LIMITS TO SCIENCE?
Imagine a scientist who decides to learn what’s in the ocean.
He makes a net 100 feet in diameter, with holes 2 inches across.
He attaches the net to a 1 mile long rope,
then repeatedly drops it into the deep ocean from a ship.
His conclusion:
EVERYTHING IN THE OCEAN IS AT LEAST 2 INCHES LONG AND HAS FINS.
(If my net can’t catch it, it doesn’t exist.)
His critics say,
“You may be fishing in the wrong place, with the wrong net. There may be things in the ocean you can’t catch that way.”
His reply:
“You’re being superstitious. All the scientific observation shows
that I’m right.”
Their response:
“You’re placing all your faith in your net and your choice of location.”
He cannot prove that he is right (a universal negative), but the critics only need to produce one specimen to show that he is wrong.

48. NO POSSIBILITY BUT EVOLUTION!
“Biologists must constantly keep in mind that what they see was not designed, but rather evolved.”
"What Mad Pursuit: A Personal View of Scientific Discovery," by
Francis Crick (Nobel Prize winner for co-discovery of the structure of DNA)
In other words,
“Our minds are made up. Don’t try to confuse us with the facts.”

49. BASIC PREMISES OF EVOLUTION AND CREATION
1. Everything must be explainable by purely natural processes.
a. Atheistic evolution: There is no God.
b. Theistic evolution: Since the Big Bang,
God has had little involvement with
nature.
1. A supernatural intelligence created the
universe. Though most things are
explainable by natural processes, some
things may not be.
2. Since there could be no other natural
processes besides evolution, evolution
is the only possibility.
2. God is powerful enough to use any
method he chooses, including
instantaneous creation.
3. Since evolution has never been seen in
human history, it must be very slow. The
universe and earth have to be billions of
years old.
3. Creation does not automatically require a specific age.
a. Recent Creation: The earth is prob-
ably less than 10,000 years old.
b. Gap Theory & Progressive Creation:
Because evolutionists must know what they are talking about, the earth has to be billions of years old.
LIKE THE POSTULATES OF GEOMETRY, NEITHER SET OF PREMISES CAN BE PROVEN. THEY MUST BE ACCEPTED BY FAITH AS SELF-EVIDENT.

50. BASIC PREMISES OF EVOLUTION AND CREATION
4. Because a worldwide flood would cut
billions of years off the time needed to
produce the fossil record, there can
never have been a worldwide flood.
4. The Flood.
a. Recent Creation: One worldwide
flood.
b. Gap Theory: Two worldwide floods.
c. Progressive Creation: No worldwide
LIKE THE POSTULATES OF GEOMETRY, NEITHER SET OF PREMISES CAN BE PROVEN. THEY MUST BE ACCEPTED BY FAITH AS SELF-EVIDENT.

51. THE FOUNDATION OF EVOLUTION:
Uniformitarianism.
This is the UNPROVABLE geological assumption that everything happens by slow, gradual, uniform processes. (“The present is the key to the past.”)
There can never have been a worldwide flood.
The Bible warns us:
First of all you must understand this, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own passions and saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things have continued as they were from the beginning of creation.
They deliberately ignore this fact, that by the word of God heavens existed long ago, and an earth formed out of water and by means of water, through which the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. (2 Peter 3:3-7 RSV)

52. BASIC PREMISES OF EVOLUTION AND CREATION
4. Because a worldwide flood would cut
billions of years off the time needed to
produce the fossil record, there can
never have been a worldwide flood.
4. The Flood.
a. Recent Creation: One worldwide
flood.
b. Gap Theory: Two worldwide floods.
c. Progressive Creation: No worldwide
5. Similarities between living things are
due to common ancestry or chance.
5. Similarities between living things
belonging to different kinds are due to
common design.
LIKE THE POSTULATES OF GEOMETRY, NEITHER SET OF PREMISES CAN BE PROVEN. THEY MUST BE ACCEPTED BY FAITH AS SELF-EVIDENT.

53. DO SIMILARITIES
SHOW COMMON
ANCESTRY?

54. BASIC PREMISES OF EVOLUTION AND CREATION
4. Because a worldwide flood would cut
billions of years off the time needed to
produce the fossil record, there can
never have been a worldwide flood.
4. The Flood.
a. Recent Creation: One worldwide
flood.
b. Gap Theory: Two worldwide floods.
c. Progressive Creation: No worldwide
5. Similarities between living things are
due to common ancestry or chance.
5. Similarities between living things
belonging to different kinds are due to
common design.
6. Authority.
a. Recent Creation: The Bible is the final authority in everything.
b. Gap Theory: The Bible is the final authority on most things, except the age of the earth and the origin of death.
c. Progressive Creation: The Bible is the final authority only on some spiritual matters.
6. Scientists are the final authority in
everything. Which scientists? The ones
that agree with you! (At least until they
change their minds next week.)
LIKE THE POSTULATES OF GEOMETRY, NEITHER SET OF PREMISES CAN BE PROVEN. THEY MUST BE ACCEPTED BY FAITH AS SELF-EVIDENT.

55. REASONS TO BELIEVE OTHERS WHO TRY TO PERSUADE US OF WHAT THEY “KNOW”
IS IT BECAUSE:
(1) They claim to have personal experience, OR
(2) They appeal to an authority we trust, OR
(3) We have checked out their logic and
found it trustworthy?
OR are we willing to trust their (4) intuition,
(5) wishful thinking, or (6) bluffing?

56. THE PREHISTORIC PAST 1. No living person has personal experience.
2. There are no eyewitness accounts except the Bible, which is unacceptable to skeptics.
SO HOW DO WE “KNOW” ABOUT THE
BEGINNING? Through LOGIC ONLY.
But if any one of our premises is wrong,
our logic is unreliable!

57. SUMMARY OF BASIC PREMISES
EVOLUTION:
CREATION:
1. Impossibility of supernatural involvement. Natural processes only.
1. Possibility of supernatural involvement.
2. Impossibility of any process besides evolution.
2. Possibility of other processes besides evolution.
3. Earth must be billions of years old.
3. Earth could be any age.
4. Impossibility of a worldwide flood.
4. Possibility of a worldwide flood.
5. Impossibility of design. Similarities must be due to common ancestry or accident.
5. Similarities may be due to common design.
6. Scientists are the final authority in our knowledge of nature.
6. God is the final authority in everything.
EITHER SET OF PREMISES MUST BE ACCEPTED BY FAITH AS SELF-EVIDENT.
WHICH MAKES MORE SENSE TO YOU?

58. IS IT LOGICAL TO BELIEVE IN EVOLUTION?
IF man evolved from apes,
your brain evolved from an ape brain.
IF your brain evolved from an ape brain,
your logic
evolved from
ape logic.
HOW DO YOU KNOW IT EVOLVED RIGHT?
Maybe you’re not even asking the right questions!
Evolution is only logical if you are a modified ape.

59. What is the meaning of bananas?
APE WISDOM
What is the meaning of bananas?

60. How can you be absolutely sure about ANYTHING?
1. While your senses are at least somewhat reliable, there is always some uncertainty.
2. Logic can lead to incorrect conclusions.
3. Your intuition can be wrong.
The only way to reach absolute certainty would be if you had an absolutely reliable authority to TELL you what’s really true. Absolute certainty could only come from God, not science.

61. no more scientific, or less religious,
CONCLUSION
Despite what courts say, evolution and creation/intelligent design are both logical systems based on unprovable assumptions.
Teaching made-up stories that depend on the absence of intelligent design is
no more scientific, or less religious,
than teaching alternatives that depend on the presence of intelligent design.

62. WHAT MOST PEOPLE THINK:
Evolution is science...
Creation is religion.
Not true. There are religious and scientific aspects to both creation and evolution.

63. THINGS WE CAN TEST SCIENTIFICALLY:
1. Overall trends and tend- encies in nature.
2. Observable processes.
3. Processes and events that left direct evidence.
THINGS WE CAN’T:
Who or what started the universe, and was there a motive?
2. Morality and meaning.
3. Specific details: the names of the first humans, what they wore, what they liked to eat, etc.

64. to make predictions in as many
HOW TO SET UP MODELS
Use the basic ideas of Initial Disorganization versus Initial Complexity
to make predictions in as many
areas as possible:
Astronomy, Physics, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Biology, Paleontology, Geology, etc.
Whichever set of predictions better fits what we observe is much more likely to be correct.

65. PREDICTIONS OF CREATION AND EVOLUTION
CREATION EVOLUTION
Big Bang Steady State
THERMODYNAMICS -
1st Law PREDICT DENY DENY
2nd Law PREDICT DENY DENY
INERTIA PREDICT DENY N/A
Neo-Darwinism Punct. Equil.
FOSSIL RECORD
Clearcut systematic PREDICT DENY PREDICT
gaps
GENETICS
Variation only within PREDICT DENY DENY
limits
Mutations destructive PREDICT DENY DENY
Reproduction only of PREDICT DENY DENY
same kind
Life only from life PREDICT DENY DENY
VESTIGIAL ORGANS FEW OR NONE MANY MANY
EMBRYONIC RECAPITULATION DENY PREDICT PREDICT

66. THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD
Define the problem. What do you want to know? (E.g. “Does music affect how plants grow?”)
2. Gather information about the subject. (AUTHORITY)
3. Formulate a hypothesis.
4. Devise an experiment to test the hypothesis.
5. Observe the results of the test. (EXPERIENCE)
6. Draw a conclusion (INDUCTIVE LOGIC) and report your results so others can repeat the test.

67. Present +
Repeatable +
Observable
= SCIENCE
Past +
Non-Repeatable +
Eyewitness Account
= HISTORY
Past +
Non-Repeatable +
No Eyewitnesses
= BELIEF

68. How Scientific Knowledge Increases
1. Start with a problem or question.
2. Formulate a hypothesis.
3. Test the hypothesis by experimentation, following the scientific method.
4. If your hypothesis is falsified, you learned something!
5. If your hypothesis seems to be confirmed, report your results (in a peer-reviewed journal) so others can repeat the test and check your work.
But what if you can’t do experiments?

69. SETTING UP MODELS OF THE UNOBSERVABLE
IF YOU WERE BLIND:
Would you think an elephant was like a wall,
a spear, a snake, a tree, a fan, or a rope?

70. Too fast or too slow Too big or too small Too far away Past or future
A Model is used to help us a get a mental
picture of something that cannot be
directly observed because it is:
Too fast or too slow
Too big or too small
Too far away
Past or future
etc.
A model is not necessarily testable.
Both evolution and creation are models or hypotheses – NOT theories.

71. LAWS OF SCIENCE:
Gravity, thermodynamics, planetary motion, etc.
1. Derived from observation. If exceptions ever observed, the law must be corrected.
2. Accurately predict the behavior of the systems they describe.
3. Can often be expressed mathematically.
A law of science simply describes what happens, without trying to explain why it happens.
For instance, the law of gravity
G m1 m2
Fgrav = d2
tells us how strong the force of gravity is, but doesn’t tell us why gravity exists in the first place.

72. SUMMARY
A HYPOTHESIS is a tentative explanation for something observed in nature.
A THEORY is a hypothesis that has been thoroughly tested by many experiments. It is an attempt to explain WHY something happens.
A LAW has also been tested by many experiments (usually for many years). It describes WHAT happens, without trying to say WHY it happens.
A MODEL is a description, object, drawing, set of equations, etc. that helps us get a mental picture of something we cannot directly observe.

73. “Evolution is only a theory.”
BIG MISTAKE: saying
“Evolution is only a theory.”
1. In science, the word “Theory” is a very powerful term. It means that an idea has been tested over and over and has never failed a single test. Calling an idea a Theory is a high compliment.
2. Evolution is not a scientific theory because it is impossible to test! It is a HYPOTHESIS instead.
There is no way we could perform an exper-iment to make apes evolve into humans. Likewise, the “big bang” is not testable. It relies on computer models rather than experimentation. It, too, is a hypothesis rather than a theory.

74. Why Neither Creation Nor Evolution Qualifies as a Law of Science or a Scientific Theory:
1. Neither has ever been observed.
2. Neither enables us to make accurate predictions about SPECIFIC future events.
3. There is no way to perform experiments to test what might have happened in the prehistoric past.
4. Either idea can be modified to account for any possible observation. Neither is falsifiable.
Creation and Evolution should be considered models
or hypotheses to guide future investigation.

75. HOW TO TELL SCIENCE FROM STORYTELLING
4. HOW could I test this to see if it’s true?
WHO said they saw it? Can I trust them?
WHAT NOT?
HOW?
WHAT?
GOD?
2. WHAT did they actually see?
WHO?
5. What does GOD have to say about it?
HOW DO YOU
KNOW THAT?
3. WHAT are they NOT telling me?

76. For more information, contact David Prentice, M.Ed., M.A.S.T. or