1 Two Worldviews

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Why Are Origins Important?

Personal History

Bedtime stories

7th grade

Graduate School

College Professor

Is there a God?

If so, who is He?

What you believe is of crucial importance.


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You Will Face This Issue

From the outside

From the inside


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Logical Consistency

From my viewpoint, logical consistency isparamount.

What worldviews are logically consistent?

The answers may surprise you.

What kind of God do you see?

Christian?

None?

Star Wars?


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History of Creationism

The early church fathers were all over the place.

Clement of Alexandria Literal view

Cyprian Each day was 1,000 years

Lactantius Literal view

Augustine Six days was too long

Origen Closer to modern theistic evolution Thomas Aquinas Scripture should not

challenge science


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Reformation

Sola Scriptura

Literal six days

Often say the entire universe recently created


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Current Theories

Pre-Creation Chaos Theory Literary Framework Theory

Gap Theory

Day-Age/Progressive Creationism/Theistic Evolution Creation Revealed in Six Days

Inauguration Theory

Historical Land Theory

Relativistic Days Theory

Two Stage Creation Theory

Young Universe Theory


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Pre-Creation Chaos Theory

God used existing matter to make the world.

In eternity a chaotic universe co-existed withGod.

Strips God of His status as ex nihilo Creator


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Literary Framework Theory

The Creation account is a literary device.

The days represent indefinite periods of time.

The days are not even necessarily sequential.

Seeks to find concordance between the Bibleand science

Does considerable injustice to Scripture

Often paired with the Pre-Creation ChaosTheory


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Gap Theory

Life was created on earth long ago.

There was a fall.

God's judgment destroyed life on earth.

Life was created a second time. This is what isdescribed in Genesis.

An attempt to jive with the fossil record

This imposes much upon the Scriptures that isnot there.


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Day-Age/ProgressiveCreationism/Theistic Evolution

The days are symbolic.

Each day represents an indeterminate and longperiod of time.

Invented to bring concordance with thecontemporary science of origins

There is considerable Biblical evidence to

contradict this idea.


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Creation Revealed in Six Days

The Creation happened a long time ago.

It took six days for God to tell the story of theCreation.

The time it took to actually create is consideredto be unspecified.

This is another theory designed to bring

concordance with the modern science of origins. This is a far-fetched reading of Scripture.


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Inauguration Theory

There was a seven day celebration of what hadbeen accomplished in the past.

The celebration was similar to the celebration

when Solomon inaugurated the temple. Another attempt to jive with the modern

science of origins

A very fanciful interpretation of Scripture


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Historical Land Theory

The creation account in Genesis describesonly the creative improvements God made tothe Garden of Eden and the Holy Land.

Life had been put on the rest of the earth longago.

Yet another attempt to find common groundwith the modern science of origins

This imposes a great deal that isn't there onthe Scriptures.


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Relativistic Days Theory

Because of Einstein's Theory of Relativity, whathappened in six of God's days appears to us tobe billions of years.

Not very convincing


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Two-Stage Creation Theory

Version 1:

Entire universe in Stage 1

Life on earth in Stage 2

Version 2:

Universe except for our local neighborhoodin stage 1

Our local neighborhood and life on earth instage 2

Allows for contemporary astro-physics, but notthe assertions of geology, biology, etc.


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Young Universe Theory

Everything in the universe was created betweensix and ten thousand years ago.

Makes no attempt to agree with the modern

science of origins Has Scriptural and Spirit of Prophecy problems

Often called Young Earth Scientific Creationism

Not a very good name


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Key Teachings of Scripture

Genesis 1:2931 (ESV)

29And God said, Behold, I have given you every plantyielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, andevery tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them forfood. 30And to every beast of the earth and to everybird of the heavens and to everything that creeps onthe earth, everything that has the breath of life, I havegiven every green plant for food. And it was so. 31And

God saw everything that he had made, and behold, itwas very good. And there was evening and there wasmorning, the sixth day.


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Multiple Interventions

1. The original creations

2. The fall

3. The flood


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Genesis 3:1419 (ESV)

14 The LORDGod said to the serpent, Because

you have done this, cursed are you above alllivestock and above all beasts of the field; onyour belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat allthe days of your life. 15 I will put enmity between

you and the woman, and between your offspringand her offspring; he shall bruise your head, andyou shall bruise his heel. 16 To the woman hesaid, I will surely multiply your pain in

childbearing; in pain you shall bring forthchildren. Your desire shall be for your husband,and he shall rule over you.


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17And to Adam he said, Because you havelistened to the voice of your wife and have eaten

of the tree of which I commanded you, Youshall not eat of it, cursed is the ground becauseof you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days ofyour life; 18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth

for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread,till you return to the ground, for out of it you weretaken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall

return.


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Genesis 9:12 (ESV)

And God blessed Noah and his sons and said tothem, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.2 The fear of you and the dread of you shall beupon every beast of the earth and upon every bird

of the heavens, upon everything that creeps onthe ground and all the fish of the sea. Into yourhand they are delivered.


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The World Isnt Good

Romans 8:2223 (ESV)

22 For we know that the whole creation has beengroaning together in the pains of childbirth until

now.23

And not only the creation, but weourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit,groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoptionas sons, the redemption of our bodies.


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Death Is the Result of Sin

1 Corinthians 15:2126 (ESV)

21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come alsothe resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die,so also in Christ shall all be made alive. 23 But each inhis own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his comingthose who belong to Christ. 24 Then comes the end,when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father afterdestroying every rule and every authority and power.25

For he must reign until he has put all his enemiesunder his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed isdeath.


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Worldview

Our worldview has huge implications


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Logical Consistency

From my viewpoint, logical consistency isparamount.

What worldviews are logically consistent?

The answers may surprise you.

What kind of God do you see?

Christian?

None?

Star Wars?


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Worldview

A comprehensive world view (orworldview) is thefundamental cognitive orientation of an individual orsociety encompassing natural philosophy; fundamental,existential, and normative postulates; or themes, values,

emotions, and ethics.Gary B. Palmer, Toward A Theory of Cultural Linguistics (University of Texas Press,1996), 114


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Two Competing Worldviews

The Materialistic/Naturalistic Science of Origins

Christianity


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Philosophy of Science

Materialism That which is material is all that isreal. If it can't be tested it does not exist.

Naturalism All effects can be explained by

natural causes. There are no miracles. Gradualism The processes in play today are

the processes that have gradually shaped thepast. Catastrophes are allowed, but only as

they can be naturalistically explained.

The Materialistic/Naturalistic


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The Materialistic/NaturalisticScience of Origins Is a Religion

Religion is a cultural system that creates powerful and long-lasting meaning, by establishing symbols that relate humanityto truths and values. Many religions have narratives, symbols,traditions and sacred histories that are intended to givemeaning to life or to explain the origin of life or the universe.They tend to derive morality, ethics, religious laws or apreferred lifestyle from their ideas about the cosmos andhuman nature. (Wikipedia)

Doctrines

Evangelists

Worldview


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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 itsextravagant promises of health and life, in spite of the tolerance ofthe scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so stories,because we have a prior commitment, a commitment tomaterialism.

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 materialexplanations, no matter how counter-intuitive, 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 Geneticist

S i tifi D t i


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Scientific Doctrines Materialism

Naturalism

Gradualism

The role of chance

The role of natural selectionsurvival of the fittest

Naturalistic origin of the universe

There is no distinction in kind between humans andanimals.

Mankind is master of his own destiny.

Mankind's responsibility is only to himself.

Nature is god.


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Sources of Truth Christian

Revelation Information from the spiritual realm thatcannot be obtained through human efforts.

Scripture

Personal relationship with God

Science Observable facts

Natural laws

Materialism/naturalism/gradualism has only onesource of information.

Science

Observable facts

Natural laws

Unverifiable Hypotheses


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Scientific Method

Curiosity

Hypothesis

Design an Experiment

Execute Experiment Analyze Data

Interpret Data

Communicate Findings

Repeat


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Operational Science

Operational science follows the scientific methodexactly.


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The Science of Origins

Testable hypotheses are replaced with untestablespeculation.

The past has only happened once and cannot berepeated.

Attempts are made to set up conditions identical toprimeval conditions, but we can't know what primordialconditions were!

We can't set up even one experiment to test the past,

much less design repeatable experiments.

I have been a consultant on many research projects.Never once has my position on origins had any bearingwhatsoever on my relationship with other scientists.

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