Genesis ãThe Creation Narrative
Three Models ãTheistic/atheistic Evolution ãProgressive Creation ãMature Creationism
Theistic/Atheistic Evolution All life is the result of natural law acting on matter 4.5 Billion Years
Theistic/Atheistic Evolution All life is the result of natural law acting on matter 4.5 Billion Years Problems:
Theistic/Atheistic Evolution All life is the result of natural law acting on matter 4.5 Billion Years Problems: Abiogenesis
Theistic/Atheistic Evolution All life is the result of natural law acting on matter 4.5 Billion Years Problems: Abiogenesis Original living organisms had to arise purely by chance collision of chemicals
Theistic/Atheistic Evolution All life is the result of natural law acting on matter 4.5 Billion Years Problems: Abiogenesis Original living organisms had to arise purely by chance collision of chemicals
Theistic/Atheistic Evolution All life is the result of natural law acting on matter 4.5 Billion Years Problems: Abiogenesis Original living organisms had to arise purely by chance collision of chemicals No mechanism suggested No mechanism suggested Natural selection doesn’t apply Natural selection doesn’t apply
Theistic/Atheistic Evolution All life is the result of natural law acting on matter 4.5 Billion Years Problems: Abiogenesis Original living organisms had to arise purely by chance collision of chemicals No mechanism suggested No mechanism suggested Natural selection doesn’t apply Natural selection doesn’t apply Amino acid experiment doesn’t help Amino acid experiment doesn’t help
Theistic/Atheistic Evolution All life is the result of natural law acting on matter 4.5 Billion Years Problems: Abiogenesis Original living organisms had to arise purely by chance collision of chemicals No mechanism suggested No mechanism suggested Natural selection doesn’t apply Natural selection doesn’t apply Amino acid experiment doesn’t help Amino acid experiment doesn’t help So improbable as to be practically impossible So improbable as to be practically impossible
Theistic/Atheistic Evolution All life is the result of natural law acting on matter 4.5 Billion Years Problems: Abiogenesis Irreducible complexity
Theistic/Atheistic Evolution All life is the result of natural law acting on matter 4.5 Billion Years Problems: Abiogenesis Irreducible complexity
Theistic/Atheistic Evolution All life is the result of natural law acting on matter 4.5 Billion Years Problems: Abiogenesis Irreducible complexity Fossil record
Theistic/Atheistic Evolution All life is the result of natural law acting on matter 4.5 Billion Years
Theistic/Atheistic Evolution All life is the result of natural law acting on matter 4.5 Billion Years
Theistic/Atheistic Evolution All life is the result of natural law acting on matter 4.5 Billion Years Missing intermediate fossils
Theistic/Atheistic Evolution All life is the result of natural law acting on matter 4.5 Billion Years Missing intermediate fossils Dr. Grassi, President of the French Academy of Science, Ed. of 30 vol. series on paleontology “There is almost a total absence of fossil evidence relative to the origin of the phyla. The lack of direct evidence leads to the formation of pure conjecture as to the genesis of phyla. We don’t even have a basis to determine the extent to which these opinions are correct.”
Theistic/Atheistic Evolution All life is the result of natural law acting on matter 4.5 Billion Years Missing intermediate fossils George Gaylord Simpson- Prominent evolutionary paleontologists in Types of Evolution “[The absence of transitional forms in the fossil record] is true of all the thirty-two orders of mammals...The earliest and most primitive known members of every order already have the basic ordinal characters, and in no case is an approximately continuous sequence from one order to another known. In most cases the break is so sharp and the gap so large that the origin of the order is speculative and much disputed.”
Theistic/Atheistic Evolution All life is the result of natural law acting on matter 4.5 Billion Years Missing intermediate fossils “This regular absence of transitional forms... is an almost universal phenomenon, as has long been noted by paleontologists. It is true of almost all orders of all classes of animals, both vertebrate and invertebrate...and it is apparently also true of analogous categories of plants.”
Mammals Primates Fish Amphibians Protozoans Birds Reptiles Mollusca Green plants Fungi Segmented Worms Unsegmented Worms Insects
Mammals Primates Fish Amphibians Protozoans Birds Reptiles Mollusca Green plants Fungi Unsegmented Worms Insects Blue-green Algas Segmented Worms
Theistic/Atheistic Evolution All life is the result of natural law acting on matter 4.5 Billion Years Missing intermediate fossils Simpson cont. [wonders] “whether such major events take place instantaneously, by some process essentially unlike those involved in lesser or more gradual evolutionary change...”
Theistic/Atheistic Evolution All life is the result of natural law acting on matter 4.5 Billion Years Missing intermediate fossils Therefore, “Punctuated equilibrium” -Millions of years of stasis -Followed by episodes of rapid evolution
All life is the result of natural law acting on matter 4.5 Billion Years Missing intermediate fossils Theistic/Atheistic Evolution Problems: Abiogenesis Irreducible complexity Fossil record
Theistic/Atheistic Evolution All life is the result of natural law acting on matter 4.5 Billion Years Problems: Abiogenesis Irreducible complexity Fossil record Qualifications: Not arguing against natural selection
Theistic/Atheistic Evolution All life is the result of natural law acting on matter 4.5 Billion Years Problems: Abiogenesis Irreducible complexity Fossil record Qualifications: Not arguing against natural selection Natural selection = insufficient
Theistic/Atheistic Evolution All life is the result of natural law acting on matter 4.5 Billion Years Problems: Abiogenesis Irreducible complexity Fossil record Philosophical implications Next time
Progressive Creationism Progressive Creation Creation is via a combination of God’s ordinary (natural Law) and extraordinary means of action 4.5 Billion Years
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. = creation ex nihilo
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning--the first day.
6 And God said, “Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water.” 7 So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the expanse “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning--the second day.
11 Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. 12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening, and there was morning--the third day.
Critique: Progressive Creationism Progressive Creation Creation is via a combination of God’s ordinary (natural Law) and extraordinary means of action 4.5 Billion Years
ãProgressive Creationism is compatible with the Genesis account: -The day-age theory -The day-age theory -“Days literal but not sequential” theory -“Days literal but not sequential” theory -“Days representative” theory -“Days representative” theory -The “Gap theory” -The “Gap theory” Critique: Progressive Creationism
ãProgressive Creationism is compatible with the Genesis account: -The day-age theory -The day-age theory -“Days literal but not sequential” theory -“Days literal but not sequential” theory -“Days representative” theory -“Days representative” theory -The “Gap theory” -The “Gap theory” Critique: Progressive Creationism 1:1 (1:2)3ff 4.5 billion years? < 1 yr yrs. Original creation Recreated Destroyed &
ãProgressive Creationism is compatible with the Genesis account: -The day-age theory -The day-age theory -“Days literal but not sequential” theory -“Days literal but not sequential” theory -“Days representative” theory -“Days representative” theory -The “Gap theory” -The “Gap theory” Critique: Progressive Creationism 1:1 (1:2)3ff 4.5 billion years? < 1 yr yrs. Original creation Recreation Destroyed & 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep
ãProgressive Creationism is compatible with the Genesis account: -The day-age theory -The day-age theory -“Days literal but not sequential” theory -“Days literal but not sequential” theory -“Days representative” theory -“Days representative” theory -The “Gap theory” -The “Gap theory” Critique: Progressive Creationism 1:1 (1:2)3ff 4.5 billion years? < 1 yr yrs. Original creation Recreation Destroyed & 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep NIV mg. “became”
Mature Creationism The creation account in Genesis is referring to a literal 6 day period when all things on earth were created-- All were by extraordinary, not ordinary means 10,000 years
Mature Creationism ãThe Days in Genesis 1 are literal 24- hour days, and happened only <10,000 years ago. The world flood made the earth look old ãThis is the dominant view in modern fundamentalist “creationism” ãA discredited and unfortunate theory ãMethodology is wrong ãUnresponsive to falsifying data
Examples of falsifying data: ãCoral atolls ãLight from distant stars ãSlow forming sediment ã Henry Morris: “Real creation necessarily involves creation of ‘apparent age.’” ãSee critique of Creation Science Movement by Robert Snow in Portraits of Creation Van Til ed. or- Hugh Ross, Creation and Time, Navpress Mature Creationism
Conclusions ãBelieving the Bible harmonizes with the findings of modern science. ãHuman spirituality is dependent on special creation. ãGenesis uniquely accounts for the nature of the human race. ãGod has created this world, and you can come to know him personally
Conclusions ãBelieving the Bible harmonizes with the findings of modern science. ãHuman spirituality is dependent on special creation. ãGenesis uniquely accounts for the nature of the human race. ãGod has created this world, and you can come to know him personally } Next time
ãComments? ãQuestions? ãExperiences? The Creation Narrative