1. The Science of Life and The God of Life
Biology-Chapter One
The Science of Life and The God of Life

2. God and Science How is God involved with a subject like science?
What does the Bible, if anything, say about science.
What does science have anything to do with God?
That’s what a lot of people say, or at least think.

3. No Good Scientists Were Christians, Right?
Wrong!

4. Sir Isaac Newton was a Christian

5. God Made Science
Because God made the world, and while creating this world and this universe, He created all the scientific laws that every physical, chemical, and biological thing has to abide by in His Creation.
So, God is the author of His Word, the Bible, and He is the author of all the laws of nature, because He made them.

6. God and Man, God’s Highest Creation
When God made man (Gen. 1:26-27), He did a special thing. He made man in His image.
No other thing in all creation is made in God’s image.
Because of this, you are very valuable to God.
Also because of this, we as beings made in the image of God have a Creation Mandate.
A “mandate” is kind of like an order. It is something we “must” do.

7. Creation Mandate
After creating man, and because man was God’s highest creation, made in God’s own image, God told man to take care of His creation, and this is something every human “must” do.
But don’t be confused.
We should not confuse this mandate with thinking that the earth, or “nature” is some kind of “god”, or that man is a kind of “slave” to the earth, or in some way inferior to it. This is absolutely wrong.
So what does it mean?

8. We are to Take Care of the Earth
We are, as the highest of creation, responsible for taking care of His creation.
But we are not a slave of it. It was made to provide for us in the way of food and other natural resources for us to cultivate and use.
We should take care of the earth, and then use the natural resources it provides for us.

9. Sin We do have a problem in taking care of the world.
It is sin. Things in the world do not work right.
There are storms, tornadoes, earth quakes, droughts, and floods that do not always make it possible for us to be able to work on the earth the best way that we would like.
This is because of sin in the world.

10. It Wasn’t Always This Way
In the beginning, just after God created the world, everything in the world was working just right.
For example…
The water was clean, the air was absolutely clean. You could pick fruit right off of trees without thinking about what chemicals might be on them. No insects would bite us. No animals were dangerous. No weather was too warm or cold. It never rained, and yet all the plants got their water. What a place this earth was!

11. In The Beginning

12. Then Sin Came In
Then man sinned, Adam and Eve sinned against God by disobeying Him, and ever since, the world and everything in it has never been the same.
But we have been charged by God to remain faithful with what we have been given, and our blessed hope is in Jesus, who will make all things new (Rev. 21:5).

13. Wow, that Sounds Like the World’s Going to Be Pretty Bad Until Jesus Comes Back. Think I’ll Just Hide
Sorry, that’s not what God wants.
Rom 8:20-23 says, “For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.”

14. Redemption
God has a plan to redeem the world from the sin that it is now experiencing.
This is not all there is.
Seeing is NOT believing.
By using the rules of biology, we become instruments of God’s redemption. We are then enabled to invent better methods of agriculture, invent medicines to save lives from diseases that are now thought incurable, invent things to make man’s life on earth more comfortable.

15. Our Redemption

16. What is Truth
In our American culture, people like to think of science as containing the “Truth.”
If you want to know if something is true, check it with “Science.” Then you’ll know if it’s really true.
Truth is unchanging law.
But are the things believed to be true in science “unchanging.”

17. Things Believed to Be Absolutely Positively, Completed, With Out a Doubt, For Sure, Totally True
The world is Flat
People become sick from bad night air
The earth is the center of the solar system
The universe is infinite
People can be healed from disease by bleeding the bad blood out of them.
Is Science TRUTH?

18. Truth: What Everyone Believes
Sometimes this is actually used, in other subjects.
English grammar is a subject where, if the majority of people in this group agree that speaking and writing a certain way is proper, then its proper.
But rules of language are man-made, and therefore, governed by man.
Is truth something that everyone agrees upon?

19. Doctrine of Humors
Hippocrates (The first scientific physician) believed that living things were made of four fluids called “humors”, and that our health was based on the balance of these humors. If there was too much or too little of these humors, and person would feel some sort of abnormality, including feeling happy or sad (thus the word “humor”).

20. Was It True?
This doctrine was held for many centuries (from around 300 BC until the mid 1800’s).
Most of the educated people held to it. So was it true?

21. Doctrine of Signatures
Sometimes we may find out how to do something, and it works for us, so we use it. But it may be the wrong method. But because the method works on the things for which we use, we say that the method is true.
In the 14th and 15th centuries, man believed that God, when He cursed someone, and caused him to come down with a disease, He would, in His mercy, leave a physical “sign” (signatures) of cures for the disease.
There is no scriptural basis for this.

22. Cont.
For example, doctors would give a yellow papery lichen found on rocks as a cure for jaundice. A small plant that looks like the lobe of a liver was used to treat liver infections.

23. Doctrine of Signatures

24. Doctrine of Signatures

25. Doctrine of Signatures

26. Truth: Repeated Observations
If an object is dropped, it goes down to the ground. This can be done over and over again with the same results.
This is an example of a repeated observation.
Based on this repeated observation, can we now say that this is the result of gravity.

27. But
If a magician seemingly makes someone “float” in the air, was our observation of gravity wrong? Should we now change what we believed to be true about gravity?
If we believe that truth comes from repeated observation, and the magician can repeat what he has performed, then we would need to change our belief of what is true about gravity.
But something that is true in science should not change.

28. Truth: That Which Is Logical
Logic is very appealing to some people. It makes sense to people, so it “must” be true.
For example: It is logical to say that the universe goes on forever. It is so large and vast that it is logical to conclude our universe is infinite.
This may sound logical, but it is not true.
Let us look at different kinds of reasonings.

29. Inductive
This kind of reasoning begins with a group of observed facts, and from this, forms a conclusion it calls “truth.”
The problem with this kind of thinking is the thinking itself. The reasoning used to determine the conclusion may be incorrect, or faulty. Perhaps the person doing the reasoning “wants” the conclusion to be something. He/she may “find” some reasons for “making” the conclusion become that which the observer wants it to become. (Bias)

30. Deductive
Reasoning that is deductive begins with a premise or idea that is assumed to be true, and builds upon this until a conclusion is formed.
For example:
(Major premise) All bachelors are unmarried men
(Minor premise) Joe is unmarried.
(Conclusion) Therefore, Joe is a bachelor.

31. Truth, That Which Accepted by Faith
What a person believes can be called truth.
As Christians, we believe that salvation comes by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ alone, and it is something we can not earn on our own. It is the gift of God. We believe this to be a truth.
Virtually every other non-Christian faith in the world that believes in a heaven and hell believes that salvation is something that is earned through doing good deeds, or “being good.” They believe this to be a truth.

32. Reliability of Faith in Science
When we go to a doctor, we believe he is qualified to help us.
But what if the doctor practices medicine the same way that a tribal medicine man practiced medicine? Regardless of our faith in that doctor, we would suffer, and probably die (depending on our condition) under his care.

33. Truth: The Word of God
The God of the Bible is Truth. Jesus said, “I am the way, the Truth, and the Life, no one comes to the Father, but through Me.” (John 14:6). “…Thy word is truth.” (John 17:17). “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.” Mark 13:31
There are people who do not, and never will, believe in the Bible. They have decided, in spite of the evidence, not to believe in the Bible. Luke 16:19-31

34. God’s Word

35. What Is Science?
The word science comes from the Greek word for “knowledge”. When we talk about science, we are talking about that which occurs in nature. The natural world.
Because God made all of nature, it is natural for us to study this subject in the way God’s Word tells us about it.

36. Science as Modeling
To help scientists understand how things work, they often times, need to know what things, like atoms and molecules, look like.
Because atoms and molecules are too small to see with a microscope, we use “models” of what we think they ought to look like.
When we use these models, they help scientists understand predict how they will behave under certain circumstances, and how they do behave now.

37. Modeling

38. Modeling

39. Modeling

40. The Scientific Method
The Scientific Method has been modified through time, but currently:
Observe the experiment or survey carefully
Collect information from the experiment
Classify the data into a logical order.
Analyze the data to determine what they reveal about the problem.
Choose the solution the solution that best answers the question.
Verify the chosen answer by repeating the experiment.
Predict what will happen in similar situations. The goal of the scientific method is to be able to draw conclusions that can be applied to similar cases.

41. Scientific Method

42. Controlled Experiments
The ideal scientific experiment is a controlled experiment.
The is where there are two groups, the control group and the experimental group.
Both of these groups are identical except for one factor or trait. This difference in the two groups is called the experimental (independent) variable.

43. Continued
The group that is not exposed to the independent variable is the control group, and the group that is exposed to the independent variable is the experimental group.
The reason it is called dependent variable is because it is dependent upon the independent variable.

44. Continued
The purpose of the experiment is to determine whether or not there will be a measurable difference between the control and experimental groups.
Bias can affect the results of the Scientific Method.

45. Dominion Science
We see all things in light of what Jesus has done for us, understanding that He is in all and through all.
He is the alpha and omega, the first and last, the beginning and end. He is our all in all.
Dominion science is scientific activity that exercises dominion for the gory of God and the benefit of other humans.

46. Improper Attitudes Some Christians Have Toward Science
Science is anti-God, and when it is used correctly, disproves God.
One cannot be a Christian and a good scientist.
A Christian cannot talk to a scientist about science intelligently.
None of these are true.

47. Confronting Error
To be able to defend the Christian faith against those who say that, based upon biology, and other natural sciences, it is false, we need to learn the subject of biology to demonstrate that our God, the author of science, is consistent, and those who attempt to use His science to disprove Him cannot be true.
You can NOT disprove God. He is reality and Truth.

48. Presuppositions
This is an idea that a person assumes to be true without proof.
These will often be used by people who want to disprove God. They will present a presupposition as though it is a fact, then, based on that presupposition, state that either God does not exist, or the Bible is not true, or evolution occurred, or some other non-biblical belief, but will attempt to make it sound like a scientific fact.

49. One Presupposition
“If it can’t be proven naturalistically, it couldn’t have happened.”
This statement is saying that if something ca not be proven, or explained by present day science, then it could not have happened.
The problem with this statement is that it automatically excludes all miracles, which by definition, are beyond natural explanation.

50. Continued
Naturalism is limited to the physical universe. This is all there is, and there is nothing else in all existence (it is atheistic).
Carl Sagan (a Naturalist) was asked a question by Kathy Lee Gifford about the Law of Thermodynamic (entropy). Anyone can have a discussion with a naturalist scientist.

51. Scientism (science is everything) Evolution’s view of charity
Naturalist Worldview
Evolution
Scientism (science is everything)
Evolution’s view of charity

52. Why Do People Have a Naturalistic Worldview?
Ignorance, it was the only thing they were taught.
Fear of their own sinfulness.

53. Christian Worldview
We view the world as having been made by God, and as such is in complete control by Him.
Because we were made by God in His image, we have great inherent value.
We see God as being great and our first source of authority, and as such, He is our reason for living. Because of this, we study Biology as a way to glorify Him.

54. Biology, and the Study of Life
The word, biology, literally means, study of life.
It is a combination of the suffix ology which comes from the Greek (logos) for word, which meaning translates to “study of” in English, with the prefix bio, which simply means life.
Combining the two meanings gives us: “Study of Life.” Biology is the study of life.

55. Attributes of Life
Every living thing, whether as large as an elephant, a human, or an oak tree, or as small as a seed or a microorganism. Whether the living thing is an animal, or a plant. All living things have.
There are eleven attributes of life.

56. Attributes of Life 1) Motion 2) Growth 3) Reproduction
4) Come from preexisting life.
5) Have similar chemical makeup (Organic)
6) Are composed of cells (Or unicellular)
7) Exhibits irritability
8) Requires energy
9) Maintains a high level of organization: Highly organized molecular structure.
10) Death
11) Physical Life: Life is a “condition,” a state in which something exists.

57. The Microscope
Glass lenses that were used to magnify structures were introduced in the Middle Ages.
A single lens is called a simple microscope.
A stereoscopic microscopes are those that have two eyepieces with which to look through.

58. Microscope

59. Stereoscopic Microscope

60. The Electron Microscope
The electron microscope replaces light with beams of electrons. Because the electrons are so small, this microscope allows us to see objects that are extremely small.
Objects as small as the human gene are visible to the biologist by using the electron microscope.

61. Electron Microscope

62. Variables
Biological organisms are different from machines. Each machine that is produced is identical to the other. They are exactly the same.
Biological organisms are the opposite of this.
While they may have similar “species characteristics,” organisms have “individual characteristics” that are completely different from each other.

63. Cont.
Because of this, organisms have what are called “variables” in them.
There are many different kinds of horses, but they are all horses. There differences are an example of a variable.
Can you think of other variables in biology?

64. Variables

65. Variables

66. The End!