top of page
In the beginning God created

Science

Mountain Ranges
Our Story in 1 minute

In the study of science many scientist try to prove their ideas of how things happen and why.  These ideas when tested by experiments are called theories.  Many theories exist about our world, universe, and how we came to exist.  I'm sure you have many questons already just like the scientist do.  Over the years scientist have tried to find ways to prove their own ideas about how everything came to exist.  In order to prove that their ideas are true they use experiments, observations, and explore looking at things people or animals left behind which we can use to understand the world around us.  Scientist leave data for others to examine what they wrote and see if what they wrote can be repeated in the same way.  After testing it over and over they can conclude that something may be true, however that isn't always the case.  Sometimes tests are done that can lead a scientist and many others to believe something and some time later another scientist will add a piece to the test that will change the conclusion.  This is what happens when scientists study creation and evolution.  

 

Creation and Evolution theories are ideas by seperate scientist whom have examined many things in our past and come to very different conclusions.  While each of the scientist make claims to have all the truth and proven records the conclusion have been made based off incomplete records and no truly observable information.  That means no one was really there to see it first hand.  How did the earth come to exist?  Where did humans come from?  Where did the atom come from?  All these questions can only be answered by guessing from the information we already have, becasue no one was there to actually see  how things came to be.  Today's scientist are working on trying to recreate these things so they can answer those questions.

 

So, where did everything come from?

 

We will look at how things are made and how they have changed over time.  First lets start by talking about how Scientists think everything first came into being.  There are several theories but the ones most popular are the Creation Model and the Evolution Model. Let's get a good look at each to see how they are different and what common features they share.

 

 

Definitions of the Creation Model and the Evolution Model

 

The scientific model of creation, in summary, includes the scientific evidence for a sudden creation of complex and diversified kinds of life, with systematic gaps persisting between different kinds and with genetic variation occurring within each kind since that time.

 

The scientific model of evolution, in summary, includes the scientific evidence for a gradual emergence of present life kinds over aeons of time, with emergence of complex and diversified kinds of life from simpler kinds and ultimately from nonliving matter.

 

The creation model questions vertical evolution, which is the emergence of complex from simple and change between kinds, but it does not challenge what is often called horizontal evolution or microevolution, which creationists call genetic variation or species or subspecies formation within created kinds. The following chart lists seven aspects of the scientific model of creation and of the scientific model of evolution:

 

The creation model includes the scientific evidence and the related inferences suggesting that:

 

 

The evolution model includes the scientific evidence and the related inferences suggesting that:

 

 

  • The universe and the solar system emerged by naturalistic processes.

  • Life emerged from nonlife by naturalistic processes.

  • All present kinds emerged from simpler earlier kinds, so that single-celled organisms evolved into invertebrates, then vertebrates, then amphibians, then reptiles, then mammals, then primates, including man.

  • Mutation and natural selection have brought about the emergence of present complex kinds from a simple primordial organism.

  • Man and apes emerged from a common ancestor.

  • The earth's geologic features were fashioned largely by slow, gradual processes, with infrequent catastrophic events restricted to a local scale (uniformitarianism).

  • The inception of the earth and then of life must have occurred several billion years ago.

 

"We do not know how the Creator created, what processes He used, for He used processes which are not now operating anywhere in the natural universe. This is why we refer to creation as special creation. We cannot discover by scientific investigations anything about the creative processes used by the Creator." says Duane Gish, author of Evolution? The Fossils Say No!

 

Evolution vs. Creation: The Great Debate

The Evolution vs. Creation theories debate is often referred to as the "Great Debate." It's the emotion-packed question of "Origins" -- why, how, and where did everything come from? 20th century science has made the compelling discovery that, at some point, the universe began. Both sides of the Great Debate now agree that the universe has not existed eternally. However, this is where the agreement ends. As far as the "why" and "how" of the "origin event," this is where the division and contention begin.

 

There are two basic theories in this Great Debate. The first is the historical default - the Creation Model of Origins. This theory maintains that the intricate design permeating all things implies a Designer.

 

The second theory is the more recent explanation - the Evolution Model of Origins. This theory postulates that the intricate design of all things is a product of random chance and over a long period of time.

 

The Genesis account sets the stage for all of humanity’s existence.  What we believe about Genesis, and creation, is foundational to getting the rest of our theology right.

 

Those who promote the theory of evolution ask us to doubt God’s word concerning creation.

 

What is the ‘Theory of Evolution”?

 

Some clarification is in order here concerning the meaning of the word ‘evolution’.  I recently attended a creation/evolution debate where I kept hearing the person representing evolution state that present day biology is built upon evolution.  This person finally explained that the ‘evolution’ she was speaking about was the change that was seen to take place within bacteria, viruses, germs, animals, and humans, etc. that allowed them to adapt to differing environments.  As a creationist, I have no problem with this definition of ‘evolution’.

 

The problem is that evolutionists take this concept of "adaptation" within a species and say that these changes can eventually result in one species changing into a different species.  This is what is sometimes called the ‘molecules-to-man’ theory of evolution.  This is the concept of evolution that says all life came from a simple, one-celled organism.  This simple organism increased in complexity over time until it finally resulted in all the different forms of life we see today.  This is the theory that rejects any participation by God; and it is this theory that is incompatible with Christianity.  This will be the type of evolution we will refer to when we say evolution and not the process of adaptation.  An adaptation is a feature that is common in a population because it provides some improved function.  Adaptations can take many forms: a behavior that allows better evasion of predators, a protein that functions better at body temperature, or an anatomical feature that allows the organism to access a valuable new resource — all of these might be adaptations.    

 

It must be kept in mind that the creation/evolution debate is not a conflict between Christianity and science; rather it is a conflict between the Creation and Evolution.

 

The theory of evolution attempts to explain how we got here.  Secular (things that have no religious or spiritual basis) evolutionists adhere to the belief that science has answered the question of our origins and that God, if He even exists, had nothing to do with it.  For those of us who hold the Bible to be God’s Word, evolution must be rejected.  Often, the evolutionist will deny that their theory has anything to do with how life first appeared; it only seeks to explain how life evolved to what we see today.  In this way, they hope to avoid openly admitting their rejection of God.  Regardless, evolution flatly denies the record of creation found in the Bible.  Let us look at what the Bible says.

 

The Biblical Record

 

Genesis 1:1 begins the entire Bible with these words, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (ESV).  For anyone who believes the Bible, this should put to rest any doubt about Who made us.  The first chapter of Genesis specifically says that God made, the heavens and the earth (v. 1), the stars (vv. 14-15), the sun and the moon (vv. 16-19), plants (vv. 11-13), animals (vv. 20-25), and humans (vv. 26-27).

 

Can Creation and Evolution coexist?

 

The evolutionary theory of natural selection is based on survival of the fittest.  This means that animals with better instincts and better fighting skills would triumph over and kill the weaker animals.  This, in theory, would result in improvements in the gene pool of succeeding generations until the animal world ‘evolved’ enough to produce man.  However, the biblical record says that there was no death until Adam and Eve disobeyed God and sinned (Genesis 2:17; Romans 5:12-21; I Corinthians 15:21-22).  Therefore, according to the Bible, there could not have been thousands, perhaps millions, or billions, of years of violence and death prior to the fall.  It cannot be both ways.  Either the Bible is true and evolution is a lie or evolution is true and the Bible is in error.  The choice is God’s word or man’s word.

 

The fact is that science has not proven the age of the earth.  Many times the impression is given that scientists are smarter than regular people are, so if we disagree with them, their opinion is right and ours is wrong.  They try to convince the average Christian that the Bible is mistaken, or simply written in a manner primitive man would have written in order to describe things he did not understand.  It is said that now we have the scientific understanding to explain, and therefore, correct the biblical record.  However, if the Bible is God’s word to us, we can be confident that it contains no mistakes at all.  Or are we to conclude that it was out of God’s control to protect the message He wants us to have?

So if all we have are theories to make our decisions about what to belive what is the next step in learning what is true?

 

If we apply the scientific method we can go on a journey through time to explore things like the building blocks of life like atoms, DNA, and fossils to get a closer look at the scientific world around us.  At the end of our journey you will be familiar with both theories and why Scientist today still remain divided on the evidence they have.  You will understand about our world but the conclusion to believe in either one will still be up to you.  Remember that no one has either proved or disproved either one.

Who is God?

Many religions describe a being referred to as "God." The dictionary defines God "as the one Supreme Being, the creator and ruler of the universe."  We learn most of what we know about God from a collection of writings called the Bible.  This ancient collection of writing was given to an ancient people known as the Hebrews.  Although the Hebrews were not the only ones to have written accounts of a supreme being and ruler of the Universe.  Later in our course we will learn more about the ancient civilizations such as the Hebrews and others whom have writings we can investigate.  We will also learn about archeological evidences or places around the globe of cities that have been dug up to reveal interesting clues about who God is.

 

The collected writings of the Hebrews is called the Torah or the Bible.  Later around 33 A.D. descendants of the Hebrews called Jews wrote additional writings that are part of the revealed testament of Jesus.  Collectively the collection of all these books are known today as the Bible.  The Bible is actually a library of 66 books, written by 44 authors over a period of about 1500 years.  These men had different roles in their societies such as king, fishermen, doctors, shepards, musicians and more.  While some of them lived during the same time, many did not and very few actually knew each other.  In fact, many of them existed at different times in history.  The 39 books of the Old Testament were composed between 1400 and 400 B.C., the 27 books of the New Testament between A.D. 50 and A.D. 100.  

 

When the Bible was first written, there were no chapters or verses as today. In fact, many of the early, handwritten manuscripts were written without spaces between the words! Stephen Langton divided the Bible into chapters about A.D. 1228. The Old Testament was divided into verses by R. Nathan in A.D. 1448, and Robert Stephanus divided the New Testament into verses in A.D. 1551. The first complete Bible with chapter and verse divisions was the Geneva Bible of A.D. 1560.  The Bible remains the best selling book of all time.  

 

The Bible states that God is the Spirit hovering over the waters of the primordial Earth—Creator of the universe (matter, energy, space, and time), along with other principalities and beings whose primary existence is outside this universe. However, God did not just create the universe and leave it to its own fate as deists proclaim. God is the personal being who walked and talked with Adam and Eve, the first human beings, in the garden of Eden. 

 

As part of the unit studies in Social Studies you will be able to explore more in depth about the different faiths of the world.  You will be able to compare how they are the same and how they are in contrast to one another.  According to Christianity, God is the self-existent One, having no need of being created, since He has existed forever and is the cause of all things, including the dimension of time, to which He is not subject (see If God Created Everything, Who Created God?).  Likewise, God is not subject to the physical creation, but is spiritual in nature, residing in the spiritual dimensions of heaven. God's power over the physical creation is absolute, such that He can manipulate matter, energy, space, and time at will. For this reason, God is said to be all powerful—able to accomplish any possible task He wills to do. Along with being all powerful, God is also all knowing—having knowledge of all things that are possible to be known, including the entire history of the universe—past, present, and future. Because God is all powerful (omnipotent) and all knowing (omniscient), He is also able to be present at all places at all times (omnipresent). 

 

The Bible says that God cannot be contained within the universe (1 Kings 8:27). In addition, the Bible says that God fills both heaven and earth (Jeremiah 23:24), which is a Hebrew idiom to describe the entire universe. So, God is both transcendent and immanent simultaneously. God's normal abode is in heaven, which is not located within the physical universe. According to the Bible heaven seems to operate under different physical laws, with the laws of thermodynamics seeming to be absent. So, the question "Where is God?" is not one that can be answered with the knowledge we posses.  the Bible says God is a spirit (John 4:24)—without physical form (i.e., not composed of ordinary matter). 

Everything Around Us Is Made From Matter

 

You take up no space. You have no volume. You have no mass. You are a consciousness contained in a bit of energy. Science has long known that the world, all matter, from rocks to human beings is just energy.

 

There was nothing there before He created the universe. The only thing that there was, was His Self. The physical universe was formed out of God. What is God? Spirit. What is spirit? Conscious energy. The universe was formed and is sustained by God's energy. And we are told in the Bible how that happened.

God split off a little part of himself. We are told that part is called the Word. That bit of God-spirit became the spirit Self that manipulated the universal energy into a physical form that we know as Jesus.

After the split, God communicated to the Word the blueprint for the universe. The Word also spoke and a certain amount of God's spirit/energy became the universe.  God's initial manifestation of a physical universe didn't include human beings. The universe was created and other creations were put in charge.

 

It needs to be said again here that God is outside of time. God invented time, so to speak. We need it to function within the physical reality. However, all the time to God is simultaneous. The creation happened all at once, not one thing after another. When God formed the original plan for the creation of the universe, he covered all the bases, just like the CIA.

Genesis 1:3  (King James Version)

 

1:1  In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

 

1:2  And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

 

1:3  And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

 

1:4  And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

Before we move on, we need to understand that science and the Bible can exist in harmony.  First we will learn about the science and then explore religious views.  We still need to understand the Science of how things work in our Universe.  We have learned about the theories Scientist believe about how things came to be and we have learned about who many believe it may have happened.  We still have so many questions to answer like what are we made of, how things work, and why?  Along the way we will be sure to have opposing views or views that make claims that these ideas are not correct.  You will have the chance to use the Scientific Method to draw conclusions and analyze all the data you can gather to start to have your own ideas.

 

Let's learn a little more about Evolution and who was the first person to ask the questions that gave the ideas (theories) that Evolution was a truth. 

 

 

Who was Charles Darwin and Darwinian Theory?


Darwinism is a theory of biological evolution developed by Charles Robert Darwin and others, stating that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations that increase the individual's ability to compete, survive, and reproduce.

 

What is a theory?

 

In everyday use, the word "theory" often means an untested guess without supporting evidence. But for scientists, a theory has nearly the opposite meaning. A theory is a well-substantiated explanation of an aspect of the natural world that can incorporate laws, hypotheses and facts.

What is Natural Selection?

 

The theory of evolution by natural selection, first formulated in Darwin's book "On the Origin of Species" in 1859, is the process by which organisms change over time as a result of changes in heritable physical or behavioral traits. Changes that allow an organism to better adapt to its environment will help it survive and have more offspring.  Natural selection is the process whereby organisms better adapted to their environment tend to survive and produce more offspring.  In the first edition of "The Origin of Species" in 1859, Charles Darwin speculated about how natural selection could cause a land mammal to turn into a whale.

 

While natural selection is something that is being observed within changes of a species, no actual evidence has ever been observed of one species becoming another species.  In other words dogs are still dogs and cats are still cats.  Fossils have only given us a look to make theories based off the bones Scientists study to come up with their own conclusions.

Observation is the active acquisition of information from a primary source. In living beings, observation employs the senses. In science, observation can also involve the recording of data via the use of instruments. The term may also refer to any data collected during the scientific activity. Observations can be qualitative, that is, only the absence or presence of a property is noted, or quantitative if a numerical value is attached to the observed phenomenon by counting or measuring.

 

Now that we have a better understanding of some of the theories Scientist have come up with we can take a closer look at what the Universe is made of.

bottom of page