The Creator s Window Viewing Global Change, Universal Timelines & The Promise

Transcription

1 Note, technological and political developments, among other topics, have undergone recent change and made stunning advancements that are yet to be captured here. For example, when this book project was started, the Internet was in its infancy. The rapid advances in the global communications systems alone is worthy of note in the Creator s Window. So, in some places you may fill in certain logical gaps as you read by simply thinking of and integrating your understanding of current events. Cover Page To: Chapter Twelve of 24 Chapters The Creator s Window Viewing Global Change, Universal Timelines & The Promise by Todd Peterson, Ph.D. Draft Second Edition 2000 The chapter or appendix that you have downloaded from the Internet is part of a larger book writing project. Although copyrighted through the U.S. Library of Congress, the author welcomes your sharing this material. If you quote or cite this text, please provide a web link or reference to: As a draft, this project is open to your comment and suggestions. Tell us what you think about what you ve read. The author can be reached by at: response@windowview.org The purpose of the Creator's Window fits within the larger scope of WindowView.org. To better understand how all this fits within the window's holistic view, we encourage a visit to the WindowView web site. Moreover, an outline for the entire writing project, of which this document is only one part, can be best appreciated by reading the outline for the Creator's Window at the web site. Please reserve your assessment of this presentation until you examine the outline for its larger context. WindowView.org is a thought resource that entertains a larger perspective based on Origins (as related through scientific evidence and a look at the Scriptures that identify a beginning to our universe), to current Global Changes (which you are familiar from reading the nightly news), Time Lines (based on science, human history in general, and biblical projections), and finally the role of a specific People Group that has been an intended messenger... one group that is meant to shine a light on the path ahead of all humanity. Sounds like a tall tale? Well, you are living today with all the evidence that is used here... come see how it looks through the Window's View! Look, discern, then decide for yourself what it all means to you personally! Thank you for downloading this work.

2 The Creator s Window DRAFT 2 nd Edition T. Peterson - Part 2 - page - 57 XII -- TO LIFE Our look at the Universe indicates there is a singular beginning. A unified cause produced a cascade of effects and events that now support life. The question of how life arose on our planet is traditionally addressed by the concept of biological evolution. However, this approach to explaining life s origin is countered by those who believe in a scriptural description of creation and thus the presence of a Creator. We will only examine the window s view to the point of seeing a perspective that leaves room for a Creator while briefly examining arguments and information that are derived from science. The key point here is that objective scientific information and not misinterpretation is critical to a clear comprehension of the view. Opening the Window All the Way 64 Many traditional arguments state the Universe and everything within are subject to undirected events and chaos. Textbooks often state life is a product of chance events appearing in successive stages through gradual change, trial and error, survival and extinction producing all life forms from one primal (single cell) ancestor. Life thus has one point of origin, and from this every living being is directly descendant from the very first life form. Students are commonly lead to believe this view was established, once and forevermore, by Charles Darwin. 65 Unfortunately, scientific data has never risen to fully 64 This chapter only starts the process of examining a long standing problem. Time invested in reading several of the references listed at the end of this book serves to add full weight to the issues presented here. Titles by Denton, Johnson, and Ross are presently on local library or bookstore shelves. The book by Kerkut may be located in an academic library. 65 At age 16, Charles Darwin went to the University of Edinburgh to study medicine. Bored by medicine he switched to courses at Christ College at Cambridge University with the intent of entering the clergy. But soon after receiving his bachelor's degree, Darwin traveled the world to explore natural history.

3 The Creator s Window DRAFT 2 nd Edition T. Peterson - Part 2 - page - 58 support the proposals offered by Darwin. Even Darwin recognized that more information would be required to complete the evolutionary picture. Elsewhere, without the concept of evolution, one is left to consider that a Creator s actions are the sole cause for the Universe and life. The fact that some individuals are uncomfortable with this prospect does not remove the Creator from our consideration. Sitting at this window affords us the opportunity to review the data, revisit the mechanics of evolution, and reconsider arguments now emerging from within the ranks of science. Several decades ago, Dr. G. A. Kerkut challenged the scientific community on the basis of long standing thinking which assumes evolution explains life, he noted: certain lines of thought are still open to examination, 66 Yet, to this day certain unchallenged assumptions are repeatedly the basis of classroom lectures. This is a concern especially where presentations of biological evolution fail to objectively consider the incompleteness of present scientific data or excuse alternate explanations that fit existing data. From time to time one must stop and attempt to think out for oneself instead of just accepting the most widely quoted viewpoint. 67 Even now, in the academic community at large, Darwinist dogma remains the underlying premise for numerous scholarly publications and textbook presentations. That evolution is a given theme only serves to narrow the questions examined by professors and their students. If indeed there is a bias here, then we are not hearing the entire story and the data are not explored objectively. When this tendency spills into the public sphere the bias filters into the news media and educational system. Concerning public education in the 90s, Professor Johnson, an academic lawyer at Berkeley, argues: 66 Ibid., G. A. Kerkut, page viii. 67 G. A. Kerkut, The Implications of Evolution (London: Pergamon Press, 1960), p. viii.

4 The Creator s Window DRAFT 2 nd Edition T. Peterson - Part 2 - page - 59 If there is a case for both sides of a scientific controversy, why should public school students, for example, hear only one side? 68 Prof. Johnson s presentations and debates before scientific audiences stresses this point. He challenges scientists to rethink and focus on specific topics representing academically unfounded and unquestioned aspects of evolution theory. Concern for interpretations of evolution also come from secular sources. 69 In this regard, every scientific observation and theory must be considered with a window that is open all the way. Window Pane Ten Seven Assumptions Dr. Kerkut, as a scientist, offers the following description and brief critique of assumptions still used today: There are, however, seven basic assumptions that are often not mentioned during discussions of Evolution. Many evolutionists ignore the first six assumptions and consider only the seventh. These are as follows. (1) The first assumption is that non-living things gave rise to living material, i.e. spontaneous generation occurred. (2) The second assumption is that spontaneous generation occurred only once. The other assumptions all follow from the second one. (3) The third assumption is that viruses, bacteria, plants, and animals are all interrelated. (4) The fourth assumption is that the protozoa gave rise to the metazoa. (5) The fifth assumption is that the various invertebrate phyla are interrelated. (6) The sixth assumption is that the invertebrates gave rise to the vertebrates. (7) The seventh assumption is that within the vertebrates the fish gave rise to the amphibia, the amphibia to the reptiles, and the reptiles to the birds and mammals. Sometimes this is expressed in other words, i.e. that the modern amphibia and reptiles had a common ancestral stock, and so on. For the initial purposes of this discussion on Evolution I shall consider that the supporters of the theory of Evolution hold that all these seven assumptions are valid, and that these assumptions form the General Theory of Evolution. The first point I should like to make is that the seven assumptions by their 68 P. E. Johnson. Darwin on Trial (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1993), page Drs. Denton and Kerkut challenge evolution from a scientific and secular point of view.

5 The Creator s Window DRAFT 2 nd Edition T. Peterson - Part 2 - page - 60 nature are not capable of experimental verification. They assume that a certain series of events has occurred in the past. Thus, though it may be possible to mimic some of these events under present-day conditions, this does not mean that these events must therefore have taken place in the past. All that it shows is that it is possible for such a change to take place. Thus, to change a present-day reptile into a mammal, though of great interest, would not show the way in which the mammals did arise. Unfortunately, we cannot bring about even this change; instead we have to depend upon limited circumstantial evidence for our assumptions Students are often deprived of information that reveals opposition to Darwin s theory, including statements from the 1860s to the present day. 71 An extended historical review reveals the evolution theory s roots extend to the early Greek thinkers. The fact remains, throughout the past hundred plus years, the Darwinist view includes problems even Darwin himself acknowledged as potential flaws in his theory. The predominant dogma dictates that only classical evolution be presented in the classroom. This approach typically skips alternate views, even those offered by science itself. The assumption that life arouse only once and that therefore all living things are interrelated is a useful assumption... But because a concept is useful it does not mean that it is necessarily correct. The experimental basis for this concept in particular is not as definite and as conclusive as many modern texts would have us believe. 72 Science has enjoyed a long period of discovery since Darwin s day. Advances in technology, exploration of genetics, opportunities to unearth fossils, and scientific activity around the globe still do little to support the seven assumptions. And if all our information fails to turn the assumptions into fact, then it is time to focus on alternatives. 70 Ibid., page 4. (emphasis added) 71 see Hull, D.L. Darwin and his Critics, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1973). 72 Ibid., G. A. Kerkut, page 8.

6 The Creator s Window DRAFT 2 nd Edition T. Peterson - Part 2 - page - 61 Beyond Assumptions Taking a New Look at What the Data Say There are several areas where classical evolution theory wears thin. First, recent evidence from molecular biology is unable to establish clear genetic links between life forms. In many cases, molecular or biochemical similarities between different species can just as easily be part of a consistent design for life as opposed to evidence for an ongoing evolutionary process. Second, the construction of an evolutionary tree (Figure 9-A) still requires evidence for transition intermediates. An intermediate form would reveal how one species simple feature leads to another s more complex form. The fossil record is often excused as incomplete. But, this thinking grows old in light of recent work on an extensive number of fossil finds. Where new organisms are found they are less the hoped intermediate and more a new unique, previously undiscovered, species. More importantly, where fossil records are quite complete, covering millions of years, intermediate forms are absent. 73 This maintains distinct gaps in the tree (see Figure 9-B)....while the rocks have continually yielded new and exciting and even bizarre forms of life, dinosaurs, icthyosaurs, and pterosaurs, in the early nineteenth century,... and many others in the twentieth century, what they have never yielded is any of Darwin s myriads of transitional forms. Despite the tremendous increase in geological activity in every corner of the globe and despite the discovery of many strange and hitherto unknown forms, the infinitude of connecting links has still not been discovered and the fossil record is about as discontinuous as it was when Darwin was writing the Origin. The intermediates have remained as elusive as ever and their absence 73 Ibid., P. E. Johnson, page 51. In his chapter entitled: The Fossil Problem, Prof. Johnson refers to the work of Steven Stanley, at the Bighorn Basin in Wyoming, who examines a relatively complete fossil record spanning approximately five million years. The evidence from this segment of time suggests intermediates are not observed and species actually fit the argument contending that stasis, or resistance to change, prevails for life forms through time.

7 The Creator s Window DRAFT 2 nd Edition T. Peterson - Part 2 - page - 62 remains, a century later, one of the most striking characteristics of the fossil record. 74 Flowering Plants Grasses Molluscs Insects Animals Flowering Plants Grasses Molluscs Insects Animals Moses Fungi Worms Sponges Moses Fungi Worms Sponges Algae Algae A Bacteria The absence of evidence for the missing intermediates is troubling. Even this possibility occurred to Darwin: B Bacteria Figure 9: A) SIMPLIFIED EVOLUTIONARY TREE. The small circle at the bottom represents the spontaneous appearance of a first ancestral life form. The stick branches illustrate a proposed relationship for the development of all types and groups of organisms from simplest to the most complex species. B) TREE WITH SOME BRANCHES REMOVED. Without evidence for intermediate life forms, the tree begins to lose some of the branches. If the branches never existed, then multiple origins are necessary to explain the branching patterns that remain. 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. 75 Today, a lack of intermediate steps resulting in specialized organs, eyes, feathers, or other body parts, lingers on. 76 The real evidence is truly 74 M. Denton, Evolution: A Theory in Crisis (Bethesda: Adler & Adler, Publishers, Inc., 1981), page C. Darwin, The Origin of Species (New York: A Mentor Book, New American Library, 1858), page Denton s Chapter 2, The Theory of Evolution, provides an expanded explanation for problems with intermediates. He reviews taxonomic forms in living species as well as evidence

8 The Creator s Window DRAFT 2 nd Edition T. Peterson - Part 2 - page - 63 conspicuous by an absence of something needed to support the traditional assumptions (see Window Pane Ten). Third, appearances of life on Earth come too quickly to support the gradual evolutionary process which is believed responsible for the development of new groups of species. Recent evidence indicates that the Cambrian period exhibits an explosion of life forms in a relatively short time frame. 77 A news article in Science Evolution s Big Bang Gets Even More Explosive emphasizes the rapid production of new species as follows: Life on Earth was a slow starter. Single-celled organisms made their debut in the geologic record nearly 3.5 billion years ago, but until less than 600 million years ago, early in the Cambrian Period, evolution dragged. Then something clicked, and animals burst into a multi-million-year frenzy of evolutionary innovation like nothing ever seen before or since. 78 Dr. Denton states: The story is the same for plants. Again, the first representatives of each major group appear in the fossil record already highly specialized and highly characteristic of the group to which they belong. Perhaps one of the most abrupt arrivals of any plant group in the fossil record is the appearance of the angiosperms in the era known to geologists as the Cretaceous. Like the sudden appearance of the first animal groups in the Cambrian rocks, the sudden appearance of the angiosperms is a persistent anomaly which has resisted all attempts at explanation since Darwin s time. 79 (angiosperms: flowing plants) These two descriptions tell us that plants appeared first and animals come later. Denton s writing also quotes a letter by Darwin which recognizes this supplied by fossils. 77 S. A. Bowring et al., Calibrating rates of early Cambrian evolution, Science 261 (1993), pages Their report indicates new dating techniques compress certain episodes of evolution down to time frames of 5 to 10 million years. 78 D. Bradley, Evolution s Big Bang Gets Even More Explosive. Science 261 (1993), pages Ibid., M. Denton, page 163.

9 The Creator s Window DRAFT 2 nd Edition T. Peterson - Part 2 - page - 64 apparently sudden and abrupt development for higher plants. The traditional view calls for gradual change over hundreds of millions of years. As noted above, many species appeared too quickly to fit the Darwinist view. Returning to the Drawing Board We have reached a point where one can turn away from the window for a moment. Certainly, debates between evolutionists and creationists bring up many more points than examined here. However, we at least see the possibility that life enters the earthly stage at not one but perhaps many points of origin and at different times. Recent research confirms that species do give rise to similar species this is called microevolution. This helps to explain and justify some of the finer branches of the proposed evolutionary tree (Figure 9- B). The larger macroevolution picture, which describes a complete tree illustration (see Figure 9-A) is not consistent with present data. One can conclude that natural history may be very accurate in its presentation of the current data. Life appears in steps or stages with a set of consistent design features and a genetic code that allows for some developmental variation for species. The American Scientific Affiliation addresses the distinction between microand macroevolution to challenge college and high school teachers to examine the present data through more than one line of investigative thinking. Furthermore, their book Teaching Science in a Climate of Controversy addresses a number of issues concerning popular myths; the origin of the Universe, life, and humans; and a responsible approach to considering current scientific information. 80 Quiet time and carefully thinking issues through avoids false conclusions or emotional debates that never seem 80 Copies of this book are available, for $7 each, from: Committee for Integrity in Science Education, American Scientific Affiliation, P.O. Box 668, Ipswich, MA

10 The Creator s Window DRAFT 2 nd Edition T. Peterson - Part 2 - page - 65 to resolve themselves. Rather than to make assumptions and speculate on how to fill gaps in science, the window view offers us an opportunity to follow a perspective that is often overlooked or simply disbelieved. A logical storyline does continue from this point and this becomes obvious as other information continues to enter our field of view. The Creator s window is now opened that we might consider the possibility of his presence in this place.