Science and Creation Science
The first and second lectures have been posted to the Church s website under Adult classes and a link can be found on the Church s Facebook page. The rest will be posted there after I present them Sticky notes (which contain additional information) cannot be viewed on the web so I recommend downloading the PDF file and opening it with your Adobe Reader (Right click the file and choose Open with Adobe Reader )
Class 1 Worldwide, the majority of Christians accept evolution 95% of the scientific community accepts evolution and 40% of them also believe in a personal God In the Life Sciences (Biology, genetics ect) the number of creationists drops to below 1% Historically, the anti-evolution movement has its roots in American Christian Fundamentalism which is why this controversy is so profound in the United States and not really such an issue elsewhere in the world Class 2 Creationism covers a wide range of beliefs with varying acceptances of modern science but all hold an anti-evolution stance There have been several famous hoaxes in evolutionary science but all have been uncovered by scientists and not a single one by creationists Teach The Controversy was an Intelligent Design campaign designed to avoid scientific scrutiny by advocating that the controversy be taught. This controversy does not exist in the scientific community and public controversy are not grounds for requiring it be taght (eg Holocaust Denial) Creationist organizations continue to target primarily the public in relaying their ideas, rather than convincing the scientific community first as any other scientific idea would do.
It rains on the sun Except it s not water, it s plasma: an electrically charged gas that can condense into drops However, these drops are the size of Ireland and fall to the sun at 200,000 km per hour This rain can be cold (7,000 C) or hot (80,000 C) Special solar telescopes have allowed observation of this phenomenon up close and have finally determined the process that produces it, 40 years after it was first observed. Explosions from the sun eject plasma and form loops (arcades) due to the magnetic field. Some material can be shot into space (in a coronal mass ejection) and the mass of this material can be about one billion tons Other material hits the sun s surface, causing it to heat up and evaporate which fills the magnetic arcade and traces the loop The hot material cools down and falls in drops once it s massive and dense enough
In order for a group or individual to successfully move to a new area, the benefits of the move must outweigh the costs Benefits: new resources, escaping unfavorable conditions, avoid competition, avoid inbreeding Costs: energy to move, risks during move (injury, mortality), settling in an unfavorable environment, time spent dispersal (less time growing/reproducing), and outbreeding depression, loss of social rank In addition to these costs, other barriers might prevent a species from dispersing Physical Barriers: rivers, mountains, deserts Population barriers: The local population might be better adapted than immigrants and thus will outcompete them
Marsupial ancestors likely split off from placental mammals during Jurassic (although no fossils from this period are known) The first fossil marsupial ancestor (as identified by the number of molars: marsupials have 4, placental never have more than 3) lived in China around 125 mya 100 mya- the super continent Pangea was splitting into Laurasia and Gondwana
Marsupials headed west into North America (still attached to Eurasia) where the earliest true marsupials are found. They then spread to South America (connected to N. America until about 65 mya Laurasian Marsupials went extinct (possibly due to placental mammal competition) But in S. America ( where there were no placental mammals) these groups dominated S. America and Antarctica remained connected until 35 mya as shown by the unique fossils there. N and S America reconnected 3 mya and placental mammals invaded, driving many S. American marsupials to extinction (Oppossums were one of the groups to survive) Terrestrial placental mammals died off in Australia (for unknown reasons) prior to marsupial invasion allowing them to dominate the continent Australia s 40 million year isolation has helped maintain this dominance. It has also lead to some very unique adaptations there as well as some giant marsupials
The use of evidence to construct testable explanations and predictions of natural phenomena, as well as the knowledge generated through this process In its most purist form, science is curiosity. It is the drive to understand how our world works: from weather and evolution, to atomic interactions and star formation Although the knowledge that science provides is very often useful (though not always immediately) it need not have useful applications; science is primarily concerned with furthering our knowledge of our world and the acquisition of such knowledge is reward enough
Fact: An observation, measurement or other form of evidence that can be expected to occur the same way under similar circumstances BUT can also refer to an explanation that has been tested and confirmed so many times that there is no longer any compelling reason to keep testing or looking for additional examples Scientific Law: a universal rule of nature, a principle deduced from particular facts. The phenomena in the Law will always occur if certain conditions are present Hypothesis: Testable, potentially falsifiable explanation of facts/laws Scientific Theory: Unifying framework and wellsubstantiated explanation of the natural world explaining facts, hypotheses and laws (NOT a guess). Repeatedly and continually confirmed through observation and experimentation
Facts are meaningless by themselves In order to make sense of them, we need theories These provide us with the explanations why these facts exist and other, opposing ones do not By understanding the mechanisms in theories, we can make predictions of future observations. These predictions must be falsifiable, that way we ll know whether we re on the right track or not If an observation disagrees with the theory it must be modified to accommodate this new information or be rejected No theory is perfect and every theory has some flexibility with regards to observations, but each has future observations which it could not explain and would thus invalidate it
3, 4.5, 6, 7.5, 9. By themselves, these numbers (these facts) have no significance, they merely exist The real question is why they exist in the pattern that they do Why is every second number a half? Why isn t 5 included in the series? What are the next numbers? In order to answer these questions and make sense of the pattern, we need a theory to explain them Y=(3+3X)/2 The theory allows us to answer these questions and many more, which is why scientists consider it to be the highest level of understanding (above facts, hypotheses and Laws)
As stated before, theories can become so well substantiated that we no longer have valid reason to question it but they still remain falsifiable. Evolution is considered one of these but here are some other theories in science that fall under this category: Cell Theory: All life is made of cells Germ Theory: some diseases are caused by microorganisms Atomic Theory: Matter is made up of atoms Plate Tectonic Theory: The outer crust of the planet is broken into tectonic plates Although these are so well substantiated that no one would really call them anything but facts, they remain theories just in case we are wrong.
Scientific knowledge and understanding accumulate from the interplay of observation and explanation Scientists gather information by observing the natural world and then conduct experiments They then propose how the studied system behaves, based on the experimental data They test these explanations by conducting additional observations and experiments under different conditions Other scientists confirm the observations independently and carry out additional studies that may lead to more sophisticated explanations and predictions about future observations and experiments This is how scientists continually arrive at more accurate and comprehensive explanations
Requirements: Falsifiable: all theories/hypotheses must be falsifiable in order to demonstrate whether it is wrong or not. Unfalsifiable ideas are useless Tentative: all theories remain tentative since they can always be falsified with new observations. Promoting a theory as absolute truth would assume we know all we need to know and we didn t make any mistakes. Neither is possible so we must remain open to the possibility (however small) that we are wrong Mechanistic: Science requires all theories propose a mechanism to explain how the theory works Simplicity/Occam s razor: The theory should be as simple and require as few assumptions as possible Explanatory: All theories must explain a large body of facts and describe why they are the way they are and not another way Predictive: Theories must make definite predictions about results of future observations. Making incorrect predictions leads to theory revision or rejection
Methodological Naturalism All hypotheses, theories and events are to be explained and tested by reference to natural causes and events This does not assume there isn t anything supernatural (unlike philosophical naturalism), but since supernatural forces lie outside the natural world, science can t say anything about them (that s why anyone of any faith can be a scientist). We can t study, test or examine any force outside the natural world. Uniformitarianism Assumes the same natural processes that operate in the universe now have always operated in the universe in the past and apply everywhere Modern uniformitarianism includes periodic catastrophes If past events can be explained with present forces there is no need to create new ones
Obviously creationists reject methodological naturalism in order to explain creation in terms of the supernatural works of God but they have an interesting love/hate relationship with uniformitarianism. On the whole they reject it (since it invalidates a lot of their ideas, such as the decay rate of radioactive elements, the evolutionary rate of kinds, the speed of light, continental drift rates ect) but if uniformitarianism can support their ideas then they will embrace it In an AiG article about the dinosaurs, Ken Ham invoked this explanation to answer why the dinosaurs died out after Noah s flood The factors that cause extinction today.are the same factors that caused the dinosaurs to become extinct
A distinction only made by the Answers in Genesis foundation and their disciples Historical Science: Is involved in reconstructing the past. Observational Science: Science done in the present (experiments, observations ect) The distinction is made in order to undermine the power of inference Insist that these two sciences require different methods and that in Historical science, neither side can verify its claims about past events
Philosophers of science do make a distinction between research direct towards identifying laws and research which seeks to determine how particular past events occurred. They DON T claim that the line between the two is clear or that historical claims are any less verifiable than others The distinction is made between means and ends: If a scientist ends are to infer properties of an object/event it is historical and it will use laws as its means. If the goal is to infer laws then the means will be the descriptions of particular objects Although inferring laws and reconstructing history are distinct scientific goals they are often fruitfully pursued together and both approaches can be used to address the same question Eg To investigate the origins of life, scientists can investigate earth s oldest geological layers or recreate the conditions of early earth in the lab to test hypotheses and predictions. Those results then send the researchers back into the field to test the predictions generated in the lab
There appears to be an imaginary line in time that creationists draw after which events are deemed unprovable Eg Forensics in criminal investigations is certainly historical science but no one would say that means we cannot actually determine what happened with accuracy Doctors have to make a diagnosis by making inferences from the symptoms In addition to this, even experimental science requires looking into the past. The only thing you do in the present is gather the data but the experiment itself took place in the past and we use the data to reconstruct that past Eg Looking at a petri dish of bacteria tells you the history of that population (how fast they grew, metabolizing a specific chemical ect) Similarly a NMR reading only tells you the current chemical state but we can use that to understand the chemical reactions that produced that state.
Started in the 1960 s as a direct result of evolution being reinforced in the schools and anti-evolution laws being removed Since religion could not be taught in the classroom, creation science was a way to try and present their ideas scientifically Edwards Vs Aguillard (1987) declared creation science to be inherently a religious concept Pseudoscientific: Presented as scientific but does not adhere to valid scientific methods or status. Religious Dogma: religious authority taken to be incontrovertibly true Creationists will rightly point out that the starting point for science is important to the conclusions it makes.
For creation science, the only real starting point is that the Bible is the unaltered word of God, and as such is infallible in all aspects. It is to be used as a starting point, not just for matters of theology, but for all matters of thought including science. It is the first line of evidence and all explanations must be done in light of scripture. This leads to the most drastic difference between science and creation science
All Creation Science institutions have a statement of faith or something similar, in which members must adhere to the unquestionable authority of the Bible For example, Answers in Genesis states: By definition, no apparent, perceived or claimed evidence in any field, including history and chronology can be valid if it contradicts the scriptural record. Of primary importance is the fact that the evidence is always subject to interpretation by fallible people who do not possess all the information The Institute for Creation Research is less direct but still asserts that Biblical authority of Genesis is factual, historical, infallible and completely authoritative on all matters that they deal, free from error of any sort, scientific and historical as well as moral and theological The events in Creation Science (the flood, the age of the earth, special creation ect) are not up for debate at all. The truth is not important, what you believe in is
Not only does this ignore the fact that the decision to interpret the Bible as literal is in fact a fallible interpretation but it also means they are completely unable to change their minds, regardless of the evidence. It wouldn t matter if every last one of their requirements for evolution were met, if the Bible (and this really means the interpreter) says this happened than this happened. End of story. Their position is the definition of a closed mind and is everything science isn t. Every scientist has had to concede that they were wrong about something and that they could be wrong about everything but creation scientists cannot and will not admit the Bible or their interpretation can be wrong. This also means that creation science is useless as it already posits to know everything it needs to know. The only reason it exists at all is to defend itself against scientific ideas as evidenced by the fact that it didn t come into existence until the 1960s
Whereas science exists to test ideas and discard them as need be and to follow the evidence no matter where it may lead, creationists have to strictly follow their pre-conceived conclusions. The only evidence that matters at all is that which agrees with what they believe already. Since their claims (such as the age of the universe, Noah s flood ect.) are deemed infallible they cannot be corrected. However wrong they are now is however wrong they always will be whereas science is a self correcting mechanism. That s why it s always changing because it s always getting more accurate explanations as it includes more observations.
Recall the scientific requirements Falsifiable: Creation Science is unfalsifiable since it deems that its conclusions come directly from an inerrant source (the Bible) Tentative: Creation Science is absolute truth, revealed in scripture and as such is not open to change or dismissal Mechanistic: Creation Science assumes special creation as its mechanism for the origin of species. This mechanism is supernatural, unidentifiable, unknowable and not understandable Simplicity: Requires the assumption of a very complex deity Explanatory: Creation Science cannot explain why the world exists in the way it does because God could have created it any other possible way Predictive: Some creation science can be predictive (such as Biblical History) and a few predictions have even been confirmed. However, there are numerous other failed predictions that this science makes but its accuracy is not attributed to its failures, only to its success, and as such it makes no attempt to correct these failures
Rain on the Sun http://www.sen.com/news/40-yearmystery-solved-of-why-it-rains-on-the-sun How Plasma Globes Work http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2szqjgtvygg Tales of Evolution By Richard Dawkins http://books.google.ca/books?id=rr9xpnaqvcmc&pg=pa2 23&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false Science, Evolution and Creationism By the National Academy of Sciences http://www.evcforum.net/datadropsite/nas_evolutionbo ok.pdf Historical Science: A Response to Ken Ham http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/02/dear-creationmuseum-all-science-is-historical-science-heres-why/ Historical Science By the NCSE http://ncse.com/creationism/analysis/historical-science-vsexperimental-science