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Creation / Evolution
  • From the Universe we Learn about God
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Creation / Evolution

What can we really know about origins of the universe and life?

Ray Bohlin

  1. In the section on the origin of the universe we learned that God is eternal, omnipotent, and loving and caring. In the section on the origin of life we discovered that God is extremely intelligent in designing the intricacies of the cell, particularly the genetic code. Now we have not only seen God 's intelligence reinforced, but we have glimpsed His imagination. Just when you think you have His creatures figured out, He makes a woodpecker. Eternality. Omnipotence. Love. Intelligence. Imagination. All this we can learn about God from the study of nature. Indeed, we "are without excuse."

    As we observe the order, complexity, and diversity of the natural world, it becomes even more difficult to comprehend a mechanistic evolutionary cause to explain it all.

    The elements of design are so obvious that even evolutionists have a hard time keeping the word design out of their observational descriptions. When all the evidence is considered, a theory of origins based on intelligent design is a logical and consistent alternative.

    A Designer is a natural, appealing and altogether human explanation of the biological world. But as Darwin and Wallace showed, there is another way, equally appealing, equally human, and far more compelling: natural selection, which makes the music of life more beautiful as the aeons pass (Carl Sagan). {42}
    Equally appealing, equally human, perhaps, but far more compelling? What is your answer?

Notes
  1. Norman L. Geisler and J. Kerby Anderson, Origin Science (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 1987),13-18, 111-26.
  2. Ibid., 159-64.
  3. Hugh Ross, The Fingerprint of God (Orange, Calif.: Promise, 1988),128-32.
  4. Ibid., 128-32.
  5. Hugh Ross, The Creator and the Cosmos, 2nd ed. (Colorado Springs, Colo.: NavPress, 1995),143-44.
  6. George Greenstein, quoted by Hugh Ross in The Creator and the Cosmos, 121.
  7. Robert Griffiths, quoted by Hugh Ross in The Creator and the Cosmos, 123.
  8. Robert Augros and George Stanciu, The New Story of Science (Lake Bluff, Ill.: Regnery Gateway, 1984), 60-64.
  9. Robert Jastrow, God and the Astronomers (New York: Norton, 1978),102.
  10. Ibid.
  11. Ibid.
  12. Ibid., 103.
  13. Ibid., 105-6.
  14. Carl Sagan, Cosmos (New York: Random House, 1980),4.
  15. Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time (New York: Bantam, 1988),441.
  16. Ibid., 175.
  17. Sagan, Cosmos, 38.
  18. Charles B. Thaxton, Walter L. Bradley, and Roger Olsen, The Mystery of Life's Origin (New York: Philosophical Library, 1984),42-68.
  19. Ibid., 66.
  20. Ibid., 99-112.
  21. Ibid., 146. Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe, Evolution From Space (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1981),24.
  22. John Horgan, "In the Beginning..." Scientific American 264 (1991):116-25.
  23. Klaus Dose, "The Origin of Life: More Questions than Answers-," Interdisciplinary Science Review 13 (1988):348-56.
  24. A. E. Wilder-Smith, The Creation of Life (Wheaton, Ill.: Harold Shaw, 1970),239-44.
  25. Stanley Miller, quoted in Horgan, "In the Beginning..." 125.
  26. Sagan, Cosmos, 27.
  27. Lane P. Lester and Raymond G Bohlin, The Natural Limits to Biological Change (Richardson, Tex.: Probe, 1984),24-25.
  28. Phillip Johnson, Darwin on Trial, (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity/Regnery Gateway, 1991),30-31.
  29. Lester and Bohlin, Natural Limits, 83-109.
  30. Ibid., 131-48.
  31. Ibid., 87-93.
  32. J. Kerby Anderson and Harold G. Coffin, Fossils in Focus (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan/ Probe, 1977),60-67.
  33. W. E. Swinton, "The origin of Birds," in Biology and Comparative Physiology of Birds (London: Academic, 1960),1.
  34. Michael Denton, Evolution: A Theory in Crisis (Bethesda, Md.: Adler and Adler, 1985),194.
  35. Richard C. Lewontin, quoted in Tom Bethell, "Agnostic Evolutionists," Harpers, February 1985, 61.
  36. Percival Davis, Dean Kenyon, and Charles Thaxton, Of Pandas and People (Dallas, Tex.: Haughton, 1989), 99.
  37. Madeleine Nash, "When Life Exploded, Time, 4 December 1995. The following references in the text are to this article.
  38. Stephen Jay Could, Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History,(New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1989),217.
  39. Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker (New York: Norton, 1987), 1.
  40. Johnson, Darwin on Trial, 35-39. Lester and Bohlin, Natural Limits, 84-102.
  41. Augros and Stanciu, New Story of Science, 71-82.
  42. Sagan, Cosmos, 29.
For Further Reading

Davis, Percival, Dean Kenyon, and Charles Thaxton. Of Pandas and People. Dallas, Tex.: Haughton, 1989.
This is a supplemental textbook for high school biology courses concerning the origins question. As a result of its extensive review and field testing, nothing matches this book in terms of its accuracy, fairness, and readable presentation of the main topics contained in its six chapters: "The Origin of Life," "Genetics and Evolution," "The Origin of Species," "'The Fossil Record," "Homology," and "Biochemical Similarities." It compares and contrasts the evidence in the light of either natural or intelligent causes.

Denton, Michael. Evolution: A Theory in Crisis. Bethesda, Md.: Adler and Adler, 1985.
Denton is an agnostic medical researcher from Australia who has a lot of problems with Darwinian evolution as it currently exists. He critiques evolutionary arguments from natural selection, homology, the fossil record, molecular biology, and the origin of life. A bit technical in places but generally very readable.

Geisler, Norman, and J. Kerby Anderson. Origin Science. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 1987.
This book discusses the fundamental issues in the creation/evolution debate apart from the technical details. It offers a proposal for discussion of the origins question by distinguishing between origins and operations science. This book is rooted in the philosophy of science.

Johnson, Philip. Darwin on Trial. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity/Regnery Gateway, 1991.
Philip Johnson is a law professor from UC Berkeley. He examines the evidence and tactics of modern evolutionists from a lawyer's perspective. Johnson's critique is less than flattering to evolutionists and is soundly written and argued. A very worthwhile read.

Lester, Lane, and Raymond Bohlin. The Natural Limits to Biological Change. Richardson Tex.: Probe, 1984.
This book summarizes the major theories regarding the evolutionary mechanism and critiques them from a creationist perspective. A creationist alternative is presented for genetics, taxonomy, and biology in general. Some college biology and genetics is helpful.

Moreland, J. P., ed. The Creation Hypothesis: The Scientific Evidence for an Intelligent Designer. Downers Grove, Ill.: Intervarsity, 1994.
This book states a careful and well-reasoned case for the inclusion of the intelligent design hypothesis in mainstream science. Contributors are a veritable who's who, each writing on their specialty: 1. P. Moreland, Steve Meyer, Bill Dembski, Hugh Ross, Charles Thaxton, Walter Bradley, Kurt Wise, John Oller, and John Omdahl. This book will have considerable influence as it sets forth the case for intelligent design from both a philosophical and scientific perspective.

Morris, Henry, and Gary Parker. What is Creation Science? . San Diego, Calif.: Creation-Life, 1982.
This book has since been revised and updated. Morris and Parker present the standard Institute for Creation Research (ICR) model: a young universe and earth, recent creation, and a global flood that explains the fossil record. Hugh Ross and ICR don't agree with each other very much. Skimming this book and Ross's Fingerprint of God will make that clear. Too many creationists are allowing the age question to interfere with the real battle with naturalistic evolution.

Ross, Hugh. The Creator and the Cosmos. -2d ed. Colorado Springs, Co.: NavPress, 1995.
This book presents new evidence for design in the universe, a deeper discussion of quantum cosmology, a review of Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time, and Ross's view that extradimensionality (having more than three dimensions) is the answer to questions from the incarnation to free will.

______. The Fingerprint of God. Orange, Calif.: Promise, 1988.
Hugh Ross is a Christian astronomer and apologist. His book summarizes the various cosmologies available today and critiques them. His perspective on astronomical and astrophysical observations is extremely valuable. Ross's overall purpose is to declare that the heavens declare that God exists. He also holds to an old universe and an old earth. He believes that the order of creation events in Genesis follows the order of events according to Big Bang cosmology.

Thaxton, Charles B., Walter L. Bradley, and Roger L. Olsen. The Mystery of Life's Origin. New York: Philosophical Library, 1984.
This is a powerful apologetic for the inherent weaknesses of all chemical evolution scenarios from chemical, geological, and thermodynamic viewpoints. In the epilogue, the authors argue persuasively for the legitimacy for special creation by a creator beyond the cosmos. Very technical.
©1998 Probe Ministries
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