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Text: Origin
of Life – Genesis
1:1-31
“Where
did all things come from?” More importantly, “Where did I
(man) come from?
We know the Biblical
answers: “In the
beginning God created…”
Genesis
1: All branches of Science Originated Here --
(Geology, Astrology, Botany, Zoology, etc.)
1-6
Heavens & Earth / Light / Day & Night
7-8
Firmament / Atmosphere above Waters
9-13
Earth & Seas / Vegetation
14-19
Sun, Moon, Stars
20-23
Sea Creatures & Winged Birds
24-31
Animals & Man
God was the only one there
when it all began; therefore He is the One to tell us about it.
Many of scientists and school teachers will not accept His
explanation.
Look at some
possibilities:
Man is eternal (No
Credible Adherents to this view)
Man was created as man (Biblical
view – Genesis
1)
Man evolved from created
substances (Theistic evolution)
Man evolved from lover forms
of life which came from non-living substances (Macro-evolution).
Define terms:
“Macro-evolution” is a
term applied to the sources or origins of new
species of organisms. It even reaches to the origins
of life itself.
“Micro-evolution” is a
term applied to changes in existing species of organisms.
This includes development through breeding, etc.
LIFE came from either:
Natural causes (Life, in all its forms, emerged from simple, non-living substances by natural means –
“macro-evolution”); or
from,
Intelligent design (Life is the result of intelligent creation and was bestowed upon matter; matter was acted
upon by an external, intelligent designer).
Dealing with the
Evidence:
Is it more reasonable to
believe that the universe came into being by chance or by
intelligent design? We must be honest with science that is
true science. Some a-theistic scientists posit that if you
bring intelligence into the picture, you cannot test it
scientifically.
I believe we observe the evidence of
intelligent design in the things we test every day… just as they
say we see evidence of spontaneous macro-evolution.
Example #1: Mount Rushmore
No matter how much time
passes… weather beats on the rocks… erosion takes place…
water runs over it, not going to form heads of George Washington,
Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. Science
finds evidence of intelligent design …it acted on those rocks to
shape them. No reputable geologist would conclude
otherwise… That is science!!!
Example #2: Forensic Science
Scientists look at the
evidence to see if man caused death or natural death.
Science can tell if there was design in the death of a human
being.
Charles Darwin
In 1831, Darwin sailed on a
planned 5-year survey expedition for on the HMS Beagle to the
Galapagos Islands. There he observed animals never seen by man
before. Twenty-five years later, in 1859, he wrote
“On the Origin of Species.” In this book, Darwin
takes the position that all life is from the same natural source,
the product of undirected natural forces, time, chance, and
natural selection. He said that the biological changes which
produced life and the living forms we see, took place over long
periods of time in small changes passed along to
descendants one at a time.
Darwin designed what he
called a “tree of life.” The question:
Is it a tree coming from a single natural source;
or is it a forest of trees (different species) all coming
from a common designer though created separately.
So let’s look at
some evidence – DNA (dioxi-ribo-nucleac-acid).
It is one of the substances
in every living cell that contains information in chains of
substances… sufficient information to tell the cell what to do
to reproduce and to keep the organism alive as it is. There are
basically four different kinds of substances on the sides which
interlock with other substances. Up and down the chains, because
of the order of those particular sidebars, there is lots of
information about that cell and about the organism that it
orders.
There is a code for how to read DNA
that has
been discovered. Forensic science uses this every day. Darwin did
not know what we know about DNA.
The Genetic Code:
The DNA language only three
letters… and every combination of those three letters means
something… The code allows you to build proteins in your body in
exactly the right way for your body which is unique. Our question
is, “In your wildest imagination, can you reasonably conclude
that this just happened?” Did it occur naturally (that is,
that nature by itself produced this system) or did some
intelligence design it?
In this code is an amino
acid that says, “start reading.” If you had a long chain of
three letter words (amino acids), you would need to know where to
begin in putting them in order… you don’t know where the chain
starts and where the chain ends… If you start at one place, you
would get a different protein than if you started somewhere
else. You also need a “stop reading” word. There
are hundreds of thousands!
The DNA has to unzip (come
apart) so you can read it (one side or both sides) … then a copy
is made (messenger RNA) copies what is on the code of the
DNA. A very specific protein makes it unzip. Another
copies it. Another protein stretches it out as it
unzips. Another holds it straight while it is copied.
Another helps the copy be made. The copy needs to be cleaned
up. That is called processing. That helps it to be a
mature RNA messenger. The
messengers have to go outside the nucleus. Not everything
can get through these openings. Only special
messengers. What allows them to get through. Proteins programmed
to let them through. Once outside they are picked up by the
ribosomes. In the ribosomes, it builds molecules that come
out of the ribosomes. These are proteins which are chains of
amino acids… Does that sound like RANDOM CHANCE to you?
And one cell has trillions of pieces of information like this in
it. And all produced in the body in seconds.
Caryl P. Haskin, American
Scientist, p. 298, 309
“Did the code and the
means of translating it appear simultaneously in evolution?
It seems almost incredible that any such coincidences could have
occurred, given the extraordinary complexities of both sides and
the requirement that they be coordinated accurately for
survival… By a pre-Darwinian (or a skeptic of evolution after
Darwin), this puzzle surely would have been interpreted as the
most powerful sort of evidence for special creation.”
Glory
to God in the church by Christ Jesus
Franklin
Church of Christ
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