Science and Christianity

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Science and Christianity Dr. David Snoke
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Evidence for Design in the Universe
What may be known about God is plain to them,
because God has made it plain to them. For
since the creation of the world God's invisible
qualities-- his eternal power and divine
nature-- have been clearly seen, being understood
from what has been made, so that men are without
excuse. Romans 119-20
The heavens declare the glory of God the skies
proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day
they pour forth speech night after night they
display knowledge. There is no speech or
language where their voice is not heard. Their
voice goes out into all the earth, their words
to the ends of the world. Psalm 191-4
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The Anthropic Principle
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-40
10 0.00000000000000000000000000000000000000
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Imagine a Creator equipped with a pin, blindly
choosing one of the universes at random from
among a vast collection of contenders. The
chances of His picking a universe compatible with
life as we know it us then exceedingly
small...Many people of a religious persuasion
will no doubt find support from these ideas for
the belief that the Creator did not aim the
cosmic pin at random, but did so with finely
computed precision. P.C.W. Davies
A commonsense interpretation of the facts
suggests that a superintellect has monkeyed with
the physics, as well as chemistry and biology,
and that there are no blind forces worth speaking
about in nature Fred Hoyle
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Now, our understanding is this unless you had
adjusted those knobs very, very carefully, to
settings very close to the settings specifying
the actual universe in which we live... it would
not produce anything with such interesting consequ
ences as you and me. What are we to make of
that? Again, you have a choice. You can either
say Well, thats just the way it is were here
because were here. That seems to me to be
unduly intellectually supine. I would like to
understand why the world is the way it
is. John Polkinghorne
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The Design of Life
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Barrow and Tipler
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Other requirements for DNA-based life 1.
readout-- protein manufacture, start and stop 2.
error-free copying mechanism 3. energy and raw
materials supply 4. waste disposal 5. defense
from environment
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Example transport of materials in cell by
walking molecule
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The Design Inference
How much effort and design goes into a computer?
IIs the computer program of life less designed?
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Paleys argument The watchmaker...
Dembski and Behe ID theory improbability
specified information design irreducible
complexity
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Objections to ID
11. God of the Gaps
assumptions
negative argument never valid?
progess of science to explain all things?
history of defeats of Christian apologetics?
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2. It isnt science
science as requiring blind law--
Ruse methodological naturalism-- Howard van
Till God as the end of curiosity?
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3. It doesnt solve the problem-- what explains
the designer?
Something must be uncaused the ground of all
being
Is that something characterized by purpose and
design, or random and puposeless?
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4. You shouldnt let science and religion mix.
Presuppositionalism
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The Many-Worlds Theory
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Two versions Quantum many-worlds The
oscillating universe model
Occams razor?
Recent observations-- expanding universe