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Last updated: February 25,
2005.
Origins Seminar
Dice or Deity?
How Did We Get Here?
Synopsis
Questions regarding
the origin of our planet, of life, its diversity and of mankind have
sparked controversy for centuries, especially since the rise of
Darwinian Evolution.
Today, many claim that science has proved the Bible to be outmoded, so that we need no longer follow its teachings in morals or fear a final judgment. Others, remaining loyal to Biblical Christianity, have become suspicious of science itself. In this seminar, taught at the college level for college and university students, teachers, scientists, engineers, and interested laypeople, we provide evidence that much of the controversy involves overzealous interpretation of either the scientific or Biblical data, and that a real harmonization of the two is plausible. |
Lectures Lecture
1. Robert C. Newman, The Origin of Life.
Lecture
2. John A. Bloom, Scientific Problems of
Biological Evolution.
Lecture 11. John C. Studenroth, Plant Evolution.
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QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
(Lecture 10) John A. Bloom, Perry G. Phillips and Robert C. Newman Click on the question to hear the answers 2. Explain big bang theory and its relation to the Bible. Follow-up: How determine the age of the earth? 3. Your theory predicts that no life can occur on another planet. If life were discovered on another planet, how damaging would that be to your theory? 4. Could God have put the fossil record in place over a short period of time so that the prophecies of knowledge advancing in these days would be fulfilled? What can you say about the claim that scientists in Maryland found that the astronomical record has a missing day? 5. How do you explain Noah's Ark, and how to fit all the animals into the ark? 6. Was the Natural order of things inside the Garden of Eden the same as existed globally at the time? Was death the result of the Fall? If so, how is this reconciled with the fossil record? 7. How is the evidence of the fossil record that life began simply and then became complex reconciled with the Second Law of Thermodynamics that asserts the constant increase in disorder? 8. Can you comment on an assertion I heard that a Biblical Archaeology Review (BAR) review claims that the Garden of Eden had been discovered. 9. How fast does life change in the Fossil Record? How much is explained by micro-evolution? How do you think Marsupials wound up in Australia? 10. What is the reliability of carbon dating? What can you say about a canopy to protect the earth before the flood? 11. What accounts for the shortening of the life spans in Genesis? Are the years different kinds of years? 12. Evolution history of the horse. The feet and teeth are shown at the Smithsonian. Comment about the teeth. 13. Do you know anything about a fossil of the modern horse, Equus, being found in the same strata as the Eohippus fossils? 14. Define macro-evolution and explain how this definition relates to the absence of complex life forms in the pre-Cambrian and Cambrian eras? 15. How do you differentiate between microevolution and adaptive radiation? 16. Explain microevolution as it occurs in the genome. Is it different gene expressions, or mutations that cause the change in the phenotype? 17. Is there a summary statement that can distinguish between micro- and macroevolution? 18. Can you recommend non-technical publications on the origin of man that are consistent with your views? 19. Do any autographs of any portions of the Bible exist? 20. Do the Apollo landings show evidence of microscopic meteors? 21. Can you explain the rate of cosmic dust that the young-earth creationists cite as evidence of a young earth? 22. Does the developing fetus have a tail? If so, why, and does it prove evolution? 23. Did Adam form a special creation of Homo Erectus? Did Homo Erectus have a soul? 24. If God is God, does there have to be another earth-like planet for there to be life of any sort on another planet? 25. Does an infinite universe contradict the concept of an infinite God? 26. Please define DNA, RNA, human gene, human genome. 27. Where did Cain and Abel get their wives? 28. Do black holes create universes? theory explain the forms of animals and plants? 30. The fourth day of creation: does it imply a vapor canopy? Is it generally accepted that the early earth was covered with liquid water? 31. Where is Heaven? 32. How do you interpret "days" in Genesis 1? 33. When were the Angels created? 34. Are secular scientists feeding information on genes, etc. into a computer to see if evolution is plausible? 35. What was the scope of Noah's flood and where do dinosaurs fit in? 36. Is the story of what happened to Jonah actual history? |
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