Creation Lecture Series
Part 1: Philosophy

Common Beliefs About Origins in Western Society

• Theistic: Literal 6 day Creation about 6000 years ago. Universe and life “kinds” formed essentially as they appear today. Worldwide flood cataclysm. God created on purpose and is personally involved with creation.

• Atheistic: Big Bang (or similar) cosmic origin billions of years ago. Natural formation of life and evolutionary development over millions of years. Relatively uniform environment since life began (no planetary flood). Purely materialistic view.

• Deistic, Theistic Evolution, ID: Accepts/allows millions/billions of years with orderly development of cosmos and life directed by non-material mind we call God. This view does not fully accept the revealed personal Creator of Hebrew scripture nor does it fully accept the philosophical tenants of typical Darwinian evolutionism.

• In addition to these many non-Western and otherwise pagan religions ascribe nature itself with divinity and ultimately worship creation rather than Creator.

Importance of Origins
• Why: Either there is a Creator or there is not. If there is, then the Creator is impersonal (deism) or personal (theism). Either way, the accepting reality of a Creator is essential to hope and purpose. Without a Creator the great question, "why are we here?" is left unanswered. If there is a Creator, then there is hope for finding out that answer and learning our purpose.
• Mental health: After the essentials of air, water, food, and shelter, humans need love and purpose. We need a sense of value and purpose for our mental health. Without it we are negative, fatalistic, and depressive. We need to believe in a Creator.
• Direction: To have an idea where we are going we need to have some grasp of where we came from. Scriptures reveals both.
• Morality: If there is no God, then there are no absolute standards for morality. Only the forces of culture combine to enforce a general and relative moral standard. If there is a God, then there is order to the universe. If this God is personal, then order extends to the people he created and infers absolute standards for morality also exist. Scriptures provide a written blueprint for God's standards.
• Scripture: Either scripture is the revelation of God by God to and through men or it is a human invention. If true then there is a God who creates and who loves us and has a plan for our good. If scripture is a human invention then there is no God, no savior, and no known purpose or hope beyond our last breath.
• Jesus Christ: He is the resurrected living Lord or he was a liar or lunatic. There is more than enough evidence he was an actual historic figure and that the events of his life, death, and resurrection actually occurred. If one examines the evidence by reason, the result is invariably the revelation of the reality that Jesus Christ is exactly who he claimed to be. Once we are faced with this information, we either choose to personally accept him as Lord and as Savior, or we reject him. He spoke of Creation as historical fact, not a moral parable. Liar or Lord?

Basic Terms

• Science studies what it can observe and repeat. Pure science does not limit the scientist to a rigid model, but accepts, observes, and tests all data without prejudice. Pure science is coldly logical and states only observed verifiable (falsifiable) fact. Science can only prove what can be falsified. Creation cannot be falsified because it cannot be repeated. Evolution cannot be falsified because it cannot be demonstrated.

• Philosophy is the expression of human reasoning and rationality. It formulates concepts and constructs “models” to explain things. Philosophy picks up where science leaves off by drawing conclusions from observations. Scientists call this a hypothesis or theory. A science “law” is only a law if it is a verifiable and falsifiable fact that can be shown to be true in all cases. The first and second laws of thermodynamics are scientific laws whereas evolution is a theory because it is a human concept that has never been successfully repeated in a lab. Creation and Intelligent Design are also philosophies because they cannot ever be shown to be more than theory because they cannot be repeated or falsified.

• Religion is a behavior pattern based on a belief system. Religion is how we respond to the philosophy we believe. Judeo-Christian religion is unique from philosophy in that the belief system is based on supernatural reality and scripture as revelation from God. Hebrew scripture includes supernatural explanations for the natural universe, personal purpose for and from the supernatural, and absolute standards (morality) for human benefit.

Sciences

All sciences in their pure form examine natural reality without prejudice. Philosophy and religion may choose to rationalize or ignore science. As human beings we can only review the evidence from science and conclude for ourselves if what we see matches what God says in the bible or what evolutionary theorists say. Blind faith, whether in evolution or creation, is dogmatic rather than rational. While science cannot prove evolution or creation, science can provide evidence to be examined rationally and which may support, if only circumstantially, either belief.

Materialism vs. Nonmaterialism

• Materialism is the belief that all that exists is physical. This belief rejects the existence of a nonmaterial reality. In other words, materialism refuses to accept the possibility of God or any spiritual realm. Materialists believe the human brain and human mind are the same thing. They say free will is an illusion, religion is concocted as an evolutionary coping mechanism, and spirituality is a hoax or otherwise a defect of some part of the brain. Materialism is the basis for modern evolutionism.

• Nonmaterialism is the belief that reality consists of more than physical matter. It includes the belief that the mind is distinct from the brain and that the human soul is more than the body. Nonmaterialism accepts the possibility of an absolute and transcendent intelligence called God. A creationist is a nonmaterialist.

• Comparison: Perhaps the simplest allegory is that of a television. The materialist believes the program originates within the TV and that the TV, generating the program, puts it on the screen. The nonmaterialist believes the signal containing the program originates outside the TV and that the TV merely converts the nonmaterial signal to a physical presentation on the screen. Another allegory is a book. The materialist believes the book is the storyteller. The nonmaterialist sees that the book contains words, but the story told by the book came from an external intelligent author. The materialist believes we are only our biology and reality is only the physical. The nonmaterialist recognizes the human mind is distinct from its biology and that the physical universe is the result of a nonmaterial super-mind.

Problems for Materialists

• Qualia: First person personal experience with our world and relationships with one another.

• Consciousness: We are self-aware. This is not predicted by evolution.

• Free Will: If we were no more than our biology we would be no more than the sum of our biological programming and free will would be at best an illusion.

• Mind vs Brain: The human mind is demonstrably not the brain although it interacts intensely with and through the brain.

• Darwinianism: This is a dogmatic belief in a materialist philosophy that has no basis in objective science.

• Brain Patterns: Every human brain pattern is unique. Patterns appear different for the same experience in different people or the same person at different ages. Brain patterns can demonstrate if a brain is processing a visual or motor experience, but cannot describe the image or event.

• Impracticality: Materialism leads to impractical test and projects and avoids dealing with current issues. It undermines understanding of mind and brain and limits or prevents finding answers for real mental health problems.

• Physics: Classic physics deals with objects large enough to touch and see, but nuclear and sub-atomic physics reveal there is far more to reality, such as superimposed states and connectedness that make the impossible seem much more possible.

• Fitness: The brain is designed for fitness. The mind is designed for truth.

• Mental Illness: OCD, phobias, depression, and a host of other mental illnesses can be treated without treating biology (e.g. pharmacology).

• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a neuropsychiatric disease marked by distressing, intrusive and unwanted thoughts (obsessions) that trigger an urge to perform ritual behaviors (compulsions). The sufferer knows the behavior is damaging, but cannot help themselves. Neurologists learned OCD triggers the part of the brain that reacts to danger, driving the urge to act. The materialist approach would be to medicate, but the nonmaterial approach realizes there’s power in the mind to control thoughts. Mental techniques, not pharmaceuticals, provide the most effective treatment. The human mind has the power to drive changes in brain chemistry and reorganize its neural pathways to correct “bad brain wiring.”

• Depression: Clinical depression is generally treated with strong medications. The medications, however, have been shown to only slightly outperform placeboes. As with OCD, clinical depression can be conquered using mental techniques where drugs fail.

• Phobias: A phobia is an abnormal and disabling irrational fear. Experimental techniques performed on sufferers of arachnophobia (fear of spiders) were highly successful in reducing or eliminating their fear by treating the mind as a nonmaterial controller of the brain. Changing the mind literally changes the brain.

• Placebo Effect: Perhaps the most powerful and well document effect in medicine is the placebo effect. The effectiveness of a placeboe depends on the affliction being treated, but on average placeboes help 35% to 45% of the people as well as real medicines on any given illness. Sham surgery has been show to be equally effective. Placebos don’t work on everything, but when it does work the key is belief. When someone believes they will get well, the generally do.

• Nocebo Effect: The opposite of a placebo, the nocebo effect is extremely negative. The nocebo effect occurs when faith in a medicine is undermined by bad media, poor bedside manner, or other negative input from caregivers. Another strong nocebo effect is scaring someone so badly they suffer cardiac failure, or stalking or some other act that induces stresses so powerful they adversely affect health.

• Psi Effect: Telepathy (ESP) and psychokinetic (telekinesis) phenomena are generally called psi effects. People who exhibit telepathic capabilities indicate the mind’s ability to communicate over some distance without any conventional form of contact. Telekinesis is another kind of psi effect where a mind is capable of affecting physical objects without conventional physical contact of any kind. Real psychics (people who exhibit psi effects which can be validated in a lab) generally want to avoid attention. A practical application for psychic use is in criminal investigations where a psychic can be used to help find a missing person or some important piece of evidence leading to an arrest.

• Near Death Experience (NDE): One of the most powerful proofs the mind is unique from the brain is NDE. An NDE occurs when a person experiences clinical death where the heart is stopped and brain function ceases. Brain function ceases within 30 seconds of heart stoppage. Brain damage usually occurs within less than 10 minutes of clinical death. Several systematic studies of NDEs have been performed. Most NDEs can be divided into a few common types including out of body experiences, holographic life review, or encounters with deceased people. Many report being led back to their body either by a light, or by a relative or friend. Most people who have an NDE lose their fear of death and are fundamentally changed such that they become more altruistic. A small percentage of people reporting an NDE described it as negative.

• Born Again Experience: The term “born again experience” refers to an intense conversion experience where a person’s mind is genuinely changed. Becoming born again is definitely a spiritual experience and is, at some level, a mystic experience where the new believer touches God, entering into a relationship.

• Mystical Experiences: These can be described as ineffable (indescribable), noetic (includes knowledge), transient (generally cannot be maintained for long periods), and passive (mystic feels their own will becomes subject to a superior power). Mystics’ aims are transcendental and spiritual. The higher power is an object of love, not an object of exploration. Some mystic experiences are triggered externally through art, nature, music, or some common object while others are found through internalized meditation.

• Neuroplasticity: Neuroplasticity explains peculiarities like phantom limbs (thinking a hand is there that’s been amputated). A purely biological being should not “feel” their missing parts. Reorganizing the brain to accommodate the mind’s need to make the body work in a new way would seem impossible if the mind were limited to the purely biological realm.

• Altruism: This is a behavior of self-sacrifice for people other than self and kin. It is often (though not always) associated with spiritual beliefs. Altruism cannot be explained satisfactorily in materialist terms except as a brain defect.

• Evolutionary Psychology: This is a form of psychology which is largely untestable and unfalsifiable. It philosophy rather than a science. This branch seeks to explain our nature by relationship to our supposed animal forerunners and contemporary friends.

 • Ape Differences: Not much of value can be learned by the similarities between man and ape. Far more can be told by the difference. Depending on how you do the math our DNA is 92 to 99% similar, yet we are obviously distinct. There are insurmountable differences in our genes as well as our behavior and thinking. Dogs are better companions for us than chimpanzees.

• AI: Science Fiction writers love to make up stories about super advanced “self-aware” computers. The premise is that if you can create a computer powerful enough it can become conscious. Computers make logical decisions. This is not the same thing as thought. Those decisions are limited to programming created by an intelligent human. Even supercomputers that play chess against grand masters don’t think – they calculate.

Body, Spirit, Soul

• Gen 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. (KJV) First God formed human biology. The Hebrew word for breath is also the word translated elsewhere as Spirit. God placed his Spirit into the man. When the spiritual element was added to the biological element, the result was a living soul.

Basic Model Comparison Chart

The following chart attempts to put into perspective the major differences between the two models for origin processes. I realize there are probably many dozens of other things which could be listed, but I was trying to just hit the high points.

Genesis 1-11

• Content of Genesis 1-11: Creation of the universe generally (1:1-2:4). Creation of man specifically (2:5-25). Sin and death begin (3). Cain, Abel, and Seth (4). Pre-flood genealogies (6). Noah and the flood account (6-9). Descendants of Noah and naming of early post-flood clans (10). Languages and dispersion of humanity (11:1-9). Genealogy from Shem to Abraham (11:10-32).

• Literary style is of a strict Hebrew language form with rigidly literal verbs unlike poetic voice used in certain other books such as Job or certain prophetic books. The literary voice is a strong indicator that the Genesis account is intended to be taken literally at face value.

• Revelation: Moses is generally attributed with writing Genesis although he is almost certainly only the organizer of the contents into its present form. These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens. (Gen 2:4, KJV) Gen 1:1-2:4 makes up the first complete section as indicated with “these are the generations of…” Each major section of Genesis ends with such a statement. Unlike every other such statement where a name is given, presumably to the original author of that section, this passage appears to attribute authorship to God as Creator.

• Similar Myths in Other Cultures: There are certain striking similarities between the account in Genesis 1-11 and dozens of other ancient myths. Some suggest the Genesis account borrowed from others such as Gilgamesh, but evidence suggests common memory rather than shared story telling. 

• Morality: Examples of human knowledge of right from wrong can be found in Genesis as they were later codified in the Ten Commandments. Sin and death existed before the giving of Law at Sinai. The law does not cause judgment, however it does reveal the absolute moral standards of a holy God leaving man without excuse.

• Unchanged: Genesis and the other writings of Moses have been found, complete, word for word with only inconsequential differences in copying, in the Dead Sea Scrolls which date back to the period of or before Jesus Christ.

• Confirmed: Creation is affirmed throughout the Old and New Testaments. According to the account in Exodus, God wrote with His own hand in rock the Ten Commandments. In the fourth commandment God reminds us He created the earth in six days and rested on the seventh day (Ex 20:11). John’s gospel starts with the phrase “In the beginning” and continues describing creation and attributing it to the person of God who is Jesus Christ.

Thermodynamics
• First Law: Energy can neither be created nor destroyed, only altered in form. Matter can neither be created nor destroyed except by nuclear reaction and then total mass and energy are still conserved. This is also called the “Law of Conservation of Energy.” Prior to the end of the sixth day God was creating. On the seventh day God rested (Gen 2:2). From that point on nothing new was created. The universe and everything we have on earth existed. Nearly all physical laws and constants were fixed at that point. While the Sabbath exemplifies the first law, it stands to reason that the first law - along with all physical laws - came about at the first moment of Creation. Once the initial matter, space, and time were established God then manipulated those thing but did not actually bring about any additional physical matter that we know of based on scripture (or observation).
• Second Law: In any energy conversion (work) there is a net increase in entropy. Entropy is the amount of energy not usable for useful work. In simple terms this means order progresses toward chaos and the universe is winding down. Prior to the fall God declared the results creative days 3 to 6 good (Gen 1:13,18,21,25) and the sum total was declared very good (Gen 1:31). Gen 2:17 contains the warning given to Adam not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil because in that day he would die. Upon close examination of the Hebrew, it literally says, “when you eat of it dying you will die.” It does not actually say he would die on that specific day, but rather that the process of dying would begin and the end result would be death. Adam lived 930 years, then died (Gen 5:5). Adam did eat it (Gen 3:6). God then confronted Adam and forced him to confess his sin (Gen 3:9-10). God then cursed man and with his personal curse of death came the curse the whole world (Gen 3:17-19). The rational non-personal explanation for death is the Law of Entropy. The personal explanation is the entry of sin into the universe. Entropy is plain in every form of science and engineering. Batteries run down. Clocks wind down. Perpetual motion machines don’t exist. Living things grow old and die. Mutations are never shown to increase genetic order and almost always reduce order and break down an otherwise perfect system. Entropy as a physical law undoubted existed prior to the fall because without entropy we could not for example digest food. Understanding entropy, however, does help us to understand what happens when God's life sustaining power is withdrawn - even a little - from our bodies.

The Flood – A Problem for Evolution and Uniformitarianism

• Fossil Record: Almost all fossils present on earth today can easily be explained by a planetary flood but cannot be satisfactorily explained by supposing many small local catastrophes over millions of years.

• Climate: There is strong evidence that temperatures at the poles were once warm. The descriptions of climate given in Genesis suggest the water cycle was substantially different prior to the flood. It is likely that solar heat was much more evenly distributed on the globe than it is today. A sudden release of water from inside the earth erupting into the upper atmosphere would reduce temperatures and likely result in terrible freezing cold moving down from the poles. This would provide a reasonable explanation for many creatures such as mammoths and sabertooth tigers being fossilized in ice in northern Siberia.

• Tectonic Plates: In recent decades geologists have discovered and verified there are huge plates in the earth that move. These plates are responsible for great mountains and valleys. They define continental boundaries. Many active volcanoes and earthquake zones are found where plates meet. It is widely believed that the continents were once gathered together in a land mass called Pangea.

• Oceanic Trenches: A set of oceanic trenches encircle the earth like stitches on a baseball. The deepest section under the Pacific is nearly 7 miles below the ocean surface. Active volcanic vents have been found there as well as living organisms. Gen 2:11 indicates the flood began with a combination of water coming from the earth and from the sky. This would explain the bursting apart of continental plates with the collapse of land into the voids in the earth where water was held in store for this event. It would explain the sudden eruption of mountains in some places and the ripping of earth into deep ocean trenches in other places.

• Common Myths: There are creation and flood myths in most cultures. Such myths have been documented in isolated tribes on Pacific islands and in South America, discovered in the last two centuries. Genesis stands out as unique and plausible in many respects compared with the myriad of other cultural myths. Most myths contain a theme of pre-existing deity, formation of man from earth, and man having the purpose of managing the order of earthly things so that the gods can be about their own business. Most cultures include a flood story where only a few people survive.

Between Creationism and Evolutionism

• Theistic Evolution/Progressive Creation: God used evolution as the mechanism for creation or otherwise stepped into evolutionary processes at specific points. The “day-age theory” supposes the six creation days are figurative and represent periods of cosmic and life development under divine direction.

• Problems with Compromise: Theistic Evolution is inconsistent with God’s personality, love, omnipotence, omniscience, purpose and grace. The general outline of Genesis 1 completely contradicts the supposed order of events predicted by the evolutionary model.

Origins and Salvation

• Causality of Sin and Death: Evolution says death came before sin. Genesis says sin came before and was the cause of death. Why did Jesus die and why was he able to defeat death and offer eternal life if sin isn’t the reason for death and sinlessness the reason for life?

• Ro 5:12-21 (ESV): Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned---for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (emphasis added)

• Choice 1: You can choose to believe the popular notion of evolution where death existed for millions of years before man came up with the idea of sin. You can believe sin and wrongdoing are relative to personal or cultural codes and have no bearing on eternity.

• Choice 2: You can choose to believe man was made perfect, designed to live eternally in the company of the Creator. You can believe sin caused death and eternal life is since only available through the gift of divine forgiveness by one worthy to forgive.

• Implications: Choice 1 places faith in a human invention. Choice 2 places faith in divine revelation. Decide for yourself if what you believe about your origin matters.