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In The Beginning... Creation
vs. Evolution |
by
Dr. John A. Harris
Introduction 2 -
Examples of how atheist scientists and creationists have change their
opinions over time.
Both atheist scientists
and creationist have changed their opinions over time when new evidence
arises. A few examples:
Examples:
| Flat earth: until
Magellan sailed around it. |
| Earth at center of
universe: Galileo, himself a devout Catholic, got in to a lot of
trouble with the Catholic church for challenging this belief.
Through a telescope he observed moons orbiting Jupiter. Everything was
supposed to revolve around the earth. Just where does it say that in
the Bible anyway? |
| Age of the sun:
140 years ago many thought the sun couldn't be older than 10,000 years
because even then they knew the sun was made of hydrogen and that that
amount of hydrogen would burn out within 10,000 year. This was before
we knew of nuclear fusion (gravity compressing 2 hydrogen atoms into a
helium atom), which releases far more energy than a chemical reaction
between hydrogen and oxygen. With fusion, the sun could burn for
billions of years before depleting its hydrogen. |
| Neanderthal as
our ancestor: When I was in public school I remember being
taught that Neanderthals were man's immediate ancestor. It has since
been proven that Neanderthals actually lived along side us in Europe
and the Middle East and studies of Neanderthal DNA proved they were
not our ancestors. |
| Makeup of the
universe: 93% of universe
has just been discovered in the last 20 years in the form of dark
matter (an unknown form of matter you can't see that keeps galaxies
from flying apart) and dark energy (term to describe the totally
unexpected finding that the expansion of the universe is speeding up).
Scientists know very little about these two mysterious phenomena.
Seems that God always has another mystery for man to solve. I guess
this keeps scientists earning a paycheck. To me, it also makes
me consider how intelligent and awesome God is. |
| Size of the universe:
in the early 20th century scientists believed that universe was about
100,000 light years in size. Everything was in our Milkyway galaxy.
The MIlkyway was the universe. This belief was changed
dramatically in 1924 by astronomer Edwin Hubble. He used the
consistent luminosity of certain stars to calculate how far away they
are. It was soon found that "star clusters" they thought were in our
own galaxy were actually galaxies themselves, much further than
100,000 light years away. |
| Origin of the
universe: up until this time the prevailing theory was that the
universe simply "always was and always will be." The universe had no
beginning. This appealed especially to atheists. However, scripture
clearly tells us that "in the beginning, God created the heavens..."
Observing the red-shift of distant galaxies, Edwin Hubble discovered
that distant objects in the universe were moving away from us.
red-shift is the phenomenon when the light from something moving away
from you appears redder; blue-shift is when the light from something
moving closer appears bluer. This is similar to the Doppler Effect
where a train or a high speed car sounds a higher pitch when it is
approaching you and immediately sound a lower pitch when it passes
you. Using red/blue shift, it is discovered that the vast majority of
galaxies were moving away from us - and the further away from us they
were, the faster they were moving away. The profound implications of
this were not immediately recognized. A Vatican priest and astronomer,
Georges Lemaitre, combined what he knew from Einstein's Relativity and
the red-shift observations and realized the universe was
expanding - getting bigger all the time. If the universe will
be bigger in the future, it was smaller in the past. Go back far
enough and you have to have a time when everything in the universe
started from on point - a beginning. Lemaitre called this the
"primeval atom." Lemaitre got Einstein and Hubble together and
convinced them that together they proved an expanding universe and
that the universe had a beginning. Up until that point, Einstein
believed in a static, eternal universe. Lemaitre had an advantage over
Einstein. He already knew from scripture that the universe had a
beginning, so he was more able to recognize evidence for it when he
saw it. |
| Evolution: even
the theory of evolution has undergone changes. Darwin didn't invent
the theory. He proposed "natural selection" as the driving force that
made evolution happen. Before Darwin, "Acquired Characteristics" (LaMark's
theory) was believed to be the cause of evolution. |
There are countless
other "paradigm shifts" in scientific and creationist thought. In the
future, there will be others.
On
some subjects we may not be able to give solid answers with the evidence
we currently have - but I think that only deepens (enriches) the mystery
and keeps ancient history and science interesting. Remember, it was the
Protestant Reformation that made science a respectable field where new
ideas and theories could be investigated without the fear of persecution.
We'll look in many subjects and some of the evidence from both sides and
the criticisms of one side to another.
How Old Is the Universe:
(page 3)
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