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Feedback archive → Feedback
2011
School assignments and creation account ‘contradictions’
Published: 2 July 2011(GMT+10)
wikipedia.org
A studying student
This weekend’s feedback features two correspondents. The first is from Max
C. of New Zealand asking for help with his school assignment, to which
Adrian Bates replies. The second concerns the article by David Catchpoole
about Cavemen in the Bible. Ken B. asks about contradictions
in the order of creation in Genesis chapters 1 and 2, a question that has long been
answered on the Creation.com site, and Lita Cosner replies.
Dear CMI,
Hi, my name is Max C., I am in Year 13 and I’m studying biology as one of
my subjects at school this year. Firstly I would like to say a big thank you to
you all at CMI. Your work is amazing and has kept me strong through various school
arguments and debates to questioning my teachers about the theory of evolution.
I have been addicted to your website, and have read almost every article from 2009
until now. I subscribe to the Creation magazine, love the photography and
articles in every issue. So I would like to thank you for the service that you provide
to the thousands of people, and I’m certain that there are many more out there
like me who appreciate your work but don’t get a moment to thank you.
Show you understand the theory of evolution. Spell it out accurately—otherwise
you will be accused of setting up a straw man just to shoot it down.
Secondly, and predominantly my main reason for contacting you, is that I have a
big essay to write for one of my standards which is ‘research a contemporary
biological issue’. Anyone who knows me would guess that I chose evolution
vs. intelligent design. I am very excited to write about this and put all of my
arguments onto paper, however I’m not too sure what would be appropriate to
put in the essay. Also where to start.
I have an abundance of articles from CMI, but I need to shorten the amount of stuff
that I put into the essay. It is an open limit word count; however I will have a
maximum of 6 hours (spread over 6 class periods) to write it up. So I guess what
I am asking is, would somebody please be able to suggest me some key points on intelligent
design (we aren’t allowed to call it creationism) and point me in the right
direction. This would get me off to a great start!
The other thing that I have to consider is that I need to write arguments for evolution
and arguments for intelligent design, so it would be great if I could get some ‘evidence
for evolution’ and write about this, then in the intelligent design section,
say why this isn’t proof for evolution, and in fact is a testament of our
designer etc.
Another concept I was considering arguing on, was “does the null hypothesis
of evolution, prove intelligent design?” I was thinking about this today,
and it would appear that yes. If we can prove that evolution (microbe to man) is
completely and utterly wrong, then the only other apparent explanation for our existence
would be the presence of an intelligent designer (and we all know, this is Jesus
Christ). Just a thought.
Anyway thank you very much for your time, I constantly tell all of my friends, family,
people looking for answers to go to creation.com as I know that all
the articles and stories you write up are totally unbiased (to the best of your
ability) and I trust that they will find the answers they need on your site.
God Bless,
Max C., New Zealand
Adrian Bates, CEO of CMI (NZ) replies.
Hi Max,
Good to hear from you and thanks for the encouragement. You are right about having
lots of material for your assignment if you choose as your topic ‘evolution
vs intelligent design’. I guess with this subject there are two major areas:
a) the biological issues and b) the more political and educational issues that the
ID movement is also involved in.
I concentrate below on the biological areas. You will have to decide if you are
going to cover both of these areas or one of them only. I note you are conversant
with our website so I include just a few relevant links.
Introduction:
Initial discussion of your choice of subject, intended approach and goals for the
paper
Evolution:
Show you understand the theory of evolution. Spell it out accurately—otherwise
you will be accused of setting up a straw man just to shoot it down.
Then discuss the problems including:
- The problem of world view/bias (Scientists will always interpret the evidence to
fit their world view)
- The huge problem of the origin of life (first replicating single cells
Natural selection cannot explain the origin of life)
- Problem of lack of mutations discovered that add information (specifications for
new features such as new cell types, etc.) to the genome (The
evolution train’s a-comin’)
- Show that even beneficial mutations do not add the needed information
- Lack of transitional forms, fossil or living, between basic kinds of life (i.e.
missing links)
- Other points
Design:
Show you understand the concept of biological design. Cover the history (e.g. Paley’s
watch) as well as contemporary scene:
Design suggests a designer
Specified complexity (Darwins black box—mousetrap type problems)
Code (DNA) and information theory
Other areas will be found under our Q & A section, as for example, here:
Intelligent Design: why the fuss, and what’s it about?
And here:
Refuting Evolution: Chapter 9 (note the SETI example).
Concluding discussion of your findings
As you said yourself—the challenge is not to find data but to sort through
to find the most relevant material, and use the right examples etc. This means that
you need to invest a considerable amount of time at the initial planning stage of
your assignment. (My details above are just some quick thoughts so I suggest you
use them only as a rough guide.)
Kind regards,
Adrian Bates
CMI (NZ)
Ken B. writes:
In Genesis chapter one, man is created on the sixth day AFTER the plants! In this
Genesis chapter two, man is created BEFORE plants. Are the writings screwed up?
Notice the bible is “apparently” contradicting itself here!
That’s a real interesting question and one we SHOULD ask!
If Man was completely formed at this point, then the writings are wrong. If however,
the creation of man started before plants and ended on the sixth day (Maybe around
about 200,000 years ago give or take science estimation errors), then I would think
that these two agree with each other, and actually this timeframe allows for the
“evolutionary” process, if that’s what God decided to use. Notice
I don’t say this is what happened, only that there is nothing biblically against
it happening this way!
Our problem as Christians is we become emphatic on things that divide us instead
of focusing on loving others. I suggest that you cannot use science to prove or
disprove the bible since it was never a scientific book and science was not written
around the time Genesis was written. Genesis was also written in Chiasmus and you
HAVE to take that into account to interpret what the author wanted us to know which
is that God created Man and Women (together) in his image. This is the central lesson,
not why or arguing with the facts that use the same principles used to date the
very documents that give us Genesis! How about we focus on allowing others differences
of opinions and not isolating non-Christians who would never buy the notions put
out in this article? I have just had one young man come to Christ simply because
I pointed this out to him. Arguing doesn’t teach people, love does it.
Lita Cosner replies.
Dear Ken,
One of the traps that people sometimes fall into when reading the Bible is that
they think they are the first to discover some difficulty or alleged discrepancy.
This would require that, over millennia, scholars and laypeople and scribes from
two faiths, billions of people, all overlooked a contradiction between one chapter
and the next, a contradiction which was waiting for the genius mind of the 21st
century reader to uncover it. Happily, this is not the case, and there is a long
and glorious history of showing how this particular “contradiction”
is no contradiction at all.
But eight years ago I was a non-believer who was converted, humanly speaking, in
part because of CMI’s bold defense of God’s word.
You will notice that the type of plant that hadn’t grown yet is the plant
“of the field”, that is, cultivated plants. There is a simple
reason for this; man wasn’t around to cultivate anything! Other plants existed,
of course.
Jesus Himself came to divide; I would say division based on truth is better than
false unity in compromising error.
We agree that Genesis is not a scientific book. But it is a historical
book, and it makes historical claims. One of the historical claims that it makes
is that around 6,000 years ago, God created the universe in 6 ordinary-length days.
This is opposed to the secular historical claim that the universe exploded into
existence several billion years ago. Science can test some of the evidence which
is interpreted one way or the other, but science is powerless to test the claims
themselves.
You say that our claims only alienate non-believers. But eight years ago I was a
non-believer who was converted, humanly speaking, in part
because of CMI’s bold defense of God’s word. We have had
others who have written in to tell us that God saved them in part through our ministry,
and many more who have had their faith greatly strengthened. No doubt our message
alienates some; Paul said that the Gospel is the scent of life to some and the stench
of death to others (2 Corinthians 2:14–17); if we’re attracting everyone, we’re not defending
the true Gospel.
Sincerely,
Lita Cosner
Information Officer
Creation Ministries International
Readers’ commentsJohn L., Australia, 6 July 2011
A great, informative answer, Lita, combined with your own testimony. Thank you and God continue to bless and use you in upholding His authoritative Word!
Jason C., New Zealand, 6 July 2011
In regards to Max C’s question on how to structure his essay I would also recommend including evolutionary objections to design arguments, ie co-option versus specified complexity, and why those objections fail, ie co-option is covered by Behe’s observations about indirect evolution, though not logically impossible such processes have not been observed etc.
The Discovery Institute website and Uncommon Descent would be helpful for him when constructing the arguments. |
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