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Study Guide for the DVD

‘Goo2U Via the Zoo’

SCENE 1 – Introduction

Our two presenters, Dave Benson and Dan Paterson, put out the challenge to consider one of life’s big questions: Where did I come from?

Using the DVD menu, select each Scene in turn. This Study Guide will be a great way to help weigh the evidence.

SCENE 2 – Where did I come from?

  1. Two radically different stories of origins are presented. Fill in this table to summarize each one of them:
    Evolution
    Design / Creation
    Description – what is the essence of it?



    Existence of non-material things—love, justice,
    peace, etc (yes/no)
    Direction of complexity
    Represented by tree or orchard?
    The order found in the fossil record is based on?
    Changes in living things are limited or unlimited?

  2. Think: why are only two possible stories presented? Are there other options?



  3. Consider: why is it that according to the ‘design’ story, non-material things like love, peace, justice are ‘real’, whereas for the ‘evolution’ story they are ultimately not?



  4. What are we invited to do in order to determine which story is more plausible than the other one?



  5. How is it that two different people can examine the same evidence and arrive at different conclusions?



  6. The presenters make the point: “If you can answer the question ‘is nature becoming less or more complex over time?’, then you can solve the riddle of whether we are evolved or designed”. Why? Remember: we’re not talking about human society or technology (both the result of intelligence) becoming more complex over time, but nature (living things).



  7. In what ways is a human being more complex than a single-celled creature?



  8. The evolution story relies on what three elements to create complexity from simplicity?




SCENE 3 – A closer look

  1. The presenters said we constantly use our ‘design filter’ to differentiate between what is random and what is designed. The example given was finding nuts and bolts in the shape of a smiley face on the floor of a workshop. Can you think of any other examples?



  2. Why do you think that many people do not use the same ‘design filter’ when considering the enormous complexity found in biology?



  3. DNA is an awesome information-storing molecule, as we have seen. Consider this: the chemicals and mechanism that translate the DNA, and the enzymes that repair DNA damage, are themselves coded by DNA. So what came first, the DNA storage mechanism, or the mechanism to read and repair the DNA? Or did they come as a complete package?



  4. Natural selection is the observation in nature that the most suited (‘fittest’, but not in the sense of physical fitness or strength, necessarily) individuals survive and are thus more likely to pass on their genetic information to following generations. But why can’t natural selection of itself add complexity? (Hint: it’s in the word ‘selection’)



  5. Mutations are ‘changes in a genomic sequence’. They generally represent copying errors in the genetic code. In what way does evidence from the study of mutations support or undermine the evolution story? (Hint: fruit flies)



  6. How can a mutation be helpful and yet not add any new information to an organism?



SCENE 4 – Why do we keep a designer out of science?

  1. What is the difference between ‘operational science’ and ‘historical science’?



  2. Which of the following can be proved through operational science?

    1. The existence of God

    2. The evolution story

    3. The big bang

    4. The biblical creation story

  3. In what ways does historical (or ‘forensic’) science routinely detect design or intelligence?



  4. Should historical science be able to detect design in DNA?



  5. So—can God and science be friends? Why or why not?



SCENE 5 – Can science disprove God?

  1. Using the ‘no gold in China’ example, describe the difference between proving something does not exist and proving something does exist.



  2. What is your view on whether God exists or not? How confident are you in that belief, and why?



  3. What would someone need to know to prove that God does not exist?



  4. The Bible indicates that God is real and He is not hiding from us—in fact we have no excuse for not appreciating his creative power (Romans 1:20). What do you think are the best methods for discovering God? (Hint: some ideas were presented in the video)



  5. Is operational science one of those methods? Why or why not?



CONCLUSION

  1. What was Blaise Pascal’s wager?



  2. At the start of the video, the presenters said, ‘Unless we know where we have come from, we don’t know where we are going to’. What is your view of where you have come from?



  3. Where are you going to?



  4. Jesus said, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” (Luke 11:9). Why not tell God now that you want to find Him and know Him? Ask Him to reveal Himself to you.