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Philosophy & Science
What
does God
look like
to you?
Theistic Basis of
Science
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Nature is real.
Nature has value.
God is not nature.
God is rational and nature acts rationally.
Laws don’t change and can be modeled.
We can understand the creation.
We are finite and sinful and need verification.
Man can alter nature. (Man has dominion.)
• Pearcey & Thaxton, The Soul of Science
Accepted Model –
Inflationary Big Bang
13.7 ± 0.1 Billion
Years of cosmic
evolution
Evidences for IBB
• Hubble Constant
• Nucleosynthesis
– 73% H, 24% He, 3% other
• Microwave Background
• Large Scale Structure
• Evidence of Dark Matter
Christianity and
Big Bang
• Evidence for the Big Bang is
very convincing.
• Is. 40:22 – God “stretches
out the heavens.”
• It implies a beginning of
space and time.
• Parameters of Big Bang so
precise that it would require
God to do it.
Young Creation
Models
• How does distant
light get to us?
– Light created in
transit.
– Speed of light is
slowing down.
– White hole
cosmology
– Non-uniform
properties of space
Big Bang Critique
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Quintessence
Exotic Dark Matter
Laws of Thermodynamics
Inflation
– Exceed speed of light by 1024×
• No gravitational lensing of microwave background
• Not constrained enough
– “...supporters of Big Bang cosmology gain for themselves a large bag
of free parameters that can subsequently be tuned as the occasion may
require.” (Burbidge, Hoyle, & Narlikar)
Composition of the Universe: 4% atoms, 23% cold dark matter, 73% dark energy
Conflict Resolution
Recognize the role of
assumptions in the modeling
and interpretation of data.
x y
1 2
2 5
3 6
4 7
5 10
6 10
Matter Waves
g g g
e- -ee
h

mv
How can an electron go through two holes at once?
End of Science?
• Positivism
– Progress towards an
ultimate understanding
of the nature of reality.
• Limitation
– All universal models
will be incomplete and
possibly paradoxical.
– Does not eliminate the
usefulness of the model.
Fundamental
Paradox
• Wave/Particle Duality
– Electron can be in multiple
states at one time.
• Godel’s Incompleteness
Theorem
– Can not have an all
encompassing theory of
everything.
• Finiteness of man
e-e-e
Anthropic Principle
• If conditions weren’t right for intelligent life
to form, then no life would exist to ponder
the question of its existence.
• Barrow and Tipler
– There exists one possible Universe 'designed' with the
goal of generating and sustaining 'observers'. Or...
– An ensemble of other different universes is necessary
for the existence of our Universe (which may be related
to the “Many Worlds” interpretation of quantum
mechanics).
Unique Earth
• Stable sun
• Nearly circular
orbit
• Water present in 3
phases
• Magnetic field
• Ozone
• Nitrogen
atmosphere
• Probability
– 1069 to 1
Probability of
Proteins
• Random formation of a
specific 200 amino
acid protein would take
potentially 1020 times
the assumed age of the
universe to form.
• Roger Penrose
– “the accuracy of the
Creator’s aim” is
1010(123) to 1
Design Arguments
• Irreducible Complexity
– M. Behe
– Bacterium flagellum
• Specified Complexity
– W. Dembski
Law Filter
– Information theory
Chance Filter
150
– Prob. Bound: 10
Specification Filter
Origin of Life
• Simple Life?
– Cells are bags of protoplasm
– Stanley Miller Experiment
• First Life?
– Self replicating RNA
Search
for Life
Titan
Arecibo
Halley
Mars
Europa
How did we get here?
Panspermia
Lonely Universe
Personal &
Omnipotent God
God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place
thereof ... Then did he see it, and declare it; he prepared it,
yea, and searched it out. (KJV)
Job 28:23-27
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD,
“plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you
hope and a future. (NIV)
Jer. 29:11
But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I
shall come forth as gold. (KJV)
Job 23:11