BIBLE RESEARCH – INTELLIGENT DESIGN – Origins of Life – Darwin’s Black Box – Nature Rules in the End - Bible Study Research - [05-14-24]

The evidence of modern science about the debate between the atheistic and theistic interpretations of the universe provides a fresh basis for discussion. [Prof. John Lennox]

If we believe in many modern commentators, science has squeezed God into a corner, killed, and then buried Him with its all-embracing explanations. Atheism, we are told, is the only intellectually tenable position, and any attempt to reintroduce God is likely to impede the progress of science.  This is a prime example of the arrogance of mankind, especially scientists.

Introduction.  Secular societies loathe the concept of humility which is seen as weakness and shameful. Why does honesty require humility?  Everyone has inherited imperfection which means mistakes will occur but they can also be intentionally deceptive.  This is why it is so hard to have millions of medical professionals and scientists ask for forgiveness for their ‘mistakes’ since 2020. Honest and authentic practitioners would be genuinely regretful, and humbly ask forgiveness; dishonest ones will lie and obfuscate as is happening now.

The apostle Paul said of himself: “I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, there dwells nothing good; for the ability to wish is present with me, but the ability to work out what is fine is not present.” [Romans 7:18].

At the age of seven, my class was discussing the nature of God, and when I returned home I asked my father: “What is this thing called God?”.  He suggested that I go out in the day and witness the magic of nature, the flora and fauna.  At night, I was to examine the immenseness of the universe, the planets, and stars.  Then I returned to my father and he asked if I thought I was the greatest thing in the universe.  Of course, it was clear that I wasn’t, and then he said: “Therefore there must be something in the universe greater than you and that is what some people call God.”

I have spent 73 years seeking the elusive thing they call God.  I have researched many religions, from Buddhism to Christianity, and esoteric research with giant thinkers like Immanuel Velikovsky and Graham Hancock. I finally settled on Christian Deism which was comfortable for me. The word originated in England in the early 17th century as a rejection of orthodox Christianity.  Deists asserted that reason could find evidence of God in nature and that God had created the world and then left it to operate under the natural laws devised by Him.

Christian deists believe that Jesus was a deist. Jesus taught that there are two basic laws from God governing humankind. The first law is that life comes from God and to use it as God intended as illustrated by Jesus' parables.

My belief in Intelligent Design was reinforced when I read this little book by a mathematician, Professor John Lennox.  This book evaluates the evidence of modern science about the debate between the atheistic and theistic interpretations of the universe and provides a fresh basis for discussion.  John proved, using applied math, that Intelligent Design is real and thereafter I had no doubts about the reality of our Creator.

From this beginning, I was left to find a code for living that would match my belief in nature and I found the answer in the New Testament where I discovered the teachings of Jesus, and to date, I have not been able to refute His truthful guidance.

A growing number of scientists agree. The universe and life were produced by Intelligent Design, not unguided evolution. I came to this Earth without knowing why or how and I became embodied in this low-vibration earthly environment. I was gifted with a magical body, brain, and mind which carried my spirit. From an early age, I felt apart from this Earth, rather I opined that I had arrived from another planet because that is how it felt for me. I have always felt detached from my earthly existence.

The 80 years of my Earth-walk have been magical, with brilliant, loving, and caring parents, a good education, and an almost predetermined course for my career.  I have always had enough material resources but never excess, and blessed with four children and nine grandchildren.  When I discovered Psalm 91, I realised that my Creator had been nurturing me all my life, so long as I deferred to His Will for me. My ego became submissive to His command and it worked, but sometimes my ego often intervened!

“Anyone dwelling in the secret place of the Most High will lodge under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to my Creator, “You are my refuge and my stronghold, my God in whom I trust.”  For he will rescue you from the trap of the bird-catcher, from the destructive pestilence.

With his pinions, he will cover you, and under his wings, you will take refuge.  His faithfulness will be a large shield and a protective wall.  You will not fear the terrors of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the gloom, nor the destruction that ravages at midday.

A thousand will fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, but to you, it will not come near.  You will only see it with your eyes as you witness the punishment of the wicked.  Because you said: “My Creator is my refuge,” you have made the Most High your dwelling; no disaster will befall you, and no plague will come near your tent.

For He will give his angels a command concerning you, to guard you in all your ways.  They will carry you on their hands, so that you may not strike your foot against a stone.  On the young lion and the cobra, you will tread; you will trample underfoot the maned lion and the big snake.  God said: “Because he has affection for me, I will rescue him.  I will protect him because he knows my name.”  [Psalm 91]

My life experience is testimony to the truth of these words and God’s promise. I have suffered six near-death experiences (NDE – three on land, two at sea, and one in the air)) and walked away from all six without a scratch. I have adventured in risky areas most of my life, fearless in my belief in God’s angels walking with me every minute. The secret is to follow His Will for me and not my ego, but if I sometimes succumb, it’s been a train smash.

INTELLIGENT DESIGN (ID) – WHAT IS IT?

Here are 15 examples of areas where ID is helping science to generate new scientific knowledge and open new avenues of research. Examples include citations to mainstream scientific articles and publications by ID proponents that discuss this research.

• ID directs research that has detected high levels of complex and specified information in biology in the form of fine-tuning protein sequences. This has practical implications not just for explaining biological origins but also for engineering enzymes and anticipating/fighting the future evolution of diseases. (Axe, 2004; Axe, 2000; Axe, 2010 ba)

• ID predicts that scientists will find instances of fine-tuning in the laws and constants of physics to allow for life, leading to a variety of fine-tuning arguments, including the Galactic Habitable Zone. This has huge implications for cosmological models of the universe and hints at avenues for successful “theories of everything” which must accommodate fine-tuning, together with other implications for theoretical physics. (Gonzalez 2001; Halsmer, 2009.)

• ID has helped scientists to understand intelligence as a scientific cause of biological complexity, and to understand the types of information it generates. (Meyer, 2004b; Dembski, 1998b; McIntosh, 2009a.)

• ID has led to both experimental and theoretical research into how limitations on the ability of Darwinian evolution to evolve traits that require multiple mutations to function. This has practical implications for solving problems like antibiotic resistance or engineering bacteria. (Behe & Snoke, 2004; Gauger et al. 2010).

• ID implies that there are limits to the information-generative powers of Darwinian searches, leading to the finding that the search abilities of Darwinian processes are limited, which has practical implications for the viability of using genetic algorithms to solve problems. This particular example is relevant because Dr. McPeek cites the evolution of antibiotic resistance, antiviral drug resistance, and insecticide resistance as his prime examples of the utility of Darwinian evolution. Ironically, one of the primary ways that scientists combat such forms of resistance is based on the premise that there are limitations in the degree to which organisms can evolve. If biological realities, like limits to evolution, did not exist it would be pointless to combat antibiotic resistance or antiviral drug resistance because evolution can adapt to the target organism and would become resistant without incurring a fitness cost.  ID’s predictions about the existence of limits to evolution are what helps combat antibiotic, antiviral, and pesticide resistance, not knowledge of Darwinian evolution. (Dembski and Marks 2009a; Dembski and Marks, 2009b; Ewert et al. 2009; Ewert et al. 2010; Axe et al. 2008.; Axe 2010a; Axe 2010b; Meyer 2004b; McIntosh 2009a; and many others.)

• ID thinking has helped scientists measure functional biological information, leading to concepts like complex and specified information or functional sequence complexity.  This allows us to better quantify complexity and understand what features are, or are not, within the reach of Darwinian evolution. (Meyer, 2004b; Durston et al. 2007; Chiu and Thomas 2002.)

• ID has caused scientists to investigate computer-like properties of DNA and the genome in the hopes of better understanding genetics and the origin of biological systems. (Sternberg, 2008; Voie, 2006; Abel & Trevors, 2006.)

• ID serves as a paradigm for biology which helps scientists reverse engineer molecular machines like the bacterial flagellum to understand their function like machines, and to understand how the ‘machine-like’ properties of life allow biological systems to function. (Minnich and Meyer, 2004); McIntosh, 2009a.)

• ID causes scientists to view cellular components as “designed structures rather than accidental by-products of neo-Darwinian evolution,” allowing scientists to propose testable hypotheses about the causes of cancer. (Wells, 2005.)

• ID leads to the view of life as being front-loaded with information that it is designed to evolve, expecting, and finding previously unanticipated “out of place” genes in various taxa.  (Sherman, 2007; de Roos, 2005; de Roos, 2007; de Roos, 2006.)

• ID explains the cause of the widespread feature of extreme degrees of “convergent evolution,” including convergent genetic evolution. (Lönnig, 2004; Nelson, & Wells, 2003; Davison, 2005.)

• ID explains the causes of explosions of biodiversity, as well as mass extinctions, in the history of life. (Lönnig, 2004; Meyer, 2004b; Meyer et al., 2003.)

• ID has directed scientists to predict the function of junk DNA, leading to research seeking function for non-coding “junk”-DNA, and allowing understanding of development and cellular biology. (Wells, 2004; McIntosh, 2009a); Seaman and Sanford, 2009.)  Source

Casey Luskin is Associate Director and Senior Fellow, at the Center for Science and Culture.  Casey Luskin is a geologist and an attorney with graduate degrees in science and law, giving him expertise in both the scientific and legal dimensions of the debate over evolution. He earned his PhD in Geology from the University of Johannesburg, and BS and MS degrees in Earth Sciences from the University of California, San Diego, where he studied evolution extensively at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. His law degree is from the University of San Diego, where he focused his studies on First Amendment law, education law, and environmental law.

ORIGINS OF LIFE – The Mystery of Human DNA

Is the software that runs life the result of accumulated copying errors? Or does it require a programmer?  This episode of Science Uprising examines how Microsoft founder Bill Gates, geneticist and entrepreneur Craig Venter, and even evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins all acknowledge that DNA is like software. But how was that software created? Visit scienceuprising.com for more videos and explore related articles and books. Sources

• Stephen C. Meyer, Director, Center for Science and Culture.  Dr. Stephen C. Meyer received his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge in the philosophy of science. A former geophysicist and college professor, he now directs the Center for Science and Culture at the Discovery Institute in Seattle. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Darwin’s Doubt (2013) as well as the book Signature in the Cell (2009) and Return of the God Hypothesis (2021). In 2004, Meyer ignited a firestorm of media and scientific controversy when a biology journal at the Smithsonian Institution published his peer-reviewed scientific article advancing intelligent design. Meyer has been featured on national television and radio programs, including The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, CBS's Sunday Morning, NBC's Nightly News, ABC's World News, Good Morning America, Nightline, FOX News Live, and the Tavis Smiley show on PBS. He has also been featured in two New York Times front-page stories and has garnered attention in other top national media.

• Douglas Axe - Maxwell Professor of Molecular Biology at Biola University, Senior Fellow, Center for Science and Culture.  Douglas Axe is the Maxwell Professor of Molecular Biology at Biola University, the founding Director of Biologic Institute, the founding Editor of BIO-Complexity, and the author of Undeniable: How Biology Confirms Our Intuition That Life Is Designed. After completing his PhD at Caltech, he held postdoctoral and research scientist positions at the University of Cambridge and the Cambridge Medical Research Council Centre. His research, which examines the functional and structural constraints on the evolution of proteins and protein systems, has been featured in many scientific journals, including the Journal of Molecular Biology, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, BIO-Complexity, and Nature, and in such books as Signature in the Cell and Darwin’s Doubt by Stephen Meyer and Life’s Solution by Simon Conway Morris.

THE ISSUE OF DEVOLUTION - Michael Behe: Darwin’s Black Box

In ‘Darwin Devolves’, Behe argues in brief that “It’s easy to break things, and often it gives a benefit.”  Building new things, wonderful things, through an unintelligent process like Darwinian evolution is another matter entirely.

Michael J. Behe is a Professor of Biological Sciences at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania and a Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture. He received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Pennsylvania in 1978. Behe's current research involves the delineation of design and natural selection in protein structures. https://intelligentdesign.org/whatisid/

NATURE RULES OUR EARTH. - Given all our ‘science’ I cannot believe that mankind will overrule the natural processes gifted to us by our Creator.  Try as I may to understand the magic of the complex systems allowing our planet to live as an organism, is a world beyond my understanding.  And so it should be because God is above our understanding. Merely contemplating our magical immune system leaves me in awe of a power far beyond our science:

God is the Maker of the righteous systems of things. They are all under his supreme control. He has arranged them in an order that leads from one set of good things to better or grander things, thus reaching a height of goodness that leaves us nothing further to be desired. He is a God of order and knows the future of His arrangements.

He wants to rid the universe of the forces of wickedness and disturbance. He will do this using his promised government in the hands of his glorified Son, Jesus Christ, thus bringing all living creation, seen and unseen, into a peaceful, obedient relationship with the Creator. He will vindicate himself as Rightful Sovereign over all the universe. To this end, He has made a series of systems of things to follow one after another. His Son has an important part in the vindication of universal sovereignty, and He has used Him in the foundation of the Systems of Things. [Hebrews 1:1-2]

If you have an hour to spare, this energy lecture will explain where all this is going and our future in a changed world.

COMING NEXT

• Letter from South Africa – Africa; Climate PsyOp - Saturday, May 18, 2024

• BOOM Weekly Global Review - Tuesday, May 21, 2024

REFERENCES  

• My Book: “The Financial Jigsaw” Parts 1 & 2 Scroll:   https://www.researchgate.net/publication/358117070_THE_FINANCIAL_JIGSAW_-_PART_1_-_4th_Edition_2020   including regular updates.

• BOOM Finance and Economics Substack (Subscribe for Free) - also on LinkedIn and WordPress. Covid Medical News Network CMN News BOOM Blog -- All Editorials (over 5 years) --  BOOM Finance and Economics | Designed for Critical Thinkers — UPDATED WEEKLY (wordpress.com)