POISONOUS QUESTIONS FOR SECULAR SCIENTISTS 

By Michael K. Farrar, O.D.

God’s Breath Publications

 

Genesis 1:1-2 states the following; “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.”

 

As Disciples of Christ, we are faced with how to interpret scientific theories on the origins of the universe and life while at the same time retaining awareness that God is responsible for our creation. Science, at times, can become a religion in itself; “Scientism”.  We must recognize that depending on our assumptions, we can look at the same data or information as someone else and possibly come out with different conclusions. This is what often happens today in scientific circles. Below I share briefly about this debate about the origins of life and the universe and some differing assumptions about where life came from.

 

Did the Universe Have a Beginning? If so…Who Begun it?

 

There have been numerous theories as to how the universe came about. Most of the current scientific theories are centered on the idea of a “Hot Big Bang,” where the universe originated from an exploding primordial fireball. The theory is that this dense, hot, compacted mass one day simply exploded and out of this developed the galaxies, planets and star systems.

 

Whichever theory centered on this hypothesis you choose there are significant problems. Some have proposed an oscillating universe, where the expanding universe will one day begin to collapse back upon itself and then re-explode to “recreate” itself. The problem with this theory is that there is not enough mass in the universe to support this “re-compaction” of all the galaxies. Another version of the Big Bang simply says that the primordial fireball just always existed and one day for some reason simply exploded. The problem with this theory is, WHAT caused it to simple explode?

 

Another theory associated with the Big Bang theory, and one which is in more accord with the Christians’ interpretation of creation is the “Inflationary” viewpoint. Trying not to be too technical, this theory basically states that the universe originated from this Big Bang, but because of a “Phase Shift” in the properties of matter, in other words a “normal scientific laws we know today were not in effect” (a convenient but unsubstantiated postulation), the universe came about in a very short period of time giving an age to the universe in the area of 30,000 years. The Christian could take this secular theory one step further and state that the primordial fireball was created by God and the generation of the explosion also originated with Him.

 

Whatever view you hold, you must deal with “WHAT” created the primordial fireball and “WHAT” caused it to explode. The Christian’s answer is God the Father; the Secular Scientist’s answer is “random chance.”

 

Did Life Begin by Chance? NO CHANCE!

 

We are all familiar with the current theories as to the origin of life according to secular science. This is basically summed up as the random chance of combining molecules, with the introduction of an energy source, causing the spontaneous generation of amino acids and organic bases. These in turn, by random chance, combined to form polypeptides, then microspheres, proteins and finally a single living cell.

 

Now this all seems reasonable from a logical point of view; but logic is not always a good basis for absolute truth. The changes which would be necessary for several of these steps to occur are no minor changes. We are talking VERY LARGE MAJOR assumptions here! We also are a little naive if we believe that a single living cell is a rather simple type of life form. A single cell is a VERY COMPLEX life structure as you can see in the diagram.

 

There are intricate inter-relationships between nuclei, mitochondria, cell membrane, various organelles and matter. The other mystery about this supposedly “simple single cell” is what gives it the “spark” of life? Even if we could grant secular scientists the “luck” for “random” creation of a single cell; what would guarantee that this protoplasm would be alive and able to reproduce itself? The only thing we know for sure about life is that only life can regenerate life. Scientists have never ever produced life in the laboratory in even the simplest form. We as Disciples of Christ know that the source of the creation of life even though we do not know how it occurred. We know that life was created by our Heavenly Father, our Creator.

 

Another factor related to the appearance of life on the earth is what is called the “Pre-Cambrian Explosion.” There are various periods of time which Geologists divide earth’s history into. One of these is the Cambrian and another is the Pre-Cambrian. There are records of these time periods in rock strata and there are specific fossils associated with these rock strata. The curious thing is that in the transition between these time periods, life goes from almost “total non-existence” to multitudes of numerous species of creatures. There is no evolutionary evidence of a gradual development and appearance of life. This is what is called in Geologic circles as the “Pre-Cambrian Explosion.” Christians know this to be the creation of life by our Lord God Almighty.