We Are Currently in a Series Looking at Evidence for a Creator

Evidence for a Creator

10.15.2017

We are currently in a series looking at Evidence for a Creator

Let me tell you why this subject is important

·  If we got here by chance

·  If there is no Creator/Designer behind everything

·  If life is just the consequence of a cosmic accident

“From goo to you by way of the zoo.”

The conclusions/results people come to are in one arena

·  If there is a Creator/Designer

The conclusions/result people come to are in another arena

Referred to as a Watershed Issue

Swiss Alps – North Sea/Mediterranean

Issues end up in different places

·  Life and death

·  Conception and termination

·  Gender /sex/sexuality

·  How we treat others

·  Care of the planet

·  Afterlife

·  Justice

The questions of:

How we got here?

Are we alone in the universe?

The questions and ideas and conclusions that people come to are innumerable

The topics surrounding life twist and turn and make loops too numerous to cover

There are countless rabbit trails we won’t even begin to scratch the surface.

Not only are the ideas countless – many of they take brainpower that I don’t have

Hernan – Mathematical Physicist – playing cards

Nathan in 7th /8th grade

Since no one was there at the beginning

What we must do is look at evidence

Is there evidence for a creator or not?

Is there more evidence for or against the existence of a creator?

I hope to give you enough evidence that you’ll conclude for the existence of a Creator

Two weeks ago, we looked at the Universe, the Big Bang and the Law of Probability

Last week we moved from the Universe and the Big Bang to our galaxy and solar system

Today we’re going to look at The Anthropic Principle and the planet Earth

Before we jump into the meat, I want to talk for a few minutes about Cause and Effect

First Cause

Everything that comes into being must have a cause

An infinite regression of causes is impossible

Therefore, there must be a first cause

For an object to cause itself to come into existence, it must already exist.

It is interesting that in almost every area of life people are looking for the “cause.”

Why did the fire start?

Why is the person sick?

Why is the car part faulty?

Who was at fault for the accident?

But when it comes to the universe/existence people don’t ask “cause” questions

There was just a time when everything existed and bang!

There was nothing and bang.

Illustrations

Think of life as a chain of events that must have had a first cause

•  My grandkids were caused by my kids

•  My kids were caused by Barbara and me

•  My parents and Barbara’s parents were the cause of us

•  Our grandparents were the cause of our parents, etcetera.

If there is no first cause, then all that exists is like a chain where all the links are connected, but the chain is not hanging from anything.

Imagine a train where the caboose is moving along the tracks

So, you move forward to the next car, and the next and the next

Each care in the train that is moving because of the motion of the car in front of it

You get to the front of the train, and there is no engine, and the first car has nothing causing it to move

Someone could assume that the train is moving because of the cars behind it.”

But something had to cause the cars behind the first car to move in the first place to be the force that moves the first car that moves all the cars behind it.

Let’s say I tell you about a certain book and you ask: “Do you have the book?”

I respond no, I must get it from Barbara.

Does she have it? No, she must get it from the neighbor.

Does the neighbor have it? No, he must get it from his cousin.

Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, into infinity.

“If there is no independent being, then the whole chain of dependent beings is dependent on nothing and could not exist.” Peter Kreeft, Ph.D., Professor of Philosophy, Boston College.

The logical and simple answer is:

The first cause is an eternal, self-existing being who is without beginning or ending.

First cause/first causer was one of the quandaries of life that caused C. S. Lewis to abandon his atheism and become a follower of Jesus.

“If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning.” ― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

C. S. Lewis put it, "I felt in my bones that this universe does not explain itself."

The prophets and poets of old wrote it this way

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1 (NIV)

“You alone are the Lord. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you.” Nehemiah 9:6 (NIV)

The LORD merely spoke, and the heavens were created. He breathed the word, and all the stars were born. He assigned the sea its boundaries and locked the oceans in vast reservoirs. Let the whole world fear the LORD, and let everyone stand in awe of him. For when he spoke, the world began! It appeared at his command. (Psalms 33:6-9 NLT)

If you watch the Discovery Channel or PBS or get Time/Newsweek/National Geographic etc.

You might hear or read about - The Anthropic Principle

Anthropos – Human

Video

Alister E. McGrath is the Professor of Science and Religion at Oxford University in England

What is the Anthropic Principle

Video

For those younger folks in the crowd here’s another clip

Anthropic Principle – The Big Bang Theory

"... the Anthropic Principle says that the seemingly arbitrary and unrelated constants in physics have one strange thing in common--these are precisely the values you need if you want to have a universe capable of producing life." Patrick Glynn - PHD Harvard

“When you realize that the laws of nature must be incredibly finely tuned to produce the universe we see, [it] conspires to plant the idea that the universe did not just happen, but that there must be a purpose behind it.”

John Polkinghorne former Physicist at Cambridge University

The arbitrary and unrelated constants that are the precise values need to produce life.

Size of the earth

Last week in the NASA clip they talked about “Earth-sized planets.”

Any time astronomers and physicists are searching they are looking for a planet of similar size to earth

Earth is large enough so that its gravity retains the atmosphere – the air needed for life

Earth is small enough to release many of the harmful greenhouse gases.

Ozone Layer

The ozone layer in our upper atmosphere protects life on Earth by absorbing most of the ultraviolet radiation from the sun.

The relatively low concentration of carbon in Earth’s atmosphere prevents runaway greenhouse effect heating the earth’s surface – “global warming.”

If the concentration of CO2 were higher, there would have been a greenhouse effect and life would have never started.

If the concentration of CO2 were lower, then plants would not be able to maintain adequate photosynthesis, and life would not have started.

Oxygen-Rich Atmosphere

The earth’s oxygen-rich atmosphere contains about 21 percent oxygen, 78 percent nitrogen, and small amounts of carbon dioxide and other gases.

This atmosphere is ideal for supporting complex life, and it enables the mild climate necessary for liquid water.

Speed of rotation

The rate at which the earth rotates is optimal temperature for both the heating and cooling

Weather patterns, currents, cleansing of the oceans

Food chain – phytoplankton, fry, larger, larger, seals, whales – fertilization of the oceans

Phytoplankton through photosynthesis produces ½ the oxygen people and land animals breath

Rotisserie of a chicken

Slower rotation

Regulates temperature for maximum life

Chemical reactions necessary for life can only function in a very narrow temperature range. – 94 – 102

Faster rotation

Atmospheric winds wound make life impossible

Global Distribution of the Continents and oceans

There is a significantly greater land mass in Northern Hemisphere than the Southern

The NH heats up more in summer than the SH does in its summer

Land heats up faster than water

Warming and cooling creates circulation of air in very specific patterns

These circulation patterns create a more temperate climate.

Earth has plate tectonics

Plate tectonics cycles fragments of the earth’s crust down into the mantle, resulting ultimately in a kind of thermostat that keeps the greenhouse gases in balance and surface temperature under control.

Because of the movement of the plates nutrients on the ocean floors and in river runoff would not be cycled back to the continents through tectonic uplift.

Volcanic Activity

Volcanic activity spreads important minerals over vast distances

Plate movement and volcanic activity work together over 100’s of years to redistribute minerals

Water

Water is called the universal solvent because it dissolves more compounds than any other liquid.

Water is the ideal medium for the chemistry of carbon-based life.

Water is a primary component necessary for biological life

Not only is water necessary for complex life but water has to exist in liquid form on or near the surface of the planet.

Water is the only known substance whose solid state (ice) is less dense than its liquid state

Water’s unique characteristic allows fish and marine life to live under ice

“The various properties of water are nothing short of miraculous. No other compound even comes close to duplicating its many life-supporting properties.” Michael Corey – Columbia Pacific University PhD

Some of the characteristics of the Anthropic Principle

Size of the Earth

Ozone Layer

Oxygen-Rich Atmosphere

Speed of the rotation of the planet

Global Distribution of continents and oceans/seas

Plate tectonics

Volcanic Activity

Water

“All the evidence available in the biological sciences supports the core proposition…that the cosmos is a specially designed whole with life and mankind as its fundamental goal and purpose, a whole in which all facets of reality have their meaning and explanation in this central fact.”

Dr. Michael Denton – Senior Research Fellow in Human Molecular Genetics at University of Otago, New Zealand.

“A common sense and satisfying interpretation of our world suggest the designing hand of a super-intelligence.” Owen Gingerich, Harvard astronomy professor and senior astronomer at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory

Let me give you one more thing to think about

When the Solar Eclipse happened this summer – Rest stop near Spokane

Shadow of the eclipse

Total Solar Eclipse happens every 18 months somewhere on the planet

With all the other planets and moons in our solar system earth is the only place where a total eclipse of the sun occurs

Why is it that the only place in our solar system where a perfect solar eclipse can be observed is the only place where there are observers?

Psalm 8