Tag Archives: Science

January 17, 2015

Humanism and Truth

By The Paleofundamentalist

“There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” (Proverbs 16:25)

“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life . . .” (John 14:6)

Humanism is that worldview that makes man the center of all things and exalts human reason to a position of either equality with, or even superiority over, divine revelation (i.e., the Bible). Humanism exists in two forms, secular and religious. Secular humanism is the atheistic form of humanism. It rejects the existence of God, so it must be committed solely to naturalistic explanations for the origin of the universe and life. Today, it embraces the Big Bang Theory to explain the origin of the universe (which violates both the 1st and 2nd Laws of Thermodynamics) and the Theory of Evolution to explain the origin and development of life (which violates the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics). It peddles these theories as “science”, though they violate the most fundamental, well-validated laws upon which all science is founded (cf. Ps14:1; Rom1:22). Secular humanism is the dominant worldview in America today, and public education, from kindergarten through graduate school, is a taxpayer-funded system committed to indoctrinating American youth in it. Secular humanism is the clearly declared enemy of the Bible-believing Christian.

But humanism also exists in a religious form. Religious humanism has a veneer that can appear religious, even Christian, and it can even profess to believe the Bible to be the Word of God, but behind the façade is an absolute commitment to naturalistic explanations in the arena of science. Religious humanism accepts the Big Bang and Evolution as proven by “science” (i.e., these are the instruments God used to “create”), so it embraces non-literal ways of interpreting the Bible in order to accommodate them. As a contemporary example of this, consider the quote from Dr. Francis Collins, current Director of the National Institutes of Heath, and founder of the BioLogos Foundation:

Foundational to the BioLogos vision is the belief that the Bible is the inspired and authoritative Word of God… We have found that the methods of the natural sciences provide the most reliable guide to understanding the material world, and the current evidence from science indicates that the diversity of life is best explained as a result of an evolutionary process. Thus we affirm that evolution is a means by which God providentially achieves His purposes. [1]

Here, “evolution” should be understood in its broadest sense as the naturalistic explanation for the origin of the universe as well as all life in it. Thus, despite Dr. Collins’ claim to believe the Bible to be the “inspired and authoritative Word of God”, in the arena of the “natural sciences” he clearly subordinates divine revelation to human reason.

Similarly, Dr. Hugh Ross is an astronomer who founded the Reasons to Believe ministry for the purpose of “integrating science and faith”. His statement of faith published on the ministry’s web site affirms:

We believe the Bible (the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments) is the Word of God, written. As a “God-breathed” revelation, it is thus verbally inspired and completely without error (historically, scientifically, morally, and spiritually) in its original writings… The Bible is therefore our supreme and final authority in all matters that it addresses. [2]

And yet, based on the conclusions of modern science Dr. Ross and his ministry teach that: 1) God used the Big Bang to create the universe, 2) the days of the Creation Week are really millions/billions of years in duration, 3) a pre-Fall race of hominids existed before Adam, and 4) that the Flood of Noah was not global in extent. The Bible-believer must ask, “How are these beliefs consistent with his assertion that the Bible is the supreme and final authority in all matters that it addresses?” This is equivocation in the extreme, which is the only way that religious humanism can maintain its façade of an authoritative Bible.

Religious humanism, therefore, is not only bad science, it’s also bad religion (Prov14:12; Jn17:17). Religious humanism is a more subtle enemy of the Bible-believing Christian than secular humanism, but for that reason it’s probably the more dangerous one.

Endnotes:

[1]  BioLogos Foundation Website, http://biologos.org/about, accessed October 19, 2011.

[2]  Reasons to Believe Website, http://www.reasons.org/about-us/our-beliefs, accessed October 19, 2011.

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January 26, 2014

Thermodynamics and Genesis 1:1

By The Paleofundamentalist

The 1st Law of Thermodynamics asserts that neither matter nor energy can be created or destroyed (although they can transferred from one place to another, or be converted from one form to another), but in all cases and at all times the total mass-energy of a system is perfectly conserved.

The implication of this is that the present physical processes observed to be at work in the universe today cannot be responsible for its creation/origin.  Today’s assertion that science can only offer naturalistic explanations for observations means, by definition, that science cannot explain the origin of the universe.

The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics asserts that, left to the random and undirected functioning of the laws of nature, all systems invariably tend toward increasing levels of disorder and disorganization, with the energy available to perform useful work being irrecoverably dissipated.

The implication of this is that the present universe, which is highly organized and has abundant available energy with which to do useful work, must have had a beginning.  If the universe were eternal (as assumed in all pagan cosmogonies), it would have long ago become completely disorganized and all energy would have become unavailable.  Since this is not the case, the universe cannot be eternal, it must have had a beginning.

The implications of both the 1st and 2nd Laws of Thermodynamics are implicit in Genesis 1:1, the very first verse of the Bible (and very likely the first verse of Scripture ever recorded), which asserts that the universe had a “beginning” (2nd Law) and that its origin was supernatural “creation ex nihilo” (1st Law).

“In the beginning [2nd Law] God created [1st Law] the heaven and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1)

To quote Dr. Henry Morris, “Genesis 1:1 is the most profoundly scientific statement ever written, with all the systems and processes of the cosmos uniting in asserting its truth.” [1]

No scientist knows why the 1st and 2nd Laws of Thermodynamics are true.  Consider this confession of Dr. Isaac Asimov (an atheist, evolutionist, and past president of the American Humanist Association):

No one knows why energy is conserved, and no one can be completely sure it is truly conserved everywhere in the universe under all conditions.  All that anyone can say is that in over a century and a quarter of careful measurement, scientists have never been able to point to a definite violation of energy conservation, either in the familiar everyday surroundings about us, or in the heavens above or in the atoms within. [2]

No one knows why energy is always conserved, or why entropy always increases.  Nevertheless, in all scientific measurements and observations, energy is conserved and entropy increases without any exceptions!  This “observation” is then built into all scientific theories at a presuppositional level—the 1st and 2nd Laws are always assumed at the outset, then all scientific theories are built from this assumed foundation; but the 1st and 2nd Laws themselves are never derived or deduced.  Science has no answer for why the 1st and 2nd Laws of Thermodynamics are always valid.

In Scripture, however, God reveals why the 1st and 2nd Laws are valid.  God Himself performed a supernatural work (creation ex nihilo) during the six days of creation (Genesis 1:1; Psalm 33:6; Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:2), but He declares that His work of creation ended at the close of the 6th day (Genesis 2:1-2); since that time, excepting a few extremely rare instances of supernatural intervention in the creation by God Himself (i.e., miracles), His divine work has been to uphold and preserve His creation (cf. Genesis 8:22; Colossians 1:17; Hebrews 1:3), which is why we observe that the 1st Law of Thermodynamics always holds true today.  Furthermore, Scripture also points to the introduction of the universal principle of death and decay that came as a result of the Fall and subsequent Curse (Genesis 3:17-19; Romans 5:12; 8:20-22), which is why we observe that the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics always holds true today.

Endnotes:

[1] Henry Morris, The Biblical Basis for Modern Science (Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI, 1987), pp. 194-199.

[2] Isaac Asimov, “In the Game of Energy and Thermodynamics You Can’t Even Break Even”, Smithsonian, Vol. 1 (No. 5), August 1970, p. 6.

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