This is an updated version of a class on God and Science/Science and the Bible presented by Dr. John Oakes at the 2012 ICEC at UCLA October 20, 2012.

1. Christianity and Science
Enemies or Friends?
Simple Truth Club, UCLA
October, 20, 2012
John Oakes PhD

2. Thomas Huxley, Darwin’s “bulldog”
“We are as much the
product of blind
forces as is the falling
of a stone to earth, or
the ebb and flow of
the tides. We have
just happened, and
man was made flesh
by a series of
singularly beneficial
accidents.”

3.  In the universe of blind physical forces and
genetic replication, some people are going to
get hurt and other people are going to get
lucky: and you won’t find any rhyme or reason
to it, nor any justice. The universe we observe
has precisely the properties we should expect
if there is at the bottom, no design, no
purpose, no evil and no good. Nothing but
blind, pitiless indifference. DNA neither knows
nor cares. DNA just is, and we dance to its
music.

4. Accident or Design?
William
Paley

5. The Teleological Argument
Evidence for Design in Nature
The Anthropic Principle
Boeing 747
Design or
Accident?

6. 1. Ideal solvent to support life (dissolves ions and
molecules
2. Right boiling and melting points
3. High specific heat
4. Solid floats on liquid
5. Contracts from 0 to 4 degrees centigrade
Water

7. Designed Elements?

8. Carbon: The Central Element of Life
3-D molecules
Large, complex yet flexible
molecules

10. The Ozone Layer:
Is oxygen a designed element?

12. a) b)
DNA

13. Protein

14. Nature creates order, but not information

15. A House of Cards:
Order and
Information.
Nature does not
spontaneously
create information.
The simplest
conceivable living
thing: e-coli have
one trillion + pieces
of information.

16. Science before the 1950s:
The universe was NOT created.
Hebrews 11:3
“By faith we understand that the universe was
created… so that what is seen has been made from things that
are not visible.”
Genesis 1:3
God said “Let there be light,” and there was light.
The Big Bang
· 1929 Hubble. The Red Shift: The universe is expanding.
· 1965 Penzias and Wilson, background microwave radiation.
Physicists now:
The universe was created.

17. Physics:
The Finely Tuned Universe

18. .
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19. Fine Tuning of the Universe
Constant A Little Bigger A Little Smaller
1. Gravitational constant very short-lived stars no stars
2. Ratio of electrons to protons no stars or galaxies no stars or galaxies
3. Strong Nuclear Force no hydrogen, fusion only hydrogen
4. Weak Nuclear Force all H2
 He at big bang no He at big bang
no heavy elements
5. Electric Force no chemical bonding no chemical bonding
6. Expansion rate of universe no galaxies universe collapses quickly
7. Ratio of matter to antimatter too much radiation for life not enough matter
for galaxies to form
and many more….

20. A finely-tuned
instrument
built by
humans. Good
to one part in a
billion?

21. Fred Hoyle on Fine-TuningFred Hoyle on Fine-Tuning
“… a super-intellect has monkeyed with
physics, as well as with chemistry and
biology.”

22. Antony Flew Considers God...Antony Flew Considers God...
2004 Anthony Flew2004 Anthony Flew
accepts the Anthropicaccepts the Anthropic
Argument, concludingArgument, concluding
that “some sort of Deitythat “some sort of Deity
brought about thisbrought about this
universe.” He says he hasuniverse.” He says he has
in mind something like thein mind something like the
God of Aristotle, a distant,God of Aristotle, a distant,
impersonal "primeimpersonal "prime
mover."mover."

23. Conclusion:
“Since the creation of the world God’s
invisible qualities—his eternal power and
divine nature—have been clearly seen,
being understood from what has been
made, so that men are without excuse.”
Romans 1:20
The heavens declare the glory of God; the
skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day
after day they pour fourth speech. Night
after night they display knowledge
Psalms 19:1-2

24. Part II
Science and the Bible
Delos B. McKown:
“Christianity is scientifically
unsupported and probably insupportable,
philosophically suspect at best and
disreputable at worst, and historically
fraudulent.”

25. Papyrus Ebers

26. The Ebers Papyrus:
“To prevent hair from turning gray,
anoint it with the blood of a calf
which has been boiled in oil or with
the fat of a rattlesnake.”
“A mixture of six fats, namely those
of the horse, the hippopotamus, the
crocodile, the cat, the snake and
the ibex.... to prevent hair loss.”

27. Drugs of Choice in Papyrus Ebers:
• Lizards blood
• Swine’s teeth
• Putrid meat
• Moisture from Pigs’ ears
• Excreta from animals including human
beings, donkeys, antelope, dogs, cats and
flies

28. “I will not bring on you any of
these diseases...”
Exodus 15:26
“The pig... is unclean for
you...those that walk on their
paws...the weasel, the rat...are
unclean for you.”
Leviticus 11

29. “The sting of a hornet is healed by
the house-fly, crushed and applied to
the wound.”
“The gnat, feeble creature, taking in
food but never secreting it is a
specific against the poison of the
viper.”
An ancient Hebrew medical manuscript.

30. “Whoever touches the dead body of anyone will
be unclean for seven days. He must purify
himself with the water on the third and
seventh day...take some hyssop, dip it in the
water and sprinkle the tent and furnishings
and the people who were there.”
Numbers 19

31. Semelweiss

33. Vienna, 1847
• In maternity wards one out of
every six women dies.
• Obstetricians ascribe deaths to
constipation, fear and poisonous
air.

34. Death Rate falls from
18% to 0.5%

35. Thymol: A Powerful Disinfectant

36. “As long as he has the infection he
remains unclean. He must live alone;
he must live outside the camp.”
Quarantine for infectious disease
Leviticus 13:46

37. LEPROSY
• Killed millions of people in Europe and
around the world for thousands of years.
• “Fear of all other diseases taken together
can hardly be compared to the terror
spread by leprosy.”
—Dr. George Rosen

38. Leprosy

39. MEDICAL COMMUNITY HAD
NO ANSWERS
They taught that it was brought on by eating
hot food, pepper, garlic and the meat of
diseased hogs.
Other physicians said it was caused by a
malign conjunction of the planets.
Leviticus 13:46
“As long as he has the infection he remains
unclean. He must live alone; he must live
outside the camp.”

40. The life is in the blood
Leviticus 17:14 “… the life of every
creature is in its blood. That is why I have
said to the Israelites, ‘You must not eat the
blood of any creature, because the life of
every creature is its blood; anyone who eats
it must be cut off.’ ”

41. Bloodletting
The most common medical practice
in 1700s and 1800s

42. Bloodletting
Instruments from
1800s

43. “For the generations to come,
every male among you who is eight
days old must be circumcised...”
Genesis 17:12
Vitamin K
Prothrombrin: a clotting protein.

44. 0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
days
%ofnormal
Clotting Protein Peaks on Day Eight
Available Prothrombin

45. DayDay
CircumcisedCircumcised
Number of HebrewNumber of Hebrew
BoysBoys
Number of DeathsNumber of Deaths
11 823823 44
33 759759 66
55 693693 88
77 855855 33
99 770770 22
1111 698698 44
How Did Abraham Pick the Eighth Day?

46. “He spreads out the northern skies
over empty space; He suspends the
earth over nothing”
Job 26:8
The earth is on the back of four
elephants standing on top of a turtle,
encircled by a serpent, swimming in a
sea of milk…
The Sutras

47. Topics not touched on:
1. The origin of the universe.
2. The origin of life.
3. The origin of species;
especially of humans.
4. The age of the earth.
www.evidenceforchristianity.org