Transcript How Great thou Art

In the beginning God
created the heavens
and the earth.
Genesis 1:1
How Great thou Art
O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder,
Consider all the worlds thy hands have made;
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed
When through the woods, and forest glades I wander
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees.
When I look down, from lofty mountain grandeur
And see the brook, and feel the gentle breeze
In the beginning God
created the heavens
and the earth.
Genesis 1:1
Evolution
Biological theory that
explains the development of
the diversity of life on our
planet
Charles Darwin
On the Origin of
Species by means of
natural selection
Or the
preservation of
favoured races in the
struggle for life
Published 1859
1. All current species have descended
from common ancestors.
2. Changes in species occur gradually
over time as a consequence of
mutations.
3. Species change when beneficial
mutations allow certain of them to
have more offspring than others.
William Henry Dallinger
Wesleyan Pastor 18611880 and later president
of Wesley College, Member
of Royal Society
1887 – “unreserved
acceptance of evolution”
Sir George Stokes
Lucasian Professor of
Mathematics at
Cambridge University
1849 – 1903
(position held by Isaac
Newton and Stephen
Hawking)
“Even an extreme adoption of evolution is
not inconsistent with theism.”
Asa Gray
Christian biologist.
Largely responsible for
Evolution accepted by
National Academy of
Sciences in the United
States in 1880
BB Warfield
Great Princeton
Theologian (1851-1921)
“I am free to say, for
myself, that I do not think
that there is any general
statement in the Bible or
any part of the account of
creation, either as given in Gen I or II or
elsewhere alluded to, that need be opposed to
evolution.”
Theodosius
Dobzhansky
Christian Biologist
“Nothing in biology
makes sense except in
light of evolution”
Gregor Mendel
Belgian monk called who
was working on genetics
on pea plants that people
discovered how genetic
traits were inherited.
On the Origin of
Species by means of
natural selection
Or the
preservation of
favoured races in the
struggle for life
Published 1859
1. All current species have descended
from common ancestors.
2. Changes in species occur gradually
over time as a consequence of
mutations.
3. Species change when beneficial
mutations allow certain of them to
have more offspring than others.
“He uses the metaphor of a river to
represent the flow of information
through time by means of DNA to argue
that species come into existence
gradually, by evolution, rather than
being created by God.
Reviewer – Sunday Times with writer of
this book “proven that no God exists”
On the Origin of
Species by means of
natural selection
Or the
Preservation of
favoured races in the
struggle for life
Published 1859
Dawkins sub-titles another of his book
“how the evidence of evolution reveals a
universe without Design”
Atheist Daniel Dennett – uses evolution
to explain cosmology, psychology,
culture, ethics, politics, and religion.
In the beginning God
created the heavens
and the earth.
Genesis 1:1
Genesis 1:1–5 (NIV84)
The Beginning
In the beginning God created the heavens and
the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and
empty, darkness was over the surface of the
deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over
the waters.
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there
was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and
he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God
called the light “day,” and the darkness he called
“night.” And there was evening, and there was
morning—the first day.
1
1920’s astronomer Edwin Hubble
Singularity - Big Bang Theory
•
•
•
•
•
Creation of universe
Creation of light
Creation of time
Creation of laws of physics
Creation of laws of chemistry
Came from burst of light
Arno Penzias
Won Nobel prize for
discovery of cosmic
background radiation
that corroborated the
Big Bang:
“The best data we have are exactly what I
would have predicted had I nothing to go on
but the five books of Moses, the Psalms and
the Bible as a whole.”
Robert Jastrow
Astronomer
For the scientist who has
lived by his faith in the
power of reason, the
story ends like a bad
dream. He has scaled the
mountains of ignorance, he is about to
conquer the highest peak. He pulls himself
over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of
theologians who have been sitting there for
centuries.
Franklin Harold
Biologist
“even a bacterial cell
displays levels of
regularity and complexity
that exceed by orders of
magnitude” anything
found in the non-living
world.
River out of Eden
Richard Dawkins
But when the ricochets of atomic
billiards chance to put together
an object that has certain,
seemingly innocent property,
something momentous happens
in the universe.
Probability for conditions
of life to exist
229
1/10
Stephen Hawking
“If the rate of expansion
one second after the big
bang had been smaller by
even one part of a
hundred thousand
million million, the
universe would have
recollapsed before it even
reached its present size.”
Precision of Density
change for no stars to exist
0.0000000000001
percent
Richard Dawkins
argument for chance
writes:
However improbable the
origin of life might be, it
happened this way
because we are here.
Fred Hoyle
Cambridge University,
Astronomer.
“A commonsense
interpretation of the facts
suggest that a superintellect has monkeyed with physics, as well
as chemistry and biology, and that there are
no blind forces worth speaking about in
nature. The numbers one calculates from the
facts seem to me so overwhelming as to put
this conclusion almost beyond question.”
Freeman Dyson
one of the greatest
physicists of the 20th
century
“The more I examine
the universe and the
details of its architecture, the more
evidence I find that the universe in some
sense must have known we were
coming.”
Augustine
Bishop of north Africa in
early 5th century
400-450 AD
He wrote that he did not
have a literal reading of
the opening chapters of
Genesis.
Thomas Aqunias
13th century theologian
“did not feel there was a
tension between science
and the opening of
Genesis”
Origen
3rd century theologian
“What person of
intelligence, I ask, will
consider as a reasonable
statement that the first and
the second and the third
day, in which there are said
to be both morning and evening, existed without
sun and moon and stars, while the first day was
even without heaven?...I do not think anyone will
doubt that these are figurative expressions which
indicate certain mysteries through a semblance of
history?”
Luke 1:1–5 (NIV84)
1Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the
things that have been fulfilled among us, 2 just as they
were handed down to us by those who from the first
were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. 3
Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated
everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to
me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent
Theophilus, 4 so that you may know the certainty of
the things you have been taught.
5 In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest
named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly
division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a
descendant of Aaron.
Genesis 1:11–19 (NIV84)
11 Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation:
seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear
fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.”
And it was so. 12 The land produced vegetation: plants
bearing seed according to their kinds and trees
bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds.
And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was
evening, and there was morning—the third day.
…….
Genesis 1:11–19 (NIV84)
14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of
the sky to separate the day from the night, and let
them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and
years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the
sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. 16 God
made two great lights—the greater light to govern the
day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also
made the stars. 17 God set them in the expanse of the
sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and
the night, and to separate light from darkness. And
God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening,
and there was morning—the fourth day.
Day 1 - 3
Structure
Creation of heavens
and earth
Day and night
Sky and land
Land and water
Plants
Day 4 - 6
Content
Sun, Stars, Moon
Living animals
Man and Woman
John 21:24–25 (NIV84)
24 This is the disciple who testifies to
these things and who wrote them down.
We know that his testimony is true.
25 Jesus did many other things as well. If
every one of them were written down, I
suppose that even the whole world
would not have room for the books that
would be written.
Romans 1:18–20 (NIV84)
18 The wrath of God is being revealed from
heaven against all the godlessness and
wickedness of men who suppress the truth by
their wickedness, 19 since what may be known
about God is plain to them, because God has
made it plain to them. 20 For 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.
Reflection question:
• Does Evolution really disprove
God? Why or why not?
Application question:
• If God is the creator, what
should be my response to him?