CELL NOTES 06/12/09

ICE BREAKER

In what ways are you creative (in the broadest sense)?

THEME

A Scientist looks at Darwin and Creation

Reading:  Psalm 104: 1-30

SERMON OUTLINE

1) This year’s celebrations of Darwin’s anniversaries have produced acrimonious counter-claims.  Are such disputes necessary?

2) The dramatic scientific account of creation
a) The first 9,000 million years – matter and the earth

· 13.7 billion years ago – Big Bang – space, time and matter

· Galaxies and stars (hydrogen)

· Production of the elements in stars over billions of years

· Supernova explosion, distributing elements, triggering formation of solar system

Well-attested by range of scientific evidence.  Beautifully symmetric physical laws and “exactly right” physical constants!

b) The last 4,600 million years – life

· Organic material from space, atmospheric gases and thermal vents.

· Self-assembly & replication of proteins, membranes, RNA

· Life, algae, plants, animals, primates, humans

Mechanism: random changes in DNA plus environmental selection.

Evidence: molecular biology (DNA sequencing) & palaeontology.

3) Conflicts with Biblical account?

a) Miraculous origin or natural processes?

Jer. 51:15-16; Neh. 9:6; Col. 1:15-17; Heb. 1:3; Job 38:25-29,39-41; Ps. 104:14,29-30; Ps. 139:13-16; Is. 44:24.

Past & present tenses of creation, God intimately involved throughout.  Lack of miraculous language.  God involved in creation of species and individuals.  No distinction between “nature” and God’s action.

b) Can randomness be part of God’s deliberate plan?

Scientific meaning of randomness.  Precise laws plus large numbers can lead to certainty, not uncertainty.  (Snowflakes & oxygen etc.!)

c) Consistency between scientific and Christian view

Objective reality and absolute truths outside ourselves.

4) Three questions – see questions of application.

QUESTIONS OF APPLICATION

1) Did you learn anything about God (not just science!) through Sunday’s message?

2) How does God reveal himself to you in your daily life?  Do you acknowledge him as often as you should?

3) “No human mind would plan creation of mankind starting with the big bang, proceeding through a supernova, culminating in 3 billion years of mutating DNA!”  (But see Is. 55:8-9; 2 Peter 3:8)
Do you expect God to do things the way we would?  Are you limiting your expectations of how he might act today (in your life)?

4) How do you (and should you) respond to those who have strongly held views radically different from your own?

5) How do you react to the final quotation?  “Science offers a surer path to God than religion.” – Paul Davies, writer & physicist.