1

Has Science Disproved the

Bible?

2

Trust in the Bible

• For many, trust in the Bible has been

diminished because:-

• Theologians have undermined its

authority

• That it is widely held that Darwinian

Evolution has explained Man’s origin

• It is generally believed (and taught) that

Science has therefore disproved its

teachings

Can the Bible really be taken seriously in the scientific age ?

3

What does the Bible say?

‘In the beginning God created the

heavens and the earth’ Genesis 1v1

‘Ah Lord God ! Behold, thou hast

made the heaven and the earth by

thy great power and stretched out

arm, and there is nothing too hard

for thee: Jeremiah 32v17

God that made the world and all

things therein .. he giveth to all life

and breath and all things;

Acts 17v24-25

The Bible reveals God as the Creator and Author

of all Life in both Old & New Testaments

4

The Sun Moon & Stars ‘The heavens declare the Glory of God; and the

firmament sheweth his handywork. There is no

speech nor language, where their voice is not

heard ’ Psalm19v1

‘ And God said, let there be lights in the firmament of

the heaven to divide the day from the night;and let

them be for signs and for seasons, and for days

and for years:

Genesis 1v14

A Universal Language

Canst thou bind the sweet influences

of Pleiades, or loose the bands of

Orion? Canst thou bring forth

Mazzaroth (margin-the twelve

signs) in his season ? Or canst

thou guide Arcturus with his sons:

Job 38v31-32

Where wast thou

when I laid the

foundations of the

Earth? Job 38v4

5

What does the Bible say?

‘‘He stretcheth out the north over the empty

place, and hangeth the earth upon

nothing’ Job 26v7

‘It is he that sitteth on the circle of the earth .

That stretcheth out the heavens as a

curtain and spreadeth them out as a tent

to dwell in.’

Isaiah 40v22

The Bible talks in a way that is years ahead of it’s time

6

What does the Bible say?

‘‘The wind goeth toward the south

then turneth about unto the

north; it whirleth about

continually and the wind

returneth again according to

his circuits’

‘ All the rivers run into the sea; yet

the sea is not full; unto the

place from whence the rivers

come, thither they return again’

Ecclesiastes 1v6-7 &

Job 38v25-30

The Bible talks in a way that is years ahead of it’s time

7

Scientists of the Past • Important to recognise that

most great scientists of the

past were believers

• Some of them

accomplished Bible

students

• e.g. Sir Isaac Newton

8

Scientific Believers

of the Present “To postulate that the development and

survival of the fittest is entirely a consequence of chance mutations seems to me a

hypothesis based on no evidence and irreconcilable with the facts”

Sir Ernest Chain, 1945 Nobel Prize

“I just cannot believe that everything developed by random mutations”

Dennis Gabor, 1971 Nobel Prize

The burden of proof is on those who don't believe that "Genesis" was right, and there

was a creation, and that Creator is still involved.

Richard Smalley 1996 Nobel Prize

9

the Argument for a Designer ‘For since the creation of the world God’s

invisible qualities - his eternal power and

divine nature - having been clearly seen,

being understood from what has been

made, so that men are without excuse’

Romans 1v20 (NIV)

The Created World Shouts Loudly that God Exists

10

The Teleological Argument

In crossing a heath, ..suppose I had found a watch upon the

ground, and it should be inquired how the watch happened to be

in that place; . . .the inference we think is inevitable, that the

watch must have had a maker – that there must have existed, at

some time, and at some place or other, an artificer or artificers,

who formed [the watch] for the purpose which we find it actually

to answer; who comprehended its construction, and designed its

use.

Every indication of contrivance, every manifestation of design,

which existed in the watch, exists in the works of nature; with the

difference, on the side of nature, of being greater or more, and

that in a degree which exceeds all computation.

– William Paley, Natural Theology (1802)

The Design Argument or Intelligent Design

11

Scientific Opposition to

Evolution

Intelligent Design rather than Science Myth

12

Theory of Evolution

• Gradual change over many

millions of years

• Fossil record should show

– Continuous progression

– All sorts of stages of

development

• From simple cells to fully

formed creatures with wings,

limbs, eyes, mouths etc

• Transitional species

The theory of evolution should fit the

observed facts in the fossil record

Trilobite fossil

13

Phyla in the Fossil record

Time

Nu

mb

er

of

Ph

yla

Time

Nu

mb

er

of

Ph

yla

The Fossil Record

A. According to Darwin’s

theory the number of

animal phyla

gradually increase

over time

B. Fossil record shows

that almost all animal

phyla appear at same

geological time

A

B

Theory does not fit the observed

facts in fossil record

14

Lack of Transitional Forms “As by this theory, innumerable

transitional forms must have existed.

Why do we not find them embedded in

the crust of the earth? Why is all nature

not in confusion instead of being as we

see them, well-defined species? … The

explanation lies, however, in the

extreme imperfection of the

geological record”

Charles Darwin in “The Origin of Species”

15

The fossil record

“There is no need to apologize any

longer for the poverty of the fossil

record. In some ways it has

become almost unmanageably

rich, and discovery is outpacing

integration … The fossil record

nevertheless continues to be

composed mostly of gaps”

G. T. Neville in Science Progress

16

The fossil record

“The extreme rarity of transitional

forms in the fossil record … (is)

the trade secret of palaeontology

Steven Jay Gould

“The fossil material is now so complete that the lack of

transitional series cannot be explained by the scarcity of

the material. The deficiencies are real, they will never

be filled”

Prof N. Heribert-Nilsson Lund, Sweden

17

Lack of Transitional Forms

“The fossil record - in defiance of Darwin's whole idea of

gradual change - often makes great leaps from one form to

the next. Far from the display of intermediates to be expected

from slow advance through natural selection many species

appear without warning, persist in fixed form and disappear,

leaving no descendants. Geology assuredly does not reveal

any finely graduated organic chain, and this is the most

obvious and gravest objection which can be urged against

the theory of evolution.”

Steve Jones’ preface to Darwin’s Origin of Species 1999

18

the Argument for a Designer ‘For since the creation of the world God’s

invisible qualities - his eternal power and

divine nature - having been clearly seen,

being understood from what has been

made, so that men are without excuse’

Romans 1v20 (NIV)

Complexity, irreducibility, design or chance ?

agility

beauty

camouflage

defence

dexterity

19

Irreducible Mechanisms ‘An irreducible mechanism is a mechanism that must

have several parts simultaneously present and

assembled to perform a useful function. In addition

each part usually has several essential characteristics’

Stuart Burgess-Hallmarks of Design

The irreducible knee Joint - by design or chance?

the Knee Joint

20

Irreducible Mechanisms ‘Let the waters abound with living creatures, and let

birds fly above the earth across the face of the

firmament of the heavens’ Genesis 1v20v21

The irreducible flight mechanisms of birds

by design or chance?

21

Added Beauty ‘He has made everything beautiful in its time’ Eccl 3v11

Peacock Display for beauty or just reproduction?

22

Visual & Mathematical Beauty

A Creator delighting in his work for the joy of Man?

23

God the Author of Design

‘The hearing ear, and the seeing eye,

the Lord hath made them both’ Proverbs 20v12

Complexity & sophistication by design or chance?

24

The Unique Design of Man ‘I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and

wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works’

Psalms 139v14

For You formed my inward parts; You covered

me in my mother’s womb

DNA – Genetic code

Face Recognition

Iris Recognition

Fingerprints

25

The Wonder of Life ‘For thou hast possessed my reins, thou hast covered

(‘knitted’ or twined’) me in my mothers womb.

My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made

in secret and curiously wrought’

Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect;

and in thy book all my members were written,

which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet

there was none of them’

Psalms 139v13-16

Science is just beginning to reveal the miracle of

DNA coding that informs the assembly of a body

26

Has Science Disproved

the Bible? • There was a Creator

• There was a Beginning or

origin to life on earth

• A Clear Organisation of

living things

• Fully formed Species

• The Natural world is

evidence of an Intelligent

designer

• The Bible seems to

describe complex things

years ahead of it’s time

In the beginning God

created the heavens

and the earth.

Genesis 1 v 1