A Massive compilation of materials

www.apollos.ws

Interview with Dr. William Lane Craig: Handling Doubt

The Case for Christ — Parts 1–8 (10 minutes each)

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The Making of a Godly Man — Ravi Zacharias

Creation Videos Now Online

Watch online or download here.

From Darwin to Hitler

58 minute video lecture by Dr. Richard Weikart titled: “From Darwin to Hitler”, paralleling Weikart’s book. Full video lecture here.

Access Research Network DVDs

Are you interested in creation / evolution / intelligent design? The excellent news is that you can now access the full DVDs from Google video and for a price of $8.99USD can download the full quality DVD on to your computer.

Here is the link to the Google videos.

Here is the link to the Access Research Network page.

Review of ‘Unlocking the Mystery of Life’ DVD

Over the last couple of years Intelligent Design (ID) has been increasingly reported in the secular media. However typically more coverage is given to uninformed or deliberately misleading criticisms of ID rather than explaining the theory itself. In view of this it is particularly important for anyone with an interest in ID to get a first hand account of what Intelligent Design really is.

Produced in 2002 by Illustra Media, the video/dvd ‘Unlocking the Mystery of Life’ has probably become the most widely viewed account of Intelligent Design theory.

The 65 minute program features comments from many of the key proponents of Intelligent design theory, including Phillip Johnson, Michael Behe, Stephen Meyer and William Dembski.

Two particular examples of intelligent featured in the program are the rotary motors of bacteria flagellum and the production of proteins in cells. Both are demonstrated using computer animations. The former example is given as a case of ‘irreducible complexity’ (i.e. if any of the component parts is absent then it will not work), which is an obstacle to Dawinian Evolution, based on small incremental changes. The example of the complexity of protein production was a key factor in causing the evolutionary biologist Dean Kenyon (featured on the program), who had authored text books on the topic to doubt and reject the Dawinistic explanation of the development of this process by undesigned chance.

While a number of more technical aspects of biology are addressed in the program, the points being made should be understandable to people with only a general familiarity with the topic (e.g. secondary school students).

One aspect of the program that might be a bit misleading is the impression given that scientific rejection of Dawinism only really began with a 1993 meeting at Pajaro Dunes, California. While this was probably a formative point in the Intelligent Design movement, many of the key features of Intelligent Design theory had previously been brought up by scientific critics of Dawinism, both by Christians and non-Christians (such as Michael Denton at Otago University, referred to as an “Australian” in the program).

Following the position of the Intelligent design movement as a whole, the program primarily deals with the scientific aspects of the theory, with minimal comment on theological aspects, other than noting that the theory has ‘religious implications’ and briefly addressing the criticism that Intelligent design theory is ‘bringing religion into science’. While the program (like the movement) is not directly evangelistic it addresses some of the issues that frequently come up in discussions with non-Christians.

The dvd contains a number of bonus features including a 14 minute feature ‘What Darwin Saw: Wildlife of the Galapagos’, 14 Questions and Answer video clips, profiles of scientists and scholars appearing on the main program, internet links and descriptions of intelligent design books and videos.

The video and dvd are widely available at Christian Bookstores and can be purchased online in New Zealand from Focus on the Family (www.family.org.nz), who have distributed copies to many secondary schools in New Zealand.

Summary: This video/dvd is both informative and visually well presented and is suitable for showing to both Christians and non Christians.

Review of ‘Icons of Evolution’ DVD

In popular presentations of Darwinian Evolution, a number of standard lines of evidence are typically cited as evidence for the truth of the theory. It is addressing these ‘Icons of Evolution’ that is the topic of this video/dvd.

The approximately 50 minute program produced in 2002 by Coldwater Media ‘Icons of Evolution’ is based upon the book of the same name by Jonathan Wells (Phd Molecular & Cell Biology, University of California-Berkeley).

The program sets the scene of the frequently encountered dogmatic opposition to any questioning of evolution by opening with the rather infamous quote by Richard Dawkins: “If you meet somebody who claims not to believe in evolution, that person is ignorant or stupid or insane (or wicked but I’d rather not consider that).”

Both the first and last sections of the program deal with the opposition to allowing the scientific evidences against Darwinian evolution to be taught in High schools in America, even if the evidence comes from mainstream scientific sources. A particular case featured is that of Roger Dehart a biology teacher at Burlington High School, Washington who was forbidden from introducing into the curriculum, any articles from mainstream scientific publications that were unsupportive of standard Darwinian Evolution.

The core of the program deals with particular examples of ‘Icons of Evolution’. First up are vertebrate embryo drawings based on those of Ernst Haeckel, which have long been used to claim that the similarities between the embryos of vertebrates show that they are evolutionarily related. It has been noted for several decades that these commonly used diagrams were wildly inaccurate and were evidently forged by Haeckel to fit the theory rather than being accurate representations. Furthermore the earlier stages of embryo development actually show greater diversity between the different vertebrate species than the stages depicted in the diagrams.

The second icon examined were the finches of the Galapagos Islands (which were an example cited by Darwin himself). During drought periods the average beak length of some species of finch increases by about 5% (the longer beaked finches are better able to eat dried seeds). It is claimed by proponents of Darwinian Evolution that this quite rapid change can be extrapolated out such that over much longer time periods greater changes converting one species to another can occur. However what most popular accounts fail to mention is that when the droughts end the average finch beak length rapidly returns to the original value. This shows that beak changes were only a natural variation within a species not a transition between species.

The next icon addressed is the four winged fruit fly, which has sometimes been touted as a example of evolutionary mutation. This mutation is far from being beneficial as the extra wings have no muscles and significantly inhibit flight, resulting in the fruit flies only being able to survive under protected lab conditions.

The fourth icon is antibiotic resistant bacteria. The program notes that the genetic variation which causes some bacteria to be resistant to antibiotics has a significant ‘fitness cost’ in that overall the resistant strains are less robust and slower reproducing than the non-resistant strains. In the absence of the antibiotic the non-resistant strains rapidly outperform the resistant strains.

The next icon was the ‘tree of life’ - the popular tree like diagrams linking all species together. This ‘tree’ is supposedly based on two lines of evidence; homology and paleontology. Homology is the study of the similarity of biological structures. It is generally assumed that similar structures (e.g. limb structures or internal organs) indicates common ancestry, however as the program points out many of these similar structures are formed by quite different genes and follow different developmental pathways. This makes the inference of common ancestry unjustified.

One significant area of disagreement between paleontology and the Darwinian ‘tree of life’ is the ‘Cambrian explosion’ (approx. 520 Million years ago) in which nearly all phyla (broad groupings of species) of life suddenly appeared without evidence of previous evolutionary divergence in the fossil record. The program features two Chinese researchers who have studied Cambrian fossil deposits and noted the discrepancy with Darwinian theory. J Y Chen of the Nanjing Institute of Paleontology and Geology noted that: “Darwin’s tree is a reverse cone shape. Very unexpectedly our research is convincing us that major phyla is starting down below at the beginning of the Cambrian. The base is wide and gradually narrows. This is almost turned a different way.” The irony of a researcher at a state institute of an officially atheist country criticising Darwinian theory is rather reminiscent of the case reported in the Wall Street Journal, (August 16, 1999) of a Chinese paleontologist (possibly Chen) who had been criticised by some American scientists for noting in lectures the discrepancy between recent fossil finds and Darwinian theory, who responded wryly: “In China we can criticize Darwin but not the government. In America you can criticize the government but not Darwin.”

After some further discussion of the American scene with regards to the teaching of the scientific evidence against of Darwinian evolution, the program concludes with an ironic (considering the opposition of any critiques of Darwin) a quote of Darwin himself : “A fair result can be obtained only by fairly stating and balancing the facts and arguments on both sides of each question”.

‘Icons of Evolution’ is available from some Christian bookstores and can also be purchased online in New Zealand from Focus on the Family (www.family.org.nz) and Eternity books (www.eternitybooks.com).

Summary: While some of the material on the program related to the situation in America would probably be of less interest to New Zealand viewers, the core section of the program addressing the ‘icons of evolution’ is a particularly worthwhile resource for those people who have encountered these icons such as in school textbooks, television presentations and in personal discussions.

Review of ‘The Privileged Planet : The Search for Purpose in the Universe’ DVD

In the media and popular culture the assumption is often made that in the context of the wider universe, there is nothing particularly special about the earth and its location and that hence the universe is potentially teeming with habitable worlds. This idea sometimes referred to as the ‘Principle of Mediocrity’ is also somewhat misleadingly known as the ‘Copernican Principle’ after Nicolas Copernicus, who in 1543 proposed that the earth orbited the sun rather than being at the center of the universe (Copernicus did not think this diminish the significance of the Earth).

Whilst the idea of the mediocrity of the earth is popular, there are compelling scientific reasons for rejecting it. The video/dvd ‘The Privileged Planet’ addresses this idea and presents evidence both that earth and the universe as a whole show evidence of purpose. Jay Richards, co-author (along with Guillermo Gonzalez) of the 2004 book of the same name summarizes it as follows:

“We’ve often been told in the late twentieth century that the universe does not have us in mind, that we exist in a very large universe and that the universe is not designed for beings like us, we are simply life that happened to come about on a tiny little planet surrounding a tiny insignificant star in a run of the mill galaxy within a very large universe that was not intended. Our argument suggests something completely different, it suggests that the universe exists for a purpose and that the purpose isn’t simply that beings such as ourselves exist but for us to extend ourselves beyond our small and parochial home, to view the universe at large to discover the universe and in fact perhaps to consider whether that universe points beyond itself.”

The program notes a number of factors concerning the earth and its location which are necessary for it to support life. Some factors are fairly well known and obvious such as distance from the sun (not too hot, not to cold), while many are more subtle, like having a large moon (which stabilizes the angle of the earth’s axis) and the earth’s position in the galaxy (not too close to the areas of frequent supernovas yet in an area where there are enough heavy elements to form rocky planets). The numerous factors involved have the cumulative effect of making habitable planets such as the earth extremely rare in the universe and perhaps unique. The program also raises the issue that not only does the earth have the precise qualities necessary for life but also the universe itself is ‘fine tuned’ to be able to support the existence of life. There are numerous physical constants such as the strength of gravity, electromagnetism and the nuclear forces that are incredibly precisely balanced to allow stars, planets and matter itself to exist.

Other researchers have previously noted the statistical extreme rarity of habitable planets, the point in which Gonzalez and Richards add their main innovation is the assertion that the characteristics that make the earth habitable are also characteristics that allow for discovery about the universe by humans.

The example that first lead Gonzalez onto this idea is the existence of solar eclipses. The sun is about 400 times larger than the moon yet is about 400 times further away. This ‘coincidence’ means that the moon can just cover the sun in a solar eclipse. The earth is the only inhabited world in the solar system and is also the world which has the best solar eclipses. The size and distance of the sun and moon are significant in making the earth habitable and the existence of solar eclipses has proved particularly useful in making a number of discoveries in astronomy and physics (such as the bending of light by gravity).

Another significant example is cited is the fact that of the seven objects in the solar system with a thick atmosphere, only one has a transparent atmosphere enabling a clear view of the sun and stars and is the one with a atmosphere capable of supporting life: “If you were suddenly transported to Titan or Venus or one of the outlying gas giant planets, the lack of a clear view of the universe wouldn’t be much of an issue because you would be dead. But that is precisely the point”.

A weakness of the argument would be that had circumstances been different e.g. not having solar eclipses then humans could have made discoveries in different ways, however this does not eliminate the point entirely.

One significant point that is raised in the program is that the fact that the universe is intelligible to humans is not something that would be expected from a naturalistic point of view, As the Australian theoretical physicist Paul Davies notes:

“We have certain skills, for example we can jump streams, catch falling apples and so on, which are necessary to get by in the world, but why is it that we also have the ability to discern for example what is going on inside atoms or inside black holes. These are completely outside the domain of everyday experience, totally surplus to requirements, not at all necessary for good Darwinian survival”.

The program has created a significant amount of controversy, notably when it was announced that there would be a screening at the Natural History Museum of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC co-sponsored by the museum. This was heatedly denounced by opponents of the intelligent design movement, and as a consequence the co-sponsorship was withdrawn (though the screening proceeded). The main reason that was cited for the withdrawal by the museum was that the program was ‘religious’ and hence fell outside of their co-sponsorship rules. This is quite ironic considering that program is careful to avoid explicit ‘religious’ discussion or jargon and the program can only really be considered religious in the sense that the scientific evidence presented has ‘religious implications’. On this basis many or most popular presentations of science could be excluded (notably those espousing evolution).

The approximately 60 minute program produced in 2004 by Illustra Media the program continues the high production standards of the earlier program ‘Unlocking the Mystery of Life’ that was produced by them.

The dvd of this program contains a number of extra features including:

A simulation of travelling out from earth to ‘the edge of the universe’

A interview and other items concerning NASA planet finding iniatives.

Fifteen question and answer clips including answers from William Lane Craig, Paul Davies and Robert Jastrow and other people appearing in the main program. Some of these questions and answers deal more explicitly with the ‘religious implications’ of some of the points made in the main program.

A selection of notable photographs of the earth from space including captions.

A list of reference books on related topics

‘The Privileged Planet’ is available from some Christian bookstores and can also be purchased online in New Zealand from Focus on the Family (www.family.org.nz) and Eternity books (www.eternitybooks.com).

Assessment: This video/dvd will have broad appeal both to Christians and non-Christians, particularly those with interest in astronomy. Although some of the scientific examples might be over the level of many viewers the main points should be understandable to people with only a basic secondary school level familiarity with science. While it cannot be considered directly evangelistic, it should be a useful tool in challenging some popular preconceptions of atheists and agnostics.