THE BIBLE AND THE BIG BANG THEORY
INTRO TO TOPIC: Discuss the popularity of The Big Bang Theory and Jurassic World.
• There are many atheists who are speaking out against the Bible and Christianity:
• Charles Darwin came up with the radical theory of evolution through natural selection in 1859. He proposed that all of life arose from a common ancestor.
• German philosopher Fredrick Nietzsche said “God is dead” in the 1800’s. He wasn’t saying that God had actually died, but hat the idea of God was now dead.
• Popular contemporary atheism books written to destroy faith in God: The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens and The End of Faith by Sam Harris.
• These skeptics say, “There is no evidence for God’s existence and faith is blind.”
• As a result, 3 out of 4 young people will abandon their faith after high school.
KEY TEXT: “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense (answer) to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15, NKJV).
• I want people to know that real faith isn’t blind – it’s based on evidence!
I. A RESPONSE TO SKEPTICS FAVOURITE INSULTS:
1. Believing in God is like believing in a fairy tale. It’s like believing in the tooth fairy or “The Flying Spaghetti Monster.”
O Response: There are no good reasons to believe in the tooth fairy or the Flying Spaghetti Monster. There are good reasons to believe in God!
2. The Bible is full of contradictions.
O Nothing comes close to the Bible in terms of its historical accuracy!
3. The miracles in the Bible couldn’t have happened.
O Because God is a creator, He can violate the laws of nature.
4. God is not loving because He allows evil, or not all-powerful because He can’t stop it.
O “The existence of evil is not evidence of God’s absence in the universe but evidence of His absence from our lives.” (Rice Broocks).
THE BIG IDEA: Our universe shows evidence of intelligent design. There is plenty of reasonable and scientific evidence to believe in God.
II. CREATION VERSUS EVOLUTION: The two different beliefs about our origins:
• Note – it’s not a divide between science and religion. It’s between the theory of evolution and the Biblical account of creation. What are these two different beliefs?
1. EVOLUTION AND THE BIG BANG THEORY:
• The Big Bang Theory is the belief that life began billions of years ago by a cosmic accident. This idea believes that a big explosion “led to the formation of the universe, according to the prevailing cosmological theory of the universe's early development.” (The Big Bang, www.wikipedia.org).
• Evolution is the belief that “all life on Earth shares a common ancestor, just as you and your cousins share a common grandmother… Evolution means that we're all distant cousins: humans and oak trees, hummingbirds and whales.” “Understanding Evolution: An Introduction to Evolution.” (http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary).
o If evolution is true: We are only complex animals with no ultimate purpose or meaning in life. Our final destiny is to become worm-food, rotting in the grave.
2. THE BIBLICAL ACCOUNT OF CREATION:
• “In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth.” (Genesis 1:1).
• “The opening statement in the Bible, recorded over thirty-five hundred years ago, makes a scientifically accurate claim that there was a beginning to everything. Cosmologists (physicists who study the structure and origins of the universe) came to agree that there was an initial moment where everything, including space and time, came into being.” (Rice Broocks).
o If creation is true: We are a special unique creation of God and life has great purpose: “God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” (Gen. 1:26). Our final destiny is to live forever with God in Heaven.
III. WHAT DOES SCIENCE SAY?
• Which position is more valid from a scientific perspective?
• Science is defined as: “systematic knowledge of the physical or material world gained through observation and experimentation.”
• Based on this definition, evolution is not science – it is a guess.
• There is no evidence for evolution. No transitional fossil forms between species.
• QUOTE: “Why, if species have descended from other species by fine gradations, do we not everywhere see innumerable transitional forms? Why is not all nature in confusion instead of the species being, as we see them, well defined? … As by this theory innumerable transitional forms must have existed, why do we not find them embedded in countless numbers in the crust of the earth?” (Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species).
IV. A LOOK AT INTELLIGENT DESIGN:
• THE WATCHMAKER ARGUMENT: William Paley’s example of the watchmaker.
• ILLUSTRATION: Bomb in Canadian Tire. CHAOS never produces order or life!
• “The heavens tell of the glory of God. The skies display his marvelous craftsmanship.” (Psalm 19:1).
• “From the time the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky and all that God made. They can clearly see his invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse whatsoever for not knowing God.” (Romans 1:20, NLT).
• What does this mean? Where’s there’s a design, there’s a Designer.
• QUOTE: “DNA is an incredibly detailed language, revealing vast amounts of information encoded in each and every living cell – design which could not have arisen by purely naturalistic means. In every other area of our world, we recognize that information requires intelligence and design requires a designer. With our present-day knowledge of DNA, this presents a formidable challenge to Darwinian evolution.” (Ray Comfort, from the introduction to Charles Darwin’s Origin of the Species).
• Darwin’s idea of natural selection is scientifically impossible. Animals may experience adaptations or variations, there is never any new information added – no new DNA.
CLOSING TEXT:
“For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well.” (Psalm 139:14-15, NKJV).
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND RESOURCES:
God’s Not Dead by Rice Broocks (www.godsnotdead.org)
The New Answers Book by Ken Ham (www.answersingenesis.org)
Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis (www.cslewis.com)
Evidence that Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell (www.josh.org)
The Defender’s Study Bible by Henry Morris (www.icr.org)
The Case for a Creator by Lee Strobel (www.leestrobel.com)
God’s Not Dead Sermon Series Outline Study Guide
The Beausejour Pulpit by Chris Jordan (3 chapters on origins)
AVAILABLE RESOURCES TO BORROW FROM THE CHURCH:
- Ken Ham’s 12 Part “Answers” DVD series. Ask for it today!
Church Website: www.beausejourchurch.ca
Pastor’s Blog: http://pastorchrisjordan.wordpress.com/
