A. Overall Lesson Objective

B. Learning Competencies

C. Lesson

Naturalistic View: While this world view is commonly used to interpret the past, the alleged processes involved are the same now, so the statements that follow are stated in the present tense. The process of the evolution of the universe and earth is ultimately chance or accident. It is a non-directed process that begins with something simple but gets more complex on its own. The ability to self-organize or grow in complexity without direction is the underlying principle. The process extends from non-life and eventually includes a transition to life, which also increases in complexity on its own and can occur anywhere in the universe. It is a corollary that natural laws that we observe today ultimately arose for no purpose, with no design or thought behind them. New things can continue to arise in this directionless fashion.

Biblical Creation View: Eternal God commanded the universe into existence; time, matter, and energy were created at His command and organized and spread out at His command. At the end of the six-day creation period, God said creation was complete. That does not mean that creatures cannot vary in a dynamic world, but it does mean that He created a fully functioning world of interacting living things, and living things were created according to ‘kinds.’ Man is the focus of creation, having been created in God’s image and for a special purpose. Our home Earth is the special platform of created life. Life was a separate creation on this platform; it did not arise from non-life.

Naturalistic View: Only existing laws and processes (which exist for no reason) can be appealed to, with no outside guidance. How life arose, with its programmed machinery, is still a mystery, but it must ultimately have happened by itself. So, the information required for the first reproduction of life must have arisen randomly. Once there is reproduction, mutation and natural selection can operate. Mutations (genetic copying mistakes that happen by chance) are supposed to have generated the new information that is required to increase complexity at every step from microbes to people. Natural selection (the fact that hereditary information that favors having more offspring is more likely to be passed to the next generation, thus causing organisms to become more adapted to their environment) is supposed to build complexity by favoring ‘useful’ accidental mutations and eliminating the rest. [Research note: natural selection and then mutation.) The process could supposedly operate anywhere in the universe once there is some sort of self-reproducing entity.

Biblical Creation View: God created all things with inherent levels of complexity from the start. The universe has laws that He put in place; He remains a sustaining power for what exists. Non-life remains non-life but shows organization and variety by His design; life is created complex and has a wide variety but also a capacity to vary. However, the varieties that can arise (even to the extent of new species) stay within kinds. Living things do not become other living things except within kinds; speciation can occur within kinds. Complex information is designed and embedded in life. Life does not progress in the sense of becoming more complex; the consequences of separation from the Creator (sin) cause evil and death; there is a downhill direction in life as harmful mutations accumulate.

🦕 CT? Note the results of the assignment for this class (the exercise with the coins). In view of the descriptions (above), discuss the differences between a random (undirected) and directed process. Discuss the likelihood of complexity arising from a non-directed random process.

Naturalistic View: People may adopt morals and rules to progress or get better without any reason or basis for them. There is no purpose or direction in the larger scheme of an accidental universe with accidental life. Good and evil have no meaning beyond the temporary definition that people might assign. If things get better on their own, including people, it is because they survive as the fittest life. Concepts of good or bad are subject to change and have no true basis in a universe of chance and accident. The definition can change. Death of any life is final. There is nothing beyond death.

Biblical Creation View: Man is responsible for his actions. His actions in relation to God are at the core of the matter. There are definite values of good and evil that stem from God’s information to us and His imprint on us. Life has direction, and decisions have eternal consequences. Death is the enemy on earth; it was not originally intended. Believers in God will live after physical death and be with God. Non-believers will experience a second death by the hands of the Creator, as they did not believe on Him who alone can atone for our sin (John 3:18).

The following table is extracted from The Creation Answers Book (D. Batten, ed.). Note: all chapters of the book are available as free ‘pdf’ downloads from creation.com. The table shows a summary of some of the major contradictions between the biblical account of creation and the naturalistic/evolutionary view in terms of their order of appearance. (Read Genesis 1 if you need to review the biblical sequence.)

We now want to look at a few scriptures outside of Genesis where God provides additional detail relevant to the biblical view of creation. In some cases, God is speaking in the ‘first’ person. In other cases, the author is someone God uses to say something that is subsequently recorded, but this does not make it any less inspired since it is part of the Bible. ‘Inspired’ also does not mean everything written shows righteousness; God uses much of the Scripture to show and illustrate unrighteousness or things and behavior that are contrary to His nature. This is illustrated in the study, for instance, where God provides a description of the Fall as well as the people and the culture of the age before the Flood destroyed all air-breathing land vertebrates outside the ark. The manner of speech in the Scripture also greatly varies. Some passages are eloquent and poetic; some are exclamations of praise and worship; some are delivered as a matter of fact; some are parts of parables. In short, God talks about His own creation to express Himself, point to Himself, teach lessons, and cause man to consider things He wants to communicate.

The major topics in the lessons are not treated exhaustively. Scriptures have been selected because they are well known or their content is especially interesting. In many cases, topics in the actual scriptures overlap. For instance, ‘heaven and earth’ are often linked in a verse where God is attributed as the Creator of both. Notes on the scriptures are provided by the author of this study, but the author is fallible while the scriptures are not. When scriptures are listed, they are listed for people to find and discuss for themselves.

The topics for the lessons are listed in the Table of Contents on page iv. In essence, observations are encouraged in categories of the universe ranging from the heavens, to the earth and seas, to atmosphere and weather, to living things, to people, and to interpretations of the geologic history around us.

D. Assignment

Using any available references, list 10 ways in which solar system objects are unique in themselves or in a subgroup of planets. Refer to pictures or text material to explain.

E. Learning Activity

Examine Isaiah 45:18 and compare to the following statement quoted from www.howstuffworks.com:

“Philosophers, religious scholars and scientists have lots of ideas on the creation of the universe and the Earth. Currently, the most prevalent scientific theory, known as the Big Bang Theory, is that the universe originated in an enormous explosion.

Before the Big Bang, all of the matter and energy now in the universe was contained in a singularity. A singularity is a point with an extremely high temperature and infinite density. It's also what's found at the center of a black hole. This singularity floated in a complete vacuum until it exploded, flinging gas and energy in all directions. Imagine a bomb going off inside an egg -- matter moved in all directions at high speeds.”

F. Concluding Assessment

The biblical and naturalistic world views are vastly different, but they both purport to explain what we see today. God is at the basis of the biblical world view; random and undirected processes are the starting point and the fundamental core of the naturalistic view.