Outline of Next 2 Weeks THIS WEEK What is Life Origin of Life - PDF document

10/8/2019 TUESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2019 Outline of Next 2 Weeks THIS WEEK What is Life Origin of Life & Man Genesis ⇐ //  Bio-Chemistry NEXT WEEK – No Class – Question solicitation for written Q&A document 1

10/8/2019 Tonight • Recap: • Interpretation idea to help align of science and Bible • Good alignment on “what” happened (not “how”) • The Universe and primitive Solar system exist  • The Earth as a planet is geologically formed    • Life on Earth arises step-by-step   • Next: • Focus on Life & Man • Seeking alignable interpretations • Transhumanism Life • What is Life? • Is a kangaroo more like a lotus plant or a ballet dancer? ? ? ≈ ≈ 2

10/8/2019 SESSION 3 Aligning: Rise of Life & Man Interpretation • “Appearance of design = design” and “Statistically extremely unlikely events = fine tuning” • Especially if effects accumulate toward an identified purpose • Day/Age: • Scientific progression of physical systems and life align well with God’s creative acts as described in Bible • Even if non-believers disagree with “How?” • Allows for the possible outworking of God’s created processes • Why does the conflict seem so much worse with LIFE? 3

10/8/2019 History of Creation of Life SCIENCE BIBLE (Genesis 1) • First life appears (3.8 ~ 3.5 BYA) 1:2 – First life (“hovering”) • (No viable chem-bio model of abiogenesis) 1:11 – Vegetation • Last Universal Common Ancestor (~3.6 BYA) 1:20 – Sea Animals and Birds • All life descended via macroevolution from LUCA • First plant life on dry land (~½ BYA) 1:24 – Land Mammals • “Cambrian Explosion” (~540 MYA) 1:27 – Man • Nearly all phyla (body plans) emerged suddenly God’s work described: • (No viable evolutionary model) Bara – create new (universe, soulish animals, man) • Insect (400 MYA) , Reptiles (300 MYA) Asa – form from something • First mammals (~65 MYA) Haya – cause to become or happen (“Let…”) • First primates (~30 MYA) Dasha/Yasa – be brought forth • Homo sapiens (~150 TYA) Possibility of outworking of created natural processes History of Earth – Step 6B BIBLE SCIENCE • Hominids split off from primates 6 MYA • Genesis 1:27 – 28 • Homo sapiens became the dominant God created man[kind] in His own image, in the hominin on earth ~150 TYA image of God He created him; male and female He • All other hominins became extinct created them. God blessed them; and God said to • Neanderthals ~40 TYA them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” • Other verses reinforcing “image of God”: Gen 5:1, 9:6; 1 Cor 11:7; Col 3:10; Jam 3:9 4

10/8/2019 Imago Dei – Human Exceptionalism BIBLE SCIENCE • Formed (asa) and Created ( bara ) by God • Humans are most recently evolved hominins • “Image of God” interpreted as: • Humans are only animals, but have unique and superior capabilities due primarily to the evolution • Resemblance of the human brain • Special qualities, characteristics, endowments • Symbolic thought/communication • Relational • Literature, art, music, religion, … • Representative • Open-ended generative capacity • Special attributes of humans: • Recursive definitional forms in language • Moral, Spiritual , Rational, Relational • Science, math • Volitional, Immortal, Powerful, Ruling • Theory of mind – “me”, “you”, “us” • All humans have this gift from God • Complex social networks • Nothing else in creation • Societies, governments • Attempts to give human traits to Neanderthals • Careful follow-up proves false • Now recognized that humans not from Neanderthal Worldview “Line of Scrimmage” 1. The physical world is literally not a spiritual concern in Christianity • Even we say that’s all “natural” (even plants and animals to some degree) 2. Christianity is built on the assumption of a special and supernatural (spiritual) relationship of Man and God • Believers and non-believers feel if we are purely naturalistic objects, then Christianity is wrong and our hope is lost  Creation vs. Evolution is the battle ground • Evolution is seen as a scientific “war machine” • It better resembles another religious position 5

10/8/2019 Life • We have to understand Life to even talk about Evolution • Then we can deconstruct “Evolution” into its scientific aspects so we can find where the real issues are: • Definition of Life • DNA • Origin of Life • Micro-evolution • Macro-evolution What is Life? • No consensus definition, but typically: • Systems exhibiting life (“organisms”)… • Maintain homeostasis, are composed of cell(s) • Have a life cycle, undergo metabolism, can grow, • Adapt to their environment, respond to stimuli, reproduce, evolve, die • On Earth • Cells are complex “sacks” of water, minerals, inorganic molecules, small-to-large biomolecules, including peptides, proteins, antibodies, RNA, and DNA Cells… • Process input materials to create output materials, actions, and responses • DNA contains the information code for producing all output materials (mostly proteins) • Have internal structures (membranes and organelles) • Replicate copies of themselves • May bind together to form complex organisms • In an organism, cells have same DNA but differentiate to perform diverse functions 6

10/8/2019 DNA – Deoxyribonucleic Acid (Molecule) • About 1 meter long (humans): • 3.1 billion base pairs; ~20K protein coding “genes”; ~44K other regions • 10 ~ 100 chromosomes (humans = 22 x 2 parents + sex pair) • DNA replication and protein formation is amazingly robust • Seconds-to-minutes per protein • Multiple error correction schemes, but not perfect • Defects, cancer, genetic diversity; cell death if severe errors • All DNA contains identifiable anomalies • Missing and duplicated segments are most common • “Junk DNA” is a misnomer • Doesn’t encode a protein; many control, regulatory, and structural functions • Most of a DNA strand is non-coding (meaning biologists don’t know what it’s for) 7

10/8/2019 Sherilyn Primrose Brown on SlidePlayer.com DNA “Similarity” • DNA of each organism is unique (2 parents) • DNA defines essentially everything about the structure of an organism • Basic cellular processes (replication and transcription) • Basic “plant” or “animal” structures processes • Body plan (skeleton, muscles); organs, tissues, skin • Circulation and nervous/sensing systems; chemical systems • Differences between most higher animals don’t need much DNA  Human DNA is similar to other living things  Humans Apes Cats Dogs Cows Mice Chickens Flies Bananas 99.8% 97% 90% 84% 80% 75% 60% 60% 50% (BUT NOTE: This is usually given as only the coding part of DNA) 8

10/8/2019 Origin of Life • No models exist that meet the most basic conditions for abiogenesis • Life originated in full complexity in a window of less that 50 million years • No formation of basic biomolecules (amino acids, simple sugars, etc.) • There was no viable “primordial soup” • There are no viable chemical pathways to form these molecules • No explanation of why they are all “handed” (amino acids = left ; sugars = right ) • No process for the encoding needed to produce biomolecules • Probability of randomly making 1 protein in a “perfect soup” is 1 in 10 75 • None of the processes that might produce a cell wall are viable in early earth milieu and/or conditions • Irreducible complexity / “chicken or egg” • Simple life might someday be made in a lab  proves Intelligent Design Microevolution • Small changes in genome of an organism’s DNA that can be passed on • Well observed and documented • Often driven by stress-induced selection; often very quick • Limited in scope to 1 (or a few) species in a genus • Examples: • Moths that micro-evolve to change color when trees change color • Legs that atrophy (snakes) or become flippers (seals) • Skin color and minor facial feature differences of humans • Microorganism evolution • Issue: Do enough microevolutions make a macroevolution? Hint: No 9