See the Core Presentations link for a series of helpful presentations.
Lesson 1 is an introduction to the series. Comments below:
Lesson 1
My World View: I am a young earth creationist.
First of all, I am a creationist. This means that I believe the bible’s account of the creation of life by an all-powerful creator.
Creationism is an argument from scripture.
There is a related, purely scientific argument, compatible with creationism, to explain variation in life, which is Intelligent Design. My presentations show that intelligence is a far superior explanation for the features of life that we can observe than is undirected Darwinian processes.
Secondly, I am a young earth creationist. This means I believe the universe is thousands of years old rather than millions or billions of years old.
The young earth argument is also an argument from scripture, and not from science. This argument has two foundational assumptions: That Genesis is Historical Narrative, and that the Hebrew word for day, when used with a number, always means a regular day and not something more abstract and less precise, such as an Era.
My presentations show that the scientific evidence for the age of the earth is mixed, with evidence for both a young earth and an old earth.
Given that there is scientific evidence for both an old earth and a young earth, why do I prefer the young earth explanation? Because I prioritize the orthodox interpretation of Genesis above secular dating methods. When you investigate the video presentations, you’ll see that the secular dates depend on countless unproven and unprovable assumptions.
Lesson 2, World Views.
This presentation points out that the individual’s world view determines the conclusions they make.
The vast majority of people essentially pre-determine their conclusions by the world view assumptions they adopt.
I am convinced that the plain text of Genesis is true. Others are convinced that life emerged from chemical soup on a pre-biotic earth. Such persons will never be convinced otherwise.
Only small numbers of people truly evaluate the evidence before making up their minds.
The arguments in the presentation assert that no informed person believes that life emerged from non-life.
Lesson 3, “Isms” that Blind.
Explores how Materialism and Naturalism cause World View blindness.
Lesson 7, Origin of Life.
This presentation follows up on the assertion that no informed person believes life emerged from non-life.
It is a discussion of the chemistry and mathematical facts that make the life-from-chemical-soup arguments unreasonable. Space Aliens are far more likely!
Lesson 5, Evolution.
This presentation defines the three basic types of evolution. One of these types, Life from Inert Chemicals evolution, is dealt with in lesson 7.
Of the remaining two types of evolution, the key question involves DNA information.
One type of evolution requires only new combinations of existing DNA. An example of this is breeding dogs to get different characteristics such as coat color or size.
The other type of evolution requires completely new DNA. An example of this is to imagine the DNA needed to change a cow into a whale.
Genes transmit information in the same way that vocabulary transmits ideas. You can’t get complex thoughts from a limited selection of words. To express more complex thoughts, you must have a bigger vocabulary.
The new DNA “vocabulary” is not going to come from random chance. See Professor Schroeder’s example of the difficulty of recreating a sonnet by random processes: “You will never get a sonnet by chance”.
Lesson 4, Historical Science.
There are two, very different, types of science: Observational and Historical. Much confusion results when distinctions between the two are muddled.
Observational science involves careful control and measurements of all variables — as in a scientific experiment.
Historical science is an educated guess at recreating the past.
Historical science is the type of science used to explain origins.
Historical science requires unproven and unprovable assumptions.
In Historical science, it is permissible to use imaginary objects to solve difficulties with a theory.
Historical Science should never be granted the same level of credibility as Observational science.
Lesson 4, Radiometrics and Radiocarbon (Age of the Earth)
The presentations show how the dates are developed. There is scientific evidence for both an old earth and a young earth.
The strongest purely scientific evidence for an old earth is the current rate of radioactive decay of heavy elements.
The strongest purely scientific evidence for a young earth is the presence of Carbon 14 in deeply buried rock formations dated at millions of years of age. Because the half life of carbon 14 is so short, at about 5700 years, and it takes only 10 half lives for almost all of it to decompose, all of it should have all decayed away within a few tens of thousands of years. Yet there it is, buried within rocks dated at millions of years.
There is also evidence that the rates of radioactive decay have changed over time. And if rates have changed over time, then no radiometric or radiocarbon dating is valid.
Lesson 6, The Big Bang
The Big Bang theory is critiqued in this lesson. Summary: the Big Bang theory is historical science; the theory uses imaginary objects, and it is directly contradicted by mountains of observational science.
However, if a person says they believe the Big Bang is true, they are admitting something very important. If the Big Bang is true, then the Universe had a beginning. Things that begin to exist MUST have a cause. And that cause must be outside of and external to the universe. What might that cause be?
Lesson 9, Universe.
What are the possible theoretical explanations for the Universe we observe?