The Evolution of Immorality

The prevalence of Darwinian thinking has had a negative effect on morality. At least four factors in Darwinian thought have conspired to undermine morality.

The first is that, if life developed through undirected material processes, there is no frame of reference from which to condemn even the most heinous acts. Moral principle are merely another is, with no more ontological status than their violation. In other words, murder is just as real as the law against murder.

Secondly, if man evolved from lower animals, then he has not created in the image of God. This idea destroys the sanctity of human life. If man is merely an animal, then it is ethical to treat him accordingly. This idea can, and has been used, to justify all sorts of human rights violations.

Thirdly, if man evolved from lower animals, then why can't  supermen evolve from the human race. It was this type of thinking  that animated the Nazis' master race theories and led to the atrocities they committed. 

Fourth, if evolution is true, then robbery, rape, and murder are not only normative, but essential to the survival of a group.  Acceptance of evolution as a meta-narrative leads to conclusions that are at odds with the values of liberty, tolerance, and compassion that have been a blessing to modern civilization. Consider what Richard Weikart writes in an article on the Web site of the Evangelical Philosophical Society.

By accepting an evolutionary account of the origins of morality, Darwin and other leading Darwinists accepted several ideas that put them in conflict with classical liberalism’s natural rights philosophy. First, Darwin rejected the timelessness of moral precepts, which had evolved and could still be evolving. Since variation among biological organisms was a crucial part of his theory, he also denied the universality of morality. Some races of humanity could have different moral sentiments, just as they could have different physical traits. Further, the idea that humans had evolved from simian ancestors altered many people’s view of humans and human nature. Instead of understanding humans as beings created in the image of God, they now thought humans were “created from animals,” to use Darwin’s own phrase. This altered vision of humanity would have a profound impact on the field now known as bioethics. Finally, another ingredient in Darwin’s theory that affected bioethics was his idea that death brings progress. Instead of being a curse, the mass death of organisms causes evolutionary progress.

From  A History of the Impact of Darwinism on Natural Rights and Bioethics
by Richard Weikart

It has been fashionable for the so-called New Atheists to counter by arguing that empathy came as a result of evolution. Richard Dawkins explains this idea  in his video series The Fifth Ape.

Evidence of selfless behavior of individual members of a species for members in their in-group would be cited as evidence of empathy. Would this actually supports is that tribalism came out of evolution - tribalism whose most extreme manifestations include things like holocaust and genocide. True altruism would involve empathy for strangers. That type of empathy would be an evolutionary disadvantage in the evolutionary paradigm. Even Dawkins admits that embracing empathy is rebellion against the dynamic of evolution.

The Multiverse Hypothesis and the Demise of Materialism

In recent years, there have been discoveries in a branch of astrophysics called cosmology that indicate that the universe we live in requires some very precise parameters in order to exist. If, for example, the gravitational constant or the mass of electrons are even slightly different than what they are, the universe could not exist in its present condition.

The precision level of these constants forms an argument for design that has given atheists and anti-theists an unusually hard time as the factual basis for the argument is generally accepted by the mainstream scientific community.  In response to this some atheists have backed a peculiar theory: our universe is just one of many universes that bubble out of a Multiverse. One version of this hypothesis, called the many worlds hypothesis,  is that there exist an infinite number of universes. In this view, everything that can possibly happen has happened in at least one universe in the Multiverse of infinite worlds.

If our universe is just one out of an infinite number of universes in a Multiverse, then the fine-tuning argument, sometimes called the anthropic principle, would not be remarkable. If there are an infinite number* of universes, then it is inevitable that there would be at least one one universe with the cosomological constants with the same settings that they have in our universe. For this reason, many theistic apologist have been leery of the Multiverse Hypothesis as atheists have been salivating over it.

The Multiverse Hypothesis, however, is lethal to Philosophic Materialism, whether it be atheism or some other flavor of "secular religion:"

If the Multiverse Hypothesis is true, then our universe is not all there is; it is an open system that was formed and shaped, with natural laws and cosmological constants set, by causes outside of the system. If the definition of supernatural means that which is beyond the natural scope, then the Multiverse Hypothesis is a supernatural explanation of origins and ultimate reality.

If the Multiverse Hypothesis is true, then uniformitarianism is limited. There is a discontinuity between causes within the system of the universe and causes that lie outside the universe. There are other discontinuities via black hole and subatomic physics. The falsification of unlimited uniformitarianism calls into question inferences that rely the assumption of unlimited uniformitarianism, such as the meta-narrative inferences of evolutionary theory.

 If the many-worlds hypothesis is true, then every event that is possible is inevitably true in at least one possible universe. The only limitation is the truths of logic and mathematics, which are necessarily true in every possible universe. Natural laws are the products of cosmological constants which very from universe to universe, so that events deemed impossible in this universe are possible in other universes. with this in mind.

The one version of the Multiverse Hypothesis that atheists love for its ability to destroy the fine-tuning argument, the many-worlds hypothesis, has implications that  falsify an atheist or materialist meta-narrative. The Materialistic meta-narrative is particularly vulnerable because of its narrow and reductionist view of reality that is absent from alternative wold-views. For example, an atheistic universe does not falsify a theistic Multiverse, as God can choose one universe to be heavily involved in while ignoring other universes. An atheistic Multiverse, however, is not compatible with the existence of a theistic universe. If the Many Worlds Hypothesis is true, then  it follows that in at least one universe, that Jesus Christ physically rose from the dead, all of the Bible stories literally happened, and Biblical Inerrancy is true. The Materialist meta-narrative simply cannot be sustained if the Multiverse Hypothesis is true.

As of the time of this writing, there is a plan to test for the Multiverse. This test involves searching for  "for disk-like patterns in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation."  This test will determine whether our universe has had any collisions with objects outside of the universe. Thus, this test can provide proof that the material universe is not the only reality that exists and that it is an open system subject to outside influences This test will not, from a scientific perspective, tell us much meaningful information about the nature of what is outside the universe; it will only tell us that something else is there. It's just as likely that our universe could well be bouncing off  pillars in the Temple of God  as bouncing off of other universe. Because the natural laws of our universe do not operate outside of our universe, the use of  both direct observations  and the invalid inferences used to construct the evolutionary meta-narrative  to draw conclusions about what is outside of our universe is out of the question.

To quote Ken Ham, "There is a book..." (to be continued in a follow- up post. Hint: String Theory).

New Study Suggests Image on Shroud of Turin May Have Been produced by Neutrons

It appears that the shroud of turin may be genuine after all, according to an Italian research team led by Alberto Carpinteri. Carpinteri, who has hypothesized a highly disputed piezonuclear fission theory, is using that theory to argue that neutron emissions is responsible for the image on the shroud.

(Phys.org) —An earthquake in Old Jerusalem might be behind the famous image of the Shroud of Turin, says a group of researchers led by Alberto Carpinteri of the Politecnico di Torino in Italy in an article published in Springer's journal Meccanica. They believe that neutron radiation caused by an earthquake could have induced the image of a crucified man – which many people believe to be that of Jesus – onto the length of linen cloth, and caused carbon-14 dating done on it in 1988 to be wrong. 

Neutron emissions from an earthquake? Really? I Googled neutron emissions earthquake to check if there was any genuine scientific basis to this idea. Absolutely no hits that were not connected to this story. There were some hits on piezonuclear fission, mostly saying that most scientists dispute Carpinteri's theory.

 I take away three things from this:

1. Neutron radiation would explain the late carbon 14 date because some of  the neutrons would have  been absorbed  by the  extant carbon and transform some of  it into carbon 14, increasing the amount of carbon 14. This increase would yield a more recent date than the actual date. (Another example of why dating methods are not always reliable and should not be used to dogmatically argue for a specific age of the earth).
   
   
2.  Any evidence of neutron radiation as the cause of the image on the shroud would eliminate the possibility of forgery, as technology capable of producing such radiation did not exist amongst human until recently.
   
    
3. The researchers do not want to accept the most likely explanation - that the release of neutrons was from a sudden increase of energy that was released when God raised Jesus from the dead. Earthquakes would generate very little neutron radiation, and what little that would be generated would be through heat from the friction of the moving plates. This radiation would be widely dispersed and would affect a wide area and not just the shroud. It would not have emitted a focused blast of neutron radiation that would affect an image while leaving no trace of any other effects.

Justified Faith | Christianity and “Autonomous Reason:” Drawing an Important Distinction

We are both dependent on God as the only sufficient basis for reason and expected of God to use those faculties to think for ourselves. Christian philosopher Sarah Geis makes this important distinction in this  article concerning 'autonomous reason.'

The secular philosophy textbook from which I teach Intro classes proclaims that philosophy exercises rational autonomy. “You need to learn to think critically; think for yourself,” nascent philosophers are often told. Some think that this embrace of autonomy is a locus of conflict between philosophy and Christianity. Christians believe that we are created by God, redeemed by the sacrifice of Jesus, and we now belong to him rather than to the darkness. We are not our own; we were bought with a price (1 Cor. 6:20). Is Christian faith not then the very antithesis of autonomous reason? If philosophy is, in essence, an exercise in autonomous reason, but the Christian worldview proclaims that we are not autonomous, then how could Christians, in good conscience, be philosophers?

Read More.

The Genesis Hypothesis

For over the past 150 years, there has been vigorous debate concerning whether creation or evolution are better narratives for explaining origins. During this time there have arisen a plurality of views on the subject.

The Genesis Hypothesis is God's answer to this question. Genesis 1 is a straight forward account of creation. It is written in natural language rather than the technical jargon of modern science. There are, however, testable consequences to the Genesis Hypothesis. To better understand how the Genesis hypothesis can be tested, I will explain how the scientific method works, define the Genesis and Evolutionary Hypotheses, and then compare the Genesis Hypothesis and the Evolutionary Hypothesis.

The three step scientific method

The scientific method involves three steps. The best explanation can be found by Dr Richard Feymann. According to Feymann, testing scientific hypothesis involves three steps.

1.  Make guess of hypothesis.

2.  Compute consequences of guess. This done by constructing an if..then statement. If evolution is true…then…
  

3.  Try to falsify consequences. This can only be done by trying to falsify the then part of the consequent. Drawing a negative conclusion about the hypothesis or antecedent is a valid logical inference, called modus tollens. Confirming the  consequent and then inferring a positive conclusion about the hypothesis is the logical fallacy of confirming the consequent. Technically speaking, science can never prove anything true, but only false.

Equipping The Saints Book

Equipping The Saints is a series of Bible studies that train and promote discipleship in basic Bible doctrine, basic practices of the Christian faith, walking in love, spiritual warfare, apologetics, and hermeneutics. These studies can be as individuals or in small groups. You can get Equipping The Saints through one of three methods

   
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Mystery Babylon Rising Book

Mystery Babylon Rising traces the History of the New World Order from the Tower of Babel to the Present. Weaving both Biblical narrative and historical analysis, the reader will understand that the origins of all of major ideologies and movements of today's world are rooted in the cult movement the Bible calls Mystery Babylon.You can get Mystery Babylon Rising through one of three methods.

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