Thursday, May 29, 2008

ORIGINS 101

The following is another article I saved in my files a while ago. This was written by Rusty Benson and gives a primer on the debate about origins which is taking place in the U.S. This is for those of you who want to know what all the fuss is about and what the differences are. Enjoy.
Origins 101: Worldviews Begin With Beginnings
Rusty Benson
AgapePress

Nearly a century-and-a-half after Darwin's Origins of the Species was published, and 75 years after the Scopes trial, the argument over life's origins still inflames contentious debate.

Today three distinct theories of origins compete for public affirmation. Darwinian Evolution remains entrenched as the orthodox position of the cultural ruling class. Once challenged by Creationism, Evolution's latest contender is a theory known as Intelligent Design (ID).

As in the past, the debate regularly surfaces in the context of which theory or theories should be taught in public schools.

In El Tejon, California, Americans United for Separation of Church and State bullied a school district into promising that it would never again offer a "course that promoted or endorses creationism, creation science or intelligent design." However, in Kansas the State Board of Education recently approved a set of science standards that question evolution.

Even President Bush has weighed in on the issue saying, "Both sides should be properly taught so people can understand what the debate is about."

So far that hasn't happened. The result is a largely confused public.

The following is offered as a synopsis of Creationism, Darwinian Evolution and Intelligent Design. For a more in-depth study of these theories and the implications of each, see the suggested resources listed at the conclusion of this article.

Creationism - Also called Creation Science, this theory attempts to defend the biblical account of the origins of the universe. Creationists freely admit that their presuppositions are different than evolutionists', and thus, their interpretation of the archeological evidence is often different.

In addition, creationists frequently use independent data from the fossil record and from radiometric and carbon-14 dating to make their case.

Variations of Creationism include the Young Earth Theory (closest to the literal Genesis account), the Gap Theory and the Day-age Theory.

Darwinian Evolution - Charles Darwin was a 19th century British naturalist who first offered a plausible naturalistic theory for the origin of life in his book On the Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.

According to Darwin's theory, the universe is without a beginning and life on earth evolved over a span of three to four billion years by the process of natural selection. Natural selection, according to Understanding the Times by David Noebel, is "the process that through competition and other factors such as mutations, predators, geography, and time naturally and randomly allows only those life forms best suited to survive to live and reproduce."

Concerning the status of man in the evolutionary process, George Gaylord Simpson, paleontologist and evolutionist, bluntly stated: "Man is the result of a purposeless and natural process that did not have him in mind. He was not planned. He is a state of matter, a form of life, a sort of animal and a species of the Order Primates, akin nearly or remotely to all of life and indeed to all that is material."

Intelligent Design (ID) - The heart of the theory of ID, according to Nancy Pearcey, author of the landmark book Total Truth, is that design in nature can be empirically detected.

She writes that ID "formalizes ordinary intuition." For example, we instantly recognize the difference in a landscape formed by wind, rain and erosion and one that includes Mt. Rushmore. That difference is the clear evidence of a designer. It's the same kind of observable science that enables an archeologist to distinguish between a rock and an arrowhead.

In presenting their case, proponents of ID often point to recent scientific research in three areas:

(1) The inner working of cells: Scientists are learning that living cells are like a complex assembly line in which each part serves a perfectly timed, specific purpose. If the whole system is not complete and functioning flawlessly, it cannot perform at all. ID proponents argue that this kind of irreducible complexity is clear evidence of a designer.

(2) The origin of the universe: ID proponents say that life is only possible when thousands of variants such as gravitational, nuclear and electromagnetic forces are meticulously set and balanced. Again, they claim this is the perfect working of a designer's plan.

(3) The architecture of DNA: DNA is seen as the most convincing evidence of the work of design. It is often described as remarkably computer-like, with the DNA code analogous to software that directs the DNA molecule (hardware). This information is embedded in the DNA molecule, but is separate from the matter that makes up the molecule itself. The question becomes: "Where did the information come from?" Answer: an intelligent designer.

Winner Take AllWhat's at stake in the debate? In short, everything. "Whatever a culture adopts as its creation story shapes everything else," Pearcey writes.

If evolution continues as our culture's official orthodoxy, Christians can only expect the complete secularization in all areas from education to entertainment, from philosophy to politics. And with the natural implications that human beings are neither accountable nor responsible, the future is likely to be one in which raw power rules.

But don't give up too quickly. Although it faces an uphill battle, acceptance of ID as a viable theory of origins is growing. At a minimum that could result in the re-establishment of the discarded idea that human life has inherent meaning and purpose. And that could change everything.

2 comments:

JASDEEP SINDHU said...

ORIGIN OF UNIVERSE- A NEW PRINCIPLE
Propounded by Dr. Hari Om, Sr. Scientist Agronomy CCS HAU, Hisar (Kurukshetra)




According to this principle, which is called 'Principle of Cipher Zone', the universe was originated in a series of four steps, i.e., four sub-principles are involved in this process. These sub-principles explain the origin of universe, its dissolution, basis of its expansion and status of energy in a star.

The Principle of Cipher Zone propounds that the theory of 'Big Bang' is not responsible for the origin of universe, but this process advanced in a series of steps, which did not involve any vast explosion of the energy like Big Bang. It started as the process of formation of a star initiates. Today, the completion of this process takes lesser ?time' as it was taken for the formation of first star, because in the present universe, the material required for the formation of a star becomes readily available, but initially it was not so and this process proceeded very slowly. When the energy of this first star was burnt, it converted into a black hole; but before this conversion, the process of the formation of other stars and planets was initiated and they started revolving around this initially appeared central star. In this way along with the central black hole (converted from the first star) the surrounding stars also formed their own families and kept on revolving around the central black hole. Slowly and slowly, the first Milky Way came into existence. The black hole, which was initially formed, now occupied the central space of the first Milky Way thus formed and simultaneously this central black hole of the central Milky Way went on increasing its size by feeding the surrounding old stars. This way, other Milky Ways also came into existence around the central Milky Way and started revolving around it. All these later formed milky ways also had their own central black holes and found their base of stability from the initially formed central black hole and the central Milky Way like a string tied to the neck of the surrounding Milky Ways with the central one. When all the surrounding black holes merged into the initially formed gigantic black hole, the whole of the universe realized dissolution i.e. Maha Pralya.

Now after dissolution, there remained only one universal black hole in which the energy of the whole universe turned into waves of almost compatible character with a stable centre of least moving energy having very dense core at the centre. Slowly and slowly the fast moving energy present at the periphery of this black hole went sluggish and slowed down which got scattered with the passage of time. The movement of the energy at the periphery gets faster and faster upto when the outside material in the form of stars, planets, or Milky Ways remains available for feeding, but it starts slowing down once the whole material is immersed in the central universal black hole. In this way, the whole black hole scattered with the passage of time. After that, the process the creation again started. These two processes of creation and dissolution proceed simultaneously through the creation of new stars and galaxies at the outer periphery and simultaneous dissolution of stars and surrounding galaxies into the central black hole of the central galaxy.

The expansion of universe is also not due to Big Bang, but it is attributed to the size of the continuously increasing black hole at the centre of the Milky Ways. As the size of the central black hole increases, the expansion as well as the speed of the Milky Ways running away from the centre will go on increasing, but a time will come when the outer expansion will be ceased due to extraneous increase in the size of black hole or we can say that increasing density of the central black hole will not allow the further expansion of the galaxy. The incoming energy of the system will dominate over the outgoing energy. With this advancement in the increase of the black hole size, the whole universe will fall and rest in the centre. Every existence or system has a zone of neutral energy at its centre and in its surrounding where its energy ends and the periphery of another system starts. When these two neutral energy zones are merged into one, then the system or existence ceases to work and collapses or we can say that the differential strata of energy of that system are converted into more compatible and unified form of energy or we can say that it is the expansion of the central zone of neutral energy which compels that system to collapse. During the process of expansion, the central zone or black holes of different galaxies goes on increasing. This increase in the area and density of black holes in the middle of the galaxies allow the expansion of the galaxies. The ratio of increase in the area or volume of the black holes in relation to the expansion of outgoing and expanding energy can be assessed with the increase in the ratio of expansion of the nucleus of an atom and the overall expansion of that atom in the form of its mass and energy.

The working of the system depends on the presence of energy at different levels and the inter- and intra-facial tension in those energy fields. When these fields are merged together, the system collapses or dissolved. In this way, the different systems or existences either small or large are converted into energy waves and this way the process of dissolution proceeds until a sole, gigantic and universal zone of neutral energy or Cipher Zone is formed, which brings the final dissolution.

This present theory also refutes the finding that a star has the maximum temperature at its core. This theory propounds that a star has highly peaceful zone at its centre; it is not explosive. Every star or system has two types of energy; incoming and outgoing, working entirely at different level and in different direction. The larger is the system or existence, the greater it will have the zone of neutral energy at its centre i.e. a peaceful zone providing stable base to the whole system. The greater is the expansion of the zone of peace and stability at the centre, the more explosive or vibrating will be the surface energy either it is a star like Sun or vast ocean or galaxy. This is true only when the star or the system is composed of similar type of energy at its centre. If the system, like earth, has different type of energy particles at different levels, then the energy will be explosive at its core because of the admixture of different form of energy in the central zone. This is due to the interfacial stress among different types of energy resting at the same level.

The central zone is nothing but the zone of neutrality, the zone of satisfied energy either it is at the level of smallest particle existing as an atom or largest systems like sea, star or galaxy. The unsatisfied or vibrating or tension creating charge at the surface is the result of the degree of vastness of the internal satisfied power of the system; if measured at the surface of the sea, there is a possibility of the prediction of future rains and devastating thunderstorms or catastrophic Tsunami outbursts. This charge may have its impact on the El-NiƱo effect and difference of temperature in seawater. If it is measured inside the earth, there can be a possibility of the prediction of earthquakes.
Radhasoami
DR . HARIOM , SR . SCIENTIST – AGRONOMY , CCSHAU – HISAR (KURUKSHETRA)TO ASK hariomkvk@gmail.com jasdeep.sindhu@gmail.com& PLZ VISIT TO KNOW MORE www.radhasoamitaradham.com

Unknown said...

Thanks for your comments. This is another interesting theory - though the Big Bang is still the prevailing scientific theory. However, it still begs the question of where the first matter came from in the first place. Logical necessity leads us to an uncaused cause, which, to the Chrsitian, is the God of the Bible.