Are science and faith compatible? Is faith reasonable in light of modern scientific discoveries in biochemistry and astronomy? Dr. Boa explores these and other questions in this intriguing teaching.

1. Science, Faith,
and Reason
Four Fundamental Features of the World
Dr. Ken Boa and Bill Ibsen

2. www.KenBoa.org

3. Science, Faith,
and Reason
Four Fundamental Features of the World
Dr. Ken Boa and Bill Ibsen

4. 1. Worldviews and Paradigms
2. Four Fundamental Features of the World
3. Implications
Overview

5. Worldviews and Paradigms

6. Science Faith

8. the universe is rational and can be studied...

9. the universe is an illusion...

10. The Logos...an ordering mind

11. Progenitors of
Science
Nicolaus
Copernicus
1473-1543
Isaac
Newton
1642-1727
Galileo
Galilei
1564-1642
William
Harvey
1578-1657
Michael
Faraday
1791-1867
Gregor
Mendel
1822-1884
Blaise
Pascal
1623-1662
Joseph
Priestly
1733-1804
Louis
Pasteur
1822-1895

12. Science Faith
Joe Atheist

13. Science Faith
Joe Atheist

14. Science Redefined
Scientific Method
Scientific Method
+
Naturalism
Ultimate reality = matter, energy, time, space
Ultimate reality ≠ God or anything spiritual

15. Science Correctly
Defined
Scientific Method
Inference to the best explanation
“Go where the evidence leads” - Socrates

16. Kinds of Knowledge
1. Scientific
2. Historical
3. Personal
4. Moral
5. Philosophical
6. Aesthetic
7. Religious
...none are exhaustive

17. Design Theory
“The quest for design will kill science”
Thomas Nagel,
Atheist, Professor
even if science cannot tell you
the identity of the designer, or
what is going on in the
designer’s mind.”
It potentially can be scientific to
argue that the data of DNA and
life points to an intelligent
designer
“

18. Design Theorists
Young-earth
Creationism
Theistic
Evolution
Old-earth
Creationism
Deistic
Evolution
Design
Albert
Einstein
1879-1955
Antony
Flew
1923-2010

19. Guilt by Association

20. Sciences Distinguishing
Design from Accident

21. Design =
Creationism 2.0?
Go where
the evidence leads

22. Momentum of Evidence
Complexity
Elegance
Information

23. Feature 1: Evidence for the
Universe’s Beginning

24. or
“If anything now exists, something must be eternal,
something not eternal must have emerged from nothing.
If Proposition

25. 1. The universe is an illusion
2. The universe is eternal
3. The universe emerged from nothing
4. The universe was created by an eternal
being
If Proposition

26. 1. The Universe Is an
Illusion

27. 2. The Universe Is
Eternal
• Steady-state theory
• Matter and energy always existed
• Fred Hoyle: continuous creation
• Faith propositions
Astronomer
Fred Hoyle

28. 2. The Universe Is
Eternal
• Big Bang theory
• Matter and energy had a starting point
Astronomer
Edwin Hubble

29. Scientists
Robert Wilson & Arno Penzias
73% = Dark Energy
23% = Dark Matter
4% = Ordinary Matter
“Curiouser
and curiouser!”

32. The Second Law of
Thermodynamics

33. The Second Law of
Thermodynamics
Useful
Energy
Time

34. The Universe Had a
Beginning

36. Feature 2:
Fine-Tuning of the Cosmos

37. Just Right:
• Particles
• Atoms
• Molecules

38. Just Right:
• Galaxy
• Star masses
• Expansion rate

39. Just Right:
• Star
• Planet
• Moon

41. Carl
Sagan

42. A common sense
interpretation of the facts
suggests that a superintellect
has monkeyed with physics,
as well as with chemistry and
biology, and that there are no
blind forces worth speaking
about in nature.”
“

43. Strong Nuclear Force

44. The Neutron
0.1% +/-

45. 1 in 1037

46. Expansion Rate of
the Universe
+/-1 in 1055
x 1 million

47. Stellar Mass
1 in 1040
Electromagnetic Force :: Gravitational Force

48. Our Just-Right Galaxy
Elliptical
Q uic k Tim e™ and a
TI FF ( Unc om pr es s ed) dec om pr es s or
ar e needed t o s ee t his pic t ur e.
Spiral
Only spiral galaxies provide any “safe zone” for
life-sustaining planets
Irregular
20% 60% 20%

49. Our Just-Right Sun
• Right mass: Yellow dwarf
• Right light: Emits a balance of red & blue
allowing photosynthesis
• Right composition: High metallicity for creating
terrestrial planets
• Right orbit: Nearly circular for temperature
stability

50. 180
+/- 5%
Circumstellar
Habitable Zone
(not to scale)

51. 1 in 10215
1022
1 in 10193

52. A Multiverse?

53. Inference to the Best Explanation
Natural Causes
Designed
Designer Gutzon
Borglum, ca 1930

54. Feature 3:
Biogenesis

55. The Exquisitely
Complex Cell
Biochemist/Author
Michael Denton
“…[chemical evolution] is no more or
no less than the great cosmogenic
myth.”

56. emory banks for information storage and retrieval,
elegant control systems regulating
the automated assembly of parts and components,
r fail-safe and proof-reading devices utilized for quality con
tificial languages and their decoding systems,
“

57. [and] a capacity not equaled in
any
of our own most advanced
machines,
assembly processes involving the principle of
prefabrication and modular construction . . .
for it would be capable of replicating
its entire structure within a matter of a few hours”

58. Simple?

59. Design Theory
Thomas Nagel,
Atheist, Professor
For a long time I have been
skeptical of the claims of
traditional evolutional theory to
be the whole story about the
history of life.”
“

60. Design Theory
Thomas Nagel,
Atheist, Professor
even if science cannot tell you
the identity of the designer, or
what is going on in the
designer’s mind.”
It potentially can be scientific to
argue that the data of DNA and
life points to an intelligent
designer
“

61. What Would it Take to
Get One Living Cell?

63. Cell Complexity
and Elegance

64. Proteins
Amino Group
NH₂
H C COOH
R
Amino Acids
Phe
Leu
Ser
Cys

65. Left and Right-Handed
Amino Acids

66. Protein of 400 Amino Acids
400x

68. Directed
Panspermia

69. Feature 4:
Information Theory

70. Beautiful Natural
Patterns

71. 010010001001100111100000001111111101010100110
011
Pattern ≠ Design

72. Your DNA is the most exquisitely engineered
communication protocol in existence.

73. Q uic k Tim e™ and a
TI FF ( LZW ) dec om pr es s or
ar e needed t o s ee t his pic t ur e.
Letters
4- Letter Alphabet
Chapte
r
Book
Word
Senten
ce

74. One cell carries
more data than
this:
Where Does Information
Come From?

75. Where Does Information
Come From?

76. He didn’t steal that car
He didn’t steal that car
He didn’t steal that car

77. The lower cannot account
for the higher

78. M.I.T. Mathematician
Norbert Wiener
Any materialism that fails to take account
of this will not survive one day.”
Information is information;
neither matter nor energy.“

79. Information Transcends
Matter & Energy

80. Atheistic Riddle
Show me a message
that doesn’t come from a mind.

81. Promissory
Materialism
Science
Fait
h

82. Other Features of the
World
• Human consciousness
• Rationality
• Moral values and obligations

83. Other Features of the
World
• Beauty
• Human dignity, value, and purpose
• Human rights
• Universal religious experience

84. Implications

85. Inescapable Conclusions
of Naturalism
1. No transcendence
2. No life after death
3. No absolute foundation for right
and wrong

86. Inescapable Conclusions
of Naturalism
4. No ultimate meaning for life
5. No free will

87. DESIGN > DESIGNER

88. The End

89. Reflections Ministries
Resources
Reflections - A free
monthly teaching letter
KenBoa.org website - Daily
Growth email and free text
and audio resources

90. www.KenBoa.org