Smoky Mountain Bible Institute
Lesson #49 - Lesson #19 revisited
Don't break out your maps and histories this time as we
travel in a time machine of sorts to examine History & Geography through a
biblical world view. Last month I said
we would pick up with the birth of Abram born around 2166BC, however I recently
listened to a very interesting interview and felt compelled to share with you
some of the intriguing things I heard. We will get back to Abram next month, he
is not going anywhere. So, let’s quickly revisit a brief note on logic I made
back in the biology department.
I am a regular fan of a few internet talk radio programs
and one of them is called "The White Horse Inn". It is usually a
panel discussion format with a Lutheran, a Baptist, and 2 united reformed
speakers. These four men are pastors, professors and authors of many books. It
is an interesting conservative dialog among four learned Trinitarian
theologians but occasionally they do interviews and on August 11th that is what
they did.
I touched briefly on this topic in
lesson #19 when I discussed mathematics and logic associated with biology. I
said "We can also use mathematics to
estimate the statistical impossibility that life might spontaneously generate
from non-life, resulting in a number so infinitesimally small, that to believe
it, is an act of faith." In the
interview on the White Horse Inn program, Mr. Dean Overman, the author of
"The Case Against Accident & Self-Organization", articulated the
mathematical impossibility of life spontaneously and randomly springing from
nonlife in a simple attention getting way. First he defined what mathematicians consider
to be numerically impossible, that is anything with 1 chance in 10 to the 50th
power of possibility. To help us get our
mind around the size of that number, he explained that in 15 billion years
there are 10 to the 18th power seconds and there are estimated to be 10 to the
80th power atoms in the known universe.
He went on to give the amazing
numbers associated with the the mathematical improbability of life
spontaneously arising on its own. These numbers are astonishing and they have
been calculated by respected experts in their field of study. See the two below. No one in the scholastic community
questions the validity of their findings, their motives or their credentials.
First Sir Fred Hoyle’s findings.
Sir Hoyle was an English astronomer noted primarily for his contribution to the
theory of stellar nucleosynthesis. This Cambridge professor in astrophysics
calculated the molecular biological probability that life would arise from the
known basic elements and building blocks for life to be 1 chance in 10 to the
40,000th power. That is right, a number exponentially 500 times larger than the
number that represents the estimated number of atoms in the known universe. Even
still, that number pales in comparison to the one that follows.
Sir Roger Penrose is a Distinguished Supporter of the
British Humanist Association. He is an English mathematical physicist,
internationally renowned for his scientific work in mathematical physics, in
particular his contributions to general relativity and cosmology and refers to
himself as an atheist. His calculations
in the area of particle astrophysics determined the chance of life forming on
its own from the know elements as 1 in 10 to the 10th power to the 123rd power.
That number is so large that if you could put a zero on every proton, neutron,
electron and any other atomic particle in the known universe you would still
not have enough matter to write out all the zeros in that number.
We are fearfully and
wonderfully made
in Christ Pastor Portier
