Smoky Mountain Bible Institute Lesson #49 - Lesson #19 revisited

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