The Case for A Creator – Lee Strobel

I. White-Coated Scientists Versus Black-Robed Preachers

William Provine of Corner University (evolutionary biologist and historian)

If Darwinism is true, five inescapable conclusions:

 There’s no evidence for God

 There’s no life after death
 There’s no absolute foundation for right and wrong
 There’s no ultimate meaning for live
 People don’t really have free will

II. The Images of Evolution

“The problem is to get [people] to reject irrational and supernatural explanations of the world, the
demons that exist only in their imaginations, and to accept a social and intellectual apparatus,
Science, as the only begetter of truth.” Richard Lewontin, Harvard geneticist

“Science… has become identified with a philosophy known as materialism or scientific naturalism.
This philosophy insists that nature is all there is, or at least the only thing about which we can have
any knowledge. It follows that nature had to do its own creating, and that the means of creation
must not have included any role for God.” –Philip E. Johnson, Evolution critic

III. Doubts about Darwinism

Jonathan Wells

“No educated person any longer questions the validity of the so called theory of evolution, which we
now know to be a simple fact.” – Ernst Mayr, Evolutionary biologist

“Scientists who utterly reject evolution may be one of our fastest growing controversial minorities…
Many of the scientists supporting this position hold impressive credentials in science.” – Larry
Hatfield in Science Digest

IV. Where Science Meets Faith

Stephen C. Meyer

“I am all in favor of a dialogue between science and religion, but not a constructive dialogue. One of
the great achievements of science has been, if not to make it impossible for an intelligent person to
be religious, then at least to make it possible for them not to be religious. We should not retreat
from this accomplishment.” – Steven Weinberg, Physicist

“Science and religion … are friends, not foes, in the common quest for knowledge. Some people may
find this surprising, for there’s a feeling throughout our society that religious belief is outmoded, or
downright impossible, in a scientific age. I don’t agree. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that if people in
this so-called “scientific age” knew a bit more about science than many of them actually do, they’d
find it easier to share my view.” – John Polkinghorne, Physicist and Theologian

V. The Evidence of Cosmology: Beginning with a Bang

William Lane Craig
“Set aside the many competing explanations of the Big Bang; something made an entire cosmos out
of nothing. It is this realization-that something transcendent started it all-which has hard-science
types … using terms like ‘miracle.’ – Gregg Easterbrook, journalist

“Perhaps the best argument … that the Big Bang supports theism is the obvious unease with which it
is greeted by some atheist physicists. At times this has led to scientific ideas … being advanced with a
tenacity which so exceeds their intrinsic worth that one can only suspect the operation of
psychological forces lying very much deeper than the usual academic desire of a theorist to support
his or her theory.” – C.J. Ishamz, astrophysicist

VI. The Evidence of Physics: The Cosmos on a Razor’s Edge

Robin Collins

“It is hard to resist the impression that the present structure of the universe, apparently so sensitive
to minor alterations in numbers, has been rather carefully thought out … The seemingly miraculous
concurrence of these numerical values must remain the most compelling evidence for cosmic
design.” – Paul Davies, Physicist

“Would it not be strange if a universe without purpose accidentally created humans who are so
obsessed with purpose?” – Sir John Templeton

VII. The Evidence of Astronomy: The Privileged Planet

Guillermo Gonzalez and Jay Wesley Richards

“As we survey all the evidence, the thought insistently arises that some supernatural agency-or,
rather, Agency-must be involved. Is it possible that suddenly, without intending to, we have
stumbled upon scientific proof of the existence of a Supreme Being? Was it God who stepped in and
so providentially crafted the cosmos for our benefit? – George Greenstein, Astronomer

“Astronomy leads us to a unique event, a universe which was created out of nothing, one with the
very delicate balance needed to provide exactly the conditions required to permit life, and one
which has an underlying (one might say “supernatural”) plan.” – Arno Penzias, Nobel laureate

VIII. The Evidence of Biochemistry: The Complexity of Molecular Machines

Michael J. Belie

“We have always underestimated the cell … The entire cell can be viewed as a factory that contains
an elaborate network of interlocking assembly lines, elach of which is composed of a set of large
protein machines… Why do we can (them) machines? Precisely because, like machines inverted by
humans to deal efficiently with the macroscopic world, these protein assemblies contain highly
coordinated moving parts.” – Bruce Alberts, President, National Academy of Sciences

“We should reject, as a matter of principle, the substitution of intelligent design for the dialogue of
chance and necessity; but we must concede that there are presently no detailed Darwinian accounts
of the evolution of any biochemical system, only a variety of wishful speculations.” – Franklin M.
Harold, Biochemist
 IX. The Evidence of Biological Information: The Challenge of DNA and the Origin of Life
Stephen C. Meyer

“Human DNA contains more organized information than the Enclyopedia Britannica. If the full text of
the encyclopedia were to arrive in computer code from outer space, most people would regard this
as proof of the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence. But when seen in nature, it is explained as
the workings of random forces. – George Sim Johnson

“Einstein said, “God does not play dice.” He was right, God plays Scrabble.” – Philip Gold

X. The Evidence of Consciousness: The Enigma of the Mind

J.P. Moreland

Cogito ergo sum – “I think, therefore I am.” – Rene Descartes

“Why should a bunch of atoms have thinking ability? Why should I, even as I write now, be able to
reflect on what I am doing and why should you, even as you read now, be able to ponder my points,
agreeing or disagreeing, with pleasure or pain, deciding to refute me or deciding that I am just not
worth the effort? No one, certainly not the Darwinian as such, seems to have any answer to this…
The point is that there is no scientific answer.” – Darwinist philosopher Michael Ruse

XI. The Cumulative Case for a Creator

“The vast mysteries of the universe should only confirm our belief in the certainty of its Creator. I
find it as difficult to understand a scientist who does not acknowledge the presence of a superior
rationality behind the existence of the universe as it is to comprehend a theologian who would deny
the advances of science.” – Werner von Braun, father of space science

“Faith does not imply a closed, but an open mind. Quite the opposite of blindness, faith appreciates
the vast spiritual realities that materialists overlook by getting trapped in the purely physical. – Sir
John Templeton

To embrace Darwinism and its underlying premise of naturalism, one would have to believe that:

 Nothing produces everything

 Non-life produces life
 Randomness produces fine-tuning
 Chaos produces information
 Unconsciousness produces consciousness
 Non-reason produces reason

dead chemicals into all the extraordinary complexity of living things is surely “no more nor less than
the great cosmogenic myth” of our times. – Michael Denton

naturalism has absolutely no credible explanation for how the universe came into being in the first
place. That failure opens the door to consider other hypothesis – that both the universe and the life
it contains are the product of an intelligent designer.

Possibility #2 The Design Hypothesis

“A big, fundamental question, like belief in God (or disbelief), is not settled by a single argument. It’s
too complicated for that What one has to do is to consider lots of different issues and see whether
or not the answers one gets add up to a total picture that makes sense.” – John Polkinghorne
>> Evidence of Cosmology

Ancient Kalam cosmological argument. William Lane Craig

first, whatever begins to exist has a cause.

“we came from nothing, by nothing, and for nothing seems intuitively absurd” – Quentin Smith

Second, the univers had a beginning.

Therefore, the universe has a cause.

>> Evidence of Physics

One of the most striking discoveries of modern science has been that the laws and constants of
physics unexpectedly conspire in an extraordinary way to make the universe habitable for life.

Gravity is finetuned to one part in a hundred million billion billion billion billion billion.

“Today the concrete data point strongly in the direction of the God hypothesis, it is the simplest and
most obvious solution to the anthropic puzzle” – Patrick Glynn

>> Evidence of Astronomy

Earth’s position in the universe and its intricately choreographed geological and chemical processes
work together with exquisite efficiency to create a safe place for humans to live.

It would take a star with the highly unusual properties of our sun- the right mass, the right light, the
right age, the right distance, the right orbit, the right galaxy, the right locations – to nurture living
organisms on a circling planet. Numerous factors make our solar system and our location in the
universe just right for a habitable environment. – Jay Wesley Richards and Guillermo Gonzalez

“If the universe had not been made with the most exacting precision we could never have come into
existence.” – John A. O’Keefe of NASA astrophysicist

>> Evidence of Biochemistry

“If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed which could not possibly have been
formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down” –
Darwin

--- “irreducibly complex” molecular machines – Biochemist Michael Behe

these complicated, microscopic contraptions such as cilia and bacterial flagella are extremely
unlikely to have been built piece by piece through Darwinian processes, because they had to be fully
present in order to function.

“My conclusion can be summed up in a single word: design. I say that based on science. I believe
that irreducibly complex systems are strong evidence of a purposeful, intentional design by an
intelligent agent.” – Behe
>> The Evidence of Biological Information

Six-feet of DNA coiled inside every one of our body’s one hundred trillion cells contains a four-letter
chemical alphabet that spells out precise assembly instructions for all that proteins from which our
bodies are made.

“Books, computer codes, and DNA all have these two properties, we know books and computer
codes are designed by intelligence, and the presence of this type of information in DNA also implies
an intelligent source.”

“Information is the hallmark of mind, and purely from the evidence of genetics and biology, we can
infer the existence of a mind that’s far greater than our own-a conscious, purposeful, rational,
intelligent designer who’s amazingly creative.” – Stephen Meyer, Cambridge-educated

>> Evidence of Consciousness

Many scientists are concluding that the laws of chemistry and physics cannot our experience of
consciousness.
Prof. J.P. Moreland defined consciousness as our introspection,, sensations, thoughts, emotions,
desires, beliefs and free choices that make us alive and aware. The “soul” contains our consciousness
and animates our body.

Scientific findings “would support the view that ‘mind’ ‘consciousness’ or the ‘soul’ is a separate
entity from the brain.

“You can’t get something from nothing.” If the universe began with dead matter having no
conscious, “how, then do you get something totally different-consciousness, living, thinking, feeling,
believing creatures-from materials that don’t have that? But if everything started with the mind of
God, “we don’t have a problem with explaining the origin of our mind”

The evidence “that there is what we might call a supernatural origin of my unique self-conscious
mind or my unique selfhood or soul.” – John C. Eccles, Nobel Prize-winning neurophysiologist

THE IDENTITY OF THE DESIGNER