Seeking Proof Finding Grace

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This week we start what will likely be a four part series looking at how the best explanation of our consciousness is an intelligent Creator.

Lee Strobel, The Case for a Creator, 2004–Interview with J.P Moreland**Ref 1

Michael Egnor and Denyse O’Leary, The Immortal Mind, 2025**Ref 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1YWy5SQPhg

“Nevertheless, it may be that the origin of life is not the only major gap in the evolutionary story that is bridged by sheer luck, anthropically justified. For example, my colleague, Mark Ridley in Mendel’s Demon…has suggested that the origin of the eukaryotic cell…was an even more momentous, difficult and statistically improbable step than the origin of life. The origin of consciousness might be another major gap whose bridging was of the same order of improbability.Richard Dawkins,The God Delusion,2006

“I think therefore I am.” Renea Descartes,Discourse on the Method,1637

“We often hear that chimpanzee and human DNA differ by a mere 1 percent. But humans are radically different from chimpanzees–intellectually, morally, and culturally. Well then, we can be sure that some very important things about us are not found in our DNA. Human exceptionalism is the difference between a clever ape’s mind and Einstein’s mind.”**Ref 2

 “We humans are the only living creatures on the planet who think about mathematics, science, literature, philosophy, religion, and the whole range of abstract ideas.”**Ref 2

 “Thus he concluded that abstract thought is a function of something other than or beyond the physical brain. He came to define the mind as the element in an individual “that feels, perceives, thinks, wills, and especially reasons.”**Ref 2

Referencing artiicle by Sarah Tippit,“Science Says Mind Continues After the Brain Dies” of a study by Sam Parnia and Peter Fenwick,“He speculated that the brain might serve as a mechanism to manifest the mind, much in the same way a television set manifests pictures and sounds from waves in the air.”**Ref 1

www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/consciousness

1 a:the quality or state of being aware especially of something within oneself

b :the state or fact of being conscious of an external object,state,or fact

2 :the state of being characterized by sensation,emotion,volition,and thought

 “Well, a simple definition is that consciousness is what you’re aware of when you introspect. When you pay attention to what’s going on inside of you, that’s consciousness.”**Ref 1

 “Self-consciousness implies not only awareness, but also awareness that one is aware–an awareness of self.”**Ref 2

 “The point is this, Lee: I am a soul, and I have a body. We don’t learn about people by studying their bodies. We learn about people by finding out how they feel, what they think, what they’re passionate about, what their worldview is, and so forth.”**Ref 1

 “That is, Penfield observed that the mind has an existence independent of the brain, and that the mind uses the brain to interact with the world, in a way analogous to the way a computer programmer uses a computer to accomplish tasks.”**Ref 2

“The failure to find a “material center of consciousness” in the brain should be taken seriously–it’s not a failure of science; it’s a success of science. It’s strong scientific evidence that points to the truth about the human soul. We haven’t found the material center of consciousness in the brain because the human soul isn’t in the brain.  Consciousness has no location. The human soul is spiritual. But now another question arises. The human soul has an immaterial and immortal element that cannot just be explained away, so how could it have evolved from an animal mind?”**Ref 2

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This week we celebrate Thanksgiving.  Thank you for joining us and don’t ever forget the most important truth in the entire universe, God loves you!!

Lyrics from The Truth, Megan Woods, 2025:

 I know who I am
 'Cause I know who You are
 And I hold Your truth inside of my heart…

The truth is I am my Father's child
 I make Him proud and I make Him smile
 I was made in the image of a perfect King
 He looks at me and wouldn't change a thing
 The truth is I am truly loved
 By a God who's good when I'm not good enough 

I don't belong to the lies, I belong to You 
 And that's the truth

“As long as a man is thinking of God as an examiner who has set him a sort of paper to do, or as the opposite party in a sort of bargain – as long as he is thinking of claims and counter-claims between himself and God – he is not yet in the right relation to Him.  He is misunderstanding what he is and what God is.  And he cannot get into the right relation until he has discovered that fact of our bankruptcy.” C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 1952

“But the great thing to remember is that, though our feelings come and go, His love for us does not.  It is not wearied by our sins, or our indifference; and, therefore, it is quite relentless in its determination that we shall be cured of those sins, at whatever cost to us, at whatever cost to Him.” C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 1952

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This week we look at another naturalistic theory on how life might have originated.  And no, panspermia is not a better answer for how life got here.  Don’t run from the idea of a Creator who loved you so much He gave everything for you!  

“Nevertheless, it may be that the origin of life is not the only major gap in the evolutionary story that is bridged by sheer luck, anthropically justified.  For example, my colleague, Mark Ridley in Mendel’s Demon…has suggested that the origin of the eukaryotic cell (our kind of cell, with a nucleus and various other complicated features such as mitochondria, which are not present in bacteria) was an even more momentous, difficult and statistically improbable step than the origin of life.  The origin of consciousness might be another major gap whose bridging was of the same order of improbability.  One-off events like this might be explained by the anthropic principle, along the following lines.  There are billions of planets that have developed life at the level of bacteria…” Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, 2006 

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This week we finish our journey from nothing to how we reached where we find ourselves today.  In this episode we look at how a Creator is the best explanation of how we went from lifelessness to the abundant, diverse life that we see all around us.  How do we recognize the hand of intelligence verses the natural processes of time, matter and chance?

“Once the initial stroke of luck has been granted – and the anthropic principle most decisively grants it to us – natural selection takes over: and natural selection is emphatically not a matter of luck… Nevertheless, it may be that the origin of life is not the only major gap in the evolutionary story that is bridged by sheer luck, anthropically justified.  For example, my colleague, Mark Ridley in Mendel’s Demon…has suggested that the origin of the eukaryotic cell (our kind of cell, with a nucleus and various other complicated features such as mitochondria, which are not present in bacteria) was an even more momentous, difficult and statistically improbable step than the origin of life.  The origin of consciousness might be another major gap whose bridging was of the same order of improbability.  One-off events like this might be explained by the anthropic principle, along the following lines…”  Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, 2006, pp. 168-169

Stephen Meyer - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/@DrStephenMeyer

The Fatal Flaw in Origin-of-Life Experiments

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVygGzykHHg

Our DNA Proves We Were Designed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5gKoyDtI9Q

Return of the God Hypothesis: Three Scientific Discoveries That Reveal the Mind Behind the Universe: Meyer, Stephen C.: 9780062071507: Amazon.com: Books

Improbable Planet: How Earth Became Humanity's Home: Hugh Ross: 9780801075438: Amazon.com: Books

Amazon.com: A Fortunate Universe: Life in a Finely Tuned Cosmos: 9781107156616: Lewis, Geraint F., Barnes, Luke A.: Books

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This week we take our second step of wrapping up our journey from nothing to how we reached where we find ourselves today.  In this episode we look at how a Creator is the best explanation of how we went from nothing to our little blue planet Earth floating in space.  How do we recognize the hand of intelligence verses the natural processes of time, matter and chance?

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This week we begin Part 1 of wrapping up our journey from nothing to how we reached where we find ourselves today.  On this episode we will talk about making one of the most important judgements you will ever make.  How do we recognize the hand of intelligence verses the natural processes of time, matter and chance?

To the listener: I made a terrible Casablanca error while recording.  I said Rick told the man to put his chips on 42, when it should have been 22.  Sorry about that.  Yikes!

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Neo-Darwinian evolution hits a catch 22 when trying explain which came first: the unlikely evolution of complex traits, functions and systems that most life seems to share verses the evolution of all the diverse species that share these traits, functions and systems.  Or is an intelligent Creator (that loves you) that created them both the answer with the best explanatory power?

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This week we look at the “Infinite Monkey Theorem” and whether naturalism’s overreliance on luck can actually explain how we got here.  Don’t ever forget as we see the fingerprint of a Creator how much He loves you!

 “The [anthropic-design argument] and what it points to is of such an order of certainty that in any other sphere of science, it would be regarded as settled.  To insist otherwise is like insisting that Shakespeare was not written by Shakespeare because it might have been written by a billion monkeys sitting at a billion keyboards typing for a billion years.  So it might.  But the sight of scientific atheists clutching at such desperate straws has put new spring in the step of theists.”  Longley, C. (1989). Focusing on Theism. London Times, 10.

 “In its most popular form, the Infinite Monkeys Theorem states that if you had an infinite number of monkeys and/or an infinitely long-time period, then a monkey pressing keys at random on a typewriter would eventually be certain to reproduce the works of William Shakespeare…”  A numerical evaluation of the Finite Monkeys Theorem,  Stephen Woodcock, Jay Falletta, University of Technology Sydney in Australia, 2025

 “We take a chimpanzee's working lifespan to be 109 s (just over 30 years) and the heat death of the universe to occur 10100 years after the experiment begins. Assuming that the current population of around 200,000 chimpanzees remains constant until the end of the universe...”  A numerical evaluation of the Finite Monkeys Theorem,  Stephen Woodcock, Jay Falletta, University of Technology Sydney in Australia, 2025

 “It is not plausible that, even with possible improved typing speeds or an increase in chimpanzee populations, these orders of magnitude can be spanned to the point that monkey labor will ever be a viable tool for developing written works of anything beyond the trivial. As such, we reject the conclusions from the Infinite Monkeys Theorem as potentially misleading within our finite universe.”  A numerical evaluation of the Finite Monkeys Theorem,  Stephen Woodcock, Jay Falletta, University of Technology Sydney in Australia, 2025

 “Once the initial stroke of luck has been granted – and the anthropic principle most decisively grants it to us – natural selection takes over: and natural selection is emphatically not a matter of luck.  Nevertheless, it may be that the origin of life is not the only major gap in the evolutionary story that is bridged by sheer luck, anthropically justified.  For example, my colleague, Mark Ridley in Mendel’s Demon…has suggested that the origin of the eukaryotic cell (our kind of cell, with a nucleus and various other complicated features such as mitochondria, which are not present in bacteria) was an even more momentous, difficult and statistically improbable step than the origin of life.  The origin of consciousness might be another major gap whose bridging was of the same order of improbability.”  Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, 2006

 “Life is one of the strangest phenomena known.  In my opinion it shows that the universe is capable of almost anything.  Yet it amazes me that we know so much about how the universe began many billions of years ago, but we have yet to discover how life itself began.  The most likely explanation is probably that we are an accident.  Just by chance, some molecules bumped into each other at random, until finally one formed that could copy itself.  Then began the slow process of evolution that led to all the extraordinary diversity of life on earth.  Life seems to be simply what matter does given the right conditions and enough time.” Stephen Hawking, Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking: The Story of Everything, 2011              

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This week we take a look at another deal breaker for evolution: the reproductive system.  Is natural selection or an Intelligent Designer the best explanation for the complex process that creates us?  God loves you!!

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This week we look at the problem of irreducible complexity and the complex systems that make up our bodies that natural selection has no answer for.  What is the best explanation for the existence of these systems?  Could it be an intelligent designer who loves you?

In his book, Darwin’s Black Box, he really opens up problems with Darwin’s theory at the cellular level.  Dr. Behe puts it this way, “You see, a system or device is irreducibly complex if it has a number of different components that all work together to accomplish the task of the system, and if you were to remove one of the components, the system would no longer function.  An irreducibly complex system is highly unlikely to be built piece-by-piece through Darwinian processes, because the system has to be fully present in order for it to function.”  Lee Strobel, The Case for a Creator, 2004

“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.  But I can find out no such case.”  Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species, 1859

“Searching for particular examples of irreducible complexity is a fundamentally unscientific way to proceed: a special case of arguing from present ignorance…gaps shrink as science advances…”  Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, 2006 

Schoolhouse Rock – The Central Nervous System

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivk_irrH1WY&list=RDivk_irrH1WY&start_radio=1