I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist (69 page)

31
. Jastrow,
God and the Astronomers,
16 (emphasis ours).

32
. Ibid., 28.

33
. Ibid., 113-114.

34
. V. J. Stenger, “The Face of Chaos,”
Free Inquiry
13 (Winter 1992–1993): 13.

35
. See Cliff Walker, “An Interview with Particle Physicist Victor J. Stenger,” at
http://www.positiveatheism.com/crt/stenger1.htm
. Interview date, November 6, 1999.

36
. See “‘Baby Pic’ Shows Cosmos 13 Billion Years Ago.”

37
. George Will, “The Gospel from Science,”
Newsweek,
November 8, 1998.

38
. Albert Einstein, in
Science, Philosophy, and Religion: A Symposium
(New York: The Conference on Science, Philosophy and Religion in Their Relation to the Democratic Way of Life, 1941). Posted online at
http://www.sacred-texts.com/aor/einstein/einsci.htm
. Accessed October 15, 2003.

39
. Jastrow,
God and the Astronomers,
116.

C
HAPTER
4
D
IVINE
D
ESIGN

1
. Isaac Newton, “General Scholium,” in
Mathematical Principles of Natural
Philosophy
(1687) in
Great Books of the Western World,
Robert M. Hutchins, ed. (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.), 369.

2
. As is the case with most constants, this constant is dependent on others. For example, the gravitational interaction is also a function of the size of the moon, which is larger relative to its planet than most other moons.

3
. Personal correspondence with Jeffrey A. Zweerink, research physicist, UCLA, October 23, 2003.

4
. For the full text, and for more information on the accident, see the report of the Apollo 13 Review Board, posted on NASA’s website.
http://spacelink. msfc.nasa.gov/NASA
.Projects/Human.Exploration.and.Development. of.Space/Human.Space.Flight/Apollo.Missions/Apollo.Lunar/Apollo. 13.Review.Board.Report/Apollo.13.Review.Board.Report.txt; see also
http://solarviews.com/eng/apo13.htm#bang
. For a transcript of the mission with explanatory commentary see:
http://209.145.176.7/~090/awh/ as13.html
.

5
. For additional constants, see Hugh Ross, “Why I Believe in Divine Creation,” in Norman Geisler and Paul Hoffman, eds.,
Why I Am a Christian: Leading Thinkers Explain Why They Believe
(Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 2001), chapter 8. More of these constants are being discovered all the time, so much so that Ross intends to update the list quarterly. Check his website at
www.reasons.org
. For more on why animal life is rare in the universe, see Peter Ward and Donald Brownlee,
Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the Universe (
New York: Copernicus, 2000).

6
. Hugh Ross, “Why I Believe in Divine Creation,” 138-141.

7
. Quoted in Walter Bradley, “The ‘Just-so’ Universe: The Fine-Tuning of Constants and Conditions in the Cosmos,” in William Dembski and James Kushiner, eds.,
Signs of Intelligence
(Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 2001), 168.

8
. Quoted in Geisler and Hoffman, eds.,
Why I Am a Christian,
142.

9
. Fred Hoyle, “The Universe: Past and Present Reflections,”
Engineering and
Science
(November 1981): 12.

10
. For the president’s complete remarks, see
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/ releases/2003/02/20030201-2.html
.

11
. The Second Commandment prohibits “graven images” for perhaps this very reason. Images limit the majesty of God. Idols are idols whether they are metal and mental.

12
. See
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/02/20030201-2.html
.

13
. C. S. Lewis,
The Screwtape Letters
(Westwood, N.J.: Barbour, 1961), 14.

14
. Quoted in Fred Heeren,
Show Me God,
vol. 1 (Wheeling, Ill.: Daystar, 2000), 239.

15
. Dennis Overbye, “Zillions of Universes? Or Did Ours Get Lucky?”
The New
York Times,
October 28, 2003, F1.

C
HAPTER
5
T
HE
F
IRST
L
IFE
: N
ATURAL
L
AW OR
D
IVINE
A
WE
?

1
. Information scientist Hubert Yockey, from the University of California at Berkeley, makes it clear that this comparison between the English alphabet and the genetic alphabet is no analogy but one of mathematical identity. He writes, “It is important to understand that we are not reasoning by analogy. The sequence hypothesis applies directly to the protein and the genetic text as well as to written language and therefore the treatment is mathematically identical.” See Hubert P. Yockey, “Self Organization, Origin-of-life Scenarios and Information Theory,”
Journal of Theoretical Biology
91 (1981): 16.

2
. Richard Dawkins,
The Blind Watchmaker
(New York: Norton, 1987), 17 18, 116.

3
. For a discussion from evolutionists of the numerous difficulties in suggesting that life is a product of natural law, see Peter Ward and Donald Brownlee,
Rare Earth
(New York: Copernicus, 2000), chapter 4.

4
. For more on the problems with the Urey-Miller experiment and nine other discredited “evidences” for evolution, see Jonathan Wells,
Icons of
Evolution: Science or Myth? Why Much of What We Teach About Evolution
Is Wrong
(Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 2000).

5
. Dawkins,
Blind Watchmaker,
1.

6
. Quoted in Phillip E. Johnson,
The Wedge of Truth
(Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2000), 153.

7
. Ibid.

8
. Klaus Dose, “The Origin of Life: More Questions than Answers,”
Interdisciplinary Science Review
13 (1998): 348; quoted in Lee Strobel,
The
Case for Faith
(Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2000), 107.

9
. Quoted in Strobel,
Case for Faith,
107.

10
. Chandra Wickramasinghe, interview by Robert Roy Britt, October 27, 2000. Posted online at
http://www.space.com/searchforlife/chandra_side-bar_ 001027.html
(emphasis added).

11
. Michael Denton,
Evolution: A Theory in Crisis
(Bethesda, Md.: Adler & Adler, 1985), 264.

12
. Hubert Yockey,
Information Theory and Molecular Biology
(Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 284, emphasis added.

13
. Phillip E. Johnson, “The Unraveling of Scientific Materialism,”
First Things
(November 1997): 22-25.

14
. E-mail sent on July 10, 2001. The entire exchange that week can be read at
http://www.arn.org/docs/pjweekly/pj_weekly_010813.htm
.

15
. Richard Lewontin, “Billions and Billions of Demons,”
The New York
Review of Books,
January 9, 1997, 31.

16
. See Strobel,
Case for Faith,
99-101.

17
. The entire debate is on videotape, and can be viewed online at
http://www.leaderu.com/offices/billcraig/docs/craig-atkins.html
.

18
. J. Budziszewski,
Written on the Heart: The Case for Natural Law
(Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1997), 54.

19
. See Norman L. Geisler and Peter Bocchino,
Unshakable Foundations
(Minneapolis: Bethany, 2001). Anecdote from a personal conversation with Peter Bocchino, April 3, 2003.

20
. Mortimer Adler,
Haves Without Have-Nots
(New York: Macmillan, 1991).

21
. William Dembski,
The Design Revolution: Answering the Toughest
Questions About Intelligent Design
(Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, forthcoming).

22
. Albert Einstein, in a letter to Max Born, December 4, 1926, quoted in Elizabeth Knowles, ed.,
The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 290.

23
. Quoted in William Dembski and James Kushiner, eds.,
Signs of Intelligence
(Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 2001), 102.

C
HAPTER
6
N
EW
L
IFE
F
ORMS
: F
ROM THE
G
OO TO
Y
OU VIA THE
Z
OO
?

1
. Carl Sagan,
Cosmos
(New York, Random House, 1980), 278.

2
. Phillip E. Johnson,
Darwin on Trial
(Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1993), 27.

3
. Jonathan Wells,
Icons of Evolution: Science or Myth? Why Much of What We
Teach About Evolution Is Wrong
(Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 2000), 178.

4
. See Norman L. Geisler and Peter Bocchino,
Unshakable Foundations
(Minneapolis: Bethany, 2001), 149-150; see also Jonathan Wells,
Icons of
Evolution,
chapter 9, 211; and Lane P. Lester and Raymond G. Bohlin,
The
Natural Limits of Biological Change
(Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1984), 88-89.

5
. For more on Darwin’s finches, see Wells,
Icons of Evolution,
159-175.

6
. Charles Darwin,
On the Origin of Species
(New York: Penguin, 1958), 171.

7
. Michael Behe,
Darwin’s Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution
(New York: Touchstone, 1996), 39.

8
. Ariel Roth,
Origins
(Hagerstown, Md.: Herald, 1998), 66.

9
. Michael Behe, “Intelligent Design Theory as a Tool for Analyzing Biochemical Systems,” in William Dembski, ed.,
Mere Creation: Science,
Faith, and Intelligent Design
(Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1998), 183, emphasis added.

10
. Miller agrees with Behe that natural selection cannot favor the evolution of a nonfunctional system. But he deflects the argument by suggesting that a mousetrap in transition—while unable to catch mice—may function as a tie clip or keychain (see
http://www.millerandlevine.com/km/evol/DI/ Mousetrap.html
). This, of course, misses the point. Complex living things can’t randomly substitute one function for another and still survive. A living thing would die if one of its vital systems failed to perform its primary function, even if it was performing some other function during its Darwinian transition. In other words, it’s the loss of the vital function that’s important, not the fact that the intermediate system might be able to do something else in the meantime!

11
. See several of Behe’s responses to his critics at
http://www.trueorigin.org/ behe08.asp
.

12
. Michael Behe, “A Mousetrap Defended,” 2000,
http://www.trueorigin.org/ behe05.asp
.

13
. Behe,
Darwin’s Black Box,
232-233.

14
. E-mail sent to Phillip Johnson on July 10, 2001. The entire exchange that week can be read at
http://www.arn.org/docs/pjweekly/pj_weekly_010813.htm
.

15
. See “Riken Finds Bigger Gap in Chimp, Human Genes,”
Japan Times,
July 12, 2003. Posted online at
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle. pl5?nn20030712b6.htm
. Accessed October 17, 2003.

16
. Mouse Genome Sequencing Consortium, “Initial Sequencing and Comparative Analysis of the Mouse Genome,”
Nature
420 (December 5, 2002): 520-562.

17
. Michael Denton,
Evolution: A Theory in Crisis
(Bethesda, Md.: Adler & Adler, 1985), 285.

18
. Darwin,
On the Origin of Species,
280.

19
. Stephen J. Gould, “Evolution’s Erratic Pace,”
Natural History
86 (1977): 13 14. More recently Robert B. Carroll, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Redpath Museum at McGill University, affirmed Gould’s assessment when he wrote, “What is missing are the many intermediate forms hypothesized by Darwin” (“Towards a New Evolutionary Synthesis,”
Trends in
Ecology and Evolution
15 [2000]: 27-32).

20
. Wells,
Icons of Evolution,
37.

21
. Ibid., 42.

22
. Denton,
Evolution: A Theory in Crisis,
286.

23
. Wells,
Icons of Evolution,
219.

24
. See Norman Geisler,
Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics
(Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 1999), 489; see also Wells,
Icons of Evolution,
209-228.

25
. Quoted in Wells,
Icons of Evolution,
221.

26
. Michael Behe,
Darwin’s Black Box,
22.

27
. As we have seen, the same can be said for DNA similarity—it could just as well be the result of a common designer as of a common ancestor.

28
. For a thorough defense of Intelligent Design, see William Dembski,
The
Design Revolution: Answering the Toughest Questions About Intelligent
Design
(Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2004).

29
. William Dembski,
Intelligent Design: The Bridge Between Science and
Theology
(Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1999), 244

30
. Walter Bradley, interview by Lee Strobel,
The Case for Faith
(Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2000), 108.

31
. Behe,
Darwin’s Black Box,
193.

32
. Originally from a 1989
New York Times
book review. Posted online at
http://members.tripod.com/doggo/doggdawkins.html
. Accessed May 15, 2003.

33
. Richard Lewontin, “Billions and Billions of Demons,”
The New York
Review of Books,
January 9, 1997, 150.