Genesis 1:24-31

Bible study with Dr. Chuck Missler

Day 6 (Genesis 1:24-31)

Major Topics: 

Animals and Man

Land Animals

Fallacies and Frauds

Evidences of Design 

Architecture of Man

Genesis 1:24-25

And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

Living creatures point to the existence of DESIGN

Each animal species is digitally defined, with evidences of unique specific design in each species of animal.

Example: The Giraffe needs a unique circulatory system for survival

A giraffe can stand 19 ft tall, weighs about 2500 lbs, can run 36 mph, and eats 201 lbs/day; 16-20 hrs/day is spent eating. It sleeps about 20 min/day and can go without water for months at a time.

Blood pressure in a giraffe’s aorta is about 220 mm of mercury when the animal is standing. This pressure would be dangerously high in a human, but is necessary in a giraffe to lift blood up the animal’s long neck to its brain. To accomplish this, the giraffe’s heart is about 2 1/2 ft long.

However, when bending down to drink water, the pressure is more than enough to burst the blood vessels in its brain. So, valves in the arteries in the neck begin to close; blood beyond the last valve is shunted under the brain into sponge-like vessels (called the “rete mirabile”). Upon raising its head, the “sponge” squeezes its oxygenated blood into the brain, and special valves in the vein facilitates the equalization of pressure.

How could this mechanism possibly have evolved? Without this mechanism in full function, the giraffe would die. And well, as we have beat it to death in the previous lesson, dead giraffes don't evolve.

Genesis 1:26-27

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

A hint at the Trinity

Notice the plurals: “us” and “our.” (Genesis 1:26; 3:22; 11:7; Isaiah 6:8).

How does one reconcile the “One God” of the Old Testament (Deut 6:4-5; Ex 20:3) with the three “Persons” of the New Testament Trinity (Mt 28:19; 2 Cor 13:14; John 14-17, etc.)? The Sh’ma of Deuteronomy 6:4-5 clearly emphasizes the singularity of God, which is also reconfirmed in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:3), etc. Yet the

New Testament clearly proclaims a three-person Godhead (Mt 28:19, 2 Cor 13:14, John 14-17, etc.).

Perhaps the concept of a PERFECT unity of multiple persons is difficult for us to grasp because we humans have yet to develop such a perfect unity?

Exchanges among the Godhead show how the Trinity exhibits the perfect unity of plurality

(Ref. Gen 3:22; 11:7; Isa 6:8; 48:12, 13, 16; Ps 2:7; 45:7; 110:1; Mt 11:27; Jn 8:42; 17:24)

Every major event is attributed to each person of the Godhead:

The following are just some examples, by no means exhaustive.

Creation of the Universe

• Father: Psalm 102:25.

• Son: Colossians 1:16; John 1:1-3

• Spirit: Genesis 1:2; Job 26:13

• [All three in Elohim, Gen 1:1]

Creation of Man

• Father: Genesis 2:7

• Son: Colossians 1:16

• Spirit: Job 33:4

• [Plurals: Ecclesiastes 12:1; Isaiah 54:5]

Incarnation

• Father: Hebrews 10:5

• Son: Philippians 2:7

• Spirit: Luke 1:35

The Death of Christ

• Father: Psalm 22:15; Romans 8:32; John 3:16

• Son: John 10:18; Galatians 2:20

• Spirit: Hebrews 9:14

The Atonement

• Father: Isaiah 53:6, 10

• Son: Ephesians 5:2

• Spirit: Hebrews 9:14

The Resurrection of Christ

• Father: Acts 2:24; Romans 6:4

• Son: John 10:17, 18; John 2:19

• Spirit: 1 Peter 3:18; Romans 8:11

The Resurrection of All Mankind

• Father: John 5:21

• Son: John 5:21

• Spirit: Romans 8:11

The Inspiration of the Scriptures

• Father: 2 Timothy 3:16

• Son: 1 Peter 1:10,11

• Spirit: 2 Peter 1:21

Genesis 1:28-29

And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

This is the divine mandate for doing good science!

“Dominion”

The dominion of man was lost to Satan in the Garden of Eden, by the First Adam. It will be regained and won by the Last Adam, Jesus Christ, in Revelation 5.

“...every herb bearing seed...”

Plants are just one example of the complex design of living systems; they produce both the free oxygen as well as a surplus of sugar to provide food for the animals. Animals burn this energy, producing the CO2 needed by the plants. How could this highly complex interdependency between the animal and the plant kingdoms all happened “simply by blind, unaided, random chance”?! The only thing missing from nature is randomness!

Randomness

Randomness lacks symmetry, periodicity, evidence of design or order of any kind.

The Fibonacci Sequence

• In 1180, Leonardo Fibonacci (“Leonardo of Pisa”) published the Fibonacci Sequence in his book, Liber Abaci.

• 1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55,89,144,233 -- This is NOT a random string of numbers.

• The ratio of any adjacent numbers is about 1.618

The Fibonacci ratio is used in the Golden Rectangle

• The longer side is to the shorter side as the sum of the two sides is to the longer side: L/x = (x + L)/L.

• This ratio is found in the Parthenon in Greece, the Great Pyramid, the United Nations Building, credit cards, playing cards, postcards, light switch plates, writing pads, 3x5, 5x8 index cards, etc.

The Fibonacci ratio is employed in classic art 

Leonardo da Vinci, Van Gogh, Vermeer, John Singer Sargent, Monet, Whistler, Renoir, Mary Cassatt, Giotto, Durer.

The Golden Rectangle yields a dynamic symmetry—in contrast to static symmetry—it reflects growth, power, and movement, giving animation and life to an artist’s work.

Hundreds of years later, the Fibonacci Sequence was recognized in the DESIGN of nature!

Floral Arrangements

• Lily, 3 petals

• Yellow violet, 5 petals

• Delphinium, 8 petals

• Mayweed, 13 petals

• Aster, 21 petals

• Pyrethrum, 34 petals

• Helenium, 55 petals

• Michaelmas Daisy, 89 petals

Phyllotaxis is the study of the spiral arrangement of leaves around a plant’s stem

– Elm, set circumference as a ratio of 1

– Beech, Hazel 1/3

– Apricot, Oak 2/5

– Pear, Poplar 3/8

– Almond, Pussy Willow 5/13

– Pines 5/21 or 13/34

• 434 Angiospermae, 44 Gymnospermae – all with Fibonacci numbers in their design.

• This maximizes exposure to sunlight and air without shading or crowding from other leaves.

Seeds

• Rows of bracts on Pinecones: 8, 13

• Pineapples: 8, 13, 21

• Optimum divergence angle: 137.5 degrees produces the best packing; that’s why you see Fibonacci spirals in the seed heads (sunflowers, etc.)

The Golden Spiral

The is the only spiral that does not alter its shape as it grows. As you might have guessed it, this spiral is found in the nature: Chambered Nautilus, hurricanes, spiral seeds, rams’ horns, a sea-horse tail; growing fern leaves, the DNA molecule, waves breaking on the beach, tornados, galaxies, tail of a comet around the sun, whirlpools, and the seed patterns of sunflowers, daisies, and dandelions. It’s also found in the ears of all mammals and the cochlea of the human ear.

The Fibonacci design isn't just FUNCTIONAL but also BEAUTIFUL. The Fibonacci design is ALL AROUND US -- and some would accredit all of this beauty to random chance?! No. The Fibonacci sequence is evidence of DESIGN, not randomness! God is so amazing that His Work not only functions optimally but also is a masterwork of beauty!

Music

* The most beautiful chords found in music are the major and minor sixths.

* Musicians like Bach, Beethoven, Bartok, etc., would divide musical time into periods based on the same “golden” ratio (1.618) to determine the beginnings and endings of themes, moods, texture, etc. Randomness is cacophony; only design leads to masterpieces. If the complexity of Beethoven's symphony is attributed to design, how can we possibly attribute the complexity of all living things around us to randomness?

The Human Body: Beauty is defined by the Fibonacci ratio

• The distance from foot-to-knee x 1.618 = distance to the navel.

• 0.618 navel-to-chin = length of face

• Chin-to-lips, tip of nose to pupils, pupils to top of head, etc. -- 1.618 yields the distances to facial parts.

• Since man is made in the image of God, it is not surprising to find our beauty be defined in God's harmonious proportions!

J.S. Mill

"Penetrate into nature wherever the scientist may, thought has been there before him."

“Monkey Men” Frauds

As a scientist, I'm not saying science is invalid. However, it is a discipline that when objectivity is NOT diligently maintained, false truths are spread around the world. Below are examples of past scientific theories of how man evolved from monkeys have been PROVEN to be FALSE:

• Heidelberg Man, 1907 – Built from a jawbone.

• Nebraska Man, 1922 – Henry Osborn built model from just one tooth. This tooth was later confirmed to be from an extinct pig.

• Piltdown Man, 1912 – Charles Dawson built this model from a jawbone of modern ape. In 1953, it was proven to be a deliberate fraud. The jawbone was filed, treated with iron salts to make it look "old."

• Peking Man, 1921 – The evidence of this model "disappeared," an outright act of fraud.

• Neanderthal Man – This was found in a cave in the Neander Valley near Duüsseldorf. Int’l Congress of Zoology in 1958 showed that it was of an old man suffering from arthritis.

• Java Man, 1922 – The model includes 1891 skull cap; 50 ft. femur (thigh) bone. The evidence was concealed, and the teeth were of an orangutan.

The “Mind” is not just the organ of the “Brain”

The Human Brain has 10^10 nerve cells, each with 10^4 – 10^5 connecting fibers. This approaches 10^15 connections, which is equivalent the following totals: 50,000 leaves/tree; 10,000 trees/sq. mile; 2 million square miles = A forest the size of the USA!

The Human Brain Network

This network is a highly organized network of uniquely adaptive communication channels; if only 1% of the connections were specifically organized pathways, it would still represent a greater number of connections than the entire communications network on the Planet Earth.

How do our brains process information, form creative thoughts, develop and recall memories? All of these questions remain mysteries, despite decades of research. 

The Architecture of Man

1 Thess 5:23

And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

“... Spirit and soul and body...” -- Could this be the trinity of man?

The Hebrew word, "nephesh" means soul

Soul, self, life, creature, person, appetite, mind, living being, desire, emotion, passion... The term occurs at least 751 times in the Bible.

Brown, Driver, & Briggs, A Hebrew Lexicon of the Old Testament, highlights three primary meanings of nephesh:

1) Physical Life. An animal is called a nephesh as long as it is living. A dead animal is never called a nephesh because its body would be devoid of the life principle. It is used this way 150 times in the Old Testament. Adam’s body was complete yet unanimated until God placed in it “the spirit of life” (Gen 2:7).

2) Figurative Usage. A synecdoche for the whole person Gen 36:6, etc. A synecdoche is a figure of speech in which the specific is used for the general: “Give me a hand”; “lend me an ear”; “fancy wheels, man”; “nice threads”; etc. [In this sense, the Jews were prohibited from touching dead people (Lev 21:1, 11).]

3) The Soul. The Inner Being, the transcendent self, which departs at death and returns with life at the resurrection (Gen 35:18; 1 Kgs 17:21, etc.). That to which is attributed reason, emotion, will, and worship.

Rabbinic literature understood the soul to be invisible and immortal. [Babylonian Talmud (Ber. 59, AZ 21), Midrash (Gen 409, 516, 549; Num 733; Ecc 83, 229); et al (Morey, p.50).] All Jews except the Sadducees believed in the immortality of the soul [Josephus, Wars of Jews II, 154-159, 1632, 166].

The Hebrew word, "ruach" also means soul

The term occurs 378 times in the Bible.

• Breath, wind.

• God’s Spirit, the Holy Spirit

• Angels, good and evil.

• Life in men.

• Disembodied spirits.

• Disposition or attitude.

• Seat of the emotions, mind and will.

"Psuche"

• The LXX translated "Nephesh" as "Psuche" in 785 out of 810 cases.

• The Greek word for physical life was never used as the equivalent of Nephesh, to deliberately avoid equating the soul with mere physical life.

• “Psychology” is derived from psuche.

Psuche's definition: breath; the breath of life, of animals, of men; that in which there is life; a living soul; the seat of the feelings, desires, affections, aversions; the soul as an essence which differs from the body and is not dissolved by death.

"Pneuma"

• A movement of air; the wind; breath of nostrils or mouth; [Cf. “pneumatics” etc.]

• The spirit, i.e. the vital principal by which the body is animated; the rational spirit, the power by which the human being feels, thinks, decides; the soul.

• A spirit; i.e., a simple essence, devoid of all matter, and possessed of the power of knowing, desiring, deciding, and acting.

• A spirit higher than man but lower than God, i.e. an angel; used of demons, or evil spirits, as inhabiting the bodies of men.

• The 3rd person of the Trinity, the God the Holy Spirit.

The Greatest Commandment: We are instructed to “love God with all of our heart, soul, strength and mind.”

What does this really mean? How do we love with our heart? How do we love with our soul? How do we love with our mind?

We cannot determine the architecture of software by external means; we need the designer’s manual! For example, if we want to know how a computer software works, we cannot figure that out just by looking at the computer itself. To understand the language used to program the software, we need the code the designed used to create the software! 

"Ye are the Temple of God"

In the Bible, seven times it was declared, “Ye are the Temple of God” (1 Cor 3:9-17; 6:19; 2 Cor. 6:16; Eph. 2:20,21; Heb. 3:6; 1 Pet. 2:5; 4:17).

Our soul is the software; our body is our hardware. No one can get to know our true self just by looking at us from the outside. The only way for even ourselves to know our true self is to learn from God's manual -- His Word!

Software Characteristics

• Operating System (Windows, etc.): The Superprogram managing all the internal resources. This makes all the internal resources independent of the specific hardware environment

• User Interface: This controls all interactions with the external environment: I/O, etc.

• Memory Management: This allocates locations, finds what’s necessary, etc.

• Software includes self-modifying codes.

• Software is generated from high level language layers into “machine code.” Its architecture cannot be inferred from its external behavior.

• Software has no “mass.” It can be transmitted through the airwaves. It has no time dimension.

The Physics of Immortality

Frank J. Tipler, Professor of Mathematical Physics, Tulane University (a major theoretician in the field of global general relativity, that rarefied branch of physics created by Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose). In pursuing a mathematical model involving the end of the universe, Tipler (a professed atheist) came to two conclusions.

Using the most advanced and sophisticated methods of modern physics, demands “in exactly the same way physicists calculate the properties of an electron” arrived at two conclusions about God and immortality:

1) He discovered proof of the existence of God.

2) He also now believes that every human being who ever lived will be resurrected from the dead.

Genesis 1:30-31

And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

All creation up to this point is apparently vegetarian. This was changed after Flood; Gen 9:3.

Creation Completed

“The 6th Day”: "THE" is the definite article used for the first time; it stresses completion.

In the Onkelos Translation (known as “The Translation,” because this version was so venerated), it translated this definite article as, “It was a unified order.”

Study Questions

1) What peculiar design problems does a giraffe present, and how do they refute evolution as a source of design? Why couldn’t these have been resolved by random processes?

2) What are the main references to the Trinity in the Bible? (Include those in the Old Testament.)

3) How is photosynthesis a refutation of evolution?

4) How is the co-dependency of plants and animals an evidence of skillful design?

5) How is the role of symmetry in nature a refutation of randomness as a source of “design”?

6) What are Fibonacci numbers and why are they significant? 1) What do they reveal about our Creator?

8) List the historical “monkey men” and the basis of regarding them as frauds.

9) List at least 8 complex interdependent systems of the human body and explain why they represent substantial design problems of their existence. What are the main features of the human anatomy that refute accidental unaided chance as an explanation for our origin?

11) How does the architecture of the Temple facilitate our understanding of our own architecture? What is the basis?

12) How does Einstein’s Theory of Relativity impact our understanding of immortality?