Participants:
Series Code: TCR
Program Code: TCR180003A
|
00:30 Welcome to The Creator Revealed.
00:33 I'm Tim Standish. I'm a scientist. 00:36 And I work for the Geoscience Research Institute 00:40 in Loma Linda, California. 00:43 This program and this entire series 00:46 is about the creation 00:48 and what it can tell us about the Creator. 00:53 Yeah, I'm Shelley Quinn and we just want to thank you 00:56 for joining us today. 00:58 This program is in two segments. 01:00 The first half of the program 01:01 you will get some scientific information, 01:05 just enough to kind of whet your appetite. 01:08 In the second part, we will be talking about 01:11 a practical and biblical application. 01:14 What is the life lesson we get from this? 01:17 Paul said in Romans 1:20, 01:20 "That God's invisible attributes 01:23 were seen in everything that He created. 01:27 He imprinted or encoded 01:30 His artistic ability in His love, 01:36 if you will, on His creation." 01:38 And today, we're going to talk about 01:40 a well-noted biologist who's probably more famous 01:45 for being an atheist and how he mocks the design, 01:48 God's design of the eye. 01:50 Yes, you know what I like about Romans 1:20 01:53 is that it points us 01:55 in a very clear way to the creation. 01:58 God says, "Go and look, 02:01 taste and see that the Lord is good." 02:04 Amen. 02:05 And there's no hesitation about it. 02:08 Unfortunately, there are some people who think 02:10 that you cannot see the hand of the Creator 02:13 in the creation. 02:14 And some of them actually are 02:16 a certain kind of Christian. 02:19 I hope we all wind up in heaven. 02:21 I'll say that, you know, all of our eyes 02:27 obviously will be opened at that particular point. 02:29 But while we're here, the Bible encourages us 02:33 to look at the creation to appreciate what is there. 02:38 And particularly when it comes to human beings, 02:43 the Bible tells us beautiful things to expect 02:47 when we look at how a human being is made. 02:49 I love this text. 02:51 This is Psalm 139:13, 14, 02:55 "For you created my inmost being, 02:59 you knit me together in my mother's womb." 03:01 Isn't that fantastic imagery there? 03:04 Yes. I really like it. 03:06 That's actually why I use the NIV version, it has that... 03:10 It summarizes that imagery so nicely there for this text. 03:16 And then it goes on, 03:17 "I praise you 03:18 because I am fearfully and wonderfully made, 03:22 your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 03:26 Amen. 03:27 That's the biblical view of a human being 03:32 created by God, created in the image of God. 03:38 We expect as Bible-believing Christians 03:42 to see something wonderful. 03:44 But, of course, we all know we can't pretend 03:47 that there is not another view of what a human being is. 03:52 So let's look at one way 03:56 in which that has been expressed. 03:57 This is Charles Darwin writing. 04:00 Now you'll remember that Charles Darwin 04:02 was a materialist. 04:04 He believed really that the only thing 04:07 was the material world. 04:10 And here's what he says, 04:11 "Man in his arrogance thinks himself a great work 04:15 worthy the interposition of a deity." 04:18 So human beings think that we're fantastic and therefore, 04:22 you know, God somehow or other made us, 04:24 he's turning things completely around. 04:26 "More humble and I believe truer 04:30 to consider him created from animals." 04:32 But that was in 1838. That's right. 04:35 This is long before 04:36 the publication of his famous book 04:39 the Origin of Species. 04:41 So I've always heard that 04:42 it was because of his research and the origin of species 04:47 that he turned to an "evolutionist" 04:50 and denied God, but that clearly... 04:52 That's really a commonly held myth. 04:56 Darwin was clearly a dedicated materialist 05:01 before he ever went on the voyage 05:04 that he went on around the world 05:05 actually looking at things. 05:07 And he was searching 05:08 for a naturalistic explanation for things. 05:13 That's what his particular theory 05:15 of evolution really is all about. 05:18 Trying to come up with an alternative explanation 05:22 to what is pretty much obviously true to most people. 05:27 And that is the human beings 05:29 and the rest of everything we observed was created 05:34 in some way for a purpose interestingly enough. 05:38 Yes. 05:39 So, yes, you already mentioned Richard Dawkins 05:44 and Richard Dawkins is an atheist. 05:46 You could think of him as being an atheist evangelist. 05:48 Say, well, you're a Christian evangelist, Shelley, 05:51 he's an atheist evangelist, and he's very articulate. 05:55 I appreciate his writings actually 05:56 because he doesn't try to pretend, 05:58 he tells you precisely what he thinks. 06:00 So he's talking about the human body. 06:02 Now remember, this Darwinian view of things 06:07 inclines us to see things in a negative sort of way. 06:11 No, we're kind of cobbled together, 06:13 we are not a product of any intelligent thought 06:18 or any planning. 06:19 No, infinitely wise God made us. 06:23 So we don't expect to see infinitely wise things 06:27 in the creation. 06:28 This is what he says. 06:30 And he's talking about the human eye. 06:32 So if you're watching this on television, 06:34 he's talking about the instruments 06:36 that you are using to see us with amazing clarity. 06:41 Who isn't amazed by the human eye? 06:43 Well, it turns out, Richard Dawkins isn't? 06:46 He says, "Suppose I tell you that the eye's photocells," 06:49 so these are the cells at the back of the eye 06:52 that are detecting light. 06:53 Okay. 06:55 "The eye's photocells are pointing backwards, 06:57 away from the scene being looked at. 07:00 The wires," that would be the nerves, 07:03 "connecting the photocells to the brain 07:06 run over all the surface of the retina, 07:09 so the light rays have to pass through 07:12 a carpet of massed wires before they hit the photocells. 07:17 That doesn't make sense and it gets even worse." 07:22 So let's take a look at what he's talking about here. 07:23 Here's the human eye. 07:25 Most of us will be familiar with the basic architecture. 07:28 At the back of the eye there are light sensitive cells 07:32 and at the front you can see there is a lens. 07:35 So if you're looking at my smiling face, 07:39 what's happening is that 07:40 lens is focusing an image of me. 07:46 Well, both of us, on the back of your eye, 07:49 and those light sensitive cells are detecting that image. 07:52 So as the light falls on it, they change, 07:55 and they then send a signal through the nerves. 08:01 Back to our brains 08:02 and that's why we see things the way we do. 08:07 So here is what Dawkins is concerned about, 08:10 the nerves that pick up that signal, 08:12 they run over the front of the light sensitive cells, 08:16 they don't go behind. 08:18 And he thinks that's a terrible design. 08:20 So let's zoom in here 08:23 on just a little part of that retina 08:26 and take a look at what his issue is with it. 08:28 All right? 08:31 And so here we have our light detecting cells. 08:36 All right. 08:37 There they are 08:39 and those light detecting cells, 08:44 they use a lot of energy. 08:47 That means they need a lot of oxygen... 08:48 Lots of blood. 08:50 They need sugar then that's all bought by the blood, right. 08:52 So they need a blood supply to supply them. 08:55 That's why if you injure your eye, 08:57 you've probably noticed 08:58 there's a lot of blood involved. 08:59 Yes. 09:01 And if you ever tried looking through blood, 09:04 you've probably noticed that, 09:05 that's not really a good strategy. 09:07 It's quite opaque. 09:09 So if you put the blood 09:11 in front of the light sensitive cells, 09:14 you couldn't see anything. 09:16 The blood has to go behind. 09:19 So this is a design necessity that we're looking at here, 09:22 the blood is behind. 09:24 If you have the blood there, 09:25 you can't in the same place have the nerves, right? 09:29 You can only have one thing in one place at a time. 09:31 So therefore, the nerves have to go 09:35 in front of the light detecting cells. 09:39 So when light comes in... 09:41 This is according to Dawkins, 09:43 and this was a commonly held view. 09:46 When the light comes in, it passes through those nerves, 09:50 and it gets dissipated a bit. 09:51 So that would reduce the clarity of what we see. 09:57 And Dawkins thinks this is a bad design. 09:59 But we can see 10:01 it's actually necessary that things be this way 10:05 or else our eyes wouldn't work. 10:07 I should tell you, there are other designs 10:09 on how this works. 10:11 They suit the purposes 10:13 of those animals that have that design. 10:16 But this... So for an eagle or someone... 10:18 Well, actually, an eagle would have this kind of design. 10:20 Okay. 10:21 I'm talking about things like octopuses. 10:23 Oh, okay. Okay. 10:25 Their eyes, 10:26 the same general camera type eye as ours, 10:29 but their retina is arranged differently. 10:32 And it suits the purposes of an octopus... 10:35 Yes. 10:36 But not the purposes of a human being. 10:39 Okay. 10:41 So this is what Dawkins is complaining about. 10:44 He says, this is bad design, 10:46 even though everybody would admit, 10:48 "Hey, you know, our eyes work remarkably well." 10:52 Yes. Okay. 10:53 So then he goes on and he says, 10:56 "One consequence of the photocells 10:58 pointing backwards is that the wires," 11:00 remember that's the nerves there, 11:03 "that carry their data 11:04 somehow have to pass through the retina 11:07 and back to the brain. 11:09 What they do, in the vertebrate eye, 11:10 is all converge on a particular hole 11:13 in the retina, where they dive through it. 11:16 The hole filled with nerves is called the blind spot." 11:19 And this is the most shocking statement. 11:21 He says, "It's not just bad design, 11:24 it's the design of a complete idiot." 11:27 But it's interesting being an atheist 11:30 that he is still calling it a design. 11:32 Isn't that interesting? 11:33 Yes, yes. 11:35 This is a fascinating thing 11:36 because frequently people will argue, 11:38 "Oh, something is badly designed, 11:40 therefore, it's not designed." 11:42 No, we experience bad design all the time 11:46 but the things are still designed. 11:48 Yes. 11:50 The issue is really how competent the designer is. 11:55 So let's see what he's talking about here. 11:56 You see there where the nerves go through, 11:58 that's the blind spot. 12:00 He has a problem with that. 12:01 You will probably notice that most people have two eyes. 12:06 And the great thing is because of our two eyes, 12:09 we have this 180 degree view of everything, 12:13 and the blind spot isn't in the same place 12:15 in both eyes. 12:16 So your brain puts the image together, 12:18 you don't see any blind spot. 12:19 Okay. 12:20 This is actually brilliant design. 12:22 There's something else that's more 12:23 recently been discovered, and that is that, in fact, 12:27 the light does not get dissipated. 12:30 What happens is 12:32 there are these special glial cells 12:34 act like fiber optics, and what they do 12:36 is they carry that light through. 12:39 How fascinating. So it isn't dissipated. 12:41 What happened was the designer 12:44 actually anticipated that problem 12:47 with the nerves running over the front of the eye... 12:50 That's amazing. 12:51 And engineered in a brilliant solution. 12:54 And because of that brilliant solution, 12:57 human beings can do amazing things. 13:00 We have these sensors and those sensors 13:03 are coordinated by our amazing brains 13:06 so that we can see, we can hear, 13:10 we can put all of this information together, 13:12 and we can understand to some degree 13:15 the creation that we all enjoy. 13:17 So poor Richard didn't have this information, 13:20 when he's mocking God's design of eyes. 13:22 He didn't have the information about the glial cells. 13:24 He had all the other information. 13:26 Yes. Yeah. 13:27 But he's been disproven, right? 13:29 Well, it's been shown that that was a foolish 13:32 and presumptive view of things. 13:34 Remember, the Bible encourages us to look for God. 13:38 Amen. 13:40 Evidence of God 13:42 to contemplate what He created 13:45 and what we can learn about God. 13:47 Nature, the creation, doesn't tell us everything. 13:50 Amen. But it tells us plenty. 13:52 So there are a number of points 13:55 that we can get out of this I think. 13:57 Okay. 13:58 The Creator is revealed in the design of humans. 14:02 His love is shown in His provision of senses, 14:05 such a sight, 14:07 so that we can appreciate and enjoy the creation 14:09 He made for us. 14:11 His love is evident in the way He anticipated 14:13 and solved problems created by design necessities 14:18 so that we enjoy senses far better than are minimally 14:22 necessary for survival. 14:23 And He demonstrated His love 14:25 by providing us with nervous systems 14:27 designed for a relationship with Him. 14:31 When you consider the human eyes, 14:33 certainly, you see that there had 14:35 to be intelligent design. 14:37 We're going to take just a short break. 14:39 We'll be back in 60 seconds 14:41 to talk about the practical life application. |
Revised 2019-03-14