Life of theWorld Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne Summer 2009, Volume Thirteen, Number Two Fo r th e The Darwin-Luther Connection By Dr. Ken A. Ham Reasonable Response By Dr. Roderick B. Soper CTS Playscape: Entering the Biblical World By Rev. Timothy R. Puls 4 For the Life of the World F E A T U R E S PRESIDENT Rev. Dr. Dean O. Wenthe PUBLISHER/EDITOR MANAGING EDITOR Rev. Timothy R. Puls Colleen Bartzsch COPY EDITORS ART DIRECTOR Adriane Dorr Elizabeth Puls Steve Blakey EDITORIAL ASSOCIATES Rev. James Bushur Dr. Charles Gieschen Dr. Naomichi Masaki For the Life of theWorld is published quarterly by Concordia Theological Seminary Press, 6600 North Clinton Street, Fort Wayne, Indiana 46825. No portion of this publication may be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher of For the Life of the World. Copyright 2009. Printed in the United States. Postage paid at Minneapolis, Minnesota. For the Life of the World is mailed to all pastors and congregations of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod in the United States and Canada and to anyone interested in the work of Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana. CONTENTS 6 The Darwin-Luther Connection By Dr. Ken A. Ham Whether it’s liberal theology, evolutionism, the age of the earth, or moral issues (e.g., abortion and gay marriage), these are all ultimately battles over the same issue. In 2 Corinthians 11:3, the Apostle Paul warns us about an ever- present danger: “But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” Take one look around our world. A need for a new reformation is evident, both for our culture and for the church. We must return to the Bible as our absolute authority. 10 Reasonable Response By Dr. Roderick B. Soper It is critical to understand that science states that natural selection is random and undirected, meaning God (if He is out there) did not have anything to do with it. In fact, science is a method of searching for truth that intentionally keeps God out of the picture. Therein, of course, lies the rub. The Genesis account of creation puts all of the work in the hands of God, telling us that God created all things out of nothing. Seems like we have diametrically opposed opinions about how we all got here. Can both be correct? 20 CTS Playscape: Entering the Biblical World By Rev. Timothy R. Puls Children entering the campus of Concordia Theological Seminary to play on the new playground really do enter the biblical world. Not only is it an enjoyable place to explore and exercise physically, but it is also a place that exposes and illustrates some biblical truths and narratives taken from the Holy Scriptures. Children as young as age 2 can sit on and play in Noah’s Ark, touch Jonah’s Fish, crawl in Daniel’s Den, or hop on the Seven Day Steps of Creation. The more skilled explorers can hang from Peter’s Net, navigate their way up Jacob’s Ladder, or climb the Mt. Sinai Rock Wall. 26 What Does the Seminary Guild Do? We Serve in Love! By Lynn Brege The mission of the Concordia Theological Seminary Guild is to serve God by communicating the needs and encouraging support of the seminary and its students. We invite and encourage individuals and groups from our LCMS congregations to participate with us in this service. For the Life of theWorld Volume Thirteen, Number Two 10 For the Life of the World How can a Christian biologist give a credible response to Darwinism?Lutheran theology can give us truth that is just as reliable as sciencegiven the way these two ways of knowing search for it. When an evolutionary biologist is discussing evolution, he or she is typically saying that life on Earth started with a few random events that led to the beginning of a cell. More changes happened to the single cell, and eventually one arrives at what we see today in the natural world. The mechanism for that change is described by Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species (published in 1859) as natural selection. This kind of selection works when random mutations happen to our DNA. These mutations offer reproductive benefits that give an organism an advantage over all other organisms resulting in its increased survival rate. It is critical to understand that science states that natural selection is random and undirected, meaning God (if He is out there) did not have anything to do with it. In fact, science is a method of searching for truth that intentionally keeps God out of the picture. Therein, of course, lies the rub. ReasonableResponse Dr. Roderick B. Soper It is critical to understand that science states that natural selection is random and un- directed, meaning God (if he is out there) did not have anything to do with it. In fact, science is a method of searching for truth that intentionally keeps God out of the picture. Therein, of course, lies the rub. 11 The Genesis account of creation puts all of the work in the hands of God, telling us that God created all things out of nothing. Genesis also tells us that God created all things perfectly. That means that the creation was good when God looked at it (good being God’s good, not man’s good). That was until Adam and Eve sinned by eating the forbidden fruit. God responded by telling us that He would send a Messiah who would pay the price for our sin and restore our relationship with Him. Seems like we have diametrically opposed opinions about how we all got here. Can both be correct? No. That may surprise you a bit, but you have to understand that the way we understand truths in science can be very similar to the ways we understand truths outside of science. In theory, data is collected in science then interpreted objectively, void of human bias. That would be great if that’s what actually happened, but it is impossible. Origins scientists must extrapolate from what they observe in the natural world to describe how we all got here. It is in the extrapolation that science cannot separate itself from its bias. Science has an inherent bias associated with its method. If we assume that only natural explanations can be used to describe the origins of the Earth, then we reject any explanation that is outside the natural world even if the data is indicating otherwise. Relative to our theology, we also have a bias. We say that we must explain the origins of the Earth using God. I hope that you can see that the information used to explain how we all got here is not diametrically opposed, rather it is our biases, or our assumptions associated with how we explain what we see in the natural world. The discussion we should be having is about whether or not it is reasonable to explain the origins of the natural world by insisting that we cannot use an explanation that may go beyond the natural world. From a Christian biologist’s perspective, I would say that it is unreasonable to explain the origins of all life for the following reason. I know that DNA is the molecule responsible for making proteins. Proteins are needed for the existence of all life on the planet. Proteins are sequences of amino acids. To make a protein, you need to hook together amino acids in a very specific order. DNA houses the information needed to tell the cell what that order is. Knowing this, it is reasonable to say that DNAwas created. No direct evidence exists that says that this kind of information can be a product of chance. Therefore, it would make sense to say that something outside of our world wrote the manual to make proteins. If the bias I operate with allows for explanations that go beyond what we see, then I can say with a high degree of confidence that God created all living things in the way Genesis describes. Is the way science finds truth better than the way theology finds truth? Yes, if you are trying to develop a new microprocessor to make computers faster. But the answer is no if you are trying to understand the origins of all living things. In this endeavor, theology can answer questions of origins in much the same manner that science does. Dr. Roderick B. Soper is Assistant Professor of Biology, at Concordia University Irvine. He received his PhD from Curtin University of Technology in Perth,Western Australia. Science has an inherent bias associated with its method. We assume that only natural explanations can be used to describe the origins of the Earth, and therefore reject any explanation that is outside the natural world even if the data is indicating otherwise. SUMMER 2009