Basic Assumptions
Whatever our viewpoints, we have to start with some basic
assumptions. In fact, we cannot conduct our daily lives without
assumptions. Many of our assumptions are never put into words, but are
learned by our experiences. We learn by trying different actions until we
try something that works. We build upon that. This learning must
start in the womb.
At first, we are the center of our universe. Everything
happens to and for us. Everything revolves around fulfilling our needs
and providing comfort for us. Eventually, we learn there are other
individuals around us, that they also have needs and wants. Our universe
expands to our home, to our neighborhood, and to the horizon around us.
The Sun, Moon and stars still turn around us and our little universe. For
many people in the world, this was, and still is, an adequate view of the
world.
Most of us today have learned how large (and how relatively small)
the Earth is. We know that many of the ancients had a good idea as
well. We have learned that the stars are much larger and farther away
than our unaided eyes are able to tell us. A very few of us have traveled
over a quarter of a million miles to the moon and there are now plans to send
men to Mars.
There are a few people who, in spite of television and world-wide
travel, still believe the world is flat, and that our trips into outer space
and views of the earth as a globe are a hoax perpetrated upon us by the media,
or government.
We all have to validate our own assumptions. No one else can
do it for us.
Science is based on the use of experimentation to discover the
Universe. As described already, a baby in the womb is a scientist.
A child learns to walk by trying one thing and another to get upright, learning
to balance, and finally placing one foot ahead of the other. Most of the
time, there is an adult or two for him or her to imitate, but the child must
still learn how to control his or her own muscles to do so.
The Scientific Method
can be described by these four steps:
1. Choose an
occurrence you wish to understand.
2. Imagine
possible explanations for the occurrence (hypothesize).
3. Determine what
would happen if your explanation is correct (predict).
4. See if you can
reproduce the occurrence with the expected results (experiment).
When you can
consistently reproduce the occurrence with the predicted results, your
explanation becomes a theory.
People who believe in Evolution generally believe (and assume) that
the processes that are going on in the present, have been the same throughout
the existence of the Earth. People who believe that God created the earth
as described in Genesis, generally believe that God intervened in the natural
processes of the Earth with supernatural processes. Some believe He has
intervened supernaturally since then as well. There are many who think
the answer lies somewhere between the two views.
I believe that the Scriptural account of the beginnings of the
Earth, having been provided by One who was there, while not explaining
everything we may want to know, is the most reliable account of what happened
when the Earth was formed and when Man was introduced to the Earth.
Science, as applied to those ancient times, is handicapped, in that
we cannot know exactly what conditions were at the time of creation, or during
the advent of mankind, and thus we cannot reproduce them for experimentation.
However, I believe we can apply the Scientific Method to our
assumptions.
- David Sawyer, January 30, 2004
Using
the Scientific Method, If we wish to understand
how the world, plants, animals, man, etc., came into being
(Step 1), we need to make some hypotheses (Step 2). I can think of three
basic possible assumptions:
Assumption 1: God created the
Universe and continues to interact with it.
Assumption 2: God created the
Universe, but at some point ceased to interact with it.
Assumption 3: God never existed.
For
Step 3, We need to predict things that would result from each of these three
assumptions.
For
Step 4, We observe our Universe to see if our predictions ring true for any or
all of them.
Again,
we all have to validate our own assumptions. No one else can do it for
us.
For my own part:
Assumption 3 has the disadvantage that it
removes all purpose from life; it would not be a useful theory, even if it fit
all the observed results. In my experience, it does not fit all of the
observed results. Put as simply as possible, it might explain passion,
but it could not explain love. Chance and probability are not enough to
produce the observed physical results, even in the time assumed by modern
physicists.
Assumption 2 has the disadvantage that God
must be viewed as an impersonal, uninterested force, while my experience has
shown me that God is personally interested in my life.
Assumption 1 has the blessing of my
experience. (see My Search for Truth)
I have tested my assumptions. God has answered my prayers, He has spoken
to me, He has led me step by step to find truths new to me. He has made
me know that the words of His prophets are true, both written and spoken.
They agree with what I see in the world. They explain things that
Evolution cannot explain.
- David Sawyer, January 30, 2004
This essay is written to illustrate that 'Science' itself evolves
through time, and by further applying the Scientific Method to the same
problems.
Galileo dropped objects from the Tower of Pisa in the early 1600's,
disproving Aristotle's teaching (4th century BC) that large, heavy objects fell
faster than smaller, lighter objects. This demonstrated that weight did
not affect the speed of a falling object. Personally,
I believe that others must have discovered the same thing at least by accident,
but either failed to tell others of their discovery, or history has forgotten
them.
About 50 years later, Sir Isaac Newton is said to have been sitting
under an apple tree, when a new thought struck him on the head with an
apple. He was able to describe mathematically the force of gravity by the
relationship of two masses and the distance between them.
In 1915, Albert Einstein, in his General Theory of Relativity,
described gravitational fields formed by the bending of Space-Time.
Scientists are working on a Unified Field Theory, a simultaneous
explanation of gravitational and electromagnetic fields, and a Grand Unified
Theory, which would include the strong and weak nuclear forces.
String Theory, involving multiple dimensions beyond the four we
usually think of, is showing some promise in solving the problems involved in
unifying the various forces, but there are a number of versions of String
Theory that seem to work equally well.
Science, by its nature, never comes to any ultimate answers based on
what it can observe and measure, but has to continually revise and refine its
theories to suit new discoveries. New discoveries have increased in
frequency exponentially through time; we are all witnesses of that. Even
the universal constants like the speed of light have recently come into
question. Who can say where Science will lead us in the future?
- David Sawyer, January 30, 2004
sources: Genesis 1, 2; Moses 2, 3; Abraham 4, 5
Day One: At the beginning of the Six
Days reported in the Biblical account, apparently the Earth had already been
formed and was covered entirely with water. Genesis (KJV) reads,
"the earth was without form, and void, and darkness was upon the face of the
deep." The Hebrew words translated "without form" and "void" mean
"deserted" and "empty." In fact, the Book of Abraham, translated by
Joseph Smith in 1842, reads, "And the earth, after it was formed, was empty and
desolate, because they had not formed anything but the earth; and darkness
reigned upon the face of the deep."
God created light to dispel the darkness. We are not told what
the source of that light was, but it was the beginning of the measuring of day
and night for the earth. Where was the earth? It is said in Genesis
that the stars were made on the fourth day. The greater light and the
lesser light made on that same day are not named, though we generally assume it
is the Sun and the Moon that are referred to then.
Day Two: On the Second Day, God
placed some of the waters above the Earth, whether in vapor, clouds of
droplets, or, as some have speculated, a canopy of ice. He calls the
expanse (or firmament) of the upper waters Heaven, or in Hebrew, shamayim.
The lower waters are called, in Hebrew, mayim.
Day Three: On the Third Day, God caused
the Dry Land to appear. Genesis goes on to say that God commanded the
earth to bring forth the plant life of the earth, while the Book of Abraham
only says that the earth was prepared and organized to bring forth the plant
life of the earth.
Day Four: As mentioned before, On the
Fourth Day, the lights we are used to seeing in the sky were made. The
Book of Abraham says they were organized, and then set in the earth's sky
(heavens). Both sources say they were put there to be used for signs, and
for seasons, and for days, and for years, and to rule over the day and the
night.
Day Five: On the Fifth Day, God brought
about the creatures of the seas and the birds of the air. The Book of
Abraham merely says that the waters were prepared that they might bring forth
these things.
Day Six: On the Sixth Day, God created
Man, male and female.
God then rested on the Seventh Day, which He has also commanded us
to do in our time.
In Genesis, chapter 2, we seem to have a separate, different account
of the Creation, where God makes man, then plants, and finally the
animals. This discrepancy, and the differences between the Genesis,
Abraham, and Moses accounts of the Six Days, may be resolved by understanding
the Six Days as a "spiritual" creation. In the Book of Moses, chapter
3:3-5:
"And I, God, blessed the seventh day, and
sanctified it; because that in it I had rested from all my work which I, God,
had created and made.
"And now, behold, I say unto you, that
these are the generations of the heaven and of the earth, when they were
created, in the day that I, the Lord God, made the heaven and the earth,
"And every plant of the field before it was
in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew. For I, the Lord God,
created all things, of which I have spoken, spiritually, before they were
naturally upon the face of the earth. For I, the Lord God, had not caused it to
rain upon the face of the earth. And I, the Lord God, had created all the
children of men; and not yet a man to till the ground; for in heaven created I
them; and there was not yet flesh upon the earth, neither in the water, neither
in the air;"
If this scripture is correct, there is no scientific tool we now
possess that would let us peer back before the time the first man, Adam,
was placed bodily upon the earth.
The Book of Abraham (Abraham 5:13) tells us something else that we
could not otherwise know, that before the Fall of Adam, time was reckoned by
the Lord's time, which is One Day with the Lord is as one thousand of our years
(Abraham 3:4; 1 Peter 3:8).
- David Sawyer, February 1, 2004
Are Fossils a Hoax played on us by God?
Hardly, since He has told us about the Creation from the beginning. If we
at times lose track of what He has revealed to us, it is certainly not His
fault. He never intended for us to rely solely on our five senses.
Did Adam have a belly button? For
myself, I can answer that question in the affirmative. I know that God
has a body, and that Adam was made in His image. For those of you who
believe God does not have a body, still the answer should be Yes. His son
Seth, born in Adam's express image, would have had one, and in any case, Adam
was the pattern for the human race.
- David Sawyer, February 1, 2004
What does it really tell us? As a teenager, I remember seeing
a picture of a human footprint alongside the footprint of a dinosaur, and yet I
still hear scientists say that dinosaurs died out more than a hundred million
years before there were any men on the earth. The theory of Evolution,
and specifically the theory of the extinction of the dinosaurs at such an early
time obviously does not fit all the evidence.
- David Sawyer, February 1, 2004
Some parts of DNA control the creation of specific proteins, some
contain code for turning genes on and off, and still other parts are
mysterious.
It has been found that certain hormones, including adrenaline,
affect the genes. Foxes raised around humans, after several generations,
along with lowered adrenaline levels, developed traits that were not present in
their genes, multi-colored coats, floppy ears, etc. Are dogs, then, the
tamed descendents of foxes and wolves, or are they their ancestors? A
creationist is more likely to decide that wolves and foxes are dogs that have
had to fend for themselves for too many generations.
- David Sawyer, February 3, 2004
It is probably a good thing to point out here that God has powers
that we do not yet understand, as exemplified by miracles wrought by His
servants the prophets, and especially by His Son, Jesus Christ. Our
science can produce no immediate cures for leprosy, crippling conditions,
insanity, blindness, deafness, or a severed ear. We cannot by scientific
principles walk on water or make iron float in water. We cannot control
the weather. We cannot cause a young boy's meal to multiply so it
can feed thousands. We cannot raise the dead.
We can only speculate about what means God employed in the creation
of the earth and in preparing it for the occupation of mankind. It is
clear from the miracles that have been witnessed, that God has control over the
very elements of which all things, life included, are made. Nothing He
wants to accomplish is impossible, the so-called "laws of physics"
notwithstanding.
- David Sawyer, February 4, 2004
Besides miracles, we have catastrophic natural occurrences to
consider, which themselves may have supernatural components. Here
are a few:
The Flood:
The Division of the Continents:
The Sun Standing Still:
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