[Peter Eddington] Handouts going around for you here for the sermon. There is enough for every man, woman, and child. The kids can use it for a coloring book if they want to, but there's enough for everyone to have a copy. I did want to mention that something new starting tomorrow, some two-minute Beyond Today mini-programs on the i24 News network across the country. Right now they're in about 20 million U.S. homes and growing, but they're actually a global network available everywhere except Australia, New Zealand, and Latin America. And so we've got an opportunity to run two-minute programs. The first one will be about the Middle East and offering a Middle East booklet, so we'd appreciate your prayers for that. They're similar to what we're airing on Newsmax TV, so on i24, something to keep in your prayers this coming week as we try this out with them. And so for the sermon today there is a handout, make sure everybody gets a copy. For those who are watching online, the webcast team has put the link up at the bottom of the screen for you to download the PDF if you want. ftpmedia.ucg.org/sermons. ftpmedia.ucg.org/sermons

And those of you who are here on the very back page I've got the link if you'd want to download a copy when you get home. Because I've got a bunch of stuff in here that was just too much to try and quote, and try and cover without you seeing a copy and having something to take with you I think. Because many of us here today, and those listening online, have serious struggles we face. We're looking for solutions, for healing, for help. And at the highest level of life, ultimately, we want to strengthen our faith and belief in God. We try to make sense of our world and believe in our destiny as children in God's family. But in our troubled world, we so easily lose sight of that goal. And so here today, I plan to help us better understand just how awesome is our God. To see the bigger picture of creation. To put the larger goal of our eternal life into perspective. And I encourage you to look deeper, to strengthen your calling, to have faith that our Father in heaven truly is the all-powerful author of all things.

Probably, the most destructive deception of our modern times, a deception brainwashed into our children at school, and into our young adults at prestigious universities, is that of evolution. The opposite of the Scriptures. It's a theory which has become a curse on our educational systems and society. In the Galápagos Islands, there is a famous rock formation called Darwin's Arch, which stretches over a portion of the ocean. It's like you know, a bridge of rock over the water. On Tuesday, June 15, just a couple of weeks ago, the Center for Science and Culture reported the following. So here's the quote next to the graphic in your handout, "For generations," writes Center for Science and Culture, "Darwin's Arch in the Galápagos Islands stood as an unmovable monument to the life and work of Charles Darwin. A few weeks ago, the Arch collapsed. While the loss of this landmark is sad, it's also fitting, for Darwinism as a scientific and social theory is collapsing as well." And they say, "Just look around. In March, Nobel Prize-winning physicist, Brian Josephson, declared that intelligent design is valid science. In April, researchers writing in the journal 'Current Biology' asked whether Darwin's tree of life should be abandoned." So here's biology scientists wondering if it should be abandoned. "In May, it was reported that Sheffield University has stopped hiding Darwin's deadly social views from its students. The university handbook now accurately notes that Darwin 'Believed his theory of natural selection justified the view that the white race was superior to others, and used his theory of sexual selection to justify why women were clearly inferior to men.’"

So now one university is saying, you know, this is garbage. I particularly like the phrase that intelligent design is valid science. Because at its core, I will tell you, intelligent design proponents are scientists, they're not theologians. And they are proving an intelligence behind creation, not using the Bible, but using science. And the theory of evolution is anything but science. So in the sermon, today, we're going to talk about four things. And I want to have this strengthen our understanding of just how exquisite is God's creation. First, the need to believe in God, not evolution. Secondly, the need for foresight. And then the need for intentionality. And then finally, the need for Jesus Christ. So those are the four points I'm going to cover here today. And first of all, the need for belief in God, not evolution. You're reading Psalms 104:30, "You send forth Your Spirit, and they are created, and You renew the face of the earth." Yes, by the power of God's Spirit, everything is created. That's kind of the basis of everything. New York Times bestselling author of Darwin's Doubt, Stephen C. Meyer, just released his latest book, The Return of the God Hypothesis. He actually spent three to four years writing this, and it finally came out earlier this year, after being promised for a long time. The subtitle is "Three Scientific Discoveries That Reveal the Mind Behind the Universe." And this is the latest science. This is not a theological treatise. And I'm actually encouraged that such authors in the scientific world are starting to say what they believe, about creation, about design, about a mind behind the universe, and about the utter ridiculousness of evolution. Some say it shouldn't even be called a theory.

And so today, I want us to study a bit of that mind behind the universe. A portion of the dust cover, right here inside, a portion of the dust cover says, and I've got the quote here for you, "Beginning in the late 19th century, many intellectuals began to insist that scientific knowledge conflicts with traditional theistic belief, that science and belief in God are 'at war.' Philosopher of science and Director of the Center for Science and Culture at Discovery Institute, Stephen C. Meyers, challenges this view by examining three scientific discoveries with decidedly theistic implications. Meyer demonstrates how discoveries in cosmology and physics coupled with those in biology help to establish the identity of the designing intelligence behind life and the universe. And Meyer argues that theism, with its affirmation of a transcendent, intelligent, and active creator, best explains the evidence we have concerning biological and cosmological origins." And I've read several of his books, and it says here, "Previously Meyer refrained from attempting to answer questions about who might have designed life," he stayed away from that. "Now he provides an evidence-based answer revealing a stunning conclusion. The data support not just the existence of an intelligent designer of some kind, but the existence of a personal God." And it took me several weeks to complete reading this. It's a scientific book at its core, with compelling mathematical and scientific arguments for the existence of the God we see in the Bible.

The reason I'm spending a few minutes here discussing this book, it's not because I have to write a book review beyond for Beyond Today magazine, but because of its importance in laying out scientifically the evidence for the Creator. For the Creator of our universe, and the Creator and sustainer of life. It really is a pivotal volume. In Part One, it's got three parts. In Part One, Meyer examines the rise and fall of theistic science showing that at one time in a not too distant past, religion and science were compatible. It wasn't until the rise of naturalism and materialism spurred on by Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, that science and religion became at odds. And in fact, many early scientists were of Christian and Jewish faith. They saw the Bible and science working together. They saw the Bible encouraging science and scientific discovery, whereas materialism does not. That interesting section in the book showing how the theory of evolution actually discourages true science. Meyer points out in Part Two, how light from distant galaxies and the discovery that our universe had a beginning, often explained, of course, as the Big Bang theory, points to a creator of some kind, it points to a cause for this beginning. And then there's the discovery of the curvature of space, which scientifically and mathematically shows the need for an intelligent creator, not blind chance.

Let me quote you what Meyer writes on page 147. I think I have this quote in here. Yeah, bottom of page two. "Physicists have determined that if the matter at the beginning of the universe had been configured even slightly differently, there will be either an extreme clumping of matter resulting in a universe in which only black holes would exist or alternately, a highly diffused arrangement of matter without any large scale structures at all, you know, without any planets, just be spread out." And Meyer writes of Oxford physicist, Sir Roger Penrose, determining quote, which is on page 149, "That getting a universe such as ours with highly ordered configurations of matter required an exquisite degree of fine-tuning." So there's all just random, this matter just coming together in some random way, to end up with what we have now, has been calculated, the chance of that. The number that Penrose calculated, this was from page 150 in the book, is 1 in 10, to the 10, to the 123rd power. He says, "This provides a quantitative measure of the unimaginably precise fine-tuning of the initial conditions of the universe, to result in what we have now from that initial creation moment or Big Bang moment, to what we have now." All the laws, constants, and everything would have to be so finely tuned to have what we have now. And he gives… The chance is 1 in 10, to the 10, to the 123.

Now, physicists have determined that the whole universe contains 10 to the power of 80 elementary particles. Ten to the power of 80 is how many elementary particles there are in the entire universe, which is a tiny number compared to the probability of the universe turning out like it did. On page 151, in fact, if we try to write out this number 10, to the 10, to the 123, with a 1 followed by all the zeros that would be needed to represent it accurately without the use of exponents, there will be more zeros in the number than there are elementary particles in the entire universe. So the chance of this ending up like this, from the initial conditions? And so Penrose's calculation, suggests an incredibly improbable arrangement of mass-energy, a degree of initial fine-tuning, that would be absolutely impossible unless someone actually designed it and arranged it. It had to be designed. It's impossible mathematically to be by chance. And of course, the fine-tuning of the universe is just one of many, many discoveries that Meyer discusses in his book. We have the origin of life, we have the enigma of RNA and DNA, more discoveries which show the need for a designer. We have discoveries which show the mathematical impossibility for life to have happened by chance or at random. And then there's the immense amount of invisible immaterial information contained within life. It's not a physical thing, it's information.

And so then Meyer moves on to Part Three of his book, which is titled, "Inference to the Best Metaphysical Explanation." He shows how to mathematically and scientifically assess a hypothesis, whether it be the theory of evolution or any other hypothesis. How scientists assess the probability of any one particular hypothesis. He shows how scientists can rationally evaluate different worldviews as competing metaphysical hypotheses, and determine which is most likely to be true. You know, on the board, with formulas. And as you've guessed it, by the end of Part Three, we see the mathematical formulas which show the God hypothesis to be a more probable explanation for the origin of the universe and the origin of life than any other competing hypothesis. And he goes through so many worldviews and hypotheses to compare the God hypothesis too. It's called "Inference to the Best Metaphysical Explanation." And then once he gets to that point then he says, "So who could this be in this book?”

It's a very technical book. I have to read each paragraph, you see all the, you know, we've got charts, and graphs, and formulas all throughout, it's like a textbook. And it took me, you know, reading each paragraph two or three times, my yellow highlighter out making notes just to make sure it was grasping what he's saying. I have an engineering background and it was a challenge. Just the bibliography and notes at the end of the book, cover 115 more pages. Every claim, every formula, every scientist quoted, every chart, every graph, every diagram, is carefully documented. It's more of a university textbook. And it's one which ultimately leads the reader to no other mathematical or scientific conclusion, then the best metaphysical explanation to why we are here is the personal God explained in the Scriptures. Not just any religion, but this one gives the best explanation to the science. No other theory or hypothesis, even belief in other gods, or religions other than what we find in the Bible, provides a better inference to why we here. You have to read it, you know if you want to see how he comes to that scientific conclusion. So if you're in for an exciting read, by the need for God, the proof of a need for the God of the Bible, then read Return of the God Hypothesis, by Dr. Stephen Meyer.

But what does the personal God of Scripture tell us? What is the best metaphysical explanation as to why we're here? Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." What could be more simple? Let's just start there, why don't we? Verse 26, "And God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness,’" verse 27, "So God," what did He do? "created man in His image; male and female." What could be more plain? What could be more obvious? This is the majesty of what we see in the heavens. This is what Stephen Meyer points to as the best scientific metaphysical explanation as to why we're here. Psalms 19:1, "The heavens declare the glory of God;” that's right, "and the firmament shows His handiwork." The NIV says, "And the skies show His handiwork." You just look up at the night sky, like the ancient philosophers did, and said, "Wow, I wonder why we're here." Just makes you think. We see the grandeur of the night sky, we see God at work. There is a need for God in the fine-tuning design and sustainability of the universe, not reliance on random, blind chance.

So our first point is the need for belief in God, not evolution. And like I said, I'm encouraged that many scientists are starting to write about this. This is the universe on a grand scale. What about the microscopic? What about the tiniest microbes we can only see with a microscope, like the single-celled amoeba? And this leads us to point two, the need for foresight. The need for foresight. So, foresight is the act or the power of foreseeing. For example, through foresight, you could tell what the outcome would be. Or he had the foresight to invest his money wisely. The definition of foresight is the ability to see or plan ahead. Things that will happen in the future, things that haven't yet happened and predict, to have foresight. For example, Alex had the foresight to have the builders install a gas range. Yeah, so he could cook, right, and not starve, so “I think I'm going to need a stove.” An example of foresight is knowing to save money in an emergency fund in case you lose your job. You know, have a little money set aside for a rainy day just in case, you're thinking ahead. Foresight. Too bad he didn't have the foresight to stay home when the December cold front moved through because then he froze to death. Fortunately, he had the foresight to make it a legal adoption, otherwise, the child would not be his. Thinking ahead.

Planning and foresight can eliminate the last-minute crisis of an unfinished project for an unhappy client. Reminds me of Romans 1:20. "For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that He made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that without excuse." And so sometimes it becomes obvious. Our God has built foresight into His creation, and had the foresight to see the need for it. When a builder builds a home, he thinks ahead of time of all that will be needed to make the home function. The plumbing, the electrical, the sewage. Let me introduce to you, Marcos Eberlin. Marcos Eberlin is a Brazilian chemist, a former professor at the Institute of Chemistry at the University of Campinas. He's a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and received the Brazilian National Order Scientific Merit in 2005, and the Thomson Medal in 2016. He is a brilliant chemist, considered one of the foremost chemists on the planet. He's Brazilian, so maybe Jorge de Campos can go say hi. One of his most recent books is titled Foresight: How the Chemistry of Life Reveals Planning and Purpose. So we look at chemistry, and we see foresight.

So in his video on YouTube, you can find it, it's titled "How the Chemistry of Life Reveals Planning and Purpose." In the interview, Dr. Eberlin explains why the idea of foresight is so important in the study of origins of life, you know, why we're here? How we got here? In the video, I typed some parts out from the video, he says, "In studying life in the universe, we see solutions that solve really big problems. When we see these solutions we wonder, could evolution have provided those solutions?" He continues, "As you look at the solutions, and look for mechanisms that could provide these solutions, we see that foresight is so important, but we study those solutions at the molecular level. We see those solutions have to be there from the very beginning." And so to put it in our own words, there's no way life or the universe could wait for millions or billions of years for these solutions to develop and appear. The problems demand these solutions be there right away, at the very beginning. There's no way the emergence of life could wait for these solutions to gradually evolve, to gradually start to solve the problems.

And this brings us to the animal cell. Each animal cell can be thought of as a large factory, with many departments such as manufacturing, packaging, shipping, accounting. Each of these departments is represented by different what are called organelles. And what you have here on this handout is a 3D representation of the simplest, smallest piece of known life, the cell, all right? Those online that may not have yet, you know, downloaded the file, an example would be the single-celled amoeba. And a plant cell is surprisingly similar to an animal cell. But someone, someone, had to look at the system of the cell and predict in the future, foresight remember, this system would face some big problems that will demand solutions, not in a billion years, but will demand solutions immediately. This is why design foresight is so important. A mind is able to predict those problems, and also provide solutions at the very moment of first life.

And so for us today, guess what? Designers put brakes on our cars, figuring that at some point we'll have to stop. Thinking a little bit ahead here, right? Foresight. Seatbelts, in case we have an accident so we don't go right through the windscreen. Windshield is, we like to say here, foresight. We look ahead to the winter months, don't we? Knowing we have to heat our homes and have signed up for Duke Energy. Random chance evolution would not foresee the first cold winter. And so early life would have died at the first freeze without fur or a layer of blubber. First, I wouldn't have survived without foresight. Once problems appear, there's no way for a gradual evolution of solutions to solve them. This has to be one of the easiest, simplest arguments against evolution. Come on. Why don’t scientists see this? Why don’t evolutionists see this? You know, a creative mind is essential for life, and for the universe to work and function properly.

According to Dr. Eberlin, again, in his video, "How the Chemistry of Life Reveals Planning and Purpose”, "For example, at the simplest level of biology, we have the membrane that encloses the cell." So that's number 14, on our diagram, the membrane that encloses the whole cell. Remember, this is that tiny, tiny little thing, right? The cell. He says, "Obviously, cells can't exist without membranes to enclose them.” So who figured out to enclose all these parts in a membrane? Did it just suddenly evolve all at once the whole thing altogether? He says, "When we look at the membranes when we start to study the way they function, we discover those simple membranes are not so simple after all. The molecules that make up those membranes make a barrier to the outside world." Yes, right? "That barrier though must prevent some tons of molecules from entering, but also let other molecules escape. For example, water must both go in and out through the cell membrane."

So Eberlin says, "To let some molecules in and out, you need gates right from the very beginning of the cell membranes being formed. The cell needs gates, doors to open and close." He says, "This is the most crucial problem for cell membranes. It's called the permeation problem, which needs foresight to solve before the first cell is formed." And he says, "The membranes that evolutionists have proposed are not able to provide for those gates instantly. This is a really important factor," he says. "No, first an intelligent being must look at those membranes, see the explicit need for permeation, see the need for gates, and also see the need for mechanical resistance for those gates open-close, and all at the same time, everything must be there from the very first time the cell membrane starts to work as a cell membrane.”

And in his video, Dr. Eberlin then goes on to explain why a mind is required to design the cell and its isolating membrane. "Why foresight is needed," he says, "from the very beginning. And the task of building those membranes is extraordinary. It takes a lot of mechanical engineering and complex chemistry. The right molecules have to be selected, not just any molecule, not just randomly chosen molecules. You need ones like that love water and others that hate water." And then Dr. Eberlin explains, "These molecules must be stable as a function of pH in temperature. So a sensor is needed to monitor the pH and the temperature of the cell. Then the information coming from those sensors determines the change of the composition of what are called phospholipids." So I looked it up, and I decided not to try and explain it here. Phospholipids. "And so we come to see there are a lot of chemical and mechanical properties that have to be in balance, fine-tuned at once, to get a stable membrane. A mechanically and chemically resistant membrane. Only a very, shall we say, very intelligent mind could plan everything in advance to have the foresight to see into the future, this all will be put just right.”

So quoting from his video again, "A true definition of science is not restricted by natural causes." He says, "True science is not restricted by a materialistic or naturalistic view of our universe, where there are no outside influences on a universe, you know, no other God or anything overseeing things. Science should consider causes which are supported by the evidence, causes that are supported by the data," which is what Meyer does in his book, he looks at the evidence and comes to a conclusion, there is a force outside of the universe that is making things happen. Because when scientists open their minds to the possibility that there's more than just a natural or material explanation for everything when they open their minds for causes that are supported by the evidence, they're not then limited in their exploration, when they start to see the need for foresight. You start to think beyond… This is one reason why early scientists did so well because they were Christians or Jews, because they believed that there was a God behind all this, and actually it made things make sense. And added to their scientific discovery, it didn't take away from it. So a whole chapter about that in there, which is fascinating, about the origins of true science. And so, when you don't restrict yourself to a materialistic or naturalistic approach, then you're free to look for the truth of the causes that started life on our planet. And that's true science. Scientists have to allow for the alternative of foresight, for the solutions they see built into the big problems that would otherwise challenge the existence of life.

And a final quote from Dr. Eberlin, "When we consider foresight, we see it is by far the best explanation for many solutions in life in the universe. Scientists should follow the evidence wherever it leads, and when they do, foresight is clear and is evident. We are forced to accept it as the best evidence for design in the universe." So, this is all they need for foresight in the design of a single cell, a microscopic little living organism. How many cells do you think we have in our bodies? How many of these do you think are in our bodies? A million? A billion? No, there are 30,000 billion, 30 trillion cells in our body, that will have to work together. That takes, not just a single-celled amoeba, that takes an incredible amount of foresight and planning and design, to have all of you sitting here looking at me like this. Glazing over, you know. Psalms 139:13-14, "For You formed my inward parts, You covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made." You can come to no other conclusion, but that we are wonderfully made. Think of the design. The foresight that goes into this. "Marvelous are Your works and my soul knows it." Yeah, my soul knows very well that this didn't just happen by chance, okay? My soul knows it. If you're honest, if the scientists are honest.

Here's another piece of foresight in the design of the cell membrane. This is an article titled “Zip It: How Cells Repair Leaking Membranes." It's from Evolution News, May 27, 2021. So just a month and a half ago, right? “Zip It.” "Membrane repair would have been necessary with the first cell." So apparently, number 14 here can tear very easily, and it'll pop like a bubble. The article says, "If by a most fantastic miracle scenario, against all probability," they say by the way, "A protocell emerged from the primordial soup, it would be all over quickly if the membrane sprang a leak." So, "Membranes need channels for active transport to control what goes in and out." That's the gates, remember? "They also need repair mechanisms if they break. Along with code, machinery must be present to translate the code into other machines to know what to do when a membrane breaks. Unwatched membranes are vulnerable to leaks, and they don't care. Without foresight and oversight, protocells will be like bubbles that pop in due time. Too bad for those hard-won living ingredients inside." You know, that popped out of the swamp. Pop, sorry, life's over.

So then follows a very scientific explanation in this article about how a cell detects a tear. A little amoeba can detect a tear in itself, a breach, or a leak, and spring into motion to repair it. That comes to the engineers, you know, that's stitching it, so the article is called “Zip It”, "The cell must have ways to know that a leak has begun. A rapid influx of calcium 2+ ions triggers a simple yet powerful mechanism for detection of membrane integrity. This, however, requires the presence of proteins that bind to the calcium ions so that they can trigger mechanisms that promote membrane sealing by membrane fusion, fission, or tension reduction. At least 16 proteins and protein families promote membrane sealing in four categories of damage." I'll just finish a bit of this quote. "Membrane repair is a key emergency operation for a cell. Just like countries with different military branches for external threats and police agencies for internal threats, cells come well equipped to handle breaches to their security. Saying these systems have evolved explains nothing. Something had the foresight to know these systems will be necessary for life and health. Something has the oversight to ensure their successful operation. The incredible complexity of membrane repair provides additional and powerful evidence for intelligent design." And so a second point is a critical need for foresight in creation. Otherwise, nothing would have survived.

Okay, the need for intentionality. What is intentionality? So a coffee mug. This is actually a lump of clay that was fired in an oven and made into the shape. Why? Why did someone take a piece of clay and make a mug, well make the shape that they call a mug? It's intended to hold a hot drink. So this is one of the best coffee mugs I've ever had, I'll just say, Gerald Seelig bought for me 25 years ago, and I use it every single day in the office. It's even got a cork bottom, that is like a built-in coaster. I'd have to put a coaster on my desk. It's got a built-in coaster. This is intended specifically for being a great coffee mug to hold a hot liquid. Intentionality is the fact of being deliberate or purposive. In philosophy, it is having thoughts, beliefs, desires, and hopes that consist in their being directed towards some object or state of affairs. Intentionality is thinking outside of yourself. We can decide intentionality, or intentionally we're going to take a vacation, we're going to bake a cake. We can look at artwork and other objects and appreciate them, they're things outside of ourselves. Intentionality is in our thoughts. It's not a physical thing, intentionality. Intentionality is not made up of matter. Intentionality is in the mind. Think of that, intentionality is in a mind.

As Wikipedia states, "The earliest theory of intentionality is associated with ontological argument for the existence of God. And this distinguishes between objects that exist in the understanding and objects that exist in reality. A common dispute is between naturalism," right, people that don't believe in God about intentionality, "And the phenomenal intentionality theory, the view that intentionality is grounded in consciousness." And so yes, we would believe that intentionality is grounded in our mind, in our consciousness. Intentionality cannot exist in an inanimate, materialistic, or natural object. It has to be thought of. So, is there any intentionality in the universe that had to be thought of by a mind ahead of time, by a great mind?

Let me introduce to you, Michael Egnor. Mr. Egnor is a pediatric neurosurgeon, and he is an intelligent design advocate and blogger at the Discovery Institute. He is a professor at the Department of Neurological Surgery at Stony Brook University since 1991. In his video on YouTube, the evidence against materialism, Dr. Egnor explains several ways in which materialism is not a viable theory of the origin of life. Evolution is not a viable theory of the origin of life. And his final point in the video is about intentionality. And that's what I want to draw your attention to. Remember materialists believe nothing exists except matter, matter, and energy. Even our thoughts they say are made of matter. Here's some excerpts from quotes from Dr. Egnor. He says, "Intentionality is the ability for something to be about something else. For example, if I'm thinking now that Washington, D.C., my thought is intentional in the sense that I'm thinking about something that's not me. I'm thinking about a city, or I'm thinking about a doorway or thinking about my wife.

So the ability for thought to be about something is unique to the mind because no physical object is about anything." He says, "A rock sitting on a beach isn't about anything. A tree isn't about anything, only a thought can be about something. So someone had to think what they wanted to make." He says, "You cannot explain intentionality using materialistic beliefs," you know, like evolution or naturalism. He says, "You can't explain a living thing without explaining what the purpose of the parts of that living thing are. You can't explain the heart unless you explain that the purpose is to pump blood. You can't explain the eye unless you understand the purpose is to see. Where do those purposes come from?" Well, he says, "Those purposes are kind of like intentionality. They're kind of like a mind. And the implication is that behind the universe, there's a mind, a grand mind. A mind that is reflected in the way the universe works.”

It's like my coffee mug. Well, you know, it's not quite like my coffee mug. But it's intentionally designed to hold a hot drink. It's not for anything else. It's not to sit in and drive somewhere, it's meant to hold a hot drink. In our understanding, in our faith here today, we see the creation shows a purpose, a goal. We see intentionality in the creation. What we see all around us is a reflection of a much higher mind. It's a reflection of God. To quote Dr. Egnor in his video again, he says, "Materialism," he's really blunt here. He says, "Materialism in my viewpoint is not even really a philosophical perspective." So you're talking naturalism, materialism, evolution, he says, "It's not really even a philosophical perspective. It's just a mistake. It's just like claiming that two plus two is five is mathematics. It's not really mathematics, it's just an error. And materialism isn't even sufficiently coherent, in my view, to qualify as a philosophical perspective. So for example in biology, we need to focus on the purposes of biological structures, not just on the details of the structure itself. We need to know why they're doing what they're doing."

Now, why do I have this organ in my chest? Well, it's pumping, why do I have a pump? Well, it's to pump blood. Why do you need to pump blood? Well, so I can stay alive. What was it intended for? He says, "You need to know why they're doing what they're doing. And once you start looking for purposes, you start looking at immaterial aspects of nature and form, and that leads you out of materialism." He says, "The best science is the science that looks for deep conceptual principles that underlie the natural world, and that's inherently not a materialistic perspective.”

The famous passage in Jeremiah 29, that shows the intentionality of God. Got it here in your hands out. Jeremiah 29:11, "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you," that's intentionality. God's thinking outside of himself towards us. That's intentionality. "I know the thoughts I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you," here's what I intend for you, "to give you a future and a hope." So even in our faith, there's intentionality. God has intentionality, planning, purpose, and hope for each of us. There is obvious intentionality in life all around us. God has a future for us. It all points to a mastermind, a master designer, a master of intentionality. And the ultimate intention is, as we know, and it's in a vision statement for the church, to bring many sons to glory, as children in God's family. Hebrews 2:10, "For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." He's talking about Jesus Christ and His role to bring many sons to glory. Talk about intentionality and purpose for the creation, for us. So, a third point is the need for intentionality.

And now, number four, the need for Jesus Christ. There's a giant billboard along the side of the freeway here in Cincinnati, near downtown. It's got big, bright, red letters. And it says, "In Science Lives Hope." It's a billboard for UC Health for the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. That's their slogan, "In Science Lives Hope." Here's what their website says, "Because UC Health trains one out of every three doctors in the region, we are the teachers others look to. We are the authors of healthcare's greatest breakthroughs. And we are always showing the world has science can win. UC Health, In Science Lives Hope." All right, into seeing them saying it. Well, since our world is in the middle of a pandemic, probably caused by scientists in a lab, this doesn't raise your confidence a whole lot, does it? If this is our only hope, is science. Yes, science has brought wonderful things to our society. Air travel, cars, refrigeration, clean drinking water, but scientists become like a god to summon our society, you know, follow the science, never changes the next day. Think of some of the things science is responsible for. The nuclear bombs that could exterminate all life. Hey, way to go. The World War II scientists, they performed gruesome experiments on children to improve their scientific understanding. Then there was a scientist who wanted to protect us from global warming. And get this, more than one of the global warming experts would like to change the orbit of the earth to move us further away from the sun. Yeah, let's try that.

When Job questioned the wisdom of God, he was called to answer for his arrogance. The same response God gave Job could be given to many evolutionists and scientists today. Job 38:1-11, I'll read them for you here, you've got them in the handout. "Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said: 'Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?'" Who's the not here? Who's the idiot that's questioning me? Who is this? "Now prepare yourself like a man." You know, stand up, pull up your britches, "I'll question you, and you shall answer Me, where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, Job if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it." Who had the giant tape measure? "To what were its foundations fastened?" To see if you hanging in space. "Or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars, the angels, sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Or who shut in the sea with doors, when it burst forth and issued from the womb; when I made the clouds it's garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band; when I fixed My limit for it, and set bars and doors;” kind of like reminds me of the cell, right? The bars and doors. "But I said to the ocean, 'This far you may come, but no farther, and here you're proud waves must stop!” I guess we could add a new verse today, Job 38:12, where were you when I designed the cell membranes to repair itself from tears, and give them gates so that nutrients didn't waste out. Where were you, Job, when I did that? Of course, they didn't know about such tiny things back in those days. God is telling Job here about very intentional things.

Is there hope for our future? Yes, but not in science. Our hope is in Jesus Christ, not science. When the Israelites were fleeing from Egyptian soldiers, it wasn't science that parted the waters or closed the waters to drown the soldiers. God was their Savior, not science. Science cannot change the heart of a person. Science has never saved a marriage. Science has never turned a pacifist or terrorist into a pacifist or caused a criminal to repent. But God has done all those things millions of times over. Science hasn't. And think of this, science has never forgiven a man of sin or a woman of sin. The freeway billboard should read, and our personal slogan should be, "In Jesus Christ Lives Hope." 1 Peter 2:24, "Jesus Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died because of our sins, might now live in righteousness, by whose stripes you were healed." Jesus Christ made it possible.

1 Peter 1:13-16, "Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." That's our hope, to rest our hope fully on Jesus Christ. And of course, at His revelation is when we'll be resurrected. "As obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance, but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, 'Be holy, for I am holy.'" So then we're told how to live our life, be holy because of this hope we have in Jesus Christ, and Him dying for our sins. So our final point is the need for Jesus Christ.

So what we see here today is the need for belief in God, not evolution, the need for foresight, the need for intentionality, and the need for Jesus Christ. I want to just read a final passage from Isaiah 40:28-31, that talks about our Creator and the strength that He gives each of us every day when we search for Him. Isaiah 40:28, "Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, He neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall be faint and weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the Lord… those who wait on the Eternal shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”

And as I said at the beginning, many of us here today are facing serious struggles. We need solutions, we need healing, we need help. And we may be weary and faint. We need to be lifted up with wings like eagles. And at the highest level, we ultimately need the strongest of faith and belief in our Creator, our Creator God. We have to make sense of our world and believe in our destiny. Our destiny as children in God's family, as spirit beings, right? We must not lose sight of that goal. We must appreciate and understand just how awesome is our God. To believe in what He has promised us. To always keep the larger goal of our eternal life in perspective as we live each day. And so today, I pray that you even more clearly see that our Father in heaven and Jesus Christ truly are the author of all things, with foresight, intentionality, and purpose for each of us, including our very own life, and our salvation.

Good afternoon to everyone. Before I begin with the main message, I'd like to take a humor pause, make everybody feel at ease. You might know I was originally from Cuba and I still grieve for the people that still live there. They are going through tough times and to ease a bit of their stress, they have resigned themselves to suffering a lot. They use humor and they have a joke that is told in Cuba and it goes like this. "Did you know that Adam and Eve were Cubans?" "How is that?" The answer: "Well, they ran around barefoot, they didn't have anything to wear, all they could eat was fruits and vegetables and they were told they were living in paradise." That's what Fidel keeps telling them.

Now, how many of you have dogs in your home? Can I see – quite a number. Well, lets see if you will identify with the following joke. It's called, How Dog Rules Evolve. As you know, you first of all get your pet and you have certain rules that you are going to abide by. This little puppy is there, he's very lovable, very pliable and he's going to be obedient so you set up these rules.

•The first one, dogs are never permitted in the house. The dog stays outside in a specially built, wooden compartment named - for very good reasons - the dog house. But, what happens? That kind of changes after awhile. So now the rule becomes:

•Okay, the dog can enter the house, but only for a short visits or if his own house is under renovation. After awhile, that doesn't work very well so,

•Okay, the dog can stay in the house on a permanent basis provided his dog house can be sold in a yard sale to a rookie dog owner. How many of us have those dog houses that the dog never lived in? I must say, I'm guilty of that.

•Inside the house, the dog is not allowed to run free and is confined to a comfortable, but secure, metal cage. That doesn't work out very well after awhile, so...

•Okay, the cage becomes part of a two-for-one deal along with the doghouse in the yard sale and the dog can go wherever he pleases.

•The dog is never allowed on the furniture. After awhile, you adjust it a bit. Okay, the dog can get on the old furniture, but not the new furniture. So that changes after awhile. Okay, the dog can get up on the new furniture until it looks like the old furniture and then we'll sell the whole works and buy new furniture upon which the dog will most definitely not be allowed. So then, the next rule:

•The dog never sleeps on the bed! Period. What happens after awhile? Okay, the dog can sleep at the foot of the bed. You notice how the dog kind of creeps - starts taking over our lives. Then it goes on,

•Okay, the dog can sleep alongside you, but he's not allowed under the covers.

•After awhile, okay, the dog can sleep under the covers, but not with the head on the pillow.

•Okay, the dog can sleep alongside you, under the covers with his head on the pillow, but if he snores, he's got to leave the room.

•That evolves into, okay, the dog can sleep and snore and have nightmares in the bed, but he's not to come in and sleep on the couch in the TV room where I'm now sleeping. That's just not fair.

•And finally, the dog never gets listed on the census question there as "primary resident" even if it's true.

So, with that, let's go to the main message today. How many of you have heard or read about Intelligent Design during this last year, can I see your hands? Just about everybody. Well, Intelligent Design is in the news, it is a controversial issue. And it's interesting, I was talking with a minister yesterday who said that he went to a gym about a week ago and met some people and one of them asked him what he did. He said, "I'm a minister" and the first question that person asked him was "Well what do you think about Intelligent Design?" It's amazing how it's coming up as the very important subject. And Intelligent Design, as you will see, is a very valuable tool to have to strengthen your faith and also to refute Evolution which is still the dominate world view in biology. It will help to answer our children's questions, also when you're at the workplace, in school or even in church. So, let's take a birds-eye view of this subject of Intelligent Design. We are going to see it's modern origins and also, what is the basis for Intelligent Design. Will it eventually triumph or not? It will also help us refute one of the most dangerous and largest lies out there – the Theory of Evolution: that man was not created, but that he evolved from primitive beings. And as we will see, that Theory of Evolution is doing a lot of damage out there.

So, now we begin understanding what it says in Hebrews 11:6 that faith begins with believing in the existence of God and then in the Word of God . God says that it is impossible to please God if you do not believe in His existence and that He is the rewarder of those that follow Him. So we are going to see many modern proofs of the existence of God today to strengthen our faith , to understand how a group of brave scientists who have seen the truth are attacking the Theory of Evolution through the concept of Intelligent Design and curiously enough, there is a parallel between what these men are doing and what the Church is also doing out in the world. Yes, their subject is that the evidence that they see in science does not support evolution. But, you see, they are going against the tide. They have a truth that they have discovered, they are trying to get it out there, but yet, the media is quite hostile still and similar to what the Church is doing. We have some biblical truths to get out there, but we are going against the tide of tradition and man-made religious laws and we, also, can take comfort that these men, they are being persecuted by their scientific peers, by the press, but they are continuing onward because they believe they have a truth to get out there just as the Church has to continue with its efforts to get the truth out there because it is genuine, it is authentic and the world needs that truth just like they need Intelligent Design to be able to refute Evolution. So, currently there is a heated debate in the United States about whether to let the teaching of Intelligent Design into the classrooms. All of this has enormous repercussions on today's society and the belief in God. Why? Let's go to the Bible for the answer and one of the things that is at stake is the answer, are we descendants of monkeys or instead of only other human beings? Evolution says we have descended from monkeys. Accept it! Get over it! But the Bible and our belief in God says that no, we have not. We have descended from Adam and Eve, from other human beings but not from monkeys and other simpler creatures. So we read in 2 Timothy, chapter 3 verses 1 through 4 a fitting description of our violence-filled days.

2 Tim. 3:1-4 - In the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves... blasphemers... brutal... traitors, headstrong, haughty. We live in a very violent world. How did this world come to be this way? Well, much of the blame can be cast upon three influential thinkers of the 19th century: Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, and Sigmund Freud. They sowed three ideas that became the "rotten apples" of today's society - Evolutionary Materialism, Atheistic Communism and Humanistic Psychology; three ideas that have permeated the sciences today. You can see their portraits.

Now, Phillip Johnson, one of the founders of modern Intelligent Design theory, predicts this: "Every history of the twentieth century has three thinkers as preeminent in influence. Darwin, Marx and Freud ... Yet, Marx and Freud have fallen... and I am convinced that Darwin is next on the block. His fall will be by far the mightiest of the three." And that's what Intelligent Design is attempting to do.

Now we have seen very influential men become atheists through the Theory of Evolution. They have denied the existence of God. One of them is zoologist, Richard Dawkins who has written many books trying to show that evolution is true and he stated, "Evolution has permitted me to become an intellectually fulfilled atheist." And so has it for many other people. Evolution has provided a philosophy that they can live by and feel that they are correct in their ideas.

The following account has to do with that coming fall of Darwin and his lethal idea of Evolution, that changed the worship of the Creator to the worship of Creation and its creatures, perpetuating a tremendous lie as the apostle Paul described in Romans 1:18-25. I'm going to read that right now in Romans chapter 1. You can read that along with me or just listen as I go into it.

In Rom. 1:18 it says, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,

Verse 19 - because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.

Verse 20 - For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse,

Verse 21 - because, although they knew God... through nature and their study of living things ...they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Verse 22 - Professing to be wise, they became fools,

Verse 23 - and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man - and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.They started worshiping the creatures instead of the creation.

Verse 24 - Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves,

Verse 25 - who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

So Paul talked about Intelligent Design. This isn't a new concept, but there is a modern version of it thanks to all of the new discoveries in science. So let's see who are behind the Intelligent Design revolution that with scientific truth is toppling Darwin from his lofty pedestal.

First of all, a definition of what is science: Linus Pauling, twice awarded the Nobel Prize for science, said, "Science is the search for truth , the effort to understand our world." You see, it's an effort, a search for the truth, there's nothing wrong with that. That is a lofty goal and that's the way it should be although many times, it isn't. People change the definition of science into something else, something that isn't true. We should search for the truth in all areas. God has revealed to us wonderful truths in the Bible, but they're not just spiritual truths. He gives us, also, historical truths. He gives us wonderful moral principles to live by so we should search for the truth in all areas. We should become good scientists in that sense and by better understanding nature, we can better understand God, its grand designer. As David said, I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made (Ps. 139:14)

Now we have here some of the scientific discoveries that we're going to just briefly touch upon. We have bacterial flagellum which now, through electron microscopes they are able to see the functioning of that little flagellum in a cell. The lungs' cilia, another example of something intelligently designed.

Now Stephen Meyer, head of the Discovery Institute and one of the leaders of Intelligent Design has said, "We are in the very initial stages of a Scientific Revolution." Isn't that emotional? Isn't that exciting to realize that we are living right now in the initial stages of a scientific revolution, whether you knew it or not. Now previous scientific revolutions have transformed society. For instance, we have President Bush mentioning that he believes Intelligent Design should be taught in the schools. He said, "I think that part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought so people can understand what the debate is about." He has taken a very courageous stand about it, and he has taken a lot of flack, but he is correct. Also, the Senate Majority Leader, Bill Frist said that teaching both Intelligent Design and evolution in schools "doesn't force any particular theory on anyone...I think in a pluralistic society that is the fairest way to go about education and training people for the future." So here we have two of the leaders in the U. S. standing up for Intelligent Design against a vast majority of liberals who oppose it.

Now the start of different Scientific Revolutions took place because of certain key discoveries in science. For instance, Galileo invented one of the first telescopes in 1609 and gazed at the moons of Jupiter starting a scientific revolution, heliocentrism, which means that he realized that the moons of Jupiter did not go around the earth, but they went around the planet. And that helped him understand that not everything revolved around the earth and the theory that the earth was at the center of our solar system was refuted. And he, along with others, started a revolution that the sun is at the center of the solar system and not the earth.

Another one that began a scientific revolution, Sir Isaac Newton began one with his theory of gravity after watching an apple fall from his garden and wondering, now what caused that apple to fall? He strongly believed in an Intelligent Designer. So, one of the fathers of modern science was a believer in Intelligent Design.

Albert Einstein, another one who launched a scientific revolution in the middle of this photo, launched another scientific revolution with his theory of relativity and also changed man's ideas. And some of these theories have helped man send ships into space and they can rely on some of these ideas. He admitted, "Science, without religion, is lame ; religion without science is blind." Both are needed and that's what Intelligent Design is trying to do.

Another one who started a scientific revolution was Charles Darwin when he took that trip around the world in the ship, The Beagle. But this scientific revolution was based on a false premise of materialistic evolution and has led biological science to wander in a confusing maze about 150 years now that science has been trying to explain things through Evolutionary Theory that doesn't fit the facts. That is what more and more scientists are concluding.

The start of the Intelligent Design revolution, Charles Thaxton, physical chemist, coined the term "Intelligent Design" in the 1980's to explain the incredibly complex world they were seeing inside the cell. So being able to look inside the cell they started realizing there is an intelligence behind this. Look at all of these wonderful biological machines inside the cell that could not just have come through evolution.

In 1986, Biochemist and agnostic - a man who doesn't believe in God, but he was honest enough to look at the evidence and come to a conclusion that evolution is wrong - Michael Denton from New Zealand wrote one of the most devastating critiques against Evolution entitled, "Evolution; A Theory in Crisis". I noticed here in the ABC Library they have the textbook by Denton .

Then over in California, Berkley Law professor, Phillip Johnson has become the "Godfather of the Intelligent Design Movement". This man who also didn't have a belief in God, and yet, he was challenged by reading some books on Evolution with this lawyerly mind he saw that these evolutionists were not presenting good evidence. They were resorting to a lot of trickery that he had seen in the law courts with a lot of smoke screens and attacking the person instead of the ideas. So he studied it and he became convinced that evolution was wrong. Some of his famous books: ' Darwin on Trial'. Another one, 'Defeating Darwinism by Opening Minds', excellent books.

Molecular biologist, Michael Behe wrote " Darwin 's Black Box". Here's another man who through his researchers, he's a laboratory professor and what he was looking at, he could just not explain it through evolution. He's a common speaker at some of these Intelligent Design conferences. I've had the opportunity to go to two of the ones that are here in the U.S. and Michael Behe is always there.

Molecular biologist, Jonathan Wells wrote another key critique of Evolution: "Icons of Evolution". He just went step by step showing how much fraud is involved trying to support this theory. Also, very good book just showing how the evidence has been distorted by some scientists to try to support Evolution.

So we go to, now, the four main aspects of Intelligent Design. What are the pillars of this movement that is slowly making headway in the news? The first one has to do with INFORMATION THEORY. This is something that 25 years ago wasn't even a field of science. It is today. Biologist, George C. Williams explained how information is separate from matter and energy. He started realizing that information is not the same thing as matter and energy. For instance, you take a book, you take the Bible, this is made out of leather, paper, ink and glue. But those little blotches that are inside the pages, those little ink spots, see they are something physical, but they transmit information. Information is not the same as the ink spots. A book carries information, but it is not information. Information is not made by matter, it is not something that you can put in a box. And we all know who work with computers how truthful this is. I've got here two CD's. See, they look very similar. One is empty and the other one is full of information. You put them on a scale, they both weigh the same and yet one is full of gigabytes. You can fill this with millions of gigabytes and it will not add one tiny little portion of weight to it. They weigh the same. Now I can take this information and I can pass it off here, this doesn't weigh any more and this weighs the same. That information can be stored in a disc, it can be placed in a book, you can even send it through smoke signals. See, these are physical mediums that carry the message, but the message is separate from the means that carries it. So this started a revolution: what is information, then? And they came to the startling conclusion that information cannot be created by just matter and energy. There has to be an intelligence that creates information.

Then they found an enormous amount of information inside the cell in the DNA molecule. That's inside the nucleus of the cell and they found that this message inside the nucleus is three billion letters long, it contains a complete instruction manual on how to build, run and reproduce an entire cell which, just recently, they've been able to decipher. They've been able to read the entire code and where have they placed it? They took it from the molecule of the DNA and they store it in discs. But information, you see, is not the same as the disc, it is something separate. Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft said, "DNA is like a software program, only much more complex than anything we've ever designed." How could this information have evolved from matter and energy? Evolution doesn't have an answer because you can have all the atoms in the world – atoms do not transmit information. Atoms can carry information that is programmed in it, but atoms cannot create it by themselves.

Here we have a strand of the DNA molecule. This is from a movie about the cell and you see these nucleotides, which are the rungs of the ladder, they are chemical letters that transmit the message. It's a four-letter alphabet that can be read. So all of this is just one big software program inside each one of our cells with this three billion letter manual. Who created it? Could evolution have come up with a manual like that? You know what the error rate of the copying of the DNA molecule is? It's one mistake per ten billion letters. That's how precise the molecular machinery is. It can copy from one cell to make another cell – one mistake per ten billion of these letters. What typist can come up with that? Could evolution have come up with all of these letters in perfect order? And it's actually a language. You have to have grammatical rules. It has to read things properly. It has chemical periods to stop and then begin a new sentence. You have to have the molecular machines that transcribe all of this and then another one to understand the message. So this is something that just has paralyzed evolutionary scientists. They can not even begin to come up with a theory of how information originated in the cell.

This year a leading atheist and philosopher, Antony Flew renounced atheism largely due to the information revolution spawned by DNA findings that he couldn't refute. He said, you know what, I cannot explain information without a Creator, and so he changed his ideas.

Professor Werner Gitt, an expert on information systems explains "Information theory is a whole new branch of science that has effectively destroyed the last underpinnings of evolution." That's how revolutionary this is. It is something that is almost like God has permitted it before He intervenes in world events He had to show mankind the evidence for His existence and to be able to refute a theory so these human beings would not say, well that's what I was taught, there wasn't anything else that came counter to it. Well, it seems like God is now revealing to man before He intervenes in world events. "Try to answer this! Try to negate My existence with this evidence that I have permitted now to be revealed and to be discovered."

Science author, Nancy Pearcey predicts "Intelligent Design will win because it incorporates the insights of the high-tech world of information theory." See, Intelligent Design isn't on the side of information theory. Evolution is against the information theory. It cannot explain it whereas Intelligent Design does. It admits there is intelligence, there is a designer behind creation. Evolution is trying to refute that. She said, "The revolution in biochemistry revealed that the core of living things is a code, a language, information (DNA)...so life is not fundamentally about matter" - as they thought before - "it's about information ." You know the difference between a living person and a dead person, they have the same body, they have everything, the same organs, but a dead person no longer transmits information and so all the cells start locking down. But as long as information is being transmitted, life is there. That's why she says that life is more about information. It keeps things alive. The difference between a computer with all the information and you turn it off, it goes blank, it doesn't do anything. Why? Because all the electrical systems and all the information has stopped.

Now, this is the last part of the first pillar which has to do with the Information Theory: Dr. Werner Gitt, a German scientist, wrote the book, "In the Beginning Was Information". Fascinating book. These are his conclusions based on information theory. It says,

•"Since the DNA code has all the essential characteristics of a language, there must have been a sender." Information is not created for any other purpose than to transmit it to someone else. You don't write a letter and then don't send it to anyone. You write a letter because you want someone to receive it. So this information was created to be received and it needs to have a sender. It cannot be created by matter or energy.

•"Since the density and complexity of DNA information is millions of times greater than man's present technology, the sender must be supremely intelligent." Whoever put all of that information – those three billion chemical letters inside the nucleus is far greater than any human beings. Bill Gates says what we do with all of theses computers and software, we're just nothing compared to whoever embedded this information inside the DNA molecule. So the sender must be supremely intelligent, far beyond any human being.

•"Since the sender must have store the information in the DNA molecule and constructed the molecular biomachines to encode," - to get the system going - "to decode and run the cells, the sender must be purposeful and supremely powerful " to compact all of that information. Scientists will mention that just a teaspoon of DNA material because, of course, inside the nucleus, knowing how small a cell is and how small a nucleus and the DNA strand is wound up – if it was stretched out, it would be six feet tall and yet it can all be wound up in this tiny little cell. You cannot even see it unless you have a microscope. Well, if you had a teaspoon of DNA material, it says it would be enough to have the code for all living things that have ever existed and it would be able to have stored all the books ever written by men just in that little teaspoon of DNA. Now whoever put in all that information has to be supremely powerful to do that.

•"Since information is a non-material entity" - it's not matter, it's not energy, something else – "and can't originate from matter, the sender must have a non-material component (spirit)." The sender must not be matter. It has to be something non-material. It has to have a component, a spirit component because that creates information.

•"Since information cannot originate from matter and is created by man, then man's nature must have a non-material component (spirit)." All-right, if it's God who is able with his intelligence to put information inside the DNA code, then human beings, we can create information and we can create it because there is something in us that isn't matter or energy. It's a non-material component – the spirit – which God says in the Bible is the spirit in man. It is able to produce information as the Supreme Designer is able to do.

•And this is the last one, "Since biological information can only originate from an intelligent sender and all theories of chemical and biological evolution claim information comes solely from matter and energy" – in other words, they deny there is a sender – "then the theories of chemical and biological evolution are false." See, this is what the Information Theory finally concludes. If you don't accept a sender, there is no other way you can create information by having intelligence then these theories are false.

That takes us to the second pillar of Intelligent Design. It is called IRREDUCIBLE COMPLEXITY. Sounds a bit complex itself, but it isn't. An example of something being irreducibly complex is the bacterial flagellum with its 40 parts that is similar to an outboard motor. It goes 100,000 rpm. Imagine even the most supped-up car can go 8, maybe 10,000 rpm, 200 miles per hour, but this little flagellum goes 100,000 rpm and scientists have realized it can reverse itself, it has a reverse gear, and it just takes a 1/4 of a revolution going 100,000 rpm it can reverse itself in a quarter of a turn without messing up the gears. Try to do that when you're going 80 miles per hour and push it into reverse. See what happens with all of man's intelligence! Well, this Supreme Designer can change it and nothing happens. It's perfectly adaptable to that. As you can see at the bottom this flagellum is actually a motor. It took thousands of years for man to come up with a design of a motor, but the flagellum has all of the design of a motor. It has a stater, it has rotors, it has different bushings to make sure that friction is not going to harm. Now, how could evolution have come up with this?

Well, this is the second argument: there are structures inside cells that cannot be created step by step. They all have to be assembled together for them to work. You take out one part and the whole system breaks down. That's what being irreducibly complex means. You cannot reduce it any more without having the system break down. And they have found dozens and dozens of examples of these molecular machines that all the parts have to be there for it to work. What would happen with just having 20 parts to a flagellum? Well it still wouldn't work. How's it going to evolve to 25 parts? It has to get to 40 parts before it starts working. You do not have such a precise machinery unless every part – just like nobody would have a motor and say, well, I've got a missing piston, but I guess I can put it to work. The thing would blow up. It's the same way in the molecular world.

Another example of something irreducibly complex, the cilia. They are hairlike limbs that serve to move fluid over the cell's surface or to "row" single cells through a fluid like a pipeline. They move back and forth and the mucus in our lungs and so forth are all pushed out by these cilia – the epithelial cells lining our respiratory tract. Each have about 200 cilia that beat in synchrony to sweep mucus toward the throat for elimination. Thanks to the cilia, we don't choke on all kinds of saliva or mucus. They have found all of these parts have to be together for it to work.

And that takes us to the third pillar of Intelligent Design. It's called the ANTHROPIC PRINCIPLE. It's a kind of a fancy word, anthropic, for 'man centered'. It means that the evidence points to everything being created for man to arise, to exist. Let's take an example. In Tucson, Arizona, they have a place kind of for entertainment. It's called the Biosphere 2 and it has over a thousand sensors and dozens of dials to control the seven different environments inside. Anyone ever been to Biosphere 2? Can I see – oh, a few. Okay. Peter's gone there. Pretty impressive place from all I hear. They have a dessert environment you go in. It's perfectly timed, the temperature. Then you go in and there's another one, it's the jungle, you know, different. The humidity steps up and of course in order to control all these environments, you need to have sensors, you need to have humidity gauges – everything has to be right or else the climate inside breaks down. Well, what have they found about the universe? Scientists have found 323 different parameters or laws – think of them as dials – that when they are finally adjusted that regulate the Universe and all are precisely set at exact measurements, some to a thousandth of a decimal point. It's like coming up to one of these biospheres and looking and all the dials are perfectly set. Now, what happens if you were to move one over a little bit? Well, the humidity starts rising and that starts affecting the temperature and pretty soon, plants start wilting. But here, you have these constants in nature, these physical laws and they are all finely tuned for it to be perfectly working.

Sir Fred Hoyle, an agnostic mathematician and astrophysicist reluctantly admitted... "A common sense interpretation of the facts about the Universe suggests that a (super intellect) has monkeyed with physics, as well as with chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature." Now a super intellect has been monkeying around because how can you get all the dials perfectly set? He said later on, "The numbers one calculates from the facts seem to me so overwhelming as to put this conclusion almost beyond question." So he was one of the ones that discovered how finely tuned the universe was.

Here's another astronomer, George Greenstein, saying, "The thought insistently arises that some supernatural agency, or rather, Agency, must be involved. Is it possibly that suddenly, without intending to, we have stumbled upon scientific proof for the existence of a Supreme Being?" - you know, this fine tuning - "Was it God who stepped in and so providentially crafted the cosmos for our benefit?" Of course, according to the Bible, the answer is a resounding yes. As the apostle Paul wrote, For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and godhead so that they are without excuse. ( Rom. 1:20) Just look at the fine tuning of the universe and you realize that there is a Super Intellect that has prepared everything for life. It couldn't have just been by chance and lucky accidents.

And that takes us to the fourth pillar, it's called the DESIGN INFERENCE. That word inference means that you can deduce something from the evidence. For instance, it takes intelligence to distinguish what was built by erosion, wind, water and time from what was built by intelligent beings. When you take a trip to the countryside, we all like to look at the mountains and say, boy, that looks like the head of something or a horse and they've got all kinds of names according to the shapes. But by inference, you can see that that is just the result of natural forces – wind, water, erosion – but then you come to Mount Rushmore and you look and you say, well this is different. This has to be intelligently designed. You know, you have the faces of four Presidents. Could that ever have been shaped by wind, erosion and have gotten just the right faces. So, you see, you infer when you come to Mount Rushmore, you don't know who the sculptor is, but you can infer, you can deduce from the evidence that there was a sculptor, that that was intelligently designed. That could not have ever been designed by nature.

And so, the science of inference or deduction is used in forensics which is investigative and detective work. You know, when they come to the crime scene, the person who committed it isn't there any longer. But, you see, they can infer by taking the evidence who it was, what motive and eventually they will usually catch up with the person. But the author was gone. In the same way, we look at the universe and we can look and we can deduce this was all done by a Designer. All of this fine tuning, all of these laws that had to be just right for life to exist, we can infer that there is an Intelligent Designer.

Archeology is another example. You start digging up a mound and pretty soon you see rocks, you see all kinds of wood and all of a sudden, you see a vase and what do you say? Boy, look what evolved from wind and sand. Here's this vase. It just came out of water and mud and just being baked - no, you say, this is different. This was intelligently designed. So this becomes a science of separating what can be created through nature and natural forces and what needs to have an Intelligent Designer behind it.

Arno Penzias, Nobel Prize winner in Physics, 1965, he is one credited with finally detecting the fine-tuning of radiation that emanates throughout the universe. It helped to establish that this is an expanding universe and he said, "The best data we have [about the big bang and the expansion of the universe] are exactly what I would have predicted had I nothing to go on but the first five books of Moses, the Psalms and the Bible as a whole." And this is a scientist who doesn't think too much about the Bible, but he says if I look at the Bible and look at the facts of how the universe has started and the description, I find it matches. So the fine-tuning of the universe is also explained in the Bible.

Here's another scientist, Dr. Henry Schaefer, Director for the Center of Computational Quantum Chemistry at the University of Georgia, one of the most widely cited chemists in the world recently said, "Those who favor the standard evolutionary model are in a state of panic. Intelligent Design truly terrorizes them." So it's like God's truth went out in that 1st century, it terrorized all of the other ideas and now, God's truth which has been masked and it has been hidden from the world – the world does fear us because of these wonderful truths, especially religious leaders. They fear us because truth is on our side.

But what are we up against? You think scientists are not biased? You don't think they have an agenda? Notice, this is a Harvard biologist, Richard Lowontin, who stated, "We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs...in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so-stories, because we have a prior commitment...to materialism...we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door." See, they're closed-minded. They don't want to have God in the picture, an Intelligent Designer, and so they put up with a lot of unsubstantiated – as he says - "just-so-stories". In other words, he says, "Well how did this happen?" "Well, that was just so! You have to believe it. Evolution did it."

Another scientist, Dr. Scott Todd said, "Even if all the data point to an Intelligent Designer, such an hypothesis is excluded from science because it is not naturalistic." In other words, even if all the evidence points to Intelligent Design, we can't accept it because we have to accept that there is no Creator, that everything was created by natural means. All that's in the universe is just matter and energy. So you can see there is a struggle, there is a battle going on for people's minds.

Now what is the future of Intelligent Design? It's called reverse engineering. You apply it in the automotive world, in the computational world, you can also apply it in the biological world. See, as with a car, you can start with a finished product and work backward to the original blueprint. You start disassembling it, you start studying the engine, the power train, the brake system, the exhaust system. This is the way biology should be run also. You accept that this is the work of an Intelligent Designer and then you start separating it and understanding the pieces behind it.

Nancy Pearcey again says, "The affirmation of design is good for science." Not as scientists say that Intelligent Design is going to do so much damage, it's good for science. "Like all knowledge, science is a pattern-seeking project. The human mind inherently seeks intelligible order. Thus the conviction that such an order exists to be found is a crucial assumption." We're saying, get over it. Accept that there is an Intelligent Designer. Don't try to fake the results. She also says, " No scientists are going to find their work diminish because they ground it in the search for an inbuilt design in nature." It's not going to harm science. It's going augment it. It's going to help it instead of damaging it like scientists are always like Chicken Little saying that the sky's going to fall if Intelligent Design is accepted in the classrooms.

So here is the conclusion. Biology and genetics would be greatly advanced and many new discoveries would be more rapidly made by applying the concept of reverse engineering - the tracing backwards of all the design stages of living things. That's what biology should be about. Then one could understand when and why a design flaw appears and compare it to the template or the master copy. It would, therefore, be easier to correct it. We would advance far more than so many who are involved in trying to explain evolution through it. But it would also take humility to admit we can't match the Creator's marvelous engineering designs and can only learn and use them to advance our own designs for the betterment of mankind. As the Bible says, it is the glory of God to conceal a matter. You know, He hides these things in nature just like a father likes to hide things so that the children discover it on their own. But the glory of kings is to search out a matter, (Proverbs 25:2) to discover these wonderful truths. And also in Psalms 14:1 it says, The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God." So much evidence toward the existence of God.

So now we're going to listen to the concluding song. A wonderful example of Intelligent Design is the tree, with its multiple purposes: providing shade, refuge, wood, nests, oxygen and preventing erosion. Its purposes are beautifully summarized in the poem 'Trees' by Joyce Kilmer and sung by the famous 50's group, The Platters. So we'll hear that now.

I think that I shall never see,
A poem as lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is pressed,
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray.
A tree than may in summer wear,
A nest of robins in her hair:
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
I think that I shall never see...

One of the tragedies that has always stuck in my mind was that this poet, Joyce Kilmer, who wrote this poem when he was in his teens tragically died in World War I, never to write another poem again, but he launched a lot of the ecological movement to preserve forests and back in my stomping grounds of Murphy, North Carolina, close to the area of the Joyce Kilmer National Forest, so he did leave his name and this is one of the poems that I have always enjoyed reading. So examples from nature are still some of the best arguments for an Intelligent Design made by the Creator and we have seen today the four pillars, there's a fight on our hands and, certainly, the Good News Magazine and what we're doing on TV and other parts, we're going to go out there because we have a responsibility to get the truth out not only about God's word, but about our wonderful Creator.