Reasons To Believe Spokane Chapter

June, 2003 Newsletter

Table of Contents:

Chapter Meeting: Sunday, June 22, 3-5pm.

We invite you to attend our monthly meeting. A presentation is offered to the group, followed by discussion and questions, and we conclude with snacks and a little club business. We always try to start and end our meetings right on time. If you need directions, don’t be afraid to call the phone number below.

Date: Sunday, June 22
Time: 3-5 P.M.
Hosts: Dan and Cathy Bakken
Location: 13003 N. Miami Ct, Mead
Phone: 466-2693 (for directions, etc.)

Northview Outreach Event Friday July 25

On Friday evening, July 25, Northview Bible Church has arranged for Dan Bakken, local chapter president, to give an evangelistic presentation in the Spokane Area. The exact location is not yet known, but it will be a place that allows Dan to bring his 42" diameter telescope, Hercules, for attendees’ viewing pleasure. If you have your own telescope and would like to bring it, let Dan know at Dan Bakken.

Primordial Soup, Anyone? The Miller-Urey Experiment and the Origin of Life

This is #5 in a series of articles based on the book Icons of Evolution, by Jonathan Wells.

Most biology textbooks claim that the 1953 Miller-Urey experiment shows how life’s building blocks may have formed naturally on the early Earth. However, we have since learned that conditions on the early Earth were probably nothing like those used in the experiment, and that the origin of life remains a mystery.

In 1953, biochemist Stanley Miller was working in the laboratory of Nobel Prize winner Harold Urey. They designed an experiment in which they circulated methane, ammonia, and water (gases believed to have been common on the early Earth’s atmosphere through a glass apparatus with a heated lower basin, or "ocean," (the early earth’s ocean was believed to have been hot) and an upper globe, or "atmosphere." Electric discharges passing

through the upper globe simulated lightning. After allowing this experiment to run for several days, the scientists sampled the liquid. They found small amounts of four organic molecules: sugars (the simplest carbohydrates), three different amino acids (the building blocks of protein), fatty acids (precursors of lipids), and nucleotides (the building blocks of nucleic acids, or genetic material).

(picture forthcoming)

The results of Miller and Urey's experiment became known as the primordial soup. Since amino acids are the building blocks of proteins, many saw this as clear evidence for the spontaneous origin of life. Modern theory and texts still lean heavily on Miller's "proof" of spontaneous generation of amino acids.

Few textbooks acknowledge that most scientists now consider Miller’s experiments to be flawed. In the 1950’s, the early atmosphere was believed to be made of the gases used in the experiment - hydrogen, methane, ammonia, and water vapor. By 1970, how ever, scientists understood that the early Earth’s atmosphere was nothing like this. It would have been made of gases emitted from volcanoes - carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and water. In Miller-Urey-type experiments using this gas mixture, organic compounds are much harder to generate. Stanley

Miller himself reported in 1983 that the most he could produce in the absence of methane was glycine, the simplest amino acid, and then only if free hydrogen were present. But other scientists protest, saying free hydrogen was essentially absent from the early earth.

Another origin-of-life problem stymies the experiment as well. For some still unknown reason, only left-handed amino acids can be used to build proteins. Miller's amino acids were both left-handed and right-handed. No one has figured out a way to separate out the left-handed amino acids to allow proteins to be built without the interference of the right-handed ones. In Miller’s experiment, none of the amino acids had combined with others, let alone in the precise sequences needed to create functional proteins.

Many origin-of-life researchers have been working away at these problems, proposing a variety of scenarios for the natural origin of the most basic organic elements. But their results have been disappointing. As New York Times science reporter Nicholas Wade wrote in 2000: "Everything about the origin of life on Earth is a mystery, and it seems the more that is known, the more acute the puzzles get." Once again, as Isaiah 55:9 says God’s creative powers are as expansive as the universe. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."

Resources

  1. "Origin-of-Life Predictions Face Off: Evolution vs. Biblical Creation", By Dr. Fazale Rana. Facts for Faith, Issue 6.
  2. "Carbon Monoxide Kills Hopes for Primordial Soup", by Fuz Rana, Connections, 2003, No. 1.

(picture forthcoming)

Above: Glycine, the Simplest Amino Acid

Who Is the Designer? RTB Conference 6/26-28

This June, RTB will hold its third conference, "Who Is the Designer?" from June 26 to 28. The conference will be held in Southern California, at Seacoast Grace Church in Cypress (this is the same church where the other conferences were held but it has changed its name.)

Dan and Cathy Bakken are planning to attend, and would love to have company from Spokane! If you have any questions about the conference, call us (466-2693) – we’ve been to both the earlier conferences and enjoyed them! We were encouraged by the new information, and it strengthened our commitment to apologetics.

Besides Dr. Hugh Ross, there will be a wonderful lineup of speakers.

  • Greg Koukl of Stand to Reason, www.str.org. Greg Koukl started out thinking he was too smart to become a Christian and ended up giving his life for the defense of the Christian faith. His ministry is dedicated to equipping Christians to rationally engage others about the truths of Christianity.
  • Dr. Ron Nash, Professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is the author of Faith and Reason: Searching for a Rational Faith, and Is Jesus the Only Savior?
  • Guillermo Gonzales and Jay Richards of the Discovery Institute. Jay is one of the founding members of the Seattle Area Reasons To Believe Chapter. Guillermo and Jay will give a talk based on their upcoming book to be titled The Privileged Planet. This talk alone has been described as worth the price of admission.
  • Dr. Walter Bradley, a former ardent Young-Earth Creationist. He is one of the co-writers of the 1984 classic, The Mystery of Life’s Origin.
  • Fazale Rana, RTB’s resident bio-chemist, who is working on a book on the origin of life, which will address the very thorny problems that secular naturalists choose to ignore.
  • Dr. David Rogstad, RTB executive vice president. He researched galaxies for 10 years, then worked at JPL on the Galileo mission among other things.
  • Kenneth Samples, RTB philosopher and theologian.

Cost

Individuals pay $79. Two family members pay $125 for both.

How to Register

Register online or by phone at (626) 335-1480. If you don’t register by June 20, call the office to see if there is still space.

Where to Stay

Two nearby hotels have special RTB conference rates. Holiday Inn Express Stanton has standard rooms for $72/night or suites for $92. 714-527-6680. The Woodfin Suites has a $99/night Reasons To Believe rate, and a complementary shuttle. 714-8 28-4000.

Can’t Make it to the RTB Conference? Attend the Web Cast!

The conference will be available via the Internet on OnePlace.com. (Registration details are at Reasons.org.) For the price of the conference registration ($79) you can listen live, and/or access the archived presentations for several months after the conference. Also, the conference notebook will be available as a .pdf file. The admission price is the same whether you attend in person o r via the Internet.

Hugh Ross on Cover of Charisma Magazine

The June issue of Charisma Magazine, a magazine geared toward the charismatic Christian community, has an article on Dr. Ross as its cover story.

The article is called, "He Sees God in the Stars: Evolutionists despise him, and some Christians don't agree with his views on Earth's beginnings. But Hugh Ross--like no other man of faith--is taking the gospel to the scientific community."

You can view the first few paragraphs for free at Charisma Magazine.

Resources To Know About

Watch (or record) the "Reasons To Believe" television show. Airs on Thursday mornings, 3:00 A.M. Pacific Time on the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN). An archive of recent shows is also available at reasons.org.

Listen to the Creation Update Radio Show on the Internet

Learn what’s coming up on the next show

Who We Are and What We Do: Your Local Reasons To Believe Chapter

We’re here to answer your questions and help local Christians and churches get more answers about science and the bible issues.

  • Our monthly meetings enable training and dissemination of new reasons to believe.
  • We help people access Reasons To Believe resources, including the Apologist Training Program.
  • We offer trained apologists to speak at local churches and other events to share these exciting discoveries.
  • We provide a forum for members to discuss the latest scientific discoveries.
  • We bring national speakers into the area to promote the scientific reliability of the Bible.
  • We build alliances with churches, ministries, and groups to share the Reasons To Believe message.
  • We help Christians overcome their fear of science and equip them to use it as an effective tool in spreading the Gospel.
  • We reach out to skeptics and non-believers with gentleness and respect, encouraging them to evaluate their worldviews.

Contact us if you have any questions! And watch this newsletter for more information!

Local Chapter Contact Information

For more information about the Reasons To Believe Spokane chapter, contact:

Phone: Ray Luse (509) 465-8562

Email:

Web Page: reasons.org/chapters

Newsletter Questions? Cathy Bakken, editor, Cgbakken@yahoo.com