Book Review: Origins of Life: Biblical and Evolutionary Models Face Off by Hugh Ross & Fuz Rana

How did life begin? This question has perplexed humanity for centuries. Some people believe that it came along by natural processes. Others believe that a divine Designer is behind it all. These two options go head-to-head, tested against the latest scientific research in the book Origins of Life: Biblical and Evolutionary Models Face Off (hardcover, Kindle, Supplemental Site) by astrophysicist Dr. Hugh Ross and biochemist Dr. Fazale Rana. The book is divided into three sections, seventeen chapters, and 298 pages (including notes and appendices). This review provides a chapter-by-chapter summary of the contents of the book, but it must not be accepted as a replacement for reading the book, itself. The review will conclude with my thoughts and recommendation.

Drs. Ross and Rana take the position that the origin of life is by divine design. To scientifically test their hypothesis, they present their model, competing models, and the latest research; they then compare the predictions of the models to the research to build their case. Before examining the current state of origins research, it is a good idea to take a quick look at the events that led to the current state.

Book Review: Programming of Life by Donald E. Johnson

Programming of Life by Donald E. Johnson (paperback or video) came to my attention fairly recently. The prospect of a case for God's existence being made from my area of training (computer science) especially caught my attention. The fact that the author is formally trained in both information science and biochemistry seemed to give him a unique set of credentials to authoritatively compare the code in DNA to computer programming code. The book is short at only 127 pages (included appendixes) and is divided into nine chapters. This review will be a chapter-by-chapter summary, but should not be confused with providing Johnson's case comprehensively or precisely.

Introduction
Chapter 1: Math Basics: Probability and Large or Small Numbers
Johnson prepares his readers by providing a quick tutorial of some basics required to understand his arguments. It is commonly misunderstood that "chance" is a force; however, it is rather merely an expression of likelihood of an event taking place versus its not taking place. If an event has any likelihood of taking place, it is considered "possible," but possibility should only be claimed in scientific observations have demonstrated the event to have taken place. "Plausibility" is a value of the level of possibility (0-1; 0=impossible; 1=certain; 0.5 is the threshold for an event to be considered "plausible"). Johnson prepares the reader for the significance of these concepts by explaining the lowest limit of physical possibility given all the resources (atoms in the system, the fastest chemical reactions in the universe, and the age of the systems) of the universe (10-108), galaxy (10-96), solar system (10-85), and earth (10-70). He explains that if the probability of an event taking place is lower than these physical barriers, the event is indistinguishable from impossible within that system, and the proposed event may be considered scientifically falsified.

Michael Behe Interview Transcript

The following transcript is from an Apologetics 315 interview with Michael Behe. Original audio here. Transcript index here. If you enjoy transcripts, please consider supporting, which makes this possible.

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BA: Hello, this is Brian Auten of Apologetics315. Today, I interview Michael Behe, the Professor of Biochemistry at Lehigh University. He’s also a leading voice in the intelligent design community and Fellow of The Discovery Institute. In his upcoming visit to the UK this month, November, 2010, Professor Behe will be giving evening lectures in London, Glasgow, Belfast, Bournemouth, Leamington, Warwick, and Cambridge, and the major contributor to a day conference in Oxford. The theme of this tour is Darwin or design, what does the science really say? And Professor Behe will explore how physical criteria enable us to perceive design. And he’ll also show how irreducible complexity in biological systems and molecular machinery in the cell is best explained by intelligent design. He’s raised a lot of controversy in his books, Darwin’s Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution in 1996, and The Edge of Evolution: The Search for the Limits of Darwinism in 2007. And while online debates are thousands of pages deep, we’ll have a chance today just to touch on some of the themes of his work and talk a bit more about his upcoming UK tour. Thanks for joining me for this interview today Professor Behe.

MB: It’s my pleasure, I’m glad to be with you.

BA: Well, I’ll just jump right in with questions today so we can cover as much ground as possible in our brief time. You’ve probably gotten tired of answering this, but it’s of course foundational in properly defining the issue, and that’s this question, what is intelligent design?

Biologist Interview: Jonathan McLatchie

Today's interview is with apologist and biologist Jonathan McLatchie (twitter here). He talks about his background and influences, why he believes God exists and Christianity is true. Then the interview continues as an "intelligent design 101" discussion: what is intelligent design, main reasons to infer intelligent causation, the explanatory filter for design, the Darwinian view, reasons for controversy, responding to challenges to ID theory, design detection in biological systems, varying views of origins, "god of the gaps" objections, how to falsify intelligent design, ID's predictions, suggestions for those studying ID, lessons in apologetics, and more. Interview by Carson Weitnauer. Resources: Evolution News | Uncommon Descent.

Full Interview MP3 Audio here (37 min)

Enjoy.
Subscribe to the Apologetics 315 Interviews podcast here or in iTunes.

The Inner Life of the Cell Video

Here is the video "the Inner Life of the Cell". Created by the BioVisions group at Harvard University, this 8-minute movie presents a tour of a white blood cell. Shown here is the "Kinesin Walker" from the movie.
[HT: apologetics.org]

View here. For more stuff on the cell, see here.

Enjoy.

Signature in the Cell MP3 Audio by Stephen Meyer

In Signature in the Cell, Dr. Stephen Meyer examines how the digital code embedded in DNA points powerfully to a designing intelligence and helps unravel a mystery that Darwin did not address: how did the very first life begin?
This talk explains the thesis of this new book.

Full MP3 Audio here. Or watch the video, complete with animations.

Enjoy.