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Critical Thinking and Evolution

Critical Thinking and Evolution. EVOLUTION VERSuS SCIENCE. Mike Riddle. What Is Critical Thinking?. Critical thinking is the process of analyzing questions and assumptions. It is a way of deciding whether a claim is true, false, sometimes true, or partly true.

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Critical Thinking and Evolution

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  1. Critical Thinking and Evolution EVOLUTION VERSuS SCIENCE Mike Riddle

  2. What Is Critical Thinking? Critical thinking is the process of analyzing questions and assumptions. It is a way of deciding whether a claim is true, false, sometimes true, or partly true.

  3. Three Critical Thinking Questions How do you know it is true? Has it ever been observed? Are you making any assumptions? Recognize Assumptions Evaluate Information Draw Conclusions

  4. Applying 3 Critical Thinking Questions Life originated in a pool of chemicals about 3.7 billion years ago. “Scientists do know that about 200 to 300 million years after Earth cooled enough to carry liquid water, cells similar to modern bacteria were common.” Biology, Miller and Levine, 2002, p. 425.

  5. Critical Thinking QuestionFossils How much of the fossil was actually found and how much was added (assumed)?

  6. Example “For instance, modern whales are the descendants of four-legged land animals…” Biology: Visualizing Life, Holt, Rinehart, Winston, 1998, p. 177.

  7. Deception Only the shaded portions of the skull were found Pakicetus: a candidate for whale evolution? Artist reconstruction

  8. Updated Pakicetus A wolf-like land mammal, with legs capable of running

  9. More Examples • Nebraska man • Piltdown man • Archaeoraptor • Lucy (australopithecine)

  10. Three Critical Thinking Questions How do you know it is true? Has it ever been observed? Are you making any assumptions? A Power Question Show me any observational evidence for evolution that does not require me to use faith.

  11. Using the Power Question • The universe originated 13 billion years ago with the big bang. • Over millions of years creatures without backbones evolved into fish. • Humans evolved from ape-like creatures. • The earth is 4.6 billion years old. • Evolution is an observable fact.

  12. POP Quiz Show me any _____________ evidence for evolution that does not require me to use ______. observational faith Three critical thinking questions How do you know it is true? • ________________________________ • ________________________________ • ________________________________ Has it ever been observed? Are you making any assumptions?

  13. Words Have Meaning How to read between the lines How to recognize the bluff Show me the observable evidence Fuzzy Words Magic Words

  14. Fuzzy Words No observable evidence What Happened • We believe • We think • Must have • Could have • Might have • Our opinion is • We guess • Over millions of years

  15. Example Life Science, Prentice Hall (Grade 7), 2002, p. 410. “Paleontologists think that Archaeopteryx and today’s birds descended from some kind of reptile, possibly from a dinosaur.”

  16. Example USA Today, November 5, 1013 “A discovery out of this world: Earth-like planets” “There are likely ‘tens of billions’ of Earth-like planets in our Milky Way galaxy…. In fact, the nearest Earth-like planet may be ‘only’ 12 light years away… And with a universe of hundreds of billions of galaxies, ‘our entire universe must contain billions of Earth-like planets.’”

  17. Prentice Hall, Science Explorer: Life Science, 2002, p. 46. “The first cells could not have needed oxygen to survive. They probably were heterotrophs that used the chemicals in their surroundings for energy….. At some point, some of the cells may have developed the ability to make their own food.”

  18. Joseph Silk, Ph.D. Astronomy, The Big Bang, 2001, p. 170. “Imagine that infinitesimal fluctuations in density were present in the early universe…. The expansion of the universe must have exerted a stabilizing influence on such irregularities. The expanding universe has the effect of greatly impeding what otherwise might have been catastrophic forces…. Nevertheless, the process of growth of fluctuations went on for a very long time,…”

  19. Meet “Cousin” Ardi Ardipithecusramidus Discovered in 1992 in Ethiopia

  20. Ardi “A partial skeleton and indirect evidence from skeletal fragments indicate that Ar. ramidus may have walked upright…. Other fossils found with Ar. ramidus suggest that it may have been a woodland forest dweller.” www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/humans/humankind/b.html

  21. Speculation and Guesswork In the eleven papers in Science: • “Probably” appeared 78 times • “Suggest,” “Suggesting,” “Suggestive,” or Suggests” appeared 117 times

  22. Magic Words Appeared Emerged Arose Gave rise to Was on the way to becoming Burst onto the scene Evolved itself Was making a transition to How It Happened

  23. USA Today, “Why did bugs grow wings to fly?”, Mar 29, 2010. “Evo-devo proposes that genes involved in cobbling together flesh and bone during early growth were repurposed to develop new structures throughout evolution's history, by combining their functions in new ways.”

  24. “The 185-million-year-old specimen is a sauropodomorph, a category of plant-eating dinosaur that stood only four feet at the shoulders and could walk on its hind legs. They evolved into sauropods, such as the apatosaurus ….” The Salt Lake Tribune, “Utah's Navajo sandstone yields rare dinosaur find,” Thursday, March 25, 2010

  25. “Into this world came the dinosaurs, initially small bipedal carnivores, and they rose to dominance at some point during the Triassic.” The Complete Dinosaur, Edited by James O. Farlow and M. K. Brett-Surman, 1997, p. 204.

  26. Red-Flag Words DANGER DANGER Red Flag

  27. Red-Flag Words Express a personal idea Express an absolute • All • Everybody • No real scientist • I believe • I think • Truth • Fundamentalist • Intolerant Used to label an opponent

  28. Red-Flag Statements • All real scientists believe in evolution. • Everyone knows the Bible is just a book of stories. • No one has the whole truth. • People should decide for themselves what is right and wrong.

  29. Red-Flag Statements Why are Christians so intolerant?

  30. Challenge Yes: Wrong No: Wrong Do you believe in evolution?

  31. Challenge Yes: Wrong No: Wrong Do you take the Bible literally?

  32. A Primer on Natural Selection? Life Sciences, Prentice Hall, 2002, p. 151. (seventh grade textbook) “Over a long period of time, natural selection can lead to evolution. Helpful variations gradually accumulate in a species, while unfavorable ones disappear.”

  33. Natural Selection “Natural selection is a mechanism by which populations adapt and evolve. In its essence, it is a simple statement about rates of reproduction and mortality: Those individual organisms who happen to be best suited to an environment survive and reproduce most successfully.” www.amnh.org/exhibitions/past-exhibitions/darwin/evolution-today/how-does-natural-selection-work

  34. Natural Selection 1 2 3 4 Source: http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/evo_25

  35. Natural Selection: Two FACTS • Natural selection does not add any new information. • Natural selection can only “select” from information that already exists.

  36. Critical Thinking and Natural Selection Natural Selection Caused by nature (natural processes) Selector (Intelligence)

  37. Natural Selection: The Real Meaning “Natural selection is a very simple natural mechanism that explains the appearance of design in living things.” Douglas Futuyma (professor of evolutionary biology), “Natural Selection: How Evolution Works,” http://www.actionbioscience.org/evolution/futuyma.html.

  38. Natural Selection and Change Exposure interface Pre-programmed information

  39. 3 Questions to Ask • What is it that natural selection actually does and how does it work? • Selection implies intelligence. Who or what is actually doing or causing the selection? • Is there any observational evidence for where the vast amount of information in DNA came from that does not require me to use faith?

  40. What Is Natural Selection? It is an artificial mechanism devised by man to replace the power and intelligence of God. According to evolutionists the design in all life comes from: God Evolution Natural Selection

  41. Engineered Adaptability (Intelligent Designer) Hot, cold Think, be creative Created by God for a purpose Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control Know God Respond to our Creator

  42. Bible Challenge So all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years; and he died. Genesis 5:27 The Bible says that people lived to be 900 years old. Do you believe people really lived that long?

  43. Final Exam What questions could I ask? Dinosaurs evolved into birds.

  44. Final Exam Life must be on other planets. It’s arrogant to believe we are the only life in the universe. What questions could I ask?

  45. Training Courses Basic Creation Training Teens and above Advanced Creation Apologetics Next step in evangelism Christian Teacher Training Teaching based on biblical standards

  46. Building an Army of Christian Educators A.C.E. Project www.CreationTraining.org info@CreationTraining.org

  47. Treatment 2

  48. For more information www.CreationTraining.org Email: Info@CreationTraining.org Building an Army of Christian Educators

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