Henry Morris - The Biblical Basis for Modern Science

The Biblical Basis for Modern Science

The Revised and Updated Classic!

Henry M. Morris

Copyright Information

First printing: May 2002

Fourth printing: January 2008

Copyright 1984, 2002 by Henry M. Morris. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations in articles and reviews. For information write: Master Books, P.O. Box 726, Green Forest, AR 72638.

ISBN-13: 978-0-89051-369-9

Library of Congress Number: 2001098885

Printed in the United States of America

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Acknowledgments

The scope of this book is broad, dealing with many fields of science, so it was essential that it be reviewed for scientific accuracy by scientists in various disciplines. I am very grateful for this important service to the following members of the Institute for Creation Research Technical Advisory Board and the scientific staff of the Institute for Creation Research.

Steven A. Austin (Ph.D. in geology, Pennsylvania State University), associate professor of geology, ICR.

Richard B. Bliss (Ed.D. in science education, University of Sarasota), professor and head of Department of Science Education, ICR. Deceased

Kenneth B. Cumming (Ph.D. in ecology, Harvard University), professor and head of Biology Department, ICR.

Carl B. Fliermans (Ph.D. in microbiology, Indiana University), consulting scientist in microbial biology.

Duane T. Gish (Ph.D. in biochemistry, University of California at Berkeley), vice president, ICR.

Donald Hamann (Ph.D. in engineering mechanics, Virginia Polytechnic Institute), professor of food science, North Carolina State University. Deceased.

John R. Meyer (Ph.D. in zoology, University of Iowa), director, Van Andel Research Center, Creation Research Society.

John N. Moore (Ed.D. in science education, Michigan State University), Professor Emeritus of Natural Science, Michigan State University. Retired.

Jean S. Morton (Ph.D. in cell biology, George Washington University) science writer and consultant.

John W. Oller Jr. (Ph.D. in linguistics, University of Rochester), professor and head of communicative disorders, University of Louisiana, Lafayette.

Harold S. Slusher (Ph.D. in physics, Columbia Pacific University), assistant professor of physics, University of Texas (El Paso).

All of these scientists read the entire manuscript for the original edition, and made many valuable suggestions, most of which were incorporated into the text. Additions and changes for the revised edition were reviewed by Dr. John Morris, now president of the Institute for Creation Research. Nevertheless, the writer must accept full responsibility for all expositions, both biblical and scientific, as finally published.

Special appreciation is expressed to Dr. John Oller, who not only provided a very thorough review and critique, but also the foreword. Thanks are also due the staff at Baker Book House for their fine editorial work and for a number of very helpful suggestions, as well as Master Books.

Various portions of the original manuscript were typed by Mrs. Mary Louise Morris, Mrs. Mary Smith, Mrs. Judy Strom, and, especially, Mrs. Becky Nichols. Most of the illustrations were prepared by ICR art director Marvin Ross. Mrs. Mary Thomas typed various portions of the new edition, and Mrs. Mary Smith typed and edited the entire second edition.

Contents

Foreword

In his treatise on "Physics and Reality" in 1936 Albert Einstein remarked that it "is a miracle" that "the world of our sense experiences is comprehensible." He said, "The setting up of a real external world would be senseless without this comprehensibility." Thus, the physicist who helped to precipitate the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with the abstract formula that E = Mc2 also realized that the existence of the physical world is by no means the greatest mystery faced by science. Even the existence of living things pales in comparison to the fact that the world is comprehensible, that it can be represented truly. Surprisingly, in Darwins materialistic attempt to explain the existence of living organisms, he failed even to ask the deeper question: How is it possible for any of our representations of the world to be true?

C.S. Peirce

The essential question of science, therefore, is: "What is truth?" This was the question, according to the Gospel of John, that Pilate asked of Jesus Christ. In fact, if the Gospels are true reports, the answer was standing before Pilate in a visible human body. Jesus had said,""I am the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6). Evidently Pilate neither needed nor received any answer other than the one standing before him. The next thing we see Pilate doing is reporting to the Jewish leaders,""I find in him no fault at all" (John 18:38).

Science repeats Pilates question: "What is truth?" It is an abstract question. In mathematics, it is supposed that wherever truth may be found, it will at least be self-consistent. That is, the truth cannot contradict itself. All mathematical proofs rely ultimately on this foundational premise, and yet, a perfectly complete mathematical system has not yet been found in mathematics or anywhere in the sciences. Neither can perfect consistency be found in experimental or empirical measurements. In fact, perfect consistency has never been found in the material world or in the sciences, excepting the life of Jesus Christ. The only source for the concept of absolute consistency (truth), as far as I know, is the one pointed to by Dr. Morris in this book: namely, the God who is the same, yesterday, today, and forever (Heb. 13:8); the God whom no one can cause to lie (Num. 23:19); and who has determined the course of events leading to redemption before the world ever was (Matt. 13:35; 25:34; Luke 11:50; John 17:5, 24; 1 Cor. 2:7; Eph. 1:4; 2 Tim. 1:9; Titus 1:2; Heb. 4:3; 9:26; 1 Pet. 1:20; Rev. 13:8; 17:8).

Nevertheless a good definition of truth can be found in the sciences. The best and most complete definition of truth does not come from pure mathematics, but rather from that esoteric branch of mathematical logic known as theoretical semiotics the grand science that seeks to discover the basis for all possible meaning. The answer is of the logicomathematical kind developed in strict proofs. It comes out that truth is exclusively a formal property of representations. It consists of the agreement between words (or abstract concepts), acts of observation, and facts (physical things and events as related in space-time).

The purest form of truth is also the simplest sort. It is the kind found in true reports of known facts. For instance, if it is true that Jesus Christ appeared before Pilate as reported in all four of the Gospels, the Book of Acts, and Pauls first letter to Timothy, then, these reports not only qualify as true but each contains three critical and necessary elements that must be found in any true report. First, there are the material facts of history that are reported. Second, there are faithful and competent observations that link the material facts in question with certain representations (e.g., the words of some language). Third, there are the words (i.e., the actual representations themselves) used to report the events. A simple triadic structure emerges consisting of (1) facts, (2) linking acts, and (3) representations. If these three are in agreement relative to each other, we say that the narrative is true of the facts reported. To be true in this way, it is only necessary that the facts deliver all that the narrative claims, and that the narrative claims nothing not delivered by or contained in the material facts. It turns out upon logical examination of the formal structure of any true narrative representation that the three elements in question stand in more than a mere triadic relation: they form what logically may be called a trinity of the biblical kind. That is, each element contains and is contained by the others such that if one of the three elements is fully known, the other two are also known.