Jurassic Park
Well I can finally say I have watched Jurassic Park. The plotline holds an evolutionary worldview. Nature holds the supreme power in the universe. Yet, science can try to control nature, but eventually “Life found a way”.
There are many evolutionary references throughout the movie. One of the most prominent ideas is that life can’t be contained or controlled. The scientists bred the dinosaurs to only be female, yet Alan and the kids found nests of dinosaur eggs. Evolutionary forces work with whatever they are given and learn how to thrive and sustain in an environment.
Also, it is considered common facts in the movies that dinosaurs actually evolved into birds not mammals. The way the dinosaurs move in packs is very similar to the ways of a bird. However, birds do not hunt in packs like the dinosaurs did in Jurassic Park. It is common for other species of animals to hunt in packs yet birds do not have this trait.
The scientific flaws in Jurassic Park are only noticeable to a trained eye. In researching the validity or lack of for the movie, many articles point out the scientific flaws of the movie. The whole basis of the DNA cloning, the blood found in a prehistoric mosquito. Is in fact fake. Due to time and the weathering that comes along with it, scientists have been able to extract DNA from a mosquito but it was the mosquito’s DNA not that of the animal it bit.
With that, there is the issue of using frog DNA to fill in the gaps missing in the dinosaur DNA. It is impossible to know what the missing information would be in the DNA chains. Therefore a guessing game would be costly and pointless.
Naturalism
So then it must be answered what is naturalism? Naturalism is “defined most briefly as the philosophical conclusion that the only reality is nature“. All conclusions within naturalistic philosophy are determined based off of scientific research and basic human reasoning. Naturalists claim to base their beliefs solely off of scientific studies by avoiding traditions and supernatural beliefs.
Nature holds the highest power. It works within itself to continuously produce a better and improved version of itself. There is no background force driving time forward.
Humans are a part of this nature and are real with only matter. There is no soul or spirit according to a naturalist. Rather instead conscious thoughts are just chemical responses within the brain. Without a soul, no part of a human exists after death. However, humans were caused.
“Each of us is an unfolding natural process, and every aspect of that process is caused, and is a cause itself. So we are fully caused creatures, and seeing just how we are caused gives us power and control, while encouraging compassion and humility.”
Each human is believed to have been caused while also being a cause. The whole process of cause is the cause of the process (as confusing as that is).
Existence of God
So naturalists believe that humans were caused. That’s great! However, as I read through many websites, they all talked about how everything was caused. Naturally if something were caused, the question of what the very first cause comes up. As I researched I could not find anything talking about what the first cause was that set everything into motion.
There is of course the Big Bang Theory, but studies (not even necessarily Christian studies) are showing that the quantum physics behind the Big Bang Theory make it impossible. Those studies argue that the universe potentially had no beginning, or first cause.
But then if everything is caused the cycle eventually reaches a point where there has to be a beginning cause. This also infers that the first cause must be “uncaused” and eternal.
This brings up the cosmological argument that there must be a first cause. As Christians, this first cause is God “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). He created something out of nothing (enveloping the idea of ex nihilo).
Also, when God created the earth, He did not create it by planting seeds and laying eggs. Rather the earth was created to look as if it had been there long enough to be considered a mature and inhabitable planet “And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food” (Genesis 2:9a). As a result of this, the earth cannot be aged according to scientific studies. Even if a tree was found that was created by God in the beginning, the number of rings it has versus the number of years it had existed would be totally different.
There is a need for a God to exist. He is the first cause that set all causes into motion. He has the ultimate power and can rule over nature and its laws because he created them.
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