Chapter 1: Science, Evolution, Creation

The doctrine of evolution, as now commonly taught throughout the world, does not start anymore with "chemical evolution in a primordial chemical soup", but with the "big bang": with the origin of the physical universe. And this theory of evolution, its supporters claim, is scientific. Every serious scientist in the world now believes in it. Only a few ignorant persons do still reject it. So, we must ask ourselves: What is scientific? And what is not scientific?

Werner Gitt is Professor and Director of data processing at the Physikalisch-Technischen Bundesanstalt (PTB), (Physical-Technical Federal Institute) at Braunschweig, West Germany. His fields of research: information science, numeric mathematics, and automatic control technique. He says about science, evolution, and creation and their basic tenets:

"The doctrine of evolution is now such a common direction of thought, that one could declare it as the all including, even unifying philosophy of this 20^th century. Also fields, wherein each type of evolution seems to be foreign, have taken over the thought about the self-organization from the simple to the complex, or have grafted it onto it arbitrarily. Thus, a manufacturer of large computers is wrongly talking about the ‘evolution of the computer’, even though today’s powerful systems are the result of intensive research and brilliant spirit of discovery. They are planned, constructed, and made with a clear goal in mind, hence, they have not evolved at all." (1994:7).

How can one know, then, whether a certain theory is scientific, or whether it is only a philosophy? What are the basic teachings of modern science? What are its basic tenets? A "tenet": a principle, belief, or doctrine, generally held to be true. Esp. one held in common by members of an organization, group, movement, or profession.

Basis of the Theory of Science

A few basic scientific statements (S1-11), from W. Gitt (1994:9-12). The letter S is standing here for "science":

S1: Each theory demands apriory assumptions (tenets), whose validity cannot be proved. These tenets, nature is not supplying, thus, they are metaphysical (Greek metà tà physiká after physics; here independent of observation in nature). They are acknowledged through convention.

S2: The tenets have been laid down arbitrarily, as they seem plausible to the author.

S3: The tenets, put at the beginning, must not contradict each other (freedom of contradiction).

S4: The contradiction of competing theories lies - except for mistakes in measuring and observation - not in the facts themselves, but in the different tenets.

S5: The tenets can be objectively criticized and also be rejected. How good the tenets of two competing theories are, will be seen in their practical verification and in the theories deduced from them.

S6: The success of a theory still does not guarantee that it is true: Thus, theories can never be verified empirically (K. Popper). According to Popper, consistency does not prove that it is true; inconsistency, however, proves that it is false. No theoretical all-sentence (like ‘all swans are white’) can be verified - no matter, how much one might try. Theories can only prove themselves, and are only valid, as long as they have not been falsified by the experience of reality (‘by the appearing of a single black swan’), and when it has been replaced by a new, better theory.

S7: An empirical system of science must allow, that it be proved through experience. As a criterion, Popper proposes not the verification, but the falsification, that is, the logical form of the system must make it possible, through a methodical investigation, to disprove it. ‘An empirical-scientific system must be able to fail (when exposed) to experience.’ Hence, a single contradictory example from experiment or observation is enough to overthrow a theory in its present form. Thus, a good theory must make it possible, to easily hurt it. If it was able, with such an open formulation, to withstand the crossfire of all criticisms, it has been proved. After an ‘endless’ recourse of crucial test, the theory becomes a natural law.

The energy-law of physics is such an example for such a theory, formulated in such a way, that it can be easily attacked, in order to overthrow this thesis. Since one has never been able to do this, the energy-law has proved itself during a steady test. It, thus, has become an especially powerful law, which within the whole of real-science and technology, is of fundamental importance. A theory, which guards itself so much - that it cannot be hurt -, is scientifically irrelevant. It is then only a philosophical opinion.

S8: Because of principal differences, one must distinguish between structural- and real-science and historical-interpreting sciences.

S9: In contrast to the tenets of structural sciences (mathematics, information science), all the tenets of empirical sciences cannot be proved, but have only, more or less, withstood the test (proved good).

S10: One can only set up a theory, if one has at least one practical, reproducible example (experiment or observation). The tenets, deduced from the set-up theory, must be testable (be overthrown through falsification). The easier a theory can be tested, the better it can prove itself.

S11: A theory must allow predictions. Only when these predictions have been verified, can the theory be accepted. - Gitt, W. (1994:9-12).

Tenets of the Doctrine of Evolution

On what is the belief in evolution based? What are evolution’s basic doctrines, dogmas, or tenets? A "tenet": a principle, belief, or doctrine generally held to be true; esp.: one held in common by members of an organization, group, or profession. A synonym: doctrine. The letter E is standing here for "evolution". - Prof. Werner Gitt (1994:14-18) states:

"The following 12 tenets (E1 to E12) one unfortunately seldom finds put in front of evolution-theoretical works, even though the stated results of these works do very basically depend on them. They are often contained only implicitly, so that the reader does not know, whether the statement comes from observed data, or whether the presupposed tenets are interpreted as a result." "Explicit": free from all vagueness and ambiguity, fully developed or formulated. -"Implicit": capable of being understood from something else though unexpressed.

E1: The basic principles of evolution are presupposed. ‘The core of the theory of evolution consists of the statement, that all systematic categories are, after all, related to each other, so that all known organisms can be deduced from a common ancestor.’ Siewing, R. (1982:171).

E2: Evolution is a universal principle.

E3a: A Creator (or synonyms like designer, planning spirit, demiurg) must not be used. The biochemist Ernest Kahane (1983:16) formulated it like this: ‘It is absolutely absurd and absolutely foolish to believe, that a living cell arises by itself; but I still do believe it, since I cannot imagine it in any other way.’

E3b: This world and all its different forms of life do only have a material basis. Thus: The arising of life must only be sought within the realm of the material. A spiritual cause for matter itself, as also for life must therefore be excluded.

E4: One assumes that matter was already there. From the energy-tenet follows a connection with Einstein’s matter and energy being equal E = m x c², so that the wholeness of the equivalence of all energy and matter in our universe is constant. Hence, for the arising of matter and energy, there is no natural-scientific explanation. Thus, the amount of energy must have been there already before the postulated big bang. This tenet contradicts the following tenet E5 (also contrary to S3).

E5: In regard to the natural-scientific efficiency there is no difference between the arising of the world and that of all living beings and their functioning. The mechanism of the processes of evolution for all life must have occurred, therefore, according to the same laws, we are observing today (principle of actuality).

E6: Evolution presupposes natural-scientific processes, allowing a higher organization from the simple to the complex, from the not living to the living, from the lower to the higher tribal forms. These processes are known as the ‘self-organization of matter’. As their cause, the so-called factors of evolution are mentioned (see E7).

E7: As factors of evolution (= mainsprings of evolution) one assumes: mutation, selection, annidation (putting into a niche). Chance and necessity, long periods of time, ecological changes, and death are other needed factors, but which are contained already in the ‘actual’ factors of evolution.

E7a: ‘Mutation and selection are the motors of evolution’ (K. Lorenz). Comment: If there were even a single example (experiment or observation), proving how through mutation and selection (these mechanisms do exist), a new kind or a new construction plan arises, that is, new creative information, E5a would be then a deduced theory, but now it becomes a tenet.

E7b: Death is an absolutely needed factor of evolution.

E8: In evolution, there is neither a plan nor a goal. For that in the realm of the organic living, serving a purpose, one must not state a cause, since thereby a Creator would be implicated.

E9: There is no defined point of beginning or end of the axis of time.

E10: The present is the key to the past. From this follows, that the observed data of today may be extrapolated in time as far back as one likes.

E11: The transition from the not-living to the living is flowing. The continuing evolution from simple atoms and molecules up to mankind is seen as a gliding change from ‘pattern to pattern’: ‘The flowing transition (from the not-living to the living) is for a reductionist explanation a basic requirement’ (B.-O. Küppers).

E12: Evolution will also continue in the far future.

Comment: One notices that the results of the doctrine of evolution, said to be basic, are not the result of measurements and observation, but do describe a system of basic assumptions. Within the frame of these models of origin, only those theories are allowed, that do fit into the concept of evolution (theory of cognition). - Gitt, W. (1994:14-18).

Tenets of the Doctrine of Creation

On what are the teachings about the belief in creation based? - The letter C is standing here for "creation". - Prof. Werner Gitt (1994:19-31) states about the following tenets of the doctrine of creation (C1-12):

C1: The basic principle of creation is assumed. The biblical revelation is the key to understanding this world.

C2: Creation is a universal principle, that is, the whole universe and all life on earth have been created.

C3: There is a Creator. The Creator is the God of the Bible. When the Bible begins with the statement: ‘In the beginning God made heaven and earth’, this is then a tenet, as we mean it. God is the cause of all things - irrespective of, whether we have understood them already scientifically or not.

C4: The material of the whole universe has been made without any pre-existing starting-materials.

C5: There is a basic difference between the making of the world and of all the living beings and the processes after creation has ended. The natural laws are our rules of experience with matter, according to which the processes of nature are repeating themselves again and again according to which the present creation in all its details is functioning.

C6: God’s acts of creation within creation can neither be explained with the help of natural laws, nor can they be interpreted within this limited frame. The process of creation itself is a singular event, whereby the natural laws, valid today, first arose. That, what God has revealed to us in the Scriptures, is therefore a basic and absolutely needed information that cannot be won in any other way. Reason: With the example of the well-known law of the conversation of energy, which says, that in our world energy can neither be won from nothing, nor that it can be destroyed, the above tenet becomes clear. The origin of energy, installed in our universe, cannot be described by any of the known natural laws. The process of creation, thus, occurred outside of the conformities with natural law, valid today.

C7: The Bible mentions the following factors of creation (= causes of creation):

o      through the word of God

o      through the power of God

o      through the wisdom of God

o      through the will of God

o      through the Son of God

o      without any starting materials

C8: Causes demand a goal-giver. The concepts of creation are an important indication of a Creator (Rom. 1:19, 20). They testify to the wisdom (ingenuity, intelligence, richness of ideas), (Col. 2:3) and omnipotence (Ps. 19.2) of the Creator.

C9: There is a definite starting- and end-point in the axis of time. The beginning is marked by Genesis 1:1. Time and matter do arise with creation.

C10: The past is the key to the present. This tenet is the reversal of tenet E10 of the doctrine of evolution. The present cannot be explained without the three biblically testified events of the past: Creation, the Fall of man, and the Flood.

C10a: The geology of today’s earth cannot be understood without the Flood.

C11: There is a clear difference between the not-living and the living. Matter and energy, though, are basically needed for all living beings; but they do not keep them apart enough from each other. One of the central marks of all living beings is the information, contained in them for all working processes (realizing all of their functions of life, genetic information for propagation). Information belongs characteristically to all life. In the simplest borderline-case, the living beings (viroids) do consist only of the carrier of information. On the other hand, even complex organic compounds (like proteins) do not live, since they do not have information, based on a code. Information can always come only from a source of information.

C12: The creation of living beings (basic types) has ended. All the changes, arising later on (like races) are only variations of the basic types, already made.

What is Information?

What is information? Why does it exist? Why has it come into being? Why is there genetic information even in the smallest bacterial cell?

Prof. Werner Gitt: "To the basic principles of life do belong the processes of transmitting information. When insects are bringing pollen from plant-flowers, this is, then, mainly an event of transmitting information (of genetic information); the matter, involved here, is unimportant. It is generally true: Each information, to be sent, needs two preconditions, namely

·         a material carrier, in order to store it and to control the processes,

·         a clearly defined code-system, in order to replace thoughts by represented symbols.

Tenets of Information

Tenet 1: For the storing of information one needs a material carrier.

Tenet 2: Each code is based on a free, deliberate convention.

Tenet 2 makes it clear, that already at the level of the code - but even more so at the represented information - we are dealing with a spiritual concept. All manufacturing-, operating- and communicating-systems of living beings are based on a most suitable code system. In the doctrine of evolution, the origin of the code remains a principally unsolvable problem, for one may only include purely material causes, even though the code represents a spiritual idea. Supporters of evolution do admit this difficulty, but they do not say, what is causing this dilemma. So, J. Monod writes: ‘The greatest problem, though, is the origin of the genetic code and the mechanism of its translation.’

Tenet 3: To each information belong characteristically the hierarchical levels of syntax (code, grammar), semantics (meaning), pragmatics (acts), and apobetics (result, goal). These categories are according to their structure non-material.

Tenet 4: Each information implicates a sender, and each information is meant for one (or several) receivers.

Tenet 5: Information is characteristically no material, but a spiritual magnitude. Material processes, thus, are excluded as a source of information.

Tenet 6: Information is not a magnitude of chance.

Tenet 7: Each information needs a spiritual source (sender).

Tenet 8: Information arises only through a will (intention, intuition, disposition). In other words: At the beginning of each information, there is its (spiritual) disposition.

Tenet 9: Mutation and selection are excluded as a source of new information.

According to tenets 3, 7 and 8, information represents something, which has been thought out (semantic). This fact is driving all concepts of evolution into a corner, as B.-O. Küppers admits: ‘A theory about the origin of life must contain therefore inevitably a theory about the origin of semantic information. And exactly here lies the basic difficulty, with which each natural-scientific theory about the origin of life is confronted.’

Tenet 10: At the beginning of each work, to be made, there is first the will and the idea, needed for it. Then, by using intelligence (richness of ideas), comes the conceptional solution in the form of manufacturing information.

Tenet 11: Operational information is a needed prerequisite for the functionally determined course of a system.

Tenet 12: Communication information helps the sender and receiver to communicate with each other.

We can summarize this now as follows (Gitt, W. 1994:77-81):

There is no information without a code.

There is no information without a spiritual source.

There is no information without any hierarchical levels (statistics, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, apobetics).

Tenets of Information

Max Himmelheber, a graduated engineer, was scientific assistant at the University in Karlsruhe, Basel, and Frankfurt, in Germany. Then he worked as a professional engineer, holding many patents on recycling methods. In 1970 he founded the journal Scheidewege. In Scheidewege (1988/1989:36-40) he published his findings about information and its origin. I have summarized here his findings in the form of 10 tenets of information (H1-10). H is standing here for Max Himmelheber:

H1: In space and time there is energy, controlled by information (natural laws).

H2: Information planned meaningfully, directed toward a goal, by an intelligent person.

H3: Information forming meaningfully a thought. Each meaningful thought is already information for the thinker himself. Material structures are realized creative thoughts.

H4: Information: Filling the world with meaning, plan, purpose, goal. This does not mean, that one person is informing here another person about a certain fact, about a question or a wish.

H5: Information can be expressed and measured through signs (the letters of the alphabet, Morse-signs, binary code). One must not confuse here the letters with the meaning of the text.

H6: Information can only arise from an intelligent person (a conscious being), who is creating this information.

H7: Information cannot arise by itself, through chance. Nor will information arise accidentally, when 1000 apes are writing on a typewriter. The Shakespeare-sonnet, written accidentally by apes, is no information at all, even though it might appear to the reader like the original. Important here is only the producer and his intention, not the receiver. For the Neo-Darwinian, this is the only type of information, existing in the world.

H8: Information: an intelligent person thinks out a meaning. Then he causes his thought to take shape in matter. It is already information, when the engineer thinks out a new machine. Then he realizes his thoughts (his discovery), by making this machine. No other intelligent person is being informed here about a fact. But the raw material is filled with information, when the engineer is forming it. When disassembling the machine, the information disappears again or falls down to a lower level.

H9: Large and small material shapes in the cosmos (galaxies, hydrogen atoms) do prove, that there is a planning spirit.

H10: Making something new: a) Drafting (outlining, formulating) a fundamentally new idea as a whole. b) Realizing this new idea at many different places as a technical structure, in many different steps. All of them are directed toward the final goal of this new technical structure.