Devotional Biology
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Introduction & Preface4 Steps
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Chapter 1: Biology for the Believer15 Steps
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1.1 - God Desires to Be Known (25 min video)
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Read Chapter 1.1: Creation and Revelation
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Read Lab Manual: Introduction to Labs...General Safety Procedures
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1.2 - Christian Foundation of Science and Biology (28 min video)
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Read Chapter 1.2: The Origin of Modern Science
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1.3 – Christian Foundation of Science and Biology (36 min video)
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Read Chapter 1.3: What is Science?
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1.4 - Why Study Biology? (25 min video)
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Read Chapter 1.4: Why Study Biology?
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Perform Lab Exercise 1: Tuning Into Creation (3-4 hrs)
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1.5 - Our Kingly and Priestly Responsibilities (24 min video)
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Read Chapter 1.5: Biology and Our Kingship
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1.6 - Our Image and Ministry Responsibilities (17 min video)
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Read Chapter 1.6: Biology and Our Image
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Test - Chapter 1
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1.1 - God Desires to Be Known (25 min video)
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Chapter 2: The Living God: Biological Life14 Steps
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2.1 - Divine Through Animal Life (18 min video)
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Read Chapter 2.1: The Living God
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2.2 - Are Plants Alive? (17 min video)
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Read Chapter 2.2: Biblical Life
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2.3 - The Spectrum of Perfection of Life (13 min video)
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Read Chapter 2.3: The Spectrum of Perfection of Life
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2.4 - The Nature of Life (15 min video)
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Read Chapter 2.4: The Nature of Life
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Perform Lab Exercise 2: The Nature of Life (2-3 hrs)
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2.5 - Origin of Life (28 min video)
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Read Chapter 2.5: The Origin of Life
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2.6 - Our Responsibility (26 min video)
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Read Chapter 2.6: Life: Our Responsibility
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Test - Chapter 2
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2.1 - Divine Through Animal Life (18 min video)
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Chapter 3: God’s Glory: Biological Beauty6 Steps
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Chapter 4: God is Distinct: Biological Discontinuity9 Steps
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4.1 - Biblical Kind (12 min video)
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Read Chapter 4.1: The Uniqueness of God
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4.2 - Baraminology (22 min video)
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Read Chapter 4.2: Baraminology
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4.3 - The Spectrum of Discontinuity (17 min video)
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Read Chapter 4.3: Biological Discontinuity
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4.4 - Origin of Discontinuity (28 min video)
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Read Chapter 4.4: The Origin of Discontinuity
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Test - Chapter 4
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4.1 - Biblical Kind (12 min video)
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Chapter 5: God is Good: Mutualism & Biological Evil10 Steps
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5.1 – Mutualism (27 min video)
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Read Chapter 5.1: God is Good
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5.2 - Curse (21 min video)
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Read Chapter 5.2: Biological Evil
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5.3 - Biological Evil (23 min video)
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Read Chapter 5.3: Negative Effects of the Curse
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5.4 - Our Responsibility to Biological Good & Evil (26 min video)
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Read Chapter 5.4: Goodness of the Creation
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Perform Lab Exercise 4: Biological Relationships (3-4 hours)
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Test - Chapter 5
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5.1 – Mutualism (27 min video)
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Chapter 6: God is Person: Animal Behavior & Personality17 Steps
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6.1 - God is Person, Biological Uniqueness & Activity (32 min video)
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Read Chapter 6.1: God is a Person
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6.2 - Biological Activity II (32 min video)
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Read Chapter 6.2: Biological Activity Continued
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6.3 - Instinctive & Learned Behavior (34 min video)
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Read Chapter 6.3: Biological Intelligence
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6.4 - Animal Intelligence (26 min video)
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Read Chapter 6.4: Biological Intelligence Continued
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6.5 - Animal Will (27 min video)
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Read Chapter 6.5: Organismal Will
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6.6 - Animal Personality (35 min video)
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Read Chapter 6.6: Biological Emotions
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6.7 - The Origin of & Responsibility to Personhood (22 min video)
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Read Chapter 6.7: The Origin of Personality
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Test - Chapter 6
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Perform Lab Exercise 5: Surface Area/Volume Relationships (3-4 hours)
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Perform Lab Exercise 6: Diffusion & Osmosis (4-6 hours)
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6.1 - God is Person, Biological Uniqueness & Activity (32 min video)
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Chapter 7: The Provider God: The Anthropic Principle12 Steps
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7.1 - The Anthropic Principle & the Earth (25 min video)
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Read Chapter 7.1: God is Love
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7.2 - The Anthropic Principle & the Solar System (25 min video)
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Read Chapter 7.2: Solar System Structure
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7.3 - The Anthropic Principle & Atoms (29 min video)
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Read Chapter 7.3: Necessary Small-Scale AP Characteristics
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7.4 - The Anthropic Principle & Molecules (38 min video)
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Read Chapter 7.4: Compounds
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Read Chapter 7: Compounds
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7.5 - The AP: Origins and Responsibilities (24 min video)
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Read Chapter 7.5: Unnecessary AP Characteristics
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Test - Chapter 7
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7.1 - The Anthropic Principle & the Earth (25 min video)
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Chapter 8: The Sustaining God: The Biomatrix8 Steps
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8.1 - The Biomatrix (24 min video)
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Read Chapter 8.1: God is Sustainer
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8.2 - Biogeochemical Cycles (20 min video)
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Read Chapter 8.2: Biogeochemical Cycles
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Perform Lab Exercise 7: Biogeochemical Cycles (6-10 hours)
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8.3 - Kingly Responsibilities (28 min video)
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Read Chapter 8.3: Our Responsibility to the Creation
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Test - Chapter 8
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8.1 - The Biomatrix (24 min video)
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Chapter 9: God is One: Monomers, Biosimilarity, and Biosystems8 Steps
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9.1 - Common Monomers (30 min video)
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Read Chapter 9.1: One God
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9.2 - Similarities and Systems (22 min video)
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Read Chapter 9.2: Similar Structures
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9.3 - Our Responsibility to Biological Unity (17 min video)
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Read Chapter 9.3: Biological Unity: Our Responsibility
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Test - Chapter 9
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Perform Lab Exercise 8: The Microscope (6+ hours)
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9.1 - Common Monomers (30 min video)
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Chapter 10: God is Three: Biodiversity11 Steps
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10.1 - Climatic Variety (14 min video)
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Read Chapter 10: Three Persons...Diversity of Bio Comm.
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10.2 - Land Biome Variety (14 min video)
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Read Chapter 10: Land Biome Variety
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10.3 - Water Biome Variety (15 min video)
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Read Chapter 10: Water Biome Variety
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10.4 - Biodiversity (20 min video)
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Read Chapter 10: Biodiversity...Origin of Disparity
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10.5 - Responsibility to Biodiversity (17 min video)
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Read Chapter 10: Diversity: Our Responsibility
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Test - Chapter 10
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10.1 - Climatic Variety (14 min video)
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Chapter 11: God of Hierarchy: Biological Hierarchy13 Steps
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11.1 - Unified Hierarchy (11 min video)
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Read Chapter 11: Divine Hierarchy
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11.2 - Cell Theory (27 min video)
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Read Chapter 11: Hierarchy of Biological Organization...Unit of Life
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11.3 - Universal Cell Parts (26 min video)
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Read Chapter 11: Traits of all Cells
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Perform Lab Exercise 9: The Cell (4+ hours)
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11.4 - Higher Organization (15 min video)
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Read Chapter 11: Specialized Cell Traits...Why Hierarchy Exists
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11.5 - Netted Hierarchy (28 min video)
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Read Chapter 11: Netted Hierarchy...Responsibility
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Test - Chapter 11
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Perform Lab Exercise 10: Dichotomous Keys (5+ hours)
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11.1 - Unified Hierarchy (11 min video)
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Chapter 12: The Almighty God: Metabolism8 Steps
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12.1 - Types of Metabolism (10 min video)
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Read Chapter 12: Almighty God...Cellular Energy
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12.2 - Photosynthesis I (35 min video)
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Read Chapter 12: Photosynthesis
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12.3 - Photosynthesis II (25 min video)
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Read Chapter 12: Light Dependent Reactions...Responsibility
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Test - Chapter 12
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Perform Lab Exercise 11: Photosynthesis and Plant Design (8+)
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12.1 - Types of Metabolism (10 min video)
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Chapter 13: God the Word: Animal Communication & Language of Life8 Steps
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13.1 - Animal Communication (16 min video)
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Read Chapter 13: The Communicating God...Animal Communication
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13.2 - Myth of DNA & DNA Copying (23 min video)
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Read Chapter 13: The Language of Life
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Perform Lab Exercise 12: DNA Structure and Protein Translation (6-8 hours)
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13.3 - DNA as the Language of Life (32 min video)
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Read Chapter 13: DNA as the Language of Life...Responsibility
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Test - Chapter 13
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13.1 - Animal Communication (16 min video)
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Chapter 14: God’s Fullness: Reproduction, Diversification, and Biogeography10 Steps
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14.1 - Mitosis (25 min video)
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Read Chapter 14: Fullness of God...Cellular Reproduction
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14.2 - Meiosis and Non-Physical Reproduction (25 min video)
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Read Chapter 14: Meiosis...Non-Physical Reproduction
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14.3 - Diversification (28 min video)
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Read Chapter 14: “Multiply” and “Breed"
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Perform Lab Exercise 13: Mitosis and Meiosis (6-8 hours)
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14.4 - Biogeography & Responsibility (27 min video)
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Read Chapter 14: Fill...Responsibility
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Test - Chapter 14
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14.1 - Mitosis (25 min video)
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Chapter 15: The History of Life9 Steps
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15.1 - Biblical Chronology (26 min video)
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Read Chapter 15: His Story...Biblical Time
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15.2 - The Creation Week (18 min video)
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Read Chapter 15: His Story...Biblical Time
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15.3 - The Edenian and Ante-Diluvian Worlds (21 min video)
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Read Chapter 15: The Edenian Epoch
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15.4 - The Flood & Arphaxadian Epoch (26 min video)
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Read Chapter 15: Arphaxadian Epoch
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Test - Chapter 15
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15.1 - Biblical Chronology (26 min video)
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Appendix4 Steps
Read Chapter 2.2: Biblical Life
In the case of plants, Scripture does not seem to consider them alive—or at the very least they are not described as having nephesh or soul life. When God creates animals, He refers to each category of animal as living (Gen. 1:21 & 24), but when He creates plants (Gen. 1:11-12), He does not describe them as living. In fact, at the end of the Creation Week, plants were given as food to everything ‘wherein there is life’ (Gen. 1:29-30), strongly suggesting that plants themselves are not living (at least in the biblical sense of life).
A millennium and a half later, after requiring that ‘all living things’ of the land be included on the ark of Noah, God refers to plants only inferentially when He required that the food of the animals be included as well (Gen. 6:19-21). Again, the strong suggestion is that plants are not considered living beings in Scripture. In fact, nowhere in Scripture are plants referred to as living. Most commonly, the Bible refers to plants as ‘green things’ (e.g. Ex. 10:15; Rev. 9:4), as if the Bible refers to thriving plants as photosynthesizing, rather than ‘living’. As for whether plants can die, plants in the Bible can be ‘cut down’, ‘cut off’, ‘choked out’, ‘felled’, ‘hewed’, ‘smitten’, ‘broken’, ‘burned’, ‘plucked’, and ‘pulled up’, but there is no biblical example of a plant being ‘killed’.

Most of these phrases when applied to animals or humans would involve death (e.g. for a human to be ‘cut down’). However, when these words are applied to plants, they do not necessarily refer to the complete end of a plant, since “there is hope in a tree when it is cut down, that it will sprout again” (Job 14:7) and “…if a seed dies, it brings forth much fruit.” (John 12:24). The Bible seems to ignore whatever ‘life’ a plant might have and refer instead to what the plant produces (e.g. seeds, fruit, leaves, wood). This probably reflects the purpose of plants—which is to provide food for animals. The Bible also indicates that a plant can ‘fade’, ‘languish’, ‘wither’, ‘dry up’, ‘fail’, ‘fall’, and ‘wax old’. Of the scores of references to the termination of the vitality of plants, only four passages might suggest that plants can perish or die, but each passage can also be interpreted to refer to the cessation of a plant’s productivity, not its actual ceasing to exist.
Plants, then, not only seem to lack nephesh or soul life, but they seem to lack anything at all that the Bible refers to as life. Consequently, what might be called biblical life—or that which is considered ‘life’ in the Bible—is possessed by God, spirit creatures, humans, and animals, but it is not possessed by plants. Nephesh life, since it is possessed by animals and humans, but not God and spirit creatures, would then be a type or subset of biblical life. Other things, like fungi, protozoa, algae, and bacteria are not specifically mentioned in Scripture. However, their similarity with plants would suggest they, like plants, do not possess biblical life.
Biological Life
God and spirit creatures are not studied by biologists because they are not physical beings. This suggests a limitation of biology. Biology cannot study all beings that possess life. On the other hand, biologists study and consider living a number of things that may not be living as the Bible uses the term (e.g. bacteria, protozoa, algae, fungi, and plants). This text will refer to all being studied by biologists (humans, animals, plants, fungi, algae, protozoa, bacteria) as organisms, and the type of life possessed by organisms will be referred to as biological life.
Even More Types of Life
A summary of the different types of life we have considered is illustrated in Figure 2.1. Since biblical life, creature life, nephesh life, and biological life are not the same, but do overlap, it is likely that there are a number of different types of life and that biblical, creature, nephesh, and biological life are different categories of life—each including multiple, distinct types of life. Different types of spirit creatures, different types of animals (I Cor. 15:39), different types of microorganisms, and different types of plants may each contain distinct types of life.
