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 2.4: The Nature of Life
Because life is part of the very nature of God, He has always lived and always will live. All other life was created by God, whether it be spiritual or physical (“…by Him were all things created… visible and invisible…”: Col. 1:16). Since God created living organisms to illustrate His attribute of life, the more we learn about the nature of that life, the more we should be able to learn about God. Beyond that, a number of important issues in our society and in our lives are dependent upon a proper understanding of life. What life is and when life begins and ends, impacts our understanding of such things as birth control, abortion, in-vitro fertilization, fetal tissue research, cloning, and euthanasia.
There are several Biblical reasons to believe that life is far more than physical. First, since God is alive, but is also spirit (John 4:24), God’s life—the source of all life—is not physical. Second, cherubim are alive, but they are spirit beings (having no body), so the life of spirit beings is not physical either. Third, after creating Adam, it was not until after God breathed the ‘breath of life’ into him that ‘man’ became a living soul (Gen. 2:7).
Elsewhere in Scripture human death comes with the departure of the ghost or spirit or soul (e.g. Job 14:10, Acts 12:23) and “…the body without the spirit is dead…” (James 2:26). Ghost, spirit, and soul are all contrasted with the body (e.g. “…a spirit does not have flesh and bones…”: Luke 24:39), suggesting ghosts, spirits, and souls are not physical. Life, which also leaves the body at death would seem to be non-physical also. Fourth, each time God created animals, He called nephesh hayim into being (translated as ‘living creatures’ in Gen. 1:20-21, 24-25). Nephesh hayim is the same Hebrew phrase that is translated ‘living soul’ in reference to Adam in Genesis 2:7. If human souls are something more than physical, then there is an implication that animal life is also something more than physical.

There are also non-biblical reasons to believe that life is more than just physical. First, even when studied carefully in a scientific laboratory with many sophisticated instruments, the death of an organism involves no change in mass or volume. When life departs, nothing is detected as departing (i.e. nothing leaving the body can be seen, smelled, tasted, felt, or heard). If life is something that actually leaves an organism at death, it would seem that it is not physical. Second, though life in the naturalistic worldview (naturalism) is thought to be nothing more than chemistry, there are few people who truly believe that their own life—or even the life of their pet cat or dog—is merely chemical reactions and nothing more. Third, biology textbooks written from a naturalistic worldview never define life. Sometimes the question “What is Life?” is never even discussed. In all cases, the ‘characteristics’ or ‘common traits’ of living things are listed but life is never defined. Life being something more than physical would explain why biologists have not been able to identify it after all these centuries of study.

To clarify, what is being suggested here is that all types of life (biblical life, nephesh life, etc.) are non-physical in nature. Even the biological life of bacteria and plants is non-physical in nature. In fact, the non-physical nature of all life might give us further insight into different types of organisms. Some organisms may differ only in non-physical ways. This would have to be true in the case of non-physical beings like God and spirit beings because they are only non-physical. But the non-physical nature of life itself makes it possible for two physical beings that are identical physically, might actually differ in non-physical ways. And, even between two organisms that differ physically, it is possible for the non-physical differences to exceed the physical differences. And, if life really is non-physical, we can neither directly perceive life, nor discern differences between different types of (non-physical) life. This in turn means that there may be many more types of (non-physical) life than we have so far recognized.
The non-physical nature of life also provides insight in the nature of biology. In the preceding chapter we observed that although biology is supposed to mean ‘the study of life’, biology cannot study all of life because biology cannot study living spirit beings. The further revelation that life is not physical suggests biology has yet another limitation—that it cannot even study life in physical beings. This creates the somewhat ironic situation that biology cannot study life itself! What biology does study, is organisms—the physical things that possess life.