Evolution and the Bible

When I was a young teen, I got into a discussion with my uncle about evolution. I had always respected my uncle as the only real Christian influence in my life. He was a great man, but he insisted on believing in a six day creation. I was convinced that he was just another narrow-minded, slightly deluded Christian fanatic. Imagine believing in creationism in spite of all of the scientific evidence that evolution is true!

I have always been a bit of a science geek. I was the little weird kid that in kindergarten, instead of learning to count to 100 by fives and tens, I memorized the distance from the sun to Neptune and Pluto. I also spend an extra $5 per month on my satellite TV bill, for 10 extra channels. I block 9 of them and watch the Science Channel! All of that to say, I love science.

It wasn't until my adult years that I began to question my belief in evolution. I am truly a product of the educational system in the United States, so I realize that by even THINKING this, I've committed heresy. Look at the facts! How could anyone question those scholarly men and women in their clean, white lab coats? And look at their degrees, by golly! These folks have studied their subjects so thoroughly that anything that they say should be taken at face value, especially by a lay-scientist slob like me. Don't you think?

If studying a subject thoroughly makes it truth, then we all need to bow the knee to Allah, because the Muslim fundamentalists really know the Koran! When we examine evolution for what it REALLY is, we find it lacking, ESPECIALLY in the light of science. First, we learned in all of our high school science classes, that for a theory to be regarded as fact, it had to pass the experimentation test. That means that we do experiments repeatedly, and over time, if we get the same result, we can call it fact. Does evolution pass this test? It really depends on what you mean by evolution. There are very few scientists that believe in the same things that Charles Darwin believed in. As the years have gone by, Darwinism has morphed into Neo-Darwinian Micro-Mutational Evolutionary Theory, (NDMMET). These theories are only similar in that they believe that life came from non-life, natural selection and that God, if He exists, was only the great "clock maker" who wound the whole thing up and let it go.

If we are to believe in NDMMET, we need to do so without the benefit of the experimental method of scientific reasoning. The "god" that we need to tip our hat to is uniformitarianism. Uniformitarianism is the belief that as things are today, they always were in the past and always will be in the future. Modern scientists would have you believe that all there is to know is right in front of you and all you have to do is to wind the clock back to find the truth. Since life exists, wind the clock back and life MUST have come from non-life. Since there is diversity of species, they MUST have come from a single source. This belief system stands in stark contrast to "catastrophism", which is the belief that non-linear events interrupt history on occasion. (The Christian would put "miracles" in this category.) God warned believers against falling into this trap. 2 Peter 3:3-7 "Knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming, (Jesus)? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly." (italics mine) Does this scenario sound familiar?

Evolution cannot be proved experimentally. It is a "faith" system. I would go as far as to call it a religion. I heard a scientist speaking on television this week. He said, "I fully expect to find earth-like planets in circular orbits to be as common as grains of sand in the next ten years. If we don't, it may mean that the Earth is unique. That would be very disturbing to me." Though he wasn't speaking about evolution per se, he was referring to earth-like planets where life could arise spontaneously. He was fearful of finding out that the only place in the universe that has life is our Earth. Why would he be disturbed by that? If the Earth is a unique place and if life only exists here, then his FAITH system would be sorely challenged. It is a grave and life-changing thing, when all that we have come to believe by faith, is thrown into chaos.

I really want to challenge evolution on a technical basis, but I am sure that the majority of my readers would find that discussion boring. For the purpose of this article, I simply want to posit these ideas:

1) Evolution is a faith system and not science. The proponents of evolution, have either been educated in our school system and believe it because they had to pass a test on the subject, (so it MUST be true), or they use the theory in order to have a rationale to dismiss the biblical account of creation. If the biblical account is true, then the Bible is true. If the Bible is true, then the God of the Bible is in charge. If the God of the Bible is in charge, then I must OBEY Him. Since I don't WANT to obey anyone, then evolution must be true! Romans 1:21-25 "For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen."

2) Evolutionary theory is a moving target. As the years have passed, evolutionary theory has had to change in order to remain valid. The fossil record does not support evolution, so scientists have borrowed from catastrophism and come up with "punctuated equilibrium". Punctuated equilibrium means that fossil forming events were so sudden that they only took a snapshot of life at a given moment, like a great flood. (Hmmmmm!) Only under the most unusual circumstances can fossils be formed, ergo we have many missing links. Also, evolution has had to blithely skip over one small point. Biogenesis. Evolutionary scientists have quietly and unsuccessfully tried to create life from non-life for many years. The closest that they ever came was the celebrated experiment from the 1950's that was able to form amino acids from hydrocarbon gas. The experiment had to assume that there was NO oxygen present at the time that "life" was formed, and it had to make the quantum leap of faith that somehow, since amino acids could be formed, it was only a matter of time before the goo in the flask would rise up and start talking. (Amino acids are to life, as a nut is to a Rolls Royce.) In spite of all of the time and effort dedicated to figuring out how life "happens", no one has come close to figuring out STEP ONE in evolutionary theory. (But you had better believe it anyway!)

3) Christians do not have to capitulate to "science" in order to make valid arguments in defense of the biblical account of creation. There has been a wave of defections from the creationist camp to some form of "evolutionary creationism" or "progressive creationism". This has happened because for the most part, Christians are ignorant. First, most Christians were educated in the modern school system. They weren't necessarily taught by a card carrying atheist, but they were educated by teachers that were educated by teachers that were educated by teachers that bought into and embraced a naturalistic, atheistic world view. The government school system taught them, tested them and rewarded them for their knowledge of evolutionary theory. The TV and all other popular media propagandized them and reinforced the belief that evolution was "smart" and creationism was backward, red-necked and unsophisticated. Also, Christians are, for the most part, ignorant about the Bible. I recently had an email debate with a fellow that defended his belief in evolution along with his belief in the Bible. I asked him if he had actually read the Bible. His answer was NO, but he had read a ton of books written by guys that validated what he already believed ABOUT the Bible. That should be enough, right?

I plan to revisit this discussion in later posts. I believe that evolution and the underlying worldview that flows from evolutionary theory are extremely destructive to not only society in general, but to the Christian church as well.

His servant,

D. L. Culiver