Sunday Sermons
Evolution - Part 2
Evolution II
The Problem of the Evolved Human Brain
“If the solar system was brought about by an accidental collision, then the appearance of organic life on this planet was also an accident, and the whole evolution of Man was an accident too. If so, then all our present thoughts are mere accidents — the accidental by-product of the movement of atoms. And this holds for the thoughts of the materialists and astronomers as well as for anyone else’s. But if their thoughts — i.e. of materialism and astronomy — are merely accidental by-products, why should we believe them to be true? I see no reason for believing that one accident should be able to give me a correct account of all the other accidents. It’s like expecting that the accidental shape taken by the splash when you upset a milk jug should give you a correct account of how the jug was made and why it was upset”: C.S. Lewis (1898–1963), The Business of Heaven, Fount Paperbacks, U.K., p. 97, 1984. This quotation exposes a very basic foundational problem. If evolution is true and the human brain is the product of blind chance and accident, then why should we trust anything that comes from such an accident? If your brain and thought processes are simply the product of an accident, then why should I take you seriously?
The Basis of True Science
“Men became scientific because they expected Law in Nature, and they expected Law in Nature because they believed in a Legislator. In most modern scientists this belief has died: it will be interesting to see how long their confidence in uniformity survives it. Two significant developments have already appeared — the hypothesis of a lawless sub-nature, and the surrender of the claim that science is true. We may be living nearer than we suppose to the end of the Scientific Age”: Lewis, C.S.,Miracles: a preliminary study, Collins, London, p. 110, 1947. This quotation should remind us of the obvious fact that all truth will harmonize, both scientific and spiritual truth. If God is both the author of the universe (Genesis 1:1; Colossians 1:16), and the author of the Bible (2 Timothy 3:16), true science and what the Bible says will always agree or harmonize. Let us remember that all truths, including scientific truths, are God’s truths as well.
The Bias of Many Evolutionists
Professor Richard Lewontin, a geneticist (and self-proclaimed Marxist), is a renowned champion of neo-Darwinism, and certainly one of the world’s leaders in evolutionary biology. He recently wrote this very revealing comment (the italics were in the original). It illustrates the implicit philosophical bias against Genesis creation — regardless of whether or not the facts support it. Such a quotation reveals the fallacy of the contention that Evolutionary Scientists only deal with facts or that all Scientists are objective and honest with the facts. In contrast, the Bible commands the believer to embrace the truth, regardless of the cost(Proverbs 23:23; 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12; Acts 17:11).
“We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs, in spite of its failure to fulfill many of its extravagant promises of health and life, in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we have a prior commitment, a commitment to materialism. It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counter-intuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is an absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door”: Richard Lewontin, “Billions and billions of demons”, The New York Review, January 9, 1997, p. 31.
"One is forced to conclude that many scientists and technologists pay lip-service to Darwinian theory only because it supposedly excludes a Creator”: Dr. Michael Walker, Senior Lecturer — Anthropology, Sydney University. Quadrant, October 1982, page 44. This quote reveals that many Scientists and others believe in Evolution, not on the basis of the evidence, but rather as a way to avoid acknowledging God (Romans 1:21-22).
“I had motive for not wanting the world to have a meaning; consequently assumed that it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption. The philosopher who finds no meaning in the world is not concerned exclusively with a problem in pure metaphysics, he is also concerned to prove that there is no valid reason why he personally should not do as he wants to do, or why his friends should not seize political power and govern in the way that they find most advantageous to themselves. … For myself, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation, sexual and political”: Huxley, A., Ends and Means, pp. 270 ff. The man who penned the above quote was Aldous Huxley, a British novelist who wrote Brave New World (1932), and was the brother of the leading atheistic evolutionist of the time Sir Julian Huxley.
What Evolution Really Means
“Christianity has fought, still fights, and will continue to fight science to the desperate end over evolution, because evolution destroys utterly and finally the very reason Jesus’ earthly life was supposedly made necessary. Destroy Adam and Eve and the original sin, and in the rubble you will find the sorry remains of the Son of God. If Jesus was not the redeemer who died for our sins, and this is what evolution means, then Christianity is nothing”: G. Richard Bozarth, “The Meaning of Evolution”, American Atheist, p. 30. 20 September 1979.
“We no longer feel ourselves to be guests in someone else’s home and therefore obliged to make our behavior conform with a set of pre-existing cosmic rules. It is our creation now. We make the rules. We establish the parameters of reality. We create the world, and because we do, we no longer feel beholden to outside forces. We no longer have to justify our behavior, for we are now the architects of the universe. We are responsible to nothing outside ourselves, for we are the kingdom, the power, and the glory for ever and ever”: Jeremy Rifkin, Algeny, p. 244 (Viking Press, New York), 1983. From the above quotation it is clear thatEvolution is the modern equivalent to what Satan promised Adam and Eve in the garden, equality with God and freedom from His restrictions (Genesis 3:1-6).
The Real Truth About Evolution
Dr William B. Provine, Professor of Biological Sciences, Cornell University: “Let me summarize my views on what modern evolutionary biology tells us loud and clear … There are no gods, no purposes, no goal-directed forces of any kind. There is no life after death. When I die, I am absolutely certain that I am going to be dead. That’s the end for me. There is no ultimate foundation for ethics, no ultimate meaning to life, and no free will for humans, either”: Provine, W.B., Origins Research 16(1/2), p.9, 1994.
From a debate between two evolutionists. Lanier is a computer scientist; Dawkins is a Professor at Oxford and an ardent atheist: Jaron Lanier: “There's a large group of people who simply are uncomfortable with accepting evolution because it leads to what they perceive as a moral vacuum, in which their best impulses have no basis in nature”. Richard Dawkins: “All I can say is, That's just tough. We have to face up to the truth”. Evolution: The dissent of Darwin', Psychology Today, January/February 1997, p. 62. What the above debate reveals is that some Evolutionists are very wary about letting the masses really know what Evolution teaches, for if the word really did get out that Evolution teaches that your life is pointless, that there is good and evil and that even man’s best examples of self-sacrifice are meaningless, then most people would reject the theory!
“The usual thing vaguely believed in by this majority of people (at the same time as they accept evolution) is some sort of fuzzy, ethereal, oozing god-essence — more like the Star Wars ‘force be with you’ than the personal God of Scripture. They usually obtain some comfort from a vague belief in at least the possibility of some sort of afterlife. Why is it true, as Gould also points out (a talk given by Dr. Gould on June 6, 1990, at Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand, titled ‘The Darwinian Revolution in Thought’) that even among non-Christians who believe in evolution the vast majority don’t wish to face the utter planlessness of Darwin’s theory? Because they would then no longer be able to console themselves with the feeling that there is some sort of plan or purpose to our existence” (Darwin’s Real Message, Have You Missed It?” Carl Wieland).
Science Verses the Bible?
Some people are under the mistaken impression that the discoveries of the Enlightenment Period destroyed the idea that the Bible is the Word of God. That science has proven false many unscientific theories that were supported by the Biblical text and that science has always had to deal with and overcome Christian myth and ignorance. A common view presented in many textbooks is that the controversy over Galileo’s discoveries was a case of science verses the Bible. Yet, as many historians have noticed, the first to oppose Galileo was the scientific establishment. The prevailing wisdom of the day was Aristolelian/Ptolematic theory, that is a theory developed by pagans and unbelievers. The fact of the matter is that truth, whether scientific or spiritual has always been opposed by bad theologians and bad scientists! Galileo also accepted biblical authority more faithfully than many professed Christians today. One writer noted that the four heroes of heliocentrism (sun-centered universe), Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, and Newton were all young-earth creationists! (Refuting Evolution, May 1999, Jonathan Sarfati, Ph.D., p. 101).
The Bible has always contained good science, including the truth that the earth is round (Isaiah 40:22 “It is He who sits above the circle of the earth”), yet there have always existed people, both professed believers and unbelievers, who have twisted biblical texts to support their theories (including the theory of evolution). Some professed believers in times past argued that the earth was the center of the universe because the Psalmist said, “The world is firmly established; it cannot be moved” (93:1). Actually the verse is clearly not teaching that the earth does not rotate or move in space, rather it means that the earth is stable and secure. The same Hebrew word for “moved” is used in Psalm 16:8 “I shall not be moved”, that is the writer would not stray from the path that God wanted him to walk. Surely, the writer is not saying that he was rooted in one spot! It is also falsely claimed that the ancient Hebrews thought that the earth was flat (which is contradicted by Isaiah 40:22), that it is covered by a dome of the sky (“the firmament”); and rain is result of the waters above the sky falling through the “windows” of the firmament. Actually, the Hebrew term rendered “firmament” means an “expanse”, something that is spreading out and not some sort of fixed surface or structure. The expression “windows of heaven” is clearly poetic, like the “four corners of the earth” or the “setting of the sun”—expressions that we still use to this day.
Mark Dunagan/Beaverton Church of Christ/503-644-9017 www.beavertonchurchofchrist.net/mdunagan@easystreet.com
