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Origins

Mark Dunagan
04/14/19 - Sunday Morning

Origins

Hearing Only One Side

If you or I were on a jury and only one side was presented during a trial, either only the defense or only the prosecution, we would more than likely feel that either the person was definitely innocent or definitely guilty. Currently in our schools and colleges this is what is happening with the Theory of Evolution. Only one side is being presented, and thus many people find the case compelling.

How Can Just an Average Person Know?

God has already spoken on this one. Specifically: Genesis 1. We don’t have to read or look very far for an answer. In the early chapters of Genesis it is clear that Evolution and Creation cannot be harmonized. 

• The days of Genesis are literal days, not long ages (Genesis 1:14). This point is emphasized as well in Exodus 20:11, the inspired commentary on the original creation week. And in the teaching of Jesus, where He placed Adam and Eve from the beginning, and not billions of years after the beginning (Matthew 19:8; Mark 10:6). Remember, when Jesus is speaking, the Creator is speaking (John 1:3). In Romans 1, Paul equally placed human beings at the beginning of creation (Romans 1:20).
• Nothing evolves by chance in Genesis. God is the author and designer of all the specific life forms, including man, who is made in His own image (Genesis 1:26). Other passages make the same point (Colossians 1:16; Revelation 4:11; 5:13). God did not merely create the basic stuff and then allowed time and chance to take over, rather God is the designer of the variety of life that we see on this planet.
• The process in Genesis is not slow, rather it is fast, and other passages emphasize this point as well (Psalm 33:6.9).

I Would Not Go Against the Bible

Because it has the credentials, including the fact that it predicted future events centuries in advance (Isaiah 53), and declares to man facts about the universe before he could discover them for himself (Job 26:7; Isaiah 40:22). It also reveals the highest moral and ethical standard known to man:

“The Moral Law still stands out for me as the strongest signpost to God. More than that, it points to a God who cares about human beings, and a God who is infinitely good and holy. The other observations, discussed earlier, that point to a Creator – the fact that the universe had a beginning, that it obeys orderly laws that can be expressed precisely with mathematics, and the existence of a remarkable series of ‘coincidences’ that allow the laws of nature to support life” (The Language of God, Francis Collins, pp. 218,219).

Science Verses Faith?

Often people try to argue that the debate between Evolution and Creation is a struggle between science (fact) and faith. Yet such is not even remotely true. Both Creation and Evolution rest upon miracles. The miracle behind Creation is that God created everything out of nothing. The miracle behind Evolution is that something came from nothing and life came from non-life, both of these premises go against the current laws that govern the universe.

All Scientists/Smart People Believe in Evolution?

More than 1,000 Ph.D. holders have signed the “Scientific Dissent From Darwin” list. The list of signatories includes members of national academies of science in 16 different countries. Many are senior professors or researchers at universities and research institutions such as Cambridge University, the British Natural History Museum, the Institute of Human Paleontology in France, Ben-Gurion University in Israel, MIT, and so on. In addition, there is more than one theory of Evolution.  Scientists are not in total agreement. The most popular theory of Evolution in this country is the Darwinian variety, but this is not the only theory of Evolution that exists.  Marxists tend to prefer a model of evolutionary change that proceeds by rapid bursts rather than by constant gradualism, because it fits with their view that social change occurs by a revolutionary leap from one kind of state to another.

The Smart People

Always remember that even the “smart people” are subject to temptation and sin (Romans 3:23). In Romans chapter 1 people thought they were being really wise in rejecting the idea of God (Romans 1:20-22). 

It is Not Scientific

“DNA, with its phosphate-sugar backbone and intricately arranged organic bases, stacked neatly one top of one another and paired together at each rung of the twisted double helix, seems an utterly improbable molecule to have ‘just happened’ – especially since DNA seems to possess no intrinsic means of copying itself” (The Language of God, Collins, pp. 90-91). “No serious scientist would currently claim that a naturalistic explanation for the origin of life is at hand” (Collins, pp. 92-93). 

• Life came from non-life? When have we ever observed this?
• One kind became another kind? When have we ever observed this?
• Random chance and accident produced order and complexity? When have we ever seen this?
• There is a clear lack of transitionals in the fossil record, not merely a few missing links, but no chain of links from one species to another.
• There is a sudden explosion of complex life forms at the beginning of the Cambrian age, with no prior ancestors. Life simply explodes into existence in the fossil record, not just simple life nor the beginning of life, but complex life.
• The fossil record is not a record of gradual and quiet change, but of huge catastrophic events that wiped out vast amounts of life.

Evolution Does Not Fit What We See In the Real World

• We see the handiwork of God: Psalm 19:1
• We see that man is different from the animals, and we act on this. It is wrong to murder, but not to kill an animal: Genesis 1:26; Genesis 9:6
• We reject the survival of the fittest approach to morality.
• We clearly understand the presence of evil in this world: 1 Peter 5:8
• We speak of God – even our leaders that went to our universities speak of Him. 
• We, as a people and culture speak about the after-life. There is no after-life in Evolution.
• We speak of finding our mission or purpose in life. There is no purpose or meaning in Evolution.
• We speak of the existence of good and evil, yet there is no such thing as good or evil in Evolutionary Theory

The Same Evidence

One good example of how both Creationists and Evolutionists see the same evidence but come to different conclusions is the evidence of mass fossil beds. Everyone agrees that the facts present mass extinctions of almost all life in the earth’s past. Evolutionists believe that a mass extinction, wiping out 90% of the planet’s species, occurred about 250 million years ago. One popular speculation is that an asteroid collided with the earth. Creationists see the same evidence and point to what the Bible has said all along, that is, the Flood (Genesis 6-9; 2 Peter 3:4ff). We should note that the asteroid theory is relatively recent, while the explanation offered by the Bible was around long before man even discovered that fossil beds existed. Thus, once again, the Bible had the answer long before men even knew what the question was.

The Biblical Account – In Harmony with the Most Recent Evidence

• There are many creatures living today that are virtually identical to the remains of their ancestors found in the fossil record. These include many insects, Ginkgo trees, crocodiles, and many marine invertebrates. How could such species have remained unchanged if Evolution is true?
• A number of different discoveries equally contradict the idea that the earth is billions of years old. “Galaxies wind themselves up much too fast to be billions of years ago. Comets disintegrate too rapidly and have no mechanism for reform. There is too little sediment on the sea flood to account for billions of years. The earth’s magnetic field is decaying too rapidly. Rock layers are bent to extreme degrees, suggesting they folded rapidly while still soft. DNA and other biologic materials should decay and not be found in fossils – bacteria alleged to be 250 million years old should have no intact DNA left… Carbon 14 is found in diamonds and coal that are supposed to be millions or billions of years old. There are too few skeletons of Stone Age humans to support the alleged 200,000 year time span. Agriculture and historical writings have been around for too short a period” (Humphreys, www.icr.org/article/1842).

The Truth: What We Can Live By

“Another way to evaluate a theory is by submitting it to the practical test: Can we live by it? Does it fit our experience of human nature? Many proponents of evolutionary psychology admit that it is a dark doctrine, with repugnant implications. After all, if humans are nothing more than ‘gene machines’ or ‘robots’ programmed to behave in certain ways by natural selection, then what becomes of moral freedom and human dignity?” (Total Truth, p. 217).

Actually, instead of making us “gods”, evolution makes us slaves. Evolution is nothing more than genetic predestination and there is no true free will. Therefore, the criminal was predestined to commit the crime, and the hero was predestined to sacrifice himself. Evil means nothing, and should never be punished and goodness should not be praised. Yet at this point evolutionists take a “leap of faith” and exhort their readers to overcome and declare independence from our genetic masters. “The reason people are compelled to take an irrational leap is that no matter what they believe, they are still made in the image of God. Even when they reject the witness of Scripture, they still face the constant witness of their own human nature. At some point, even the most adamant scientific materialists find that their own humanity resists the deterministic implications of the Darwinian worldview” (Total Truth, p. 219).

Once Accepted – It Permeates Everything

What one believes about evolution, touches everything in one’s life. It is not just a theory in biology, but rather it is probably the most important dogma in the religion of scientific naturalism. Julian Huxley noted that “all aspects of reality are subject to evolution, from atoms and stars to fish and flowers, from fish and flowers to human societies and values” (Darwin on Trial, p. 185). It is a religion with its own value system of plan of “salvation” through social and genetic engineering. It will affect everything from how a person parents, to how one deals with trauma, to how one views others, to how one processes the reality of one’s own mortality, and everything in-between.

Evolution is the outgrowth of the religion known as “naturalism”. In this view of reality it is assumed that nothing exists but matter. David Brooks writes that we have witnessed many great errors and disasters that have flowed from the belief that this world is all there is:

“At the end of the 18th century, the revolutionaries in France brutalized the society in the name of beginning the world anew on rational grounds. Social Darwinists imagined they had discovered the immutable laws of human evolution, which could be used to ensure the survival of the fittest. Corporate leaders under the influence of Frederick Taylor tired to turn factory workers into hyper-efficient cogs. In the 20th century, communists tired to socially reengineer whole nations, attempting to create, for example, a New Soviet Man. In the West, Le Corbusier and a generation of urban planners sought to turn cities into rational machines – factories for traffic – by clearing away existing neighborhoods and replacing them with multilane highways and symmetrical housing projects cut off from the older city” (The Social Animal, p. 226).

“Biologist William Provine of Cornell travels the lecture circuit telling university students that the Darwinian revolution is still incomplete because we have not yet embraced all its moral and religious implications. What are those implications? Provine lists them: ‘There is no ultimate foundation for ethics, no ultimate meaning in life, and no free will’” (Total Truth, p. 214). 

Is Belief in Creation a Science-Stopper?

Some people seem to think that believing in the Biblical account of Creation would put an end to scientific research or advancement. Yet most people do not realize that modern science was founded by men who believed that nature could and should be studied for the very reason that it follows the laws given to it by the great Lawgiver (Colossians 1:16). Johannes Kepler, one of the founders of astronomy, said that science is simply “thinking God’s thoughts after Him”. The very founders of a range of scientific disciplines were believers such as Bacon, Newton, Kepler, Galileo, Pascal, Boyle, Dalton, Linnaeus, Mendel, Maxwell, and Kelvin.

Why Science Exists…

• Not to boost our own ego.
• Not to help man hide from moral accountability and God.
• Not to take the place of worshipping God.
• To think God’s thoughts after Him.
• To discover how He did it, and how His universe works, so we can glorify Him and rule as good stewards: Genesis 1:28
• We do not see chance and accident, rather we see Psalms 8 and Romans 1.

Mark Dunagan | mdunagan@frontier.com
Beaverton Church of Christ | 503-644-9017
www.beavertonchurchofchrist.net