The Battle Between Creation & Evolution
Creation and Evolution, which of these two views of the origin of the universe posits to be a more credible view? This subject has engaged the minds of scientists and philosophers throughout the centuries before. On the one hand, the theory of Evolution, despite its shortfalls, hollow arguments and inconclusive evidences has sufficed to become the predominant religion of the secular modern world and even more particularly, modern western Society. On the other hand the Creation view of the origin of the universe and for that matter life, which used to be the predominant view in centuries past seems to be capitulating with alacrity to the Evolution view. Now than ever more, evangelical Christian leaders are abandoning the purely Judea-Christian view a of the creation of the universe by God to favor a compromised view which emphasizes that evolution completed What God started and thus, they emphasize a ‘marriage’ of the two views is not out of place.
This compromised view by Christians today, I find very melancholic for 3 personal and verifiable reasons:
- Two diametrically opposed views: These two views of the origin of the universe are diametrically opposed to each other. Thus, accepting one is denial of the other but both of them cannot be true.
- The inconclusiveness of Evolution and the verifiability of Creation: The theory of Evolution is one of the widely challenged theories if not the most by modern scientists and philosophers. For instance, Dr. Michael Behe(professor of biochemistry, author of Darwin’s Black Box) by his concept of irreducible complexity broke down Darwin’s theory of Evolution. Meanwhile, most of the assertions in Genesis about Creation has been affirmed by science. An example in case is the contribution of the sun and the moon to the change in seasons.
- The great Danger of a compromise on the creation account in Genesis: Dr. John MacArthur in his book, The Battle for the Beginning asserts that, in Genesis 1-3, we find the foundation of every doctrine that is essential to the Christian faith. Thus! if we question what Genesis says about the origin of the world, then, we have in effect questioned or refuted all that the Bible has to say about man and salvation.
So which is a more credible account, Creation or Evolution? Is Genesis fact or fiction? Such questions this post seeks to answer by the following points:
- Science vs Faith examination
- Unique Created Life Kinds
- The discovery of soft tissue in fossils
- The Existence of Molecular Machines
- Genesis, Time, Seasons and our Culture
Science vs Faith
Many people confuse the theory of evolution with science but evolution is not science. It has never been science and will never be science. It’s dogma has never proven as verifiable and the theory as a whole does not adhere to scientific principles. ”Consider the dogma of evolution, for example. The notion that natural evolutionary processes can account for the origin of all living species has never been and never will be established as fact. Nor is it “scientific” in any true sense of the word. Science deals with what can be observed and reproduced by experimentation” Dr. John MacArthur, The Battle for the Beginning, 2001. For this very reason, Dr. John MacArthur concluded that evolution is nothing apart from Religion “ Religion is exactly the right word to describe naturalism. The entire philosophy is built on a faith-based premise. It’s basic presupposition- a rejection of everything supernatural-requires a giant leap of faith. And nearly all its supporting theories must be taken by faith as well”.
Secondly, the theory of evolution does not adhere to the scientific principle of cause-and-effect. According to this principle, something cannot come from nothing. “It is hard to imagine anything more absurd than the naturalist’s formula for the origin of the universe: “Nobody times nothing equals everything”. There is no creator; there is no design or purpose. Everything we see simply emerged and evolved by pure chance from a total void” Dr. John MacArthur”.
As Dr. Craig explained in The case for Faith: “something coming from nothing makes no sense! If there must be a cause for a little bang, then doesn’t it also make sense that there would be a cause for a Big Bang?”
When you see a farm, I don’t think you ever go oh gush! this farm came from nothing. Rather, your first impression is that, the farm must have an owner or farmer or even better creator. If a simple farm has a creator how absurd is it to think that this awe-inspiring universe came into being by sheer chance.
However, most of the claims in Creation of the universe in Genesis of the Bible are assentuated by Science. This is not to say that the Creation of the universe as recounted in Genesis can be replicated in a science laboratory nor am I elevating Science to the level of faith because the origin of life can be neither observed nor reproduced.
All I am saying is that when the assertions of the Creation story is analyzed, the one who loves science should find it easier to associate with creation than evolution. Let me give you an example. Scientists advocate that the universe came into being by ‘the big bang’; a big explosion caused by a sudden surge of energy or light which the evolutionists claim came from nothing. But we who believe in Creation know where that sudden flow of energy or light came from. The sudden flow of energy came when God said: “Let there be light” in Genesis 1:3 and There was light.
This agrees with the scientific principle of cause and effect and led Dr. William Lane Craig to explain in the Case for a Creator: “The cause of space and time must be an uncaused, beginningless, timeless, space less, immaterial, personal being endowed with freedom of will and enormous power,” he said. “And that is the core concept of God”
Unique Created Life Kinds
At the heart of the theory of evolution is the principle of natural selection working over millions of years formed all the diversity of life we see in the world. Genesis however, says God created animals fully-formed “according to their Kinds.” When one studies the similarities and differences of animals, a better explanation is that each created kind possesses enormous potential for genetic change. These changes within kinds have often been pointed to as arguments for evolution, but changes between kinds have not been observed. Instead of a single tree of life growing from a common ancestor, each created kind has its own unique tree forming an orchard of life. Humans are part of their own kind and include relatives like Neanderthals, but not extinct primates like Australopithecus. God made Adam and Eve in His image, and gave them the unique role of stewarding His creation.” All we see are variations that happen within a Created kind”- Todd Wood (Is Genesis History?, 2016)
Soft Tissue in fossils
In 2005, soft tissue was discovered inside the femur of a dinosaur bone. More discoveries followed by other scientists. In 2012, Kevin Anderson and Mark Armitage dig out a large section of a triceratops brow horn in Montana. Although the normal process of finding soft tissue is through decalcification of the bone, when Mark opened up the horn, he discovered uncalcified soft tissue that was stretchy and pliable. Although surprising to everyone, the presence of these intact organic materials is better explained by the bones being only thousands rather than tens of millions of years old. These discoveries can be seen as a method of dating, but they challenge the concept of ‘deep time,’ a critical component of evolution. “Clearly this is in violation of the dating process. It challenges the entire dating process” Kevin Anderson(Is Genesis History?, 2016)
Molecular Machines
Although evolutionary theory says all creatures descended from a common ancestor, when one looks at animals today (or in the fossil record), they appear to be unique creations with the ability to change to fit their environments. That ability to live and change is programmed in at the deepest levels of the genome in ways we do not fully understand. What we do see is that the human genome works as a four-dimensional ‘computer’: our three billion letter sequence of DNA is able to turn sections of itself on and off; it is cooled into 3D fractal spheres where sections folded near each other combine to create new levels of information; and it changes shape over time to expose different areas of DNA needed to create tens of thousands of different proteins. This level of complexity is not just limited to the genome, but can be seen in the interdependent relationships between living creatures throughout every ecosystem in the world. Such highly-engineered structures and relationships can only exist if they are created simultaneously in a short space of time-which is exactly how Genesis says God created everything. This is what Dr. Michael Behe, a professor of biochemistry and author of Darwin’s Black Box calls “Molecular machines”. In his book, Darwin’s Black Box, Dr. Behe mentions a test Darwin proposed for his own theory.
”Darwin said, ‘If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down.’ This led Dr. Behe to introduce his concept of ‘irreducible complexity’. Permit me to use a human baby to explain this concept simply. The baby, at the moment he/she is born into this world must have all its needed parts in order to interact with this environment; he/she must be able to breath in oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. He/ she will not survive if he/she comes without these needed parts as he doesn’t have the luxury of time.
Time, Seasons and our Culture
Our sense of the passage of time is based on our relationship with the sun, moon, and stars. God put these celestial bodies in place on the fourth day of creation as providers of energy, sources of light and consistent timekeepers. —“Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night. They will serve as signs for festivals and for days and years.”—
Genesis 1:14 HCSB
Furthermore, the events recorded in Genesis continue to have an impact on our world today. At the beginning, God established our daily and weekly cycles of work and rest. He created a real man and woman to be married only to each other, setting the standard for marital and sexual relationships. Most of these things continue to shape our world but evolution says nothing about how life must be lived.
Finally
”One of the most striking discoveries of modern science has been that the laws and constants of physics unexpectedly conspire in extraordinary ways to make the universe suitable for life. Put another way, about fifty different factors had to be dialed in with incredible precision in order for life of any kind to survive. If even one of these areas had been off to even the slightest degree, then, well, we wouldn’t have been around to even know about it!” Lee Strobel, The Case for Christianity Answer Book, 2014. According to physicist Robin Collins, __”There is no way we can really understand it...The fine-tuning has conservatively been assessed to be if nothing at all, one part in a hundred million billion billion billion billion billion. That would be a ten followed by fifty-three zeroes. That’s inconceivably precise” (The Case for Christianity, 2014).
This example above pointed unequivocally to a divine “fine-runner.” The evidence is so powerful that it was pivotal in helping Harvard-educated professor Patrick Glynn, a spiritual skeptic, abandon his agnosticism.
*When I think about myself; how my tendons are connected to my bones, the fact that I am composed of billions of cells, the fact that my brain is powerful than the greatest computer ever created, I will never and can never settle for the claim that I am a creation of an accident as the evolutionists would want me to believe. And you shouldn’t either; you must change you perspective and accept that you are fearfully and wonderfully made by the Creator of the entire universe and aspire to worship Him.*
References:
The Battle for the Beginning, 2001-Dr. John MacArthur
The Case for Christianity, 2014-Lee Strobel
Genesis History Movie, LLC, 2017
Reasonable Faith, 2008 - William Lane Craig
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