July 15, 2004, Vol.4, No.14.
Two new articles every two weeks.
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us.
THIS ISSUE: "More
on Evolution" (see below)
and "Evolution and the
Bible"
Series: Evidence for Faith
More on Evolution
guest article by Wayne S. Walker
Our last article in the series
began a discussion of the subject of evolution verses creationism.
For many years, the western world accepted the Biblical world-view
that began with the special creation of the universe by God as
taught in the scriptures. "For in six days the LORD made
the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them,
and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath
day and hallowed it." (Exodus 20:11). Science was studied
because it was viewed to be the outgrowth of the design in the
universe by the Creator. Now, however, the concept of creation
has been relegated to the junkheap of ideas, considered by many
to be equivalent to such obviously false theories as the geocentric
universe and the flat earth. The humanistic world-view now accepted
by most (though not all) scientists is one that has no room for
God and eliminates the possibility of any supernatural actions,
even in the past.
The world-wide acceptance of the general theory of evolution
traces its origin back to the work of Charles Darwin (1809-1882).
He wrote Origin of Species, the book which made evolution
popular, explaining the existence of life as we know it as taking
place entirely through natural selection. However, Darwin was
not the first to promote evolution. A friend of Darwin's was
Sir Charles Lyell (1797-1875). An English geologist who is called
the father of modern historical geology, he rejected the idea
of creation and provided the foundation upon which Darwin built.
A Frenchman who proposed the theory that changes occurring in
life can be hereditary, forming the basis for natural selection,
was Jen de Lamark (1744-1829). Another English geologist was
James Hutton (1726-1797). He developed the idea of uniformitarianism
which is the basis on modern evolutionary geology, claiming that
the present is the key to the past. Another Frenchman who is
called the father of modern evolutionary theory is Count de Buffon
(1707-1788). This is the result of his extensive evolutionary
ideas presented in 44 volumes on natural history. Even the ancient
Greek philosophers Anaximander, Enophanes, Empedocles, and Aristotle
were among the earliest to express some kind of graduated evolutionary
theory.
Yet, not all scientists have accepted general evolution, at
least to the extent of eliminating God. However, as noted in
our last article, evolution is still
being taught, often as fact, in our schools. And since it definitely
involves some spiritual implications, it needs to be discussed
in our preaching and teaching. But we cannot preach about it
from the Bible since, obviously, the Bible does not teach it.
Therefore, in the articles to follow, we will not be quoting
from the scriptures extensively, except to show where the hypotheses
and theories connected to evolution conflict with obvious facts
contained in God's word.
The major contention of Bible believers is that evolution,
as it pictures the stages of biological development from a primeval
unicellular organism to man, is based solely on assumption and
has never been demonstrated to be true. Thus, it cannot be considered
as fact, although it is often presented as such, especially to
students in the classroom. In order for their theories to be
proven, evolutionists would have to find solid evidence of one
long line of gradual changes from organism to organism until
finally the level of man had been reached. This has not been
done, however, and therefore these hypothetical changes are referred
to as "missing links." All the evidence that has been
found can be explained just as easily from a creationist viewpoint
as from an evolutionary one. This we shall seek to demonstrate
beginning in our next article.
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