Author : 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 wroteOrigin 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.
