By Wayne Walker
Evolution is a subject which is still being taught in our schools and a topic that is still controversial and worthy of discussion, even though it is not so much talked about now as maybe a few years ago. In this short article I cannot hope to present all, or even many, of the problems which evolution poses to the Bible believer, and which the Bible poses to evolutionists. But I would like to consider one major fault that can be found in the presentation of evolution in academic circles.
My major contention is that evolution, as it pictures the stages of human 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 a fact, although it is many times taught as such to students in the classroom. In order for their theories to be proven, evolutionists would have to find 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 easily be explained from a creationist viewpoint as well as from an evolutionary one.
True science, which is simply a systematic body of observable, factual information about nature, and the Bible never contradict each other because the same God established both. Man’s fallible and often faulty interpretation of the facts – science falsely so-called (1 Tim. 6:20) including evolution – often contradict both. The scientific axiom of cause-effect states that something cannot come from nothing. The Bible complements this by revealing that the prime cause of this universe and all that is in it is God. However, evolution teaches that original matter must have appeared out of nowhere or existed eternally. In reference to the eternal matter theory, the second law of thermodynamics affirms that the universe is slowly running down to a total cessation of activity, and indicates that there must have been a starting point from which to do so. The Bible speaks of “the beginning” (Gen. 1:1) and the end (2 Pet. 3:10-11) of the physical order of things. The evolutionary assumption, on the other hand, is that all things are growing bigger and better and will continue to do so eternally by the natural processes now at work.
Furthermore, there is the scientific law of biogenesis, that life can come only from pre-existing life. The Bible informs us that all living organisms were originally created by a living God (Gen. 1:11, 20, 24). To the contrary, evolutionists believe that original life must have come from non-living materials. Finally, a simple observation of the law of reproduction, leads to the. conclusion that like begets like – one does not plant a corn seed and reap a tomato plant. The Bible reveals that it was God who ordained each organism to produce after its own kind (Gen. 1:12, 21, 25). Yet the evolutionist teaches that at some time, some organisms must have borne offspring radically different from themselves in order for the variety to exist that evolution requires to be true. And so it goes.
Organic, naturalistic, atheistic evolution teaches that man is merely a descendant of animal ancestors, though more highly developed, and totally a product of his physical heredity and environment. What does the Bible teach? “God created man in his own image” and “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” (Gen. 1:2627; 2:7). This is what Christians believe. We cannot prove by factual data that the Biblical record is the way it happened. But, neither can the evolutionists prove by factual data that what they believe is true. It is important for all Bible believers to remember, when considering evolution, that it takes just as much faith, if not more, to believe in the evolutionary theory of man’s existence as it does in the Bible account of the creation of God. “By faith, we understand that the worlds have been framed by the word of God” (Heb. 11:3).
Truth Magazine XXII: 22, p. 363
June 1, 1978