Austin Robbins
The significance of the Creation account in Genesis is often lost on Christian clergy and lay people. Yet its historical reality is the underpinning of the entire Bible. Without a literal Creation there is no spiritual Salvation.
Some Christian teachers and pastors have taken the position that the concepts of evolution and creation are not really important. It doesn’t matter, they say, whether you believe that God created all things in six literal days or that He took a long time to do it by evolutionary means. All that really matters is that we realize, however it was done, God did it.
Superficially this sounds reasonable, but it ignores some critical issues. For, as the proverb says, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death” (Prv 14:12). This view has three basic problems. It does matter how God created, by fiat or by evolution. It matters to science, it matters to Biblical accuracy, and, most importantly, it matters to God Himself.
It Matters to Science
Evolutionary concepts drive most scientific research to-day. It is not because they are more productive or scientifically valid than others, it is simply that most of those who control research funding are committed to an evolutionary philosophy. Most who are skeptical or question basic evolution are not funded. Promotions and tenure in academic institutions are reserved mainly for those who subscribe to an evolutionary view of origins. Publication in most scientific journals is denied those who oppose the basic concepts of evolution.
Yet there is abundant evidence, both direct and inferential, of the falsity of evolution. The famous “horse series,” an artist’s conception of the supposed evolution of the horse from a small (rabbit-sized) animal to the modern horse, is still being published in textbooks today. Yet even the paleontologist who is curator of the very museum which created the series and for years displayed it prominently, has termed it “lamentable,” saying it does not represent the evolution of the horse at all (Sunderland 1984: 78). The series is quite misleading, as the fossilized creatures found in various rock layers appear out of order or living contemporaneously. Nowhere in the world are they found in progression as the display portrays.
The supposed evolution of humans is also in disarray. Modern human fossils go as far back in the rock layers as do the ancestors from which they are thought to have evolved. Fossil skull KNM-ER 1470 was originally dated at about 2.9 million years ago (Lubenow 1992: 251); the Kanapoi arm fragment (KP 271) about 4.5 million years ago (Lubenow 1992: 175). Yet both are totally modern in appearance. The Laetoli footprints were found in rock dated about 3.5 million years ago. Yet, these prints are acknowledged as “indistinguishable from those of habitually barefoot Homo sapiens” (Tuttle and Webb 1989: 316).
A public school study has shown that teaching of evolution alone is less effective than is teaching both evolution and creation. When both are taught, students learn to separate truth from fiction and can decide for themselves what is good and bad science. Groups of students studying the same biology text were tested both before and after the course. Students taught evolution alone did learn some biology, but students taught both evolution and creation had a mean gain in achievement 10 times greater! Students were much more motivated and learned more effectively when studying biology from both viewpoints. One interesting and unexpected result of the study was that the students who studied both evolution and creation scored five times better than the evolution-only groups on the subject of evolution (Bliss 1978:iii).
Dr. R. D. Alexander, writing in Evolution versus Creationism. The Public Education Controversy (Alexander 1983: 91, cited in Gish 1995: iv) stated.
No teacher should be dismayed at efforts to present creation as an alternative to evolution in biology courses; indeed at this moment creation is the only alternative to evolution. Not only is this worth mentioning, but a comparison of the two alternatives can be an excellent exercise in logic and reason. Our primary goal as educators should be to teach students to think…Creation and evolution in some respects imply background about as different as one can imagine. In the sense that creation is an alternative to evolution for any specific question, a case against creation is a case for evolution and vice versa.
Dr. Colin Patterson (1981), an outstanding paleontologist and senior scientist at the British Museum of Natural History, seriously doubted the basic principles of evolution. In a lecture at the American Museum of Natural History in New York he asked a group of geologists, “Can you tell me anything that you know about evolution, any one thing, any one thing that is true?” The response was silence!
Birch and Ehrlich (1967: 349) state that:
Our theory of evolution has become…one which cannot be refuted by any possible observation. Every conceivable observation can be fitted into it. It is thus “outside of empirical science” but not necessarily false. No one can think of ways in which to test it. Ideas, either without basis, or based on a few laboratory experiments carried out in extremely simplified systems, have gained currency far beyond their validity. They have become part of an evolutionary dogma accepted by most of us as part of our training.
Evolution is useless as true science and most scientists know this, though they refuse to admit it publicly.
BSP 12:4 (Fall 1999) p. 127
hint of love, no trace of blessing, no suggestion of any emotional attachment to them. Impotent to control the destiny of his creatures, the god of evolution is blind to the future. One hardly could be impressed by such a god. No one would pray to him, much less love him!
No, this is certainly not the God of the Bible! From cover to cover, the Bible presents Him as Creator and Sustainer. He is described as full of power, immutable in purpose and the essence of love. The God of the Bible is the master designer, the eternal architect, the planner who, before the first atom came into being, had designed in exquisite detail and infinite precision all that ever was and ever will be. His plan is infinitely beyond our comprehension. Not only does He decide and direct, He does so behind the scenes. He even uses the choices of men to accomplish His purposes without the man realizing he is doing what God ordained. “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good” (Gn 50:20, KJV).
Conclusion
It does matter greatly what we believe about evolution and creation. Of course, God could have created the universe in six seconds, six minutes, six hours or 600 million years. The question is not, “What could God have done?” but “What did God do?” The answer can come only from God Himself. He has clearly told us what He did. Most who read the Bible come to the conclusion than “in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them.” To believe otherwise is to malign the character of God. It is an offense against the One who calls Himself Holy and True. In essence, it is to make God out to be a liar.
The basic reason God was angry at Job’s three “comforters” was not their seeming lack of sympathy for Job, nor their accusations of sin on Job’s part. God was angry at them for their poor theology!
After the Lord had said these things to Job. He said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken of Me what is right, as my servant Job has” (Job 42:7).
God does not look with favor on those who ignore His Word, who create false gods of evolution out of their own imaginations. “Dear children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 Jn 5:21).
It does matter that evolution is not good science. It is not science at all. At best it is, as science philosopher Sir Karl Popper said, a metaphysical research program, not a scientific theory (Gish 1995: i-iv). At worst it is the religion of a false god, no different than the pagan gods of history.
It does matter that evolution is incompatible with Biblical history. The Bible rules out any evolutionary development of life. It leaves no room for speculative theories about how plants and animals might have come into existence.
And most of all, it does matter what we believe about evolution and creation to the character of God Himself!
Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.
Serve the Lord with gladness,
come before His presence with singing.
Know ye that the Lord, He is God,
it is He that hath made us and not we ourselves.
We are His people
and the sheep of His pasture.
Enter into His gates with thanksgiving
and into His courts with praise.
Be thankful unto Him
and bless His name.
For the Lord is good;
His mercy is everlasting;
And His truth endureth to all generations.
Psalm 100 (KJV)
Bibliography
Alexander, R.D.
1983 Evolution versus Creationism: The Public Education Controversy. Phoenix: Oryx Press.
Birch, L.C., and Ehrlich, P.R.
1967 Evolutionary History and Population Biology. Nature. 214: 349–52.
Bliss, R.B.
1978 A Comparison of Students Studying the Origin of Life from a Two-Model Approach vs. Those Studying from a Single-Model Approach. ICR Impact Series #60. El Cajon CA: Institute for Creation Research.
Gish, D.T.
1995 The Nature of Science and of Theories on Origins. ICR Impact Series # 262. El Cajon CA: Institute for Creation Research.
Lubenow, M.L.
1992 Bones of Contention: A Creationist Assessment of Human Fossils. Grand Rapids: Baker.
Patterson, C.
1981 Creationism vs Evolutionism. Lecture at the American Museum of Natural History, New York, November 5, 1981.
Sunderland, L.D.
1984 Darwin’s Enigma: Fossils and Other Problems. San Diego: Master Books.
Tuttle, R. H., and Webb, D. M.
1989 The Pattern of Little Feet. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 78.2: 316.