Information Related to "10 Questions to Ask About Evolution, Part 1"
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10 Questions to Ask About Evolution, Part 1 By Allen Stout How did the universe, the heavens and the earth, come into existence? How did life begin? Does your life have a purpose? Can science answer these questions? What does the Bible say?
ontroversies have raged for years over science, evolution and the Bible. Evolutionists successfully appealed to the U.S. court system to expel the biblical creation and intelligent design narratives from being taught in science classes as an alternative to the theory of evolution. Creationists then made a nationwide drive to allow time for teaching biblical creation as an explanation for the origin of the earth and human life. To counter this drive, the National Association of Biology Teachers created a Fund for Freedom in Science Teaching for combating any legal challenges to classroom activities.
The judge ruled against the teaching of intelligent design, apparently on the grounds that to do so would be paramount to Congress establishing a religion. The U.S. Constitution's First Amendment states: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion"; but it also adds, "or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech." One definition of the word religion in Merriam-Webster's 11th Collegiate Dictionary is "a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith." According to Robert Jastrow, former director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies and a professed agnostic in religious matters, "There is a kind of religion in science; it is the religion of a person who believes that every event in the universe can be explained in a rational way as the product of some previous event. This faith is violated by the discovery that the world had a beginning under conditions in which the known laws of physics are not valid, and as a product of forces we cannot discover" ("Have Astronomers Found God?" Reader's Digest, July 1980).
What is the real truth? The following are some questions we should ask about evolution before discounting the biblical revelation. 1. Can science prove there is no God or that the God of the Bible does not exist?
Christians don't need to defend God -- He is able to answer for Himself and does so in His Word, the Bible. Nor can anyone persuade others to believe in the biblical God against their will. This series of articles is about avoiding being deceived by hypothetical philosophies and reasonings of men in the name of science. Atheist Richard Dawkins in his book The God Delusion simply passes off the biblical revelation with the statement: "Although Jesus probably existed, reputable biblical scholars do not regard the New Testament (and obviously the Old Testament) as a reliable record of what actually happened in history, and I shall not consider the Bible further as evidence for any kind of deity" (p. 97). The Bible admonishes: "Test all things; hold fast what is good" (1 Thessalonians 5:21). It also says, "Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men" (Colossians 2:8). Make no mistake: God, who is invisible (Colossians 1:15), is able to reveal Himself to anyone, as He chooses, and will in His time, as He has in the past (Isaiah 52:10; 59:1-3; Matthew 24:30; John 6:44; 2 Peter 3:3-9).
David, a great king of ancient Israel who knew God, wrote: "The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God'" (Psalm 14:1). For, "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork" (Psalm 19:1). 2. Can science discover or prove how the heavens and the earth came into existence without God? Evolutionists try to explain the creation as a process of natural forces and random chance, but admittedly they cannot explain the origin of those laws and natural forces, or of the energy and matter everything supposedly evolved from. Dr. Jastrow explains, "The scientist's pursuit of the past ends in the moment of creation. Who or what put the matter and energy into the universe? Was the universe created out of nothing, or was it gathered together out of pre-existing materials? ...science cannot answer these questions.
God asks Job and anyone who questions Him, "Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me if you have understanding" (Job 38:1-4). The creation is evidence and proof of a Creator -- nothing can come into existence without a cause (Romans 1:20; Isaiah 45:9,12,18,21-22). But some argue, "What created God?" God answers, "Thus says the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy" (Isaiah 57:15). "Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable" (Isaiah 40:28). Their question is moot. God, who created all things (Colossians 1:15-17) is eternal, from everlasting to everlasting, having no beginning or ending. The Creator of the universe also created time itself and is not controlled by it. 3. Can science prove that life originated from nonliving matter? The law of biogenesis states that living things can only come from living things. They cannot generate spontaneously from nonliving materials. An earlier theory from ancient times was that life arose spontaneously from nonliving substances (abiogenesis). No one has ever been able to demonstrate or prove this, but it was disproved by experimentation in 1668 by an Italian biologist, Francesco Redi, and later by French chemist Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) and other scientists (World Book Encyclopedia, 50th edition). All evidence in nature continues to prove that living things cannot come from nonliving things. However modern evolutionists are reexamining the theory of spontaneous generation, as it is at the crux of the theory of evolution.
He admits, "Any probability statement is made in the context of a certain level of ignorance..." But, "The beauty of the anthropic principle is that it tells us, against all intuition, that a chemical model need only predict that life will arise on one planet in a billion, billion to give us a good and entirely satisfying explanation for the presence of life here... "Even accepting the most pessimistic estimate of the probability that life might spontaneously originate, this statistical argument [he proposes the anthropic principle as an alternative to the design hypothesis] completely demolishes any suggestion that we should postulate design to fill the gap" (The God Delusion, pp. 136-139). How does a staggeringly improbable event demolish the argument for design? It doesn't. It just exchanges an intuitive and satisfying faith that gives meaning to life for one that Dawkins admits goes "against all intuition." Science can describe chemical processes of life, but can't explain how it began or what life is. The Scriptures reveal that life is given by God. According to the fundamental logic of the law of cause and effect and the law of biogenesis, all living things require a Creator and Giver of life. In and Dr. Stout was trained as a scientist and has worked as a veterinarian, college professor, researcher and consultant. Copyright 2009 by United Church of God, an International Association All rights reserved. |
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Keywords: evolution creationism evolution and education
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