THOUGHTS ABOUT EVOLUTION

And The Foolishness of Man

 

By Gary Ray Branscome

 

Hasn’t God made the wisdom of this world foolish?

(1Corinthians 1:20)

 

One of the biggest lies spread through our society is the totally false, but often repeated, claim that all scientists believe in evolution. Actually there are thousands of scientists worldwide who reject evolution. In order to be a member of the Creation Research Society, a scientist must believe that God created the world in six days just as the Bible says. And, to be a voting member of that organization, a scientist must have at least a master’s degree in one of the Creation-related sciences. At present, over six-hundred of their members have a doctorate. And, that is just one organization. To contact them go to https://creationresearch.org/

 

Although you rarely hear it mentioned, modern science originated with Christians and is an outgrowth of the Christian worldview. In fact, the very thing that sets modern science apart from ancient attempts to acquire knowledge is the scientific method [i.e. observation and experimentation] which was first proposed by Francis Bacon (1561-1626). A man, who, like all of the great scientists of that era, was a Bible-believing Christian. However, that fact raises an important question. If modern science originated with Christians who believed that God created the heavens and the earth and who saw intelligent design in everything that was created, why does modern science deny all evidence of God’s design? The only answer to that question that I have been able to come up with is found in Romans 1:22, “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools”.

 

EVOLUTIONISTS REFUSE TO USE THEIR REASON

The advocates of evolution like to belittle Christians, and often accuse us of refusing to use our reason. They want the world to believe that their point of view is the only reasonable one. However, nothing could be further from the truth. For example: Assume that you have a one-celled organism, and it dies. What does reason tell us will happen? Will the one-celled organism come back to life? Or will it decay, break down into its component parts, and then break down further into chemicals? If reason tells us that it will break down, then the claim that, once upon a time biological chemicals came together and organized themselves into a one-celled organism is contrary to reason. In fact, it is not only contrary to reason, it is contrary to known fact because it is contrary to what we see happening in nature every day. We all know that is what happens to a living organism (single-celled or otherwise) when it dies. It does not come to life, it decays.

          In contrast, evolution calls for the very opposite to happen. Darwin claimed that life began in a warm little pond. He claimed that instead of decaying, organic chemicals somehow came together to form a one-celled creature. However, that is contrary to reason. Lifeless organic chemicals do not come together on their own to form cells. On the contrary, once a cell dies it breaks down, and water speeds up the break down. In fact, if the parts of a cell did come together all we would have would be a dead cell. Just putting the parts of a cell together will not make it live. Therefore, the idea that once upon a time, long long ago, some organic chemicals just sloshed together on their own to form a cell, and then just happened to come to life, has more in common with fairy tales than real science. And, those who believe it are the ones who are refusing to use their reason.

 

Even though it is contrary to reason to believe that non-living chemicals might somehow organize themselves into a cell, and then just come to life. I saw a plaque at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science which said:

 

Recipe for Life

carbon, hydrogen

sulphur, oxygen

nitrogen, phosphorus

Mix together in a warm moist environment.

Dry out occasionally.

Add time and energy.

Allow to combine in orderly, patterned ways.

 

In case you do not realize it, that statement is totally unscientific. Before the scientific method was in use, many people believed that it was possible for nonliving matter to come to life. However, experimental evidence has consistently shown that this is not the case. For example: At one time it was widely believed that maggots would spontaneously generate in meat. In order to test that "hypothesis," Francesco Redi (in 1660) devised an experiment, consisting of two jars that both contained meat. One jar was open the other jar had a piece of cheesecloth stretched across the top. Maggots not only did not appear in the meat covered by cheesecloth, but flies were actually observed laying maggots on the cheesecloth.

Two centuries later, there were still scientists who believed that bacteria would spontaneously generate in broth. In order to test that hypothesis, Louis Pasteur (in 1859) devised an experiment that utilized several long-necked flasks containing beef broth. After the broth was boiled, the necks on some of the flasks were heated and bent in an s-curve. As predicted, bacteria only infested the broth that was in flasks with straight necks. When the flasks had curved necks, the bacteria stuck to the side of the neck, and could not get to the broth. Those experiments, coupled with the invention of a dust-free box at the end of the nineteenth-century, convinced the scientific community that life does not come from non-life. Moreover, since the idea that life comes from non-life contradicts science, it is in the same class with belief that the world is flat.

          Today, the idea that life comes only from pre-existing life is so well established that it is known to science as the law of biogenesis. What the Denver museum was promoting was not science but atheist religion. And, that religion is being financed and promoted by our government.

 

RECOGNIZING DOUBLE TALK

In his book, “The Descent of Man” Darwin said that people evolved from “old world monkeys”. That led those who disagreed with him to ask. If monkeys evolved into people why do we still have monkeys? The evolutionists knew that was a good argument, so they stopped saying that people evolved from monkeys, and started saying instead that people and monkeys have a common ancestor. Of course there is absolutely no scientific evidence to support such claims, they just assert that it is true and hope that you will not notice.

          When I visited the Denver Museum of Nature and Science they had one display case with large letters saying, “PEOPLE DID NOT EVOLVE FROM MONKEYS!” followed by the words, “Instead, modern monkeys, apes, and humans share a long-ago common ancestor”. [Again, they just make that assertion without any evidence to support it.] However, when I looked at details of the display, they also had a picture of an extinct tailless monkey (which they called “Proconsul”) along with this caption, “One of the common ancestors shared by modern apes and humans was Proconsul, a tree dweller that lived in tropical forests”. But, the picture of “Proconsul” is clearly the picture of a monkey. One caption in the display says people did not evolve from monkeys, but the picture they give is the picture of a monkey. Is it any wonder that God says, “the wisdom of this world is foolishness” (1Corinthians 3:19).

 

LEARN TO RECOGNIZE DECEPTION

The visitors’ center, in Badlands National Park in South Dakota, contains a small museum. One of the display cases in that museum contains some fossil remains found in that park.  One fossil is a tortoise shell, and the caption says that it is similar to tortoises living in the South West today. Another is an alligator skull, and the caption says that it is similar to the alligators living in the southeastern United States. Now, the fact that the tortoises and alligators have not changed since the fossils were formed is clear scientific evidence that animals are not evolving. However, that display case also contained the fossil remains of an extinct animal, known to science as Hesperocyon. Because that animal is extinct they make up a story about it being the ancestor of all modern dogs. Here is what they say, “This beast was the first true dog and ancestor of all canids (the dog family, including wolves, foxes, and dogs). About the size of a fox, this hunter probably ate rodents and other small prey.”

          What you need to realize is that everything they say about that animal is pure conjecture. Hesperocyon was actually more like a civet-cat or raccoon than a dog. They do not know what animals, if any, are descended from it. They do not even know what it ate! The claim that it was a hunter is pure speculation, which they admit by adding the word, “probably”.  Now the point that I want to make is this. They do not make up any stories about what animals the tortoise or alligator evolved into because we could expose such claims by simply holding up a live one and saying, “come out of your dream world, they haven’t evolved into anything. They are still here”. However, when they find an extinct animal they just make up any story they want to, confident that there are no live ones that we can use to prove them wrong.

 

THE IMPORTANCE OF REJECTING COMPROMISE

The history of the Christian church is a history of the struggle between truth and error, between those who believe the Bible and those contradict it and explain away whatever does not agree with their own ideas. The Apostle Paul dealt with a number of those errors in his Epistles, and we have to deal with a number of them today, including those who are trying to undermine what the Bible says about Creation and the Fall. The following statement by Dr. Don Batten, explains the importance of rejecting all compromise.  

 

“Church leaders who compromise the Word of God can be far more effective at destroying faith than an atheist professor railing against God. This is because one can easily recognize the wiles of the enemy when it comes from self-professed opposition. It is not as obvious when the deception comes from within. Veterinarian Dr. Jean Lightner shared how destructive this was to her:

 

When I was having doubts, one of the most damaging things for my faith was when I read a respected Christian teacher who basically said that the Bible does not really mean what it says, particularly the creation account. That was probably more detrimental to me than the evolutionary teachers insisting that they were right. It was devastating to hear a Christian leader basically say, ‘God doesn’t mean that; you don’t have to believe that’.

 

We need to be careful that we do not allow ‘nice’ people to influence us not to believe God’s Word. Anyone who does that is doing Satan’s work, no matter how nice they might appear to be. 1 Peter 5:8 warns: Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Yes, Satan can be like a roaring lion, but he can also be like a subtle serpent with his ‘angels of light’. One day Satan will no longer be able to destroy, but for now we also need to be alert to the subtle ways that he tries to undermine the Gospel.” (from the newsletter of Creation Ministries International.)

 

CONCLUSION

 

          The so-called “theory” of evolution is atheist religion, not science! The proponents of that “theory” have the same evidence that we do. However, they choose to interpret that evidence in accordance with their worldview, even when their interpretation contradicts known facts of science.