THOUGHTS ABOUT EVOLUTION
And The
Foolishness of Man
By Gary Ray Branscome
Hasn’t God
made the wisdom of this world foolish?
(1Corinthians
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.
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
RECOGNIZING
DOUBLE TALK
In his book, “The Descent of Man”
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
LEARN TO
RECOGNIZE DECEPTION
The visitors’ center, in
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.