Evolution Or Creation

By Author: Johnson Philip
Total Articles: 90
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There is no Christian today who can ignore the question of evolution. Even if he has no doubt about this subject, he has to be prepared to give answers to others who ask about this subject.

Answering questions properly becomes particularly important when Christian believers share the gospel with non-believers. The educated non-christian would in all likelihood ask about why he should believer in Bible and creation seeing that the Theory Of Evolution contradicts both.

Teaching of the Theory Of Evolution has become so pervasive that even Christian families cannot now escape it. Even in classes as low as the first standard children are indoctrinated with evolutionary ideas. This happens mostly in Social Studies where they are told that modern man evolved from monkey-like ancestors. The students are then shown pictures of "primitive" monkey-like humans, their weapons, etc. They are then show how this "primitive" man evolved to become the modern man.

What Are The Problems For Christians: Many Christian parents think that this poses no problem to their families because their children are brought up in ...
... a Christian environment. This is a foolish self-satisfaction. The education system has a strong grip on the students even if they belong to Christian families. In the first five to ten years of continuous exposure to evolution, seeds of doubt are planted effectively in their hearts. Thus by the time these students leave school or college, the cumulative effect of ten to fifteen years of indoctrination in the Theory Of Evolution makes them strongly inclined to believe evolution. They reason unconsciously that if everything else taught to them in the past ten to fifteen years, then it is not possible to be one of them to be wrong. More so if it is a part of science. After all, in our generation, the word science has become synonymous with truth. Thus deep in their hearts evolution plants seeds of doubt about creation.

To make matters worse, many Christian parents see no connection between this training and its life-long adverse effects. Unfortunately ideas have consequences, and there are not ideas in the world which is free of this. Indoctrination with evolutionary ideas have very long-lasting effect upon the spiritual outlook of young believers. For example, the first effect is upon the reliability of the Scriptures.

The Bible teaches a six-day creation, whereas the Theory Of Evolution teaches evolution that took billions of years. The Christian young person who wants to hold on to both science as well as Bible finds himself in a difficult situation because there is no way in which six days can be easily harmonized with six billion or so many years. Thus unconsciously he starts rejecting the reliability of the Scriptures sooner or later. If not the whole of the Bible, he tends to reject at least those portions of the Bible that talk about six-day creation.

Once a believer consciously or unconsciously rejects historicity of portions of Genesis, this opens the gate to further rejection of the Bible. This can be seen most clearly in the case of former evangelical theologians and Bible schools which have now become totally radical. Their initial deviation was very minor, and meant only to solve the six-day creation problem. They solved the problem by rejecting the literal nature of the first ten chapters of Genesis. However, over a period to ten to twenty years they became totally radical.

This change takes place because all the major doctrines of the Bible ultimately have their roots in Genesis. Once the root of doctrines is destroyed, the tree of doctrines eventually dries up. For example, if Adam, Eve, Eden, and the temptation were not real, then the Biblical story of sin, fall, condemnation, and salvation are also not real. In that case man is not a sinner, and does not need a Saviour. That in turn means that Jesus did not have to come to this world. Thus rejection of Genesis very soon results in doubting and rejecting all the other cardinal doctrines.

Creation, fall, and radiation through grace are the foundations of the Christian faith. Once these are rejected, no Christian doctrine can survive. Further, once Christian doctrines are rejected, it attacks practical areas too. For example, in the evolution-dominated theology, everything is the result of evolution and "development". Thus all moral values are the result of human evolution, received from any divine source. Consequently, man feels free to revise, alter, and even reject all moral values. Similarly, even spirituality and religion are seen not as God-given, but as the end-product of evolution. Therefore the enlightened man is free to revise, reshape, or even reject religions.

The two statements above about morality and religion are not mere theory, but a report of what is actually happening around us. The western nations were the first to embrace the Theory Of Evolution. In less than a century of doing this, they totally rejected Biblical morality. Divorce, illegitimate sex, and abortions are increasing at an alarming rate. Families are breaking up, and the number of Psychiatrists is rising faster the number of many other professionals.

Similarly, rejection of the doctrine of creation in these countries have totally sapped the strength of churches. Thousands of churches are closed every year, and hundreds of them are purchased by others for turning them into temples, mosques, or even in discotheques. Once religion is seen as the evolutionary product of human endeavor, people feel they can handle it in the way in which they handle everything else. It becomes another "product" that can be used, modified, or discarded. The sequence in which the Christian faith was abandoned in different countries matches the sequence in which they embraced the Theory Of Evolution.

Is It Necessary To Study This Subject: Some of our readers might say that even if all the above statements are right, it is not necessary to "waste" our time in debating the Theory Of Evolution. This is like saying that there is no need for safety-belts on ships because ignoring a sinking ship is as effective in saving drowning people as using safety-belts. Escapism never saved anyone. Rather it is only the pet refuge of cowards and weaklings. Bible calls us to evaluate everything. It also reminds that believers do not have the spirit of fear but rather of courage.

The Theory Of Evolution has been destroying the faith of so many Christians that an analysis and exposure of this theory is an immediate necessity. Fortunately, Christian scholars all over have been doing this aggressively since the sixties, and this has resulted in saving hundreds of thousands of Christians from doubt, fear, depression, and backsliding. But at the same hand, a larger number of books, articles, and even video programmes are needed today to help the exploding number of Christian believers who are asking whether the "Theory Of Evolution" is a fact or a science fiction.

If the correct answers are given at the right time, if truth is separated from error while people are still interested in truth, it is possible to save a large number of people from being brainwashed by the hypothesis of evolution.

Is It Possible To Evaluate Evolution: Since the Theory Of Evolution is a scientific theory, many people think that it is not possible to evaluate this theory without a high level of training in science. Thy feel that without sufficient knowledge of biology they would not ever be able to evaluate this theory. Thus they despair about the possibility of exposing the errors of this hypothesis. This need not be so. Though evolution is part of science, a large amount of evaluation about evolution is accessible to everyone.

The practice of continuous and critical evaluation of every hypothesis and theory is built into science. Thus each generation of scientists and researchers assesses the work of previous generations. Results of these evaluations are easily available in encyclopedias, journals, science magazines, monographs, and even popular books. This makes the task easy because scientifically trained people and specialists in evolution are already doing things that make it easy for others to know the truth.

The scientific community conducts repeated evaluations of past findings and theories because of a number of things. One of them relates to the biased and fallible human nature. Scientists are also human like us and they can also commit mistakes. In fact, it has been discovered that scientists who work in areas related to human evolution are most prone to error. Their philosophical bias and the excitement about discover the "missing link" often makes them prejudiced. Since this is known to the scientific community, they conduct periodical assessments of evolution-related discoveries. Results of these evaluations are easily available to any motivated person. Thus even without much background in biology a person can read these revealing evaluations.

When Darwin proposed his theory about a century and half ago, relatively little scientific information was available. He lamented many times that the number of fossils available is not sufficient to prove his case. However, the explosive growth of all branches of science in the twentieth century has changed the picture totally. If Darwin faced the problem of paucity of information, today's scientists face the problem of information-overload. The number of fossils discovered now stands in billions. This makes it possible to evaluate all aspects of a given subject. In such a situation it is possible to assess thing more accurately and objectively.

Developments in other branches of science have also forced scientists to reassess evolution. Originally when the Theory Of Evolution was proposed, most scientists assumed that this theory is autonomous in itself. Thus they did not have to worry about its connection with other branches of science. However, later developments have revealed that the idea of evolution is inseparably interconnected not only with life-science, but also with physical-science. Thus developments in physics, chemistry, and even mathematics have a bearing upon evolution.

Most of the developments in physical sciences that have a connection with evolution were took place only in the twentieth century. Thus this information was not available at Darwin's time. Unfortunately, almost all fundamental discoveries of the twentieth century physical science, information sciences, biochemistry, genetics, etc. are totally opposed to the idea of evolution. The scientific community is not ignorant about it.

Though a glowing picture of bacteria-to-man evolution is portrayed in most biology textbooks, the actual picture is full of cracks and fissures. Though these introductory books never mention these problems, more advanced textbooks, monographs, and theses discuss them in detail. Also, within the scientific community a heated debate has been going on for the last three decades. Fortunately the results of these debates are available for study by any interested person.

In summary, today the Theory Of Evolution is an all-pervasive doctrine and none can avoid discussing it. Though it is only a hypothesis, the education system teaches it as a proven fact. This affects the faith of many. The worse part is the way in which it is affecting theology and moral values. The present-day radical theology, loosening morals, and the abandonment of God, can all be traced to the influence of evolution. Thus it is necessary to keep affirming that evolution is not an established fact of science but only an unproven hypothesis. That we propose to do in the next chapters.

Though the Theory Of Evolution is a theory of science, in this book we would try to present our discussion in a manner accessible to the non-scientist. Yet if the discussion in any chapter becomes too heavy for you, please skip it and enjoy the rest of the chapters before your return to the tough one. On the other hand, those of more technical bent are requested to bear with this popular approach. This book is meant for the informed layman, and not for the scientist, because an abundance of material is already available for the technically minded. A substantial number of these currently available technical titles can be seen in the endnotes and bibliography of this book.
Dr. Johnson C. Philip is a scientist and an acknowledged blogging guru having a worldwide following.