EVOLUTION YADA YADA

Copyright © 2003 Victor Shane, All Rights Reserved

There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved.

Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species

I dare say that 99% of the folks who take pleasure in cursing Darwin haven’t bothered to read The Origin of Species. Alas many religious folks seem to have gotten themselves mired down in an irrational hatred of the man, rejecting everything he said without investigation. Many are in intimidated by the word evolution, presumably because they see in it a threat to everything they believe in. This is a deplorable condition for any believer to be in. If one’s faith can be upset so easily it is not worth the paper it is written on.

Although Darwin wasn’t an atheist, there is no denying that certain godless factions have made him their poster boy. Notwithstanding, we would have believers engage in clear and rational thought. Truth is the guiding principle of the Kingdom of God, and truth does not stand or fall because of cultural or religious animus. Theological arguments based on a faulty understanding of natural science or the Bible are counterproductive to a search for truth. Darwin didn’t create the geological column or the fossil record. God did.

What scientists call evolution is nothing more than the outworking of the Divine program that has “brought forth” the exuberant variety of living things on earth. Believers who get into heated debates about evolution without knowing what they are talking about are not doing God a favor. Zeal for God is no excuse for ignorance. Zeal has to be grounded in knowledge to amount to something. We understand theological concerns about allowing science too much control over exegesis, but truth has to be consistent with reality. True science helps us honor the Creator and wrestle with the task of interpreting His ways of speaking to us. While science can never replace faith, it can be a most faithful friend and ally when it comes to separating fact from fiction. Speaking of which, the fiction that the atheist has created about evolution goes something like this:

Evolution explains the origins of life…(yada yada)

…therefore there is no need for God!

The facts are quite different. In the first place, the exact origins of life are to this day unknown—there isn’t a scientist living who can “explain” how life got started on earth. And in the second place, the only thing that evolution tries to explain is the variety producing mechanism that took hold AFTER the initial jumpstarting of life. So then why do so many atheist academicians maintain the distortion, pretending to know how life got started on earth when they don't? And why are they peddling the distortion to children in public schools?

ABIOGENESIS vs EVOLUTION

In science, abiogenesis and evolution represent two related but different branches of inquiry. Most of the problems, falsehoods, strife and contention result from a mixing of the two.

Abiogenesis—the branch of science that inquires into processes whereby ordinary matter was transformed into the simplest of life forms. Abiogenesis deals with the initial creation or jump-starting of life, beginning with inanimate matter and ending with the first viable living organism. Perhaps the scientist who could be said to embody this branch of the discipline would be Stanley Miller.

Evolution—the branch of science that inquires into the processes and mechanisms whereby living organisms have undergone variation and modification subsequent to abiogenesis. Evolution begins where abiogenesis leaves off, investigating the flowering and branching of the tree of life and the full range of its variations. Perhaps the scientist who could be said to embody this branch of the discipline would be Stephen Jay Gould (the late).

There is not enough space here to go into all the problems that scientists encounter when they try to reduce abiogenesis to “natural” or “spontaneous” processes. Suffice it to say that the statistical resources of the universe are limited. The universe may be vast, but it is also finite. Cosmos can only supply so many “bits” of information, and the laws of physics limits the speed with which they can be “switched.” These and other considerations all but rule against the probability of spontaneous abiogenesis—the notion that atoms somehow organized themselves into living cells through some “glorious accident.” As for appeals to infinity issues and “parallel universes,” these too are problematic in that they assume the benefit of an infinite sample size without supporting evidence.

While the origins of life continue to remain a mystery at this writing, the mechanisms that have brought about evolution are by now fairly well understood. In so far as evolution is concerned, scientists have a fairly good handle on the subject. Their knowledge may not be whole, and they may be in error in other respects, but what they do know is substantial and should be respected. Evolution is in fact God’s most excellent way of filling every nook and cranny of the blue planet with the exuberant variety of living things automatically.

Nowhere in the Genesis narrative do we find God creating millions of species one at a time. On the contrary, the narrative suggests that God invested the earth with the potential to “bring forth” the exuberant variety of species automatically. Only in the case of Adam is there a suggestion of special labor on the part of God.

Book of Life provides the reader with a crash course in evolution, reconciling the Genesis narrative with the fossil record in a way that should be acceptable to scientist and theologian alike.

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