“In grammar school they taught me that a frog turning into a prince was a fairy tale. In the university they taught me that a frog turning into a prince was a fact!” – Ron Carlson, Professor and Author, U.C. Irvine
As I began to investigate the claims of Christianity, coming out from agnosticism, I deeply wanted to find a way that I could reconcile God creating with the theory of evolution as a means for the origin of life, but it really cannot be reconciled. According to the ‘law of non-contradiction’ either God created (ex nihilo) or life came about by a series of random processes over eons of time purely by chance, they cannot both be true at the same time.
Being a Biology teacher I was excited when I came across Hugh Ross’ organization Reasons to Believe (reasons.org). They presented science in a way that complimented what I had learned and was teaching in my high school science classes about the age of the Universe and the age of the Earth, but they had science that evidenced life as being created by intelligent design (i.e. God) and not by random forces acting over time. This “Old Earth Creation” theory got me in the door with its massive amounts of scientific evidence pointing to a Creator, although I do confess that so much of what they were teaching was way above my head academically, even though I am a science teacher.
If God wanted us to search Him out I really think He would not make it that hard for us to comprehend (Romans 1:20), so over the years my “Bible and science” questions lead me to organizations like the Institute for Creation Research and Creation Ministries International. Here I found hard science in support of a young Earth that lines up with the Biblical account in Genesis. They too have massive amounts of scientific evidence pointing to a Creator, albeit from a young Earth perspective.
The most important thing to know as Christians, whether Old Earth Creationists (OCE) or Young Earth Creationists (YEC), is that we are saved by the grace of God through Jesus Christ, and that is the salvational message (Romans 6:23, Ephesians 2:8). However, it is important to be educated on the views that are out there in our culture so that we can help others who are struggling or who have questions (1 Peter 3:15). Both OEC and YEC are together in the battle to save the minds and hearts of our young people against the secular atheistic view of evolution as a means for the origin of life.
How did God do it?
Genesis Chapter 1
- God created (ex nihilo = from nothing) in six days (yom = day) and gave us an example of rest on the seventh day (bara, Hebrew word used only for God in His creating something out of nothing).
The One Minute Apologist: “Can the Universe Come From Nothing?”
Genesis 1
| Days of Creation | Events
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| First Day | Heavens, Earth and light
Note: This light can be determined as coming from God Himself, His Glory. Jesus said “I am the light.” In the new Heaven and Earth there will be no need for the sun, moon and stars (see Revelation 22:5) Nebula are hydrogen and helium gasses that give off light. Sun, moon and stars are not the only source of light |
| Second Day | Sky and water
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| Third Day | Land, seas and vegetation
Note: Sunlight would have to be available very soon after this day because of photosynthesis needs, so the next day… |
| Forth Day | Sun, moon, and stars
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| Fifth Day | Fish and birds
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| Sixth Day | Animals
Man and woman
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| Seventh Day | God rested
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We need to pay special attention to the word “kinds” as given in the Bible. Evolutionists do not like this word and try to make you feel ignorant when you use it, but the fact is one “kind” of living thing has never evolved into another “kind.” It falls close to the family-genus category in the taxonomy of living things. However, taxonomists can never agree on what belongs in those categories anyway, just check out the differences in the textbooks and online!
And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:26-27
In the New Testament the Apostle Paul said…
Similarly there are different kinds of flesh—one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. 1 Corinthians 15:39
What is taught in your local schools?
California State Standards and now Common Core require our children to have proficient knowledge of evolution, but these are not stand-alone in Science, they are embedded across the standards in the other fields of study such as History, English and the Arts. Because evolution has completely taken over the mindset of academia we find the language of evolution on TV, in news reports and all over the textbooks in public education. Evolution (used as the answer to the origin of life) is the only science theory that is treated as factual, yet it does not follow the highly esteemed ‘Scientific Method’ which states that for a theory to become fact it must be observable, testable and repeatable, but when it comes to the origin of life none of that criteria can be applied.
Definition of science: “The systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experimentation.” -Oxford
We must keep a few things in mind two when considering theories about the origin of life:
- Presuppositions (preconceived ideas)
- The role and limits of science
- Answering these questions:
- Are the laws of nature descriptive or prescriptive? Do they tell us how things currently are, or how they must always have been and will be?
- The Flood—Did it really happen? Was it worldwide and if so did it cause a profound shift to the earth’s previous conditions–Geographical, topographical, and environmental? Could the effects of a catastrophe of this magnitude have changed any of the laws of chemistry or physics?
Evolution is a misleading term because it is overarching and broad in its scope and definition:
As we are discussing and debating the origin issue, keep in mind the difference between microevolution: Observable changes within species that we can see; and macroevolution: The assumption by evolutionists that species evolve into different kinds – there is no evidence for this in the fossil record contrary to their beliefs.
Microevolution:
- All scientist, OCE and YEC included, agree on observable microevolution.
- This is better referred to as adaption or natural selection, but we never see it resulting in a change of kind.
- This is evidenced in the diversity of life that is measurable and observable for example: We can observe microevolution within species due to environmental changes or food needs, and we observe different types or breeds of species among plants, dogs, cats, horses, birds, fish etc.
But does this observable evidence lead to the next conclusion?
Macroevolution:
- Taking the observable evidence of microevolution and inferring that these species have evolved through gradual series of changes (humans and monkeys come from ape-like creatures, amphibians come from fish, or birds comes from reptiles).
- Darwinian Evolutionists claim that you can take this assumption back to where all life began as single cell bacteria-like organisms in a primordial fluid.
- Macroevolution is unobservable and untestable. It is not a conclusion from the scientific method, and contrary to popular belief, it does not have the required evidence in the areas that it claims to – such as the highly regarded fossil record.
Watch the 36 minute presentation by Sean McDowell called “Understanding Intelligent Design”
Join us next week as we look as some of the evidence against Darwinian evolution.
You will not find this material in the public school curriculum even though it is based on solid evidence and grounded in research. It is ironic that following the evidence to where it leads stops at the door of our public schools as they will not let a “Divine footprint” in! Join us this year as we examine evidence for Christianity and learn how to become a thoughtful defender and ambassador of your faith.
Click into the resource page of this website to view many of the top Christian thinkers and apologists along with some of their work; connecting to these types of resources is essential in your Christian growth.
Please let me know what you think: Give feedback, ask questions or send concerns in the comment section of the blog.
Teri Dugan