A Case for Creation: Session Three, Part 3 (a) – The Problem of Evolution

This week we are continuing our “Case for Creation” series with “The Problem of Evolution.” We purposefully went out of order last week to cover “The Problem of Evil,” and now we return to take on the topic of evolution vs. creation to see which view has the best evidence for and against. This is a long topic so it is broken into two parts (a) and (b). You can view part (a) here this week and part (b) of this topic will be posted next week. The presentation notes are in an overview format below:

A Case for Creation: The Problem of Evolution, (a)

(Note: The second half of this presentation will be posted next week…)

Overview notes from the presentation:

Does evolution answer life’s most important questions?

1. God’s Existence
2. Origin of life
3. Identity and Purpose
4. The problem of evil
5. Final destiny

NO! 

Let’s look at the major views that scholars hold concerning creation, specifically the origin of complex life:

Christian Views of Creation (note: There are other views and combination of views in Christian thought, but these are the most common)

Theistic Evolution: The view that tries to compromise Christian beliefs with evolutionists’. This view says that God created (I guess the primordial fluid) and then walked away and let “mother nature” do the work. This is sometime referred to as “Diesim.”

Problems:

• This view cannot hold up because it has all the same problems that secular evolution has (we’ll see those in a few minutes and in next week’s presentation).
• It is logically impossible to hold both an evolutionary view and a theistic view – they are contradictory at best.
• Christians that take this view are allowing outside forces to dictate how to interpret God’s Word (like secular scientists and atheists who have formed the evolutionary view).
• This view ignores the special place that God gave humans as created in His image with specific purpose for this life (including relationship with Him as well as an ordered relationship with other living things and the earth itself).
• With this view, a Christian must account for Genesis chapters 1-11 as to whether it is an historical narrative, or allegorical or something else.
• With this view a Christian must answer the question: When did the Fall happen and when did the original sin occur?
• If evolution and no original Creation, Fall or Flood, then this view must say there is no need for a savior, and there is no sin that has to be atoned for.

Old Earth/Day-Age Creation: The view held by some Christians that believe the six days of creation contain million and billions of years between each day (thus day-age creation) – they do this by interpreting the Hebrew word Yom for day to mean “a long period of time.”

Problems:

• This view cannot hold up for most of the same reasons as secular evolution and theistic evolution because the defense of this view must use secular-humanistic science, including flawed dating systems and a denial of a global flood.
• This view allows scienticsm (philosophy of science) to set the standard/foundation for the Bible, not the Bible – What if you don’t understand science, does that mean you can’t understand the Bible?
• This view claims that the flood was a local flood not global, so they must interpret the geological evidence from a secular uniformitarian model.
• This view holds that death and disease occurred billions of years before man came on the scene according to the secular fossil record, but according to Scripture the Fall was the cause that resulted in death and a curse upon the earth, (the Biblical Global Flood is actually the reason for what we see in the fossil record).
• The Hebrew word Yom can mean a day, a time period or an age, but everywhere it is used in the Old Testament in the same context as Genesis 1, it always means a literal 24 hour day.

Note: Contrary to what “Old Earth Creationists” have reported, and since retracted because of the rebuttal evidence – the early Church Fathers/leaders did not believe in an Old Earth.

Gap Theory:  This view speculates a period of time between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 where millions/billions of years could have passed. During this period of time it is believed that Satan and his demons were thrown to the Earth and it became desolate, then God “recreated” beginning in Genesis 1:2 in six literal days.

Problems:

• There is no real evidence for this theory, but some Bible scholars say that the language is such that it could be possible.
• The argument is with the word “replenish” the earth. Replenish in the Bible, means to fill or fill up, not refill as is the controversy (the context is the key).
• Most scholars have disregarded this view because of the lack of evidence, it is speculation at best, yet many will hold to it because it compromises with the secular dating of the Earth.

Young Earth Creation: This view interprets Genesis as a literal historical translation (along with the rest of the Bible). Literal means that it is an historical account recorded by Moses as given to him by God and that it is taken as a normal reading of events unless otherwise noted. It is not an allegory, myth or fable.

• This view accounts for our origin, purpose and destiny and gives God the role of Supreme Creator with His fingerprints on all creation, perfect in the beginning.
• Consider that immediately after the Fall God had to take the skin of an animal to cover Adam and Eve (Gen. 3:21) giving us the first recorded death of an innocent and the first sign that there would have to be the shedding of blood to cover us for our sins.
• This view also allows for the first foreshadow or picture of what God’s ultimate plan would be in the sacrifice of His Son through the shedding of His blood that would cover us once and for all (and we see this theme throughout the Old Testament).
• God also cursed the Earth at the Fall which means prior to this the Earth was in a state of perfection, there could not have been any sin, death or disease in humans or animals.
• Consider this: Jesus says in Matthew 19 and Mark 10 that “from the beginning” God created them…  Is Jesus lying? He did not say millions of years after the creation God created humans, He said from the beginning!

Problems:

• It is at odds with the secular dating methods that indicate an Old Earth at some 6 to 7 billion years, running contrary to the thousands of years in the Biblical record (However, we will discuss problems with the dating methods and geological interpretations when we talk about the Flood).
• The Flood is the pivotal point for Young Earth Creationist that most Secularist Evolutionists, Theistic Evolutionists and Old Earth Creationists deny.

The Problem of Evolution

Non-Christian View of Creation

Evolutionary Theory
(Neo-Darwinian Evolution—opposed to any kind of creation – Atheistic)

Evolutionists believe all complex life evolved slowly, through gradual changes, that began in an early primordial fluid. Mutations and chance, given billions of years, allow for natural selection to select for favorable features and eliminate unfavorable ones thus producing better and better species.

Problems with this theory:

• Mutations do not produce better species in fact we see a decline in speciation with more disease, not less, often resulting in extinction.
• There is not enough time for the required random chance opportunities to have happened for evolutionary transitions, thus they keep moving the clock back farther and farther.
• The fossil record does not produce any life forms that are links or transitionals of the body plans we see today, in fact as far back as the record goes, we find the same kinds of living things that we have today.
• Neanderthals and hominids are not transitional humans they are either fully human or fully ape in kind.
• Important questions a “Theistic Evolutionist” must answer: If evolution, then at what point were humans made “in the image of God”? If evolution at what point did the Fall happen? If evolution then why do we need a Savior?

… and later 12 things secular evolutionists can’t answer (next week’s notes)

What is taught in the public schools?

• California State Standards, Common Core Standards, and now the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) require students to have proficient and advanced knowledge of evolution, and this knowledge acquisition is also embedded across the standards in other fields of study such as history, English and the Arts.
• We find the language of evolution all over the public arenas (museums, national parks, and all forms of media).

Evolution is the only science ‘theory’ that is treated as fact, yet it does not follow the highly esteemed Scientific Method that states ‘for a theory to become fact it must be observable, testable, and repeatable.’

The Oxford definition of science is: The systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experimentation, YET …

• No one has ever observed the origin of life (or anything else in the Universe)
• No one has ever been able to recreate life from nothing in a lab

Remember: We must keep these things in mind when considering theories about the origin of life…

Presuppositions

• The preconceived ideas scientist hold can affect their research methods (scientism, atheism, agnosticism etc.).
• The assumptions scientists make based on current paradigms (if the evidence does not fit the models in place it is often thrown out).

The role and limits of science

• Science studies and reports on how things observably work.
• Science today, does not (will not) give metaphysical answers even if the evidence points in that direction.

The laws of nature are descriptive not prescriptive

• What was observable in the past is not necessarily observable today, and what we see today does not necessarily indicate the same was true in the past.
• Amounts and rates of measurable substances are observably static today, however, that does not mean they were always at those rates in the past.

The Flood

• Did a catastrophic global flood cause a profound shift and change to the Earth’s conditions (geography, topography, environment, chemistry and/or physics)?
• Are places like the Grand Canyon representative of long periods of time, or are they representative of layers laid down quickly by water in a short period of time?

Our Creator God has warned us…

See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.  Colossians 2:8 (NASB)

Going Deeper

“Evolution’s Achilles Heel,” by Robert Carter of Creation Ministries International (book, DVD, YouTube presentations)

Reflection

1. Review the major theories on creation – then list at least one problem for each one.
2. What are some things to keep in mind when talking about evolution vs. creation issues?
3. PTRs: Prayer focus – Pray that public schools will open up and allow research from Christian views, and others, so that students can make their own decisions about truth.

Bible Study

Each week we will do a Bible study in the book of Genesis to practice our Bible study skills. This week read or re-read Genesis Chapter Four, then, to the best of your ability, answer the following questions:

Always remember to pray before reading and studying Scripture.

1. Compare and contrast Cain and Abel by answering the following (4:1-7):

• Who were they?
• What offerings did they bring to God?
• How did God respond to each of them concerning their offering?
• Did God give Cain a choice to consider?
• Why was Cain’s offering unacceptable and Abel’s was? (Cross-reference by reading Hebrews 11:4 and 1 John 3:12)

2. What happened between Cain and Abel after the offering (4:8)?

3. What happened when God confronted Cain about Abel (4:9-14)?

4. How did God continue to take care of Cain, even though Cain never repented (4:15-24)? Discuss: Why did God take care of Him? Does this show us anything about God’s character of unconditional love and gift of freewill?

5. Who was Seth (4:26)? Discuss: Where do you think Cain and Seth got their wives? (Clue 5:4)

Join us next week as we continue our “Case for Creation and A Study in Genesis” with the second half of “The Problem of Evolution.”

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