CREATION BITS No 1.
Why Should I Learn About the Creation vs. Evolution Controversy?
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Author: Curt Sewell |
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Just as there are several different kinds of readers here, there are several different answers to this question. Some may say, "I don't care, it doesn't affect me, and I'm not interested in science." Let me ask these further questions -- "Do you have any friends or family members who are in school? Do you have any interest in Christianity? Are you concerned about the changes in our nation's morals and social practices within the last few decades?" If the answer is "Yes," then please read on. This question is more important than you may think.
What many people don't realize is that "Creation vs. Evolution" is only one aspect of a larger controversy. I won't dwell much on the larger question at this point, except to say that it's been going on almost since the beginning of time. It's been called "The Long War Against God." For the past couple of centuries, one important battleground in that war has concerned materialism vs. theism. These two philosophical beliefs are the foundations of the two viewpoints of the creation vs. evolution problem.
If you're an "ordinary church member," then you're probably among the 90% of Americans who believe in God, and also among the more than 60% who believe that God had some part in creating our world. But you may also be part of those who think of the Bible as a somewhat antiquated book that contains some truth, but isn't necessarily all true. In that case, the answer may involve something about the authority and inspiration of the Bible.
If you're a student in any sort of public school or college, you're almost certainly being taught something about evolution, whether you're taking science, social studies, history, or philosophy. And, if you've also been exposed to a religious teaching, such as a Christian home or church, you may be wondering about the difference in beliefs between your school's teachings and those of your parents or Sunday School teacher's. For some, this difference may result in a drastic change in your own outlook.
If you're the parent of such a student, and especially if you're also a strong believer in the teachings of the Bible, you should have a keen interest in this controversy, because it's the main thing that has caused many students to desert their Christian upbringing. Secular schools, especially State Universities that teach science, are very persuasive apologists for evolutionary materialism, with its axiom of "There's no place in science for any sort of supernatural intervention in the physical universe. If there is a God, he never did anything that we could know about." This is devastating to religious faith. If a Christian youth "loses his religion" when he goes to college, this is almost certainly the reason.
If you're interested in science, and don't care much for church or for religious things, you're probably more interested in the dinosaurs that lived millions of years ago, and how they became extinct. Science does certainly weave some fascinating stories about how our world and its inhabitants may have developed. Those stories convince many people that the earth is billions of years old, and all of its creatures evolved slowly, through many millions of years. But are those stories true? What actual evidence do they have to prove them? You'd be surprised!
In later articles, we'll describe a number of scientific theories, and discuss
the actual evidences, and show that there's not as much truth in them as you
might believe. In fact, we'll show that there's more actual evidence to support
the idea that God created our world suddenly than there is evidence showing it
evolved slowly. Many people are surprised to hear that -- I was, myself, at one
time. That surprise eventually changed my outlook from believing in evolution
into being a creationist.
At this point, I'd like to simply list a number of reasons why I'm writing
these little articles, trying to show that God's miraculous creation is a much
better explanation for our world and all of its inhabitants than are the
psuedo-scientific concepts of evolution, uniformitarianism, and slow
development during billions of years. Later articles will expand on a number of
these points.
- I hope to show, by describing physical evidences, that evolution is not the solidly true explanation that the academic establishment tries to foist off on the public. I'll show the philosophical base and several areas of circular logic that are commonly used by most scientists and in most textbooks. By teaching as they do, they are dulling students' reasoning ability -- one of the problems in today's educational systems. How can people think critically when it's obvious we're not being given all the facts? Thus, one of my reasons for writing is to try to make students aware of both sides of this question, so they can decide intelligently.
- But to me, the most important reason to reject evolution is religious -- the Bible teaches that "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." And it clearly teaches that this happened only thousands of years ago, not billions of years.
- The Bible also teaches that Jesus believed in creation, not evolution. He believed in the reality of the world-wide Great Flood of Noah, that devastated the earth's surface and killed most of its animals and people. He certainly believed in the Biblical miracles. If Jesus believed in those things, then I should too.
- Many doctrines of Christianity are based on something that's taught in the book of Genesis -- the book that tells us the most about creation. If those creation accounts are not really true, then that disrupts the very foundations of Christianity, and also challenges God's right to hold us responsible for our actions. There is a coming judgment, and if we don't recognize that, we may find ourselves in Hell rather than Heaven.
- For completely non-religious reasons, I'm also very interested in true science. I think it's important that science should teach the truth, and I've become convinced that truth involves God's creation -- not evolution. Scientists would be more productive, and more efficient, if they would accept God as the divine designer and creator of our universe. Our government could certainly stop wasting a lot of money on efforts to prove evolution.
- Our society is suffering from materialistic, evolutionary teachings. If evolution were true, then we're only descendents of animals, and when we misbehave we're just showing our animal natures -- we're not sinning. In this way, evolution takes away moral responsibility and replaces it with situational ethics. Our society is reaping the whirlwind of crime, disease, illegitimate babies, millions of abortions, and other problems far too numerous to describe here.
I believe a comparison between creation and evolution could be stated as follows:
- Neither Creation nor
Evolution is really scientific, because they are each said to have taken
place in the distant past, and cannot be observed in action. Neither can
be proven nor disproven by any sort of scientific method.
- Both Creation and
Evolution are parts of religious philosophies, because they both require
some sort of faith, or belief-system. One faith is theistic, the other is
atheistic.
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