Jump Start # 3343

Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the Heavens and the earth.”

Fox contributor Greg Jarrett has authored a new book titled, “Trial of the Century.” It is about the 1925 ‘Scopes Monkey Trial,’ that took place in Dayton, Tennessee. William Jennings Bryant, who ran three different times for the presidency on the Democratic ticket was an outspoken voice for fundamentalism in America. Books were banned and in Tennessee, teaching evolution in public school was against the law. John Scopes, a young high school biology teacher challenged that ruling and taught evolution. He was arrested and taken to jail. What followed was ‘The Monkey Trial’ where William Jennings Bryant represented the state of Tennessee. Clarence Darrow, a flamboyant Chicago attorney came to defend John Scopes. In the end, Darrow made Bryant look ridiculous and won the case.

I have been to Dayton, Tennessee and visited the small museum about that trial. Listening to author Jarrett speak of his new book, expressing great appreciation for Darrow’s work and free speech, he said, “Evolution and creationism are not exclusive of each other. They not only co-exist but they work wonderfully together.” Now, that grabbed my attention.

Evolution and Creation, presented as friendly comrades, working side by side and together. In this way, there is a marriage between religion and science. It is a means to keep everyone on all sides happy. People have wondered, “Could God have used evolution as the natural means of creating the world?” This merger of evolution and creation satisfies many in the scientific world and amazingly even in the religious community.

Now, I have not read Jarrett’s book, but I have carefully studied the topics of evolution and creation for decades. Being a science major in college, I had an eye full of theories, ideas and speculations. What God said in the Bible wasn’t even on the table. We were told that stuff belongs in theology class, not science.

Let’s give this some thought:

First, in order for evolution to have a chance, one must look at the Bible in a different way. The six days of Genesis must be considered as an allegory and not literal. But what a way to begin a book. What would lead one to that conclusion other than the desire to make evolution a possibility. Yet, there remains Exodus 20, the Ten Commandment page, where a week is defined according to the creation account. Now, has the allegory become literal?

And, it’s not just Genesis. Sprinkled all throughout the Bible is thought that God is the Creator. Changing a few sentences in Genesis doesn’t take away what the Bible teaches in Psalms, Matthew, Hebrews, Colossians and many other places.

Second, the tenants of evolution are natural law and time and chance. No purpose, no design and no Heavenly influence takes place in that model. It’s all natural. Yet so many questions remain about that. The eternity of matter, which is fundamental to evolution has not and cannot be proven. The great moral argument and the desire to worship something greater than we are, that anthropology supports, does not fit within the evolutionary model. And, then how does life come from non-life? Logically that does not make sense. What God says in the Creation account is seen in the world. There is an “after their kind” in relation to botany and zoology. We don’t see species crossing over to other species. This is often referred to as the missing link idea. We see primates or monkeys. We see homosapiens, or humans. What we do not see are half monkeys and half humans. The transition from one species to another species is not seen in the world today nor found in the fossil record. That is a major, major component of evolution. The simple evolves to the complex. But there is nothing to substantiate that. The theory remains an unproven theory.

Third, Romans 1 tells us that God’s divine attributes are clearly seen in what He has created. Things such as order, beauty, design, purpose are parts of life. These point to God. Evolution cannot explain these. Hebrews 11 tells us that by faith we know that the invisible created the visible. That’s not what evolution says. The Gentiles in Romans were told that they were without excuse. The evidence of God was all around them. Rather than worshipping the Creator, they chose to worship the creature. And, all these years later, nothing has changed. All around us are the evidence of God. Where is the evidence of evolution? It exists only in the minds and textbooks of those who have closed their eyes to the world around them.

To acknowledge creation, is to admit there is a Creator. From that, one must realize that we are accountable to that Creator. We are not at the top, God is. We cannot do whatever we want. What He says, matters.

In the past several years, several excellent works have been published about microbiology and the detailed structure of DNA. Time and chance and a whole lot of error simply will not work in systems so complex that every part is necessary. More and more researchers are coming to the conclusion that naturalism is not the way the world came to be.

Evolution and Creation are exclusive. It’s one or the other. Marrying the two together won’t work. That is not a marriage made in Heaven and that is not a marriage that will make it. It’s one or the other. God was there. He knows. I think I’ll stick with what He said.

Roger