Thursday, September 10, 2009
Evolution isn't even a good theory
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David W. Clark
Clark, of Blacksburg, is on the Campus Bible Fellowship staff at Virginia Tech.
In his column "What lies beneath" (Aug. 12), Cal Thomas contrasts two distinctly different world views: The one views "human beings as unique creations," and the other says "we are evolutionary accidents." He demonstrates that a choice between them leads logically to different conclusions regarding health care.
He is right: There are two opposing world views; the one based on biblical creation and the other on naturalistic evolution. However, there are many who try to combine the Bible and evolution. As evidenced by recent letters and commentaries in this paper, this results in the Bible being modified and minimized to fit under the authority of science.
Typically, the first part of the Bible to be sacrificed is the first part, Genesis 1-3. Many conclude that the first two chapters are contradictory. Not so. In common Hebrew style, Genesis 1 gives the overview and Genesis 2 focuses on the sixth day. Leading Hebrew scholars, even unbelieving ones, state that the verbs in Genesis indicate that the author intended it as history.
Some choose to accept only the "moral and spiritual" parts of the Bible as inerrant. However, the moral, spiritual teachings are grounded in history. The centerpiece of the Ten Commandments, the Sabbath, is based on God's creation of all in six days. Sacrificing the history of Genesis pulls the rug out from under the spiritual teaching.
Jesus based his prohibition of divorce on the fact that God created man as male and female at the beginning. Here Jesus quotes from both Genesis 1 and 2 as God's word to establish morality. The apostle Paul also quotes from Genesis 2 and 3 to support moral and doctrinal teaching. Both Jesus and the apostles viewed all of Genesis as being foundational to Christian teaching.
Those who pick and choose the parts of the Bible that they will believe are putting themselves, or some human standard, as an authority over the Bible. They are free to do this, of course, but they should acknowledge that they have rejected the full inspiration and authority of the Bible.
The other major issue I see is the relationship between science and evolution. Some assume that evolution is science-based fact, but it is far from that. Evolution is a theory -- and not even a good scientific theory, because it is contrary to science. Evolution has never been observed. Micro-evolution has been observed, and from that scientists have theorized the possibility of macro-evolution by extrapolation, which is a huge stretch. Micro-evolution results in the loss of information while macro-evolution requires the creation of new information.
Evolution may have sounded reasonable in Darwin's day, but since the discoveries of the complexity of the simplest living cell and of DNA, plus the development of information science, amoeba-to-human gradual evolution is demonstrably false.
DNA is essential for life as it contains the information a cell needs to reproduce. Therefore, DNA would have to develop before any living thing, so it would not have any help from natural selection. Who said evolutionists don't believe in miracles?
The DNA in one human body cell contains more than a gigabyte of information. In one day, a human processes more information than is contained in all the world's books. Information is highly organized; it is the very opposite of randomness. How could DNA, which is the most densely packaged form of information imaginable, possibly have originated from random, chance accidents? Information itself is immaterial, though it resides in material media; it could not come from a material source. The only known source for information is an intellect.
Ponder this: If the evolutionary world view were true, there would be no rational justification for believing that one's senses, reasoning or memory is reliable. On the other hand, the biblical world view provides a rational basis for doing science. God, who created the world, created humans to be able to learn about and enjoy what He made and to know him as well.
I'm in good company. Dr. Henry Morris, who was head of the Department of Civil Engineering at Virginia Tech from 1957 to 1970, authored more than 45 books on the Bible and creation. In 1970, he founded the Institute for Creation Research, which continues to promote six-day creation through literature and seminars. Some years ago, 25 professors at Tech signed a letter saying they did not accept evolution.
