In His Name Devotionals
SCIENCE & EVOLUTION
In His Name Devotionals
SCIENCE & EVOLUTION
The most amazing case of cultural brainwashing ever performed has to do with the claim that Darwinian evolution has been proved by scientific research. That “evolution is a fact” or that “science has proved evolution to be true” has become, in turn, the death-blow to the faith of many. If evolution is true, the Bible isn’t.
The word evolution may mean either (a) change or (b) a naturalistic account of all living things that shows creation by a supernatural agent unnecessary. The former is obviously true, observable, and demonstrable to everyone’s satisfaction. It is the latter that is in question.
The word science also has two distinct meanings in our cultural context. The term may refer to either (a) a method of careful scrutiny, measurement, and repeatable/predictive experimentation or (b) a materialistic worldview in which only material structures and processes are held to be subjects of human knowledge. Again, the former is non- objectionable. The latter is open to serious Challenge—not only from metaphysicians but from scientists.
Members of the general public—and children in particular—are intimidated by people whose practice of science as a method of inquiry, step across the line of method into the philosophic arena of worldviews, and pontificate about evolution as an alternative to the creative work of God. That’s cheating! And it’s just as unfair for a scientist to be deemed authoritative when speaking philosophically as for a philosopher or theologian to seek acceptance as a scientist. (The latter practically never happens, but the former happens with frequent regularity!).
One of the most embarrassing moments for materialists came recently when a fossil hailed as the “missing link” between dinosaurs and birds was exposed as a hoax. In June of 1998, Reuters, AP, and CNN reported what was being told to them. In the CNN story, for example, the headline screamed: “Scientists: Fossils prove that birds evolved from dinosaurs.” No less than National Geographic featured the fossil in November 1999 as proof that birds arose from dinosaurs.
Now we know the fossil was created by Chinese traffickers and sold to American researchers. As revealed in Nature last month and discretely noted in a one-paragraph report in USA Today, a thin slab of stone was covered with grout and then had a mosaic of 88 rocks and fossilized bones attached to it.
The “discovery” of Archaeoraptor liaoningensis now joins Pittdown Man and other hoaxes offered to the public as “proof” for Darwin’s theory.
Has God employed evolution-as-change to enable living creatures to adapt to their environments? Yes. Has Darwinian-evolution-as-worldview disproved divine agency in human origins? No.
Just as dogmatic Darwinists seem more than willing to accept shoddy evidence if it appears to support evolution, so can shallow and disdainful Creationists make their faith implausible to honest questioners by glib, uniformed answers.
In dealing with weighty issues, humility is appropriate for all concerned.
