At a recent Christadelphian young people’s conference, the conference committee selected subjects for the classes dealing with problems facing today’s youth. The subjects chosen were: (1) “The Way of a Man with a Maid,” (2) “Evolution,” (3) “Prayer.” The following material was presented for the class on evolution.
The subject, The Origin of the Organic World, is one about which the Bible states a few brief but important paragraphs, whereas the scientific world has written many volumes. In this brief discussion of the subject we will take a quick look at the Biblical position, but spend most of our time reviewing some of the scientific conclusions with regard to the origin of the organic world, and evaluating these conclusions using the yardstick developed by the scientists themselves.
The areas that we will cover are: What is Truth?; The Basic Conflict; Our Attitude Toward Science; Development of Evolutionary Theories; Review of Basic Evidences for Evolution; Review of Suggested Mechanisms for Evolution; Biological Time and the Fossil Record; Problems for the Evolutionists; Summary and Conclusions.
What is Truth?
About 2,000 years ago a man named Pontius Pilate, who was not a particularly deep thinking person, asked a very penetrating question, What is Truth? The Bible states the answer to this question in very bold and unmistakable terms. In John 17:17 John quotes Jesus as saying concerning God’s word, “Thy Word is Truth.” Jesus himself claimed to be the Truth, for he is quoted in John 14:6, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life—.” Therefore, both God and Jesus claim that their words are truth. Furthermore, the Bible in II Timothy 3:16 says that “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God,” thus the Bible claims that is the word of God and that the word of God is truth. We are faced with the fact that either the Bible’s claim is true or the Bible is the biggest hoax that ever has been perpetrated upon mankind.
In distinction to the Bible, men of the scientific world have not claimed that they have the absolute truth. Look at the following quotations from famous scientists—”No law or principle of science can ever be regarded as absolutely proved.”—J. W. Mayor: “Science is that amazingly successful, elusive and rewarding human process, by means of which men approach truth.”—W. W. Weaver: “Science is a partial view of life and in many respects a narrow view.”—H. L. Dryden.
Thus we have at the beginning of our discussion, this principle established. The Bible claims absolute truth, whereas men of science, frankly admitting the limitations of human kind, state that they are only searching for truth and that the principles they set forth in scientific writings are only relative truth.
The Basic Conflict
When one compares the brief statements contained in the Bible concerning the origin of the organic world with the theories established by the scientific world, a basic fundamental difference is evident.
First let us look at the Bible statements. We must realize that the purpose of the Bible is to show the way to salvation for mankind and to illustrate how salvation can be obtained through faith in Christ Jesus and through God’s purpose in establishing his Kingdom on the earth. My Bible contains 1,350 pages. All of these pages except for a few paragraphs are devoted to the main purpose of the Bible. Almost incidentally, however, the Bible does in the first few chapters make some statements concerning the origin of the existing organic world. The essence of these statements can be summarized as follows: Genesis 1:1—”In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” Genesis 1:11—”Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, ad the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.” Genesis 1:21 “And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.” Genesis 1:25 “and God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.” Genesis 1:27—”So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”
Now these are very brief statements and leave much room for interpretation. However, there are a few very definite points that are made. First it says that all of the organic life was created after his kind. We do not know exactly what “after his kind” means, however, it does indicate that definite groups were established and organisms were created within these groups. Secondly, it says that God specifically created the living creatures. As we have said, these brief Biblical statements leave much room for the formation of theories to fill in the details between the simple facts that are stated. However, any theories that are made must be consistent with the rest of the Bible and other facts which have been discovered by the scientists.
The theory of the origin of the organic world is summarized in the following chart. (Insert table showing geological time scale.) In essence this theory says that life appeared on this earth some 4500 million years ago and has slowly and uniformly evolved without a break from the simplest and lowest form of living thing to the present animals and plants that we see existing on the earth at the present time with man being at the pinnacle of the development. It further states that this great long unbroken chain of evolutionary events have taken place by the following methods. (1) Long term changes have taken place in the genetics of populations, rather than in individual creatures. (2) Genetic variations have taken place by gene mutations or recombination’s. (3) Development has taken place through the means of differential reproduction.
In reviewing these two explanations of the origins we see that we have specific creation within definite groups on the one hand versus uniform unbroken evolution from the simplest forms to the most complex forms on the other hand. We have man created in the image of God on one hand versus man being the product of a long series of adaptive mutations on the other.
Our Attitude Toward Science
By far the greatest proportion of scientists are earnest, objective individuals applying their knowledge and their energies in a constant effort to develop truth. Their objective is evident by their free criticism of other scientific theories and their objective discussions of the material that they produce. They are sincerely trying to find out what is correct.
Science itself admits that the scientist deals best with things which can be tested or measured such as the force of gravity or the transformation of energy. A theory was formed concerning gravity. Then it was physically tested by dropping objects from towers and by shooting satellites and capsules into orbit. When the dropped object or the orbiting space vehicle behaved as predicted time after time, the scientist felt fairly sure he had formulated the correct theory.
Theories were formed concerning thermodynamics. Oil was burned; the flame heated water; steam formed; the steam turned a turbine; the shaft turned a generator; electricity flowed through the wires and the exhaust was blown into the air. Things happened as predicted time after time and the scientist once again was sure he had formulated the correct theories.
In order to establish things in an orderly manner, scientists have determined what they call the scientific method. This method is as follows:
- Determine facts by observation.
- Verify the accuracy of these facts.
- Analyze and classify the facts.
- Formulate hypotheses by thinking about the facts and using inductive reasoning.
- Test the hypotheses against existing facts and new facts as they are discovered.
We are going to use this scientific method to examine the theories concerning the origin of the organic world. We will see how well the conclusions which the scientists have drawn, stand up under their own scientific method. We will look at the facts which they have observed, and usually there is not much question concerning the facts, and then we will check the hypotheses and conclusions that have been drawn from these facts.
Scientists will readily admit that it is very difficult to apply the scientific method to hypotheses concerning the origin of the organic world. First, most of the facts are hidden in events which took place before our present experience. The records left concerning these events are very sketchy. Second, it is very difficult to formulate tests to evaluate the hypotheses, because organisms are so complex it is difficult to isolate the property tested. Also, changes have taken place over long periods of time whereas it is only possible to run tests for relatively brief periods of time.
Incidentally, this scientific method is an excellent tool that can be used by Bible students. Any interpretation or theory that we form concerning Biblical statements should be prepared by using the scientific method.
The Solution