The Religion Debate

Evolution from a Creationist Perspective

This chapter was written for us by DarkPH0T0N. If you'd like to respond to this chapter, please tag her in your comment so she can get it. Thanks so much for taking time aside to write for our book!

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As a biology lover and young-earth Creationist, the topic of evolution is one of my favorites because it is interesting and there are major misconceptions as to what Creationists believe. As the most basic summary, I believe the problems with the evolutionary point of view are irreconcilable with the Bible and science, and are therefore false. But before I overview the problems with evolution, I will address two common misconceptions.

The first misconception is that Creationists are anti-science. But Creationists have scientific reasons for their beliefs, just like Evolutionists do. Just because a person disagrees with a certain scientific idea does not mean that person distrusts the entire scientific method. In fact, Creationists will give scientific reasons for their disagreement with the theory of evolution (as I am going to do). Without criticism, science becomes a dogmatic "religion" and whoever speaks against evolution is a heretic. Some members of the scientific community have become frustrated with the overprotection of the evolution theory and have signed their names on a website called "A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism." This website is not religiously affiliated, but simply calls for further research into Darwin's claims. So far, over 800 scientists and medical doctors have signed their names. To add to the evidence that Creationists are not anti-science, the founders of the Scientific Revolution were all Creationists!

The second misconception is that Creationists don't believe in evolution at all! If that were the case, it would be very easy to dismiss Creationist ideas as similar to a belief in a flat earth. We all know populations of organisms change over time, creating subspecies, new species, and more. You experience this when you aren't careful and stay on the antibiotic as long as the doctor prescribes. The germs will have time to multiply, mutate, gain resistance, and take over. Then you need to go on a new antibiotic because you have a resistant colony (better listen to the doctor this time)! The truth is that Creationists believe in evolution, just not the entire evolution theory. Darwin believed all life descended from a single-celled prokaryote. Creationists reject this extreme idea in favor of change within "kinds," or families, as the Bible says. We believe in mutations and adaptations through natural selection. From one dog kind, wolves, coyotes, foxes, and more evolved through either natural or artificial selection.

The Creationist perspective holds that God created perfect life with robust and diverse DNA, and this life lost information (rather than gained information, as Evolutionists believe) after the Fall and as the populations moved to different environments and had certain genes "weeded" out of their gene pool through natural selection. We believe God created one kind of dog, one kind of horse, one kind of finch, etc. and that these animals evolved into many different species after the Fall, but did not evolve beyond their kinds. We also think that humans are different than all the animals. We are not just "higher evolved." We are created in the image of God and have the "breath of life." Creationists start at this understanding from several verses in Genesis. Much of it comes from chapter 1, where God makes the different types of animals on specific days.

Evolutionists believe that life started from one ancestor, which gained enough genetic information to evolve into a hippopotamus and human. But a "bottom up" view of evolution is highly unlikely, since we observe animals evolving through loss of information, rather than a gain. While additional information can be inserted into an organism's genes, most mutations that make a phenotypic difference are harmful to the organism. It's like having a perfectly good computer code, then randomly inserting letters into it. This will most likely damage the program. If we cannot see evidence of evolution between kinds today, we have evidence in the past to address. Numerous "missing links" have been proposed, but all of these organisms have been proved hoaxes. This includes the most famous missing link, "Lucy."

Believers in evolution recognize these problems with the theory and reconcile them with their magic formula: time + chance = anything can happen! Don't believe me? Consider this: If I can prove that the earth is actually much younger than 4.5 billion years, the entire theory will collapse because evolutionists need a ludicrous amount of time to sustain blind belief in what we cannot see happening. If you ask an evolutionist for an example of change from one family to another, or about an experiment we can conduct to try and figure out how it works, they will simply say it would take too long, so we cannot see it happening. The truth is that the dating methods most scientists use are inaccurate. Carbon dating (everyone's favorite) has been tested on living animals, rocks we know the age of, and has shown itself to be shamefully inaccurate. Rock layers, which are often used as evidence for the age of the earth, appear as if they were laid down in quick succession without a chance to erode. Even more fascinating, thousands of petrified trees can be found between multiple layers of rocks. This is only scratching the surface of the myth of the old earth and the problems with evolution.

The theory of evolution is an equation that doesn't add up. Look around at all that humans have accomplished. Right now I am typing on a screen that I do not understand, using a brain that is more flexible and efficient than a supercomputer (I'm just that smart), riding in a truck, surrounded by an impressive network of roads. Nobody can deny that humans are vastly more intelligent and driven than animals are. You know this when you watch Animal Planet and the scientists marvel at how the orangutan has the problem-solving skills to stick a twig in the ground and draw out insects. In addition to intelligence, humans worldwide have a hunger inside ourselves to know the meaning of life. Naturalists I have talked to will say that religion was made up by humans who have a psychological need for filling an emptiness, or knowing why we are here, how we should live, and where we go after we die. I can agree with the naturalist on most of this. But my question is; why did we evolve such useless feelings, while all other organisms couldn't care less? Why did humans all over the world evolve a need for answers they can never have? These answers have nothing to do with mating, gathering food, experiencing pleasure, and surviving. The Bible says that we are sheep without a shepherd. We know we need a God and we wouldn't have evolved this way.

While this overview cannot go through all the reasons and details of debunking the theory of evolution, I hope it was helpful in understanding the beliefs of Creationists and the reasons why I see the theory of evolution as an unreasonable explanation of life's diversity. If anyone has any questions or wants resources, just PM me: DarkPH0T0N.

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