Out ofthe Lub Donald S. Robertson, Ph.D. Chairman, Dept, of Science, Biola Bible College
Evolution (Part One)
liv e r since Darwin popularized the 111 idea of evolution the segment of the church which held to the historical Christian view of the inspiration of the Scriptures has been on the defen sive. One of the difficulties in formu lating a proper answer to the prob lems this theory creates results from the technical nature of the theory itself. After all, the evidence for evolution is found in such technical fields as Paleontology, Embryology, Genetics, Comparative Anatomy, etc., which the average layman or theo logian is not equipped to evaluate. But until this is done it is difficult to build defense for the Christian position. In the past, two approaches have ■usually been taken: 1) an appeal to authority or 2) an analysis of the scientific evidences from a Christian perspective. The first is quite exten sively used because it requires no ac quaintanceship-with the subject mat ter. It only involves compiling a list of quotations taken from prominent men who do not believe in evolution. Although there is a place for such evidence it is rather weak and will fail to impress one who is more in terested in what the facts are than in someone’s opinion. The second ap proach is by far the sounder of the two but unfortunately it has all too frequently been attempted by men who are not qualified. This results in the minimizing of the Christian position in the eyes of the world. There have been a few qualified per sons who have, with varying degrees of success, analyzed the scientific evi dence for evolution from a Christian point of view but because of its tech nical nature the average Christian finds such works of limited value. For the next few months we will pursue the latter approach to the' problem but with a minimal refer ence to the details in an attempt to build a bare framework in which de tails can be interpreted as they are
encountered by the individual. The Problem Before we proceed any further it will first be necessary to establish clearly the problem that evolution presents to one who holds the his torical Christian position. The Bible teaches that God brought the various living things into existence by the act of creation. The evolutionist says the first living thing came into being by the chance combination of mole cules and from this chance beginning all the various living things that we find in the world today were pro duced by the working out of natural law. The Bible says God and creation —Evolution says chance and natural law. Thus the two schemes of origin are in contradiction at their most fun damental levels. Because the Christian has experi enced the truth of the Bible at other points he believes that the creation narrative is also correct. Yet he is continually bombarded by reports from the evolutionist which disagree with such an interpretation. The Christian, therefore, would very much like to prove the evolutionist wrong. However, the Christian cannot use the evidence from the Bible to dis suade the evolutionist because he will not recognize its validity. The only evidence the evolutionist will accept is that from science and unfortunately the evidence from science cannot be used to disprove evolution nor can it be used to prove the creation ac count. Thus the Christian is faced with a dilemma. He cannot prove his position scientifically nor can he disprove that of his opponents. The problem is not alone the Christian’s for the evolutionist finds himself in a similar position with respect to his theory. The evolutionist just seems to have the upper hand today because he has popular support. What then is the Christian’s answer? Next month we will try to answer this question. END.
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