It’s time to set the record straight
by Dennis Petersen
There is a reason why most people who honestly seek to know what’s true can be easily led into deceptions that can destroy them. Today we’re going to unlock some basics of the mysteries about evolution and set the record straight.
The paraphrased translation of the Living Bible renders Proverb 18:17 by saying:
“Any story sounds true until someone tells the other side and sets the record straight.” Proverbs 18:17 TLB
What do you suppose has set the stage for the present condition of practically all popular modern thought?
After several generations of increasing materialism in our culture, the vast majority of people seem to be greatly ignorant of the faith of their forefathers. Many college-age, anti-establishment libertines of the hippie generation in the late 20th century have become the university professors of the early 21st century. School students who have been conditioned by irreverent rationalism and skepticism have been increasingly indoctrinated with humanistic ideals rather than the One true God of our culture’s Christian ancestors. The general public is typically led to believe the so-called scientific declarations of intellectuals who have thrown off the restraints of a God-honoring mindset.
By the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the Apostle Peter made a remarkably accurate prediction of the conditioned human thinking we find so prevalent today. He wrote:
“Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts and saying, ‘Where is the promise of his coming?’ for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished. But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” 2 Peter 3:3-7
Notice the driving influence of these scoffers. It is willful ignorance! And there are three Bible truths that they are specifically ignoring are:
- 1) the creation,
- 2) the global flood, and
- 3) the reality of the judgment to come by fire.
Isn’t it interesting to see that the underlying creed that generates that willful ignorance is an adherence to what seems to be what we could call a uniformitarian view that “all things continue as they were from the beginning?” Let’s see why the evolutionary presupposition has gained such a strong hold on modern thinking.
NASA Pioneer Dr. Wernher Von Braun Endorsed Intelligent Design
You may have heard the name of the leading founder of the modern space exploration program called NASA. He was Dr. Wernher Von Braun. Listen to some of his personal letter to a friend that was read as a testimony to the California State Board of education five years before his death in 1977.
“One cannot be exposed to the law and order of the universe without concluding that there must be design and purpose behind it all…The better we understand the intricacies of the universe and all it harbors, the more reason we have found to marvel at the inherent design upon which it is based…To be forced to believe only one conclusion–that everything in the universe happened by chance – would violate the very objectivity of science itself…”
Von Braun was an engineer. His whole life was focused on the intricate details of designing systems that work and make sense to intelligent humans.
“What random process could produce the brains of a man or the system of the human eye? …They (evolutionists) challenge science to prove the existence of God. But must we really light a candle to see the sun? …They say they cannot visualize a Designer. Well, can a physicist visualize an electron? …What strange rationale makes some physicists accept the inconceivable electron as real while refusing to accept the reality of a Designer on the ground that they cannot conceive (of) Him?… It is in scientific honesty that I endorse the presentation of alternative theories for the origin of the universe, life and man in the science classroom. It would be an error to overlook the possibility that the universe was planned rather than happening by chance.”
Dr. von Braun was a leading scientist and outspoken Christian influence in the NASA space program of the United States until his death in 1977. These remarks from a personal letter, were read to the California State Board of Education by Dr. John Ford on September 14, 1972
So, why aren’t students in public school classes today told that?
Who Has Insight… Let Him Hear…
Can an atheist understand the battle better than most Christians? Note what one wrote:
“Christianity has fought, still fights, and will fight science to the desperate end over evolution, because evolution destroys utterly and finally the very reason Jesus’ earthly life was supposedly made necessary. Destroy Adam and Eve and the original sin, and in the rubble, you will find the sorry remains of the son of god [sic]. … If Jesus was not the redeemer who died for our sins, and this is what evolution means, then Christianity is nothing.
Christianity, if it is to survive, must have Adam and the original sin and the fall from grace, or it cannot have Jesus the redeemer who restores to those who believe what Adam’s disobedience took away.
What all this means is that Christianity cannot lose the Genesis account of creation like it could lose the doctrine of geocentricism and get along. The battle must be waged, for Christianity is fighting for its very life.”
That was published by an American atheist periodical but the point is clear. Do school students ever get the benefit of hearing this kind of open admission from anti-Christian and anti-creationist educators?
The Roots of Evolutionary Faith
Until the mid-1800s brilliant scientists had no trouble accepting the Biblical account of creation. Remember Isaac Newton, one of history’s most ingenious scientists? He wrote:
“I have a fundamental belief in the Bible as the Word of God, written by those who were inspired. I study the Bible daily.” Isaac Newton
Other familiar greats among scientists include Kepler, Faraday, Kelvin, Mendell, Lister, and Pasteur. They all lived and died with faith in God, but a new generation arose during the 19th century in the midst of some very serious skepticism and moral decline in society. What happened?
UNIFORMITARIANISM
Charles Lyell, born in Scotland to a wealthy family, studied classics at Oxford University and trained as a lawyer. He abandoned law in the 1820s to become the first Professor of Geology at King’s College London. He became one of the pillars of modern evolutionistic geology. He published his three-volume Principles of Geology from 1830-1833. It literally shook the intellectual world. The study of Earth’s geophysical structures was an infant science back then, but now his concepts are so widely accepted that most who believe them don’t even know who originated them.
Lyell’s basic premise about “deep time” came to be adopted by all scientific fields, even though his specialty was earth science. He proposed that all our earth’s features can be explained in terms of present observable processes, which supposedly have always gone on in the past at the same rates as today. Things like erosion, sedimentation, gradual accumulation of things on the surface of the earth, or gradual eruptions and series of eruptions and storms and all that kind of thing. He devised this idea, which is popularly known as…
“The present is the key to the past” or uniformitarianism.
From his belief a doctrine of geologic origins was devised by simply projecting all natural processes back through time indefinitely. Though he acknowledged occasional local catastrophes, a major upheaval like the global Flood was strictly ruled out. In fact, Lyell actually wrote that his aim was to: “free the science from Moses.” What do you think he disliked about the Bible books attributed to Moses? Does that sound like objective science or a prejudice against the Bible? And remember that it was the first of the five books of Moses… Genesis… that included not only the detailed events of the creation week, but also the very thoroughly described events detailed in Genesis about the year-long global flood of Noah’s time.
If there’s one name everyone connects with evolutionism it’s CHARLES DARWIN
In our time the word “evolution” and “Darwin” are almost inseparable. At the age of 22 in 1831, with a degree in theology, Charles Darwin began a 5-year world voyage as the naturalist aboard the British ship Beagle. Besides the Bible, Darwin had at least one other book on board… Lyell’s. And reading it, he began developing his concepts of biological origins according to Lyell’s uniformitarian philosophy with deep time.
Darwin’s dogmas of the evolution of species could never have gotten off the ground without Lyell’s “gift” of millions of years. Thus, the foundation was laid for what came to be known as Darwinian evolution.
Charles Darwin didn’t invent evolution. His grandfather, Erasmus, influenced his thinking. Others of the time could have received the credit, but it was Charles’ 1859 book, The Origin of Species, which quickly exalted him to fame. He became the central figure of evolutionary thinking in a generation filled with revolution, humanist attitudes, and spiraling social upheaval.
It’s important that we understand the impact of a concept called GRADUALISM
“Gradualism” is a term often used regarding biological evolution in place of uniformitarianism, but the intended meaning is usually the same. Slow processes of genetic change, gradually going on generation after generation, through immense spans of time, are assumed to be the ultimate cause for virtually every living thing in nature. As a modern zealot for Darwinism insists:
“Gradualness is of the essence. In the context of the fight against creationism, gradualism is more or less synonymous with evolution itself. If you throw out gradualness you throw out the very thing that makes evolution more plausible than creation”
In other words, you don’t want to accept the miracle of God creating so you accept the miracle that gradual, slow, long processes, drawn out for millions and billions of years can somehow perform miracles. That’s what it amounts to.
Working Definition of Evolution
“Evolution…a directional and essentially irreversible process occurring in time, which in its course gives rise to an increase of variety and an increasingly high level of organization in its products. Our present knowledge indeed forces us to the view that the whole of reality is evolution, a single process of self-transformation.”
Julian Huxley, famous evolutionist, atheist, and humanist of the 20th century
In reality, as we’ll see later, evolution is a complete anomaly to the law of biogenesis.
The Evolutionary Tree of Life
Most school children today are familiar with the typical diagram depicting how all forms of life supposedly evolved through the last two thousand million years. This chart is usually published with no explanation that it is purely a NATURALISTIC idea, based on the rejection of the Designer and His eyewitness account in Genesis in the Bible.
If there is no evidence, why believe the theory?
Many scientists have faced the reality that the subject of origins comes down to a personal and even dogmatic bias, as illustrated by the statement of evolutionist Richard Lewontin:
“We take the side of science (meaning evolution) in spite ofthe patent absurdity of some of its constructs… because we have a prior commitment… to materialism. It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world… we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes… no matter how counterintuitive, how mystifying to the uninitiated… that materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.”
Mr. Lewontin, why can’t you allow a divine foot in the door? Is it because of your insistence on your idolatrous belief that there is no God, no Creator?
Some words from Darwin you likely haven’t seen:
Here’s what Darwin said…
“I feel most deeply that this whole of Creation is too profound for human intellect. A dog might as well speculate on the mind of Newton! Let each man hope and believe what he can.”
“To have the unthinking masses accept all that I say would be calamity….”
“What is true in my book will survive, and that which is error will be blown away as chaff.”
Can Good Science Embrace Bad Theory?
What Is Science?
The Oxford Dictionary defines science as “a branch of study…concerned either with a body of demonstrated truths or with observed facts systematically classified…under general laws, and which includes trustworthy methods for the discovery of new truth within its own domain.”
G.G. Simpson, a leading evolutionist, has said: “It is inherent in any definition of science that statements that cannot be checked by observation are not really about anything…or at the very least, they are not science.“[i]
Think about that!
True Science Is
- Observable
- Demonstrable
- Repeatable
Does Science Contradict the Bible?
Some feel that God’s Word and His world are separate and could conflict in apparent information. However, keep in mind that the Word of God speaks without apology about the origin and operation of the natural world. The straightforward narrative of creation was approved by Jesus Christ and by the apostles who wrote the New Testament. We must be careful with what we accept as science. True science will not contradict the Bible.
Science Mysteries
Despite all the work that has been done in all the science disciplines, there are major enduring problems. We wonder what is electricity? What is light? What is gravity? How does that work? Why do these phenomena behave so consistently? Some features of these things are known but not the basic “why” behind them. They just work. The laws of nature?
Cautions for Science
Because there are so many disciplines of scientific study, being an authority in more than one realm is impossible for most people. Scientists are real people; they have the same human weaknesses and biases as non-scientists. Scientists who wish to be credible must be cautious not to make broad declarations, especially on issues of religion or human spiritual matters in the name of science. When scientists do say things about origins, supernatural powers and spiritual things, you should be very careful to examine and challenge them. Theories are not facts!
What Is a Theory?
The average person may suppose a theory is like a hunch or a guess, but scientists regard theories as accepted principles or concepts that spawn research to explain natural phenomenon.
Have Scientists Been Proven Wrong Before?
False ideas have commonly been promoted by scientists of past generations only to be discarded by their descendants.
- The geocentric theory of astronomy… the idea that the earth is the center of the entire universe.
- The idea that bloodletting is an appropriate medical procedure for reducing fever. Blood letting? Yes, it killed George Washington, our first president.
- Phlogiston was believed by 17th and 18th century scientists to be the magical ingredient of all combustible things that enabled them to burn. However, French chemist, Lavoisier, showed that oxygen was the key for fire (rapid oxidation) to burn.
Is Evolution Scientific?
No matter how you look at it, the theory of evolution must trace back to a point where inanimate matter became a living creature. If you insist that the Most High Creator God can not be allowed into your discussion, you have to rely on some explanation for the origin of life from non-living matter. There’s just one problem.
Creating life from non-life requires a cause that is greater than itself… greater than matter… greater than energy… greater than an idealistic design. In 5,000 years of recorded history, no human observer has ever truly observed an actual living creature … life itself… coming from non-living matter… dirt. To generate life, you have to have a LIFE GIVER. That’s why the Bible says…
“The fool has said in his heart that there is no God!” Psalm 14:1
“The things that are made actually declare God’s eternal power and His divine nature.” Romans 1:20
This is what America’s founding fathers referred to as “self-evident truth” when they wrote the Declaration of Independence, saying…
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness…”
There is only one reason that founding idea was sensible to the generation that dared to resist a tyrant King who put himself in the place of a god. They believed the testimony of Moses. They truly believed the Bible was a supernatural book, delivered to mankind through human agents by the will of the Creator God. And they believed the fact that Jesus Christ actually rose from the dead in fulfillment of age-old prophecies to prove that He is what He is claimed to have said He is… when He said “I am the Resurrection and the Life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies…” That’s in John 11:25. Did you get that?
The Evolutionary Recipe
I want to give you one of the best recipes to explain just exactly how people who have been gullible enough to believe in the evolution of the natural world, and particularly the evolution of life, how it actually works. You might want to write this down… It’s really profound.
This whole process starts with…
- UNKNOWN CHEMICALS that somehow existed in the primordial past… just so happened… through…
- UNKNOWN PROCESSES that no longer exist or continued on for us to observe… somehow produced…
- UNKNOWN LIFE FORMS that are nowhere to be found…but could somehow, through
- UNKNOWN REPRODUCTION METHODS spawn never-before-existing new life forms… in an ideally formulated but somehow…
- UNKNOWN OCEANIC chemical SOUP COMPLEX… at an…
- UNKNOWN TIME and an Unknown PLACE.
Is it any wonder why many scientists like Dr. Henry Morris (who proposed the above idea) insist that evolution does not even have the ingredients to constitute a bona fide scientific theory? !
The Big Question
Bible believing Christians are often mocked by those who say: “Prove your eternal God created all this!”
But what’s the alternative?
Why not ask the scorner:
“Prove to me that atoms are eternal! If God is not the Creator, how did the atoms get there?”
For anyone who thinks about it, the Mysteries of Evolution are far more mystifying than anyone can even imagine. In fact…
For any creation or upward development of anything, simple scientific observation has taught us that there are basically three things which are absolutely essential:
- An initiating PROGRAM to direct the growth. This is like a blueprint but one that gives direct instructions that effectively guides each part of the process. This is like the DNA in all living things. Next is…
- A fully functioning MECHANISM to energize the growth. This is a whole system of functioning parts to facilitate the processes of starting, fueling, growing and orchestrating every part of the finished creation. And finally, you must have …
- A PROTECTION SYSTEM to sustain the growth. This is like the immune system, plus the exterior guards against potentially destructive environmental factors… like a good solid skin to protect the outside of your body.
And if anyone mockingly insists on asking what was the cause of your Creator God? Just ask “what was the cause of your magically creative evolutionary process?”
The Law of Cause and Effect is simple. Nothing causes itself to exist. Every ‘effect’ must have an “Adequate” cause to satisfactorily explain its existence and persistence. The only adequate cause for the existence of all that we call “nature” is that which designed it and created it. We call nature “Creation.” Creation is, by nature, the product of its supernatural Creator! Super-natural means “above nature.” Whether an atheistically-inclined human rationalist is willing to admit it or not, it’s a known FACT of science that every designed complex system inherently has a “Designer.” The ultimate Designer of all things occurring in nature can only be a super-natural Creator. That’s why the Apostle Paul, writer of the letter to the Roman Christians in the Bible, wrote in his introduction that The Creator God’s “invisible attributes, eternal power, and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse” for making “futile speculations” in their rejection of God in exchange for only “self-existent” nature.
The Biblical definition for God is clear. He is the One eternally existing primary cause of all things. Without Him, nothing was made that was made (John 1:3).
If you want to copy the transcript for today’s podcast, just go over to Reclaim Your Legacy dot com and search for today’s title, “Unlocking the Mysteries of Evolution.” It comes right out of my book, “Unlocking the Mysteries of Creation” which you can access online at Creationism.org and also see my illustrated Power Point lecture about it on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@dennis.petersen
[i] Simpson, George Gaylord, Science (1964) 143:769