Table of Contents - First Reason
Preface
This book contains some of the results of my research efforts over the past few years. It is not a detailed dissertation written for scientists, but a condensation of my findings for the common person who's looking for some answers to the origin question. It contains some of my reasons, 100 of them, for choosing the biblical creation account of our origins over the evolution story. Not all creationists would agree with all of my reasons. There's still plenty of room for healthy disagreement over how to best interpret the data out there. Nevertheless, the vast majority of the points raised here are beyond question and constitute, in my mind, very good reasons to embrace the biblical record as factual history. Please give it an honest read. My prayer is that this book will offer those of you who are unsure of what to believe about origins, some guidance in the right direction. For those committed to the Christian faith, I pray this book will help nurture that faith, and help provide an appropriate defence for it.
Introduction - The Importance of the Origins Question
At one time or another, all of us will come to ponder the basic questions life such as: Who am I? Where did I come from? What is my purpose, and where am I going when I die? We need answers to these questions because the way we answer them will profoundly affect the way we view ourselves and others, and the way we relate to the world around us. Foundational to every other question we may have, therefore, is the question of our origins. Is it any wonder that so many men and women have committed their entire lives to the various academic disciplines, which deal directly with the origins question such as palaeontology, archaeology, and anthropology?
Today, we have two basic worldviews, which attempt to answer the question of origins in a decisive way. Once the question of origins is settled, the answers to all the other basic questions of life simply fall into place.
The first is the creation worldview, which has its basis in the pages of Scripture. According to the Bible, God created the entire universe, with human beings as the apex of His creative work, in six, literal, 24-hour days, roughly six thousand years ago. Human-kind's rebellion against their creator brought suffering, decay and death into the world as the inevitable consequence. According to the Bible, roughly 4400 years ago God judged the world with a globe-encircling catastrophe - a global deluge which destroyed the entire world except one man and his family, spared alive in a boat designed by God and crafted at His instruction. The Biblical Creation worldview further states that about 2,000 years ago, Jesus Christ the Son of God came into the world and bore the punishment for OUR sins. Today, all who accept that He died for them to pay their sin debt, and who invite Him into their lives as Lord and Saviour, will be delivered from eternal punishment. These people will not face condemnation when they stand before a holy God someday. Instead, they have the hope of eternal life in heaven with their creator at the end of their sojourn here on earth.
The Evolution worldview is completely different. According to the evolution story, the universe was birthed in a colossal "Big Bang"; an explosion of space and matter which suddenly appeared out of nothing. It was this "something-out-of-nothing" that then condensed to form all of the vast numbers of stars, galaxies, planets and countless varieties of animal and plant forms we see in the world around us. According to this view, everything is reducible to raw matter. Humans, therefore, are reducible to their chemical constituents and nothing more. If this view is correct, then human beings have no more intrinsic value than any other mixture of chemicals and human life cannot be said to hold more value than, say, a garden slug. This view strips human beings of intrinsic value, of purpose, and of hope for the future as the simple chart below depicts.
| The Basic Questions of Life | The Biblical Creation Answer | The Evolution Answer |
| Who Am I? | A creation of God; specially designed and made in His image. | You are a peculiar combination of molecules. |
| How did I get here? | You were lovingly designed and fashioned by God. | You were not intelligently designed, but arose by purely naturalistic process. |
| What is my purpose? | Your purpose is to know and serve your creator, who loves you and gave Himself for you. | You have no definite purpose. |
| Where am I going when I die? | Eternal life in heaven if you accept Christ's free gift of salvation, or eternity in hell as the consequence for your sins if you reject His offer. | The humanitarian meets the same eternal fate as the murderer. |
Note that the biblical position on human origins furnishes a person with solid answers regarding one's beginning, life's meaning, purpose, responsibilities and eternal fate. The actions inspired by this type of conviction lay in complete contrast to those inspired by evolutionary indoctrination, which provides neither moral compass, nor certain hope for the future whatever. Clearly, acceptance of the biblical salvation message can only strengthen the moral and spiritual fabric of our society whilst the effects of evolutionary indoctrination of students have had demonstrably adverse effects.
Why Christians Can't "Ride the Fence"
For the Christian, the debate over whether or not the Genesis account of creation can be trusted is of the utmost importance for a number of reasons. First, if the clear teachings of Genesis cannot be taken literally, then uncertainty must pervade the entire body of Scripture. How can we be sure that any of the promises of Scripture can be trusted?
Second, if Genesis is merely figurative, we must assume that both Christ Himself and those that followed Him were in error since it is clear from the New Testament that they regarded Genesis as literal history. This completely undermines trust in Jesus Christ as the perfect Son of God and Saviour, which is the heart of the Christian message.
Third, if Genesis is not literal history, then God's character as loving and all powerful is thrown into question. For example, an all-powerful God must certainly be able to effectively communicate with His creation. Genesis is clear that the universe was created in six literal days less than 10,000 years ago. If, in fact, God used evolution and / or the universe is actually billions of years old, then God's ability to communicate - even His honesty - must be questioned.
Fourth, if the earth is really billions of years old, then we must assume that suffering and death were in the world long before Adam and Eve sinned (remember, the fossils, which are the remains of dead things, are said to predate the emergence of human kind by millions of years). This contradicts the clear teaching of Scripture, which states that it was human sin (rebellion against God) that brought death into the world. According to Genesis 1:31, at the end of the creation week, before sin entered the world, God looked on all that He had made and pronounced it "Very good." Did the God of Scripture look down on a world wrought with pain, mutation, natural disaster and death, and pronounce it "Very good"? The answer must be an emphatic no.
Finally, and most importantly, if death was in the world before human sin, then death cannot really be the punishment for sin. If death is not the punishment for sin, then the death of Jesus Christ upon the cross is completely nullified. Either Christ's death paid for our sins (as the clear teaching of Scripture maintains) or it didn't. This is the very heart of the Christian message and cannot be compromised.
Assumptions - Data - Interpretations
It's very important to recognise that much of the evidence being presented for evolution (or creation for that matter) are not facts per se, but are really interpretations of various facts. It is incorrect to envision the evolutionist and the creationist pulling out various facts from nature in support of their worldview, and then trying to somehow weigh these facts on a scale to determine which side has more. In reality, the evolutionist and the creationist are both dealing with the exact same facts only they are assigning different interpretations to these facts.
What prompts these differing interpretations? It's our initial assumptions - those things we believed to be true at the onset of our investigation that will determine what sort of interpretation we arrive at. The Grand Canyon, for example, is an undeniable fact. But how are we to interpret this fact? If we assume the earth is millions of years old, we might interpret the Grand Canyon as the product of millions of years of slow erosion by the Colorado River (which is the standard textbook interpretation). In other words, the Canyon was formed by a little bit of water over a long period of time.
But what if we assume that the earth is actually young, say, thousands of years old as opposed to millions of years? We would interpret the canyon as being the product of a catastrophic amount of water rushing through the sediments over a relatively short period of time. Notice, the same data can and is interpreted differently depending on our initial assumptions.
Religion vs. Religion
Many are under the mistaken impression that the evolution - creation debate is a battle between science and religion. This is not accurate. The fact is, both worldviews - creation and evolution - are assumptions that are made at the onset of the investigation, not conclusions drawn from the study of the data. This is crucial. When evolutionists assert that certain fossil "missing links" prove evolution, they are really arguing in a circle, because they must begin their investigation already convinced evolution is a fact. It is this belief in evolution that prompts the conclusion that a particular fossil is transitional. When an evolutionist turns around and says that this fossil "missing link" proves evolution he is really making his initial assumption his conclusion. This is the illogical practice of begging the question, or, as I said, arguing in a circle.
The fact is, both evolution and creation are faith-based systems. They are worldviews said to be true, but whose proponents have not been able to "prove" scientifically. Thus, neither worldview can be said to be more "scientific" that the other. What can be said with certainly is that these two faith systems are absolutely incompatible with each other. One of them must be wrong.
Judging a Truth Claim
When evaluating the truthfulness of a simple statement or a complex worldview, almost instinctively, we employ the consistency test. In other words, we check the claim for internal inconsistencies, or contradictions. If none are detected, the claim may be truthful. If contradictions exist, the statement must be rejected until amended. As this little book is meant to demonstrate, the biblical creation worldview interprets all of the data in a much more logically consistent way than evolution. In fact, the evolution worldview contains within itself blatant contradictions, which call for its rejection outright.
The Utter Importance of the Issue for Everyone
Because the question of origins is foundational to every other question that we'll ever ask, it's important that we give proper attention to it, and really consider the claims of modern scientific opinion critically. Because creation is far more logically consistent with the available data than the evolution worldview, it is therefore a far better explanation for our existence. Furthermore, this explanation is one that furnishes people with a sense of intrinsic value, for themselves and for others. It gives us a sense of purpose in this life, and joyful expectation in the life yet to come.
For many the belief that evolution is a proven fact has prevented them from taking the Bible's claims seriously. It is the purpose of this book to remove this evolutionary "stumbling block" to the Christian faith, and to allow people to accept the Lord Jesus Christ with their hearts and minds.