REFORMED WITNESS
Volume IV, April 1996, Number 4
'By Their Fruits' - The Test Of Evolutionism
Part II
Article by Dr. Henry Morris of the Creation Research Institute
Originally appearing in The Sword and Trowel, Issue 1995 No. 4Also in this issue: DNA And Dogma - by Phil Climer
Last month in the first part of this article Dr. Morris introduced the now prevalent world view of biological origins - the theory of evolution. In this conclusion he presents the very divergent patterns of thought and action that evolutionist and creationist beliefs elicit in their respective followers.
'Man must guide evolution'
In the American Humanist Association, they attribute humanism largely to Huxley. He defined humanism as the belief that man shapes his own destiny. It is a nontheistic religion; a way of life.
Huxley declared that the beliefs of this 'religion' of evolutionary humanism are not based on supernatural revelation, but on the revelation that science and learning have given about man and the universe. He believed that man's true destiny was to guide the future course of evolution on Earth to its greater fulfillment.
When he became the first Director General of UNESCO, Huxley promoted (through that agency) his proposal for a world religion of evolutionary humanism. The United Nations, UNESCO, and all its agencies have been moving in that direction ever since. They would like to establish, and I believe they may will succeed in doing so for a brief time, a world culture, or a world religion of evolutionary humanism. That is the goal of evolution.
The fruits of the evolutionary world view are the denial of the Creator, the rejection of Christian values, and the worship of man. Adolf Hitler was a thoroughgoing evolutionist. Mein Kampf means 'my struggle'. He took from Darwin the notion of the struggle for existence and applied it among nations. Dr. Daniel Gasman, in his authoritative work, The Scientific Origins of National Socialism, said of Hitler that he 'stressed and singled out the idea of biological evolution as the most forceful weapon against traditional religion, and he repeatedly condemned Christianity for its opposition to teaching of evolution.'
Communism was also fired by the evolutionary world view. 'It is a commonplace', says Jacques Barzun, 'that Marx felt his own work to be the exact parallel of Darwin's. He even wished to dedicate a portion of Das Kapital to the author of The Origin of Species... Like Darwin, Marx thought he had discovered the law of development.'
Every Communist had to be an evolutionist. You could not be a Marxist or a socialist without first subscribing to evolution, as taught in the schools of Russia.
Cliff Conner, in his article, Evolution versus Creationism (in the International Socialist Review, 1980), said - 'Of all those eminent researchers of the nineteenth century who have left us such a rich heritage of knowledge, we are especially grateful to Charles Darwin for opening our way to an evolutionary dialectical understanding of nature.'
Now, lest we capitalists should gloat about Communism, Nazism, and Fascism being evolutionist, the same thing is true of laissez-faire capitalism. In nineteenth century America men like Chauncey Depew and John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie were ruthless evolutionists. Depew boasted of his own 'survival of the fittest' through 'superior ability, foresight and adaptability'.
Evolutionary Capitalism
Rockefeller did not regard business ruthlessness as - 'an evil tendency in business. It is merely the working out of a law of nature.'
Carnegie is celebrated today, but he was cruel and heartless in his own day to competitors and workmen alike. He wrote of how he found the evolutionary world view. 'I remember that light came in as a flood and all was clear. Not only had I got rid of theology and the supernatural but I had found the truth of evolution.'
All these men applied the teaching of Herbert Spencer who coined those phrases, 'survival of the fittest' and 'struggle for existence' before Darwin.
The list of evil fruits from the evolutionary tree is long. It can be demonstrated that the modern drug culture has its roots in evolutionary philosophy. The modern homosexual agenda also has its roots in evolutionary philosophy. The anti-moralistic campaign in our schools and in society in general has its roots in evolutionary philosophy. Indeed, it can be shown that every harmful practice which has been in existence since the world began has developed a rationale or justification from some form of evolutionary philosophy.
C.S. Lewis was a theistic evolutionist for many years, but towards the end of his life he became a creationist. In a private letter to Richard Ackworth (who at that time was a leading light in the creation science movement) he made this statement -
'I wish I were younger. What inclines me now to think you may be right in regarding evolution as the central and radical lie in the whole web of falsehood that now governs our lives, is not so much your arguments against it, as the fanatical and twisted attitudes of its defenders.'
We encounter those 'fanatical and twisted attitudes' repeatedly in our work.
True Science
By contrast with the evil fruit of evolutionary philosophy, there is the good fruit of creation. For example, all true science is based on creation. Most of the founding fathers of science, men like Isaac Newton, Clerk Maxwell, Michael Faraday, Louis Pasteur, Robert Boyle and Edwin Brewster, as well as other great founders of different fields of science, were professing Christians and creationists.
In all probability, none of them would be offered a major post on a significant science faculty today, not being evolutionists, but they founded science, and were the greatest scientists who ever lived.
Nevertheless, there are thousands of scientists today who have become creationists. Many of them, like myself, were once evolutionists, but they became convinced, not only from what the Bible teaches, but from the facts of science, that creation is a better explanation of origins than evolution.
The major fruit of the creation tree is, of course, Christianity. Let no one think that creation makes no difference to Christian doctrine. Some Christians say we need not bother about bringing people to believe in creation, as long as we just bring them to Christ. But such a stance is not valid, because you cannot really understand the Lord Jesus Christ, until you understand Him as He is.
The greatest Christological passage in the Bible is Colossians 1:16-20:
'By him [that is Jesus Christ] were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: and he is before all things, and by him all things consist... And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself... things in earth, or things in heaven.'
All things in Heaven and Earth were created by Christ, and are now being sustained by Him. He has paid to reconcile all things in Heaven and Earth to Himself. Surely if one is going to preach Christ, one must preach Him as He is; and He was the Creator before He became the Saviour. The reason why we need Him as our Saviour and Redeemer is because we have rebelled against Him as our Creator.
Basis of the Gospel
When the apostle John, by the inspiration of God, wrote his Gospel to lead people to Christ, he began with the message of creation:
'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made...
'He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.'
People must understand that Jesus Christ is the Creator, for only then can they grasp their need of a Saviour, and only then can they have faith in Him.
The greatest faith chapter in the Bible is Hebrews 11, which tells us that by faith Abel did this, and Abraham did this. But the very first object of faith was creation. In fact at the end of the tenth chapter of Hebrews it says, 'Now the just shall live by faith' - the great watchword of the Reformation, quoted three time in the New Testament from Habakkuk.
The first object of faith is, 'Through faith we understand that the world were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear' (Hebrews 11:3).
Before you can have a saving, living faith, you need to understand by faith that the world did not come from pre-existing materials, things which appeared, but by the Word of God. 'He spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast; (Psalm 33:9).
Christ's testimony
God did not take billions of years. He only needed six days. And as you know, the Lord Jesus Christ said, 'From the beginning of the creation God made them male and female' (Mark 10:6). The infallible Son of God was referring to Genesis when He affirmed that our first parents were made at the very beginning of creation, not billions of years later. (The idea of long ages of evolution is not in the Bible anywhere.)
What we believe and teach about creation is of central importance, whether in school, in church, or in our homes. Only creationism - belief in God as Creator - yields the fruit of faith, and of saving faith.
I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded. - Isa 45:12
Three Creationist Classics by Dr. Henry M. MorrisThe Twilight of Evolution
The God Who is Real: A Creationist Approach to Evangelism and Missions
The Bible has the Answer
DNA and Dogma
Editorial by Phil Climer, editor, The Reformed Witness
Source: The Philosophical Scientists by David Foster, Dorset press, 1985.See more articles by this author
Evolutionists often portray creationists as people who are either unwilling or unable to rationally discuss the theory of evolution. However, as science marches on one must wonder which side is really turning a deaf ear to the evidence. Consider the discovery of DNA (deoxyribonucliec acid) in the 1950's. DNA is the "blueprint" that defines hereditary characteristics in all organisms. Just as 26 letters in our alphabet can be arranged in different ways to make words, sentences, and whole books, so various amino acids are arranged in incredibly long sequences to make up the DNA strand, the chemical "book" of life.
One protein, hemoglobin, is defined by a "chapter" in the DNA "book" containing 574 amino acids, Hemoglobin gives blood its red color, conveying oxygen to all parts of the body; it is absolutely essential for life. What are the chances of those 574 amino acids being arranged in the specific sequence needed to define this specific function? About 1 in 10650, or 10 followed by 650 zeroes. The evolutionists say hemoglobin assembled itself by chance.
To get an idea of the absurdity of this claim, compare 10650 with the age of the universe, as given by those same evolutionists: roughly 20 billion years. Converting years to seconds (yes -- seconds!), the universe would be about 1018 seconds old. 10650 is a number 10632 times greater than 1018. That gives some notion of the complexity of hemoglobin, and the of the problems evolutionism faces.
Firstly, according to the theory of evolution, the hemoglobin had to work correctly to even exist ("survival of the fittest"). In other words, the 574 amino acids had to be in the correct sequence all at once, they could not evolve into the correct sequence over generations.
Secondly, as stated above, 10650 is a number 10632 times larger than 1018. The universe would have to be 10 followed by 632 zeroes years older than the evolutionists' claim of 20 billion years for hemoglobin to have one chance to assemble itself.
Thirdly, as Scripture declares, the universe shall "wax old, as doth a garment" (Hebrews 1:11). Evolutionists admit that the universe would be long inert before it reaches an age of 10650 years. And nothing can evolve in a dead universe. Therefore by the evolutionists' own reasoning, it is mathematically impossible for a hemoglobin protein (much less a man!) to evolve in this universe.
None of this knowledge of DNA was available to Charles Darwin when he proposed his theory. But what of present day Darwinists? Are modern day advances in science out of bounds for dogmatic evolutionism, with its "fanatical and twisted attitudes" as encountered by C.S. Lewis and described by Dr. Morris?
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