Point of View

As I read the news, I often see stories about the latest discoveries in science. In fact, many news services have entire sections devoted to science and technology.

I'm not a scientist, but I do like to like to read the science articles to stay informed about what is going on. A lot of what is written is quite fascinating. Advances in medicine, space science and astronomy, robotics and computer technology are all intriguing to read about. There is one area, though, that aggravates me because the science it is based on is so flimsy.

No, it is not global warming, though the way that is typically dealt with these days can also be a bit frustrating. For instance, how insane was the recent story of the woman in England who decided to abort a child because the carbon footprint of another human being would contribute to global warming?

But as frustrating as that is, articles on biology which assume evolutionary theory is the truth are even worse. These articles assume Darwinistic evolution is the truth, then draw conclusions which end up not having any actual empirical support.

In one recent article, a scientist claimed that in the next 100,000 years, two subspecies of humans will emerge. Reading the story, though, there is no science in it at all. It is simply one scientist's projection based on his belief that man has already evolved from apelike creatures to our present form. His logical progression, then, is for that to continue until his prediction is fulfilled.

Another article claimed that human evolution is accelerating. From the headline, you would expect the claim that a new species of human will, at some point, emerge. But the story is simply about how humans have adapted to their local environments—natural selection, not evolution.

When you see stories like these, you can be sure that the conclusions are based on philosophy, not science. These scientists start with the unproven, and unprovable, assumption that God does not exist, then deduce that the only possibility is for life to emerge and evolve to higher forms through natural processes.

The typical approach Christians use in trying to discount evolutionary arguments is to do a point by point refutation. This is not a bad thing, but there is a better way to deal with this. Rather than trying to debate the pros and cons of naturalistic theories, it is better to simply go to the root of the matter and challenge the assumptions. By looking at this issue from a worldview perspective, the real problems with evolutionary theory rise to the top and are exposed.

Here are the four issues which put a nail in the coffin of the Naturalistic approach to origins:

Matter—If the supernatural does not exist, then matter had to come into existence on its own. However, there is no science which can explain how something can emerge out of nothing. Neither is there any science to explain how matter could be eternal. The Naturalistic basis for the existence of the universe is nothing more than a faith assumption.

Life—Evolutionary scientists are stymied when trying to come up with a natural origin of life. There is no science to explain it. Since the supernatural is not acknowledged, they must resort to the faith assumption that there must be a natural explanation. Darwinistic evolution begins with this faith assumption—not with science.

Macroevolution—Even given the existence of life, evolutionary scientists are without any actual science to explain how the many different species of life came into being. Since they, a priori, deny the supernatural, they must insist that lower life forms evolved to higher life forms through natural means. Again, this is nothing more than speculation based on a faith assumption. There is no science to prove it, or even show how it could have happened.

Consciousness—The final problem relates to how consciousness arose out of unconsciousness. For the evolutionary biologist, the only possibility is that human consciousness is nothing more than the natural evolution of a brain large and complex enough to create conscious thoughts. But once again, there is no science to show that it happened, or that it even could happen.

When you interact with people who assert Darwinistic evolution, it is not necessary to debate them point by point. Go to the underlying worldview assumptions. If the assumptions are wrong, there is no way the conclusions can be right. Armed with this knowledge, you can stand with confidence in your faith that God is the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, and that everything He has revealed to us is the Truth about reality.

Freddy Davis, formerly a missionary with the International Mission Board for 17 years, is executive director of MarketFaith Ministries in Tallahassee and interim pastor of First Baptist Church of Woodville, near Tallahassee.