Darwin’s contribution?
by Don Batten
In a video distributed by the American Skeptics Society, Dr Michael Shermer says
Charles Darwin contributed seven notable things to the world.1 How do
these seven contributions of Darwin compare with what the Bible says?
1. Darwin ‘changed the world from being seen as static to evolving’
(changing). That is, microbes, over billions of years, changed into trees, animals
and men. Living things do not reproduce true to their type after all, but change
into different things, the evolutionist believes.
The Bible: ‘And God said, Let the earth bring
forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his
kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought
forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit,
whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good’
(Genesis
1:11-12). Things reproduce after their kind.
2. Darwin ‘established the implausibility of creationism’. God
did not create things; they arose through natural processes.
The Bible: ‘For in six days the Lord made heaven
and earth, the sea, and all that in them is’ (Exodus
20:11).
3. Darwin ‘refuted cosmic teleology’ (that is, that the universe
has a purpose). The existence of the universe is just a giant accident; it has no
purpose.
The Bible: ‘The heavens declare the glory of
God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork’ (Psalm
19:1).
4. Darwin ‘established materialistic/naturalistic philosophy’.
That is, God is an unnecessary hypothesis.
The Bible: ‘The fool hath said in his heart,
There is no God’ (Psalm
14:1).
5. Darwin ‘ended Aristotelian essentialism’ (that is, the belief
that things live because of some vital essence, life force, or spirit, rather than
because of mechanisms understandable to scientists).2
The Bible: The (Darwinian) belief that life would carry on without
God is not biblical. ‘And he [Jesus] is before all things, and
by him all things consist’ [hold together] (Colossians
1:17).
6. Darwin ‘refuted catastrophism’. For Darwin, present processes
operating over long periods of time accounted for the world and everything in it.
The Bible: ‘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’ (2
Peter 3:3-6).
7. Darwin ‘ended absolute anthropocentrism’. That is, Shermer claims
that Darwin established that man is just an animal; man is nothing special. He is
just another accident of cosmic evolution, with no ultimate purpose.
The Bible: ‘And God said, Let us make man in
our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea,
and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over
every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own
image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them’
(Genesis
1:26–27). ‘The heavens declare the glory of God’
(Psalm
19:1).
It should be obvious that the Bible contradicts all seven ‘contributions’ of Darwin
in some way. Mixing the two results in an unholy mess. Do oil and water mix? What
fellowship has light with darkness? (2
Corinthians 6:14). Let us not try to mix evolution and the Bible—they just don't go together!
References and notes
- Michael Shermer, 1994, ‘Evolution versus creationism: history of a controversy’,
American Skeptics Society Video. Shermer attributes much more to Darwin than is
warranted — Shermer uses ‘Darwin’ to encompass the whole evolutionary worldview.
Acceptance of Darwin’s ideas certainly led to the common acceptance of the seven
propositions Shermer presents.
- Note that this belief came from a (pagan) Greek philosopher, Aristotle, not the
Bible. Actually, Christian creationists such as Louis Pasteur were more instrumental
in overturning this concept than Darwin. Indeed, belief in evolution has driven
some back to believe in ‘life forces’ in the guise of ‘Gaia’, or ‘Mother Earth’.
(Article also available in Danish and German)
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