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Christians ‘ducking and weaving’ on campus

by

10 May 2003

Recently, I was advised that the leader of a major Christian outreach organization on university campuses was a theistic evolutionist. I know some students involved with this group, and asked each: ‘Do you get many questions about evolution when witnessing to other students?’ They replied, ‘All the time,’ so I asked how they dealt with this. The standard reply was, ‘We try to avoid it.’ The repetition sounded like ‘company policy’!

I was staggered! How can we hope to win people to Christ if we refuse to answer their questions and defend our faith? It grieved me to think of how the faith of the young Christians serving in this ministry, and the other Christians on campus, would be tested in their classes in the face of inevitable evolutionary indoctrination.

That happened to Robert D., who told us:

‘I must say that you have greatly impacted my life. A few months ago I started on my … geology course, and my faith was weakened by the evolutionary arguments presented in it. A few months later, I received a number of your books for Christmas. These books, as well as [this] website, have greatly strengthened my faith. Thank you so much for what you are doing.’

So why avoid the questions? Christianity is a reasonable faith and logically defendable. Many Christians regard the Creation account as a controversial side issue, but it’s clear that university lecturers don’t. Check out this comment by Dr Homer M., from a course outline on dinosaurs at a major university:

‘Never cite a religious science source such as ICR, [your ministry], or anything else like that. … They are virulently anti-evolution. … You will be penalized for citing anti-evolutionary material. It is not science. If the thesis of your paper is anti-evolutionary … you will receive a failing grade … . I will certainly not accept them.’

Students are not going to hear anything contrary to evolution in their classes, so where will they hear it? Sadly, not from some of the Christian groups on campus, it seems.

Besides the aforementioned experience, we have been inundated with testimonies and thanks from university and high-school students.

Laddonna B. wrote:

‘Through your ministry my passion for science has returned. I have always loved to study everything from geology to astronomy to oceanography, but of course when I went on to university that passion was extinguished. Every class was steeped in evolution. I got so angry in my archaeology class that I just walked out one day …’

She continued:

‘Now that I have found your ministry I am overwhelmed and overjoyed at the amount of information you have that can help me refute evolutionary claims. … I am considering going back to studying science. Even though I would have to study the predominant scientific thinking of the day, I would be armed with evidence to the contrary. I don’t mean to say I would be argumentative at every point, but I could encourage others to question what they are being told. Thanks for inspiring me and for your stand on the truth of the Biblical account of creation.’

We are greatly encouraged by these responses and the willingness of some to take up the challenge of meeting these issues ‘head on,’ not avoiding them.

Teno G. did this:

‘Last year Professor James P. challenged me to provide him with any creationist source that he couldn’t find any “lies and misrepresentations” in, so I sent him a copy of [Jonathan] Sarfati’s Refuting Evolution. It’s been more than eight months, and he hasn’t shown me any ‘‘lies”, nor has he written any [more] letters to the editor. He finally stopped answering my emails asking for his results. It appears Sarfati shut him up for good!’

Can we encourage you to be pro-active, and help break down these evolutionary strongholds?

Published: 5 February 2006