Origins 02: Blind Faith
Origins 02: Blind Faith
Everyone is a Believer
Do you believe in evolution? How long have you been a believer? Would you consider yourself to be a strong believer? When did you first believe in evolution? What are you trusting evolution to do for you? Yes, belief is at the core of any person’s interpretation of our origins. In fact, it is more than belief, it is a blind leap of faith.
Years ago, I grew tired of the Creation v. Evolution debates. Why? Because everyone believes something whether or not the “evidence” is in support of their idea or not. In this teaching, I share 12 points of why I am not a believer in evolution.
Everyone Takes a Blind Leap of Faith
No person knows everything. However, everyone believes something about where we came from. All of us will die with a serious lack of knowledge. This means that a lifetime is not enough to learn all that there is to know. Yet, from a very young age, before we know much at all, most of us make up their minds and embrace a belief in our origins.
The blind leap of faith that all of us take centers on trusting people. We assemble a story that makes sense to us. We trust, without knowing all things, that this story accurately explains our origins. Whether the story is Evolution, Aboriginal creation myths or Biblical Creation, a story is told and people believe.
As a Christian, who believes in the biblical account of creation, that there is a God who spoke all things into existence, it means that I am no different to the person who believes any other story. None of us know all things, but all of us believes a story. We take a blind leap of faith.
For Christians, this may seem like a frustrating answer. But I find it to be liberating. It means that I am not intimidated by people who condescend and claim that science is on their side and myths are on my side. Why? Because all of us have believed a story about our origins.
Evidence Please
As a believer in the creation story, like a believer in evolution, I think that I have evidence that supports my belief. But, I would rather leave that for the creation and evolution debaters. Instead let me delineate twelve reasons why I do not believe in evolution.
NOTE: As I said up front, please do not hear this as a provocation. Rather, when teaching through Genesis, creation v. evolution is an inevitable topic of conversation for the opening 6 chapters. The topic itself can take years to unravel. I do not care to avoid the topic, but I find that the topic is a distraction from the study of Genesis, as Genesis is far more than creation. So, my hope is to address some of my own presuppositions in this teaching, then to move into the study of Genesis.
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Reasons I am not a Believer in Evolution
1. Origins and Age of the Earth are 2 Separate Questions
How old is the earth? How old are the skies? How long have humans lived on the earth? These are all questions related to the age of creation.
Where did everything come from? What is the starting point? These are questions of beginnings and origins. These not questions of time, but a question of beginnings.
If someone asked you what is the make of your car, you would not answer them, 5 years old. You would say it was made by Tesla. Who made man? Who made the creation? These are ontological questions of existence.
2. Genesis was not written as a rebuttal to evolution
This may sound like a ridiculously simple statement, but think about it. We are entering into a study on Genesis. The setting for the book is not a debate stage where evolution storytellers presented their case and, in response, Christians now need to give an answer. Moses wrote Genesis with an intention. It is the author’s intention for writing that any Bible student should want to discover. His intention begins with creation and moves on to develop an amazing story of origins of many things.
3. The Truth About Charles Darwin
Darwin was educated as a Christian Minister, not as a scientist. He plagiarized from at least 12 people who predated him, including his grandfather Erasmus. So, his ideas were not original, neither was his “scientific” discovery what led him away from Christianity. Evolutionary thoughts were planted in his heart from a young age.
4. All PreDarwin Thinkers understood and rejected the Bible’s story of creation
I found this to be interesting, because again, it demonstrates little more than that the faith has those who disagree. Once those who are raised around the Bible reject the origins and destiny story they grew up with, they need to answer the questions of where they came from and where they are going. In this way, evolution is a new origins and destiny myth.
5. Evolution Has Been Financed to Replace Creation in the Public Square in the West
Christian Smith’s, The Secular Revolution, demonstrates how Christianity was pushed from the Universities, media and public life. With contributions from a number of scholars the work gives evidence that the “modern” and “secular” view did not arise as an unexplained phenomenon and the consequence of science, but rather was well a financed agenda driven by numerous influential actors. Focusing on the 1870s to the 1890s, Smith’s book tells a story of a century long attempt to push Christianity to the margins in western society. The book lays out a case for the people, finance and agenda, not science, secular or modern concepts, that were gaining footholds in Western thought.
6. Evolution and Science are not Synonyms
Please notice how those who are strong believers in the evolution story will swap the word science for evolution like they are synonyms, interchangeable for stylistic variation. It is subtle and it is a powerful semantic game. But it is not true. Science is science. It has no political or scientific affinities. Scientists are needed to interpret scientific data. Scientists are not in agreement on evolution. Therefore, the scientific community is diverse in its beliefs on origins. No one can speak for science or for the scientific community.
7. Evolution Lacks Scientific Evidence
The scientific method is based on observable, repeatable tests and evidence. None of us were there one million years ago. So we have to believe the evolution story, not the scientific method, in order to believe the evolutionary story of our origins and destiny.
Second, where is the observable, repeatable evidence that a fish is becoming a man, or a monkey is becoming a man, or a cat is becoming a dog? There is none. Darwin’s Finches began as finches and ended as finches. They were always birds. None evidence of a change of kinds exists in our world today.
For example, it is hoped that there will be a vaccine for Covid 19. But, before it is released to the public it must be analyzed by the scientific method through repeatable, observable tests. Even after its initial release, scientific tests will continue to be conducted to determine many more factors, mostly, its success. Who would take the vaccine without scientific testing? Who will take the vaccine by blind faith, believing the politicians?
In the same way, without scientific evidence, we must believe what the evolution story tells. This is called blind faith.
8. Where Did Everything Come From?
Where did we come from? Let’s assume for a moment that we came from monkeys. Where did they come from? From primordial matter. Where did the primordial matter come from? A single cell? Where did the single cell come from? From an explosion of hydrogen and helium. Where did the helium and hydrogen come from? At some point there is no explanation. At some point, things had to come into being from nothing. Science cannot explain this.
Where did life come from? How did life and living beings come from inanimate materials like hydrogen and helium?
It not really a question of first causes, but of ontological origins. These questions do not find their answers in science. We must put the question to philosophers and people of religion, theologians to propose answers.
9. Origins is a Question for Philosophers
There are a number of famous people who say they are scientists and that they believe the evolution story. They use their scientific credentials as a weapon to intimidate anyone who disagrees with them. They want you to assume that they are intelligent and you are ignorant. Their conclusions about origins are more worthy, more reasoned, more scientific.
What they are quite masterful in, is the skill of hiding the moment in their conversation crossed from that of a scientist to a philosopher. They do not want to point out this to you, or you will be awakened to the fact that the science within the scientist is no longer speaking, but the philosopher. Origins and destiny have always been questions for philosophers and religious people.
10. Order to Chaos is Observable in Science, not Chaos to Order (Genesis 1:2)
The process of decay, deterioration and the constant devolution of order into chaos is observable. It is the natural, devolutionary pattern of all life. Evolution assumes a direction of chaos into order. Life is bettering, evolving. This is not observable in the evidence in the universe.
11. Every Design Has A Designer
Something as simple as a pair of scissors needs a designer and a manufacturer. Someone thought of something we call scissors, they brought it from design into production and distributed it into Walmart for you to purchase. How much more does a creation as beautiful and complex as our own body and soul need a designer and manufacturer, someone who made us? Every design, including the human design, has a designer. God made humanity.
12. No One Knows Everything. But Everyone Believes Something
Finally, since no one has all knowledge and everyone believes something, it means that there is no difference between people. All people take a blind leap of faith.
The question is not so much what you believe, but who told you the story? Who do you believe? What are you trusting the people you believe to do for you? Faith in God as the creator leads us to faith in Christ to save us. Believers are not simply trusting stories to be true, they are trusting the maker to do something for them, to save them, to make them clean, to give them new life.
I Hope This Helps
I don’t find much point in arguments. I have simply wanted to give you a glimpse into my thinking. I am not saying I am better. I am not saying I know everything. I am being honest that my blind leap of faith is not anything less than anyone else is doing. Everyone one is a believer. I believe the story of creation to be true. I also believe it sets up the rest of the story of the Bible.
Blessings,
Rich
