Creation, Evolution and the Big Bang, Part One – Essential Beliefs, #46
Scripture asserts, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). “Stand up and praise the LORD your God, who is from everlasting to everlasting. ‘Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. You alone are the LORD. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you’” (Nehemiah 9:5,6).
As the second person of the Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ is declared to be the Creator and sustainer of all. “In the beginning was the Word,…Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made” (John 1:1,3). “By him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all thing, and in him all things hold together” (Col. 1:16,17). “In these last days he (God) has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe” (Heb. 1:2).
The Bible does not prove that the universe came to exist through a special creation from nothing for the immensity, intricacy, and perfect integration of all things is self-evident, pointing to a Creator beyond creation. “The heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1). “What may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse” (Romans 1:19-20). Any proof that God might give to demonstrate to our minds that he is the creator of all would be beyond our capacity to understand. “Oh, the depth of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgements, and his paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” (Romans 11:33,34).
In spite of what ought to be self-evident from the universe around us, mankind has gone off on many fantastical tangents to offer alternate theories of origin. Many of these have been dualistic, positing good and evil forces. In the Babylonian creation story, Marduk struggles with evil Tiamet to create the world. Among various Hindu views of creation and re-creation, “a lotus flower grew from Lord Vishnu’s navel with Brahma sitting on it. Brahma separated the flower into three parts – the heavens, the earth and the sky. Out of loneliness, Brahma split himself into two to create a male and a female. From this male and female all beings were created.”
Most native American peoples believe in “the Great Mystery”, Kitchi-Manitou who in various ways created North America. In one version, the Anishinabe, or Original People, strayed from their harmonious ways and began to argue and fight. Seeing this disharmony and violence, Kitchi Manitou decided to purity the Earth with a great flood. On a huge log the surviving animals were in much distress. The muskrat swam to the bottom and brought up mud but in the effort died to re-create the world on turtle’s back.
Ancient Greeks had a variety of creation myths. A summary statement might be, “In the beginning there was Chaos, a yawning nothingness. Out of the void emerged Gaia (the Earth) and other divine beings— Eros (love), the Abyss (part of the underworld), and the Erebus (the unknowable place where death dwells). Without male assistance, Gaia gave birth to Uranus (the Sky), who then fertilized her.” (https://www.khanacademy.org)
As the Christian faith spread, the biblical view of creation became widely held until the rise and spread of skepticism began to eclipse orthodox faith. Since man by nature “will not have God to rule over him” but seeks autonomy of action and belief, it was natural for philosophers to eagerly seek alternate views.
Among theories, Charles Darwin’s views on Evolution took the world by storm and have since been largely accepted as the “new gospel.” Jerry Coyne summarizes the theory in terms of biology as; “Life on Earth evolved gradually beginning with one primitive species– perhaps a self-replicating molecule– that lived more than 3.5 billion years ago; it then branched out over time, throwing off many new and diverse species; and the mechanism for most (but not all) of evolutionary change is natural selection.”(See “Evolution -Fact or Fiction?, John Blanchard, EP booklet) It was quickly assumed that evolution not only explained the origin of all living things but also the development of the inanimate world.
Geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky declares, “Evolution comprises all the stages of the development of the universe: the cosmic, biological, and human or cultural developments.” (Ibid,p.6) Julian Huxley called it “the most powerful and the most comprehensive idea that has ever arisen on earth.” (Ibid, p. 6) The media repeats these “theories” as if they are fact.
Evidence, however, has been non-existent. In Darwin’s writings, ‘we may suppose’ occurs over 800 times. Evolution if posited without any empirical proofs. (Blanchard, p. 6) The geological record, for example, the Cambrian explosion, disputes accepted theories of evolution. Ambrose Fleming, one-time president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, called evolution “baseless and quite incredible,” as have many other more recent scientists. Palaeontologist Colin Patterson describes it as stories that are not part of science. (Ibid, p. 7)
Any theory that does not take into account DNA, a relatively recent discovery, cannot be viewed as anything but fanciful. Consider: “DNA houses a staggering amount of genetic information. All the data needed to specify the design of a human being, including the arrangement of over 200 bones, 600 muscles, 10,000 auditory nerve fibres, two million optic nerve fibres, 100 billion brain-cell nerves and 400 billion feet of blood vessels and capillaries is packed into a unit weighing less than a few thousand-millionths of a gram, and several thousand million, million times smaller than the smallest piece of functional machinery used by man. It has been estimated that on the same scale all the information needed to specify the design of every living species that has ever existed on our planet could be put into a teaspoon, with enough room left over for all the information in every book ever written.” (Ibid, p. 18)
As Evolution began to fade as an accepted theory among credible thinkers, some have posited that matter has always existed or that the seeds of our universe have been planted from another universe. Nothing like either side-stepping the question of origins or pushing the question into the distant past or into a mysterious ‘other universe.’
More recently, scientists have declared that the universe came into existence at a specific time in a “Big Bang,” which is somewhat suggestive of Creation. But why not just accept what God has said?
Instead of wandering off into cloud cuckoo-land, God calls us to celebrate the absolute wonder of his creative majesty. Let’s look around and praise our Creator. (Essential Doctrines, # 46) Feb. 29, 24
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