The Impact of Darwinism on Our World Today

The Impact of Darwinism on Our World Today Society of Creation Conference Ann Arbor, Michigan July 6 -8, 2015 Joel D. Heck, a member of CRS

Attendance Report � Registered Participants: 79

Assumption �Many of our world’s most serious problems can be traced back to a setting aside of the biblical story of our origins. When people no longer believe that they are created in the image of God, and that God Himself created, then they are free to opt for various humanistic positions. �For example, God established marriage between one man and one woman in Gen. 2: 24. How would a widespread acceptance of this fact change the marriage debate today? �Or think of the extreme forms of animal rights activism, where humans are thought of simply as more advanced animals, in the light of Gen. 1: 2728 and the image of God. �The Gospel itself is rooted in Genesis, since the need for redemption occurred because of Adam’s

Outline 1. The Impact of Darwinian Origins: Dramatic Examples 2. The Impact of Darwinian Origins: Many Less Visible Examples 3. Biblical Origins: The Message of Genesis 1 4. Biblical Origins: Two Concluding Slides with Notes from the New Testament

I. Darwinian Origins: Dramatic Examples �“The fact that humans think of themselves as altogether distinct from other animals—and the biblical notion that humans have dominion over other animals—is a sort of racism” (Richard Dawkins). �Robert Ingersoll: Darwin’s “doctrine of the survival of the fittest, his doctrine of the origin of species, has removed in every thinking mind the last vestige of orthodox Christianity” (World, 72).

On Design �“… at the bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but pitiless indifference” (Richard Dawkins, 1995. Scientific American. November, 85). �“If anything is true about nature, it is that plants and animals seem intricately and almost perfectly designed for living their lives …. Nature resembles a well-oiled machine, with every species an intricate cog or gear. What does all this seem to imply? A master mechanic, of course. ” (Jerry Coyne, Why Evolution is True, 1)

On Design �In What Mad Pursuit, Francis Crick, Nobel laureate and codiscoverer of the structure of DNA, writes, “Biologists must constantly keep in mind that what they see was not designed, but rather evolved. ” �Richard Dawkins, the world’s most famous Darwinist, in his book The Blind Watchmaker, writes, “Biology is the study of complicated things that give the appearance of having been designed for a purpose. ” �William Dembski, “Science and Design” (October 1998): “Why do Dawkins and Crick feel compelled to constantly remind us that biology studies things that only appear to be designed, but that in fact

William A. Dembski �“There now exists a rigorous criterion-complexity- specification-for distinguishing intelligently caused objects from unintelligently caused ones. Many special sciences already use this criterion, though in a pre-theoretic form (e. g. , forensic science, artificial intelligence, cryptography, archeology, and the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence). The great breakthrough in philosophy of science and probability theory of recent years has been to isolate and make precise this criterion. Michael Behe’s criterion of irreducible complexity for establishing the design of biochemical systems is a special case of the complexity-specification criterion

• “The Spanish Socialist Party will introduce a bill in the Congress of Deputies calling for ‘the immediate inclusion of [simians] in the category of persons, and that they be given the moral and legal protection that currently are only enjoyed by human beings. ’ [Their] justification is that humans share 98. 4% of our genes with chimpanzees, 97. 7% with gorillas, and 96. 4% with orangutans. [They] will announce its Great Ape Project at a press conference …” (Spain Herald, 4/27/2006)

“… also seeking a UN declaration on simian rights which would defend ape interests “the same as those of minors and the mentally handicapped of our species. ” According to the Project “[simians] possess sufficient mental faculties and emotional life to justify their inclusion in the community of equals” (Spain Herald, 4/27/2006). Why is it that those most committed to the survival of the fittest are also committed to the protection of the least fit?

Will Provine, Cornell University �“Let me summarize my views on what modern evolutionary biology tells us loud and clear … There are no gods, no purposes, no goal-directed forces of any kind. There is no life after death. When I die, I am absolutely certain that I am going to be dead. That’s the end for me. There is no ultimate foundation for ethics, no ultimate meaning to life, and no free will for humans, either” (Provine, W. B. , Origins Research 16(1), 9, 1994).

Nazi Germany �Jerry Bergman, Hitler and the Nazi Darwinian Worldview �“All weak living things will inevitably perish in nature. In the last few decades, mankind has sinned frightfully against the law of natural selection. We haven’t just maintained life unworthy of life, we have even allowed it to multiply!” (Opfer der Vergangenheit, 1937) �Evolutionist Sir Arthur Keith: “The German Führer, as I have consistently maintained, is an evolutionist; he has consciously sought to make the practice of Germany conform to the

National and Individual Totalitarianism �Australia murdered many of its Aboriginal people and sent their body parts to European museums to provide “evidence” for the evolutionary development of man, because they weren’t “fully human. ” (see http: //creation. com/evolutionary-racism) �Francis Galton (1822 -1911), Eugenics—first society founded in Germany �Joseph Stalin (1878 -1953), a reader of Darwin’s Origin of Species, murdered millions.

National and Individual Totalitarianism �Mao Zedong’s two favorite books were written by Charles Darwin and Thomas Huxley. �Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, 1975 -1979, murdered between two and four million people in Cambodia. �Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, one of them wore a T-shirt with the inscription “Natural Selection” on the front (Columbine High School, 1999). �Etc. �While the responsibility for their evil rests on these people, Darwinian thinking provided some of the impetus.

II. Darwinian Origins: Less Visible Examples �The development of the Documentary Hypothesis in Old Testament studies (JEDP or Source Criticism) �The “evolution” of the Gospels and the Q Theory �The more modern theories of Form Criticism, which sees the Gospels growing in length as time passes �The “evolution” of religion from dreams, animism, polytheism, henotheism to monotheism

II. Less Visible Examples �Racism: “At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilized races of man will almost certainly exterminate, and replace, the savage races throughout the world. At the same time the anthropomorphous apes [that is, the ones which allegedly look like people] … will no doubt be exterminated. The break between man and his nearest allies will then be wider, for it will intervene between man in a more civilized state, as we may hope, even than the Caucasian, and some ape as low as a

A Problem �In 2011, I bought two copies of Jonathan Wells’ book, The Myth of Junk DNA. I offered a free copy to anyone in our faculty who wanted to read the book. No one accepted the offer. �Recently, in February, I sent to all faculty and staff a summary of the talks of ICR’s Brian Thomas about collagen having a 900, 000 maximum life, but collagen having been found in dinosaur remains. No response. No science faculty had been in attendance at the lectures. �The problem: both sides preaching to the choir, reading only their side of the story. �The need: ways to reach across the aisle.

III. Biblical Origins: Genesis 1

P. J. Wiseman �Ancient Records and the Structure of Genesis: A Case for Literary Unity �An eyewitness account �So who wrote Genesis One? Michelangelo (1475 -1564) “The Creation of Adam, ” ca. 1511

Genesis One and Rom. 5: 12 �A problem for the evolutionist or the old- earth creationist in Rom. 5: 12, “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned …” �What is the problem? �See also Mark 10: 6, “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female. ’” (more later)

Is Genesis One Prose or Poetry? �Stephen Boyd studied the verbs that appear in narrative sections and those that appear in poetic sections of the Old Testament. �His finding: �That the likelihood that Genesis One is narrative (i. e. prose) is 99. 99%.

Prose vs. Poetry �Boyd selected 97 biblical passages. � 48 of them were narrative prose. � 49 of them were poetic. �Diagram of a logistic regression (next slide)

522 Texts 295 Narrative 227 Poetry

�The nature of statistics is that all results are stated in terms of probabilities. So strictly speaking, we can say that with two choices for the genre of Genesis 1: 1 -2: 3 (poetry or narrative), this text is narrative, not poetry, with a very high degree of probability. Or to put the results in scientific terms: the text is a narrative with statistical certainty. In other words, �It is statistically indefensible to argue that this text is poetry.

The Meaning of “Day” 1. In more than 2, 200 occurrences, the word day is never used in the Old Testament to mean a long period of time. 2. When the word day is used with a specific number, it always means a 24 -hour day. 3. When used in a number series, day always means a 24 -hour day. 4. The mention of “evening and morning” for the six days of creation is a reference to the daily interchange of light and darkness.

The Meaning of “Day” 5. The passages in Exod. 20: 11 and 31: 17 make little sense unless the days of creation are 24 -hour days. 6. Consistency in the interpretation of time references in the rest of Genesis, such as the great ages of the patriarchs, requires us to understand the days of Genesis One as 24 hour days. 7. There is no reason to assume that light could not have existed before the creation of the sun, the moon, and the stars. God is the source of light.

The Meaning of “Day” 8. Whenever the word day is used in the plural, it always means a 24 -hour day. 9. Critical Old Testament scholars, no longer needing to work out a compromise between creation and evolution (since they don’t think Genesis is historical at all), admit that the word means a 24 -hour day (eight more reasons in In the Beginning, God). The crucial question is not “Can the Hebrew word day mean something other than 24 hours? ” But “What does the Hebrew word day mean in this context? ”

Language in Genesis One �A simplicity of style �Verses 6 -7, and 9 -10, “water” and “seas” rather than “river” or “lake” or “sea” �Verses 11 -12, “vegetation, ” “plants, ” and “trees, ” not fescue, and sycamore trees �Verse 16, “two great lights, ” “the greater light, ” and “the lesser light” rather than “the sun” and “the moon” �Verses 24 -25, terms for various types of animals �The idea of naming

The Fact/Value Split �David Hume and Immanuel Kant �Nancy Pearcey, Saving Leonardo

The Miracles: Separate Verbs Day One The first: Gen. 1: 1, “In Raphael the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ” The second: Gen. 1: 3, “Let there be light. ” The third: Gen. 1: 4, “and he separated the light from the

Day Two �The fourth: Gen. 1: 6, “Let there be an expanse between the waters…” �The fifth and sixth: Gen. 1: 7, “So God made the expanse and separated the water…”

Day Three �The seventh and eighth: Gen. 1: 9, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let the dry ground appear. ” �The ninth: Gen. 1: 11, “Let the land produce vegetation, seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds. ”

Day Four �The tenth: Gen. 1: 14, “ Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky…” �The eleventh: Gen. 1: 16, “God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. (He) also (made) the stars. ” �The twelfth: Gen. 1: 17, “God set them in the expanse of the sky…”

Day Five �The thirteenth & fourteenth: Gen. 1: 20, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly…” �The fifteenth: Gen. 1: 21, “So God created the great creatures of the sea…”

Day Six �The sixteenth: Gen. 1: 24, “Let the land produce living creatures… And it was so. ” �The seventeenth: Gen. 1: 25, “God made the wild animals according to their kinds…” �The eighteenth: Gen. 1: 27, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. ”

Why Eighteen? �How are they distributed? �There are three miracles of creation on each day (3 x 6 = 18). �Why three per day? �My conclusion: To teach us that the Triune God is the Creator and no one else. �But perhaps also: To anticipate both deism and naturalism.

Threes �Some have traditionally seen the Trinity hinted at in vv. 1 -3: “God created, ” “the Spirit of God was hovering, ” and “And God said. ” �They have also seen the Trinity at v. 26: “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, …” �But also … �There are 3 things created on Day One. �There are three acts of separation (vv. 4, 7, and 9)

Threes �On Day Three, God creates three types of plants. �On Day Four, God creates three types of luminaries. �On Day Five, God creates three types of creatures. �On Day Six, God notes three types of land animals. �On Day Four, God notes the three functions of the luminaries: separate, give light, and govern.

Threes �On Day Five, God gives the birds and aquatic creatures three commands: be fruitful, increase, and fill. �On Day Six, God makes three parallel statements about the creation of mankind. �There are three sections in which the word create (bara’) occurs (vv. 1, 27) �There are three places where God says, “Let there be…”

Threes �On Day Six, the verb “create” (bara’) appears three times. �On Day Four, God gives three narrower purposes of the luminaries: for signs, for seasons, and for days/years. �God calls, or names, three different times (vv. 5, 8, and 10). �God blesses three times (vv. 22, 28, and 2: 3).

Conclusion �Threeness is rampant in Genesis One. Coincidence? �There is even some double threeness (e. g. , six creative days; “And it was so” appears six times; “that it was good” appears six times). �There is no other place in all of Scripture where things come in threes this often—a total of twenty-three times! �I conclude that God left His signature on the creation account of Genesis One! He really wrote it! www. Societyof. Creation. org

IV. Biblical Origins: the New Testament � 112 references to creation �They appear as … 1. Echoes or allusions (53). 2. References to the beginning of time (10). 3. References to events during the creation week (38). 4. Significant events during creation that are dated to a recent period of history (11). �Every author and many significant New Testament characters refer to creation, including 22 times in Revelation.

Mark 10: 6, “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female. ’” Darwinian Evolution: 14. 6 billion years Old Earth Creationism: 14. 6 billion years Young Earth Creationism: < 10, 000 years The beginning of Right now