Creation or Evolution?

Editor’s note: this is an article by our good friend Dr Donald DeYoung. In the past, we served together in the Lord’s work in the South Pacific. He is Chairman of the Department of Physical Science at Grace College, Winona Lake, Indiana. His academic credentials include the following: Michigan Tech University (B.S., M.S., Physics), Iowa State University (Ph.D., Physics), Grace Seminary (M.Div.). 

He is also involved in the Creation Research Society, and holds to the position of a “young earth,” a position held by many credentialed scientists. He has written many books, which you can purchase at the website of Creation Research Society: http://www.creationresearch.org/speakers/bio_deyoung.htm

Dr. Willis Newman.

Introduction

A worldview may be defined as one’s set of beliefs. It is the filter through which we interpret events and makes decisions. Everyone has a worldview, even if unaware of it. This article compares Creation and evolution worldviews from four science perspectives: origins, biological change, design, and timescale. As comparisons are made, think about your own viewpoint.

Origins

Where does everything come from including galaxies, stars, planets, moons, the earth, and its abundant life? The assumption of evolution is a spontaneous origin for the entire cosmos and its contents. Carl Sagan wrote in 1980, “The [physical] cosmos is all that is, was, or ever will be.” In contrast, Hebrews 11:3 declares a supernatural beginning: “The worlds were framed by the word of God.”  In our day, the supernatural has been reduced to mere superstition including the creation account, the spirit world, and prayer. However, this low view of the Christian faith is not the case historically. The great majority of pioneer scientists were godly men and women who accepted a literal supernatural creation, as clearly expressed in Genesis 1-2. 

As one origin example, consider life itself. For decades there have been efforts to initiate life, or its complex building blocks, by mixing chemicals in the laboratory. Thus far, all efforts have failed. It appears that new life has come from existing life since the beginning, including plants, animals, and people. A second origin example concerns our nearest neighbor in space, the moon. Over the years, lunar origin theories have risen and fallen like the tides. To this day there is no convincing natural theory for the moon’s existence. It appears that the moon was placed in our sky by the hand of the Creator. Actually, the ultimate origin of nothing is understood by natural science. Meanwhile, biblical creation is a refreshing alternative to the speculations of naturalists.

Biological Change

Living things clearly can change over time. New genetic varieties of seeds are produced in the laboratory, and new species occur in nature, called speciation. However, the alterations we produce or observe are always on the level of limited, small scale, or microscopic change. God built this potential for variety into the created order, resulting in variation within the created kinds. In contrast, evolution assumes that unlimited large scale, or macroscopic, change has produced all living plants, animals, and people from an original spontaneous seed of life. 

Classic evolution examples include color changes in moths, changing beak size of finches, different size horses, and mutations of the AIDs virus. Notice that each of these are small scale changes that do not cross the barrier between created kinds. Such changes also do not introduce new information or complexity. In addition, the small, observed changes do not add up to large scale changes. Instead, such variation eventually “hits the wall” and the change ceases or regresses back to the original state. Natural selection, instead of giving new kinds of living things, is a mechanism designed to preserve and protect the created kinds by weeding out mutations, or mistakes.  

Design

Order, symmetry, and beauty surround us in nature. Does this come by chance or by Divine plan? Today we find great complexity on the microscopic scale of living and nonliving things. Consider the autumn colors of leaves for which no convincing evolutionary explanation exists. Consider the extinct trilobite, an early arthropod with eyes more advanced than the human eye. Consider the coelacanth, a fish thought to be extinct for 65 million years, found living in the oceans today. It looks exactly like its fossils with no change whatsoever.

Critics of creation often state that nature is imperfect, since problems, pain, and death are everpresent. The critics are right, but they fail to connect these imperfections with the correct theological explanation. The Curse, or Fall of mankind, as described in Genesis 3, is fully responsible.

Timescale

Biologist George Wald writes that “Time is the hero of the plot. Given enough time, the impossible becomes possible. Time itself performs the miracle [of evolution].” Actually, time is no friend of evolution. According to the Second Law of Thermodynamics, all things deteriorate and become less ordered over time. Furthermore, immense amounts of time may not be available. Various science data give a vast range of ages for the earth ranging from thousands of years to trillions of years. The historic, literal view of biblical history allows for thousands of years, not millions or billions. Recent creation research shows that such dating methods as carbon-14 dating can be interpreted in terms of a recent supernatural creation. Consider the following as “ballpark” figures for the young earth worldview of history:

4000 BC Creation, Fall

2500 BC Flood

2000 BC Abraham, Job

1500 BC Moses

1000 BC David

 500 BC Daniel

   0 New Testament Time         

AD 2000 Today

There are several unanswered questions with the Creation worldview. One example is the identification 

of the light of Day One (Gen 1:3), since the sun, moon, and stars do not appear until Day 

Four (Gen 1:16). However, there are questions enough to go around for all models of earth history. 

Some Bible students have been intimidated by modern science and have bought into theistic evolution. 

This worldview assumes that God created by using evolution. However, one must resist connecting biblical interpretation to the current, changing viewpoint of secular science. The worldview expressed in this article includes the following points:

1. A Creation week with literal 24-hour days, accomplished as a pattern for our calendar.

2. Creation of a fully-functioning universe with the appearance of age.

3. About 6,000 years of history for the earth and universe beyond.

4. No death or suffering before the Curse of Genesis 3.

5. Dinosaurs were created on Day Five. 

6. A global Genesis Flood, the source of most fossils and sedimentary rock layers (Gen 6-9).

7. A future restoration of the heavens and earth (Romans 8:20).