So much has been said about the two contentious theories stated in this article. So much has been written about them. What is evolution? Simply put, it refers to gradual change that takes place in living organisms over a long period of time.
Organic evolutionists believe that billions of years ago life must have begun in form of molecules which combined to form amino acids, nucleic acids, and finally living cells. They went farther and randomly combined simple molecular gases to create amino acids. No problem with that, save for the fact that they seem to appeal to the fact that their organic soup needed help from ultraviolet radiation from the sun to combine the molecules. This appears to state the fact that the sun, or some source of energy must have been present from the beginning.
Evolution therefore does not solve the problem of the beginning. It seems to start from some preformed elements, and some sort of preformed energy that shaped these elements into what we have today. The fact that these molecules gave rise to what we have today makes a lot of sense but seems to be far from complete explanation in itself. The missing link seems to excite the proponents of creation.
The creation theory on the other hand seems to support the theory of evolution in more than one way. It begins with an all powerful creative force called God who moulds everything, looks at what he has created, becomes very pleased and moves on to the next piece. Again this fails to answer the question of our origin. We must have come from somewhere, and if indeed we are the products of our creative God, then he too must have come from somewhere. This question, to the best of my understanding, and to the best of my knowledge remains unanswered.
The order of creation also seems to betray the fact that the biblical authors must have been aware of evolution. Why did God have to create plants first, and then sea animals, crawling creatures, other land animals before finally settling on man? This order is so closely related to the evolutionary lineage proposed by Charles Darwin and his later disciples. Even more amazing is the fact the creative idea of God itself seems to be changing with time, evolution. Check out the God of creation as he evolves from when we encounter him in the book of Genesis, then what we learn about him in Exodus, the rest of the Old Testament and finally the God of the New Testament and that of revelation. This God is changing gradually and shifting his stand just like humans would. This only means one thing. Man created God and used him to subjugate the rest of mankind, and other organisms, but this alone not being enough; he set out to feign inspiration and wrote so tellingly about his invention of the almighty. Why am I saying this?
Biblical authors were great thinkers who took time to analyze their surroundings and find a way forward for lesser mortals. They analyzed the creation stories from the world over and settled on the one that made a lot of sense to them. This did not mean that other tribes didn’t have their own creation myths. They carefully put together other myths to create wonderful stories that sought to cultivate man, and make him more human. Even though their quest failed, they managed to enact in us some sense of belief, faith in the unknown and therefore provided the missing link for most of our questions. Those who went ahead and selected biblical texts were prejudiced but again they chose texts that would best serve their interests and left out hundreds that didn’t fit their plan, but some questions still remain unanswered.
What then is my answer to this controversy? Evolution seems to offer more evidence to support its workings, but just like creation it fails miserably when confronted with the real question it is supposed to answer: The origin! The answer is therefore this simple: Man should stop questioning his own origin and instead focus on how best the earth can be conserved to ensure better survival for its billions of inhabitants. We do not know the truth, and that is the truth!
I do believe that science will have the answer to all our questions some time in the far, far future. I’m afraid it will take eons and our brains will be far more advanced than now
The DIFFERENCES between the Biblical creation account and the theory of evolution are overwhelming and Charles Darwin was a false teacher, God created man, evolution had nothing to do with it, you might try refering to a “fossil record” but you cannot tell if any particular fossil had any descendants (It’s a fossilized bone dug out of the ground, but moreover it’s dead.)
Creation does not fail to explain the origin, God had no beginning He is eternal, this universe on the other hand is finite, and we know that only something THAT HAS A BEGINNING needs a maker. Thus, God did not need a maker,but the universe did.
In between the two camps are many little camps which compromise the two, like creative evolution and intelligent design. I believe that it is important where we came from because it is the foundation of our relationship with our Creator.
As for the fossil record, it fails to take into account the changes made by a world wide flood.
Thanks Karen, Ash and Ruby for your sweet comments. I really appreciate them!
But your premise that everything had to come from somewhere is the equivlent of asking what came first the chicken or the egg…but the answer may be in the science which causes the explosion of the atomic bomb where we find matter is really just energy if you know the correct procedure to transform it…so what is “lively matter”…well it is energy too,but it is a different kind of matter since it is “lively”…what process brought that liveliness into being? Well the same process that brought the atomic explosion into being….a complicated sequence of events,one leading to another,converting another until we reached an organic state of “livelines”….But if everything is energy then where did energy come from..Ah, but you see that energy may be an eternal phenomenon upon which all reality rests and comes from nowhere, but is everything and is the chicken which comes first.
An other of the less talked about questions.
great post SHILAHO.