H2O Church
This is part 4 of this series, after taking two weeks on the Trinity, and one on the Word of God, today we turn our attention to scripture's claim about the creation of the universe.
PART I: How to Think about this debate
1. There is no real contradiction between faith and true science.
“A legitimate conflict between science and religion cannot exist. Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind.” Albert Einstein
2. If the Bible is inspired, then both scripture and true science will tell the same story.
3. Most people haven’t fully thought through what they believe, why they believe, or the implications of what they believe.
If non-theistic evolution is true,
There is no purpose to life.
There is no absolute truth.
There is no objective morality.
There is no life after death.
There is no free will.
There is no such thing as love.
As Michael Denton has put it, if evolution is true, then Darwin “broke man’s link with God” and consequently “set him adrift in the cosmos without purpose.”
II. What does the Bible actually teach?
Genesis 1:1-3 ESV
Notes on Genesis 1:1-3
1. The Hebrew word for beginning is “re shit,” which denies that the universe is eternal.
2. The Hebrew word for created is “bara” which means “created out of nothing.”
3. The Hebrew word for “fashion” is “asah,” which means the Triune God personally shapes the world He has created. This, in my mind, rules out natural processes like evolution because the Processer is God, not a random mistake.
4. Then end result of “bara" and “asah" is a world uniquely designed for life and demonstrating design, not randomness.
"Most remarkable of all, astronomers have found proof that the universe sprang into existence abruptly, in a sudden moment of creation, as the Bible said it did.” Robert Jastrow
“The best data we have are exactly what I would have predicted had I nothing to go on but the five books of Moses, the Psalms and the Bible as a whole.” Nobel Prize winner Arno Penzias
"For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries." -Robert Jastrow
5 perspectives on Creation
1. Historic Creationism. Since the beginning did not come time-stamped, the traditional view is that sometime in the past God created the universe, (so the universe could be old earth or young) but that the six days of creation are literal, so animals and humanity are young.
2. Young Earth view: believe the earth is maybe 6000 years old and the result of God’s creating it in 6 literal 24 hour periods, rejecting evolution.
3. The Old Earth View (Day-Age) believe in the science that says the earth is old, and the scripture that teaches God created in six eras, not literal 24-hour days based on the Hebrew word yowm. This view also rejects evolution. Augustine around 391 AD wrote, “No Christian would dare say that the narrative must not be taken in a figurative sense.”
4. The Literary View: the idea that Moses, in writing about the six days of creation, was writing poetry which should not be taken literally. It is simply a poetic way of saying, “God created everything.”
5. Theistic Evolution: the idea that the universe is extremely old, that evolution is true, but that this could not have happened without God.
6. Non-theistic Evolution: Darwin’s idea that random mutations (mistakes) and natural selection explain the apparent design we see all around us.
SUMMARY
Macro-evolution teaches nothing made everything. Creation teaches a Beginner.
Macro-Evolution teaches that chaos made order. Creation teaches infinite intelligence created order and design.
Macro-evolution teaches that impersonal matter made personal humanity. Creation teaches that a personal, relational, loving God made us beings like Him.
Questions I would humbly ask an evolutionist to consider
1. Are you familiar with the concerns that some evolutionists have about their own theory?
2. Are you aware that scientists cannot explain how something that is non-living could form something that is alive?
3. Are you familiar with the de-conversion stories of people like Antony Flew and Michael Behe, away from evolution?
4. Are you aware that the Big Bang is not evidence that God doesn’t exist, but actually evidence that He does?
5. When you consider the incredible complexity in every single cell of your body, through DNA, do you see why Christians would say that God has left His signature in the cell?
6. Which do you consider more likely, that a relational being (God) or a non-relational being (random chance) would produce a world full of relational beings?
7. Which do you consider more likely, that a random explosion or a perfectly wise God could create the order and complexity we see in our world?
Fred Hoyle: “the probability of life arising on earth by purely natural means without special divine aid is less than the probability that a flight-worthy Boeing 747 should be assembled by a hurricane roaring through a junkyard.”