Why I don't believe in Evolution

Note: You can read this article on my WordPress Site here: https://waytruthandlifeblog.wordpress.com/2016/06/03/why-i-am-not-a-theistic-evolutionist/

In this post, I will attempt to explain to my readers why I, as a Christian, do not believe in evolution.  I am not saying "agree with me or else", but rather "this is something you would do well to think about". If you are a Christian, approach the matter in prayer. Perhaps I am in error on some point. Test all things, and hold fast to that which is good.

One of the biggest factors of my disbelief in evolution is my upbringing.  Thanks to my homeschool upbringing, I was taught Young Earth Creationism from a very young age.  Evolution, I was told, was at odds with God's word, and to believe anything other than a literal interpretation of the first eleven chapters of Genesis is to, in essence, undermine the gospel and Christianity itself.

Even as I got older and started to think rationally about the beliefs in which I had been raised, evaluating whether what I had been taught was actually the truth, I never really questioned Creationism.  I still don't.  While that sounds rather naive of me, allow me to explain why.

Darwinian Evolution is incompatible with the Bible and Christianity on so many levels. If one wants to say that God used the process of evolution, (involving death, pain, and suffering) to create a world He called 'very good' (Gen. 1:31), he would have to make some conclusions about God.  For the Bible clearly says that sin brought death into the world, yet Darwinian evolution says that death brouhttps://waytruthandlifeblog.wordpress.com/2016/06/03/why-i-am-not-a-theistic-evolutionist/ght man into the world.  If God used death, a result of sin, to bring man into the world via the process of evolution, then we would have to conclude that God is a sinner, since He brought death into the world.  But since the Bible says that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all, this is not a possibility.

Furthermore, Darwinian Evolution prefers the strong to the weak, with its concept of "survival of the fittest".  Never in the Bible do we see God preferring the strong over the weak.  Consider Gideon and his 300 man army, David and Goliath, and Joshua and the walls of Jericho.  As 1 Corinthians 1:27 says, "God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty"  Here we see, again, that evolution and the Bible are simply theologically incompatible.

Also, if killing was part of God's ordained order of creation, why did God get angry at Cain for killing Abel?  If God used evolution to create the world, then we would have to conclude that God changes His mind, and that He is not sovereign.  Of course, we could not accept that conclusion, because it runs contrary to more scriptures than I will care to quote here.

Of course, there are people who have realized the impossibility of God using evolution in the manner described above.  Most likely in response to this, some persons invented a theory known as the gap theory.  While there are different variations of this theory, it essentially teaches that there is a long period of time between the first and second verses of Genesis 1.  Evolution supposedly occurred during this 'gap'.  Some adherents to this theory claim that Satan was cast down onto the earth, initiating all the subsequent mayhem and chaos.

This 'gap' theory fails miserably in many respects.  First, there is no scriptural evidence for it.  The reason the earth was 'without form and void' was simply because God had not formed it yet.  There is nothing in in those verses to suggest millions of years of evolution. Furthermore, it still does not evade the problems discussed earlier - in the gap theory model, we still see evolution (with all the death, pain, and suffering involved) being used to form a creation God called very good.

And finally, we have progressive creationism.  This theory teaches that God created new life forms gradually over hundreds of millions of years.  According to this view, God directly introduced new life forms, rather than having new species evolve. However, in this view, we run across one of the problems discussed earlier - death before sin.

Having said that, let us discuss the first chapters of Genesis themselves.  Many believe that these chapters are mere poetry, and whatever they mean, they certainly do not describe creation in the way it actually happened. In response to that I would say this: If we cannot start taking the Bible seriously from the first verse, where do we start taking the Bible seriously?   I mean, if we would like to reject the first Chapters of Genesis simply because they disagree with the current scientific consensus, why not treat every other such chapter in the Bible in that manner?  Do you see where this is going?  If we choose to submit to the ever-changing opinions of man, and attempt to harmonize the Bible to such opinions, we are essentially exalting man's word over God's Word.

Furthermore, if one stops to realize simply just how many foundational doctrines are found in the first three chapters of Genesis, they would realize what great harm they do by insisting it is all poetry.

Consider the following verses:

Genesis 1:27 "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."

Genesis 2:24 "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh."

If we take the opening chapters of God's word as mere poetry, it would be rather difficult to assert that these verses, found within a passage that is otherwise fictional, ought to be taken literally. And yet, Jesus Himself quotes both Genesis 1:27 and Genesis 2:24 in support of the doctrine of Marriage. (See Matt. 19:4-5)  If these chapters are mere poetry, our Lord would have been mistaken to quote these verses.

But much more seriously, is the matter of the doctrine of sin.  If we believe Genesis 3 to be fictional poetry, we have essentially negated the need for Christ, the cross, and redemption.  And since evolution (even the theistic varieties) teach that death came before sin, further injustice is done to the doctrine of sin.  If it was not Adam who sinned, incurring the curse of death, but it was actually God who ordained sin, death, and suffering, we have no need for Christ's atoning death, because sin is God's fault, not ours.  Furthermore, if it be that Genesis 3 is not literal, the apostle Paul was clearly ignorant of the fact in his excellent discussion on Adam's sin in Romans 5.

Therefore, for all the aforementioned reasons, I cannot in good conscience believe that the first chapters of Genesis are poetry.

You may ask 'Does this mean I have to become a Literal, 6-Day, Young Earth Creationist?'.   Ultimately, the matter is between you and God. As I said earlier, test all things, and hold fast to that which is good.

I realize that the secular scientists  of today are extremely adamant about their belief in evolution.  Although evolution is nothing more than a mere set of assumptions that seems to have some scientific backing, it is vigorously and dogmatically taught as if it  were the truth.  Any mention of the supernatural is dismissed as sheer and utter folly.  Even in a Wikipedia article I read in research for this post, I came across this completely unneeded and biased paragraph:

"The overwhelming consensus of the scientific community is that creation science is a religious, not a scientific view. It fails to qualify as a science because it lacks empirical support, supplies no tentative hypotheses, and resolves to describe natural history in terms of scientifically untestable supernatural causes. Creation science is a pseudoscientific attempt to map the Bible into scientific facts, and is viewed by professional biologists as unscholarly and, even, as a dishonest and misguided sham, with harmful educational consequences."

I see why so many Christians are willing to harmonize the Bible and evolution - those who do not believe in evolution face ridicule for being 'unscientific'.  Even from within the Christian community, those who do not adhere to some form of evolution are ridiculed.  However, as I have already demonstrated, it is inconsistent for a Christian to believe in Evolution.  Rhttps://waytruthandlifeblog.wordpress.com/2016/06/03/why-i-am-not-a-theistic-evolutionist/ichard Dawkins himself admitted to this in a 2011 interview.

In closing, I would like to appeal to Christians to submit to the word of God rather than the fallible word of man, which is as sinking sand.  What man esteems now, they will scorn in future years, just as things that were believed 40 years ago are ridiculed now.  The Word of God, on the other hand, is unchanging.  God, by His Word, established the heavens and the earth.    We are often in error, and our words fail.  His Word, on the other hand, is true.  What He says comes to pass.  Let us therefore trust Him rather than the ever-changing opinions of man.

"For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:  So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it."   - Isaiah 55:10-11

"Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." - Matthew 24:35