Creation vs. Evolution Controversy

Preamble

When the term ‘evolution’ is loosely used, it can cause a lot of confusion because many people do not realize that this word embodies two very distinctive types of evolution – micro-evolution and macro-evolution.

Micro-evolution (see illustration to the right) deals with varieties within a ‘kind’ with no increasing complexities. The marvelous way in which living things reproduce provides great number of varieties, which aids and often results in ‘horizontal adaptation’ (part of the process known as natural selection). Its processes are observable everywhere on earth and throughout history, and is therefore objective truth, and therefore solid science. Bible believing Christians agree with and acknowledge the true science of micro-evolution.

Macro-evolution (see illustration to the left), on the other hand, refers to the Darwinian or ‘big bang’ type of evolution, in which living things go through a ‘vertical or upward change in complexities’:

1. The first living thing (common ancestor) ‘became alive’ when non-living chemicals somehow combined themselves into a strand of amino acids, then a simple living cell, capable of reproduction, all by processes/ mechanisms still unknown and unexplained.
2. This single common ancestor evolved into more complex life forms of marine life, then plants, by processes/mechanisms still unknown and unexplained.
3. Marine life evolved into land animals, then birds, but some went back into the ocean (e.g. whales), by processes/mechanisms still unknown and unexplained.

Christians should be wary about the claims of macro-evolutionists (hereinafter referred to as ‘evolutionists’). 

Opponents of the Bible claim that the Bible is not a science textbook and therefore not the authority on its statements concerning science. But God, as the Creator of heaven and earth, and all that are in them (Nehemiah 9:6) – made all the laws governing them (labelled by us as ‘science’) – is more than capable of speaking correctly when dealing with science. For those who believe Him, God the Creator is actually the sole authority on science.

In Chapter 1 of this course, we have already shown that, regardless of how long you make a ‘day’ (in Genesis 1), the creation and the macro-evolution model have irreconcilable differences, so only one of them is correct. It is futile for Christians to claim that they believe in both the claims of the Bible and evolution.

In Chapter 2, it will be discussed that day-to-day experience and observation and objective scientific evidence often contradict the claims and predictions of the evolution model. This information will not be repeated here, instead, the balance of this appendix will devote its attention to areas not yet discussed.

Can life evolve from non-life?

Evolutionists maintain that living things were not created but happened by random chance from chemicals joining and forming, resulting in a simple living organism. Most science students have heard about the Miller-Urey Experiment whereby amino acids were produced in an environment which simulated the earth’s primordial soup. Consider the following:

1. Getting a ‘head’ by flipping a coin is a matter of random chance. Can you get 500 consecutive ‘heads’ by flipping a coin? How about 50,000 ‘heads’ in a row?
2. 

   Synpath CC BY-SA 4

   When amino acids (touted as the ‘building blocks of life’) are produced in the lab, they obtain a racemic mixture of 50% left-handed (L) and 50% right-handed (D) optical isomers of amino acids (i.e. two versions that are mirror images of each other). See diagram to the right.
   Did you know that in real-life (with only rare exceptions) all biological systems of living things contain only the L version of the amino acids? Whatever happened to the D version of the amino acids?

3. The ‘simplest’ living thing (in reality, nothing living is ‘simple’) was estimated to have about 50,000 L-amino acids (arranged in 124 proteins). What is the probability of having only 50,000 L-versions joining together? (hint: compared to the odds of flipping 50,000 ‘heads’ in a row?)
4. Even if 50,000 L-amino acids were formed, how (and why) did they join together in an intricate way to arrange themselves into proteins? Then into DNA?
5. Even if somehow only L-amino acids came together and sequenced themselves correctly into protein and DNA formations, what mechanism would then turn them into a living thing with specific functions of survival, energy production, reproduction, etc.?
6. Consider all the high-technology things mankind has made. Can any of these gadgets produce its own power and reproduce?
7. If you kill a mosquito gently, leaving all its amino acids, proteins, DNA, and cells intact, do you think it will ever come back to life? Why not?
8. Do you believe that the images of the past American presidents on Mount Rushmore were the works of nature and chance? Why not? If these images prove the existence of intelligence and design, beyond what nature and chance could accomplish, then what about the once-real persons that these images represent? Could they be the accomplishments of simply nature and chance?

Postscript

This is an exploratory course designed for interactive, small group study to investigate God’s message to mankind and the claims of Jesus. If you would like to get access to the full study, please use the Contact Us form and we will put you in touch with the author.

Footnote

First image is from Walt Brown, In the Beginning.