Evolution: Why it is
wrong and why it matters (Part 2)
Imagine you were going to a book signing for the 700 page
best-selling historical mystery thriller novel you were reading and found that
the person signing the books was a 7 year old second grader. You would leave without getting an
autograph. Why? You would not believe that a seven year old
child, no matter how precocious, could write what you are reading. Because the effect (a 700 page best-selling
historical mystery thriller novel) was not commensurate with the cause (a 7
year old child).
This is what evolution is: a series of effects so much
greater than the causes that if we were to see them in real life, we would
immediately reject them.
We are expected to believe that random mutations over
millions of years could and would produce complex living systems that have
eyes, brains, hearts, intelligence, and self-awareness. There is nothing in our experience that would
suggest that anything like this is possible.
In fact, all known laws of science, like entropy and thermodynamics,
tell us that things decay or deteriorate when left to themselves. Houses don’t build themselves, and tools left
outside for years will rust or become unusable.
But why is all this so important? What difference does it make if you think
aliens left organic compounds here, or a God created all this, or if everything
just happened all by itself?
The first and obvious reason is that it answers the question:
is there a God? Those who say that all
this could have and did happen all by itself essentially dismiss the concept of
a Supreme Being. They see no reason to
believe in anything beyond what they can see, feel, taste, or, in scientific
talk, what they can observe and measure.
If life was/is just a chance occurrence of chemical
compounds that ends with physical death, then life has no meaning beyond what
we choose to give it. And everyone is
free to choose what meaning that is, if any.
Life ends at death, and there are no prizes or rewards to the winners.
Science can analyze a human being, tell you how much carbon,
water, hydrogen, etc. exists in a body, but it cannot tell you if that life has
meaning or purpose.
Scientists are often quick to dismiss the idea of God,
because they deem it unnecessary and unproveable, yet they resort to a faith in
natural processes to create things beyond what they with all their intelligence
cannot.
If there is a God, I would certainly expect that He would be
beyond human comprehension and measurement.
Scientists look for proof of Something that by definition would be
greater than everything that exists.
They feel justified in rejecting the concept, because they can’t fit Him
to their experiments or see Him with their eyes. I submit they need look no further than
themselves to see the work of Someone who is vastly more intelligent than all
our accumulated knowledge.
Acknowledging that there is a God changes everything. On the other hand, rejecting the idea also
changes everything. This is the pivotal
concept that shapes our lives.
If life (our lives) is just the result of random chemical
interactions, human life just isn’t that important anymore. Nations that have rejected the idea of God
were instrumental in killing millions of their own citizens, because they
didn’t fit into the plans of those who were in power.
The survival of the fittest becomes the law of the land, and
everyone has to look out for themselves first.
If there is a God, then life, our life, was
intentional. Life is valuable and has
meaning and purpose. What meaning and
purpose?
This leads to the second reason why the question of
evolution is so important. If life is
intentional, if we were made and not chance occurrences, then we would expect
that there are certain laws to our existence.
Science recognizes natural laws, laws of physics and
chemistry, laws that tell us how things work in the physical realm. But are there laws that tell us how life is
supposed to work?
You can’t buy so much as a toaster without getting a long
booklet from the manufacturer telling us how the thing works, how it is meant
to work, what are the inherent dangers, how to get the most use out of it.
But what about life?
Are there rules that we ignore to our detriment? Did our Manufacturer give us an instruction
manual to tell us how this is supposed to work?
Or do we spend our whole life trying to figure what is best only to
realize on our death beds how we could have done things better?
This is what a religion is.
It purports to tell us what life is all about. You don’t study religion long, however,
before you see how vastly different their conclusions are about a lot of
things. They are close on some things,
but most have mutually exclusive teachings on many important issues.
Does this mean that truth is unattainable, and all religions
are essentially equally valid, because we don’t know enough to be able to
decide between them? No. It just means that, like everything else in
life worth having, you might have to put a little effort in searching it out.
One last reason I would like to submit here why the issue of
evolution and God is important is that, if God did indeed create the world and
life, it is very possible, as more religions teach, that we are in some way
accountable to God for our lives. The
details vary from religion to religion, but the first place to start is that
the idea that what we do with our lives is important in ways we can little
imagine should wake us to the pursuit of what things in life really matter.
I know some people will think I have tried to make too much
of this issue of evolution and God, that I reach conclusions that don’t have
enough ‘proof’ behind them. The fact is
life is not like a job, where you have orientation and are given the company
handbook with all the rules inside.
Our lives are pretty open-ended. We can do pretty much what we want in how we
live our lives. We eat what we want,
when we want, choose a spouse, or not, all kinds of choices everyday without
somebody looking over our shoulder and telling us what to do.
Life is also short, and there is no rehearsal. This is it.
We are not going to get the absolute certainty of everything before we
have to make choices on how we will live our lives. In this short article, I hope I have clarified
some of the questions we need to ask.
