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March 26, 2006

March 26, 2006

Cawson St. Church of Christ

Hopewell, Virginia

Mural Worthey

 

The Theory of Organic Evolution

 

Introduction

a)     Mark Twain wrote: “There is something fascinating about science.  One gets such wholesale returns of conjectures out of such a trifling investment of facts.”  (Life on the Mississippi.)

b)     Evolutionists, like Stephen Jay Gould of Harvard, insist that evolution is a fact, not a theory.  It is just as true as gravity.

c)      Organic evolution did not begin with Charles Robert Darwin or his grandfather, Erasmus, in the 19th century.  Ancient Greeks, like Epicurus and Aristotle, advanced the theory as well.

d)     Once the theory of organic evolution is stated clearly and understood, the differences between biblical faith and evolution will be self-evident.

 

I.                  Definitions in the Theory of Evolution

 

1)     Organic evolution: organic evolution is the theory that living matter, both plants and animals, evolve gradually over millions of years.

2)     Inorganic refers to inanimate matter, like rocks and water and air and fire.  Yet, organic evolution includes these as well in its theory.  The beginning of life, according to them, was inanimate matter and anti-matter.

3)     The Big Bang came about because equal particles of matter came into contact with anti-matter.  The explosion destroyed all those particles, except one.  From that one particle all forms of life evolved.

4)     A careful distinction ought to be made between micro-evolution (changes within species or kinds) and the general theory of organic evolution (inclusive of all living things).

II.               Quotes from Charles Darwin

 

“I believe that animals are descended from at most only four or five progenitors, and plants from an equal or lesser number. . . Analogy would lead me one step farther, namely, to the belief that all animals and plants are descended from some one prototype.  But analogy may be a deceitful guide.”  (Origin, 642.)

 

“That many and serious objections may be advanced against the theory of descent with modification through variation and natural selection, I do not deny.  I have endeavored to give them their full force.  Nothing at first can appear more difficult to believe than that the more complex organs and instincts have been perfected, not by means superior to, though analogous with, human reason, but by the accumulation of innumerable slight variations, each good for the individual possessor.  Nevertheless, this difficulty, though appearing to our imagination insuperably great, cannot be considered real if we admit the following propositions, namely, that all parts of the organization and instincts offer, at least, individual differences—that there is a struggle for existence leading to the preservation of profitable deviations of structure or instinct—and, lastly, that gradations in the state of perfection of each organ may have existed, each good of its kind.  The truth of these propositions cannot, I think, be disputed.”  (Ibid, 612-13.)

 

“There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved.”  (Ibid, 649, last sentence in book.)

 

 

 

 

III.            The Mechanics of Organic Evolution

 

1)     Theistic evolution believes that God started the process by creating the first matter and natural laws that drive evolution.

2)     Atheistic evolution denies the existence of the Creator; only matter exists with natural driving forces.

3)     Acquired traits were believed to be inheritable according to Chevalier de Lamarck (1744-1829).  This is rejected today.

4)     Today, evolutionists follow Darwin’s mechanisms of natural selection, struggle for life, time, and survival of the fittest.

5)     Survival of the fittest is a driving force because most species produce far more offspring than can possibly survive.

a.     Why giraffes have long necks—need to reach leaves.

b.     But why do other animals have short necks?

c.      Why do female giraffes have necks two feet shorter?

d.     Some species co-operate to survive, like ants.

e.     The fittest do not always survive.  (Eccl. 9:11.)

6)     Mutations were presented by a Dutch botanist, Hugo de Vries, as an example for changes in species.

a.     Mutations cause sudden changes to appear.

b.     Radical changes have occurred and do occur.

c.      Caused by defective genes, chemicals, etc.

d.     Man can produce hornless cattle, seedless oranges.

e.     Mutations are rare, almost always harmful, and are incapable of producing a new species.

7)     Time is a necessary component in any theory of evolution.

a.     Organic evolution requires millions of years.

b.     The theory goes off the chart into a pre-historic time zone, and into the future to be yet discovered. 

c.      It is pre- and post-history in its scope.

d.     Could something inanimate or inorganic become organic given enough time?

e.     Even theistic evolution requires much time because “god” created matter and left it alone to evolve.

                8) Spontaneous generation causes sudden leaps forward.

IV.  Supposed Proofs for Organic Evolution

 

1)     Similarity of structures is offered as proof of evolution.

a.     Wings of bats, hands of man, feet of ducks are similar.

b.     Internal structures: circulatory, respiratory, muscular and skeletal systems are similar in animals and man.

c.      Answer: organisms inhabit the same earth and made by same Creator.

d.     But animals and man are not like plants.

2)     Vestigial structures: organs that are no longer needed.

a.     Wings of the ostrich; tonsils, appendix, ear muscles and wisdom teeth in humans.

b.     Medical scientists have changed their minds about many of those structures.  Pituitary gland was once thought to be vestigial, but now is called the “master gland” of the human body.

c.      Appendix is believed to be useful more in infancy than in adults; doctors are reluctant to remove it from an infant.

3)     Embryology: the human embryo recapitulates evolutionary history!

a.     From conception, the embryo goes from a single-cell to a sort of jellyfish, then worm stage, develops a backbone, and at birth it is a human baby!

b.     This notion conceived in the 19th century is absolutely false.

c.      Some have argued for abortion on the basis of this false idea.  If you abort the embryo before birth, you are not killing a human being, they contend.

4)     The fossil record—past history in rocks and fossils

a.     Darwin thought that the fossils in future finds would confirm his theory of evolution.

b.     “Geology assuredly does not reveal any such finely-graduated organic chain; and this, perhaps, is the most obvious and serious objection which can be urge against the theory.  The explanation lies, as I believe, in the extreme imperfection of the geological record.”  (Origin, 646.)

c.      If evolution were true, we would find one-celled organisms in the deepest and oldest rock strata, then the most complex forms in the most recent strata.  But this is not the record.

d.     Life began and ended suddenly according to the fossils.

e.     There are no intermediate forms or “the missing link.”

f.       There should be many missing links, not just one.

5)     Existence of Dinosaurs—ancient animals now extinct.

a.     Many students became evolutionists after studying dinosaurs. They are a great teaching aid.

b.     Why are they not mentioned in the Bible?  The word is from two Greek words which mean “terrible lizards.”  The word was coined in 1842; thus the word, dinosaur, does not occur.

c.      Other biblical words, like behemoth, may refer to them. (Job 40 & 41.)

d.     Did they live millions of years ago?  Evolutionists say that dinosaurs lived 200 million years ago and man came onto the scene only 2-3 million years ago.

e.     Their bones are found in the same strata as human beings.  All animals were created on the same day that man was created.

f.       Dinosaurs do not prove evolution to be true.

             

Conclusions; Biblical texts

 

Genesis 1 & 2, Exodus 20:11, Psalms 33:6-9, Psalms 148:1-6

Mark 10:6, John 11:9, John 1:1-3, Col. 1:15-17

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