Implications of Evolution – Excerpt from ANSWERS For: “The Hope That Is In You” – Chapter 12
A Web search turns up a long list of books written about the impact of Evolution, so there’s no need to cover its many failures, Here I’ll contrast Evolution and Creation’s view of human life.
The Value of Human Life
Evolution and Creation portray the value of human life in very different ways. In Evolution, humanity is the highest animal, having no particular special position above other animals. In some cases, animals are even regarded as equal to or even better than humans. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), an animal rights organization, rejects speciesism (the concept that one species is superior to any other) and the idea of animals as property. PETA opposes the use of animals in any form: as food, clothing, entertainment, or research subjects. The most famous statement of Ingrid E. Newkirk, co-founder, and president of PETA is, “When it comes to feelings like hunger, pain, and thirst, a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy.” Note in that statement the equivalency of men to animals.
In contrast, in Creation, humanity is made in God’s image uniquely and special because humans are designed to love and worship God. God gave humankind dominion over everything He created on the earth. When Adam and Eve rebelled in the fall, they lost the spiritual communion they had with God and their spirits died. God made them for purpose, but because of their rebellion, God’s condemnation because of His perfect justice, brings eternal separation from him in Hell. God himself, however, provides a way to escape this punishment by coming to earth himself as Jesus, who pays the debt brought by that condemnation as our substitute and offers reconciliation to God to those who believe. In his resurrection, he affirms the new life available to all who believe. In Creation, then, human life is precious and unique but separated from God by sin. Christians return to that spiritual communion with God through the new birth and the gift of the Holy Spirit, but they remain, sinners, sinners saved by grace. At the believer’s resurrection, they will receive a new, incorruptible body.
“I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:50–58)
Creation’s Value of Human Life
Creation values human life very highly in the Bible. Men and women are created in God’s image with a three-fold nature: body, soul, and spirit. I’ll use the Westminster Shorter Catechism to define man’s position in relation to God. I’ve chosen it because I’m most familiar with it. I am not trying to get into denominational issues by using it so, for my Baptist brethren; I could just as easily have used the London Confession of 1789. Note: I’ve selected here only the questions from the Catechism that relate directly to the value of human life. The four parts of humanity’s precious Biblical value are:
1) Creation in a perfect state for a purpose.
2) Established in a covenant relationship with God predicated on Adam and Eve’s obedience.
3) Adam’s disobedience resulting in alienation and separation from God bringing the entrance of sin and
4) Restoration to God by Christ because God loves his created men and women.
1) Creation in a perfect state for a purpose.
Q1: What is the chief end of man?
A1: Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.
Q2: What rule hath God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy Him?
A2: The Word of God, contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy Him.
Q3: What do the Scriptures principally teach?
A3: The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man.
Q10: How did God create man?
A10: God created man male and female, after his image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, with dominion over the creatures.
2) Established in a covenant relationship with God predicated on obedience.
Q12: What special act of providence did God exercise toward man in the estate wherein he was created?
A12: When God had created man, he entered into a covenant of life with him, upon condition of perfect obedience; forbidding him to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, upon the pain of death.
3) Adam’s disobedience resulting in alienation and separation from God
Q13: Did our first parents continue in the estate wherein they were created?
A13: Our first parents, being left to the freedom of their own will, fell from the estate wherein they were created, by sinning against God.
Q16: Did all mankind fall in Adam’s first transgression?
A16: The covenant being made with Adam, not only for himself, but for his posterity; all mankind, descending from him by ordinary generation, sinned in him, and fell with him, in his first transgression.
Q17: Into what estate did the fall bring mankind?
A17: The fall brought mankind into an estate of sin and misery.
Q18: Wherein consists the sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell?
A18: The sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell, consists in the guilt of Adam’s first sin, the want of original righteousness, and the corruption of his whole nature, which is commonly called Original Sin; together with all actual transgressions which proceed from it.
Q19: What is the misery of that estate whereinto man fell?
A19: All mankind by their fall lost communion with God, are under his wrath and curse, and so made liable to all miseries in this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell forever.
4) Restoration to God by Christ because God loves His created men and women.
Q20. Did God leave all mankind to perish in the estate of sin and misery?
A20. God having, out of his mere good pleasure, from all eternity, elected some to everlasting life, did enter into a covenant of grace, to deliver them out of the estate of sin and misery, and to bring them into an estate of salvation by a Redeemer.
Q21: Who is the Redeemer of God’s elect?
A21: The only Redeemer of God’s elect is the Lord Jesus Christ, who, being the eternal Son of God, became man, and so was, and continues to be, God and man in two distinct natures, and one person, forever.
So we conclude humanity was created perfect but lost that perfection in sin when they rebelled. God offers to restore that relationship through Jesus Christ. Every person is a sinner by birth, as a son or daughter of Adam, and by nature, because we sin every day!
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. (1 John 1:8–10)
Every person ever born will spend eternity in either Heaven or Hell. There is no other possibility! The debt of sin, death, must be paid either by the individual or by Jesus’ death on the cross. Christians call this “substitutionary atonement.” Christ’s death in place of our death!
Sixth Commandment: “You Shall Not Murder.”
Another significant factor to consider in valuing human life is God’s prescribed punishment for taking another’s life. When God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, “You shall not murder” was the first “shall not.” The first five were positive rules and the second five, negative. Murder here implies intent to kill, not an accidental death. Accidental death is dealt with in Scripture with sever punishments, but murder itself is a capital crime; to take another’s life intentionally is to forfeit your own! The capital punishment for murder shows how seriously God regards each person’s life. Even the unborn are protected in Scripture.
“When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman’s husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.” (Exodus 21:22–25)
It is a capital crime if a person causes a miscarriage, and if the baby dies, that person is to be executed, “life for life.” As a Christian, if you believe what the Bible just said, then abortion is a heinous crime! Yes, God regards all human life as precious, even the unborn.
Human life has great value because humanity is created in God’s image.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only (begotten) Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:16)
Now we’ll compare the biblical value of human life to Evolution’s value.
Evolution’s Value of Human Life
Evolution begins with inanimate matter and brings us all the variety of life on earth through a branching tree. Life starts with Biogenesis as dead chemicals come together to form the first one-celled organism from “pond scum.” Then, for millions of years, creatures evolve by mutation and Natural Selection to higher and higher forms. Finally, an apelike ancestor gives birth to the first men and women. Humanity, then, is just the last step in billions and billions of changes from the one-celled pond scum beginning to complete human beings. As Dr. Gish said: “From goo to you by way of the zoo.” Although we are the best nature can do, we are just the highest animal, really nothing better than other animals below us. This creation of life by Evolution is a continuous process of reproduction, struggle, and death. Death is an important part of the process that helps Evolution move forward. If evolution is true then:
- There is no need for God.
- There is no sin and no savior.
- Modern psychology can’t explain the source of guilt because humans are guilty.
- Moral values have no basis and life has no
- Man is not responsible for his actions because he’s just a bunch of chemical and electrical processes.
- The Bible is not reliable, and Christianity must be false.
- Humans are the highest animal, and we have the same regard for human life as any other animal:
- Therefore, men can be selectively bred, aborted, murdered, etc., because of Natural Selection. The Nazis believed they were helping evolution move forward by killing those who Natural Selection would eventually get kill off.
Before I get to what the evolutionists say themselves, I want to highlight how teaching this aspect of Evolution impacts our children. In the United States public schools, Evolution is taught as fact, and there is no room for any other explanation of how we got here. In 1995
, I summarized in a booklet I published, what we are teaching students in public schools:
“You came from pond scum. You’re a bunch of chemical reactions and electrical impulses. You’re not any better than your pet dog or cat. Life has no meaning or purpose. Some day you will die, and when your life ends you will be extinguished or annihilated. You will go out of existence. Your body goes back to the earth, and your mind and life accomplishments come to nothing. So, life is birth, pain, pleasure, struggle, and death.” (Charlie Liebert 1995)
Now you know why self-esteem is a big problem and teen suicide continues to increase. When I talk to teens that believe this, I have heard again and again, “Why keep living if life is so hopeless?” The Bible says you reap what you sow. If we sow hopelessness, what shall we reap? Contrast this with the Christian view:
“You are made in God’s image. God’s incredible design marvelously constructs your body. But you are separated from God by you own sin and rebellion. God has provided a way to return to him through Jesus Christ. When you die, you go to be with him forever, or you eternally perish in Hell. Your life does not end! This life is birth, pain, pleasure, and struggle, but death is defeated at the cross by Jesus. The best is yet to come: eternal life in Christ.” (Charlie Liebert 1995)
The differences between the Creation and Evolution views are polar! They are as opposite as you can get! I know some readers will not accept this contrast, so let me substantiate it with quotes from evolutionists.
Nobel Laureate Francis Crick in his book, The Astonishing Hypothesis, said: “… you, your joys, and your sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules. As Lewis Carroll’s Alice might have phrased it: ‘You’re nothing but a pack of neurons.’ This hypothesis is so alien to the ideas of most people alive today that it can truly be called astonishing.”
Scientific American, in an article about Social Darwinists, said: “Darwinian science inevitably will and should have legal, political, and moral consequences. Some of the most pressing issues of the 90s, abortion, birth control, sexual discrimination, homosexuality, are in Darwin’s beat. Yes, we are all animals descended from a vast lineage of replicators sprung from primordial pond scum.”
Jeffery Dahmer, a serial murderer, on NBC Dateline, when asked why he did what he did, said: “If a person doesn’t think there is a God to be accountable to, then what’s the point of trying to modify your behavior to keep within acceptable ranges? That’s how I thought anyway. I always believed the theory of evolution as truth that we all just came from slime, pond scum. When we died, there is nothing. I’ve since come to believe the Lord Jesus Christ is truly God, and I believe that I as well as everyone else will be accountable to him.”
Note: Yes, God saves the unworthy, but then who is worthy? There’s none righteous; no, not one! All have gone astray! All have turned to their own way and God’s condemnation is on all humanity!
Nobel Laureate Francis Crick proposed: “No newborn infant should be declared human until it has passed certain tests regarding its genetic endowment, and if it fails these tests, it forfeits the right to live.” Reported by Cal Thomas, LA Times Syndicate.
Former Colorado Gov. Lamm: “The elderly have ‘a duty to die and get out of the way’ and not tie up medical resources that could be used to benefit those with longer lives to live.” Reported by Cal Thomas, LA Times.
Former Colorado Gov. Lamm: “They [the elderly] should emulate leaves of the season that ‘fall off a tree forming humus for the other plants to grow.’” Reported by Cal Thomas, LA Times.
Are we then doomed? No! Our hope is for God to bring revival. But that would only be temporary. Our real hope is in the salvation that is in Jesus. Fight the good fight! Run the race! Finish well!
Here’s a scenario I use when I teach youth seminars on Christian Apologetics. “There was great prosperity in Israel. Times were great. Those unpopular prophets, like Isaiah, had been warning of impending doom for a long time, but who believed them? If you want to see “political correctness” applied to one of God’s prophets, read the book of Jeremiah. His whole life, as he lives it for God, is one disaster after another! Suddenly in these best of times, in one day, the ten tribes of Israel are carried off. Isaiah was right! Put your faith in Christ and Christ alone. God’s purpose will be worked out in history; after all, it is His Story! The world continues to live day by day, not remembering the lessons of history.” (Charlie Liebert, 1998)
“What experience and history teach is this: that people and governments never have learned anything from history or acted on principles deduced from it.” George Wilhelm Freidrich Hegel in Philosophy of History.
“Those who do not remember the past are condemned to relive it.” George Santayana
The Apostle Peter wrote of these last days:
And saying, where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all thingscontinue as they were from the beginning of the creation. (2 Peter 3:4)
Another aspect of our value as humans is the way our bodies are constructed. We are “wonderfully and marvelously made.” Today we know more about human genetics than ever before.
- A zygote, the fertilized egg in a woman’s body, contains all the information for a full-grown adult.
- That one cell is a living human being!
- Man has twenty-three pairs of chromosomes filled with DNA.
- The DNA molecule, double helix, contains the genetic code that is:
- Billions of atoms arranged in unique order for each person.
- Writing out this code would fill six hundred books of a thousand pages.
- All of which is contained on a pinpoint.
- And according to Evolution it all happened by accident!
