A response by Dave Bleloch to Sue's article 'Science and Scripture' published in the March edition of The Net magazine

Scientific Truth?

It’s certainly worth remembering that Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is still a theory. After more than 150 years it is still unproven. Evolution from a single celled organism to the wide variety of nature in evidence today is neither measurable nor repeatable.

So where did this theory come from? It is documented that Darwin took with him on his trip on the HMS Beagle the newly published first volume of Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology. This was a revolutionary book at the time. Lyell argued that the formation of the Earth's crust took place through countless small changes occurring over vast periods of time, all according to known natural laws.

It’s possible that Darwin took Lyell’s theories for geology (small changes over vast periods of time) and applied them to biology [1], eventually writing the Origin of The Species, which proposes that all life is descended from a single celled organism through the processes of reproduction, inheritance and natural selection. These processes are plainly visible all around us. For example, it is clear that offspring inherit features/attributes from their parents. However, some features can be passed through a generation without being visible because they are being ‘masked’ by a more dominant feature. In humans, the colour of one’s eyes is dictated by the dominant colour inherited from one’s parents. The blue colour is not dominant which means if both parents have blue eyes, all offspring will have blue eyes. If humans with non-blue eyes stopped reproducing, the human species would, in less than 100 years, all be blue eyed. Would that make them a new species? No, they would still be human but would have lost the ability to have non-blue eyes.

Supporters of Darwin’s theory argue that genetic mutations are involved and these add new features which are selected by chance. There is no evidence that genetic mutations actually add information – they always reduce or replicate. This, coupled with recent discoveries in microbiology, is leading some scientists today to reach the conclusion that life is so complex it must have an intelligent designer and could not have happened by chance. This realization is a shock to us as we have got used to thinking of life as the result of simple natural laws. This shock is similar to that when we realized the earth was not the centre of the solar system. It is also a reminder of the fallibility of science which must change “scientific truth” when new evidence comes to light. Contrary to popular belief, scientists are not perfect and infallible. Also, see http://www.dissentfromdarwin.org for a list of scientists who are asking for the evidence for evolution to be properly (they mean scientifically) examined.

Some scientists are therefore now struggling with “intelligent design” - If the world was created by an intelligent designer, who created the designer? The Bible has the answer. It comes in the very first verse of the very first chapter – “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” God was there at the beginning, He is eternal and outside time. This is a difficult concept for even our highly intelligent brains to grasp, but if the Bible is to be believed, God has always ‘been there’.

Was Darwin a religious man? Darwin may have been brought up as a Christian but he certainly did not remain a Christian. In 1880 he wrote in a letter “I am sorry to have to inform you that I do not believe in the Bible as a divine revelation, & therefore not in Jesus Christ as the son of God.[2] Lyell’s book, which obviously influenced Darwin a great deal, subtly ridiculed belief in recent creation in favour of an old earth, and denied that Noah's Flood was world-wide. Lyell challenged the truth of the Bible right from the very first chapter. Belief in Lyell eventually led to Darwin’s apostasy.

Jonathan Sarfati, in his book Refuting Compromise, states the issue very well.

We can believe fallible man's ideas that there is no God, or trust the perfect Word of God, the 66 books of the Bible, which says there is. The issue is simple; it is a matter of faith - God exists or God doesn't exist. The exciting thing about being a Christian is knowing that the Bible is not just another religious book, but it is the Word of the Creator God, as it claims. See Matthew 5:18, 2 Timothy 3:16, 1 Peter 1:21, Psalms 12:6, and 1 Thessalonians 2:13.

Only the Bible explains why there is beauty and ugliness; why there is life and death; why there is health and disease; why there is love and hate. Only the Bible gives the true and reliable account of the origin of all basic entities of life and the entire universe.

Over and over again, the Bible's historical account has been confirmed by archaeology, biology, geology, and astronomy. No contradiction or erroneous information has ever been found in its pages, even though it was written over hundreds of years by many different authors, each inspired by the Holy Spirit.

Scientists from many different fields have produced hundreds of books and tapes defending the Bible's accuracy and its claim that it is a revelation to us from our Creator. It not only tells us who we are and where we came from, but it also shares the good news of how we can spend eternity with our Lord and Saviour. Take that first step and place your faith in God and His Word.

Dave Bleloch