Friday, December 23, 2005

Intelligent Design

Intelligent Design
By P. Davis ©2005

     It seems to me that almost no one is doing the job of putting forth the facts these days. I am always surprised by the official story screaming in the headlines. Always the headlines portray the reasoned voice of a fatherly science compared to those irrational wacko religionists. Beware of those who do not answer their opponents, but rather belittle them, for oftentimes they have only the weakest arguments. And this is where evolutionists are increasingly finding themselves these days.
     The truth is that the theory of evolution, as promulgated by Charles Darwin, is faltering and failing under its own myth. There are a number of fallacies in the myth of evolution that would alarm the world if they were honestly debated. So the answer on the part of the evolutionists is to stifle debate. And they are doing a very successful job of it.
     Now I admit my bias. I am an evangelical Christian, who is almost an endangered species today. I believe in the creation of an intelligent designer and I cannot look at a tree, a mountain, or a thunderstorm without seeing the work of the creator. I stand in constant awe at the creation he has made.
     Now I have admitted my bias. When was the last time you listened to an evolutionist admit his bias? I cannot remember one instance. Instead they carefully insist that their work is a work of science, while what I am talking about is philosophy. Actually many of the evolutionists are disguised atheists looking for an opportunity to further their creed in the name of science. And that somehow makes their claim that their view is science and therefore not to be debated philosophically much more suspect.
     The major problem with the theory of evolution has always been the fossil record. As Darwin neared the end of his life he himself enthusiastically proposed a worldwide search of the fossil record. In that record, he believed, would be the thousands of intervening species that showed how evolution had happened. After 130 years of searching the fossil record scientists have found millions of fossils but zero intervening species.
     Often they will try to illustrate intervening species. I remember one argument presented in which evolutionists tried to present horse fossils as smaller and then growing larger over a period of ages. The only trouble with that argument is that modern horses do come in a variety of sizes, both very small and very large. The can be no evolution of one size to another when all sizes do exist today.
     Another problem with evolution is found in the deep complexity found in the animal kingdom. Remember the claim that scientists made a few years back? They claimed that they were going to be able to make a genetic map and within a few years they confidently predicted genetic engineering would begin to do away with diseases. Unfortunately, in higher organisms such as man, the genetic record in far more complex than anticipated, and scientists have not even been able to “engineer” one cure.
     Scientists can not even agree how many genes there are. Estimates have wildly ranged from 30,000 to 100,000. What is agreed on is that man is a whole lot more complex than at first thought. Back in the seventies, when I first became a Christian, I looked at the human eyeball. How could evolution ever have produced such an enormously complex organ of the body? All of the thousands of genes and molecules that work flawlessly to give sight to the body, according to the theory of evolution, had to come from literally millions of mutations in a species. They had to coordinate together, and happen within a very short time or else what benefit would they give if not sight? And this is just one organ in the human body.
     And that brings us to another major problem of evolution. In Darwin’s time scientists thought that this process could take place in a relatively short time; hence the projections of the earth’s age were relatively short. In the hundred odd years since Darwin scientists have begun to realize the enormous complexity of life forms they have realized the need for vast amounts of time; hence the projections for the age of the earth began to greatly multiply. In other words, as the impossibility of evolution began to become apparent the true believers merely added the magic ingredient of time. "With enough time, all things are possible”, they assured us.
     I must say that I am not a scientist, but as I begin to appreciate the complexity of the human eye, ear, and brain, just to name a couple of the organs of the body, I can easily see that the earth would have to be far, far older than any model today that I have seen proposed. In fact, some evolutionists realized this fact, and have argued for a “sudden surge” in the evolutionary model from time to time through the ages. They have no convincing argument for the surge, or a plausible explanation of why it has happened.
     I could go on and on, but since no one will probably read much further than this, let me invite you to question and debate. I do believe that debate is good for the soul, and sometimes brings truth to light. There are a great number of books available for reading that will persuade you to question the myth of evolution. The latest one I have read is entitled The Politically Incorrect Guide to Science, by Tom Bethell. It has the advantage of being current, but there have been a plethora of books published over the last twenty years. An excellent author is Henry Morris and the Institute for Creation Research has published many fine works over the years.
     

4 comments:

David said...

Thank you for your post. I am new at blogging, but I enjoyed your piece. I am also a firm believer in the mysteries of creation. More and more, everywhere I look I see exonerations of the so called "theory" of creation. I see the impossible made possible, impossible in the way of random pieces and parts falling together from chaos and forming into working, extremely amazing feats of majic, not just in humans but in animals and even inamimate nature. I'm not a scientist, to go in to some specialty on this, (and if I was a scientist, I probably would be an atheist) but I thank God I am ignorant enough to see the truth around us. My dad used to say its possible to be so smart that you're dumb. Certainly the Bible says the same, "For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God," God chose foolishness to save those who would believe.
From the complicated eye all the way down to the apparently least complicated square inch in the body, all confound the scientists. They will never get comprehensive answers. They will be ever learning yet never coming to the truth because they refuse to conform the box of their preconceptions into the round hole of God's truth.
Thanks again, and keep sharing.

Patrick Davis said...

David,
Welcome! I enjoyed reading your thoughts. My two daughters talked me into doing this blog, although I teach using blogs to other teachers.
I like what your Dad said: it is possible to be so smart that you are dumb. On the other side, when we as Christians see the creation, how could we not discern the Creator?
Thanks for your remarks!

David said...

Hello Mr. D,
(By the way, we are close to the same age, just to let you know.)
As Christians, our first and only response to creation will be awe and thanksgiving at the wonderful works of God. When Paul repeated that God made Adam a living soul, but Christ a quickening spirit, I imagine the first Adam as a type of Christ, made in His image of a quickening spirit. Adam, a walking, breathing, soul full of life! And as such, his heart and mind exploding with thankfulness to his Maker, rejoicing in all that he saw, heard, smelled, tasted, touched and felt. Shouldn't Christians, who receive a new understanding of God's love and a new ability to appreciate, know something of what Adam and Jesus experienced?

Patrick Davis said...

David,
I was just commenting on you to my wife and wondering how old you were. I described you as a mature Christian who seemed to "have his head on right" and was definitely waiting for the return of our Lord.
Your latest comment makes me think of Lewis's Perelandra where Ransom tastes and experiences everything as if for the first time. Have you read it? We shall be like him for we shall see him as he is. The wonder of that is so huge!
Pat