Against Evolution
When it comes to evolution, the first thing necessary is to define our terms. The student or inquirer must come to see that the biblical view is not against microevolution, which has to do with adaptation of species to their environment, but rather against macroevolution, which implies the gradual change of one species into another.
Assuming that our audience has a Christian background, with some previous commitment to the Scriptures, two basic lines of argument may be employed. Note that the summary of such arguments (below) are only a first sketch for this site, whereas in the future I hope to unpack each of the numbered points in separate articles.
Now to those two argument “sketches”: First, in spite of the claims of philosophical naturalists who may have dominated the field since the Origin of Species, the empirical evidence does not in fact support Darwin’s theory. Second, the larger theory of (macro) evolution, and of the origin of life, by natural selection is absolutely incompatible with the biblical worldview and gospel. In other words, the first line of argument would be scientific and the second would be biblical-theological. Let us look at each of these in turn.
The Scientific Argument Against Evolution
The scientific argument would consist of at least ten points:
1. Natural selection, as an explanation of how evolution works, is an exercise in circular reasoning. It may be descriptive of the present refining of populations, but does not address how the information of life arose in the first place.
2. The origin of life per se is an insurmountable problem to prebiotic chemical evolution, as natural selection only selects from living traits, and only acts on information inherent in a system.
3. Darwinism’s prediction of gradual transition specimens is not characteristic of the fossil record.
4. Those “icons” of evolution that are in the fossil record turn out to be a combination of hoaxes (e. g. “Nebraska Man”) and specimens better explained as extinct species (e. g. Archaeopteryx).
5. There is an insurmountable “meta-level” problem in ruling on whether a specimen is a transition as opposed to an extinct species.
6. Consistent with thermodynamics, the genetic information in a given population tends toward disintegration.
7. Information is both fundamental in the same way as matter and energy are, and yet not reducible to material causation, which it would have to be if evolutionary theory could ever account for it—which it has not thus far.
8. Mutations tend to be deleterious in their effect on the organism rather than an advantage, yet the mutations required for natural selection are precisely those which tend toward survival.
9. Comparative anatomy and physiology has consistently demonstrated that so-called vestigial structures have present day function in species.
10. Similarly, within molecular biology, so-called “junk DNA” and pseudogenes turn out to have many confirmed physiological functions.
The Biblical-Theological Argument Against Evolution
The theological argument would also consist of at least ten points:
1. The creation account in Genesis shares several literary qualities wholly consistent with historical narrative. Any reductionism to poetry or myth does violence to other portions of Scripture, or to other doctrines of the faith.
2. The special creation of Adam, spiritually enlivened and physically fashioned by God, is the most natural reading of Genesis 2:7.
3. The special creation of Adam, as imago Dei, is foundational to man’s relation to God.
4. That special creation of Adam, is foundational to man’s dominion over the rest of creation.
5. The special creation of Adam, is foundational to sound ethics in general and civil justice in particular (cf. Gen. 9:5-6).
6. The historicity of Adam is necessary to the integrity of Christ’s teaching (cf. Mat. 19:4).
7. The historicity of Adam is necessary to Paul’s argument about the cause of death (cf. Rom. 5:12, 8:20, 1 Cor. 15:22).
8. The historicity of Adam is necessary to the gospel solution to death in Paul’s argument (cf. Rom. 5:15-19, 8:20-23, 1 Cor. 15:21-26).
9. In evolutionary theory, death is natural to the original creation and morally neutral; yet Christ’s death and resurrection testify to the root of physical death in sin (cf. Rom. 6:23, 1 Pet. 2:23, 1 Cor. 15:42-49).
10. The New Testament treats Genesis as history, quoting it either directly or indirectly over 200 times, over 100 of those instances referring to the creation and primeval history.
Obviously, if one is speaking with an unbeliever, it is the first set of reasons that will occupy one’s conversation. With that in mind, the Christian should be aware of some of the best literature on this subject, such as: Michael Denton, Evolution: A Theory in Crisis (1986), Philip E. Johnson, Darwin on Trial (1991), Werner Gitt, Did God Use Evolution? (1993), In the Beginning Was Information (1997), Michael J. Behe, Darwin’s Black Box (1996), The Edge of Evolution (2007), Jonathan Sarfati, Refuting Evolution (1999), Jonathan Wells, Icons of Evolution (2002), Stephen C. Meyer, Signature in the Cell (2009), and Darwin’s Doubt (2013). There are countless other books that are relevant in that they provide a more general alternative to materialist “science,” but these listed are specific to deconstructing evolutionary theory.
