It is my privilege to be continuing with this series, Searching for the Truth on Origins. Over the previous eight sessions we have looked at the creation-evolution controversy, examining the claims of evolution and the claims of creation. We have looked at the facts and the observable evidence.
In this session, we want to move on and look at the impact that evolution has had on society. And particularly in session nine, we are going to be talking about the impact of evolution in terms of how it has affected the world morally. As we begin, let’s turn to Ephesians 5:8-17. Paul writes:
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. Therefore He says: "Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light." See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. (NKJV)
You see, what we are going to be doing in this presentation is to examine some of the trends, some of the things that are taking place in our world today, and try to understand what is occurring and why it is occurring. And we will be using the Bible as the Book that will give us insight and understanding. And as we look at these things that are taking place (make the observation of current events that are occurring in the world today) we are going to be able to observe that human behavior has a lot to do with whether we believe in a Creator or we do not believe in a Creator. According to the Scriptures, there are consequences when we reject the overwhelming evidence that God exists. And we will be looking at those consequences.
Now before we begin to look at the impact of evolution on society, I want to do a brief overview. We have had eight presentations talking about the creation-evolution controversy. We have examined the claims of evolution and the claims of creation. But now what we want to do is to look at an overview of the creation-evolution debate, just to review. What is it that evolution claims is true? What about creation?
Well, we will begin where the evolutionists begin and that is with the origin of the universe. It is believed that in the beginning of time there was a minute lump of matter which blew up. And as a result of an explosion of this very condensed lump of matter, we have everything which exists in the universe—the cosmos, the galaxies, our solar system, our planet earth, and everything on the planet including you and me.
But is this reasonable? Well, here is a fact: We know that explosions produce chaos and disorder, never order. Given time, all systems proceed in a direction from order to disorder. It never happens the other way around. This is a basic law of science. So the very foundational principle of the evolutionary model cannot be substantiated by what we observe.
Another principle of the evolutionary worldview is the claim that life originated in the distant, unobservable past, as a result of non-living materials coming together to formulate life. But has that ever been observed? And the answer is, no! It is a fact of science, that there is no evidence to show how life can arise from non-life. It has never been observed. All life we have ever observed comes from pre-existing life. This is a law of science. It is called the Law of Biogenesis.
We have the concept that evolution promotes that through time there has been a progression of life from lower to higher, from simple to complex. It is called the Darwinian "Tree of Life".
So, here on the "Tree of Life," we see this vertical progression that supposedly occurred. But what do we observe? No one has ever found the intermediates between the different kinds of life. Oh yes, we know that life changes but it changes horizontally, bounded genetically. But horizontal changes in no way provide a mechanism for the vertical change that would have had to have occurred if the Darwinian view is true. It is a fact that horizontal variation can occur within genetic boundaries, but we do not see the evidence in the fossil record that shows vertical variation of life as evolution claims. There are no missing links.
And then with the complexity of life, it is the assumption of the evolutionary perspective that all life can be explained given time and chance. But when we look at the basic unit of life—what do we see? It is impossible to explain. No one has ever observed a protein molecule which has come into existence by a process of chance, let alone the organelles which make up cells.
So we have another fact: Evolution claims the complexity of life can be explained by gradual minute changes over time. There is no mechanism that can show how the complexity of cells, tissues, and organs could evolve by chance and accumulated mistakes. You see there are some major problems with this worldview.
And with regard to the history of life, the claim is that through time, life has evolved from lower to higher, from simple to complex, from an amoeba to man. Hundreds of millions of years of time passed and layers were laid down gradually and we should find a sequence of life buried in the layers of the world, showing how this process occurred. But once more, it is a fact that it can be demonstrated that layers of the earth can form quickly and catastrophically. It does not require millions of years.
And it is another fact that we know that fossils were formed in some way that they are not being formed today, showing rapid burial. This would agree and fit exactly with the biblical claims that life, which was created, was destroyed in a worldwide catastrophic event. Worldwide!
Next we examined the claims of evolution that man has arisen from brute apelike creatures. Many of these claims were outright fraudulent and outright hoaxes. But in other cases we saw wild speculation, as single bones (toe bones) were used to formulate entire creatures.
The facts show that man has always been man. The artifacts that have been left to us by ancient civilizations agree exactly with the biblical perspective, that man was created and had tremendous abilities and attributes. And when we look at the major accomplishments of the ancient civilizations—the cities that they built, their towers, their ziggurats, their pyramids, their ability to alloy minerals together—what does it say? The biblical creation view can be supported by the evidence. The evidence is overwhelming, but still the majority of intellectuals worldwide have chosen to discredit creation and accept evolution.
We see here on the front cover of this book, The Rise of Life, this progression or change through time.
And here is a book that is put together to challenge young people to think about evolution. In fact it is called, The Story of the Origins of Humankind.
It was endorsed by Isaac Asimov who states, "Combines good detail with ingenious three-dimensional illustration. It’s bound to interest the inquisitive youngster."And when you open the book you see that it is very interesting looking. A volcano pops up and then this statement:
After countless chance encounters between organic molecules, an event created the universe in the depths of the seas about 3,500 million years ago. Groups of organic molecules came together to form living cells. (Asimov)
On another page there is a brute apelike creature walking along and again the statement that man has evolved. Well, this is certainly interesting, but is it based on factual information? You see it is rather clear that evolution is promoted but there are some real serious questions.
Now what I want to do is to examine the history behind evolution. We will examine those who founded the ideas—the founding fathers. We can only briefly look at some of these.
First of all, we begin with the Age of Enlightenment and we go back to the time of the French Revolution. This is when a number of individuals, who were very vocal in their presentations, made the claim that man was being held back in chains by religion. Perhaps you remember in history about the French Revolution. There was a great attack, of course, against the Bible. Bibles were burned. And the whole idea was promoted that we must throw away superstition and religion, and turn to man’s ideas. That was the Age of Enlightenment.
Well, in Great Britain there were numerous instigators in the Age of Enlightenment who had a great influence. One of these was a man by the name of Erasmus Darwin. That name should be familiar. He was Charles Darwin’s grandfather, who was born in 1731 and he died in 1802. Erasmus Darwin was a medical doctor but he had some ideas on the subject of origins. He wrote a book called, The Zoonomia, in which he laid out the idea that through time, life had progressed from lower to higher.
Erasmus Darwin was a religious man. He worshipped the gods Bacchus and Venus. And he seemed to have a personal agenda to attack biblical authority. Well, certainly he was not alone. In fact, he was one of fourteen members who formed what was called the Lunar Society. The Lunar Society met in Birmingham on the Monday closest to the full moon, which may give you some insight into the spiritual interest that some of these men had. As I mentioned, Erasmus Darwin himself worshipped Bacchus and Venus. He was interested in Eastern philosophy, Eastern religion. The Lunar Society projected the concept that the biblical view of the origin of man was a mythological concept and what we need to do is rely upon science in order to determine the truth. It is interesting that Erasmus Darwin was one of the members of the Lunar Society, but so was Josiah Wedgewood—Darwin’s grandfather on his mother’s side.
Then there was this individual who was very influential, named Charles Lyell. Charles Lyell wrote The Principles of Geology that was published in 1830. And by the way, Charles Darwin had this book with him when he went on his journey to the Galapagos. It was Charles Darwin, along with James Hutton who formulated the geological chart we looked at earlier, in which they proposed that the earth’s history was very, very old. And over hundreds of millions of years of time, the layers of the earth were laid down gradually. And it was through these long periods of time that life lived and died and was buried in these layers.
Most people are not aware that Lyell knew exactly what he was doing. He had an agenda that was, as part of this whole era of the Age of Enlightenment, to cause people to doubt the authenticity of the Bible—particularly the Genesis record. And that can be documented.
Charles Darwin once wrote regarding Lyell’s agenda,
Lyell is most firmly convinced that he has shaken the faith in the Deluge far more efficiently by never having said a word against the Bible than if he had acted otherwise... I have read lately Morley’s Life of Voltaire and he insists strongly that direct attacks on Christianity produce little permanent effect; real good seems only to follow the slow and silent side attacks. (Darwin, 587)
You see, Lyell’s objective was to cause people to question the Bible without attacking the Bible. And the way that he could do that is to present this view that the layers of the earth were laid down, not by any great global catastrophic event, but by gradual processes. The theory was called the theory of uniformitarianism; that is, that the present is the key to understanding the past. And that caused people to question what the Bible says about the creation that had been destroyed by a worldwide flood.
You see, Darwin himself was then able to use Lyell’s timeframe to substantiate the years that would be required for his idea of evolution to have occurred. And that is why reading Lyell’s book on the way to the Galapagos Islands was very important in helping Darwin formulate his ideas. Charles Darwin, of course, is often called the father of evolution; but certainly he is only one of numerous contributors. As we look into his life—in fact as we read his own testimony of some of the things that he said in the latter parts of his life—we can see that Darwin himself used evolution as a means of explaining away God.
Here is the only complete edition of his autobiography.
By the way, this was not published until 100 years after his death, by the request of his family, because of a number of things which he stated. I will quote to you as Darwin describes his journey. He says,
Whilst on board the Beagle, I was quite orthodox, and I remember being heartily laughed at by several of the officers for quoting the Bible as an unanswerable authority on some point of morality.
You see, Darwin himself had gone to seminary for three years. He believed in God. He believed in the authority of the Scriptures. But then something changed. He continues:
But I had gradually come, by this time, to see that the Old Testament from its manifestly false history of the world, with the Tower of Babel, the rainbow as a sign, etc., etc. and from its attributing to God the feelings of a revengeful tyrant, was no more to be trusted than the sacred books of the Hindus or the beliefs of any barbarian.
So you see, he once believed, then he doubted, and then he was very disgruntled. Then he makes this statement:
Thus disbelief crept over me at a very slow rate, but was at last complete. The rate was so slow that I felt no distress, and I have never since doubted even for a single second that my conclusion was correct. I can indeed hardly see how anyone ought to wish Christianity to be true; for if so, the plain language of the text seems to show that the men who do not believe—and this would include my father, brother, and almost all my best friends—will be everlastingly punished. And this is a damnable doctrine.
Charles Darwin stated, in his own writings that believing in Christianity, which is based on believing in a Creator, and believing that man is separated from the Creator because of sin, as he describes it, "is a damnable doctrine." You see, for him evolution was the way that he could explain away his accountability to the Creator.
What happened in Darwin’s life that brought this about? Well, it is interesting and I picked up this book while I was at Darwin’s home, which is now a museum. It is about his daughter, Annie. And this book tells you what took place. It reads on the back cover:
This is the story of the personal tragedy that lay behind Darwin’s revolutionary understanding of man’s place in nature. The author, Randall Keynes, eloquently and convincingly shows how Darwin’s mature theory grew out of the interesting and intensely personal pain. His failure to find spiritual comfort after Annie’s death, strengthened and confirmed his trust in natural laws, evolutionary laws, later called the survival of the fittest.
So here it is. You see, this was a turning point in his life when his daughter died. He was angry. He was bitter. Darwin’s theory of course has influenced billions of people. He is called the man who has influenced the world. He is called the scholar who has changed human history. And it is really true.
Darwin is buried in Westminster Abbey. I have been there and when you go into the Westminster Abbey you will note that his grave—well, you cannot miss it, you will walk right over the top of it—it is right in the central walkway. I asked the guide while I was there, "Why would Charles Darwin be buried here?" He said, "I don’t understand your question." I said, "Well, is this a Christian church?" The guide said, "Yes, of course." I said, "Charles Darwin was hostile towards Christianity." And I simply explained to him what Darwin had said in his autobiography, that Christianity was a damnable doctrine. He said, "Well, I can’t answer your question, but I tell you there is a place here where there are archives and maybe somebody there will be able to do that."
So he directed me to a library where I went and I asked the librarian the same question. "Why would Darwin be buried here?" And he took me to a shelf and he pulled down a book and this is what I read. From the book by Ronald Clarke, The Survival of Charles Darwin, a Biography of a Man and an Idea, page 197, I quote: (23:10)
Following his death which occurred April 19, 1882 his family planned to bury him in the cemetery at Down where he lived. But on April 21, twenty members of Parliament, including Henry Campbell Bannerman, the future prime minister of England, wrote the dean of Westminster, Dr. George Granville Bradley and stated the following; "We hope you will not think we are taking a liberty if we venture to suggest that it would be acceptable to a very large number of our fellow countrymen of all classes and opinions, that our illustrious countryman Mr. Darwin should be buried in Westminster Abbey." (Clarke, 197)
See he was a very famous person and they wanted him buried there. But it is very clear, by his own testimony, that he was not a believer. Well, there are some who say on his deathbed he claimed that what he had believed and what he had taught was not true. I do not know. I was not there. All I know is that his ideas have been used by many, many people to explain away the Creator.
You see, even Christians have been influenced by these concepts that were put forward by Lyell—the concept of the earth being millions and millions of years old. And it was during the time, even pre-Darwin, that Hugh Miller came up with what was called the Day-age Theory. You see, they were looking for some place in the Bible to put the millions and millions of years. So Hugh Miller proposed that a day really is not a day. A day is millions and millions of years. Well, that idea is still widely accepted.
And then there was the Gap Theory that was put forward by Thomas Chalmers, who lived between 1780 and 1847. This is another theory attempting to accommodate the timeframe of evolution into the Scriptures. Between Genesis 1 and Genesis 2, they say there were billions of years there and that is when life lived and died. The Bible says that death occurred as a result of Adam’s sin and not pre-Adamic. These theories are widely upheld today by many Christians, attempting to accommodate the evolutionary ideas’ timeframe into the Scriptures.
Now as we mentioned, Darwin is very influential. I am going to explain to you how influential he was, particularly in the communist world. Well for now, many of these places were formerly communist because there have been some changes over the past decade. The former Soviet Union, of course, for over seventy years presented Darwinian evolution without any alternative. You see this was Karl Marx’s concept. "There is no God. Religion is the opium of the people," he said. And so when Darwin came up with this theory, Marx was so enthusiastic he attempted to dedicate one of his works to Charles Darwin. Well, Darwin was part of the Wedgewood family and they were capitalists. Darwin could not accept. But for seventy years Darwinian evolution was advanced in Russia and other republics of the former Soviet Union. It was called scientific atheism.
There is a picture of me standing beside a statue of Darwin in the Moscow Darwin Museum. You see evolution was propagated elsewhere—Albania, for example. The people there were indoctrinated that there is no God. I have been to Albania several times. On the last occasion I spent time, actually staying with a medical doctor. We were exactly the same age. We had grown up through the same era and he told me during communist times, a patient came to him and asked him a question. He said, "Doctor, do you think that evolution explains the complexity of the human body?" And the doctor quietly said to the patient, "Please don’t repeat this," but he said, "No, I don’t." And the patient went to the government officials. He was an informant and he said, "This doctor doesn’t believe in evolution." And he was tried and he was sentenced for two years in jail because he was rebellious to party philosophy.
In the mid ‘90s I had the opportunity to travel with several others to a large symposium in Beijing where it was supposed to be open to presentations on Christianity. But when we arrived, we were interviewed by government officials. They said, "Who here is planning to speak on creation?" Dr. John Morris and I indicated that we were. And they said, "Well, you cannot speak on creation because that would be an attack against our ideology." You see evolution is foundational to those who want to promote the atheistic, humanistic worldview.
Here in the West, evolution has also been indoctrinated, but perhaps not with quite the zeal that there was in the former communist countries. But it is becoming that way. You see, the founding fathers of the Humanist Manifesto—John Dewey, Francis Potter and others—they laid out the principles of their faith. In Humanist Manifestos I, is the statement:
The time has come for widespread recognition of the radical change in religious beliefs throughout the modern world. The time has passed for mere revision of traditional attitudes. Science and economic changes have disrupted the old beliefs. Religions the world over are under the necessity of coming to terms with the conditions created by a vastly increased knowledge and experience. In every field of human activity the vital movement is now in the direction of candid and explicit humanism.
And then they make this statement—the two foundational tenants of the religion of humanism:
1) Religious humanists regard the universe as self-existent and not created. 2) Humanism believes that man is a part of nature and that he has emerged as a result of a continuous process. So it is very clear, there is no God. We are here because of evolution.
Here is a book entitled, The Women’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets. I have seen it in a number of universities. It is a textbook for feminist classes. The author is Barbara Walker and this is what she states:
The theory of evolution showed man could not have fallen. There is no original sin and therefore no need of salvation. (Walker)
In 1869 a German theologian, Dr. Schund said,
If Darwin be right in his view of the development of man out of a brutal condition, then the Bible teaching in regard to man is utterly annihilated.
The American Episcopal Church said,
If this hypothesis be true, then is the Bible an unbearable fiction. Then have Christians for nearly 2000 years been duped by a monstrous lie. Darwin requires us to disbelieve the authoritative word of the Creator.
Then another theological heavyweight declared,
If the Darwinian theory is true, Genesis is a lie. The whole framework of the Book of Life falls to pieces and the revelation of God to man, as we Christians know it, is a delusion and a snare.
Then Walker continues,
These gentlemen were right. The theory of evolution does indeed contradict the biblical creation myths and the dogma of the fall.
So there it is very clear. Here is a person who is not a believer who understands very much how significant creation is to Christianity. Oh, I would wish that many Christians would see this, but they do not comprehend how important creation is. In fact, many have embraced evolution.
Since I have become a creationist and then a Christian, I have been following the agenda to advance evolution. I am going to list a few of the books that I have collected. Books like: Scientists Confront Creationism, a series of essays edited by Laurie Godfrey; a book entitled, Fallacies of Creationism; another entitled, Abusing Science; The Case Against Creationism; a book called, Evolution and the Myth of Creationism; A Basic Guide to the Facts in the Evolution Debate; a book by a British author, Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker; Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design. What do these books say? Well, the same thing—people who believe in God are narrow-minded, religious bigots, who are trying to push science back into the Dark Ages. And they have all the same kind of arguments and attempts to support evolution.
In Science and Creationism; A View from the National Academy of Sciences:
As historic representatives of the scientific profession and designated advisor to the federal government in matters of science, the academy states unequivocally that the tenants of creation science are not supported by scientific evidence, that creationism has no place in the science curriculum at any level and that its proposed teaching would be impossible.
This is a more recent version put out by the National Academy of Sciences, Teaching about Evolution and the Nature of Science, in which they state:
Science Framework for California Public Schools, Kindergarten through Grade Twelve states:Evolution is the central organizing principle that biologists use to understand the world. To teach biology without explaining evolution deprives students of a powerful concept that brings great order and coherence to our understanding life.
In order to teach life science, earth science, or astronomy, evolution should be a fundamental, central concept of the curriculum. Evolution which Darwin described as descent with modification is the central organizing principle of life science.
And finally here is a publication put out by the American Skeptics Association, authored by Michael Sherman. It is called, Twenty-five Creationist Arguments and Twenty-five Evolutionist Answers. And the goal was to place this publication in the hands of every science teacher in North America. On the cover of the book, two hands are holding onto a church and the church is being stuffed into a box labeled "science." Science of course is representing evolution, and the church is representing creation. This picture really describes the agenda to suppress the creation movement, and to advance evolution without opposition.
And by the way, this agenda is the same in the UK and other parts of the Western world. I travel a lot around the world and wherever I go I find that there is opposition to the creation movement. For example, when I was in Northern Ireland in 2002, there was a great debate going on because there were some teachers in a school in Gateshead, England, who were presenting an alternative to evolution. Well actually, they were simply challenging evolution and it was in the news headlines. The article entitled, "Creationism in Schools" states:
Last week scientists, philosophers, and church leaders condemned Immanuel City Technology College in Gateshead for promoting creationism. Secular campaigners called on ministers to ban teaching of creationism in the state-funded schools, warning that failure to do so would allow every crackpot religious group to start peddling their own mad fantasies in schools. The senior staff at Gateshead delivered a series of lectures giving teachers tips on how to question the theory of evolution. (The Independent, March 19, 2002)
Well, what is wrong with that? Isn’t that what science is all about? Aren’t we supposed to be able to challenge? Apparently not!
Richard Dawkins who wrote the book, The Blind Watchmaker, has a position at Oxford University. It is called Public Understanding of Science. He promotes evolution wherever he can and he was writing in the newspapers. He was quite furious by what was taking place. The subtitle of Richard Dawkins’s book is, Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design. And in the Daily Telegraph, March 18th he said, there are three kinds of people when it comes to the subject of origins, those who believe that God created—they believe the Bible. Secondly he said there are those who believe that God used evolution—like Pope John Paul II. And then he said there are people, like himself who is an atheist, that believe in evolution. He said he is having difficulty in trying to educate the public into believing in evolution. So he said he is going to throw his support behind the Pope and others who promote the idea that God used evolution.
The National Geographic, November 2004 says, "Was Darwin Wrong?" Well, do not hold your breath. When you open to the article, the answer is, "No! The evidence for evolution is overwhelming," they say. And they give the same arguments.
Just November 11, 2004, Ledger-Enquirer says, "Georgia Evolution Dispute Embarrasses Some." There the department of education was going to put labels in biology textbooks that evolution was a theory. The ACLU was furious. They said, "You can’t do that! You’re allowing Bible-believing Christians to have their way." They just simply wanted to challenge evolution.
John Reader in his book, The Rise of Life, states,
The simplest explanation attributes life on earth to the work of some supernatural force which has ordered that things be so. This explanation has the unquestioned merit of encompassing everything. There is nothing that the implication of a supernatural force cannot explain. No question remains if God was behind it all. Belief in the omnipotent God is all that is required. (Reader, 9)
You see this man who is an evolutionist, knows what the alternative is—that there is a Creator and that there has been a creation. But he and others insist that this concept should not be even considered.
Now we have looked at this agenda. And I have this question: What are the consequences when individuals or a society willingly chooses to ignore the evidence for creation? Well there is a biblical answer for that question and it is found in Romans 1:18. This is what Paul states:
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. (Romans 1:18-23 KJV)
What is Paul saying? It is very simple. The evidence that God has created is so obvious from the things that He has made. When you willing choose to ignore or reject that evidence you are without excuse. And Paul describes what man will do. He said rather than worship God he will begin to worship man and birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things.
Which reminds me of a statement made by Carl Sagan in his book, The Cosmic Connection, he wrote:
As co-equal recipients of this precious patrimony of four and a half billions of years of evolution, why should the identification not apply also to other organisms on earth which are equally the product of four and a half billions years of evolution. We care for a small fraction of the organisms on earth. Dogs, cats and cows for example, because they are useful or flatter us. But spiders, salamanders, salmon and sunflowers are equally our brothers and sisters. (Sagan 7)
That is exactly what Paul said will happen when you willingly choose to ignore God. Paul continues in verse 24:
Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. (Romans 1:24-25 KJV)
They will reject the truth, and the context here is creation, and Paul says that they will accept the lie. What is the opposite of Creation? Evolution. And he continues:
For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. (Romans 1:26-27 KJV)
What is Paul taking about? Well, it is very simple. He says, men with men, women with women—homosexuality! And it is interesting that in the news currently, this is exactly what we hear. And by the way, to say anything about this publicly, that is to speak against it from the Bible, well, it could be considered a hate crime. That is the direction that society is headed. But Paul says this is exactly what you can expect when you remove God from man’s thinking. Man begins to make his own rules.
Paul continues in verse 28,
And even as they did not like to retain God in [their] knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. (Romans 1:28-32 KJV)
You see, the Bible describes a scenario of human behavior of what takes place when man removes God from his thinking—when he rejects the evidence of Creation. And when we look around us in the world today, the very things that Paul describes are the things that are happening.
Time Magazine, "Infidelity, It May Be in Our Genes. Infidelity is the result of the evolutionary drive for humans to have as many offspring as possible with as many partners as possible, an evolutionary psychologist states." Articles such as: Newsweek, "Murder; A Week in the Death of America", Newsweek, "America Under the Gun. What must be done?", US News, "Kids Who Kill", and Newsweek, "Massacre in Colorado"—all of these visuals are still in our minds of the things that are happening in this country. "Violence Goes Mainstream." "How Could She Do It?", "Parents Killing Their Children." "When Violence Hits Home." "Evil, What Makes People Go Wrong?" And with the abortion issue, now we even have pills to kill children before they are born.
What has happened to our society? Exactly what we would expect based on the biblical view, and particularly in a period of time called the last days.
Paul, writing in 2 Timothy: 3:1-5 says,
This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. (KJV)
The very language used to describe human behavior in the last days is the same terminology that Paul uses in Romans chapter one to say this is what will happen to people who remove God from their thinking because they have accepted a lie.
You see, this book gives us insight and understanding. What about the past? In the past eight sessions that is what we have been dealing with, the biblical view of the origin and history of life. And we can see that you can back it up and support it with the observable evidence. But it also helps us to understand what takes place today, presently in the world, to a society that removes God from their thinking. The Bible is true. I trust that this presentation will help us to better understand the impact of evolution on our society, morally.
In our next session we are going to look at the impact that evolution has had on our society spiritually and how that can be understood in light of the Scriptures and where we are headed in the future.
Bibliography
- Darwin, Charles. Himmelfarb, 1968. page 587
- Keynes, Randal. Annie’s Box; Charles Darwin, His Daughter, and Human Evolution, U.K. 2001.
- Kurtz, Paul. Humanist Manifestos I and II, 1986
- Walker, Barbara. The Women’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, November 1983.
- Science and Creationism; A View from the National Academy of Sciences, National Academics Press, January 1993
- The Independent, March 19, 2002, "Creationism in Schools"
- Sagan, Carl. The Cosmic Connection; An Extraterrestrial Perspective, Cambridge University Press, January 2000. page 7
- Clarke, Ronald. The Survival of Charles Darwin, a Biography of a Man and an Idea, Avon Books, March 1986. page 197
- The Independent Newspaper, Gateshead, England, "Creationism in Schools", March 19, 2002
- John Reader. The Rise of Life, Random House Inc.. February 1991. page 9
- Hawkey, Raymond. Evolution; The Story of the Origins of Humankind, Putnam Publishing Group, 1987.
