Summit Ministries

By Chuck Edwards

Biology 101

It's the first day of school. As you walk out of Biology class, your friend, Joey, pulls up beside you in the hall and says, "Mr. Matson was really onto that "evolution" and "creation" thing today in class. I don't see what the big problem is. What does it matter what you think about how life originated? Can't we just study plants and animals and not worry about how they got here? What difference does it make if some god created life or if life evolved all by itself from the "primordial" soup billions of years ago?"

Joey has a point. What difference does it make what you believe about the origin of life?

Over the past 80 years the issue of "creation and evolution" has been a hotly debated topic from high school biology classrooms to state Supreme Courts. What's a Christian to think in light of the conflicting arguments?

Some resort to arguing with their teachers when the subject of "evolution" comes up. Others buy into the idea of evolution and begin to doubt the Biblical account of creation. Still others throw up their hands with a "Who cares?" attitude.

What you believe about the origin of life really does matter. It impacts not only how you think about biology, but also how you think about every other part of your life.

For starters, your understanding about how life originated impacts three important areas: your concept of God (religion), your view of who you are (human nature), and what you think about right and wrong (moral issues).

What a Difference It Makes!

Let's take each of these three areas, religion, human nature, and morality, and survey the implications if evolution is true. If it is possible for non-living matter to create itself into living things, then God is not necessary for the origin of life. "Mother Nature" did not need God's help in bringing about life and all the different types of plants and animals living today. Therefore, "God" is simply a concept that primitive man developed to try to understand and answer the mysteries of life.

As far as human beings are concerned, evolution describes mankind as the highest form of life. Human progress from lower life-forms assumes that we are basically good and getting better all the time. "Trousered" apes do not have a sin problem. They do not need a Savior.

And related to morality, evolutionary theory implies that moral standards are just social ideas that have come about over time. These standards are constantly changing and "evolving" to fit the progress of the human species. Morals are whatever you want them to be - they are relative and situational.

You can see that these implications of evolution directly contradict everything that the Bible proclaims is true. The reality of God, mankind's basic sin nature, and absolute moral standards are central to the message of the Bible. So it is very important to understand the truth about the origin of life and what science has actually revealed concerning life's past.

But What About...

But some people object to the above implications of evolution by saying that God could have used the process of evolution to bring about life. This is called theistic evolution.

What's wrong with that?

To answer that question, we need to look closely at what the Bible actually says about God's creative activity. Did God use "evolution" as the creative process?

What the Bible Says About the Origin of LIfe

What does the Bible describe "in the beginning" and how does that compare with the current theory of "evolution"? The following chart makes the comparison:

So a close examination of the Scriptures reveals that the theory of evolution is not compatible with the Biblical account of the origin of life.

Why not keep this series handy and show them to your friend, Joey? He might just come to know about how science actually leads to a better understanding of God!
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