Proverbs 8.1, Creation, Wisdom, Darwin, Evolution 10.30 am Sun 15/02/09
Last Thursday was the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth in Shewsbury, and this November is the 150th anniversary of the publication of his book “Origin of Species” in 1859. May be you have seen some of the programs marking these anniversaries. With today’s reading, and continuing from last weeks look at creation, we thought it was a suitable opportunity to look at the theory of Evolution and see how it sits with the Christian faith.
Darwin more or less said -
“Many more individuals of a species are born than survive and those most suited to their environment are the ones that survive”. He called this Natural Selection. He thought it could explain the way in which life had evolved on earth - What people call the theory of Evolution.
Mankind was made in the image of God, and that means we are also creative. Phil Tennant, who is in Wales Today, is a creator. He creates bread, cakes, and biscuits. His basic ingredient is flour, and he probably has a list of 70 or more other ingredients.
That is a lot less ingredients than God needed for man. The human body utilizes slightly less than 100,000 different proteins.
When Phil starts to cook, do you think he starts with one final product in mind? For instance a batch of loaves or custard cakes?
The answer is ‘yes’ and ‘no’.
Apparently some products all start from a mix of Sweet Bun Dough. Before mixing and adding fruit this mixture can be used to make Iced Buns and Doughnuts. Alternatively with the addition of Mixed Fruit, the dough can be used to make Tea Cakes, Chelsea Buns, Sugar Bun Rings, Bun Loves and Hot Cross Buns.
You could say they all evolve from the one original sweet bun bread under the watchful eye of their creator.
On the other hand Danish Pastry has no relatives, once Phil has started to make Danish Pastry that’s what you get, a Danish Pastry. He doesn’t add bits of this or that and end up with a different final product.
Tenants’ now make 25 different types of bread, 12 types of bun, 8 savour products and 40 different cakes.
Do living organisms each have a unique design like Phil’s Danish Pastry? Do some organisms start life in a very similar way to each other, like products made from Sweet Bun Dough? Or does God create living things in various ways?
Maybe you have seen David Attenborough’s TV series on Darwin or heard or read something else about his theories.
David Attenborough, like Richard Dawkins, the writer of the book, “The God Delusion” is an atheist.
Richard Dawkins belongs to a group of writers often called new atheists, who see all religions as a threat to science, and society. They denounce religious belief and show no respect for believers. They see all religions as dangerous.
One atheist writer Steven Weinberg says, “Scientists should do anything they can to weaken the hold of religion”.
These atheists suggest Christians don’t think or reason but have blind faith. Yet it is often these people who fail to reason correctly.
For instance, atheist Christopher Hitches says, “Our beliefs are not beliefs”. Err! What are they then?
Science involves faith. Scientist believe the universe can be understood at least in part. They believe it follows mathematical formula. That it isn’t just chaotic. That is actually a blind faith, for the atheist, who doesn’t believe in a law giving God, who wants us to be able to make sense of our universe.
As Albert Einstein said, “The only incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible.” The mathematics works. Why? He knew why.
These atheists are trying to convert people to atheism by using the celebrations this year of Darwin’s 200th anniversary, to say Evolution is Fact, and that proves all religions are false. People have always been ready to misuse Darwin’s work. Which isn’t fair to Darwin for two reasons.
1 One because he may have been considered an agnostic at times, but Darwin never denied Christ.
2 Darwin didn’t have the advantages of today’s scientists who have electron microscopes, and can study for instance reproductive cell division [meiosis], Chromosomes, DNA and the formation of embryos.
Before God’s word spoke anything material into existence, God had wisdom and understanding. In Proverbs 8.1 he says, “Listen as wisdom calls out! Hear as understanding raises her voice!” We are told by God to listen, to reason, to understand. Our faith shouldn’t be blind.
It seems wise to me to follow Paul’s example in Acts when talking to non believers. He chose something they were interested in to start a conversation, which led to telling them about Jesus’ resurrection.
Paul, standing before the Council, addressed them as follows: "Men of Athens, I notice that you are very religious, for as I was walking along I saw your many altars. And one of them had this inscription on it--`To an Unknown God.' You have been worshiping him without knowing who he is, and now I wish to tell you about him. (Acts 17:22-23 NLT)
Evolution, what is it?
Scientists today have split the idea of Evolution into two.
Micro Evolution which is Natural Selection within a species.
And Macro Evolution which according to the theory creates new species.
Dog breeders use micro evolutionary techniques. Although I don’t think you could call a pedigree dog naturally selected! But a dog is a dog, and no matter how different they look, breeds can be mated and produce cross bred puppies.
In the wild, this micro evolution or Natural Selection tends to be a weeding out process. The weaker within a species die out. It isn’t a creative process, nothing new is produced. Just the feeble, less capable of the species die in adverse conditions.
All Biologists, Christian, Atheists, and those of other religions all believe Micro Evolution is a fact.
Macro Evolution is the evolving of one species from another. Macro Evolution from the big bang, to this day, is the only possible explanation for life if you don’t believe in God. Christians have more options.
The problem is scientists realise the earth has been around a comparatively short time for evolution to have got so far. So they are trying to think of additional mechanisms to reduce the time taken.
Atheist Richard Dawkins says, “It is grindingly, creakingly, crashingly, obvious that, if Darwinism were really a theory of chance, it couldn’t work.
You don’t have to be a Mathematician or a physicist to calculate that an eye or a haemoglobin molecule would take from here to infinity to self-assemble by sheer higgledy-piggledy luck.”
So they propose, for instance, that there are some built in “mechanisms”, or “instructions” in the molecules which act like switches. Intelligent switches at that, as they don’t allow advantageous mutations to be switched off again.
But as Evolutionary Biologist Sir Ronald Fisher points out, in nature seen today “most beneficial mutations get wiped out by random effects, or by the likely much larger number of deleterious mutations”.
Richard Dawkins advises, “Next time someone tells you that something is true, why not say to them, ”What kind of evidence is there for that?” and if they can’t give you a good answer, I hope you’ll think very carefully before you believe a word the say.”
Which makes more sense?
This atheist point of view that –
In the beginning were the particles and they collided with each other, and following the laws of nature - Wherever they came from.
Eventually human beings were formed. And these human beings could think –
wherever thought came from.
And these Human Beings formed thoughts and the idea of God. The idea of God, because, of course there isn’t a God.
Or does this make more sense -
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created . . .
And John 1:1-4
In the beginning the Word already existed. He was with God, and he was God. . . . He created everything there is. Nothing exists that he didn't make. Life itself was in him, and this life gives light to everyone.
In Genesis 2:19 God gave man his first job.
So the LORD God formed from the soil every kind of animal and bird. He brought them to Adam to see what he would call them, and Adam chose a name for each one.
Have you any idea how many different plants there are in this world, let alone animals? A quarter of a million. The first job God gave to Adam was a biology assignment. Naming everything, and Biologists have been struggling to keep up with naming and classifying them ever since.
Can you believe in Macro Evolution and be a Christian?
God said, "Let the earth bring forth every kind of animal--livestock, small animals, and wildlife." And so it was. God made all sorts of wild animals, livestock, and small animals, each able to reproduce more of its own kind. And God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1:24-25 NLT)
Actually there is a word in this text that vaguely suggests related, evolved species.
The word translated “kind” here doesn’t necessarily mean within the species. It comes from a word meaning ‘portioning out’. So it doesn’t limit offspring to within a species.
Maybe with a ¼ million plant species today some did come from a common predecessor. Like Phil’s Iced buns and doughnuts started out as sweet bun dough.
In the last 200 years since Darwin’s birth, mankind have learned a lot more about the construction of living cells. Inside the human cell there are 46 chromosomes, know collectively as the human genome. These chromosomes contain DNA, De-oxy-ribose Nucleic Acid.
You may have seen models of DNA on TV. A very long double helix structure. In fact two metres of DNA per cell in the case of the a human. They are so thin you have to look at it under a microscope, and yet two meters of this knobbly, long, string of molecules is twisted, and curled up in the centre of every cell. As there are about ten trillion cells in the human body, the total length of DNA in your body is about 20 trillion meters.
Do you know what happens when a cell divides? The tangled mass of chromosomes in the centre of the cell has to uncurl and each chromosome lines up around the axis of the cell.
Ladies have you ever put several necklaces with chains together in a box? Then had trouble separating them because the chains have knotted?
Everyone, have you ever noticed that if you get different electric cables close to one another they seem to tangle?
It makes me wonder if God really enjoys untying the knots in our cells during growth and reproduction.
Do you know if any scientist has discovered of how these untangle without getting even tighter knots, so we can apply it to our necklaces and cables?
The double helix structure of DNA looks like a spiral ladder. The rungs of which consist of paired molecules called bases. The bases are Adenine, Guanine, Thymine, and Cytosine or AGTC for short.
Scientists have discovered by writing down these base letters that they represent the species from which they came. You could say the name of the species is written on the DNA.
Rather long names. For instance if you wrote down the base letters of the E.coli bacterium genome, you would find it is about four million letters long and would fill 1000 pages of a book. As bacteria are supposed to be the simplest form of life I can’t get my head around how the bases, could accidently, by chance get into the correct places.
The human equivalent genome is over 3.5 billion letters long. That gives room for an awful lot of possible errors.
We hear a lot about genes and DNA through the media. It is said we share 98% of our genes with a chimp.
But apparently only 3% of the genome (our set of genes) is actually DNA. Science hasn’t yet discovered what the rest is for.
Perhaps it is the remaining 97% of the genetic material that isn’t understood that makes us human!
Geneticist Steve Jones says, “A chimp may share 98% of its DNA with ourselves, but it is not 98% human: it is not human at all – it is a chimp. And does the fact that we have genes in common with a mouse, or with a banana say anything about human nature? Some claim genes will tell us what we really are. The idea is absurd.”
Actually, we share 50% of our genes with a banana.
Man hasn’t yet observed a new species being created. Take the common fruit fly with whom we share 60% of our genes. It is used extensively in genetic studies. The reason it is so widely used is because it is easily cultured in the lab. The life cycle (from egg to adult) takes about 10 days at room temperature.
French Biologist Pierre Grasse says that Thousands of generations of fruit flies have been bred, and mutations introduced into them, but at the end of a study you still have a fruit fly.
Generally, mutants of any species live short lives, and those that don’t, usually find their variation a disadvantage.
Niles Eldredge of American Museum of Natural History is a Palaeontologist who says,
“Once species appear in the fossil record they tend not to change very much at all. Species remain imperturbably, implacably resistant to change as a matter of course – often for millions of years.”
In fact Professor Paul Wasson goes further. He says in his book, “Climbing Mount Improbable” – “Large evolutionary innovations are not well understood. None has ever been observed, and we have no idea whether any may be in progress. There is no good fossil record of any”.
Most of the scientific statistics and facts in this talk have come from Scientist John Lennox’s book “God’s Undertaker. Has science buried God”. It is published by Lion if you want to buy a copy.
He says, “Science can tell you what will happen if you add strychnine to gran’s tea but it can’t tell you whether it is morally right to add the strychnine to her tea. To get your hands on her property.”
The book of Proverbs is about God’s Wisdom. It encourages us to learn to be wise and develop understanding
Richards Dawkins says, “In a universe of blind physical forces and genetic replication some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won’t find any rhyme or reason in it or any justice.”
Isn’t that sad! Pray for him!
The more God allows us to discover about ourselves and the universe, the more amazed and in awe we should be.
We should be like another great British Scientist, Isaac Newton, who the more he discovered the more he praised and glorified the genius of God for his greatness.
The processes happening in your body now may be automatic and unconscious, but the person who designed it is neither unconscious nor working automatically. We may think of the processes going on in our bodies and in life all around us as not remarkable because we expect them. But in fact they are just as incredible as many an obvious miracle.
Is Macro Evolution from species to species true even for the simpler organisms? The truth is mankind doesn’t know, but what has been discovered so far should make us marvel and glorify our generous, loving, kind, amazing, creator all the more!
Amen.