That was then.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning —the first day.

And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning —the second day.

And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.

Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds. ” And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning —the third day.

And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning —the fourth day.

And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” And there was evening, and there was morning —the fifth day.

And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground. ”

Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food. ” And it was so.

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning —the sixth day. (NIV)

So goes the (main) Biblical account of creation. Implausible? Perhaps so. But no more so than the atheistic alternative.

I love the theory of evolution. Darwin’s theory of evolution (or the modern evolutionary synthesis, as it’s called these days) is a monumental intellectual achievement. It’s a thing of great beauty and power. Modern biology would be lost without it. (So, too, would modern atheism!) Nonetheless, as creationists never tire of reminding us, the theory of evolution is only a hypothesis.

I’ve studied biology. I’ve studied the philosophy of biology. I understand both the theory of evolution, and its philosophical implications. But most people don’t. (Most people haven’t read The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins.) Ayn Rand didn’t understand the theory of evolution. Or, she understood it well enough, and didn’t like its implications. I suspect the latter. Her one-time lieutenant (and lover) Nathaniel Branden recounts

I remember being astonished to hear her say one day, “After all, the theory of evolution is only a hypothesis.” I asked her, “You mean you seriously doubt that more complex life forms — including humans — evolved from less complex life forms?” She shrugged and responded, “I’m really not prepared to say,” or words to that effect.

Not prepared to say? Isn’t that evasion, Miss Rand? Surely not!

I have serious doubts about the theory of evolution. Because it has serious flaws. (I don’t like its implications, either.) Fatal flaws? I’m really not prepared to say.

20 thoughts on “That was then.”

  1. The theory of Evolution is a profound deception Richard… profoundly vain… profoundly dishonest…. profoundly hypocritical, and profoundly mystical/ superstitious/ Anti science.
    If you really understand the philosophy of naturalism, and it’s history, you will understand what a gigantic *Fail* it is.
    It is a testament to Mans ability to swallow camels, that many people today think that the unified theory of the evolution of the universe and life upon the earth is virtually *a fact* when in reality it leaks like a sieve.
    Indeed the theory is as solid as a piece of wood.
    It is in reality 99.99999999999% empty space!
    And this is one of the branches of Status Quo ‘Scholarship’ which ought to make you skeptical of what passes for ‘Education’ these days.
    I was a militant Atheist evolutionist… laughed at religion as ridiculous untill I was 18, when I actually accepted the challenge by some Christians to check out the claims of evolution… That is when my eyes were opened. Though I was a diligent student at school… I had been deceived!
    Evolutionary scientists are not Objective. They ought to have Moons and stars and secret symbols painted on their white overcoats, and be forced to wear wizards hats.
    They are warped minds. Incapable of objectivity. False teachers.
    Atheist Evolution is circular logic… Everything is naturalistic… therefore there are no miricles, or supernatural realities… therefore everything has a naturalistic explanation… And the theory of Evolution is nothing but an attempt to justify this false atheism. It is not science. I can prove this by the fact that every reference to evolution can be removed from biology without loss to any *real biological fact* eg we can understand the heart, its functions, its problems, etc without any need to refer to the theory of evolution. *The theory of evolution is devoid of real value*…scientifically speaking…except in the sense that we can learn things even from false hypothesis… as we ought to learn from mistakes.
    When you know the history of the theory you know it ought never have got off the ground and that it was only because Mendel was overlooked for 20 years that Darwinism was able to get a foot hold. Mendel is the father of the Law of Heredity… the father of genetics Not Darwin! And Mendel’s Law proves the record of genesis… not evolution… ie Kind after it’s kind! That is Mendel’s law. There is no Law of Evolution.
    Survival of the fittest is not a Law… in fact it’s a bloody joke! In nature species survive not because they are ‘fitter’, but because they were more fortunate… ie their geographical local has more to do with survival than actual superior biology… ie luck is the dominant factor. And species don’t evolve (in the so-called macro-evolutionary sense…and micro evolution is not evolution at all) Species either survive, or they become extinct… they never transmutate into new creatures.
    The whole business is a gigantic religious hoax.
    The only reason it is still accepted is because of the extreme fanatical delusions of the so-call scientific community and their death grip on Naturalism.

    The Biblical account of creation is scientifically valid. It was the Christians who said by faith that the universe had a beginning when the atheist materialist Poo pooed this. They said the universe was eternal… until science proved the Christians were correct. The Biblical principle of ‘Kind after it’s kind’… is now a proven scientific Law. The Christian proposition that God created life is also scientifically validated by Pasteur’s refutation of spontaneous generation… which has never been contravened.
    I must give you a small caution.
    Gen1 is not the original creation of the Planet Earth but a restoration of the Earth after a judgment, when God laid waste to the Earth by flood…before he made Man… because of the rebellion of Lucifer (note in gen 1 god calls the *dry land* earth… not the Planet…thus distinguishing Land from sea).
    In this veiw Noah flood becomes a second deluge. And so the scriptures talk of several ‘Epochs’ between cataclysms, one before Man was created. I believe it was in this Pre-Adam age of Earth that dinosaurs roamed.
    The real beginning of creation of the Universe is found not in Genesis, but at the beginning of the Gospel of John.

  2. As you have probably concluded I believe in evolution but I am curious about creation and the reasons people reject evolution and believe in creation.

    Anyway just a question, what is a kind as in “kind after its kind”? It is not the same as species is it? Just wondering because the Bible states that Noah took representatives of all air breathing kinds aboard the Ark, so kind must be a subset of species because it is unlikely that representatives of all air breathing species would have fitted in the Ark. So if kinds breed true as you say how did all the species existing today evolve since Noah’s flood?

  3. Mark.V.
    A creation perspective… a kind can contain many species. All members of a kind had one or two original ancestor(s). There is variation within a kind but most of the variety that exists was built into the original ancestor(s).

    So, for example, there were two (or possibly seven) dog ancestors on the ark and all dogs are descended from them.

    What convinced you that evolution is true?

  4. Reed is quite correct in his account regarding Kinds.
    Eg The Bible declared *Mankind* to be all one race of beings… in the face of all the differences… and Genetics has proven this to be 100% true… and there is no difference between Aborigine and European, despite Evolutionist declaring Aborigines to be ‘closer to apes’ than Europeans.
    And all the variations Between them can be explained without evolution via Mendel’s Law and isolated gene pools.
    As for the skepticism regarding the Ark… was it big enough?… That’s an old query and it has been established many times that is was big enough.
    I recall watching a Moody Science institute movie about that subject nearly 30 years ago.
    I did a quick google and came up with the link below.
    I have no idea how ‘Good’ it is, yet it will serve the purpose of showing that this question has been put to the test many times.
    The fact that Dawkins to my knowledge does not raise this issue but rather focuses on the ‘horror’ of such a judgment as the flood I would say is a good indication that the Ark size is not an issue.

    http://www.christiananswers.net/q-eden/edn-c013.html

  5. Tim, you’re not giving the theory of evolution a fair go. It deserves to be treated with a great deal more respect than you accord it. Just like any scientific theory, it should be judged solely on its explanatory merits.

    I think your real gripe is with atheistic materialism, not with the theory of evolution as such. One reason for saying this is that many Christians believe in the theory of evolution. In 1996, Pope John Paul II proclaimed that the theory is ‘more than just a hypothesis’ and that evolution is compatible with Christian faith. He endorsed theistic evolution. In 2009, the Church of England went so far as to issue a formal apology to Charles Darwin: “Charles Darwin, 200 years from your birth, the Church of England owes you an apology for misunderstanding you and, by getting our first reaction wrong, encouraging others to misunderstand you still. …”

    Science proceeds by a process of inference to the best explanation. There are (at least) two questions we must ask, viz.

    (1) Is the theory of evolution the best explanation?
    (2) Is the theory of evolution an adequate explanation?

    This is where atheistic materialism rears its ugly head. Creationist alternatives to the theory of evolution are deemed inadmissible. Atheistic materialists think that the theory of evolution is the only game in town. To their way of thinking, the only explanation is necessarily best explanation. And, to their way of thinking, it’s the only explanation we’ve got, so it must be adequate.

    The theory of Evolution is a profound deception Richard… profoundly vain… profoundly dishonest…. profoundly hypocritical, and profoundly mystical/ superstitious/ Anti science.

    No, Tim, the theory of evolution is none of those things. The theory of evolution is only a hypothesis!

    It is a testament to Mans ability to swallow camels, that many people today think that the unified theory of the evolution of the universe and life upon the earth is virtually *a fact* when in reality it leaks like a sieve.

    Yes, I agree.

  6. I get it now. So for example there was a canine kind and from the canine kind evolved all the canine species we have today, wolves, domestic dogs, hyenas jackels foxes coyotes and it all happened in the couple of thousand years since the flood.

    Evolution requires millions of years for new species to evolve, Creation just a couple of thousand. And then the whole process mysteriously ceased. Species today are quite stable and have been for all of recorded history.

  7. Richard. I live and breath Evolution. To say I dont give it justice is to underestimate my dedication to it’s Refutation. To me it is One of Satans Ultimate deceptions… White coated scientists preaching Satanic lies.
    The theory of Evolution has Zero explainitory power Richard… as i said in my original comment it has contributed nothing to Biology.
    And Christians who accept the theory have abandoned biblical faith and fallen into error.
    And The Flood Happened. There is plenty of evidence for it, …enough *for faith* Richard… have you herd of that Christian word? Do you respect that word? It is not Allegory… God Judges Mankinds wickedness. To say it is allegory is just another retreat from The the faith Preached by St Paul, not because of any ‘fact’, but because of a personal distaste… and a rationalist incredulity about the story. Noah was a real person, We are all decended from him… and there is no contradiction between the story of the flood and science or history… thus Reason and faith align perfectly. When you tell the atheist that the story is not true… they laugh, because that validates their belief that the Bible is full of myths, and ought not to be believed.

    The only immagined ‘explainitory power’ of evolution Richard is its attempt to do away with God and Deify Naturalism… ie it is an immaginary atheistic process that does away with design.
    And it is complete crap!
    eg it pretends to explain how we came to have eyes …without God… yet It does nothing to explain the biology of the Eye. The mere fact that Monkeys have eyes and we have eyes too may be ‘interesting’, but is as relevant as the fact that sheep have eyes too. And does this prove any biological link between Sheep, apes, and man?… only in the Imaginations of atheists. It is better explained as being a signature of the same artist… the same designer… thus Evolution only ‘explains’ something if you have the will to impose it artificially onto the facts… It’s a very pathetic delusion. That the eye is a designed marvel is a much better explanation because it fits better with the way the world works… remember Paeley watch?
    The only thing is the design hypothesis explodes Naturalism, and all of a sudden ‘Souls’ and miracles appear… and you rationalist don’t like things like that aye… they scare you too much so you attempt to rationalize them away and make out those of us how believe in them are ‘irrational’ and ‘superstitious’, and ‘Anti-science’…whacky unlearned ‘Bible Bashers’…

  8. The Processes of the genetic principles of Kind are still ongoing Mark.
    Eg The ancestors of the Maori people separated off from the rest of the human gene pool hundreds of years ago and via the recombination’s of Dominant and recessive genes that they had they became a distinct group we recognize as Maori… yet along came the British, and these different peoples like to bonk each other and so the gene pool in New Zealand was altered again… not by evolution but by breeding, and so what emerges are Hybrids of the European and Maori gene pools. There is no evolution in any of this… The offspring are different, but still *absolutely human* all variations being within the range of the human genome (Do you appreciate the fact that a single pair of human beings can produce billions of children each with their own unique combination of genes?). And The specialization of traits within kinds is big business in horticulture and agriculture…specialist breeding to separate out desirable traits, eg special colours in Roses, high quality milk in cows, long wool in sheep, fast growth in trees etc.
    Yet all this is strictly within their kinds. Fish stay fish… humans stay humans. There is no transmigration from one kind to another. Ie there is no hereditary link between Apes and man. And this integrity of the Genes is reflected in the Fossil record. It trees were trees and remain so, and fish were fish… and still are. The fossil record does not show evolution but the integrity of the Genetics of kinds.

  9. I was an Atheist Evolutionist from the age of 5 years old. That’s when I received my first great book…. ‘The History of the World’ from my Grand parents, and it started with the evolution of the universe… the birth of the planet Earth, and the Evolutionary ‘tree of life’ clearly showing the progression of Ape to Man. I was raise a materialist. No Ghosts, no magic. no miracles. Science was what mattered. by my early teens I was a militant atheist and a hater of religion. I would roll on the floor with laughter at the thought of people believing in ‘The Great Bearded Man in the Clouds! Talk about Idiots! FFS! Didn’t they know that science had proven we came from monkeys???? didn’t they know there were no ghosts, no Magic… nothing supernatural…and no Rules that we had to obey.

    Nothing was a greater surprise to my Mother and Siblings than the day they found out I had become a Christian! It was a miracle. A Miracle that god was able to break through the utter delusion I was under regarding the scientific validity of Evolution. What you must understand Richard, is that if the Christians I met had told me they too believed in evolution… I would have Laughed in their Faces! I would never have received Christ. What converted me to Christianity was that It exploded the myth of evolution and presented a much more scientifically accurate description of the Universe. And after that experience of being freed from such a powerful deception as the theory of evolution is…and the Naturalism of Materialism, I dedicated myself to the challenge of knowing more about evolution than evolutionists do. More about how biology really works than they do, so that I could be a soldier for the gospel to save the lost whom are deceived by the very evil which almost Damned my soul. And since I became a Father I have doubled my determination to master the theory of evolution so that I might be able to answer my children’s questions about that theory and clearly explain why they ought to reject it.
    That’s how important it is to me. Nothing less that the Salvation of My children is at stake. Thus I am in the habit of investigating *every claim* that evolutionist make.
    And so far Not one claim has defeated me. Sometimes it takes time to find the solution, yet I can honestly say that a solution always comes! The claims of the evolutionists *Always fall flat*… and via this process my assurance that the Theory is Bogus is now absolute…and so I relish any new challenge the evolutionists attempt.

  10. Tim, if you have indeed dedicated yourself to the challenge of knowing more about evolution than evolutionists do, then you should know better than to say things like this.

    there is no difference between Aborigine and European, despite Evolutionist declaring Aborigines to be ‘closer to apes’ than Europeans.

    No self-respecting, modern evolutionist believes this. Just as no self-respecting, modern Christian is ever seen holding a placard saying ‘God Hates Fags’. It’s a caricature. Just as this is a caricature.

    the earth is millions of years old, despite Creationists declaring that the earth was created at 6 p.m. on 22 October 4004 BC.

    Please, let’s play fair. As you do here.

    The mere fact that Monkeys have eyes and we have eyes too may be ‘interesting’, but is as relevant as the fact that sheep have eyes too. And does this prove any biological link between Sheep, apes, and man?… only in the Imaginations of atheists. It is better explained as being a signature of the same artist… the same designer…

    Sheep, apes and men have very similarly fashioned eyes. What’s the best explanation of this interesting fact? Is it that sheep, apes and men are related by descent from a common ancestor? Or is it because the blueprints for sheep, apes and men all came off the drawing board of the same designer? Such are the questions we should be asking.

  11. Hang on Richard…. When I talk about the Aborigine as being a primitive man I am giving you the very real history of the Theory of Evolution, and showing how Christian theism *was always right*… and evolution has been simply one absurd idea after another… all of which have been debunked.
    Admit the Evolutionist were convinced aborigines were primitives and White Men were the highest evolutionary form of Human being
    Despite defeat after defeat the fanatics never abandon their pet theory… they instead ‘leap frog’ over onto another absurd Idea and squat there untill that too is destroyed by Real science* Thus the theory of evolution is a trail of one absurdity after another! Yet the evolutionist will pretend the history of the theory has been an upward progression which has pushed creationism backwards and into a corner. That’s complete Bullshit! The opposite is true! The theory of evolution is a story of one failure after another, and the validity of the genesis record keeps getting stronger! eg the decoding of the Human Genome validates we all come from *one woman*!!!
    This is the very latest …the very cutting edge of Real Biology!

    And by the way the Bible does not say the universe was created in 4004bc.

  12. And The Flood Happened. There is plenty of evidence for it, …enough *for faith* Richard… have you herd of that Christian word? Do you respect that word? It is not Allegory… God Judges Mankinds wickedness.

    Tim, symbolism is symbolism, allegory is allegory, and historical fact is historical fact. Faith is not a requirement to confuse one with another.

    Allegory requires that you focus on a story’s central message, and not on its trivial “factual” details. The central message of the Noah’s Ark story is that God judges mankind’s wickeness, just as you say. In saying that the Noah’s Ark story is allegory I am not trying to submerge this central message, in fact I am giving it greater emphasis.

    I already blogged the prologue to the story. The Bible recounts that God regretted the way the human race had turned out and decided more or less to abandon the experiment and start over. He preserved a mating pair of each species of animal, and Noah and his family. Did he literally arrange for an ark to be built and for it eventually to wash up on the slopes of Ararat? Or did he preserve them cryogenically to be thawed out upon his return from a much needed vacation? Does it matter?

    I dispute your claim that there is plenty of evidence for the literal occurrence of the Biblical flood. There is no evidence of such a global cataclysm. Archaeological remains of the ark have never been located.

  13. How about the Genetic fact that we all come from Adam and Eve?
    Then you have the validation of the Fall in that the character of Cain… the firstborn sinner is still an acurate description of Mankind in general today, holding good at all times, and all places, and all peoples?

  14. Tim
    Excluding the bible there’s no evidence that man was made on the sixth day.

    Why did you believe in evolution?
    What did you think was the best evidence for evolution?

  15. The fact that we (mankind) are standing upon the Earth today means we were created and put here on a particular day in the ancient past. So the simple facts support the Genesis story.

    I was raised in the Darwinain faith Reed. I was a good, trusting, gullible, student.
    And it appeared to be a proven fact because all the scientists accepted it.
    In otherwords I was a stupid, blind, and unquestioning Sheep.

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