Is it even possible to have an honest discussion today about Darwin and his theory of evolution? Yes, and we should. In the heated battle with the Evolutionists, it is the Intelligent Design crowd, not the Creationists, who will win. ♦
In a 2016 Pew Research Center study (Religious Landscape Study), roughly 6 in 10 American adults (62%) say humans have evolved over time. But only a little more than half of them (33% of all Americans) express the belief that humans and other living things evolved solely due to Darwin’s proposed natural processes. A quarter of American adults (25%) say evolution was guided by a supreme being. 4% aren’t sure how they evolved.
The same survey found that 34% of Americans reject Darwinian evolution entirely, saying humans and other living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time. 4% reject evolution but aren’t sure how they were created.
Sounds like a pretty confused country.
Bet on Intelligent Design
In a culture led by those with the largest megaphone, the current numbers are deceiving. The truth is that Darwinism and its modern iteration, Neo-Darwinism (Darwinism as modified by the findings of modern genetics), is flailing in its attempt to stay alive.
What?
Yes, the quiet revolution of the Intelligent Design movement over the past 30 years is not going away anytime soon. What’s at stake is the complete discrediting of Darwin’s theory.
It’s about time.
The empirical evidence that we’ve been told to believe that ostensibly proves that evolution is true is sketchy at best and outright false at worst. It’s high time that those who fight for evolution face up to the arguments and facts that equally qualified people have put forward that expose Darwin’s theory as fatally flawed.
The original brain trust behind the Intelligent Design movement are:
- Michael Denton (1986) – Evolution: A Theory in Crisis
- Phillip Johnson (1991) – Darwin on Trial
- Michael Behe (1996) – Darwin’s Black Box
- William Dembski (1999) – Intelligent Design.
They boldly assert that Darwinism is not science at all, but a cosmology built on the foundation of nineteenth century philosophical materialism. What is actually undeniably evident in ALL the sciences are the fingerprints of an intelligent designer.
Startling Facts
The facts compiled against evolution are startling. As summarized in his 2003 book, Doubts about Darwin: a History of Intelligent Design, Thomas Woodward, highlights well-known arguments against the theory of evolution. For example:
- There is less probability of a single cell emerging from inert matter than a tornado blowing through a factory and assembling a Boeing 747
- There is no fossil evidence for macroevolution, the claim that life developed through the selection of random mutations.
- Microevolution is evident around us (change within species or kind – Darwin got that right); however macroevolution, Darwin’s theory of wholesale change into new species or kinds is false and completely unproven.
- Irreducible complexity, the discovery that subatomic systems are so complex that to take away one element causes their complete collapse, rules out the possibility that Darwin’s evolutionary pathways (where complex systems emerge from simple systems) even exist.
- Even very recent scientific discoveries about cell structure, design and complexity only further support Design over random evolution.
Previous challenges to evolution were primarily from creationists committed to a literal Genesis. Denton’s book was the beginning of the new wave of scientists weighing in, not fundamentalists. As an agnostic with no religious agenda, Denton was more effective among scientists with his appeal to empirical facts within conventional science. Phillip Johnson, a Berkeley law school professor and Michael Behe, a professor of biochemistry, approached the topic with such fresh, clear-thinking personal rationale that the Design movement was launched while creationists were left wondering if these brilliant intellectuals were friends or foes.
They’ve done a great service. Conservative Christians should understand the brilliance of the Design movement’s strategy. By taking religion out of the debate, they’ve actually opened the door to debate.
Evolution’s Not Dead Yet
Don’t get me wrong. Darwin’s theory is not dead yet. I’d give it another 10 years before it subtly ends up on the ash heap of history as a quaint but incorrect theory. But even then ungodly men will have morphed the theory into another variation of natural science fiction – anything rather than admit the role of their Creator.
The perpetuators of the Big Lie would not want to invalidate their scientific ideas or impact their personal moral philosophy. To do so would demand their submission to divine authority in their lives. May God be someday revealed to them.
But as a group, evolutionists are unlikely ever going to admit defeat. There will only be new justifications and tougher tactics. The battle is brutal. Jobs and tenured status will be lost by many along the way.
If you’re watching closely, as Dembski and new rounds of other critics of evolution expose the scientific impossibilities inherent in Darwinism, evolutionists have come more and more to rely on like-minded judges in court opinions to block open-minded education. They are desperate to stop the introduction of students to the possibility that the universe may not be the product of random evolution but of an intelligent designer. So they label such views as “creationism,” and therefore a religious doctrine. In doing so, judges and evolutionists hope to maintain Darwin’s stranglehold on access to the minds of the young. It’s more like brainwashing.
They’ve succeeded in some battles. But they won’t win the war. The evidence that has been stifled and hidden will get out. Any sane person studying the material with an open and unbiased mind will be flabbergasted, and then angry at the cover-up. That’s what happened to Behe and the others.
So Now What?
Christians and fair-minded agnostics need to keep up the pressure on all comers to not limit debate. In fact, teach the debate. Put all the facts on the table and take it from there. If the scientific method is about observations and tests, then let’s teach real science: observe, test, and hold no preset views as sacrosanct.
And Christians and pastors should bone up on the mountain of materials out there that will educate this and coming generations about scientific facts that only further support the Bible and our Creator. While we have been deceived by a clever and godless culture, we no longer have to timidly go along. The emperor has no clothes. Let’s call it as it really is.
Do you know all the real doubts about Darwinian evolution?
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For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse…. Although claiming they were wise, they became foolish…. – Romans 1:20, 22
Categories: Evidence, Evolution, Faith
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I read Phil Johnson’s book and I was ‘flabbergasted’ just like you say. I was angry that the debate was never taught to me. It has been revealed to me that an apriori commitment to a godless worldview is really the underpinning of much of the ‘science’ we are indoctrinated with. I like to quote something from another book – “It takes more faith to believe in evolution than it does intelligent design”. So true.
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Thanks for sharing, Rob. Yes, Johnson’s book should be required reading in high school. Just that book alone would open the eyes of many and cause the public to question just what and why is information being suppressed.
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