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What is evolution?

by | Jan 20, 2021 | Creation Evolution, Secular Issues

The word “evolution” can mean a variety of things in different contexts. However, when most people ask “what is evolution?”, they are specifically asking about the biological theory that all the varied forms of life on earth have developed over time from a common ancestor through unguided, natural processes. As National Geographic explains, “evolution is a shortened form of the term ‘theory of evolution by natural selection,’ which was proposed by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace in the nineteenth century.”1 Microbiologist Michael Behe elaborates:evolution

Evolution is a flexible word. It can be used by one person to mean something as simple as change over time, or by another to mean the descent of all life forms from a common ancestor, leaving the mechanism of change unspecified. In its full-throated, biological sense, however, evolution means a process whereby life arose from non-living matter and subsequently developed entirely by natural means. That is the sense that Darwin gave the word, and the meaning that it holds in the scientific community.”2

The theory of evolution is the assertion that every living creature on the planet, whether human, animal, plant, or microbe, ultimately descends from a common ancestor, namely a relatively simple microorganism. It claims that the progression from these single-celled originals to all the varied species of today occurred over the course of billions of years, the various changes occurring slowly over time entirely by blind, natural processes like random mutation, natural selection, and genetic drift. As the popular Encyclopedia Britannica explains it:

“The virtually infinite variations on life are the fruit of the evolutionary process. All living creatures are related by descent from common ancestors…all plants and animals derive from bacteria-like microorganisms that originated more than 3 billion years ago.”3

The article goes on to say:

“Evolution can be seen as a two-step process. First, hereditary variation takes place; second, selection is made of those genetic variants that will be passed on most effectively to the following generations. Hereditary variation also entails two mechanisms—the spontaneous mutation of one variant into another and the sexual process that recombines those variants…The variants that arise by mutation or recombination are not transmitted equally from one generation to another. Some may appear more frequently because they are favourable to the organism; the frequency of others may be determined by accidents of chance, called genetic drift.4

Notice that the processes are all unplanned, unguided, and purely natural. The mutations are spontaneous. Natural selection is just the survival of those mutations that happen to work best in a given environment. “Genetic drift” is, by its very definition, “accidents of chance.” Thus, the theory of evolution is, at its essence, an attempt to explain all life without any reference to a creator or, indeed, the intervention of any intelligence, purpose, or will whatsoever.

Evolution’s key mechanisms

DNA helixThe theory of evolution relies on three basic mechanisms to explain how organisms change over time from the common microbial ancestor into all the diverse creatures on the earth today are as follows:

Random mutation: A mutation is a genetic mistake. Mutations occur during the process of copying DNA within the cells of a living organism. Such mistakes can cause the organism’s body to develop somewhat differently than its

parent. Mutations are almost always harmful to the organism, though on rare occasions they may pass on certain unplanned benefits in a given environment. Today, the concept of mutation is the driving force behind the theory of evolution because it is the only one of the three mechanisms that can allegedly produce new information. The other two mechanisms can only preserve or discard existing information.

Natural selection: This simply describes the fact that some traits give an organism a survival and/or reproductive advantage over its rivals in a given environment. To use a simplistic example, in a snowy environment, a mutation that caused an animal’s fur to be white rather than dark might have the accidental effect of hiding it from predators, allowing it to live longer and have more children. Over time, the white-haired version might grow to outnumber and eventually even replace its dark-haired rivals. (The same mutation would make the animal easier for predators to find in, say, a green grassland, and so in that case the white-haired version would quickly die out.). Thus, the “selection” here is not a conscious choosing but rather the chance survival or reproductive advantage in a given environment. This mechanism explains why one finds certain traits in certain places, but cannot explain how the trait arises in the first place. Natural selection can only preserve or eliminate a trait. It cannot produce one.

Genetic drift: This term describes scenarios where, over time, one genetic trait surpasses or replaces another in a given population without actually providing any clear survival or reproductive advantage. It is purely by accidents of chance that one variation on an organism happens to outproduce and thus outnumber or even replace another variation. Rather than “survival of the fittest” (i.e., natural selection), one might crassly describe genetic drift as “thriving of the lucky”. The squirrels in a given region used to have brownish-red fur and now most of them are grey. Neither color has a clear advantage over the other, but over time the grey one’s just happened to have more surviving offspring over a long period of time. They got lucky. This is genetic drift.

Evolution and the Bible: God is the creator

The idea that organisms change over time is perfectly biblical. Christians agree that genetic mutations do occur and some traits allow organisms to survive and reproduce better than others in a given environment. These observable facts fit quite well in the biblical model of various basic types of creatures created to reproduce “after their kind,” (Genesis 1:11-12, 21, 24-25, etc.). The idea that we are simply the late descendants of a blind chain of birth and death whereby all life descends from an original microbial ancestor, however, is beyond the pale. And the idea that all of this can happen by pure chance without reference to God is obviously in direct opposition to everything the Bible says. Further, Genesis 1-2 plainly teaches that God made different categories of life as separate, unique acts of creation, and countless other passages affirm this. To take just one example:

“You alone are the Lord. You have made the heavens, The heaven of heavens with all their host, The earth and all that is on it, The seas and all that is in them. You give life to all of them And the heavenly host bows down before You,” (Nehemiah 9:6).

God created everything and gave life to every creature in heaven, on earth, or in the depths of the sea. This would not be true in any sense if the diversity of life in Nehemiah’s day were the result of the accidents of blind chance or random environments.

Evolution and the Bible: Man as a distinct creation

Further, Scripture treats humanity as a unique, special creation of God made distinctly from the animals:

“Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” (Genesis 2:7).

The Scriptures frequently repeat the fact that God made man supernaturally from both the dirt and the breath of God. Since fewer people are familiar with this, I will give several examples:

“If He should determine to do so, If He should gather to Himself His spirit and His breath, All flesh would perish together, And man would return to dust,” (Job 34:14-15).

“You hide Your face, they are dismayed; You take away their spirit, they expire And return to their dust,” (Psalm 104:29).

“then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it,” (Ecclesiastes 12:7).

“By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:19).

“Remember now, that You have made me as clay; And would You turn me into dust again?” (Job 10:9).

“All go to the same place. All came from the dust and all return to the dust,” (Ecclesiastes 3:20).

 “Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were born Or You gave birth to the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God. You turn man back into dust And say, ‘Return, O children of men,'” (Psalm 90:1-3).

Mankind, then, is a distinct creation. God made humans separately from other living things. Our lineage is not that of proto-bacteria but of dust and borrowed breath.

Conclusion

For these reasons and more, the historical theory of the origin and development of all life on earth which we call “evolution” is unbiblical. Now, the observable facts of adaptation and change within given categories of creatures is both biblical and true! However, the common descent of all beings from a single-celled progenitor through unguided, material processes is not, and Christians ought to reject it.

References

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