Evolution AND Creation

Some aspects of the various theories of evolution seem logically sound and quite plausible to me. The basic concept of evolution has been around since the Greeks…that amazing culture that gave us so much when they began to think freely. What Charles Darwin did was observe and record the mechanism by which the theory might operate. Darwin, a keen observer with a very sharp mind, theorized that the mechanism by which human evolution might have taken place is ‘survival of the fittest.’ He observed that environmental pressures tend to weed out certain characteristics in the gene pool while favoring other characteristics. An animal more suited to cold weather is more likely to survive a planetary shift in temperature, like an ice age, than one not so well suited for example. I can buy that. There is still the sticky problem of one species of animal giving birth to a different species. Evolutionary theorists tell us that such changes happen gradually, over millions of years but they have yet to produce any fossil evidence of a real missing link. It could happen I suppose, but without any hard evidence it’s still just a theory.

What the survival of the fittest mechanism doesn’t come anywhere near explaining is Sentience. Sentience, self-awareness, consciousness, or whatever label ones gives the quality that sets human beings apart from animals makes us unique among living things on earth. Some scientists speculate that sentience might be an ‘evolutionary emergent’ quality. That is to say that when life begins to evolve into ever more complex forms, self-awareness naturally occurs. That is pure speculation with NO evidence to back it up. In fact the evidence seems to me to point the other direction. Human beings, if you buy the most commonly accepted theory of evolution, have been around maybe three million years. The dinosaurs were around some two hundred million years and there is no evidence that any of them became sentient in the process.

What happened to man is unique. Some will, no doubt, point out that we share 98 percent of our genetic make up with the great apes and they are just behind us in evolutionary development. They have been around as long as we have. If sentience is evolutionary emergent…why don’t they write books and build cities too? They are not just different in degree from human beings…they are different in kind. Any non-biased observer can tell you that. (Provided they don’t have a PhD to muddle their thinking!) Intelligence may well be evolutionary emergent but intelligence is not the same as sentience.

If evolutionary theory is true then something happened to mankind that made us different. We are self-aware. We are capable of understanding the universe around us. We can build cultures and create languages and we can pass on what we’ve learned through them. No other life form yet identified can do those things.

There was some moment in our development when we became self aware as a species. We might call it an, ‘Adam and Eve moment’. The emergence of the Human Spirit set us apart. At that point a new species was born. From here it might be possible to harmonize the Biblical account of creation with modern scientific thought. If the first hominid to become self-aware began to reproduce it is logical to assume that his offspring would have the advantage over other hominids in intelligence and eventually come to dominate. That would mean that all modern human beings had the same ancestor even if other hominids existed simultaneously for a time.

This is all just speculation on my part. I don’t believe there is enough information in the few pages of the Bible where the subject is addressed to speak dogmatically. I also don’t believe that evolutionary scientists have proven their case. There are too many holes in the best of their theories. Sometimes both sides seem alittle too entrenced to hear the other to me.

I think that children should be taught everything. Let them hear both arguments. Maybe it would be inappropriate for both arguments to be taught in a science class. That’s OK by me…send them to a worlds religions class too. Teach them everything!! The world they were born into is not black and white. It’s more complex than that. They’ll need good brains to navigate their way through it. They’ll need to be exposed to all the ideas to make up their own minds. I don’t think any of us should be afraid of education.

I DO believe education should include being taught the difference between right and wrong and they won’t get that in a classroom. They won’t be taught personal or social responsibility there either. It’s up to parents and churches to teach them the really important things. Instead of taking a hard-line stand on evolution versus creation, I think our time would be better spent on teaching our children to be decent people. We can best do that by our example…whatever our beginnings were.