Prologue:
After writing this post I figured this would be a great way to start the post.
In order to understand creationism you must fully immerse yourself in the model and have a complete understanding—not just the knowledge of a few mechanisms otherwise you will not see the whole picture. Take for example this illusion:
Deepening on how your brain works you see either a rabbit or a duck. Simply by thinking about the one of the two animals your brain will find it and the illusion changes from a duck to a rabbit or vice versa. In order to understand the creation model you need to fully understand the model to see the full picture. Knowing a couple of mechanisms or ideas relating to creationism will give you an incomplete view and you will fall back on the ideas you were taught in school; the ideas that you know so well. As Christians, I think it is obligatory to at least learn and understand a model based on the bible. A good creation model is based on God's word and explains our reality based on the truth found in the bible. There are no contradictions with God's word and the bible—if you do not know this you are ignorant to the creation model. My goal with this discussion is not necessarily to convince you God created the world in 6 days, but to encourage you to look deeper and understand the creation theory that harmonizes with God's word and reality.
Let us begin.
O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called.
1 Timothy 6:20
I believe that a model, using a literal interpretation of the bible, gives us clarity and understanding of the origins of life on earth and that the evolutionary model is unnecessary to explaining our origins and earths biodiversity. I believe the bible tells us our origins in the First chapter of Genesis. Through Genealogies in the Bible we can deduce that the time between Adams birth and present is around 6,000 years ago and the flood being around 4,400 years. Mind you, I came to these beliefs (and to Jesus) after being an atheist my entire adult life preaching evolution, astronomy and bashing on Christians.
I do not believe in Evolution in the sense that all life came from a single ancestor. However, I do believe what is observed—that animals evolve, or adapt, or speciate, or become best fit for their environment as Darwin observed on the separated islands in the Galapagos. Now if you read Genesis 1 the text clearly states that God creates the animals, the plants, the birds, the cattle, etc and He says to let "the earth bring forth the living creature. God created the kind of animals and let's the earth "bring forth" more of its kind.
Verse 24:
And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creatures after his kind, cattle, and creeping things, and beasts of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
Now let's focus on the words: "Let the earth bring forth living creature after his kind." God is letting the earth bring forth the different kinds of creatures...BUT according to their kinds. God created all the KINDS of animals and plants, as stated in Genesis 1, and allows the earth to bring forth more types of animals and plants according to their KINDS.
Genesis 1:25 (KJV)
The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds.
For example God creates a bear, which is a kind of animal. The land brought forth the grizzly bear, the black bear, polar bear, panda bear, and so on but only according to the kind of animal God originally created. That is, the land will never bring forth an animal that strictly deviates the body plan originally given by God and becomes another kind. So when Darwin observed the different species of Finches on the Galapagos and hypothesized that they all came from a single ancestral finch, I agree with him. I believe that God made that ancestral finch that then evolved, or adapted or speciated ACCORDING TO ITS KIND (a finch) and is now a more specialized, and better fit for its environment. This can now be traced genetically.
Geneticists have discovered on/off switches in genes. These can be hereditary and change every generation. If the gene is masked there are no instructions to make the necessary protein and that function is lost but the gene is still present in the genome and geneticists can look at them. Never have they ever found misplaced genes. For instance, a bear does not have masked genes to grow feathers, just an example. No where in the "ancestry" of the DNA has a bear had a genes to grow feathers or anything outside its original body plan. The bear can grow big, according to its body plan, it can turn different colors, it can adapt to the cold or heat, it can change its digestive track all ACCORDING TO ITS KIND but it cannot, never has and never will be able to grow feathers, as an example.
All of this is confirmed once again in Genesis 7 when God commands Noah to put a male and female of each animal...ACCORDING TO THEIR KIND. God preserved the animals according to their kinds, male and female. So, Noah did not take both a polar bear and a grizzly bear. Instead, Noah took a single bear. Post flood, the Bears repopulated (as God commanded in Gen 8) and scattered upon the earth (as God commanded) and the earth brought forth the adaptations of the kinds which turned the bear on the ark into a polar bear, a grizzly bear, a panda bear, and so on (as God commanded). The mechanism God used is the environment to pick out the best genes available within the genome God originally created. God designed the DNA to literally have on/off switches that can be manipulated by environmental pressures.
After Noah's flood the animals got off the ark according to their kinds (Genesis 8), repopulated, scattered and become all the species we see today in just 4400 years. Coming from the idea that it takes millions of years to speciate, this number seems ridiculous. Do understand, I don't believe the time required for evolution from a single cell to mammals is required because God created each kind instantly, this would cut off billions of UNNECESSARY time. Let me show you some empirical/observable evidence that fully supports rapid adaptation to the environment making the 4400 years allotted very reasonable.
But first, let us get acquainted with the vastness of diversification of plants and animals:
Vertebrates:
Amphibians: 6,199 Species
Birds: 9,956
Fish: 30,000
Mammals: 5,416
Reptiles: 8,240
Subtotal: 59,811
Insects: 950,000
Plants: 297,326
*Source: The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) 2007 Red List.
Now let's look at the total amount of families. Note: What the evolutionary community refers to as a family roughy equates to a 'kind' created by God. Research Baraminology to learn more about differences—but for our discussion the numbers we have for families is a fair estimate for the original kinds God creates.
Vertebrates:
Amphibians: 61 Families
Birds: 170
Fish: 522
Mammals: 136
Reptiles: 57
Using this data, on average, each mammal FAMILY (or KINDS, as the bible names it) yields 40 species, or variations. However, the family Muridae (Rodents) accounts for over 700 species as opposed to Urisidae (Bears) with 8 species and Canidae (wolves, fox, jackal, dog, etc) with 34 species. A few reason why we see more rodents than bears and canines can be the quicker lifespan and gestation period of rodents. The average gestation period is around 2 weeks and life span 2 years. Additionally, rodents birth up upwards of 10 babies per litter. The more generations and less time allows the rodents to specialize to their environment better. With each generation, through environmental pressures, manipulates the genes (on or off), and the genes that are best fit for the environment are more likely to produce offspring and through this whole chain of events more and more specialized rodents will appear. The idea that shorter life span, quicker gestation period and bigger litter is confirmed in the insect world. Massive reproduction rate, the quick gestation and maturing period allows thousands of generations to occur in the time of 1 monkey lifetime. These traits shared by insects are advantageous in speeding up the process of adapting to their environment.
We should expect to see animals rapidly change to new threats from the environment. These threats could include introduction of invasive plant or animal species, natural disasters making permanent change, or even complete relocation of the animal by artificial or natural means.
All kinds of animals adapt to their environment to the best of their ability based on the genes that can be manipulated (turned on or off) by environmental pressures. The greater the environmental pressure is—the quicker the adaptations are made and the quicker a new species comes into existence. It has been documented how rapidly rodents can change morphological at least 15 morphological features corresponding to changes in human population density, current temperature gradients, and/or trends in temperature and precipitation. Rodents have morphologically changed drastically over the past 100+ years both on mainland and island environment, likely due to human population. When a new environment is introduced to the rodents, due to increased human population, temperature, etc rapid change occurs. This rapid change will never change the rodent into having features that are outside of its body plan—outside the available information in the genome. Never has any information ever been added to the genome. Another example of rapid microevolution would be the Italian wall lizards and the drastic changes of their digestive tract.
It was in 1971 when some biologists relocated 5 Italian wall lizards to a neighboring island. They came back some 30 years later to find the original 5 lizards' descendants of over 5,000 lizards. Genetically tested to be ancestors of the original 5 the modern lizards have an additional digestive structure—a muscle between the large and small intestine—that allows the lizard to eat a more vegetarian diet; the environment pressured the lizard to eat a vegetarian diet due to lack of other food sources. Additionally, the lizards head grew longer and bigger than before allowing it to bite down harder. The plentiful food made the lizard more of a social animal, reproduction rates increased and terrible defenses decreased (the lizard isn't as aggressive). These changes all happened in 30 generations and 30 years. Imagine what 4400 years can do!
The Flood of Noah occurred 4400 years ago based in given biblical chronology. In Genesis, we learn that God allows the animals to adapt to their environment but only according to their kind. We have observed rapid change in animals in short periods of time when introduced to a new environment—keep in mind that after the flood the animals would be under a lot of stress provoking quicker adaptation to their new land; this concept has been observed. In terms of explanation of biodiversity on the planet, I don't see any issues. Breakdown: Animals got off ark > repopulated locally > animals scattered upon the earth (possibly aided post Babel and the scattering of the people) > animals, under high stress, made changes in their genome to adapt to their environment > over 1000's of years we have the biodiversity we see today.
I do not believe that their is any massive conspiracy with all the evolutionary biologists trying to trick the ignoramuses of the world into believing in evolution. I do not think the scientists are stupid (ignorant, but smart). I believe that there is plenty of evidence supporting macro evolution. "I would argue that the type of evidence expected from macro evolution is also expected to be there if macro evolution is false.
For example, if Santa Claus is true I would expect gifts under the Christmas tree this year. But if Santa Claus is not true it does not follow necessarily, to expect no gifts under the Christmas tree this year.
This is called the denial of the antecedent.
"If macro evolution is true, then evidence X.
If macro evolution is not true, therefore NOT evidence X.
(Denial of the antecedent fallacy.)
I acknowledge that there is evidence you might expect to exist if evolution were true, certainly if mammals and reptiles evolved from a common ancestor or an amphibian, we might expect homological bones. I agree that the evidence seems to be similar to the evidence expected from a common design. It may well be that those bone-patterns simply are the only ones that work, or maybe they are the only ones that work best (the most superior design).
If God is omniscient, which He is, then every design will be the design of best choice. This logically follows and is expected from an all-wise God, therefore we should not expect a rabbit to NOT have homological bones, if that design is the best design.
The real question is this; "if there is evidence for evolution, is it the type we would expect, and is it the amount we would expect?"
It certainly is only the amount we would actually expect had evolution not occurred. In the same way we would only expect a handful of lottery winners out of millions of attempts, when we have millions of species on earth, we would also expect a handful to look like they evolved. But if we did evolve we would expect generally to see transitionals in abundance, of every type/body plan."
We could go back and forth with evidence that supports our view and I can counter it with how it supports my view and so on. Nothing in reality contradicts our Genesis. The contradictions exist when mans interpretations trumps God's word. Make God be truth and every man a liar (Romans 3:4). The bible is given by inspiration of God (2 Timothy 3:16) and supports a rational worldview. We can be certain the bible was inspired by God because it's prophecy and fulfillment; proving the ability for the writer to of had knowledge outside their time domain—the writers claimed this knowledge came from God. God wrote the bible in that sense. The bible displays arcane knowledge that no one else knew at the time. Job 38:31 talks about the Pleiades being bound together. Most astronomers even today are ignorant to the fact that the Pleiades are gravitationally bound, yet the writer of Job must of known? Job was quoting God. Etched in stone God declares in Exodus 20:11
For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
It is very clear that God makes it clear the earth was created in six literal days!
Again in
Our creator left us with a book and told us it was inspired by Him and breathed by Him. Why are we not defaulting this view until proven otherwise? Do you not understand that the same pile of evidence used to support evolution can interpreted as effect from Noah's flood, creation, biblical events.
For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.
Matthew 13:22
I never used to think it was wise to try and convince another Christian to drop evolution/old earth for creationism, young earth, flood, etc until I understood this verse more intimately. I believe that delusion began in the garden of Eden when satan told Eden "Ye shall be as God's." That has always been the deception, he has played off our pride and made us masters of our world. I believe that evolution will be a mechanism in the end times delusion that tricks the world into accepting the antichrist instead of Jesus as end times prophecy has foretold. Additionally, as a personal testimony, the bible has come to make more sense the more I understand it better as I learn more and more about what the bible says is true about our reality.
This was a very brief intro into the theory of creation but I encourage everyone to look deeper as I have given you very information. Please feel free to ask specific questions!
After writing this post I figured this would be a great way to start the post.
In order to understand creationism you must fully immerse yourself in the model and have a complete understanding—not just the knowledge of a few mechanisms otherwise you will not see the whole picture. Take for example this illusion:
Deepening on how your brain works you see either a rabbit or a duck. Simply by thinking about the one of the two animals your brain will find it and the illusion changes from a duck to a rabbit or vice versa. In order to understand the creation model you need to fully understand the model to see the full picture. Knowing a couple of mechanisms or ideas relating to creationism will give you an incomplete view and you will fall back on the ideas you were taught in school; the ideas that you know so well. As Christians, I think it is obligatory to at least learn and understand a model based on the bible. A good creation model is based on God's word and explains our reality based on the truth found in the bible. There are no contradictions with God's word and the bible—if you do not know this you are ignorant to the creation model. My goal with this discussion is not necessarily to convince you God created the world in 6 days, but to encourage you to look deeper and understand the creation theory that harmonizes with God's word and reality.
Let us begin.
O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called.
1 Timothy 6:20
I believe that a model, using a literal interpretation of the bible, gives us clarity and understanding of the origins of life on earth and that the evolutionary model is unnecessary to explaining our origins and earths biodiversity. I believe the bible tells us our origins in the First chapter of Genesis. Through Genealogies in the Bible we can deduce that the time between Adams birth and present is around 6,000 years ago and the flood being around 4,400 years. Mind you, I came to these beliefs (and to Jesus) after being an atheist my entire adult life preaching evolution, astronomy and bashing on Christians.
I do not believe in Evolution in the sense that all life came from a single ancestor. However, I do believe what is observed—that animals evolve, or adapt, or speciate, or become best fit for their environment as Darwin observed on the separated islands in the Galapagos. Now if you read Genesis 1 the text clearly states that God creates the animals, the plants, the birds, the cattle, etc and He says to let "the earth bring forth the living creature. God created the kind of animals and let's the earth "bring forth" more of its kind.
Verse 24:
And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creatures after his kind, cattle, and creeping things, and beasts of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
Now let's focus on the words: "Let the earth bring forth living creature after his kind." God is letting the earth bring forth the different kinds of creatures...BUT according to their kinds. God created all the KINDS of animals and plants, as stated in Genesis 1, and allows the earth to bring forth more types of animals and plants according to their KINDS.
Genesis 1:25 (KJV)
The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds.
For example God creates a bear, which is a kind of animal. The land brought forth the grizzly bear, the black bear, polar bear, panda bear, and so on but only according to the kind of animal God originally created. That is, the land will never bring forth an animal that strictly deviates the body plan originally given by God and becomes another kind. So when Darwin observed the different species of Finches on the Galapagos and hypothesized that they all came from a single ancestral finch, I agree with him. I believe that God made that ancestral finch that then evolved, or adapted or speciated ACCORDING TO ITS KIND (a finch) and is now a more specialized, and better fit for its environment. This can now be traced genetically.
Geneticists have discovered on/off switches in genes. These can be hereditary and change every generation. If the gene is masked there are no instructions to make the necessary protein and that function is lost but the gene is still present in the genome and geneticists can look at them. Never have they ever found misplaced genes. For instance, a bear does not have masked genes to grow feathers, just an example. No where in the "ancestry" of the DNA has a bear had a genes to grow feathers or anything outside its original body plan. The bear can grow big, according to its body plan, it can turn different colors, it can adapt to the cold or heat, it can change its digestive track all ACCORDING TO ITS KIND but it cannot, never has and never will be able to grow feathers, as an example.
All of this is confirmed once again in Genesis 7 when God commands Noah to put a male and female of each animal...ACCORDING TO THEIR KIND. God preserved the animals according to their kinds, male and female. So, Noah did not take both a polar bear and a grizzly bear. Instead, Noah took a single bear. Post flood, the Bears repopulated (as God commanded in Gen 8) and scattered upon the earth (as God commanded) and the earth brought forth the adaptations of the kinds which turned the bear on the ark into a polar bear, a grizzly bear, a panda bear, and so on (as God commanded). The mechanism God used is the environment to pick out the best genes available within the genome God originally created. God designed the DNA to literally have on/off switches that can be manipulated by environmental pressures.
After Noah's flood the animals got off the ark according to their kinds (Genesis 8), repopulated, scattered and become all the species we see today in just 4400 years. Coming from the idea that it takes millions of years to speciate, this number seems ridiculous. Do understand, I don't believe the time required for evolution from a single cell to mammals is required because God created each kind instantly, this would cut off billions of UNNECESSARY time. Let me show you some empirical/observable evidence that fully supports rapid adaptation to the environment making the 4400 years allotted very reasonable.
But first, let us get acquainted with the vastness of diversification of plants and animals:
Vertebrates:
Amphibians: 6,199 Species
Birds: 9,956
Fish: 30,000
Mammals: 5,416
Reptiles: 8,240
Subtotal: 59,811
Insects: 950,000
Plants: 297,326
*Source: The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) 2007 Red List.
Now let's look at the total amount of families. Note: What the evolutionary community refers to as a family roughy equates to a 'kind' created by God. Research Baraminology to learn more about differences—but for our discussion the numbers we have for families is a fair estimate for the original kinds God creates.
Vertebrates:
Amphibians: 61 Families
Birds: 170
Fish: 522
Mammals: 136
Reptiles: 57
Using this data, on average, each mammal FAMILY (or KINDS, as the bible names it) yields 40 species, or variations. However, the family Muridae (Rodents) accounts for over 700 species as opposed to Urisidae (Bears) with 8 species and Canidae (wolves, fox, jackal, dog, etc) with 34 species. A few reason why we see more rodents than bears and canines can be the quicker lifespan and gestation period of rodents. The average gestation period is around 2 weeks and life span 2 years. Additionally, rodents birth up upwards of 10 babies per litter. The more generations and less time allows the rodents to specialize to their environment better. With each generation, through environmental pressures, manipulates the genes (on or off), and the genes that are best fit for the environment are more likely to produce offspring and through this whole chain of events more and more specialized rodents will appear. The idea that shorter life span, quicker gestation period and bigger litter is confirmed in the insect world. Massive reproduction rate, the quick gestation and maturing period allows thousands of generations to occur in the time of 1 monkey lifetime. These traits shared by insects are advantageous in speeding up the process of adapting to their environment.
We should expect to see animals rapidly change to new threats from the environment. These threats could include introduction of invasive plant or animal species, natural disasters making permanent change, or even complete relocation of the animal by artificial or natural means.
All kinds of animals adapt to their environment to the best of their ability based on the genes that can be manipulated (turned on or off) by environmental pressures. The greater the environmental pressure is—the quicker the adaptations are made and the quicker a new species comes into existence. It has been documented how rapidly rodents can change morphological at least 15 morphological features corresponding to changes in human population density, current temperature gradients, and/or trends in temperature and precipitation. Rodents have morphologically changed drastically over the past 100+ years both on mainland and island environment, likely due to human population. When a new environment is introduced to the rodents, due to increased human population, temperature, etc rapid change occurs. This rapid change will never change the rodent into having features that are outside of its body plan—outside the available information in the genome. Never has any information ever been added to the genome. Another example of rapid microevolution would be the Italian wall lizards and the drastic changes of their digestive tract.
It was in 1971 when some biologists relocated 5 Italian wall lizards to a neighboring island. They came back some 30 years later to find the original 5 lizards' descendants of over 5,000 lizards. Genetically tested to be ancestors of the original 5 the modern lizards have an additional digestive structure—a muscle between the large and small intestine—that allows the lizard to eat a more vegetarian diet; the environment pressured the lizard to eat a vegetarian diet due to lack of other food sources. Additionally, the lizards head grew longer and bigger than before allowing it to bite down harder. The plentiful food made the lizard more of a social animal, reproduction rates increased and terrible defenses decreased (the lizard isn't as aggressive). These changes all happened in 30 generations and 30 years. Imagine what 4400 years can do!
The Flood of Noah occurred 4400 years ago based in given biblical chronology. In Genesis, we learn that God allows the animals to adapt to their environment but only according to their kind. We have observed rapid change in animals in short periods of time when introduced to a new environment—keep in mind that after the flood the animals would be under a lot of stress provoking quicker adaptation to their new land; this concept has been observed. In terms of explanation of biodiversity on the planet, I don't see any issues. Breakdown: Animals got off ark > repopulated locally > animals scattered upon the earth (possibly aided post Babel and the scattering of the people) > animals, under high stress, made changes in their genome to adapt to their environment > over 1000's of years we have the biodiversity we see today.
I do not believe that their is any massive conspiracy with all the evolutionary biologists trying to trick the ignoramuses of the world into believing in evolution. I do not think the scientists are stupid (ignorant, but smart). I believe that there is plenty of evidence supporting macro evolution. "I would argue that the type of evidence expected from macro evolution is also expected to be there if macro evolution is false.
For example, if Santa Claus is true I would expect gifts under the Christmas tree this year. But if Santa Claus is not true it does not follow necessarily, to expect no gifts under the Christmas tree this year.
This is called the denial of the antecedent.
"If macro evolution is true, then evidence X.
If macro evolution is not true, therefore NOT evidence X.
(Denial of the antecedent fallacy.)
I acknowledge that there is evidence you might expect to exist if evolution were true, certainly if mammals and reptiles evolved from a common ancestor or an amphibian, we might expect homological bones. I agree that the evidence seems to be similar to the evidence expected from a common design. It may well be that those bone-patterns simply are the only ones that work, or maybe they are the only ones that work best (the most superior design).
If God is omniscient, which He is, then every design will be the design of best choice. This logically follows and is expected from an all-wise God, therefore we should not expect a rabbit to NOT have homological bones, if that design is the best design.
The real question is this; "if there is evidence for evolution, is it the type we would expect, and is it the amount we would expect?"
It certainly is only the amount we would actually expect had evolution not occurred. In the same way we would only expect a handful of lottery winners out of millions of attempts, when we have millions of species on earth, we would also expect a handful to look like they evolved. But if we did evolve we would expect generally to see transitionals in abundance, of every type/body plan."
We could go back and forth with evidence that supports our view and I can counter it with how it supports my view and so on. Nothing in reality contradicts our Genesis. The contradictions exist when mans interpretations trumps God's word. Make God be truth and every man a liar (Romans 3:4). The bible is given by inspiration of God (2 Timothy 3:16) and supports a rational worldview. We can be certain the bible was inspired by God because it's prophecy and fulfillment; proving the ability for the writer to of had knowledge outside their time domain—the writers claimed this knowledge came from God. God wrote the bible in that sense. The bible displays arcane knowledge that no one else knew at the time. Job 38:31 talks about the Pleiades being bound together. Most astronomers even today are ignorant to the fact that the Pleiades are gravitationally bound, yet the writer of Job must of known? Job was quoting God. Etched in stone God declares in Exodus 20:11
For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
It is very clear that God makes it clear the earth was created in six literal days!
Again in
Our creator left us with a book and told us it was inspired by Him and breathed by Him. Why are we not defaulting this view until proven otherwise? Do you not understand that the same pile of evidence used to support evolution can interpreted as effect from Noah's flood, creation, biblical events.
For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.
Matthew 13:22
I never used to think it was wise to try and convince another Christian to drop evolution/old earth for creationism, young earth, flood, etc until I understood this verse more intimately. I believe that delusion began in the garden of Eden when satan told Eden "Ye shall be as God's." That has always been the deception, he has played off our pride and made us masters of our world. I believe that evolution will be a mechanism in the end times delusion that tricks the world into accepting the antichrist instead of Jesus as end times prophecy has foretold. Additionally, as a personal testimony, the bible has come to make more sense the more I understand it better as I learn more and more about what the bible says is true about our reality.
This was a very brief intro into the theory of creation but I encourage everyone to look deeper as I have given you very information. Please feel free to ask specific questions!
