This is a continuation of our response to an article entitled “Ten Reasons Why Evolution is Dangerous and Evil” published in Clarion in January. See this introductory response for the context and our approach. In the interest of clarity, and to avoid further unnecessary polarization, we presented these responses in advance to the authors of “Ten Reasons” to provide an opportunity to identify any misunderstanding or misrepresentation. No response was received.
Original from Clarion [numbered for our responses below]
Evolution devalues human life
In the early part of the twentieth century the province of Alberta and other Canadian jurisdictions enacted eugenics laws on the basis of evolutionary theory.[24] Those with congenital disabilities were regularly sterilized to promote the development of the human race – in Nazi Germany, they were euthanized. Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, built her pro-abortion ideology upon an evolutionary foundation. Even in the history of the Christian Reformed Church, an embrace of evolutionary dogma has often been associated with a denial of what the Bible teaches about the value of the unborn. Evolution[25] teaches a materialistic view of humanity in which we are essentially bags of chemicals.[26] Such a view, consistently held, results in the devaluation of human life from conception onward. (WB)
Evolution requires death before the Fall
The process of natural selection within the theory of evolution requires thousands, if not millions, of generations of our ancestors, many who were not quite human. They all lived, reproduced and then died. In this process, dominant characteristics developed only by chance[27] and others disappeared. It all led to progressively higher forms of life until human beings finally appeared on earth.
What the Bible teaches us is that not only did God create man, He created him very good. Then, in Genesis 2:17, He warned the first man and woman that if they disobeyed him and sinned, this would lead to their death. The testimony of Romans 5:12 is that since sin entered the world through the one man Adam, death came to all men after him.
If death has no basis in sin (as the theory of evolution says[28]), then what is the role of Jesus Christ as our Redeemer? Romans 5:17 tells us that He came to bring righteousness and life to those who die because they are descendants of the one man Adam.
When those who believe in the theory of evolution reject what the Bible teaches us about the origin of death as the consequence of sin, it’s not just a matter of whether to take the first three chapters of Genesis literally.[29] This actually throws into doubt the truthfulness of the rest of God’s Word, including what he did for us through Christ as our Mediator. (WG)
Responses by Reformed Academic
24. That some distort the biological theory of evolution and claim it as a foundation for their godless philosophies does indeed call for discernment, as discussed in earlier remarks.
25. The biological theory of evolution says nothing of this sort; this again is the naturalistic philosophy of evolutionism.
26. We join WB in opposing reductionism in all forms (see remark 19).
27. The nature of “chance” was discussed in previous remarks (15 & 16) as well.
28. The biological theory of evolution cannot account for the special character of humanity. Christians who support the theory generally acknowledge that human death is a consequence of human sin. Scripture nowhere claims that animal death is a consequence of human sin, or that animal death is evil. Life was promised for obedience, and this was rejected by man. Some of these matters are discussed at length by Dr. Jitse van der Meer in his paper, “God, Natural Evil, and Biological Evolution” (Reformed Academic, 6 October 2009; see this blog posting).
29. Again, we at Reformed Academic affirm the historical character of Genesis.
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