Creation News and Views

The September–November quarter saw a record number of nearly 90 creation-based meetings and events in Britain, including eight events in a single day! Australian speaker John Mackay of Creation Research undertook a tour of many UK venues. In November Philip Bell of Creation Ministries International, toured Spain, speaking at 13 venues, and reaching over 600 people, including a congregation of 240 at Iglesia Apostolica Pentecostal Church in Malaga. CRT helped organise a very successful all-age “Creation Celebration” at the Town Hall in Buckfastleigh, Devon on September 10th. Despite opposition from some local church leaders, around 90 people attended, including about 50 children, who were queuing to get in before the doors were open.

LEADING UK evolutionists are stepping up their efforts to stop school pupils hearing any criticism of evolution. A group, including militant atheist Professor Richard Dawkins, naturalist Sir David Attenborough, members of the British Humanist Association, and theology “think tank” Ekklesia, has written to Education Secretary Michael Gove (left) demanding he move against the “threat” posed by creationism and intelligent design. Their letter included the following: “It has never been more urgent for concrete steps to be taken to ensure that all state schools teach evolution, and not creationism.” Professor Dawkins said: "We need to stop calling evolution a theory. In the ordinary language sense of the word it is a fact. It is as solidly demonstrated as any fact in science."

Ekklesia — a “Christian think-tank” which claims to be “deeply rooted in the Christian tradition” — has joined forces with humanists on several occasions during the last few years to oppose the teaching of creation and intelligent design as alternatives to evolution. This included signing the most recent letter to Michael Gove (see above). We have written to Ekklesia three times to ask why it has joined forces with the enemies of God. We reminded them of Paul’s words: “For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?” (2 Corinthians 6: 14). To date we have had no reply, even though the last time we wrote we enclosed a stamped-addressed envelope. So it appears that Ekklesia is either unable or unwilling to justify its position.

COMMENT: If evolution is “as solidly demonstrated as any fact in science”, as Professor Dawkins claims, why are he and his fellow-humanists so scared of young people learning about alternatives? The fact that they see creationism as “a threat” suggests they are not as confident in the strength of their theory as they claim to be. Do they really think young people are incapable of evaluating evidence and deciding for themselves? These attempts to shield young people from critical thinking are an insult to their intelligence! It is also out of step with public opinion. In 2009 a Guardian report on a survey concluded, ‘Teach both evolution and creationism say 54% of Britons’—and this was for teaching it in science classes.’ These humanist fundamentalists are clearly intolerant of any opinions except their own!

THERE is a well-known story of a stranger who stopped to ask a local the way to a certain place. The local replied, “Well, if I were going there, I wouldn’t start from here!” When we, as Christians, seek to share the message of the Gospel in our post-Christian culture, could it be that we are starting at the wrong place?

WIDESPREAD IGNORANCE
There is widespread ignorance of the Bible and the teachings of Jesus. No longer can we assume that the people we seek to reach have any concept of the meaning of sin and salvation. Add to this the increasingly vocal message of the “new atheists” who insist that evolution has removed the need to believe in God, and we begin to understand why we so often seem to be sowing seed on stony ground.

The opponents of Christianity have chosen to use evolution as their main weapon, and have convinced multitudes of uninformed people that Christianity is no longer believable. Evangelists, especially those who work on the streets, tell us that evolution is the main stumbling-block to faith. So why do so many Christians continue to insist that the creation-evolution issue is not relevant to evangelism? Jesus taught that we should love God with our minds as well as our hearts, so why do we so often shy away from this challenge, and refuse to defend our faith as something that is logical and intellectually satisfying?

THE RIGHT STARTING-POINT
When Paul preached in Athens, he recognised that the Greeks, unlike Jews, lacked knowledge of the Old Testament. Grieved at the Athenians’ idolatry, and having noticed an altar inscribed “To an unknown god,” Paul used this as a starting-point to tell them that “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth.” (Acts 17: 24). Then, having got the attention of the people, Paul went on to tell them that they were answerable to this God, who had revealed Himself in Jesus Christ, and through whom He would judge the world. So often, our evangelism begins with an appeal to people to repent of their sin and believe in Jesus Christ. Maybe this is the wrong starting-point. If many have been persuaded that the “discoveries of science” mean that belief in the Bible is no longer credible, why do we expect them to listen? Of course, conviction of sin is a work of the Holy Spirit, but surely we have a duty to remove stumbling-blocks to faith? And it is undeniable that evolution is a huge stumbling-block to many. With more and more scientists doubting evolution, and a growing surge of convincing evidence against it, it is time to meet this challenge head-on. There are so many wonderful, good-quality resources now available — books, DVDs, the internet — that there is no excuse for opting out of this challenge.

AIDS TO EVANGELISM
Part of the ministry of organisations like CRT is to equip Christians to defend their faith, and give them confidence to share it. We fail to understand why, with the plethora of aids to evangelism now available, so many won’t even take the trouble to look at resources which tackle the main arguments used by the enemies of the Gospel. And they wonder why people are not responding!

Militant atheist and evolutionist Professor Richards Dawkins turns his attention to young people in his latest book, “The Magic of Reality”. Sub-titled “How we know what’s really true,” it is well-produced and colourfully illustrated. Professor Dawkins does a good job explaining the structure of atoms and the language of DNA, and writes in an entertaining way. However, he makes no attempt to explain the origin of the DNA language, and shifts from fact to fantasy when he tries to explain the diversity of life on earth.

In answer to the question “How, in reality, did complicated things like frogs and lions, baboons and banyan trees, princes and pumpkins, you and I come into existence?”, he invokes “the slow magic of evolution.” According to Professor Dawkins, “The answer is that complex organisms… did not come about suddenly in one fell swoop, but gradually, step by tiny step, so that what was there after each step was only a little bit different from what was already there before.” He says this is how fish became monkeys and bacteria humans. He gives examples of natural selection in frogs, but doesn’t bother to explain that they were never anything other than frogs. Neither does he tell his young readers that mutations don’t add new information to the genome — which means that fish couldn’t evolve into monkeys or bacteria into humans — or that the fossil record doesn’t reveal such slow, gradual changes. Apparently, given enough time, the impossible can happen! After claiming that evolution can perform miracles, Professor Dawkins dismisses Biblical miracles as impossible. He compares the Biblical story of creation with absurd creation myths from Africa, Egypt and China, even though, unlike the Genesis account, they are not supported by scientific evidence nor believed by any scientists.
Near the beginning of the book, Professor Dawkins writes about testing models. “We look carefully at the model and predict what we ought to see…. Then we look to see whether our predictions are right or wrong… If our predictions are wrong, we reject the model, or modify it and try again.” (emphasis in original). The evidence from the fossils and the living world doesn’t fulfil the predictions of the evolution model, yet Professor Dawkins will neither reject nor modify it! He concludes that his version of origins is “Quite simply — wonderful… Wonderful because real.” But he omits to repeat his depressing comment in another book, “Natural selection is as indifferent to the distant future of the race as it is indifferent to the suffering of the individuals being selected… the universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.” (River out of Eden, 1995). That would have spoilt the image of wonder he wants to instil into the minds of his young readers! We are convinced that the creation model of origins does fit the evidence, and that there is a Creator who made us in His image and who loves us. We believe that this is “wonderful. Wonderful because real!”