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Evolution
makes me laugh...and cry
By
Dr. James Wanliss (Credo Quarterly Theological Journal, April 2003)
As I sit down to
write this, it is the day before the Daytona 500 runs. The Daytona track is
less than five minutes drive from our home and we can hear the drivers
practicing-the windows shake as the engines roar with delight. Over 200,000
visitors have thronged to the city and the place is buzzing with excitement
and energy. The event is possibly the largest in motorsport history, with
literally tens of millions of viewers watching the live racing over
television links. It is also a testament to the fact that we humans have a
problem of frequently taking ourselves too seriously, and considering our
actions with an irreverent solemnity. We are grateful to the Lord that not
all the professing Christians in the area will be attending the races, or
watching them on TV, so that we are still able to race to Orlando to an
oasis of Christian worship. Unlike the French revolutionaries, and their
Russian communist offspring, who abolished God and the Sabbath, in our
society we simply ignore God and the Sabbath and go to the races. It is not
only modern man that has self-esteem problems, but mankind throughout
history. It is not a problem of too little self-esteem but of a self-esteem
that is massively inflated beyond all reason. History seems to indicate
that then, as now, men take their own words and opinions as being of
supreme import, but that God's Word-the written expression of His
will-receives scant attention. Each one of us is guilty of this perversion,
although each to differing degrees, and we ought to fight against it and
occasionally have a good laugh at ourselves.
Each one of us at
times feel exposed to ridicule when even our neighbours pierce the veil of
self-consciousness and self-importance with which we cover ourselves. It is
never pleasant when this happens, and so people would often prefer to lie
and deceive themselves and others rather than face up to some unpleasant
facts. But if one is shameless enough, it is apparently sometimes possible
to bluff through even the most damning of evidence. When the United States
President Nixon was caught in gross sin he at least had the shame to blush,
but when President Clinton was caught he had the temerity to tell boldfaced
lies without blushing. He was, after all, the President, and because he
believed he was such an important and solemn personage, he thought it
reasonable that people ought to necessarily swallow his words, and most of
them did. This is a classic example of the Emperor with no clothing. Even a
child could see how blinded the Emperor had become-unfortunately, only a
child was unselfconscious enough to mention the self-evident.
Sadly, too many
of the people in power preferred to be willfully blind. Willful blindness
is a very real phenomenon amongst all those who live under the sun. The Bible
tells us that sinful man is willfully ignorant of God and does not have
regard to the knowledge and wisdom of God; even God's way of salvation is
considered the height of foolishness. You may be asking yourself what this
has to do with evolution. It has a great deal to do with evolution, because
those who teach it have come to be very impressed with their own press and
propaganda, and the masses who are taught to believe it have become
uncritical in their thinking, and unable to discern when someone is doing a
mind job on them; they are being ripped off intellectually, and they love
to have it so. To be impressed by the fawning reverence with which
evolution is managed by the established media is not something that one
would wish to be accused of.
One of the
consequences of a willful love of darkness is that God has given man over
to even more foolishness. This is evidenced by the many false religions
that men follow. Evolution is one such leading philosophy that has served
to extinguish much light. This philosophy proposes that successively more
complex genetic alterations have led from the earliest genetically inferior
protoorganism to the vastly more complex snails, bees, baboons, and humans.
Notwithstanding all the gainsaying and propaganda to the contrary, the
mechanism whereby this evolution is to be effected remains unknown, since
there is no known naturalistic mechanism that adds favourable genetic
content to living beings. Even the very best of evidence for this process
is purely circumstantial. It cannot qualify as hard science, although it is
certainly interesting philosophy.
As a philosophy,
it is certainly not complete, but it has satisfied many generations of
unbelievers by providing a reason for not having to deal with the claims of
Jesus Christ, at least for the present. The evolutionary philosophy is
ludicrous and if it had not done so much harm to the cause of Christ it
would be humorous. By its very nature it attacks the veracity of the Bible.
In its present form it is considered by the vast majority of academicians
to be the very pinnacle of modern biological science. If this theory were
true, Adam and Eve could not have been created as the Bible states, sin is
not the cause of death, the biblical chronology is not possible, the work
of Christ was not meaningful, and so on.
The philosophy is
not only bankrupt scientifically, but it also contradicts the Scriptures.
Why then is it so dominant a philosophy? I would submit that it is so
dominant for religious reasons, at least on the part of many academicians,
many of whom are the high priests of this evolutionary philosophy. If this
philosophy reflects the actual physical reality, it certainly eliminates
the need for God, or any deity, and thus provides an enormous comfort for
those who have to deal with their conscience that tells them there is a
God. The American humanist association makes important statements about the
near unanimous agreement of the scientific community regarding evolution,
and makes much about disagreements between religious "sects" over
the role that evolution plays, stating that some agree with it and some
vociferously disagree with it. While we disagree with their assumptions,
and most of their conclusions, they do raise an interesting question about
those who call themselves Christians but who vociferously advocate the
theory of evolution. Suffice it to say, the philosophical reasons for this
are not due to the religious belief in God which these approved “sects”
hold to, but rather probably due to their lack of confidence in God's Word.
As for the followers, they are the ones who are being indoctrinated by the
educational establishment, and who have been taught not to question, not to
think critically, but to accept whatsoever the high priests have ordained
regarding philosophies of origins. The only critical thinking allowed is
reserved for specifics as to how evolution moved from one to another stage.
Any questioning of the evidence presented that reflects badly on the actual
legitimacy of the evolutionary philosophy is sure to be met with raised
eyebrows, frowns, and trouble. Even a very humble and gentle question about
the absence of clothing on the Emperor is sure to send the high priests
into apoplexy. After all, it is not only a philosophical issue, but also an
important financial issue to those who create and maintain the invisible
clothing; they have a vested interest in upholding the whole illusory
edifice of evolutionary dogma. And it is truly a magnificent edifice,
awe-inspiring and breathtaking in the blindness induced when humans worship
before it. I am ever so grateful that the Bible gives a satisfying and
reasonable explanation as to why this should be so. As we understand the
blindness, we are enabled to step back into the light and disregard the
solemnity with which the world views this particular philosophy. Pointing
out some of the rather unattractive and laughable aspects of evolutionary
philosophy can certainly serve as a catalyst to others who have been taken
in by the solemn stares and lofty words of the priests and practitioners.
In fact, it can become downright entertaining to consider the philosophy
and poke fun at it.
A time to laugh
The Bible says
that there is a time to laugh, and a time to mourn, a time for war, and a
time for peace (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8); literally a season for every activity.
Often these activities overlap, as in the case of Hanun the Ammonite (2
Samuel 10) who shaved off half of the beards of emissaries who came to
express King David's sympathy at the death of the Ammonite king. Not
content to mess with their hair, Hanun also caused exposure of the buttocks
of the emissaries. The scene is one of almost hilarious disbelief:
important men walking in the roads of Ammon with their rears exposed and
beards in a state of undress. What shame they must have felt, and what a
novel way to insult Middle Eastern fellows who put great stock by the
amount of facial hair they have, and that is not even getting close to
mentioning how they must have felt to have their private parts exposed. Of
course, the personal offence to these men was not at issue here. We ought
not to take ourselves so seriously that we lay to heart unfair behaviour
against our persons. The offence was not really directed against David's
emissaries but was directed against Jehovah, through his anointed King
David. On this basis the Lord would repay the Ammonites for their
indignities.
The wise men of
the Ammonites were foolish to offend the Lord, and to insult the friends of
the Lord. All their smartness did not help them when the judgment of God
came along. The Ammonites could not mock the servants of God, whom God
created, without simultaneously mocking their Creator. Is it not a sad and
shameful thing that the supposed wisdom of the world is so foolish as to
seek to eliminate the Creator from His creation? Like their rulers, the
people rebel against the Lord, but the Lord in heaven laughs at their
foolishness and scoffs at them (Psalm 2). God will humble their lofty looks
and supposed wisdom. When it comes to the philosophy of biological
evolution, these false professors who seek to eliminate God from the world
often silence Christians. For the most part, this has been my observation
of the present state of things in North America, although, thankfully, it
was not a large part of my own educational experience in school and
university. As a high school student I never doubted evolution, since it
was what my teacher believed, and my biology teacher was certainly wiser
than I. To the credit of my biology teacher, I should mention that he never
tried to shove the theory down the throats of his students, and critical
discussion was allowed. It was only later that it occurred to me that God
was wiser than the teacher and so the teacher could be terribly wrong, even
in a field about which he thought he knew so much. The evolutionary
philosophy was never a necessary part of the whole corpus of understanding
that he had gathered in his studies; it was never necessary throughout my
whole high school career, and added no value to the course. I should also
mention that it is a curiosity of the American system that such fervent
passion is aroused in those who teach evolution; as an undergraduate in
South Africa I was able to have very candid discussions with my palaeontology
Professor, who was not ashamed or afraid to admit (albeit privately) to
some of the serious difficulties with evolutionary philosophy. So perhaps
it is time to laugh to scorn some of the foolishness of the world, because
it occurs to me that for all the pomp and circumstance, so much of it is
merely pomp and circumstance, and does little to hide the anxious nakedness
of an empty and obscene philosophy. God is the same yesterday, today, and
forever and knowing that one must face him, and his fearful judgment, puts
the whole silliness of evolution into proper context. Anyone that is
currently being educated by the establishment requires fortitude, because
the lie repeated often enough, however ridiculous, begins to have the ring
of truth to it. We are frequently reminded to be still, and know that
Evolution is great. When we speak and think of it we are called to become
very serious and humbled before the power and glory that is Evolution. But
all the lofty looks and solemn haughty words crumble before the little
child who sees a naked Emperor prancing about before him, and laughs.
Dr. James Wanliss is a physics
professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Most recently he
has taught courses in classical mechanics, and space physics. His current
research focuses on magnetospheric substorms and other space weather
phenomena. He is also an ordained Presbyterian Ruling Elder.
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