Theistic Evolution
All posts tagged Theistic Evolution
1 Corinthians 15:22
“For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.”
‘If God created, but He did so by evolution, it means that there were many generations and billions of deaths before the first man appeared on the scene. Does Scripture say anything about this?
Indeed it does! In fact, the whole plan of salvation rests on the fact that there was no death before the first man. This truth is found throughout Scripture, but nowhere is it more clear than in 1 Corinthians 15:22. Here we read, “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.” This means that if death did not begin with, and because of, Adam’s sin, then by the same token no one is made alive in Christ. The way it is phrased in this passage, one depends on the other. If there were generations of death in the world before Adam, then death is not tied to Adam’s sin. And if death is not tied to Adam’s sin, then life is not tied to Christ.
In other words, if there were death before Adam and therefore generations before Adam, Christ’s work turns out to be of no effect. So you see, even evolution with God added to it questions the Bible’s message about the saving work of Christ.
The good news is that there is no fact that demands our rejection of God’s account of creation. No scientific fact has been established that forces us to reject what the Bible says about the first human beings or the origin of sin. There is no fact that has been established that rules out the Bible’s account of creation, the origin of sin, or death. These truths are fact and the foundation upon which the Gospel rests!’https://creationmoments.com/sermons/death-before-adam-2/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=death-before-adam-2&mc_cid=50714d658e&mc_eid=00c1dcff3c
Genesis 1:14 “And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:”
An explosion causes material to be distributed randomly, and, on average, fairly evenly in all directions. But deep-time astrophysicists have a problem because their alleged Big Bang would appear to have produced a universe with a considerable amount of order.
Now it is important to be fair on secular astrophysicists. Although the dichotomy that I have set up is the impression of the Big Bang held by the average person, with only High School scientific training, we should remember that serious astrophysicists view things differently. They do not believe in an explosion that filled up space with matter; they believe in a rapid expansion, from nothing, of space itself, as well as the material in it. But the general accusation still holds. The Big Bang theory cannot account for the structure of the universe.
The universe is highly structured. Stars are grouped into galaxies. The galaxies themselves are not uniformly distributed but arranged into clusters of galaxies.
Of the many models suggested to overcome this problem, most involve material in the universe cooling, so that gravity could draw clumps of material together that would eventually begin the nuclear fusion required to form stars.
While research into gravitational fields and stellar motions is justified, we know that the relevant forces and structures were caused by design. It is God who put the stars in place and who orders their motions. The structure of the universe is fully consistent with God having created it according to His good purpose.’https://creationmoments.com/sermons/structure-in-the-universe/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=structure-in-the-universe&mc_cid=42297a9061&mc_eid=00c1dcff3c
Isaiah 44:8 “Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I told thee from that time, and have declared [it]? ye [are] even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? yea, [there is] no God; I know not [any].”
‘It has been said that if you take a frog and turn it into a man by adding a kiss, you have a fairy tale. But if you take a frog and turn it into a man by adding millions of years, you have science. It seems that many people think if you add millions of years, the impossible becomes possible.
Even the most committed evolutionists admit that our knowledge of how things work makes it hard to explain how life could develop all by itself from nonliving stuff.
The late George Wald, who taught biology at Harvard, said just this in an article in Scientific American. He was marveling at life and all of its complex systems when he penned some of the most famous words ever offered by an evolutionist. He wrote: “The time with which we have to deal here is of the order of 2 billion years. What we regard as impossible on the basis of human experience is meaningless here. Given so much time, the impossible becomes possible, the possible becomes probable, and the probable becomes virtually certain. One has only to wait, time itself performs the miracles.”
Notice how Professor Wald admits the need for miracles to produce life. Will huge amounts of time – time we know didn’t exist – create these miracles? Not at all. A fundamental law tells us that if something won’t happen by itself in a short period of time, it is virtually certain that it will not happen over a long period of time. It’s true. If you reject Almighty God as your Creator, you will find another false god to work miracles. For many evolutionists, that false god is time.’https://creationmoments.com/sermons/does-time-work-miracles-2/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=does-time-work-miracles-2&mc_cid=03afa6d717&mc_eid=00c1dcff3c
“For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.” (Romans 1:20)
This powerful verse introduces Paul’s burning description of the descent of ancient human societies that once “knew God” (Romans 1:21) into evolutionary paganism, idolatry, and wickedness. This deterioration was willful and inexcusable, for they had abundant evidence of God’s nature and power in the very creation that they had chosen to worship instead of the Creator (Romans 1:25).
Even though God Himself was invisible (being omnipresent), they could easily see the evidence of His existence and His grace in creating and sustaining all things, “for God hath shewed it unto them” (Romans 1:19). “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork” (Psalm 19:1).
Since these things were “clearly seen” and “understood” by men “from the creation of the world” (that is, from the time the world was created), it is obvious that there have been men and women there to see and understand these things ever since the world was created. This assures us that the creation did not take place billions of years before men appeared on Earth, as theistic evolutionists and progressive creationists would like to believe. Men and women have been on Earth ever since its very beginning (see also Mark 10:6; Acts 3:21), and all should have recognized and worshiped the true Creator God.
That being true, how much more inexcusable are our modern evolutionists—whether atheistic, pantheistic, or polytheistic—who not only reject the testimony of God in creation but also His far more complete testimony in Scripture and in the person and work of Jesus Christ.’https://www.icr.org/article/12755/?utm_source=phplist9385&utm_medium=email&utm_content=HTML&utm_campaign=May+23+-+How+Can+Things+Invisible+Be+Seen%3F
‘Darwin gave us a world where miracles happen constantly. How did he know? Things exist; therefore they evolved.
One of the funniest, most ironic quotes about evolution was made in 1929 by D. M. S. Watson. “Evolution,” declared Professor Watson, “…is accepted by zoologists not because it has been observed to occur or… can be proved by logically coherent evidence to be true, but because the only alternative, special creation, is clearly incredible.” (sources: John West, Evolution News; also CMI). Well, well, Dr. Watson. Let’s see what kinds of incredible beliefs are coming from your evolutionist colleagues.
Powered Flight: How Many Miracles?
Researcher questions whether powered flight appeared on non-avialan dinosaurs (University of Malaga, via EurekAlert). Professor Malaga Francisco Serrano Alarcón knows that the emergence of powered flight is extremely unlikely. [How unlikely? Watch these video clips on bird bones, feathers and muscles from Illustra Media and consider how many lucky mutations it would have taken to evolve them.]
Powered flight in animals—that uses flapping wings to generate thrus [sic]—is a very energetically demanding mode of locomotion that requires many anatomical and physiological adaptations. In fact, the capability to develop it has only appeared four times in the evolutionary history of animals: On insects, pterosaurs, birds and bats.
Four times: that’s tolerable. But seven? He simply cannot believe his colleagues that think powered flight arose three more times in dinosaurs. That is simply too improbable to accept!
“Birds are a group of dinosaurs of which we have discovered 150-million-year-old fossils with fully developed wings. Among their closest non-avialan relatives, we have also found fossils with sufficiently developed wings that could provide them with some aerodynamic benefit, whether to glide between trees or get thrust to climb and jump over obstacles. But this does not mean that they could take off by flapping their wings or maintain a powered flight“, explains Francisco Serrano.
Whew. Thank you prof. You saved the credibility of Darwin. Powered flight only emerged four times – not seven! And thank you, Luis Chiappe, for helping him publish this saving grace in Current Biology.
Cartoons by Brett Miller. All rights reserved. Used here by permission.
How Beethoven Evolved
These ‘creativity genes’ allowed humans to take over the world (Live Science). Genes that gave human beings immense powers of creativity in ideas, art and music just popped into existence one day. That’s what Yasemin Saplakoglu, staff writer for Live Science, believes. How does he know? Dr. Claude Robert Cloninger, a professor emeritus in the psychiatry and genetics departments at Washington University in St. Louis., told him.
Creativity could be one of the main reasons Homo sapiens survived and dominated over related species such as Neanderthals and chimpanzees, according to a new study [prepare to be hoodwinked].
Cloninger and his Darwin bigot buddies ran divination on genes and visualized a wonderful story of emerging creativity in our species. With wide mouth, reporter Saplakoglu slurped it up. ‘It exists, therefore it evolved.’ Ooh. Aah.
The emotional reactivity network evolved in monkeys and apes about 40 million [Darwin] years ago, the self-control network evolved a little less than 2 million years ago, and the self-awareness and creativity network emerged just 100,000 years ago, when humans were under pressure from a changing climate that reduced the supply of food and other resources necessary for survival, Cloninger said.
Then, some 40,000 years ago, Homo sapiens with “unprecedented cultural and technological sophistication” began rapidly replacing Neanderthals around the world, according to the study. This sophistication was likely driven by our Homo sapiens ancestors’ creativity and self-awareness, which enabled them to live longer, healthier lives, the authors said.
Readers can forget all this, because at the end of the article, Cloninger gives some caveats about interpreting the genes that basically undermine everything he said. He must have realized this after coming down out of his Darwin science seance. (On Darwinist use of the word “likely,” see 21 April 2021, Evolutionists Are ‘Likely’ Clueless.)
Miracles Earlier Than Thought
58-million-year-old footprints show when mammals began paddling in sea (Krista Charles for New Scientist). Krista begins Tontologically, “An extensive set of fossilised footprints shows that prehistoric large mammals were gathering by the sea millions of years earlier than we thought” (who’s “we,” Paleface?). A little artwork helps the unsuspecting reader visualize the miracle: four-footed hippo-like mammals thinking about becoming whales some day. They were gathering by the imagined seashore in large numbers. Maybe they were having a betting contest to see who could evolve a blowhole first.
Ankle and foot evolution gave mammals a leg up (University of Edinburgh). Evolving mammals needed happy feet for dancing to celebrate their new freedom after the dinosaurs died out, so the Stuff Happens Law gave it to them. What was the process called? Why, “ankle and foot evolution,” dummy. Stop asking silly questions! You underestimate the power of evolution!
The evolution of ankle and foot bones into different shapes and sizes helped mammals adapt and thrive after the extinction of the dinosaurs, a study [prepare to be hoodwinked] suggests.
A surge of evolution following the mass extinction 66 million years ago enabled mammals to diversify and prosper during a period of major global change, researchers say.
Analysis of bones that form part of the ankle and the heel of the foot reveal that mammals during this time – the Paleocene Period – were less primitive than previously thought.
Whatever Exists, It Evolved
Evolutionary biologists discover mechanism that enables lizards to breathe underwater (University of Toronto). Lizards can “re-breathe” air that has been absorbed through the skin. It’s pretty amazing what evolution can do. If an animal needs something, evolution gives it to them free of charge. Watch how the authors use the word “developed” as a synonym for “evolved” – same meaning. Believe it, people, because it is “likely.”
Rebreathing likely evolved because the ability to stay submerged longer increases the lizard’s chances of eluding predators….
As the authors point out, the rebreathing trait may have developed because anoles’ skin is hydrophobic — it repels water — a characteristic that likely evolved in anoles because it protects them from rain and parasites. Underwater, air bubbles cling to hydrophobic skin and the ability to exploit these bubbles for breathing developed as a result.
Ancestors may have created ‘iconic’ sounds as bridge to first languages (University of Birmingham). Herein is the origin of eloquence in speech and thinking: it evolved. That’s all you need to know. Now, a story to make it sound plausible.
The ‘missing link’ that helped our ancestors to begin communicating with each other through language may have been iconic sounds, rather than charades-like gestures – giving rise to the unique human power to coin new words describing the world around us, a new study [prepare to be hoodwinked] reveals.
In this article, “gave rise to” is like “developed” – it is a synonym for “evolved.” Same meaning.
To test this notion (idea is too charitable a word), they tested modern students with silly tests like pointing to a tiger and saying “Tiger… bad.” People from all language groups got it. That must mean that language evolved. How? By “language evolution,” silly. The students got it even quicker when the testers waved their arms. Chaucer and Milton could not be far behind.
Co-author Dr Marcus Perlman, Lecturer in English Language and Linguistics at the University of Birmingham, commented: “Our study fills in a crucial piece of the puzzle of language evolution, suggesting the possibility that all languages – spoken as well as signed – may have iconic origins.
Conclusion
Now you know why you must believe in evolution. The alternative, special creation, is clearly incredible.
‘Charles Darwin himself shuddered at the thought that evolutionary processes had to explain human vision. He said, ‘To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree.”‘https://www.creationstudies.org/articles/theory-of-evolution/114-darwin-versus-the-human-eye
Psalm 148:3 “Praise ye him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars of light.”
Why is the sky dark at night? There’s more to the answer to this question than the fact that the stars do not appear as bright as the sun from Earth.
If stars were evenly distributed throughout an infinite universe – as predicted by the evolutionary big bang theory – a star would be shining no matter where you looked in the night sky. The night sky, while not as bright as the daytime sky, would not be dark anywhere. The fact that this is not what we see at night has been named “Olber’s Paradox,” after the German amateur astronomer who first asked the question.
Ever since, astronomers have been trying to fit Olber’s Paradox into whatever theory about the universe was current. Modern followers of the big bang theory have written that the main reason every inch of the night sky is not glowing with stars is that the expanding universe prevents space from filling with light. New calculations and research now show that if the universe were expanding, it would have very little noticeable effect on the stars in the night sky. Even more interesting, concluded astrophysicist Paul Wesson, is the fact that the main reason the night sky is not bright is that the universe is simply not old enough to have filled with light.
The daily cycle, which includes night’s darkness, is important to almost all the life that the Creator placed on Earth. The truth is that we live in a universe that has been designed for life.’https://creationmoments.com/sermons/olbers-paradox-2/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=olbers-paradox-2&mc_cid=34f24f6311&mc_eid=00c1dcff3c
Isaiah 40:22 “It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in.”
‘Words can be difficult to follow because the same word can be used in a technical sense in different ways, depending on the context. To an economist, inflation refers to the rate of rising prices. To a cosmologist, however, inflation refers to a hypothetical era billions of years ago.
The relative timescales are very important to help us evaluate this concept. According to deep-time cosmologists, the universe began in the so-called Big Bang, 13.7 billion years ago, when a quantum event caused a singularity to come into existence. 10-36 seconds later, the universe expanded at a hugely accelerated rate. 10-36 is one over one with 36 zeros after it. At 10-32 seconds after the Big Bang, this inflation ceased, and the universe carried on expanding at what might be termed a “normal” rate for 13.7 billion years, minus 10-32 seconds.
Inflation theory is required to explain how cosmic microwave background radiation is so uniform. It is also required to explain a number of other phenomena, such as the non-existence of magnetic monopoles, or why the universe is flat.
But this rapid inflationary expansion required energy to cause it to happen. Where did that energy come from? The only model they can use suggests that other bubbles of space-time could, and probably have, opened up elsewhere, forming multiple universes, without any realistic beginning.
The lack of logic involved in such deep-time cosmology is staggering – especially when we consider that God has already told us how He made the universe.’ https://creationmoments.com/sermons/cosmic-inflation/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=cosmic-inflation&mc_cid=685257ac52&mc_eid=00c1dcff3c
whatyareckon 