Grace Thoughts
Order in the Court of the King! (Creation or Evolution? 2)
Becoming a Christian from the background of atheism is – well, how can I put it nicely? – CONFUSING!!
I’m living my life as atheist, minding my own business, when God sends somebody to mess with my head and my heart. That’s what ‘apologetics’ does to atheists. It messes with their heads and hearts. At least it did in my situation.
Why did I believe God didn’t exist? Because I believed Christians were ignorant and hypocritical. Why did I believe Christians were ignorant and hypocritical? Because they said they believed the Bible (which I didn’t), but didn’t by the principles they espoused.
Why didn’t I believe the Bible? Because it didn’t agree with ‘science.’ There you have it. I believed that sciences – like astrophysics, biology, chemistry, physics, etc – were the only way to know what was ‘real.’ I found my ‘reality’ in scientific information. That’s how I lived my life as an atheist.
So, what did God do? He sent a scientist to my radio show who believed the Bible was real. What? How could that be when science and information in the Bible clashed on every front? Science had disproved the Bible long ago – so I believed. Science had disproved God’s existence long ago – so I believed. Science had disproved that Jesus Christ lived, died, and rose from the dead – so I believed. That’s why God sent me a scientist who believed the Bible! God wanted my attention and He got it during a two-hour radio interview with that scientist.
The scientist was in town to talk about putting together a group of scientists to search for Noah’s Ark on Mt. Ararat in Turkey. So, much of the interview time dealt with that. However, we also had time to talk about whether God existed and created the heavens and the earth. I didn’t believe He did. The scientist believed He did. The scientist, who was also a science professor, knew ‘science’ far better than I did. God used that to put a crack in my atheist armor and some ‘stones’ in my shoes. I later learned that Dr. Morris wrote and lectured on the events recorded in Genesis chapters 1 – 11, chapters he believed were historically accurate.
My belief that Christians were ignorant had hit a wall – a hard wall. Here was a very well-educated scientist telling me he believed God existed, that the Bible was a credible book of ancient history, and that Jesus Christ had lived, died, and risen from the dead. I was going to have to look into that more, which is exactly what I did. When I finished looking into it, I became a Christian and that’s when the fun began.
I devoured every opportunity to study the Bible, ask questions, search for answers, attend church, take notes, ask more questions, develop friendships with other Christians, etc. Two of my mentors were professors of ancient languages, so they helped me with the Greek New Testament and the Hebrew Old Testament. One of the pastors at the church I attended taught verse-by-verse from the Greek New Testament, so that was another great opportunity to learn from the original.
The joy of the Lord filled my mind, heart, and soul as I worshiped Him and praised His Holy Name. I loved Christian music – the old hymns and the new ‘contemporary’ music being written and performed in the early 70s. 1971 was quite a time to become a Christian.
However, it wasn’t long before I began to learn that not every Christian was in agreement about many things. I learned about denominationalism. I learned about heresies and heretics. I learned that some Christians didn’t agree with some of the very things that convinced me that Christianity was true. What was I to do with all that?
It drove me even deeper into God’s Word. I read lots of books written by Christians who lived centuries before my time. I wanted to see what they thought about the Bible that I was reading. I found some with whom I agreed, and some not. I realized I was going to have to use the same journalistic skills that helped me investigate Christianity when I was atheist to investigate why there were so many divisions among Christians. I knew God wasn’t divided. I knew the Holy Spirit wasn’t confused. I knew Jesus Christ wanted unity in the Church He was building. I just needed to learn how to address the divisions, confusion, and lack of unity that was all too pervasive in churches at the time.
Evolution?
I wrote about Creation in the last part of this series. I also addressed the so-called ‘Gap Theory’ that many Christians believed was a good explanation for how someone could believe that God ‘created’ the heavens and the earth over a period of millions or billions of years through the process of ‘macro-evolution’ – thus demonstrating that science and the Bible were not at odds about the age of the earth or the process of species development.
But why? Why use one verse in the Bible to build an entire belief system about God creating one earth with all its living inhabitants, then destroying it and reconstructing a second earth? Or why use one verse in the Bible as a proof-text that God started a little thing with a ‘bang,’ then let it randomly evolve into the much bigger thing we see before us today – a world filled with beauty and complexity that appears as if someone ‘designed’ it to look and function as it does. Why?
I was an investigative journalist. I was not a Bible scholar, nor was I a scientist. So, how would I investigate such a big topic? Easy – the same way I did any other story of large magnitude – one piece at a time. Investigative journalists are not necessarily experts at anything other than investigative journalism. What they do is talk with experts in a variety of fields that help them understand the facts as gathered and confirmed.
I already knew one scientist who had spoken and written extensively about the subject – the same scientist I interviewed on my radio show. He lived in California at the time, which was a long way from Florida, so having long talks with him would be difficult. However, I did have access to some of the books he had written. One was titled ‘The Genesis Flood’ (1961). Another was ‘Evolution and the Modern Christian’ (1967).
I also had access to books written by people who believed in the Gap Theory, and others who weren’t Christians at all and believed in ‘evolution.’ I was familiar with evolution since that’s what I had been taught in public schools and college, but that didn’t make me an expert in the field. I needed to read the findings of people who were experts in evolution.
I went to the library and looked at some books about evolution, including Charles Darwin’s ‘On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life).’ I read many other books about evolution – some old, some new (at the time). I recognized much of what I read from my years in public schools, so it was a good refresher for me.
One of the arguments for believing in evolution that I had used as an atheist was – ‘all scientists agree with evolution.’ Well, as I found out during my interview with Dr. Henry Morris, not ‘all scientists agree with evolution.’ While numbers of people who believe something to be true or false doesn’t and shouldn’t ‘sway’ an investigation one way or the other, I did take note that a well-known geneticist by the name of Hermann J. Muller had created an ‘evolution manifesto’ in the mid-1960s that had been signed by scores of biologists (about 180 or so I believe). That didn’t surprise me as I remembered the textbooks in school written by many scientists attesting to the theory of evolution. I had guessed there were a lot of scientists who believed in evolution.
Anything like that from people who believed God created the world without the use of evolution? Interestingly, the scientist I interviewed was involved with an organization called the Creation Research Society. It was formed by a group of ten scientists in 1963 that included the scientist I had interviewed when I was an atheist. Dr. Henry Morris and John Whitcomb, Jr. published a book titled ‘The Genesis Flood,’ that reportedly led to the establishment of the Creation Research Society. Dr. Morris was one of the original founders and heralded by many as the ‘Father of the modern creation science movement.’ I didn’t know that when I interviewed him. I just knew he was in town to talk about searching for Noah’s Ark on Mt. Ararat.
As for ‘numbers,’ the Creation Research Society had grown from ten members in 1963 to more than 300 within a few years. That almost doubled the number of scientists who had signed Muller’s ‘evolution manifesto’ a few years later, but that wasn’t proof that one theory was right and the other was wrong
When I interviewed Dr. Morris on radio, I introduced him as founder of a new organization known as the Institute for Creation Research. It was a research division of Christian Heritage College that Dr. Morris had founded and where he served as president. He also worked closely with Dr. Duane Gish, a Ph.D from UC Berkeley in biochemistry, who worked for the Upjohn Company. He left Upjohn to become involved full-time in teaching direct-Creation and debating evolutionists from his scientific expertise.
Investigative Findings
Interestingly, I found that the idea of ‘creation’ by God or ‘gods’ was an ancient belief. Whereas, the idea of the world ‘evolving’ was a more recent idea. However, by the time I entered the public school system in the 1950s ‘evolution’ seemed to be the pre-denominate theory being taught as ‘fact.’ Direct creation had lost its place in public education. One of the stories I reported on as a journalist in 1968 was when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Epperson v. Arkansas. The high court invalidated the state statute that prohibited the teaching of evolution as being unconstitutional. As an atheist at the time, that seemed like a good decision. I thought students everywhere should learn about all the ‘theories’ concerning the beginning of the universe and the earth. Evolution was the ‘new boy’ on the block and should have the right to be heard.
Though I had been taught evolution for years and saw myself as being a believer in evolutionary theory, reading the ‘direct creation’ accounts in the Bible gave me pause. Was it true that there was ‘no’ scientific evidence for God creating heavens and the earth? Through the investigative process of reading as many scientific views about the origin of the universe, and specifically of the earth, I found there was scientific evidence.
Evidence is not the same thing as ‘proof.’ I knew that as an investigative journalist. Evidence often led to proof, but not always. I was also a crime and courts reporter, so I spent a lot time with detectives, forensic scientists, and lawyers prior to court cases and watched how they put together their ‘evidence’ for trial – whether criminal or civil. Many of the judges would share with me privately (in their chambers) how they viewed evidence. I also spent quite a bit of time with coroners and fire inspectors learning how they viewed evidence at a crime or fire scene. I’m also thankful for the feedback they gave me after seeing how I covered their evidential presentations in my news stories. I’m thankful for all the years of being able to learn from them.
Origins
Every news story has an overarching subject. The disagreements about Creation and evolution came under an overarching subject of ‘Origins.’ How did everything begin? Though I found general agreement among Christians that the universe and the earth had a ‘beginning,’ there was disagreement how it happened. Some Christians, like Dr. Morris, believed in God’s direct creation (aka ‘special creation’). Others believed in ‘theistic evolution,’ while others held to the view of ‘progressive creationism.’
Even though I became an atheist in my teens, I was raised by Christian parents. They took me and my brother to church every Sunday. What I learned in church didn’t contradict what I was learning in public school about the origin of the earth or of species. It caused me no heartburn whatsoever, which made atheism even easier for me later. Atheism and Christianity of the 1950s and early 60s seemed in lock-step about the issue of evolution.
As I researched the history of how Christians changed their views about ‘origins,’ I came across a book titled ‘The Christian View of Science and Scripture‘ written by theologian Bernard Ramm (1954). Ramm did not believe that the Bible was a reliable source for determining ‘origins’ of the universe, earth, or life species. I read that Ramm’s involvement with the American Scientific Affiliation (ASA), a Christian group, and his position about ‘progressive creationism’ opened the way for many Christian biologists to accept evolution as a standard position for churches and denominations. Russell L. Mixter, who served as president of the ASA in the early 50s, also helped push the organization away from ‘special Creationism,’ also known as ‘antievolutionism.’
Interestingly, the publication of Ramm’s book led John Whitcomb, Jr. to begin work on his own book to refute ‘progressive’ and ‘theistic’ evolutionary views. Whitcomb, who had studied geology and paleontology at Princeton, was also a theologian and professor. He teamed up with Dr. Henry Morris to write ‘The Genesis Flood.’ It was published in 1961, several years after Ramm’s book. By that time, many well-known Christian authors and speakers were already promoting some form of evolution. ‘The Genesis Flood,’ and other books that would follow, would have a large impact on Christian thinking about ‘origins.’
A few years after I had interviewed Dr. Morris on radio, he published a book titled ‘Scientific Creationism’ (1974). Many scientists contributed as writers and consultants. Dr. Morris prepared the basic text of the book and acted as the general editor. Though the book was published after I had reached conclusions from my own investigation into origins, what I found in ‘Scientific Creationism’ supported many of my findings.
Conclusion
I compared the scientific evidence put forward by various ‘evolutionists’ (secular and Christian) to the scientific evidence put forward by various ‘creationists.’ I then looked again at what the Bible stated about ‘origins.’ My conclusion was that the Bible, God’s Word, supported ‘specific creationism’ rather than evolution – progressive or theistic.
I came to that conclusion more than 50 years ago, but that did not mean I stopped investigating. I have continued to research new findings, new articles, and new books about the subject of ‘origins.’ Anyone interested in the topic now will find a wealth of information about the subject. Though some form of macro evolution is still taught in many churches and denominations, the number of Christians who believe in the biblical perspective of ‘specific creation’ appears to be growing. They believe God created the heavens and the earth and all that is in it out of ‘nothing’ (creatio ex nihilo) rather than any type of evolution.
So, what are Christians to do when they disagree on something that seems so important to Christianity? First, love and respect one another. Second, ask questions, listen to answers, pray for wisdom, and share your views. Third, use the Bible and science in your discussion. God created everything, including the systems that govern how things work in God’s creation. That’s where ‘scientific investigation’ is helpful. It leads to learning how God’s ‘systems’ work.
My hope and prayer are that as Christians discuss this important subject they will find God’s ‘orderly’ process for Creation. God is not a God of confusion or ‘disorder.’ He created all things in an orderly fashion and governs accordingly. Even though the ‘Fall’ led to curses and chaos, we can still see how God rules His creation in an orderly way.
Next Time
Speaking of the ‘Flood’ – why do some Christians believe the Bible teaches God destroyed the ‘world’ by water, while other Christians believe God destroyed only parts of the world – local or regional floods rather than ‘worldwide?’ I’ll share some thoughts on that next time as we continue our special series, Order in the Court of the King!
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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Founder & Director of GraceLife Ministries View all posts by gracelifethoughts