The Place to Which Evolution Leads, Part 2

The Horrible Place to Which Society’s Belief in
Evolution Eventually Leads
Part 2: The Bitter Fruit

The root of the problem of most of the great ills that have afflicted society and do afflict it today are caused by the teaching of evolution. It has been called “The Big Lie.” It has deceived hundreds of millions of people and has probably brought about more deaths than any other view in the history of the world.
—D. James Kennedy¹—

I’ll grant that to begin with evolution was just a theory…but it evolved into a fact a long time ago!
—schoolteacher to her students in an op-ed cartoon by Wayne Stayskal²—

Part 1 is available here.

“How can I know right from wrong?” Alan kept asking himself. “Do right and wrong even exist at all? And if they do, how can I be sure that they do?” Alan Wilson almost felt ridiculous asking himself these questions. His classmates and friends at the university didn’t seem to be asking them at all, and they appeared to be perfectly happy. Yet Alan saw many of them making choices that he’d heard for many years were wrong and should be avoided. He was a first year college student who had left the shelter of home to face the winds of “new” ideas that a “higher education” offered. Those winds had blown against much of what he’d been taught since birth.

Before leaving home, Alan had imagined himself standing up for his faith, letting friends and professors alike know that he was a Christian. Now he wondered how he could have been so naïve as to imagine that “coming out” as a Christian would be easy. It was incredibly difficult—so difficult, in fact, that he had to admit that now he was a closet Christian, at best.

At the root of Alan’s struggles was a single idea that ate at his heart and dogged his mind. His roommate had voiced it, and it reverberated inside Alan’s head even now. “Hey, Alan! Get real! How can anybody say that any action or lifestyle choice is wrong? Oh, sure, people can say that, but their words represent only their opinions, not objective truth!”

Weren’t the differences between right and wrong clear, understandable, and knowable? Weren’t they black and white inherently rather than gray? Now Alan wondered if he’d been gullible to believe these things. Had he been wrong? Had his parents, his pastor, his church, his Bible, and even his God also been wrong?

Making his way home after that first semester, Alan looked forward to sharing his struggles with the new pastor at his home church. Matt Thomas had become the pastor of Lakeside Community Church while Alan was away at school, and his parents had developed a deep appreciation for him in a very short time. “When you get back home,” Alan’s dad had said, “talk with Pastor Matt. I think he can help you grapple with your questions.” Matt’s sermons certainly had helped Alan’s parents understand better how the Bible speaks to every issue in life, and they found themselves wishing Alan could have heard this kind of preaching before he had left home. They knew his faith had been shaken to the core, and now their son needed to regain some stability. Matt’s office, they hoped and prayed, would be the place that would happen.

Alan reflected on his first semester at the university. While he’d befriended a good many students, he saw many of them making choices and living lives that troubled him deep down. They were great people in so many ways, but Alan knew that in many situations they acted without restraint, following their base instincts and drives. His friends told him they weren’t sinning, just having fun. “If they aren’t sinning,” Alan thought, “then sin isn’t real, and if sin isn’t real, then why should I worry about it at all? Something that doesn’t exist can’t have any consequences!”

Even though he didn’t yet realize it, Alan was witnessing the results of years of indoctrination. The theory of evolution had left its mark everywhere on campus. In other words, evolution’s practical implications abounded. For years, the young men and women now enrolled as students at the university had been told they had descended from animals. Should it really have been a surprise, then, when they acted like animals, pursuing “fun” and exercising no discipline or restraint? This element is perhaps even more obvious in society at large, a reality we will highlight shortly.

Matt welcomed Alan into his office and listened intently. When Alan was through, the pastor began by advising him to make sure that in assessing his situation he didn’t see issues simply in bits and pieces. “In other words,” Matt said, “the conflict you’re experiencing isn’t merely a clash of differing perspectives on a lot of separate things like homosexuality, abortion, premarital sex, cohabitation, or whatever. You’re witnessing a clash of two very different belief systems. Sometimes we call a belief system a worldview. It’s the lens through which a person sees life and reaches conclusions about it. On one side is a worldview that assumes God doesn’t exist, and on the other is the one your upbringing has encouraged you to embrace. That one assumes God is—that He does exist, is personal, and will hold people accountable for how they live.

Matt continued, “It’s important to remember that a worldview can’t be proved beyond a shadow of a doubt. Worldviews require faith. Someone may think they are really throwing their weight around when they ask you how anyone can be certain a particular lifestyle choice or action is wrong, but on what authority does he base his conclusion that no one can speak with such certainty? His belief that that no objective standard of right and wrong exists rests on his assumption that God doesn’t exist—or at least on his adherence to a belief system that assumes God’s nonexistence. Sure, he may say he believes in God, but think about it—the God in which he believes permits people to do whatever they feel like doing. That doesn’t sound like much of a God, does it?” Alan nodded, indicating to Matt that what he was saying made a great deal of sense. Matt added, “Evolutionists may claim that evolution is pure science and that all objections to it are totally religious and therefore invalid—but many of them cling to their belief in Darwinism with religious fervor. Just as theism is a religious belief, so is atheism.”

Matt went on to point out that those who say they don’t believe in right and wrong actually don’t live that way. They may say absolute truth doesn’t exist, but if someone steals from them, they will be the first ones to appeal to a standard, and on the basis of that standard, object. “All people,” said Matt, “appeal to various values and standards, even if they never realize they are doing so. Innately, each person has a standard of fairness he or she is quick to advocate.”

“There’s something more,” Matt said. “Let me ask you a question. Why is it wrong to lie?”

“Well,” Alan said thoughtfully, “for a long time I would have said lying is wrong because God says it’s wrong. He revealed it in the Bible. That’s still the right answer, right?”

“That’s really not why, Alan.” Matt replied. “Certainly we know lying is wrong because we have God’s written revelation, but it runs a lot deeper than that. God didn’t sit on His throne in heaven one day and arbitrarily decide some actions were right and others were wrong. Lying is wrong because God is a God of truth. In fact, He is truth. Ultimately, it’s God’s character that establishes right and wrong—and what He says also reflects His character.*

“Here are some additional examples. Adultery and premarital sex are wrong because God is faithful, and murder is wrong because God is life. Framing it in positive terms, we could say that keeping sex in marriage, affirming and working to preserve life, and telling the truth are right actions because they are consistent with who God is—His faithfulness, His being the author of life, and His being the embodiment of truth.”

“The divine standard, therefore, is a standard—it’s actually the standard—by which all actions and lifestyles can be judged. In judging these, we’re not violating Matthew 7:1, which says, ‘Judge not, that you be not judged.’ Jesus was talking in that verse about being judgmental, not about determining right from wrong. The divine standard isn’t one God has set; it’s the standard of who He is. When habits and actions reflect His character, we can say authoritatively that they are right. If they cloud, mar, or misrepresent God’s character, then they are wrong. Knowing these as well as other things God tells us in His Word about right and wrong, we can speak authoritatively about them. No, we can’t prove what we say beyond a shadow of a doubt, but having a solid basis for our conclusions, we can speak beyond a reasonable doubt.”³

Worldviews Matter

Alan’s visit with Pastor Matt really opened his eyes. In the weeks and months that followed, Alan came to recognize that various news stories were showcasing violent manifestations of a belief (however unconscious) in Darwin’s theory. Remember, evolution is more than a theory; it’s also a philosophy that encourages, by it’s very nature, a lack of personal restraint. Riots and vandalism in Baltimore and in other places are prime examples.⁴^,⁵^,⁶ This is not to minimize legitimate questions about law enforcement procedures or about incidents in which confrontations with the law have resulted, tragically, in loss of life. In the aftermaths of these incidents, however, it is clear that growing number of innocent people have suffered at the hands of opportunists who have been following selfish, raw, and primitive urges. From a moral perspective (a position that affirms absolute truth), this cannot be justified, but that didn’t stop one journalist from attempting to defend it.⁷ Some have even used the protests to intentionally incite violence and unrest.⁸ Certainly all of this makes it even more difficult for law enforcement officers to do their jobs.⁹

And what about the removal sexual restraints? Sexual immorality always has been a reality, but Alan learned societal restraints on sex began to fall in the 1960s. The initial thrills masked problems then, but today these have given way to huge, widespread problems. We see rampant promiscuity fueled by easy access to contraceptives and abortion on demand. Affirmation of homosexuality, the redefinition of marriage, and the transgender movement are components as well. Those who advocate moral guidelines often are labeled the bad guys, simply because they advocate boundaries to help channel sexual behavior in constructive and purposeful directions.¹⁰ The secular/evolutionary worldview can point to no such boundary, so anything—literally anything—goes.¹¹^,¹²^,¹³^,¹⁴^,¹⁵

Alan saw another connection as well. The environmentalist movement that was so prominent at the university also rested on the foundation of evolution. If all life, including human, animal, and plant life, came into being as a result of natural, impersonal, random forces, then why not worship nature? Alan came to realize that on this philosophical foundation, human beings can’t possess any qualities that make them unique or special in a positive sense.¹⁶^,¹⁷ Instead, people are viewed as problematic because of, among other things, their actions and their shear numbers.¹⁸ Furthermore, attempts are made to humanize animals, upholding them as persons.¹⁹^,²⁰^,²¹ Even trees are seen as victims of humanity, since people “kill” them to produce resources like paper and other wood products.²² Christians, of all people, should be good stewards of the environment.²³^,²⁴^,²⁵ However, believers also must refute numerous lies fostered by the environmental movement, including lies about overpopulation, the climate, and the best ways to help the poor.²⁶^,²⁷^,²⁸^,²⁹

Equipped with an understanding of worldviews and continuing to study, Alan later would come to see that evolution not only has contemporary manifestations, but also can be held responsible for practices performed decades ago that we now recognize as evil. Eugenics, which sought to improve the human race through selective breeding as well as forced sterilization in numerous instances in the United States, can be traced to evolution.³⁰^,³¹ Philosophically, the Holocaust also rests on evolutionary thought:³²^,³³ “The Supreme Court…was wrong when Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote in Buck v. Bell,³⁴ ‘three generations of imbeciles are enough,’ thus upholding Virginia’s eugenics law that permitted forced sterilization. Shamefully, that decision was cited during the Nuremburg trials to support the Nazi eugenic holocaust.”³⁵ The Nazi book burning pictured at the top was a precursor to this attempt at genocide.

Changing Directions

Much more could be said about the wretched place to which evolution leads, but the evidence Alan gathered is quite convincing. A U-turn is in order! Society must be encouraged to embrace the Christian worldview. This is so not just because of the devastation resulting from widespread belief in evolutionary theory, but also because Darwinism simply isn’t true. Actually, the devastation has come because Darwinism isn’t true, and scientific evidence against it continues to mount.³⁶ While most people who embrace evolutionary thought probably won’t be open to hearing about the gospel or the Christian worldview right off the bat, they can be encouraged to study Darwinism thoroughly, including it’s weaknesses. When they do, they find cracks and holes. Lee Strobel, an investigative journalist and former atheist, observes,

Is Darwinism true? I walked away from my formal education convinced it was. As my spiritual journey began taking me into the realm of science, however, I started having an increasingly uneasy feeling.…

The more I investigated the issue, the more I saw how I had glossed over significant nuances in a rush to judgment…When I examined the matter thoroughly, I began to question whether the sweeping conclusions of Darwinists are really justified by the hard scientific facts.…

This is not, I soon discovered, a case of religion versus science; rather, this is an issue of science versus science. More and more biologists, biochemists, and other researchers—not just Christians—have raised serious objections to evolutionary theory in recent years, claiming that its broad inferences are sometimes based on flimsy incomplete, or flawed data.

In other words, what looks at first blush like an airtight scientific case for evolution begins to unravel upon closer examination. New discoveries during the past thirty years have prompted an increasing number of scientists to contradict Darwin by concluding that there was an Intelligent Designer behind the creation and development of life.³⁷

Did you just see it on the side of the road America has been traveling for decades? It’s a sign indicating U-turns are allowed—and even recommended. Won’t you join Alan and Pastor Matt in pointing out the sign to others and recommending the superior way?

For further reading:

The Effect of Darwinism on Morality and Christianity

*McDowell, Josh, and Bob Hostetler. Beyond Belief to Convictions: What you need to know to help youth stand strong in the face of today’s culture. (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 2008). The theme that right and wrong are rooted in and determined by God’s character comes from this book.

Notes:

¹Jerry Newcombe, compiler, The Wit and Wisdom of D. James Kennedy, (Fort Lauderdale, FL: Truth in Action Ministries, 2013), 53.

²Wayne Stayskal, “Till Euthanasia Do You Part?”: Cartoons by Wayne Stayskal, (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1993).

³adapted from Adult Leader Guide, KJV Family Bible Study, Spring 2005, (Nashville: LifeWay Christian Resources, 2004), 125-126.

⁴http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/10/us/baltimore-police-officers-interview/index.html

⁵http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/05/28/baltimore-riots-will-cost-city-at-least-20-million/

⁶http://www.cbsnews.com/news/anti-police-violence-eric-garner-michael-brown-protest-turns-violent-in-california/

⁷http://time.com/3605606/ferguson-in-defense-of-rioting/

⁸http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/19/us/missouri-ferguson-agitators/index.html

⁹http://time.com/3908254/howard-safir-crime/

¹⁰http://townhall.com/columnists/michaelbrown/2015/04/26/its-not-hateful-to-say-that-bruce-jenner-is-not-a-woman-n1990675

¹¹http://www.wnd.com/2015/06/bruce-jenner-courageous-or-shameless/