By James Wilson
In
nature so-called evolution depends on a natural process called mutation. New species can only be created if a genetic
change occurs in specimens of an old one.
That is what distinguishes evolution from adaptation – which is a real
phenomenon in both nature and human nature.
Adaptation simply describes a process in which natural traits that favor
survival and prosperity come to dominate already existing species. A famous example is the case of the English
moths common to English towns during the Industrial Revolution. Some were black and some were white. The black ones were protected from predators
by their ability to blend in with the sooty atmosphere; soon most surviving
moths were black because the white ones had been eaten. Ironically, when environmental and
technological advances moderated the soot, the surviving white moths were
better suited to survival and the adaptation process reversed. It had nothing to do with anything called
evolution. In fact, every mutation
observed in modern times – such as the occasional two-headed goat or even Dolly
the cloned sheep – exhibits no survival capability and dies in a short time. Mutations have never facilitated
survival. And no case of permanent
genetic modification in a species has ever been demonstrated in fossil or
nature – thus the phrase “so-called evolution.”
But why is this important?
The
same principle holds for human nature. Human
beings are the most adaptable creatures on the planet; we were created that way
by our Creator. We were created to
engage with God and with one another, but with the capacity to disengage if we
choose. Engagement is the essence of
high human living in the image of a God Who engages. We honor those who sacrifice for others and
reserve our highest praises for those who give their lives, whether Martin
Luther King, who dies a martyr’s death, or the anonymous firefighter rushing
into a burning building – or the cousin who donates a kidney. Jesus said there was no greater love than the
one who laid down his life for his friend.
Disengagement is the very essence of sin – original sin – depicted in
the Bible through Adam and Eve disengaging from God to seek knowledge –
independent of relation to Him – and later disengaging from one another when
Adam blames the whole mess on Eve. Once
the original decision is taken to be persons of engagement or disengagement
subsequent decisions tend to follow the line of the original. This complex of traits tends to define each
of us to this day. When people of
disengagement encounter the Son of God and accept His offer of eternal and
abundant life they adapt to Him – over time; it’s a process – and become really
human. Rejection of the Son leads in the
opposite direction. Nothing has changed
– there has been adaptation but no evolution – since time began.
Fast
forward to the post-modern world. We are
as hungry for quick and easy answers as Adam and Eve ever were, and we don’t
like accountability any more than we like living in the tension between what –
or whom – we know and do not know. In
our disengagement we still long for community and communion. We side with those we think are like us. In politics if we are conservative we trend
to icons like talk-show hosts Rush and Hedgecock, and consultants like Gordon
Liddy and Mark Fuhrman – conveniently forgetting Hedgecock was hounded from
office for financial misdeeds, Liddy a common burglar, and Fuhrman just a cop
who planted evidence. (Limbaugh remains
clean but fallible.) If we are liberal
we trend to icons like Hilary and Al Sharpton, conveniently forgetting the
woman who claimed it didn’t matter why people died in Benghazi and the scandals
associated with her name, or the fact that Sharpton began his career with the
fictional rape of Tawana Brawley and advanced it with the trumped up rape charges
against four Duke University athletes.
If these folks – liberal or conservative – speak in line with our
prejudices we tend to applaud them. If
they resemble a type we call victim so much the better. Many consider this retreat into subjectivism
– just another name for tribalism – an evolutionary advance for human nature.
The
solution? If not Christians we can seek
– through innate integrity and strength – to discover a balance between
objective assessment of facts in each case and the larger human realities
behind them. (Good luck with that; it
never worked before.) If Christians – or
wanting to be – we can re-submit each of our values to the Creator of
value. He embraces and enables
repentance. But let’s not kid ourselves
that there is anything new under the sun.
James A. Wilson is the author of Living
As Ambassadors of Relationships and The
Holy Spirit and the End Times – available at local bookstores or by e-mailing
him at
praynorthstate@charter.net
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