By James Wilson
One
of my favorite memories is of a friend of mine who has a doctorate and believes
in evolution. It is one of his missions
in life to convince me I am foolish to believe my God made everything. One day exploring some buildings dating to
colonial times he pounced. “Do you
believe there was ever such an animal as eohippus?” he asked. I said I did; we have their fossils. “Well,” he continued, “everybody knows
eohippus is the first horse. He evolved
into the modern horse over millions of years.”
“Have
you conducted DNA testing?” I asked.
“Does eohippus have horse DNA?” He
was appalled at my unfairness; nobody can obtain DNA from fossilized prehistoric
animals. He repeated that everybody agrees
eohippus evolved into horses. “You tell
me you can prove evolution through this forerunner of a horse, but without DNA
you cannot prove this little guy is even related to the horse,” I said. “Fact is, eohippus looks more like a fox than
a horse; he has no hooves, and his legs are of such disparate lengths from
front to back that he bounces like a pig instead of running like a horse.” I ended with a question, “What have you got
besides bones resembling tiny horse bones and speculations from generations of
paleontologists? What science have you got?”
Reality
is my bones resemble pig bones as much as eohippus bones resemble those of a
horse. Yet nobody imagines I evolved
from a pig except people offended at my unbelief concerning evolution. Reality is without DNA I cannot pass a
paternity test for my children but wealthy and powerful people can demand we
scratch the idea of a Creator without DNA evidence.
Don’t
get me wrong. Science is a great gift;
it is a double gift having content – things observed in patterns of activity
and therefore known to (and how) existing – and structure. The structure is called scientific method for
learning by experimentation. Praise God
for the men and women who devote themselves to scientific disciplines – with
discipline being the operant word. When
we discipline our minds to accept what can be proven, to hold in tension what
has not yet been demonstrated, and to let go of what simply does not emerge
from facts in evidence – no matter how much we want or need to believe them –
we are practicing science. When men and
women with a lot of letters after their surname ask to be believed not for the
evidence they present but for those letters following their name there is
nothing scientific occurring. Such
people are simply the mullahs of materialism.
The
Wild Horse Nebula is about thirty million light years from earth, so distant it
was only discovered after we orbited the Hubble Telescope. Within the nebula is a black hole about four
million miles across. It is shaped like
a cross. Psalms 19:1 states, “The heavens
declare the glory of God”. These facts –
astronomical and scriptural – are verified observations and thus science. The laminem molecule is what we call an
adhesion protein. So tiny it can only be
seen through an electron microscope, it literally binds the cells in our body
together. It is the catalyst that makes
a body possible. Colossians 1:17 declares, “In Him (Jesus) all things hold
together.” The laminem molecule is
shaped like a cross. Again these facts are observed – the molecule and its
description and the corresponding Biblical declaration. This is science.
Where
it gets dicey is in the conclusions.
Have I just proved beyond doubt that an all-powerful God designed the
Wild Horse Nebula and the laminem molecule, planting those verses in the Bible
so we get His point? Actually, no. There is evidence – it looks, quacks and
walks like a duck – but nothing compelling about the connection between
scripture and these phenomena. I have no
need to compel belief, nor to stifle debate.
(Unlike the evolutionists who go to court to ensure
Creationist-believing teachers cannot speak to impressionable children on school
campuses.) But I would rather take my
chances in honest and spirited debate than to rely on the arrogance of those
who think themselves above scientific proof for their positions. DNA anyone?
Evolution
offers what George Lucas presented in Star Wars, an impersonal and unloving
force holding us and ours together. God
offers Himself, and His Son Who comes that we might have His life and love
abundantly. He is not afraid to take His
chances in the marketplace of ideas. The
question becomes whether we want the really real, or a fantasy that begins, “A
long time ago, in a galaxy far far away…”
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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