Evolution
Not afraid to shy away from controversy, we thought we'd put an assembly on around the topic of evolution - after someone did a search under evolution and we realised we didn't have any content about this!
This is from a Christian perspective. Personally, we believe it's a theory at best, with many scientists (including secular ones) not believing in its validity. But we recognise that many Christians do believe in evolution - and so do many schools - so we've made this as balanced as possible!
INTRO
Anyone heard of evolution? It's a theory created by a man called Charles Darwin who was a famous scientist. There are many stories that on his deathbed, having become a Christian, Charles Darwin said that he no longer believed in the theory of evolution. This is unproven though. (Click here)
Theory means: something that is yet unproven, an idea that seems to prove things that aren't yet explained.
The theory is that over time, things evolve into other things. So this means that things can improve - so for example animals who live in dry deserts have learned over time how to survive. This is within a species of animal. For example, humans are getting taller.
The more controversial theory is that species can evolve into other species. So the theory is that humans came from monkeys and before that from what's been called 'Primordial Slime' - so basically from mud.
VOLUNTEERS UP
Ask for 4 volunteers up the front. Give one a clear dish with mud in it. Give the second one a large picture of a monkey. Give the third person a banana. Give the fourth person either a fish or a picture of a fish.
(For pictures of a monkey, do an google images search and print up the result on A4 with a dark image behind the A4 paper so people can see it clearly when it's held up - click here for the results)
Explain that some people believe that we originally came from mud. Compare and contrast the volunteer and the mud and sensitively make comments around 'can you see the difference / similarities?' Then move onto the monkey, and being careful, make similar comments.
Then come to the volunteers with the banana and the fish (or pictures of). Say that although the science of this is very limited - it has been estimated by Robert May is New Scientist magazine (July 1, 2000) that we share about half our genes (DNA) with bananas. It is also resported by www.icr.org that there are fish that have 40% the same DNA as people. Again, ask people if they can see the similarities between the volunteers and the banana / fish.
Get them something as a prize (or tell them to come see you after) and get them a clap as they sit down. Say that even science can be a bit unpredictable at times and that people who believe in evolution and those who don't believ in it often use the same facts but interpret them in different ways.
THE BIBLE AS TRUTH?
Many Christians believe evolution isn't quite true. Not only has the Bible predicted accurately over 400 events in history, many scientific finds back up the Bible. It isn't science that people believe has discredited the Bible, it is scientific theories. There is a big difference. A theory, like the evolution theory, is a proposal that has not been fully proved. True science is based on fact, not theory.
2 Timothy 3.16 says:
'All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness..'
We see that Jesus himself knew the Old Testament brilliantly, often quoting it. It is real clear that Jesus accorded the Old Testament absolute authority, using it, repeating it, never querying it, and even pointing to prophecies fulfilled or to be fulfilled from it.
In John 14.16, Jesus promised the Holy Spirit do his disciples - the Spirit of Truth. In John 16.13, Jesus spoke again of his Holy Spirit:
'But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.'
So Jesus gives authority to the New Testament by telling his disciples that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of all truth and that he will guide the disciples (and us today) into all truth, speaking only what he hears (from God the Father), who alone is perfect.
As a Christian, if we challenge the truth of the Bible, we challenge the fundamentals of our faith. It's no accident that people who spend time doing this often lose their faith or the heart for their faith. It's chasing useless knowledge and it's pointless. Believe that Jesus is the way, the truth, the life. believe what Jesus says and accept the authority of the Bible equally - Jesus the living Word, the Bible the written Word. (1 John).
THE BIBLE AND CREATION
If evolution is correct, it means that over millions of years (around 4.6 billion actually), species have developed into other species.
Many Christians believe that it is impossible for one species to become another - for example, an elephant can't become a giraffe and a monkey can't become a man. Evidence for this can be found in Genesis 1.24-28:
And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind." And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."
So, the key points here are:
1. God said let the land produce living creatures who will multiply according to their KIND.
2. God made the creatures and saw that they were GOOD.
3. Man was made in the likeness of God.
4. Man was made to rule over and look after animals and creation.
We'll come back to some of these points later looking at The Bible and evolution..
So, if we did believe that evolution between species possible, we would also need to believe that the world has developed over millions of years.
In Genesis, we find the Bible tells us that God made the earth in 6 days and on the 7th day, God rested. Many Christians believe that this is a literal translation - 6 days means 6 days. Why would it mean anything else?
Well, for some, the confusion arises around the Hebrew word that is used for the word translated into English as 'day'. The Hebrew word is 'Yom' and this word can also mean 'period of time'. So, for some Christians, they believe that God created the world in 6 periods of 'time'.
However, on a personal level I believe that 6 days means 6 days. The first time the word 'Yom' is used in the Bible is in Genesis 1.5:
God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning-the first day.
In this, we see that the Bible uses the word 'Yom' in context to a period of day and night (after the first 'day'). So it is reasonable to assume that when the same word is used in the same chapter of the Bible, that the word 'Yom' continues to mean a day in earthly terms? I think so.
The plural of 'Yom' is 'Yamim' and this is used hundreds of times in the Old Testament and always means 'days.' This includes in Exodus 20.11 where God spoke directly to Moses and said:
For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
We also read in Genesis 1 that before God shaped and created, the world was a nothing. Nothing. No electrical forces operating on primordial slime, no forces, no evolutionary elements. Nothing. God then created.
I'm not sure what the problem is with God being able to create the world in his time and way as the Bible records. I realsie others disagree but this is my strong conviction. Are we on dangerous territory when we start to almost re-interpret the Bible in line with modern thinking? Surely modern thinking should be subject to the Word of God as the final authority.
THE BIBLE AND EVOLUTION
What does the Bible say? Well, the Bible isn't completely clear on this topic as the Bible tells us there are far more important things to worry about like caring for and loving other people. Many people believe that the Bible has been discredited and doesn't agree with science.
So let's look at evolution and the Bible and ask what does all our study of the Bible and creation mean anyway? Why bother with the questions and the theology?
Well, if we accept that the Bible is true and that it means God created the world in 6 actual days, there is no room for the theory of evolution. This refers back to the 4 points made in the section above:
1. God said let the land produce living creatures who will multiply according to their KIND.
2. God made the creatures and saw that they were GOOD.
3. Man was made in the likeness of God.
4. Man was made to rule over and look after animals and creation.
So let's re-look at these 4 points:
1. We see that God made animals within their kind, to breed within their kind, only. We also find the order of God's creation contradict the view of evolution too. (Gensis 1).
2. God directly made man. Period. No evolution or development. What's more, man could communicate with God, he was given instruction by God to name all the plants and animals etc. Not exactly a work in progress!
God saw that man (and woman) were good. So was his creation. Can you imagine God creating perfection, declaring it to be 'good' and then waiting for it to 'mature' or 'evolve.' Nor can I. If we think of the clearest Biblical picture of our eternal future in heaven with God to be Eden then we realise that it was perfection.
3. Man was made in the likeness of God (as the trinity). This means man wasn't made as a primordial sludge or monkey. Otherwise it means that God would be primordial sludge or a monkey. Yet God created an awesome world and universe, created all the infinite-ness of humans, animals and planets. And we know that God is to be feared, revered and is all-powerful, the unquestioned authority!
4. Man was made to rule over and look after animals and creation. As said above, man was made to be in charge of animals. No doubt who was the most advanced, unique and un-parralelled creation by God. Only man can talk to God, be in direct relationship with God - man (and woman) was set apart from day one. There is no equal and man is no animal.
But what about the dinosaurs?
What of them? In the last year there have been around 500 extinctions of animal, insect, bird. The dinosaurs were simply one of the creations of God (if they were in fact as we think they were). As you may well read, one of the dinosaurs people thought definitely existed was the brontosaurus. It has now been definitively proved this dinosaur didn't exist at all.
There is a fairly major Biblical event found in Genesis. You may have heard of it - it's called the Great Flood and it's found in and around Genesis 7. This devestation that man brought upon himself would have been sure to have destroyed many animals and everything else, producing the right conditions for fossilisation.
Did dinosaurs exist? Probably something like them yes. Job 40 and Pslam 104 both mention giant creatures of the deep. These were called 'behemoth' meaning:
1. Something enormous in size or power.
2. often Behemoth A huge animal, possibly the hippopotamus, described in the Bible.
But surely Noah took 2 of every living creature onto the Ark? Good point. Whatever the truth, we find that the stories of the behemoth died out. Could the Loch Ness Monster theories be a legacy of the behemoth the Bible speaks of? Who knows!