OPEN: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iI6-g6Xe8kc (missing in action)
All this month we’ve been focusing on “holidays” in January that you may not have heard of. Today we’re going to stretch a little outside the month to touch on the International Darwin Day that is celebrated February 12th and this year it celebrates the 207th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth.
Now, the reason I accidentally included this in our list (of January special days) was because, when I first started looking at holidays in this month, I saw that the San Francisco Atheists celebrated his birthday on the 30th of this month (yesterday) and I mistakenly concluded that was the day everyone observed it. My bad.
This Tuesday (February 2nd) the Circular Congregational Church - in Charleston, SC – are sponsoring 10 events in 10 days to glorify Darwin. And of course there are numerous events on the 12th (Darwin’s birthday) including on in Colorado sponsored by the “Central Colorado Humanist.”
http://darwinday.org/events/
One site declared: “International Darwin Day (is intended to) inspire people throughout the globe to reflect and act on the principles of intellectual bravery, perpetual curiosity, scientific thinking, and hunger for truth as embodied in Charles Darwin.” http://darwinday.org/about/
But despite the fact that Darwin’s views on evolution had influenced culture for nearly 200 years, evolutionary scientists are still frustrated by the fact that only about 40% of Americans accept Darwin’s theory of “The Origin of the Species.” (the name of his book)
(Newport, F. On Darwin’s Birthday, Only 4 in 10 Believe in Evolution. Gallup News. Posted on gallup.com on February 11, 2009, accessed February 17, 2009.)
Actually, the full name of Darwin’s book was:
“The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection: Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.”
But we’ll talk more about that later.
Charles Darwin was the father what we call “Darwinism” which is an ALTERNATE and unbiblical way of looking at how life came to exist on our planet. And Darwinism is the foundation of the “science” we know as Evolution.
Whereas, the Bible tells us that:
“in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them…” Exodus 20:11
Darwinism maintains that NATURE (not God) took millions and millions of years to evolve life from a primordial soup of minerals, rocks and water. And this primordial soup sat and interacted until it created a simple molecule. (show a graph of the Evolutionary tree of life).
This simple molecule then bonded together with other molecules to form a simple form of life. And over time, this simple life-form became more and more complicated until it became a more complex organism. And this transformation continued over millions of years until dinosaurs became birds and fish became amphibians and amphibians became dogs and cats… and ultimately life evolved until we came into existence.
They trace man’s existence all the way back to that primordial soup, and as someone once put it:
Darwinism is the theory of “Goo to you by way of the zoo.”
Now, in the simplified form in which I’ve phrased this… it all seems fairly bizarre doesn’t it? In fact, it sounds unbelievable.
But there is a multitude of scientists who embrace this strange view of life’s origins. And evolution has come to dominate (to the exclusion of all other possible explanations) the teaching of science from Elementary school thru High School and into College.
No other view is allowed.
So, if this view is embraced by so many in the scientific community, you have to ask “why?”
Now, I have so much information on this topic in my files that I could talk for hours on this, but instead I’m going to focus on presenting 3 of the basic underlying concepts that drive Darwinism in our culture.
For example, one of the foundational reasons given for evolution is that there is so much variation within a species (Darwin’s book was driven by his finding differences in finches in a given locale)
Look at this picture (I showed a picture of several breeds of dogs).
What are these? (Dogs)
Do you see how different they are?
How did they get to be so different?
They were bred that way weren't they.
An evolutionist will say – this is an example of how evolution works. If you have enough interbreeding in a species of animal - viola... you could eventually have a NEW species of animal.
But there are a few problems with this.
First these dogs have been bred to have the kinds of characteristics that appeal to dog owners, but that often comes at a price.
What’s the price?
Deformity, weakness, illness and an early death. One of our Elders had a brown lab that he loved deeply, but eventually it developed arthritis in its joints and died a painful death… all because specified breeding led to that breed’s ultimate destiny as an invalid.
Excessive interbreeding tends to not make a better species... but a weaker one.
Now, once again - look at this chart.
What are these?
They’re dogs.
They’ve always been dogs. They’ll always be dogs. They’ll never be anything other than dogs.
You put all those different breeds on an isolated island somewhere and come back in a 100 years... you’ll pretty much have one kind of dog. It will be a mongrel. But it will be a dog.
The 2nd problem here is – try though they might, scientists have NEVER observed a dog (or a cat or a horse, or even a housefly) change into something else. And (though they’ve tried) they’ve never been able to create a new species of animal in the lab. All they have is speculation. They’re no proof either in the fossil record, or in nature, or in the lab that any of this ever has or ever will occur.
But that is the essential requirement for something to become a scientific fact.
If a scientist cannot observe something in the wild or repeat it in the lab… it’s not fact. It’s theory.
That’s why evolution is called… a theory.
A 2nd rationale that drives the teaching of evolutionists is something they call “homology”.
If 2 different species “look the same” - they believe THAT proves that each of those species has a similar ancestry.
For example, look at this chart that presents the evolutionistic view of wing structure. They point to the fact that the general similarities between the limbs of dinosaurs and the structure of bird wings proves that they MUST have come from a common ancestor.
Do you see how they come to that conclusion?
That’s why evolutionists maintain that chimps and humans have a common ancestor. They say we look similar. (Pause) Well some of us do. And yes we do LOOK similar, but not because we have a “common ancestor”, but because we have a common CREATOR in God. If something works why not use the same principles over and over again in His creation?
ILLUS: But this concept of similarity seemed to be confirmed when, some time back, evolutionists bragged that there was a 96% similarity in the DNA of chimps and humans.
But when it came to looking at the DNA, it appears that the evolutionists fudged a little on the figures.
Whoever came up with that figure apparently only took a small portion of the DNA for their comparison. When someone actually compared ALL the DNA of both … they found that the DNA of Chimps is NOT 96% similar to ours. There are actually billions of differences between their DNA and ours.
{Criswell, D. 2005. Genomics at ICR. Acts & Facts. 34 (7)}.
And there is one other problem – just like OTHER “similar” looking creatures - Chimps and humans can’t interbreed. God has put a barrier between species to keep the “kinds” separate
For example: Horses and donkeys look alike, and they CAN interbreed.
What is the resulting offspring from horses and donkeys? (mules)
But there’s a problem with mules. What’s wrong with a mule? (it’s sterile).
Horses and donkeys are “different” kinds and God has created a wall between them that stops them from generating offspring that will continue.
Tigers and lions look alike, and they CAN interbreed.
What the resulting offspring of their union? (a liger or a tigon)
But there’s a problem with ligers/tigons. What is wrong? (they’re sterile)
Again, tigers and lions are different “kinds” and God has created a wall between them that stops them from creating self-perpetuating offspring.
God has placed a barrier between common looking animals because He created them according to their kinds. Genesis tells us:
“.. God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their KINDS, and every winged bird according to its KIND.” Genesis 1:21
And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their KINDS—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their KINDS...” Genesis 1:24
So let’s revue: there are at least 2 major reasons why evolutionists claim evolution is true are:
• There are variations within various birds, fish, animals... even among humans
• Many creatures are similar in appearance and that “proves” that they have a common ancestor.
But there’s a 3rd reason drives evolution.
And it’s THE REASON that humanists and atheists embrace Darwin.
Darwinism gives people an opportunity to reject God.
Sir Arthur Keith, a leading evolutionist of the 20th century said:
"Evolution is unproven and unprovable. We believe it because the only alternative is special creation (God), and that is unthinkable."
You see this theme comes up over and over again in evolutionist thinking.
Back in 2005, a physicist and recipient of the esteemed Templeton Prize: Paul Davies said he did see evidence for intelligent design (God) in the laws of nature but then he added:
“As a physicist, I feel very uncomfortable with a God who intervenes” in human affairs.
(Scientific American 9/05 p. 27)
And back in 1987, the National Academy of Sciences rejected "Creation science as science in a Louisiana "Creation" case arguing:
"it (creation science) fails to display the most basic characteristic of science: reliance upon naturalistic explanations."
In other words, because creationists refuse to accept that the world developed by natural means (i.e. They believe God was vital to the creation of the world and all life) naturalisitic “scientists” rejected “creation science” as being scientific.
You see, the core reason why Darwinism is embraced by many people in this world is because those same people reject God in their lives. If God didn’t create the world they can ignore His right to control their lives.
Essentially, that’s what our text this morning said:
“… although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.” Romans 1:21-23
They don’t WANT God in the picture.
They NEED evolution to be true, because if it’s not then they have no choice but - to accept there is a God. And they do not want to do that.
They want to be free from the bondage of having to believe in God.
But in freeing themselves from God, they’ve chained themselves to sin.
Romans 6:16-18 says “Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey — whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?
But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.”
Because Darwinism is used to oppose God, it enslaves people to sin.
For example – at the beginning of this sermon we noted that the title to Darwin’s book was actually:
“The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection: Or, the Preservation of FAVOURED RACES in the Struggle for Life.”
Did you catch that “favoured races” thing?
What exactly does that mean?
Thomas Huxley, a contemporary of Darwin’s and a famous evolutionist of the day cited the book that Darwin wrote, Huxley said: "no rational man, cognizant of the facts, believes the average Negro is the equal, still less the superior, of the white man"
(Allen Webster, The Day The Atheist Sat Next To The Preacher)
Huxley was a bigot!
He embraced Darwinism because the central tenet taught that there were superior and inferior races.
Now, is that true?
ARE there inferior and superior races?
Of course not!
All of mankind has been created in the image of God. It doesn’t matter the color of skin, or shape and contour of their facial features, or even the structure of their bodies. They are all made in God’s image. There IS NO superior or inferior race.
But Darwinism created that view.
And because of that foundational view, Evolution gave birth to a “scientific” concept known as “Eugenics”. Eugenics (literally “good breeding) was the practice of “selective breeding” of humans. They believed that if they weeded out the inferior characteristics of mankind that they would ultimately arrive at a superior race… and even usher in the next level of an evolved species.
According to Medicine Net Com: “The practice of eugenics was first legally mandated in the United States in the state of Indiana, resulting in the forcible sterilization, incarceration, and occasionally euthanasia of the mentally or physically handicapped, the mentally ill, and ethnic minorities (particularly people of mixed racial heritage), and the adopting out of their children to non-disabled, Caucasian parents. Similar programs spread widely in the early part of the twentieth century, and still exist in some parts of the world...”
Among the champions of the eugenics movement was Margaret Sanger.
Does anybody know who Margaret Sanger was?
That’s right. She was the founder of Planned Parenthood.
At one point Sanger wrote that “Birth control… is nothing more or less than…weeding out the unfit.”
(http://www.bartleby.com/1013/18.html)
Thousands of people were forcibly sterilized to keep them from reproducing because the Eugenics movement was based squarely on Darwin's theory of the survival of the fittest. And it was the natural outgrowth was the idea of superior and inferior races.
And, oh yes. There was another prominent person in the last century who endorsed this idea of superior and inferior races of people. Do you know who he was? He had this funny little mustache and was the image of evil in the 20th century. That’s right – Hitler.
Hitler believed in the superiority of Aryan race and he used Darwinism for his justification for eradicating inferior races such as the Jews and the Gypsies. (* see footnote)
But wait… there’s more.
Out of the “science” of Darwinism has risen a discipline known as “Evolutionary Biology.”
Evolutionary biology has arrived at the conclusion that the tendency of men to commit rape and adultery are bound to mankind’s evolutionary background.
According to evolutionary biologists Randy Thornhill and Craig Palmer, the authors of A Natural History of Rape: Biological Bases of Sexual Coercion”,
Rape should be viewed “as a natural biological phenomenon that is a product of the human evolutionary heritage.”
That doesn’t make it right, they add and “in no way excuses the rapist.” BUT Males who are driven to procreate – and frustrated that females don’t select them as partners – might resort to copulation by force, or rape. Such behavior can be found in many species, from scorpion-flies to orangutans, according to the authors.
(Michael Precker in The Dallas Morning News 2/13/00)
Then evolutionary biology tells us this explains adultery.
In a Time magazine article from the 1990’s “it is to man's evolutionary advantage to sow his seeds far and wide. Women instead seek mates with the best genes and the most to invest in offspring. These strategies can put the sexes in conflict and undermine love.”
(Time magazine, August 15, 1994 pp. 45ff)
So Darwinism embraces and sets the groundwork for sin.
In essence, it allows people to avoid being slaves to righteousness…and enslaves them to sin.
One last thought:
Darwinism not only enslaves people to sin… it enslaves them to hopelessness.
Why?
Because once you buy into Evolution you have to accept the fact that you are not anything special.
You are just an accident of nature. Because you have been the result of a chance collection of molecules that just happened to join together, you are essentially no different than the other species on the face of the earth. You have no more value (in the grand scheme of things) than cats, or birds or insects.
As one person put it:
“Evolution sees man as one step above apes.
Scripture sees him as one step beneath angels.” (Allen Webster).
Evolution says: you aren’t anybody special.
You have no intrinsic value.
And this life is all you get. There is nothing after you die.
As a result… life is what you make of it RIGHT NOW.
There was an old beer commercial that echoed that concept:
“You only go around once in life, so grab all the gusto you can.”
In the days of Paul, people had a similar kind of saying:
“Let us eat, and drink – for tomorrow (pause) we die.” I Corinthians 15:32
C.S. Lewis knew of what Evolution promised, and so he wrote:
"Lead us evolution, lead us up the future’s endless stair;
Chop us, change us, prod us, weed us, for stagnation is despair;
Groping, guessing, yet possessing, lead us (pause) nobody knows where."
Essentially, Lewis was telling us that Darwinism offers nothing but emptiness, hopelessness and despair.
By contrast, the Bible tells us we are people of hope
We are a special creation.
Genesis tells us “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27
And “the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” Genesis 2:7
Unlike everything else that God created (with a spoken word) God got down in the mud and got his hands dirty. He shaped the man and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. NO OTHER CREATION got that kind of specialized attention.
Reflecting on that truth, David wrote: I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. Psalm 139:14
What does that say to us?
It says you and I are unique.
There is a touch of the divine within us.
We are special creations of God.
And so, we have value, we have purpose… we ARE somebody.
And even if we mess up our lives, even if we damage that which God has given us, the Bible says God thought we were worth the effort to salvage and repair.
ILLUS: This past Saturday I took part in a funeral for Doreen. This was a black funeral, and you can’t imagine the honor I had in being allowed to take part in it. It lasted for 2 hours, and it was a pleasurable 2 hours for me. Numerous people got up and shared about Doreen’s past, and what she meant to them.
We didn’t really know her like they did, because when she came to church here she was confined to a wheelchair and was barely able to speak. She’d had a brain aneurism 8 years ago that left her an invalid. But before that, she was entirely different kind of person.
She loved Jesus. She loved singing about him. She loved writing songs in praise of him. She led her church choir and she impacted the lives of so many people.
But she hadn’t always been that kind of woman either. Her friends and family told of her being something of prima donna. A stubborn and difficult woman at times.
And… she cheated at cards. (pause).
When Joe, her husband to be, met her she was on the streets and suffering from drug addiction. Separated from her family because of her habit.
She had damaged and destroyed so much of what God had given her. But once she allowed God to get back ahold of her, God repaired her and restored her.
You see, that’s the hope we find in God.
God tells us we are worth more than we can imagine
CLOSE: Back in the 1500s Martin Luther was having his translation of the bible printed at a printer’s shop. One day when the printer’s daughter was cleaning her dad’s shop found a piece of paper. It was part of the bible that her dad was printing for Martin Luther, and it said,
“For God so loved that He gave...”
The rest of the verse was not printed yet, but what she saw was enough to move her. The thought that God would give her anything shook her and changed her. Her mother noticed a change in her and asked her why she seemed so happy. And the girl showed her mother the crumpled piece of paper.
The mother read it and asked, "What did He give?"
The girl said, “I don’t know but if God loved us enough to give us anything we must be very special to Him.”
INVITATION:
Footnote: Sir Arthur Keith wrote, "To see the evolutionary measure and tribal morality being applied rigorously to the affairs of a great modem nation, we must turn again to Germany of 1942. We see Hitler devoutly convinced that evolution produces the only real basis for national policy. ...The German Fuhrer, as I have consistently maintained, is an evolutionist; he has conscientiously sought to make the practices of Germany conform to the theory of evolution" (Sir Arthur Keith, Evolution and Ethics, p. 28).
