The Darwinian Myth

The crux of the argument for both evolution and creation seems to rest on the idea of complexity of life. Evolution views the complexity of life as a result of billions of years of adaption and living things moving from simple to complex in order to survive. Creation views the complexity of life as evidence of an all-knowing Creator.

In 1984, three scientists named Charles B. Thaxton, Walter L. Bradley, and Roger L. Olsen, with doctorates in chemistry, material science, and geochemistry respectively, wrote The Mystery of Life’s Origin, the first comprehensive critique of chemical evolution. The results of their mathematical equations and chemical formulas raised serious questions about the feasibility of life starting through chemical reactions.

Dean Kenyon of San Francisco State University said the book was full of fresh ideas and original critiques of chemical evolution. He was puzzled that other scientists had not voiced similar criticism of chemical evolution. According to Kenyon, many scientists hesitate to admit that there could be problems within chemical evolution because it would open the door to the possibility of a supernatural origin of life.

It wasn’t that long ago Darwinian scientists would have never considered the validity of any book criticizing chemical evolution and advocating creation. Yet, the Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine gave The Mystery of Life’s Origin high marks:

The volume as a whole is devastating to a relaxed acceptance of current theories of abiogenesis. It is well written, and, though technical, much of the book is within the reach of the informed non-scientist. The book apparently has been well received by many who are working in the field of abiogenesis, such as Dean Kenyon and Robert Shapiro. . . . This book is . . . strongly recommended to anyone interested in the problem of chemical and biological origins.

Scientists are looking at the facts and allowing what they find to change their worldview. Many are beginning to see a theory that’s been biased for years. The more scientists learned about DNA and the amazing intricacy inside a human cell, the more questions challenging evolution began to surface. Biochemist and agnostic Michael Denton said in his book Evolution: A Theory in Crisis that evolution’s intellectual foundations have been steadily eroding. Biology’s new findings are bringing us very near to a formal, logical disproval of Darwinian claims. Denton believes Darwin’s claim that all life evolved from one cell can’t be supported by evidence found in fossils, embryology, taxonomy, and molecular biology.8

Nobel laureate Francis Crick proposed that the problems of life randomly originating on earth are so great that life must have arisen elsewhere in the universe and been transported here. Crick admits that his commitment to materialism and his hostility toward religion motivated him to enter his field of science. “I went into science because of religious reasons. There’s no doubt about it. I asked myself, what were the things that appear inexplicable and are used to support religious beliefs?” Then Crick sought to show that those things have a purely material foundation. His feelings toward religion led him to find scientific evidence to undermine religious belief. Fellow scientist Steven Weinberg confessed his hope that science would liberate people from religion and it became a motivating force in his life.

Can you imagine the courage it takes in today’s scientific community to support scientific research that doesn’t agree with Darwinian macroevolution? Those who take this stand may find it hard to be tenured in their universities or published in scientific journals, and yet this group of scientists is growing.

Swedish embryologist Søren Løvtrup, in his book Darwinism: The Refutation of a Myth, wrote, “I believe that one day, the Darwinian myth will be ranked as the greatest deception in the history of science and when this happens, many people will pose the question, how did this ever happen?”10

I think it is important, as we examine this topic, that you are aware of some of the dissenting voices in the scientific community.

We need to be thinking Christians. The Bible commands us to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our MIND (Luke 10:27). We need to learn how to think and follow God with our minds. Darwinian evolution is a faith construct, not a scientific fact.

People like to think they are objective, but no one is purely objective. We all have presuppositions. As followers of Christ, we have presuppositions that lead us to believe certain truths by faith and look at evidence through a particular lens. Others may have a presupposition that came from a lack of faith, or out of woundedness or bad experiences with God, church, and Christians. All of us view scientific data through our presuppositional lenses.

Chip Ingram, Why I Believe: Straight Answers to Honest Questions about God, the Bible, and Christianity (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2017).