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The Polarization of America
by Patrick Vosse
Part One
Evolutionism vs. Creationism |
Chapter 1 - In the Beginning
The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Psalm 19:1
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Often a cold shudder has run through me,
and I have asked myself
whether I may have not devoted myself to a fantasy.
(Charles Darwin, The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, 1887, Vol. 2, p. 229)
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I am amazed at how words written 3,500
years ago can have such a polarizing affect on 21st century
America. Much of the conflict between Humanism and
Christianity is defined in the first book of the Bible, Genesis. Genesis
defines some of the major premises of the Christian faith
and much of what Humanism opposes. In order to have a complete
understanding of the Humanism-Christianity conflict, it is necessary to
understand the Creationist-Evolutionist debate. In itself, evolution is
merely one issue that polarizes. However, it plays major role in the
advancement of Humanism today. For that reason, the fist part of the
book is devoted to creation and evolution. The reason for this will
become clear as the discussion advances.
There have been many words written
about how God created the universe; not all of
them have been accurate or consistent with what the Bible
says. So, to begin our discussion on Creationism, let
us take a close look at what the Bible actually says in the book of
Genesis. However, before we begin it is necessary to
consider the purpose of the Bible.
We cannot know God without some
help. At the time of Abraham, Satan and his demons ruled the
world and the only religion was the satanic system of
superstition and paganism with its
attending occultism and idolatry. Satan and his demons
were the focus of all mankind’s worship. No one knew about the "God of
Abraham". God had to reveal himself. Abraham and the Patriarchs knew God
through direct revelation. It was a special time
calling for special action. Direct revelation was reserved for special
circumstances; for mankind in general, God revealed himself in the
written word.
The written word increased throughout the
centuries as God revealed himself in greater detail and as the
time grew near for God to reveal himself with perfection in the Living
Word–
Jesus. However, the first words of revelation
are found in the Pentateuch, the first five books of the
Old Testament that were revealed to Moses on Mt. Sinai. Consider the
difficulty in presenting this revelation. The initial audience was a
rag-tag group of nomads escaping from slavery. They were uneducated,
mostly illiterate, and superstitious. From this
humble group, the audience would grow to include intellectuals of the 21st
century. How does one reach such a broad spectrum?
It is an interesting phenomenon that it
is often more efficient to convey an abstract and universal truth
indirectly in metaphor, allegory, and
symbolism. Shakespeare was a master of
this and we still quote him in archaic English because his metaphors
convey the truth better than any other words. This is why poetry is so
profound – it hits you in the heart and works its way into you head (and
visa versa) to affect a complete understanding, cognitive,
intuitive, and most important, it conveys the emotional content often
missing from communication that is more objective.
The Bible is full of poetry, metaphors, allegories, and
similitude. This is one reason that the Bible
is as current today as it was thousands of years ago. Consider the
comfort, insight, and presence of God we get from the Psalms.
This type of communication
does not have the precision of a prosaic report. The
purpose of the Bible is not to give a detailed account of
creation but to give an enduring
revelation of the Creator. As we study
the account of creation, keep in mind the following:
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The initial
audience was ignorant, superstitious nomadic
ex-slaves.
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The eventual audience is educated and sophisticated
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The revelation must reach both of the above.
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The revelation is about the Creator more
than the creation.
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Metaphor, allegory, and poetry are used in Genesis
and throughout the Bible. In fact, Jesus was a master
of the metaphor – consider the parables.
We must be able to determine when the
Bible is giving a fact and when it is alluding to a truth
through metaphor. We must be able to know when we are
reading prose and when we are reading poetry. With that background in
mind, let us look at what God has to say about creation
in Genesis.
Gen 1: Verses 1 and 2: In the
beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the
surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was
hovering over the waters.
In the beginning was the Word, and
the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the
beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was
made that has been made.
Jn 1:1-3
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Humans are an integral part of nature, the result of
unguided evolutionary change. Humanists recognize nature as
self-existing.
Humanist Manifesto 3
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Note that at this point, the Bible does not say anything about
the process of creating the universe (i.e. the heavens)
or the earth. The narrative begins with their existence. The
universe and earth could have just popped into existence or developed
over billions of years. What the verse does say is that God
created everything and that his Spirit was a presence in
this creation. The Humanists and
those scientists that deny God in the formation of the universe have
difficulty explaining "in the beginning." They have a hypothesis
of the "Big Bang," a sudden emergence of
energy that eventually condensed and developed into the universe that we
see today. Where did that energy come from? This is a major problem for
the atheistic scientist. That is one
reason why the "Big Bang" remains just a hypothesis.
We should always keep in mind that, in
the creation of the material,
physical existence, the laws that govern the physical universe
were also created with matter and are integral with it. The
unseen beauty of God's creation is the elegance of how
everything works in harmony–consistently. There is no reason
for God to abandon this organization of function during the
creation process and, in fact, the laws of nature are part
of the process.
Gen 1: Verses 3-5, Day 1: And God said, "Let there be light, and there was light. God saw
that the light was good, and separated the light from the darkness. God
called the light "day’ and the darkness he called "night". And there was
evening, and there was morning – the first day.
Right away in Day 1, we are faced with a
problem. Here we have "light" and "dark" but the sun was not
created until the fourth day. Obviously, this light is something
different. And there is another interesting observation; physical
darkness is merely the absence of light. Here we see darkness considered
as a substance that can be separated from the substance light. Perhaps
the explanation shows just how profound the Bible can be.
Light is energy, photons that move in
waves. Depending on the amount of energy the photon has, we can see it
as a color or, at very high energy, invisible ultraviolet light. With
even higher energy, the photon can be X-rays or cosmic rays. Low wave
frequencies, express the energy as invisible infrared or radio waves. It
is all the same phenomenon, just different photon frequencies and
energy. About a century ago, Albert Einstein
proposed his theories of General and Special Relativity
and the famous equation E = mc2. This equation was profound
and shook the scientific community. Simply stated it
says that energy can become solid mass and solid mass can become energy.
This led to the development of the nuclear bomb where the uranium mass
transforms into energy: visible light, invisible light, radiation, and
heat. And it did so with enormous force or kinetic energy.
With Einstein’s
theories, scientists were able to
postulate a theory of how the universe
began – it is called the Big Bang. The hypothesis
goes something like this. An intense point smaller than an
atom and with almost an infinite amount of energy burst into existence.
The energy burst outward from its source and, as it expanded, it cooled
and some of the energy converted to mass, sub-atomic particles at first,
then hydrogen. The hydrogen atoms gradually collected into gaseous
clouds, then more and more dense structures until eventually stars,
where the elements of the universe formed. This is a greatly
simplified version of the Big Bang, but sufficient for our discussion
here.
However, in recent years, scientist
measured the amount of matter and energy in the universe
and its rate of expansion and discovered that things just do
not add up. To make a long and complicated story short (and much
simplified), scientists now believe that, in addition to the "light"
energy and visible matter that we are all familiar with, there is "dark"
matter and "dark" energy – and a lot of it. In fact, there is more dark
matter in the universe than the light matter we can see.
So here we have a narrative of creation simple enough for the illiterate
nomad, yet describes a phenomenon that challenges the minds of the best
astrophysicists today. It also shows that it is the laws of nature
that are an integral part of the creation that God
uses to fashion his creation.
Gen 1: Verses 6-10, Day 2: And
God said, "Let there be an expanse between the waters
to separate water from water." So God made the
expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above
it. And it was so. God called the expanse "sky". And there was evening,
and there was morning – the second day. And God said, "Let the water
under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear." And
it was so. God called the dry ground land, and the gathered waters he
called seas. And God saw that it was good.
In Day 2, God established the
earth’s atmosphere with the water vapor that
would eventually become rain. It seems a small event to devote an entire
period to, however, the establishment of earth’s atmosphere is extremely
significant; no other planet in the solar system has
an atmosphere that can sustain life. It took a long time with
numerous events, some rather unlikely, for the atmosphere to develop a
condition that is perfect for sustaining life. The land and seas are
separated in preparation for life. It should be noted that this is not a
creative act but a manipulation of matter already in existence.
Day 2 is an example of God
directing his creation through
the laws of nature–which he created to govern
matter. In the Genesis account of the creation, there is
an important principle that Creationists often
overlook. God does not merely create each element of nature.
With the physical, material existence, God also establishes laws that
regulate the material universe. For example, God does not
directly cause a rock to fall from a mountainside because he has
established gravity to do the job. Day 2 describes some of the most
impressive forces of nature. What is described as gathering water
and land into separate places is, in fact, the movement of the
earth forces we experience today as earthquakes and
volcanoes were at work on Day 2, but with even more impact. Those
geological forces formed continents and mountains as well as the expanse
and depths of the seas. They are still at work today.
It is interesting to note that some
scientists now theorize that the early formation of the earth was
exactly as described here. In the atmosphere, water developed that
precipitated as rain and, initially, water covered the entire earth.
Volcanic and tectonic forces caused the land to rise, separating land
from water.
So again we have a description of the
formation of the earth's features in a way simple enough for
the Hebrew nomads but accurate enough to be consistent with
modern geological theories.
Gen 1: Verse 11-13: Day 3: Then
God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed
bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seeds in it,
according to their kinds. And it was so. The land produced vegetation:
plants bearing seed according to their kinds. And God saw that is was
good. And there was evening, and there was morning, the third day.
The operative phrase here is, "Let the
LAND produce vegetation." The matter that God creates operates
and functions according to the laws established by God. The Bible
does not say God created each and every type of plant and tree.
When the time was right, the potential for vegetative life
was released. How was this accomplished? The Bible does not
say–remember this is all about the Creator not the
created, what about bacteria, viruses, molds, and fungi? Details such as
this are not necessary to meet the objective of the narrative, but
obviously these organisms were
also produced because, without bacteria, soil cannot be produced that
will support vegetation. It is clear that the Genesis
account is not complete in every detail–it is not a scientific
account.
It is interesting to note that
evolutionary scientists have long believed
that life began in water and then migrated to
land. Here God's says life began on land. But recently many
scientists have come to the conclusion that life indeed began on land,
citing the fact that the mineral structure of clay is far more conducive
to primitive life that the water environment. It seems that the more we
learn about science, the more accurate the Bible
becomes!
In this account, we see another law of
nature: Bearing seeds according to their kind. This law of
nature is evident everywhere. Apples produce apples and oranges produce
oranges and no one has ever seen and apple tree bearing oranges. It is
here that the Creationist draws a line that the Evolutionist
says we must cross.
Remember, Day 3 is about the laws of
nature through which God is manipulating his
creation and not creating
individual plants. We have already established that his account is not a
complete scientific treatise. Its focus was on the Creator
and was written by and for the nomadic Hebrews. There is much more to
the laws of nature at work here than are described. Just how the
land brought forth vegetation is not stated.
We must be careful in our interpretation
of the phrase, "according to its kind." Does this
mean that every plant bears seed that develops into a plant that is
exactly like the parent, a clone? The answer is NO! Sexual
reproduction allows for mixing of genes and that, in turn,
provides for variation. This is true for all living
things, both plant and animal. Agronomists use this selective breeding
to develop drought-resistant crops, seedless watermelons, and hybrid
roses–all different from their parental source. In the animal
world, we use selective breeding to produce
Great Danes and Chihuahuas, both of which are adaptations of the wolf;
and all are the same species. It is this capacity for life to adapt that allows organisms
to survive environmental changes.
In life's capacity to adapt,
we see the beauty and efficiency of God's laws governing
nature. The question that is the center of the Humanism–Christian
debate is: Do these laws extend from adaptation
within a species to changes that evolve into
another species?
Gen 1: Verses 14-19: Day 4: And
God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the
sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to
mark seasons, and days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse
of the sky to give light on the earth." And it was
so. God made two great lights – the greater light to govern the day, the
lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.
God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on earth, to
govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And
God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning –
the fourth day.
Day 4 presents a few problems for the
Christian and ammunition for the Humanist’s argument. As mentioned
regarding Day 1, God made some form of light that was not from
the sun or stars because these were not made until
Day 4. Another problem is that vegetation cannot survive without
light–but vegetation was produced in Day 3, before there was a sun! Of
course, scientists will argue that stars formed before
planets and many stars and galaxies are older than our
solar system. However, those arguments are for
another time. Here we are looking at the internal inconsistency of the
Genesis account.
This is poetry intended to show the hand
of God in the creation
of the universe. That it is inconsistent with modern
science is not relevant. However, because it is inconsistent, we must
regard the narrative as poetry, metaphor, and symbolism
aimed at revealing the Glory of God. Could God have
created things out of order? Of course, but why would he develop a
beautiful system of matter and laws to govern it and then ignore the
very organization he made?
We must remember who the primary audience
is: the nomadic and relatively primitive Hebrews. They had a geocentric
view of the universe, i.e., the
earth was the center of the universe and the reason
for everything. As such, God gave his account of the
creation so that these nomads could comprehend it.
They did not have the background or education to
understand an accurate, scientific account of astrophysics and
cosmology–
they were a little weak on calculus and celestial mechanics.
In fact, it was not until about 500 years ago that the geocentric view
of the universe was challenged scientifically.
The lesson of the Genesis
narrative is that God spoke creation
into existence. The details are irrelevant and, in fact, scientists
today struggle to understand the complexity of nature
and will never fully comprehend it.
Gen 1: Verses 20-23: Day 5: And
God said, "Let the water teem with
living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth
across the expanse of the sky." So God created the great creatures of
the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems,
according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind.
And God saw that is was good. God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful
and increase in numbers and fill the water in the seas, and let the
birds increase on the earth." And there was evening, and there was
morning – the fifth day.
In the creation
narrative, the word Bara, created, is only used three times: In
Verse 1, here in Verse 21, and in Verse 27 with regard to man. Much of
the creation development is about God ordering the created
matter to develop according to God’s plan. Here animal life
comes out of the water in a creative act and birds fill the
air. This is a different type of life from vegetation, sentient life. As
we will see in Chapter 6, Evolutionists have
difficulty explaining how the evolution from vegetable
to conscious life occurred.
Gen 1: Verses 24-7: Day 6: And
God said, "Let the land produce living creatures
according to their kind: 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 creatures that move along the
ground." So God created man in is own image, in the image of God he
created him, male and female he created them.
Gen 2: Verse 7: – 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.
On the sixth day, the land produced
living creatures as the water did in Day 5. As in Day 3, God
ordered the land to produce life. Just how God
"made the wild animals according to their kind" is not stated. In
addition, the list of creatures is not complete. There is no mention of
insects, dinosaurs, bacteria, worms, or "Homo erectus."
In other words, this is not a detailed account of
creation; it is a generalized
account, painted in broad strokes.
A literal interpretation
of Day 6 that extrapolates specific creation
of individual creatures would not be accurate; the account does not say
that. In fact, a literal interpretation would better support the
Evolutionist's position, i.e., the land
produced the creatures.
It is in Day 6 that God also
created Man. There are two accounts of Man’s creation:
Gen 1:24-27 and Gen 2:7. In these accounts, we see Man developing in
a two-step process. First, a body was formed from the dust of the earth.
Then God breathed into him the breath of life
and made Man in his own image. In the entire creation account, Man is
the only creature of which it is said was made in God’s image. Just what
is God’s image?
Jesus tells us, in Jn 4:24
that "God is spirit." We know that he had to
exist before there was any universe because he created
all physical existence. Does God have a nose and ears? No, not in the
physical sense. Does he have a material body? No, as Jesus said, he is
spirit. Therefore, that creature God formed from the dust of the earth
was not yet in the image of God. Look at any human today.
His physical body is an animal and, much to the delight of Evolutionists,
resembles an ape. If our bodies are not made in the
image of God, what is?
"Respiration" (breathing) and
"inspiration" (filled with spirit) are words both based on
the word for spirit. Many ancient cultures believed that a person’s
breath was his spirit because when he dies and the spirit left the body,
breathing stopped. In Gen 2:7, the NAV translation of neshamah is
"breath of life," but this word is also translated as
"spirit" and is done so in other verses. It is after God
breaths spirit into Man that he is declared to be created in is image.
Of all the creatures, only Man has a
spirit that is the image of God. We have seen, in
the Genesis account, the creation
of several types of life: basic vegetative life of the
plants, simple sentient life of the animals, and with Man a spiritual
life. Note that this spiritual life did not occur as a natural process
"produced from the land" as was the body. The spirit is not of the
natural world. It is super natural, i.e., above or outside the
natural, physical realm. As such, God directly inspires man with his
spirit. Humanity is not about the body, it is about the spirit. It would
not matter if we had two heads and four legs we would still be human if
we had God’s spirit within us. Another creature could look very much
like us but, without the spirit, would not be human.
In Genesis, Chapter 3,
God tells Adam and Eve that they may eat from
any tree in the garden except the Tree of Knowledge
of Good and Evil. If they eat of that tree, they will die.
However, they ate the fruit of that infamous tree and–
they did not die.
Not only did they not die, they lived for centuries. Was Satan
correct when he said they would not die? Their bodies did not
die. But what about their spirits? Jesus clearly makes the
distinction between man’s two natures in John 3:5-7:
Jesus answered, "I
tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God
unless he is born of water and Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to
spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying
’You must be born again.’
Adam and Eve did die, in the spirit
that we can have a spiritual rebirth. This is the message of the
Genesis creation
account. This is the foundation for the cause of Man’s fallen nature
and his redemption. We explore this further in Chapter 12.
Most important to the conflict between
Humanism and Christianity is the creation
of Man. As we will see in the next few chapters, the issues raised in
Genesis concerning how the world developed are not fundamental to the
discussion. Evolution is a distraction but not the foundation of the
Humanism-Christianity conflict. In the next chapter, we discuss that,
within the Christian community, there
are several positions on the Genesis narrative. The real opposition the
Humanists have to the Genesis account of creation is God.
Humanists do not like having God in the discussion. As we will discuss
in Part 4, the biblical teaching that Man is made in the image of God is
the root cause of many Humanist issues that conflict with
Christianity. If Man is not made in the image of God, then his is just
an animal. If he is just an animal and there is no accountability to a
higher Being, then the Humanist philosophy can be justified. If,
however, there is a God and Man is made in his image, then we are not
just animals; we are something special. And most important, we are
accountable to a higher Being; and Humanist, and everything derived from
it, is fundamentally wrong.
However, the issue of Man’s spirit goes
deeper still. If Man is not unique with a divine-like
spirit and is just an animal, it is easier to justify abortion,
euthanasia, and many other Humanist positions. Morality is human-based
not divinely ordained. Man is the focus of worship, not God.
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Genesis presents three issues that are
fundamental to the Christian-Humanism conflict and the current
polarization of America. Genesis states there is a personal God,
Humanism denies there is a God or even a supernatural existence. Genesis
states that God created everything; Humanism states that the universe is
self-existing. Genesis states that Man is unique among all the
creatures, made in the image of God, Humanism states that Man is merely
an advanced animal. Humanism rejects revealed truth and, therefore,
anything based on the Bible and this fact tends to immunize the Humanist
against traditional Christian witnessing techniques.
In Genesis, we have the foundation of the Humanism-Christian conflict. In
the following chapters, we will explore how these issues developed to
result in the political and social divide we see in America today. We
will also explore how these issues are part of the fabric of American
society and how Humanism threatens to tear that fabric. We will show how
Humanism attempts to replace the threads of a personal God and a unique
humanity made in the image of God with other threads that will change
the nature and character of American culture at the expense of
Christianity. The first of these threads considered is evolution.
Copyright © 2011 by Patrick Vosse
All Rights Reserved
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