The Bible Compared to Modern Atheism

The Bible Compared to Modern Atheism

ATHEISM/NATURALISTIC EVOLUTION: Although this is a modern belief system, it too is based upon myth strikingly similar to some of those we've already encountered. For example, if there is no God, how did life get here? Evolutionists propose the theory of abiogenesis or spontaneous generation. This means that the original life forms arose from non-living matter. If this sounds vaguely familiar, it should. One of their own, astronomer Fredrick Hoyle, concedes, "Many ancient civilizations, including the Babylonian, believed that the first life forms [their gods] came from mud and slime in river beds, rather in the way that life is now considered to have emerged from the primeval soup." "A `mystical' spontaneous generation has been implicitly conceded for the initial formation of [life.]" Further, evolution holds that through natural process an entirely new type of organism can arise from another type of organism (at some point a reptile became a mammal).

    The problem with the above atheistic theories is that they contradict some fundamental scientific laws. First, since Louis Pasteur (1860), the Law of Biogenesis ("every living thing arises from a pre-existing living thing" or life comes from life) has been established beyond doubt. Second, thanks to the rapidly increasing field of genetics, we have learned that there exist controlling mechanisms in organisms. We have found that there are natural limits to biological change--certain barriers cannot be crossed. To put it plainly, genes are why sparrows give birth to sparrows, mammals give birth to mammals, etc. Scientific observation refutes the basic foundations upon which atheism and evolution are built.

    The Bible teaches that God, the Spirit, is life {John 4:24; 6:63}. "The LORD [life] brings death and makes alive" {1Samuel 2:6}. The Living God said from the beginning that "every living thing will produce after its own kind." {Genesis 1:20ff; 8:19}. Life producing life, like begetting like, the Bible and the Laws of nature agree. Atheism clings to unfounded theories.

FOUR EVIDENCES OF CREATION:

1. Probability:
1. Scientists rule out probability of an event exceeding 1 in 10 to the 50th power (a 1 with 50 zeroes after it). [Hitching, pg. 50].
2. The simplest living organism would consist of at least 124 proteins of 400 amino acids each. [Ibid., pg. 49]
3. The chance evolution of 1 medium-sized protein of 300 amino acids is 1 in 10 to the 600th power! [Salisbury, pg. 335]
4. The odds for 124 of these forming? 1 in 10 to the 74400th power!
5. Spontaneous emergence of a single cell organism by random processes is as likely as a tornado going through a junk yard and assembling a Boeing 747. [Horgan, pg 118]
2. Law of Biogenesis:
1. The Law of Biogenesis essentially states, "life comes only from preceding life."
2. In competition to this law was the ancient (at least as far back as Aristotle) belief in spontaneous generation--life from non-living material. [Aristotle, HISTORY OF ANIMALS, Book V, part 1. The Internet Classics Archive]
3. Louis Pasteur debunked the theory of spontaneous generation and established the Law of Biogenesis. ["Louis Pasteur", World Book Encyclopedia, 1975.]
4. However, "Most modern biologists, having reviewed with satisfaction the downfall of the spontaneous generation hypothesis, yet unwilling to accept the alternative belief in special creation, are left with nothing." [Wald, pg.46]
5. Therefore, "A `mystical' spontaneous generation has been implicitly conceded for the initial formation of a biological system from inorganic matter." [Hoyle, pg. 24]
6. But, "A century of sensational discoveries in the biological sciences has taught us that life arises only from life...." [Moe, pg. 36]
3. Design:
1. The Human Cell:
       "In natural cells RNA often serves as a messenger molecule. It carries blueprints from the cell's library of instructions--its DNA--to factories where proteins are made according to those instructions." [Freedman, pg 46]
       "Each of those 100 trillion cells functions like a walled city. Power plants generate the cell's energy. Factories produce proteins, vital units of chemical commerce. Complex transportation systems guide specific chemicals from point to point within the cell and beyond. Sentries at the barricades control the export and import markets, and monitor the outside world for signs of danger. Disciplined biological armies stand ready to grapple with invaders. A centralized genetic government maintains order." All this packed in a space 1/1000 of an inch! [Gwynne, pg 48]
       "The cell has been likened to a power plant, a furnace, a chemical laboratory. In its reproductive functions it has been described as a factory complete with a manager's office, files of blueprints and plans, intercommunication system, assembly line with foremen and workers...None of these fanciful analogies does justice to the living cell." [Miller, pg. 162]
2. Who ever heard of a factory or city that did not have a designer? "For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything." {Hebrews 3:4}.
3. We study the "laws of physics," the "laws of genetics"; we're all aware of the "law of gravity" (painfully at times). Is there no Lawgiver? "This is what the LORD says: `If I have not established my covenant with day and night AND THE FIXED LAWS OF HEAVEN AND EARTH..." {Jeremiah 33:25} [emphasis added].
4. Do "imperfections" like genetic diseases argue against a designer?
• Does your car always work perfectly? Does that mean there was no designer?
• God is perfect and so was His original creation; sin and the curse brought imperfection, decay, corruption {Genesis 1-3; Romans 8:19-22}.
4. Fossils:
1. You can't argue with the bones and stones--the fossils--can you? "Fossils may be set in stone, but their interpretation is not." ["Fossil Revisionism," SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, (October, 1986): 84.]
2. How important are fossils to the theory of evolution? "It is doubtful whether, in the absence of fossils, the idea of evolution would represent anything more than an outrageous hypothesis." [Stanley, pg. 72]
3. Do fossils reveal transitional forms that would prove evolution?
• "No fossil or other physical evidence directly connects man to ape." [Gliedman, pg. 90]
• "But the curious thing is that there is a consistency about the fossil gaps: the fossils go missing in all the important places." [Hitching, pg. 10]
• "...species appear in the sequence very suddenly, show little or no change during their existence in the record, then abruptly go out of the record." [Raup]
• "Rather than taking the [fossil] record literally, we have dismissed the lack of change within species as merely the artifacts of an imperfect record." [Eldridge, pg. 58]
• "...the gaps we see reflect real events in life's history--not the artifact of a poor fossil record." [Ibid., pg. 59]
• There is a "general failure of the record to display gradual transitions from one major group to another..." [Stanley, pg. 77]
• "In fact, the fossil record does not convincingly demonstrate the transition from one species to another." [Ibid., pg. 95]
4. The fossil record does not record evolutionary links. Instead, it consists of species arising suddenly and remaining essentially the same before they disappear from the record.

    Those embracing atheism and naturalistic evolution must do so against the above four lines of evidence. In fact, the theory of evolution cannot be tested via the scientific method [direct observation, controlled experimentation, repeatability]. The Bible, on the other hand, is in conformity with the above four lines of evidence--life from life, no macro-evolution, design/Designer, laws/Lawgiver, etc.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Allman, William F. "The First Humans." USNEWS & WORLD REPORT (Feb. 27, 1989): 52-59.

Eldridge, Niles and Ian Tattersall. THE MYTHS OF HUMAN EVOLUTION. New York: Columbia University Press, 1982.

Freedman, David H. "The Handmade Cell." DISCOVER, August 1992: 46-52.

Gliedman, John. "Miracle Mutations." SCIENCE DIGEST 90 (February 1982): 90-96.

Gwynne, Peter, et al. "The Secrets of the Human Cell." NEWSWEEK, 20 August 1979: 48.

Hitching, Francis. THE NECK OF THE GIRAFFE. New York: New American Library/Penguin, 1982.

Horgan, John. "In the Beginning..." SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN (February 1991): 117-125.

Hoyle, Fredrick and Chandra Wickramasinghe. LIFECLOUD. London: J.M. Dent, 1978.

"Louis Pasteur." "Spontaneous Generation." WORLD BOOK ENCYCLOPEDIA, 1975.

Miller, Benjamin and Ruth Goode. MAN AND HIS BODY. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1960.

Moe, Martin A. "Genes on Ice." SCIENCE DIGEST 89 (Dec. 1981): 36.

Raup, David. "Conflicts Between Darwin and Paleontology." BULLETIN, Chicago Field Museum of Natural History 50 (Jan. 1979): 22-27.

Radman, Miroslav and Robert Wagner. "The High Fidelity of DNA Duplication," SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN (Aug., 1988): 40-46.

Salisbury, F.B. AMERICAN BIOLOGY TEACHER 33 (1971): 335.

Stanley, Stephen M. THE NEW EVOLUTIONARY TIMETABLE. New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1981.

Taylor, Ian T. IN THE MINDS OF MEN: DARWIN AND THE NEW WORLD ORDER. Toronto: TFE Publishing, 1991.

Wald, George. "The Origin of Life." SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN (Aug. 1954).