Modernism, Evolution, and Creation

Definition of Modernism

(Merriam-Webster)

“A tendency in theology to accommodate traditional religious teaching to contemporary thought and especially to devalue supernatural elements.”

“Only the Lord can calculate how many individual’s faith has been overthrown by the statements of modernists over the past 200 years. How many have read a book or a newspaper or magazine article or sat in a college or university classroom or watched a television documentary only to hear that the Bible is not historically true, that it is at least partially mythical. Believing that the august authority spouting this unbelief knows what he or she is talking about, the individual doesn’t check the facts. He never hears the “other side” and he continues along life’s short path assuming that the Bible has been discredited and is thus not worth believing. Yet the fact is that the modernistic theories have been repeatedly disproven whereas the Bible has been repeatedly authenticated.” David Cloud, Theological Modernism Disproven But Not Dead, 2010

The following are some of the beliefs of Charles Darwin which were foundational to his theory of evolution. These beliefs have since been scientifically discredited as noted below.

A SIMPLE CELL

Darwin thought that the cell was a very simple thing that could have easily evolved in a “warm pond.” (John Farley, The Spontaneous Generation Controversy from Descartes to Oparin, 1977, p. 73). We know today that the cell is almost incredibly complex. It has been described as being as complex as an entire city.

RECAPITULATION

Darwin believed in recapitulation, which claims that evolutionary history has its parallel in embryotic development. A multitude of people have been persuaded to believe in the theory of evolution based upon recapitulation, but it has since been proven false and the famous photos of embryonic “evolution”, which so many put so much stock in, were subsequently exposed as having been intentionally and fraudulently modified in an attempt to support the theory of recapitulation.

THE FOSSIL RECORD

Darwin was troubled by the fact that the fossil record did not reveal transitional species that he would have expected to be present based upon his theory, but he attributed this to an incomplete fossil record. The fossil record has since been explored much more extensively and there is still no scientific evidence for transitional species. Also, in On the Origin of Species Darwin said, “No organism wholly soft can be preserved” And he claimed that the fossil record has not preserved the details of ancient creatures. But it has since been revealed that the fossil record has preserved many “soft bodied” creatures down to minute details.

ABIOGENESIS

Charles Darwin and Thomas Huxley believed in abiogenesis or spontaneous generation, which is the idea that life can spring from non-life. This was widely believed until the last half of the 19th century when it was disproven by the experiments of Louis Pasteur.

NATURAL SELECTION

In On the Origin of Species, Darwin said that natural selection was the driving mechanism of evolution. We now know through our understanding of DNA that natural selection can result in minor adaptations but is incapable of driving evolution.

UNIFORMITARIANISM

Darwin completely accepted Charles Lyell’s Uniformitarian theory of geology. Per Uniformitarianism geological layers are formed over millions of years. By the mid20th century, uniformitarianism was being rejected. Observations of Mount St. Helens and other geological formations have proven that features previously thought to require millions of years to form can come about in days or even hours.

The previous examples are foundational to Darwin’s theory. When the foundation of a structure has been discredited (whether that structure be physical or intellectual) the structure itself can no longer be trusted. Thousands of highly qualified, highly credentialed, and very accomplished scientists have looked at this kind of evidence, applied this same common sense principle and have, as a result, walked away from the “evolutionary camp”. Many, many more people have rejected evolution based upon simple faith in God’s Word (which no one has ever been able to disprove).

O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day. Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies: for they are ever with me.

Psalm 119:97-98

Genesis Chapter 1:

1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.

12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.

14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.

16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,

18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.

19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.

25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Matthew 18:2-3:

And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them,

And said, Verily I say unto you,

Except ye be converted, and become as little children,

ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.