At the heart of the creation/evolution issue is
the subject of natural selection. From the days of Darwin, evolutionists have used the subject
of natural selection to confuse people into thinking that natural selection proves evolution. This study will show otherwise and build a right foundation
for the understanding of genetics and natural selection from a Biblical
perspective.
Genetics
Although the word Genetics is not mentioned in the Scriptures, Genesis 1 teaches that life only comes from life after its own kind.
Gen. 1:11-25
11 Then God said, “Let
the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the
fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose
seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so. 12 And the
earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to
its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 13 So the evening and the morning were the third day.
14 Then God said, “Let
there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the
night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; 15 and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the
earth”; and it was so. 16 Then 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 God set them in the firmament of the
heavens to give light on 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 So the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
20 Then God said, “Let
the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly
above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.” 21 So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with
which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every
winged bird according to its 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 birds multiply on the earth.” 23 So the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
24 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth the
living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing
and beast of the earth, each according to its kind”; and
it was so. 25 And God made the beast of the earth according to
its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything
that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it
was good[1]
§
10 times in Gen. 1 God states that he created certain kinds that
would produce after their own kind. God expressed this same logic to Noah during the time of the flood as shown by the following verses.
Gen. 6:18-20
18 But I will establish My covenant with you; and
you shall go into the ark—you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with
you. 19 And of every living thing of all flesh you shall bring two
of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they
shall be male and female. 20 Of the birds after their kind,
of animals after their kind, and of every creeping thing of the earth after
its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive. (Gen. 7:14-15 restates
this description of the animals after their kind.)
DNA, the basic building block of all life, is the most
complex set of information in the universe. Each living thing has its own DNA
code. The complexity of this information pushes logic beyond reason to believe this could have happened by chance from nonliving chemicals. For example,
mankind’s DNA is so complex that any given man and woman could have as many
children as there are atoms in the universe and not have any two of them be the
same genetically.
§
1080 – # of atoms in the universe
§
102017 - # of possible combinations of genes between
one man & one woman
To believe evolution
means that you believe that matter by itself produced information. This is a
blind faith, and actually requires much more faith than the Christian religion.
Werner Gitt rightly states “There is no known natural law
through which matter can give rise to information, neither is any physical
process or material phenomenon known that can do this.” (Gitt, Werner. 1997. In
the Beginning was information. CLV. Bielefeld, Germany. P. 64-67, 79, 107.)
A good book discussing the issues of DNA and genetics is Darwin’s
Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution by Michael J. Behe – even
though he is not a Biblical creationist.
Natural Selection
Natural selection is simply a shifting of the original
genetic information of a particular living thing into the parent’s
descendents. Some of these descendents may have traits that favor them in the
environment and therefore make their genetic information dominant in that
environment.
Figure: Natural
Selection Illustration
The above figure illustrates how two original dogs could
produce two offspring that are still dogs, yet are different genetically from
each other and the individual parents. This mixing of genetic information within a kind is what allows natural selection occur.
Therefore, Noah did not have to take hundreds of different
kinds of dogs on the Ark, he only had to take two representatives of the dog
kind. All of the variations of dogs that we have in the world today are a
result of natural selection or selective breading, not evolution. Natural selection and evolution
are not the same thing. Natural selection results from a mixing of information
and a loss of information – never an increase of information.
§
For example, after the flood, if a couple of dogs were to migrate
to the north where it is cold, and they contained information for both long and
short hair. Natural selection would make it possible for a type of dog to emerge
over several generations. The dogs that were born with the genetic information for short hair would have a
more likely chance of dying young or migrating south. However, the dogs born
with long hair would have a better chance of thriving in this climate and would
have more offspring. Eventually, only dogs with a dominant trait of having
long hair would result. However, this did not add information to the DNA. In fact it was a loss of information as illustrated by the following diagram. The dogs in the extreme cold environment over time have lost the original information contained within their DNA make-up for short hair. This is the true nature of what natural selection has accomplished within the original created kinds. Variability has occurred, but no ever increasing complexity in the DNA as molecules-to-man evolution would require.
