“Always be ready to give an answer (defense) to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope (belief) that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence”. (I Peter 3:15)

In the last article we started to deal with the problem of how to defend the Christian faith against attacks based on the idea that scientific arguments for evolution disprove the biblical account that God is the creator of all things.

We examined some of the principles evident in the way Jesus answered His opponents. To apply the principles we identified we should: (1) go on (and stay on) the offensive by asking questions of our opponents, (2) choose a question that forces an opponent to deal with a foundational issue, rather than secondary topics, and (3) we should be prepared to quote from a source that the opponent must admit is authoritative.

How do we apply these principles in preparing our defense against scientific arguments for evolution? We should (1) ask our opponent(s) a question (2) on the most fundamental issue facing evolution: the origin of life, and (3) be prepared with quotations on this subject from recognized, non-Christian scientists.

Some may question the use of quotations from non-Christian sources. We need to recall that Jesus quoted from the Scriptures because His opponents accepted the Old Testament as true. But, when the Apostle Paul spoke before Gentiles on Mars Hill (Acts 17), he did not quote from the Scriptures. Instead, he quoted from one of the Greek poets to show that their own authorities recognized that there must be a god superior to the other gods they worshiped.

Since those attacking Christian beliefs today do not recognize the Bible as authoritative, we will also need to quote from non-Christian sources.

Regarding the origin of life, those who claim that evolution removes the need for a creator God also must claim that the first living cell came from simple chemicals by ordinary chemical reactions. In fact, this belief is the “Achilles heel” of evolution for two reasons: First of all, the simple FACT is that there is NO scientific evidence that life could ever have come from simple chemicals by ordinary chemical reactions. In recent years, many, well-recognized, non-Christian scientists have been forced to admit this very fact.

Secondly, it is obvious that evolution could never have occurred if there was never a primitive cell which could start to evolve to something higher. Therefore, the Christian can and should - very legitimately - ask the evolutionist one or more simple questions about this topic, questions whose answers are already known to disapprove evolution at this most basic level.

An example of such, a question is as follows: “Are you aware that there is absolutely no evidence that the first living cell could have come from only simple chemical reactions?” And, “If there is no way to explain the first cell, how could evolution have ever happened?” Anyone who honestly answers these questions will be forced to admit that current scientific evidence proves that evolution is impossible.

Next, the Christian should be prepared to quote one or two non-Christian authorities who admitted that, after more than 50 years of intensive research, there is no evidence that a living cell could ever have come into being by natural processes only. The logical conclusion, of course, is that all life must be “supernatural”. Examples of such quotations are as follows:

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Dr. Klaus Dose, "The Origin of Life; More Questions than Answers,"

Interdisciplinarv Science Reviews, vol. 13, no. 4 (1988), pp. 348.

(Dr. Dose, from W. Germany, is a leading authority in the field of research on the origin of life.)

“More than 30 years of experimentation on the origin of life ... have led to a better perception of the immensity of the problem...rather than to its solution. At present all discussions on principal theories and experiments in the field either end in stalemate or in a confession of ignorance."

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Francis Crick, Life Itself: Its Origin and Nature (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1981) pp. 88.

(Sir Francis Crick won the Nobel prize as co-discoverer of the structure of DNA.)

“...An honest man, armed with all the knowledge available to us now, could only state that in some sense, the origin of life appears... to be almost a miracle, so many are the conditions which would have had to have been satisfied to get it going.”

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One or more of these statements could be memorized and quoted. However, it would be much better to have copies of these quotes available to show to your opponent that well-recognized authorities have admitted that there is no scientific evidence that the most primitive living cell could have developed by ordinary chemical reactions. (One could have copies available by Xeroxing the quotes above and placing them in a wallet or a notebook to be used whenever the situation arose).

Well, if we are willing to give a defense in this way of our belief that evolution is false and that God created all things, what kind of a reaction can we expect from our non-Christian opponent? We would be foolish to think that any opponent would simply change his views on the spot and agree with us.

So what kind or kinds of response(s) should we expect and how should we, in turn, answer them? We will explore these questions in the next article.

 

Paul L. Tecklenberg, M.D.

(Dr. Tecklenberg, was a founding Board member of ENM. Now retired, he lives with his wife, Hilda, in western North Carolina.)