Science in Christian Perspective

Letter

Evolution

In your editorial comment in December on p. 126 you ask, "Is it not possible that God may have worked through a biological process of natural selection? . . . Is He involved only in momentary or sudden fiat acts?" The answer, of course, is in the affirmative. God could have worked through any process and at any rate of speed that He might choose . . . The point, however, is not whether God could have brought the Universe and Man into existence through a biological process of natural selection but whether He did do so or not. The historical record is given to us in Genesis I and as members of the ASA we have all signified our acceptance of the Bible as the Word of God.

The account in Genesis is history and not poetry. The RSV indicates which portions of the text are poetry and which are prose according to the Massoretic text. Genesis I is clearly prose; according to the historical account God reconstructed the world and created Man in a period of six days. In 1953 1 wrote to the Professors of Oriental Languages in seven of our leading Canadian, American, and English Universities regarding the translation of the Hebrew word "yom," as used in Genesis I when accompanied by a numeral.

They all replied that it should be translated "as commonly understood," that is, a day of 24 hours. This was reported in the JASA at the time (March, 1953). According to the Bible, therefore, God reconstructed the earth and created Man in 6 days. Of course the 6 days may be "interpreted" as long ages or as anything you like, but the only reason for so doing is to accommodate the materialistic doctrine of evolution.

The modern theory of Neo-Darwinism or synthetic evolution is built upon the concept of natural selection and random mutations. Random mutations are little more than chance occurrences and as most mutations are inferior to the original stock, this would imply the survival of the unfit. On the other hand, natural selection could only select and never originate new species. It is hardly likely that the Creator of the Universe would resort to such a clumsy, slipshod method to bring about the world in which we live with all its order, beauty, and complexity.

Man was created "of the dust of the ground." It was a sudden leap from the dust to Homo sapiens, in the image of God. How could this simple statement be interpreted as the gradual reconstruction of an ape or some other creature into that of a man?

One must accept or reject the Word of God; since Jesus Christ has confirmed the Genesis account (Matt. 19:4), to reject this passage is, in effect, to reject His testimony. As our Lord Himself said, "Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father; there is one that accuseth you, even Moses . . . For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me for he wrote of Me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe My words?" (John 5:45-47).