Transcript Session 1 – Introduction

Session 1 – Introduction to Evolution
In this first session we will be looking at the
history of evolution, how the theory came
about, and the founder of modern day
Evolution, Charles Darwin
We will also look at the position that many
Christians take today of theistic evolution,
and the problems with compromising on this
topic Biblically
History of Evolution
Charles Darwin
He lived from the year
1809 – 1882
Although some of the
ideas can be traced
back further, he is
without a doubt the
“God father” of
biological evolution
We will take a
moment to look at
his life
He was born February 12th (1809) in
Shrewsbury, England, to his mother Susannah
and father Robert Darwin
WE was the fifth child (out of six) and was
raised in a wealth family
His father had an Anglican leaning, while his
mother was Unitarian. His father had him
Baptized in the Anglican church after being
born, but he attended the Unitarian church
with his mom
In his elementary days, after his mother had
passed away, he started attending an
Anglican school with his brother
In his teen years he starts apprenticing under
his father (who’s a doctor) and Darwin
eventually goes to medical school to follow
in his fathers footsteps, but he ends up no
liking it (and bounces around quite a bit in
school and what he’s studying)
His father eventually sends him to a
Christian college to become part of the
Anglican Church
Darwin became more interested in life
sciences, and he starts collecting beetles and
communicating with difference scientists on
various topics
Understand that we are skimming over his
early life, and don’t have time to go into
much detail (but we have a lot of info)
The Voyage that changed “science”
Darwin took a two year voyage on the HMS
Beagle starting 27 December 1831
While on this voyage Charles Darwin is given
a copy of the book Principles of Geology by
Charles Lyell
Lyell Argued for Uniformitarianism
Lyell was influential in the ideas that
underlie the modern day view of the
Geologic Column and millions of years
separating the different layers of sediments
Charles Darwin buys into his theories
presented in Principles of Geology, and get’s
in the mindset of long ages
They were contemporaries, and will meet
later on in Darwin's life
Darwin eventually get’s sick and takes some
time off from his studies
And he eventually gets married to his
cousin Emma, who was a dedicated
Unitarian and thought they might have
struggles because of their different beliefs
One event that really wrecks Darwin’s faith
in God is the death of his 10 year old
daughter Annie, who suffered a painful
death from a disease
The most common observation (and most
impactful) that Darwin made on his voyage
was the finches of the Galapagos Islands
Darwin observed
multiple (13-15)
different species of
finches, and noticed
some differences in
their beak thickness
and length
Darwin concluded
they all had a
common ancestor
Darwin was correct that they all came from a
“ancestor” finch, and that these differences
had evolved and come about over time
The problem is, Darwin thought that it could
work on the large scale of everything alive
Darwin thought that if these finches could
have evolved these differences in a short
time, imagine what they could do if you give
them millions of years of these changes
This is the difference between what has
been called Micro and Macro Evolution
Micro Evolution – evolutionary change
within a species or small group of organisms,
especially over a short period.
This would be things like eye color, height,
skin color, blood type, etc.
This idea is not debated by either side of the
Creation Evolution debate, both sides accept
these minor changes
This is in contrast to Macroevolution, which
is major evolutionary change. The term
applies mainly to the evolution of whole
taxonomic groups over long periods of time.
It is in this theory that dinosaurs can change
into birds over the course of millions of years
When we use the term evolution throughout
this class, this is the theory (Microevolution)
that we are referring to unless
stated otherwise
How does evolution work?
1. Organisms produce more offspring than
actually survive.
2. Every organism must struggle to survive.
3. There is variation within a species.
4. Some variations allow members of a
species to survive and reproduce
better than others.
5. Organisms that survive and reproduce
pass their traits to their offspring, and the
helpful traits gradually appear in more and
more of the population.
These new traits would come about from
mutations inside these organisms, which
gives them the ability to survive and
reproduce more than those who did not get
the new trait (mutation)
This whole process happens by what is
called Natural Selection
Darwin did not originate the idea of
common decent but contributed the idea of
natural selection, which drive the theory
Natural selection is also referred to as
survival of the fittest
This is the idea that the weak die off and the
strong (with new traits) move forward
Timeframe in Evolutionary History
The Universe comes into existence 14.75
billion years ago in the Big Bang
4.6 Billion years ago our solar system (sun)
forms from a gas cloud
4.5 billion years ago our earth forms, and is
hot and molten for the first several hundred
million years of it’s existence
Around 3.5-3.7 billion years ago, life arose
on planet earth from non living material (or
from aliens or something else in space)
Life starts off in a simple form, single cell
organisms exist alone for about 1.5
billion years
After a few hundred million years
photosynthesis is evolved and utilized by
these simple cells for energy
For the last two billion years complex
Eukaryotes have existed on the planet
Life forms as we know them today start
coming about around 500 million years ago
with the introduction of fish
From those we have amphibians evolve and
enter the tree of life, then reptiles and then
finally mammals around 200 m/y ago
Human’s come on the scene in the past few
million years
The theory of evolution is what everyone in
public school and universities are being
taught about life's history
It’s a theory that has resulted in the death
of millions of people, although that in itself
does not make it right or wrong
Some who believed in evolution asked the
question “Which human race is the more
evolved” and then in attempts to keep less
evolved genes out, they killed people
Theistic Evolution
The belief that God used the process of
evolution to bring about mankind and all
living life forms
Proof: Science says it’s true
Claims of Theistic Evolution…
1 - Genesis is not historical narrative, but is
instead metaphoric
2 – Adam and Eve are metaphoric and did
not actually exist
Theistic Evolution has God take a seat
Evolution = matter + evolutionary factors
(chance and necessity + mutation + selection
+ isolation + death) + very long time periods.
Theistic evolution = matter + evolutionary
factors (chance and necessity + mutation +
selection + isolation + death) + very long
time periods + God.
Problems with Theistic Evolution
Problem 1: Misrepresentation of the
Nature of God
The Bible reveals God to us as our Father in
Heaven, who is absolutely perfect, holy,
and omnipotent
Isaiah 6:3: “And one called to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole
earth is full of his glory!”
Jeremiah 32:17: “ ‘Ah, Lord GOD! It is you
who have made the heavens and the earth
by your great power and by your
outstretched arm! Nothing is too
hard for you.”
The Apostle John tells us that ‘God is love’,
‘light’, and ‘life’ When this God creates
something, His work is described as ‘very
good’ (Genesis 1:31) and ‘perfect’.
Problem 2: It gives us a “God of the Gaps”
The Bible states that God is the Prime Cause
of all things. ‘But to us there is but one God,
the Father, of whom are all things… and one
Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things,
and we by Him’ (1 Cor 8:6).
In theistic evolution God is pushed to the
side and called on when something can not
be explained by natural processes, which is
not the picture we get in scripture
Problem 3: It makes the Bible impossible to
interpret with assurance
The entire Bible bears witness that we are
dealing with a source of truth authored by
God (2 Timothy 3:16), with the Old
Testament just as authoritative as the New
The biblical creation account should not be
regarded as a myth, a parable, or an allegory,
but as a historical report for several reasons:
1. Biological, astronomical and
anthropological facts are given in didactic
[teaching] form.
2. In the Ten Commandments God bases
the six working days and one day of rest on
the same time-span as that described in the
creation account
3. In the New Testament Jesus referred to
facts of the creation (e.g. Matthew 19:4-5)
4. Nowhere in the Bible are there any
indications that the creation account should
be understood in any other way than as a
factual report.
Problem 4: Loss of the way for finding God
The Bible describes man as being completely
ensnared by sin after Adam’s fall
The entire Bible is a story of God making a
way for us to come back into a relationship
with him after sin entered
Romans 7:18-19: “For I know that nothing
good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I
have the desire to do what is right, but not
the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do
the good I want, but the evil I do not want is
what I keep on doing.”
Only those persons who realize that they are
sinful and lost will seek the Saviour who
‘came to save that which was lost’
(Luke 19:10).
With theistic evolution sin becomes
meaningless or normal to the creation,
why does sin exist?
Problem 5: The Biblical basis for Jesus work
of redemption is mythologized
The Bible teaches that the
first man’s fall into sin
was a real event and that
this was the direct cause
of sin in the world.
‘Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into
the world, and death by sin; and so death
passed upon all men, for that all have
sinned’ (Romans 5:12).
Why is Jesus called the last Adam? How
would theistic evolution interpret this verse:
Romans 5:19: “For as by one man’s
disobedience many were made sinners, so
also by one Man’s obedience many will be
made righteous.”
Problem 6: Missing the point
The Bible tells us that man has a purpose in
this creation
Man is God’s purpose in creation
(Genesis 1:27-28).
Man is the purpose of God’s plan of
redemption (Isaiah 53:5).
Yet in evolution we’ve only been around for
a small fraction of the time this world has
It’s mind boggling that so many Christians
today are willing to accept the theory of
evolution when so many aspects of the
theory go against the Bible
The reason? They believe that science has
proven the theory to be correct
Is it possible that our understanding of
science may be off then? Considering God
would have been there during creation and
told us evolution if that’s how it happened
The next five sessions of this class will be
spent on the scientific side of this debate
One thing we need to do when dealing with
the theory of evolution is have a proper
understanding of what the theory says.
There are many bad arguments that
Christians use out there that they need to
stop using (because the argument isn’t valid)
Example: Evolutionist say we came from
monkeys, why are there still monkeys?
We will do our best to accurately represent
their beliefs and interpretation of science,
because misrepresenting someone or what
they believe will destroy your reputation
If you don’t even know what they believe,
why should they list to what you have
to say about it?
That being said, what topics will we be cover
in the next five sessions?
We will look first at the topic of the origins of
life, and the attempts evolutionists have
made at explaining how life can get started
from non living material
We will then look at the heart of evolution,
the idea of mutations and natural selection
as a driving force for evolution
We will look at the evidence presented
(missing links / fossils) for the evolution of
different species (like human(
We will then switch gears and lot at the
evidence for Creation within biology
We will look at arguments from complexity
and intelligent design
We will also present evidence against the
theory of evolution being able to explain
the existence of life
This topic is one of the most cited reasons to
reject Christianity, thinking that God is no
longer needed to explain life
Memory Verse
Romans 5:19: “For as by one man’s
disobedience many were made sinners, so
also by one Man’s obedience many will be
made righteous.”