Articles - Miscellanea

Moving forward with our historical narrative of the development and adoption of evolution by Western culture, an accounting for the secularization of science, not only in biology but also in astronomy, cosmology, geology, and other earth sciences must be given. Part three in this series examined a very small part of the history that led Western thought to doubt the Bible’s revelation of anything materialistic. This included the revelation of the origin of mankind, the planet, and generally anything found in the Genesis account of creation. Miraculous manifestations were considered mythological and humanism was replacing a reverence for God.

In the last article (Part Two of “Laying the Foundations”) the development of the scientific approach was shown to have theological foundations as most students of the sciences had been educated by the Christian churches of that time.  The inquiry into life and the cosmos was a natural outcome of biblical studies.  Since the Bible asserted that God was creator, naturally men so inclined to agree should look for His signature in all that is made.  The apparent design of the world and its habitants beg for a designer.  The Bible repeatedly claims that God exists and that He is the beginning of all things that can be known in the physical universe. We left off with the dark ages and began to enter the scientific revolution and the age of reason.  We continue this historical narrative to more fully understand the development of science and in particular its movement from a theological perspective to a secular, even atheistic perspective today.

Introduction: In the last two articles, I have made the contention that the so-called science of evolution has no basis in fact. Natural selection has a real but minimal impact on increasing the success of the specie within an ecosystem but only because the genetics available are from a pre-existing design. It is in the process of sexual reproduction when these genes can be randomly rearranged by several well-known, but highly complex preprogrammed mechanisms, that produce the egg or sperm cells. It is at the fertilization of the egg from which variation may arise in the new individual. Our breeding programs can select for the many combinations that give rise to differences in shape, size and ability for that specie. This has been seen within a very short time within breeding programs or in animals and plants that have gone feral.

Last month’s article presented evolution as a theory that is ‘naked’ of any scientific merit—a bold claim I intend to address in the months to come. Those who put their faith in the seductive draw of its mythology were presented as either seriously uninformed, pretentious intellectuals, or indoctrinated bystanders. In an effort to reduce the apparent conflict between science and theology some have blended the world views of theology and science to create what is often called ‘Theistic Evolution.’ This position once held my interest until I had to admit I was not being honest with the facts.

In 1837 a story written by Hans Christian Anderson was published in a final installment of his first collection of“Fairy Tales Told for Children.” The story was an adaptation of a Spanish collection of similar work written as a tale of moral conscience; Anderson’s work was a twist on that caution and warned of intellectual vanity and the pride of social acceptance. He titled the work, “The Emperor's New Clothes.” The classic fairytale concerns the deceptive business dealings of two supposed weaver’s. They boasted that they were the makers of the finest cloth to an emperor whose vanity in fine clothing knew no limits.