Sunday, August 3, 2008

Twenty Reasons, Part One

In this series, I am going to look at the twenty reasons to Reject theistic evolution by Ken Ham and a rebuttal to them provided by "Answers in Creation" and add my own commentary.

1. "No Death Before Adam's Fall"

AiC response:

"It is true that evolution teaches that there was death prior to Adam. Ham uses Romans 5:12 and 1 Corinthians 15:21-22, which state that death came by sin. I agree. Whereas Ham believes this includes animal death, old earth creationists hold the opposite view, that this represents human death. The passages involved can be interpreted either way."

Okay, but what about the people before Adam and Eve? Did they not have souls? If so, when did Adam and Eve live? For the past three million years, homonids have been very creative and intelligent, so just when was this, and how is it determined? Other than that, this is not fatal to theistic evolution.

2. Paraphrased: Everything was created good, and then became bad when man sinned. Theistic Evolution says that things evolved into complexity and haven't changed drastically since.

AiC Rebuttal:

"If you look closely at the curse, he cursed Adam, Eve, and Satan. He did not curse the whole of creation. Yes, the whole creation groaneth, but a better interpretation is that the creation groans under the oppression of sinful man. We see that clearly today in the pollution, global warming, and other issues that show how man is failing to take care of God’s creation."

Once again I do not view Ham's objection as fatal.

I am going to skip number three, as it is basically a restatement of the claim above (View the article here).

4. Animals were created Vegetarians

Genesis 1:29-30
“And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.”

AiC Rebuttal:

This makes sense only if you consider that it is God’s directions for the Garden of Eden, which is the location this edict was given.

I do not find AiC convincing. I agree with them that "many animals are uniquely designed as predators, and their digestive systems are designed to process meat. Young earth creationists explain this away by saying the curse changed animals...but then again, animals were not cursed"; However, this cannot be explained as directions for the garden of Eden as it seems to apply to the entire earth.

2 comments:

Mark O'Leary said...

Funny that the AiC rebuttal claims God cursed Adam, Eve, and Satan. Satan does not appear in the Genesis 3 story.

Once again, Christians are not bothering to read the book by which they want us to live our lives.

AIGBusted said...

Hey Cod,

Glad your still reading the blog!

Let's talk about the Genesis serpent: I have no idea what the original writers intended of this story, but animals are never reguarded as anything more than property in the bible, so I do not think it is plausible that the writers actually thought the snake was once intelligent enough to talk, decieve, etc. So it appears that Satan is a plausible option for the serpent.

Now, even though I consider the bible the product of many authors and redactors writing for many purposes, Christians do not. They will point to Revelation 20:2, in which Satan is called "That Ancient Serpent" and as well to Ezekiel 28:13 which compares the King of Tyre to Satan and says "You were in Eden".

Peace,
Ryan