“Evolving Worldview”

Monday, July 06, 2020

     I struggle with the logic of a god.  Archeologists have uncovered "Lucy" and other human remains dating back 4+ million years.  How do fossils such as these fit into your understanding of human's creation by a god?  Do you consider evolution and god mutually exclusive?

Sincerely,
Millions Of Contradictions

Dear Millions Of Contradictions,

Atheism isn’t science, and yet, it colors the way people view scientific data.  A large portion of the scientific establishment views the world through naturalistic lenses – meaning that they assume everything that is here came through natural, random processes.  One paleontologist looks at millions of dead bones piled under dirt, debris, silt, etc. and sees millions of years of decay and evolution.  Another paleontologist sees the same fossils scattered in abundance under the same rock layer and sees a cataclysmic event – most likely Noah’s Flood.  The difference isn’t the data; it is the way they view and interpret the data.  Most of the modern scientific community has chosen to interpret the data through evolutionary lenses.  They assume that:

1. The world is billions of years old because evolution would need billions of years to occur.
2. All rock layers form slowly over time – even though we have great examples of rock forming rapidly.  (Mt. St. Helen’s explosion in 1980 is a great example of cataclysmic rock formation).  This viewpoint is called “uniformitarianism” and is based off the concept that all things are the same throughout time – if something is happening slowly now, then it must always have happened that way.  The Bible specifically says that isn’t the case (2 Pet 3:4-6).
3. That nature is all there is.  Naturalism assumes that there is no supernatural and that there is no supernatural intervention in the events of mankind’s history or the world’s creation.

These assumptions color the data of a large portion of scientists.  It isn’t a conspiracy, but it is interpretation of data based upon their worldview.  The Bible agrees perfectly with scientific data, but it often disagrees with scientists.  Carbon-14 dating (and other radiometric dating methods) is based off of a naturalistic worldview.  We don’t have the space here, but we would highly recommend you read this article, written by a scientist, on the assumptions involved in carbon-14 dating.  Once again, the problem isn’t with the carbon half-life measurements… but with the interpretation of the data.

The Bible dwells in perfect harmony with science, but when scientists assume that there is no God involved in the creation of this planet, they often fail to understand the data they are collecting.

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