Science is the Study of God’s Creation
People who hold to the theory of evolution don’t believe that the majesty, complexity and order in the world are evidence of intelligent design by a creator God. Instead, they say that everything in the material world came about through chance (random processes) over billions of years. They think it is “scientific” to explain the existence of life without God. They will even go so far as to say that anyone who believes in creation is stupid and doesn’t believe in science.
It is important to understand that Christians believe in science and God and creation, just like the great scientist Isaac Newton who discovered and explained the law of gravity that God set into place at creation. Newton believed we could study the world and learn from it because God created it and it therefore has order and design.
Science is the study of God’s creation. We can use the scientific method to learn about and gain greater understanding of the order and design of the world around us. If things aren’t ordered, they can’t be studied and understood. The question we want to ponder is what does the use of the scientific method to study the natural world point to: creation by God (intelligent design) or evolution through time and chance (random processes).
Random Processes Vs. Intelligent Design
To illustrate the difference between random processes (change through time and chance) and intelligent design (creation by God), picture completing a simple task.
If you have five dice and you want to put them in a straight line in order from 1-5 what do you have to do? To order the dice from 1-5 in a straight line you follow certain simple steps. First, you would pick up one die, find the side with the one dot, turn it up and set it down, which is a simple process. You would then pick up another die, find the two and set it down next to the first die. You would keep doing the same for the other dice, each time finding the next number. In doing this you would have used your mind and your actions to establish order.
In a simple way, this illustrates the idea of intelligent design. You had a plan in your mind to establish an order with the dice and you are able to do what was necessary to carry out your plan. Because you were created with a mind which can picture and plan order, know your numbers, have hands to carry out your task, and have the dice to work with it would take you hardly any time.
On the other hand, if you want to make the same order and design by just throwing the dice (in other words chance), how long would it take? The probability that you can get all the dice in one neat row from 1-5 with each one touching the next die by the random throwing of the dice is impossible. It just won’t happen, even though the task is a very simple one. If you kept throwing and throwing the dice you might at some point end up with the numbers 1-5, but it is unlikely that the numbers would be in order and virtually impossible that they would form a nice, neat row touching at the edges.
By observation and experimentation we recognize that order and design in all areas come about by a plan and determined action from an intelligent source; they just don’t come about by random acts no matter how much time there is. In spite of this reality evolutionists still believe that given enough time the impossible (like randomly throwing the dice and getting order) becomes possible.
Evolutionists Have Blind Faith
Evolutionists have blind faith in a faulty theory because they believe an explanation for everything has to be found in the material world, the world we can experience with our physical senses. They reject the idea of a creator God, who exists in both the physical and the spiritual, unseen realm. They refuse to see the order and complexity in the world as evidence of intelligent design and won’t believe there is a creator God behind all things in the physical world. They will go so far as to describe the order and design of the created world as “an illusion of design.”
Each Plant After Its Own Kind
In terms of the variety of plants on the earth, evolutionists would say that one living thing somehow came into being and then evolved into all the wonderful variety of plants and animals on earth through small random changes over billions of years. In contrast, Genesis 1:11 says: Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so.
According to Scripture, there are different kinds of plants, each following a certain design. We recognize what something is from its design. Though there are small changes that occur within a kind over time as adaptations are made to changes in the environment, there is no evidence that one kind of plant or animal has ever changed into a different kind. In other words, no transition or changing forms that are partly one thing and partly another have ever been found to exist.
God designed each plant to produce its own kind of seed or fruit. For example, there are varieties of corn that have been developed but corn is still corn. When you look at Indian corn, you know it is corn because it has characteristics of corn. The same is true for apples or any other kind of fruit. We think of apples as being red because most of them are. However, when you look at a Granny Smith apple you know it is an apple even though it is green because it has the characteristics of an apple.
What is True For Real Fruit is True For spiritual Fruit
What is true for real fruit is also true for spiritual fruit. The type of fruit we produce, whether it is good or bad, shows what type of person we are. Matthew 12:33 says, Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit.
If we believe in Jesus and his truth and his Spirit lives in us then we will produce good fruit that brings honor to God. If, however, we reject Jesus and his truth and go our own way and do our own thing then the fruit of our lives will be bad and dishonor God. You can’t go your way separate from God and have a good result in the end. You can’t reject God without it affecting your life in a negative way. We, like the plants, produce after our own kind.
- Overview Questions: What do evolutionists believe about the created world? What are random processes? What is intelligent design? What do random processes lead to? Why? What does intelligent design lead to? Why?
- Thought Questions: Why do people choose to believe evolution over creation? Why do people choose to believe creation over evolution? How would believing evolution affect your life? Why? How would believing in creation or intelligent design affect your life? Why?
- Prayer: Thank God for the beauty and order of the world he designed. Pray that your eyes would be opened so that you could see his work more clearly. Thank him that he has a good plan for his creation and that as you follow his plan things go well for you.
- Week’s Memory Verse: Matthew 12:33
What does fruit reveal?
Fruit shows whether a tree is good or bad.
Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit.
What does it mean that a tree is recognized by its fruit? What is the fruit a person produces? What would bad fruit look like? What would good fruit look like? If you want to produce good fruit what do you have to do?