We screened a movie on Sept 9 and invited friends, especially pre-believers, as an on-going evangelistic effort of the church.The movie generally focuses on the debate between the evolutionist and the creationist:
Creationists are concerned that the theory of evolution has become the dominant view that is taught in schools and universities. But the origin of life can neither be observed nor reproduced in any laboratory. How did any life form, including the human race, got here? If God did not create the universe then who or what did? The big bang that caused a cosmic explosion? What caused it to go bang? How did it create so much detail and beauty and design and intelligence? Nothing times something does not equal everything! Evolution attacks the teaching of the Bible “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” and the authority of God. With God as the first cause, everything else that happens then makes sense.
Evolutionists countered that putting God as the first cause is wishful thinking. They claimed that laboratory experimentation and intensive scientific analysis have proven conclusively that the clear progression of simpler life forms evolving into more complex life forms is the irrefutable truth. Radiometric dating of the earth shows it to be about 4.5 billion years old, and the rocks and fossils around us are many millions years old. That’s a lot of time for change, time for evolution.
Evolutionists further argued that man created God out of deep seated fears living in a world of disease and famine and disaster with very little control over his circumstance. He postulated a being who could deliver him. But most of all man fears death and extinction, and so he needed a heavenly Father, who could take him at the end to some heavenly place all because he couldn’t face the fact that eventually he was going to vanish from existence. So the purpose of life is to make a mark. If we do that maybe the next generation will remember us, maybe we’ll even teach them something, but there’s no afterlife. The Bible says we believe by faith, wasn’t the Bible written by men? Why bet on a book you can’t explain and a God you can’t prove?
Creationists rebutted that if man has his way, he would rather God did not exist. Notice whenever anything goes bad in someone’s life or there is some tragic event, people, religious or not almost inevitably blame God. How could God allow this or that? Fossil records does not show the continuous development of one kind of creature into another. No one has ever seen one kind of plant or animal changing into another of a different kind. Radiometric dating, based on several assumptions, is not a reliable method. The earth is not billions of years old, not even close.
There will be rebuttals from both sides. If the stars can come down and form the words in the sky “God created the world”, the evolutionists will still not believe. No one can scientifically prove evolution, neither that God created the world since none of us were present to witness it. Both of these teachings then become a matter of faith. The evolutionist has nothing but vast periods of time, random chance events and the ever changing ideas of man to base his worldview upon. The creationist has his beliefs firmly rooted in the truths contained in the Bible and a personal God who created everything. We should look at both sides of the evidence realising that everyone individually has to make their own choice. Either look at life through men’s ideas or God’s word. If evolution, follow where that leads, if God, then serve the Lord.
So we can’t prove anything. You can chance your eternity on the views of Darwin. But I will put my trust in God and wait on the hope of eternal life that He offers. May you find the same hope.
Deacon Henry Leong
