Category Archives: evolution

Morality

Evolutionary scientists have a difficult time explaining how morality, especially altruistic behavior, developed by means of mutation and natural selection. The “holiest” doctrine of evolution–survival of the fittest–is the very antithesis of altruism. “You would expect those who are best at cheating, and taking but not giving, to be coming out ahead. Their genes should be on the rise while altruistic genes would be going away.”1 But though this is what evolutionary scientists would expect, this is not what has happened or is happening.

In an attempted explanation of this problem, Richard Dawkins stated in his 2006 documentary The Root Of All Evil “Our true sense of right and wrong has nothing to do with religion. I believe there is kindness, charity and generosity in human nature. And I think there is a Darwinian explanation for this. Through much of our prehistory, humans lived under conditions that favored altruistic genes. Gene survival depended on nurturing our family and on doing deals with our peers.”2

Notice, first of all, that Dawkins stated he “believes” morals have nothing to do with religion. This use of “believe” is an odd way for someone who condemns faith to speak. But he must speak this way because there is no science for his position. Further notice that he says he believes “there is kindness, charity and generosity in human nature.” We all know this is true. What we want to hear is an explanation of how morality began without God. Furthermore, it is odd to hear the author of the Selfish Gene to speak of kindness, charity and generosity.

Finally, his attempted answer to the problem is not only based on many assumptions but it is counter-intuitive to the theory he espouses. If I sacrifice my life for you, is it not more likely that your genes will be passed on rather than mine? Why don’t we only help those who can confer some tangible benefit to our genetic pool? Why do we help the helpless and weak? What advantage can their genes confer to us? Furthermore, evolution is purposeless and not guided toward some end or goal. A group cannot know if an act will confer some benefit down the road or not. It would be a waste of energy and time to help the helpless if evolution was true. If nature selects for the kind and the good, then why is there so much evil in the world today?

Two final points on this. First, morality is real. The very fact that evolutionists have problems explaining morality via mutation and natural selection demonstrates the reality of morality and the problems it poses for materialists. If it was not real and experienced and understood by the evolutionists themselves, they would not go to so much trouble trying to explain it away. For example, “Charles Darwin was profoundly perplexed by the fact that young men voluntarily go off to war and die for their groups. This obviously didn’t fit with his general idea of natural selection as being individuals pursuing their self-interests.”1

Second, in order for morality to be real, there must be some objective standard by which to judge what is right and wrong. It will not do to say that morality is a cultural construct. If something is moral for you now but not moral for you tomorrow, or, in other words, the standard of right and wrong changes according to circumstances, then there is no real, objective morality, which we have already seen is not true. Murder is objectively wrong. Lying is objectively wrong. Stealing is objectively wrong. These practices must violate some real, objective law, not merely cultural agreements.

Evolution has to fall back on relative cultural agreements to explain morality but the Bible gives us a different answer and it begins and ends with God. God’s nature is to be holy. He is the high and lofty One Who inhabits eternity and Whose name is holy and dwells in a holy place (Is. 57:15). All the holy angels proclaim the inherent holiness of God. “Holy, holy, holy is Jehovah of Hosts” proclaimed the seraphim (Is. 63:3; Rev. 4:8). God is of purer eyes than to behold evil (Hab. 1:13). He is glorious in holiness (Ex. 15:11). He is simply holy (Ps. 99:5).

The Bible also says that we are created in the image and likeness of God (Gen. 1:26-28). Therefore, because God is inherently holy and we are created in His image, then we, too, must be holy. God’s nature and the revelation of that nature and His divine will are the standard by which we determine right from wrong, good and evil. Morality is not something which evolved; it is inherent in creation. In fact, God demands that we be holy as He is holy (Lev. 20:6-8; I Pet. 1:15,16).

The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one (Psalm 14:1-3).

Eric L. Padgett

  1. Gambino, Megan, Smithonian.com, May 3, 2012, How Humans became Moral Beings https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-humans-became-moral-beings-80976434/#TjTbTc1GSZAudiHj.99
  2. Richard Dawkins, The Root Of All Evil (aka The God Delusion), Jan. 9, 2006 tv documentary

Dinosaur Soft Tissue An Issue

Within the last twenty-four hours news stories have appeared which report that scientists have extracted soft tissue from dinosaur fossils, specifically blood cells and collagen. These samples were extracted from fossils that were allegedly 75 million years old. The buzz in these stories is that the samples were taken from specimens that were not well preserved, implying that soft tissue preservation might be more common than previously believed.

That soft tissue has been found in fossils is not a new revelation. Back in 2005 Mary Schweitzer, a paleontologist with North Carolina State University, discovered a “fibrous matrix, stretchy like a wet scab on human skin; what appeared to be supple bone cells, their three-dimensional shapes intact; and translucent blood vessels that looked as if they could have come straight from an ostrich at the zoo.”1 This discovery caused a fire storm because according to the known laws of science, they should not have been preserved given their advanced age.

“By all the rules of paleontology, such traces of life should have long since drained from the bones. It’s a matter of faith among scientists that soft tissue can survive at most for a few tens of thousands of years, not the 65 million” years alleged for the age of the dinosaurs.2 According to scientists then, this life-like tissue “had no business inhabiting a fossilized skeleton” because it would be longer lasting than “scientific theory might predict.”3

It is instructive to note how the proponents of an ancient earth reacted. Most evolutionists were skeptical of Schweitzer’s discovery because, as she herself observed, “everyone knows these things don’t last for 65 million years.”4 She even had a hard time getting her findings published in peer reviewed journals. However, when it became impossible to deny the existence of the soft tissue any longer, evolutionists then had to change their view of how long such specimens could last. And they had to, because other research produced soft tissue in 50 % of their samples that supposedly dated back to 145 to 200 million years ago!5

These findings pose an obvious problem for the evolutionist. Known scientific facts show that blood, collagen and other soft tissue samples like those discovered do not and cannot last for the millions of years needed for the evolutionary explanation of these finds. Evolutionists, in an effort to salvage their hypothesis of evolution, have to assume that somehow, contrary to all that is known, such tissue can last through such vast ages. They have resorted to several theories as to how the tissue could be preserved, but those theories are about as convincing as their original objections to the soft tissue preservation itself.

The preservation of soft tissue in fossils poses no problem for the creationist. In fact, these findings fits perfectly with the Biblical description of a world-wide deluge four thousand years ago which produced the vast majority of fossils now known. It is interesting that Schweitzer had trouble getting her findings published, even though she is not a creationist! If she had trouble publishing her findings because they seem to contradict evolutionary theory, then you can imagine the difficulty creationists have in getting their research published and the kind of resistance with which they meet.

Furthermore, the fact that the soft tissue was found in poorly preserved fossils, suggests that the preservation of soft tissue is much more common than would be expected by evolutionary standards. It’s abundance would suggest that highly specialized conditions needed for preservation over vast eons of time are not necessary or likely and more probably, even impossible. It is much more likely that it is a common occurrence because these fossils were formed not so long ago.

Eric L. Padgett

1. Barry Yoeman, Discover Magazine, Schweitzer’s Dangerous Discovery, April 2006, http://discovermagazine.com/2006/apr/dinosaur-dna
2. Ibid
3. Ibid
4. Ibid
5. Stephanie Pappas, Livescience.com, Controversial T. Rex Sot Tissue Find Finally Explained, Nov. 26, 2013 http://www.livescience.com/41537-t-rex-soft-tissue.html

Back-up Your Info In Your DNA!

The January 23 issue of Nature reported that some information–in this instance all of Shakespeare’s sonnets, a photograph of a building, two science articles, and an mp3 clip of a Martin Luther King, Jr. speech–had been stored in a short strand of DNA. The resultant DNA was just a barely visible speck on the bottom of a small test tube. The scientists who brought about this experiment tout it as a possible means of storing massive amounts of information in the future for long periods of time.

However, scientists already knew about the nature of genetic information stored in DNA and creationists have long pointed to this as evidence that there is an intelligence behind it’s design, only to have evolutionists ridicule the idea. Now that scientists have managed to store non-genetic data in DNA it is even more obvious that information creation and storage require intelligence.

According to the article, it took over two weeks to read the information encoded in the DNA and cost $10,000 using the best technology known to man. To store the world’s existing data would cost more money than is even available on our planet! Yet DNA is read every minute of the day with ease in living things and the evolutionists expect us to believe this just happened by natural selection without any intelligence behind it.

If, later, someone were to sequence a strand of DNA and find a book of Shakespeare or an audio file or an image embedded in the DNA, would anyone think that this just happened by natural selection? Wouldn’t this be even greater evidence of intelligence and design than finding a watch on a beach, an illustration offered by William Paley back in 1802? And yet, the genetic material in DNA is even greater than any work of Shakespeare or photo or human speech. These genes produced the minds that create these works of art.

The authors also propose that in a decade, when technology has much improved, this might become a way to store information for long periods of time without decay. Normal digital storage media quickly become obsolete (remember 8-Track tapes and cassettes?) and degrade over time. It is said, however, DNA lasts much longer.

It is interesting that in the livescience.com  article on the subject, reference was made to Woolly Mammoth DNA being preserved for “tens of thousands of years.” However no reference was made to dinosaur DNA being found in T-Rex fossils. This was not mentioned perhaps because scientists also know it is not possible for DNA to last for 65 million years. Yet, according to Dr. Mary Schweitzer “material consistent with DNA” has been found in dinosaur fossils of that age. This caused quite a stir when announced. However, undaunted, Evolutionists never even considered re-thinking their view of when dinosaurs lived but, instead, changed their view of how long DNA could survive even though the experimental evidence is against it!

Nevertheless, while man-made digital tape degrades and is limited, God’s storage methods are permanent and unlimited.  That is especially true of God’s revealed word.  It will never pass away (Matt. 24:35).

But the bottom line is DNA is information that God stored in our cells to build our physical bodies. Anyone of normal intelligence would be impressed with both the design and intelligence exhibited not only in our bodies but in the world itself.

Eric L. Padgett