Letter To A Friend Who Believes In Evolution

Jerry

Sorry for the long delay. I think I remember the talk we had online had something to do with God/evolution/creation/Bible, and at one point even starting penning a response to you then. I guess my mind just left it, not sure why I remembered it now. But here it goes. By the way, by no means am I trying to evangelize or anything, just making a case for my faith to a friend who I really have and do think a lot about.

First, I want to let you know that I take a Biblical point of view. What that means in laymen’s terms is that I believe that the Bible is 100% accurate, and I believe every word of it, right down the cross of the T and the dot of the I. Now I know that in previous discussions, you had said that you hadn’t discovered anyone like that and that all the Bible theologians you know would never claim that—in fact they may see that view as nonsense. Well, I guess all I can say is that we hang out with different people. For the pastors that I spend time with and have been trained by, it is my belief that all ministers and all pastors should indeed take this view, and if they fail to take this view and instead bend the meanings of the scriptures, then they are opening up their lives to the condemnations listed in the book of Revelation that is addressed specifically to those who fail at full belief.

The next asterisk I want to throw out there prior to my response, is that I absolutely admit that there are things written in the Bible that are beyond my human, and perhaps any human understanding. Christ is a lion and a lamb, how is that possible? He is the beginning and the end? Again, how can that be? How can both God be predestining the roles of mankind at the same time mankind having free will to choose God? Those appear to be non-recconcilable (if that’s even a word). It’s almost like I serve a God that cannot be made up by man because of these seeming unanswerable debates. Yet, I believe the Bible to be true, and believe that with God all these things I listed in this paragraph are not only possible, but absolutely right. So Jim, I am not asking you to accept these beliefs as your own. I only you recognize them as mine so you know where I am coming from. In high school, both of us were a bit crazy. I was a 6 year veteran of the polar bear club and you shot putted in a major track meet after having been up all night while still wearing the bow-tie. So it shouldn’t really be all the crazy for you to believe that my faith is so strong in something since you have seen my commitment to craziness first hand over the years.

Lastly, I want to keep my comments solely on evolution. I know evolution debates can end up in discussions about atheism, but as of yet you have not said that is your belief or that you had any specific believe. My intentions are not going to be some back door attempt to convert you to a relationship with Christ, but they are to clarify where I am coming from so at the very least you will read this and say to yourself, “Well, I think Tom may be crazy, but what is not crazy is how strong he believes it. He really believes it, and at least I can admire that.” Make sense?

1. THE ISSUE OF THE FOSSILS: Specifically, when a fossil is found, we really don’t know that much. If we find a fossil of a gopher, all we really know is that the animal is a gopher and that the gopher died right where we found him. We really do not know if the gopher was once a weasel, or if that weasel was once an anteater. We find a weasel or an anteater nearby the gopher, but then again, if we think scientifically, all we really know once again is that it is a weasel and a gopher and that they died there. Now, if there was a scientific test that could alter one specie to another specie (macro-evolution), and that the test was scientifically defined to make this alteration happen by “accident,” then one could make an argument the DNA of a specie could be changed (and I am not talking about a moth gaining pepper spots—its still a moth, I am talking macro, that the moth becomes a red robin). I am also not talking about a human engineered specie that is unable to reproduce like a mule. For macro, we would need to see: