Don Stewart :: What Are the Consequences of Accepting Evolution?

The theory of atheistic evolution is not limited to biological concepts. If the theory of evolution is correct then it has far reaching consequences for the Christian faith as well as for all of humanity. The following are some of the logical results of accepting the modern atheistic theory of evolution:

1. There is no God.

2. The Bible is wrong.

3. Life arose by chance.

4. There is no need for a Savior.

5. There is no basis of right or wrong.

6. Mankind has no genuine hope for the future.

1. No God Exists

The theory of evolution lies at the root of many belief systems that reject the idea of God and the supernatural. Humanism, for example, rejects the idea of a Creator God and embraces the theory of evolution. Hence, the Humanist Manifesto declares the following in its first two affirmations:

Affirmation 1: Religious Humanists regard the universe as self-existing and not created.
Affirmation 2: Humanism believes that man is a part of nature and that he has emerged as a result of a continuous process.

Humanist faith rests in the theories of Charles Darwin. Dr. Colin Patterson of the British Museum of Natural History said:

Just as Pre-Darwinian biology was carried out by people whose faith was in the creator and his plan, post-Darwinian biology is being carried out by people whose faith is in, almost, the deity of Darwin (quoted in "Are the Reports of Darwins Death Exaggerated?" by Brian Leith, The Listener, Vol. 106, No. 2370, October 8, 1981, p. 390).

Though not all evolutionists are atheists, evolution taken to its logical conclusion does not require a Creator. According to the theory of evolution, everything that now exists is a result of chance and natural processes.

Hence, if the atheistic theory of evolution is true, then the God of Scripture, who tells us He created the universe by His power, does not exist.

2. The Bible Is Wrong

The Bible teaches that God is the Creator of the universe. In contrast, the theory of evolution holds that we are here by chance, not by design. If the theory of evolution is true, then the Bible is wrong. One evolutionary writer put it this way:

Here is a theory that released thinking men from the spell of superstition, one of the most overpowering that has ever enslaved mankind . . . We owe to the Origin of Species the overthrow of the myth of creation (C. Darlington, "Origin of Evolution," Scientific American, May, 1959, p. 60).

Any claim that the Bible is the authoritative inerrant Word of God would be refuted if the theory of evolution is correct.

The logical result of accepting evolution is a denial of the plain teachings of Scripture, as Sir Cecil Wakeley, past president of the Royal College of Surgeons, admitted:
The theory of evolution is the gospel of the atheist and paves the way to the complete rejection of the Bible ("A Surgeon Looks At Evolution," cited by the Evolution Protest Movement, No. 223, January, 1980).

3. Life Is Here By Chance

Even though the evolutionist seeks to exclude the supernatural from scientific discussions, in many ways he does have a god. The god of the evolutionist is the god of chance. As we have seen, it requires more faith to believe that the god of chance could accomplish the bringing about of the universe in all its form and complexity than to believe it has been brought about by the wisdom and planning of the God of the Bible.

If the theory of evolution is the correct explanation of the development of life on earth, then we are here by chance. The universe came into existence due to an explosion of some dense particle of unknown origin and life on earth came into existence due to the spontaneous generation of life at the sub-microscopic level.

Nobel prize-winning chemist Jacque Monod wrote in his book Chance and Necessity:
Pure chance, absolutely free but blind, is at the very root of the stupendous edifice of evolution.

The agnostic Monod compared the initial formation of life to playing a roulette wheel. He further wrote:

The universe was not pregnant with life or the biosphere with man. Our number came up in a Monte Carlo . Is it surprising that, like the person who has just made a million at the casino, we should feel strange and a little unreal?

Scientist Richard Leakey concurs:

We are here as a result of a series of accidents, if you like. There was nothing preplanned about humanity (Richard Leakey, "The Making of Mankind I," The Listener, May 7, 1981, p. 598).

Love?

The theory of evolution also reduces love to mere chemical reactions. Robert Wright notes:

Love itself - the love of a mother for child, husband for wife, sibling for sibling - may boil down, in large part, to a chemical called oxytocin. It seems somehow harder to rhapsodize about the universal love so many religions prescribe when you know that, if it ever comes, it will rest on the same stuff researchers inject into rats to make them cuddle. Another bit of less-than-inspiring news is the clearer more cynical, understanding of why love exists - how it was designed by evolution for only one discernible purpose: to spread the genes of the person doing the loving (Robert Wright, "Science, God, and Man," Time, December 28, 1992, p. 40).

4. No Need For A Savior

If the theory of evolution is true then the coming of Jesus Christ is unnecessary. The Bible says Jesus Christ came to die for the sins of the world:

Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28).

John the Baptist recognized that Jesus mission was to take away the worlds sin:

The next day John saw Jesus coming and said, Behold! the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).

This is necessary because the Scripture says man is separated from God by his sin:

For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).

Sin will cause physical death and eventual eternal separation from God. The Bible says:

The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).

Atheists recognize the theory of evolution strips Christianity of any meaning. Atheist G. Richard Bozarth writes:

Christianity has fought, still fights and will fight science to the desperate end over evolution, because evolution destroys utterly and finally the very reason Jesus earthly life was supposedly made necessary. Destroy Adam and Eve and the original sin, and in the rubble you will find the sorry remains of the son of god . . . If Jesus is not the redeemer who died for our sins, and this is what evolution means, then Christianity is nothing (G. Richard Bozarth, "The Meaning of Evolution," The American Atheist, Vol. 20, No. 2, February, 1978, p. 30).

If evolution is true, mankind is not answerable to God and has no need for a Savior. Consequently, Jesus Christ would not be what He claimed to be - the Savior of the world and mankinds only hope.

5. No Distinction Between Right Or Wrong

If indeed there is no Creator, then we are left without any moral absolutes, without anyone to answer. The logical result of rejecting a Creator and His moral absolutes is to accept that all things are now conceivable. There is no moral anchor to guide us. Thus, to make statements such as "murder is wrong" or "loving is right" is entirely meaningless because there is no one to say what is right and what is wrong.

The French philosopher John Paul Sartre realized this and wrote:

I was like a man who lost his shadow. And there was nothing left in heaven, no right or wrong, nor anyone to give me orders . . . I am doomed to have no other law but mine . . . For I, Zeus, am a man and every man must find his own way (John Paul Sartre, "The Flies in Sartre," No Exit and Other Plays, New York: Vintage Books, 1946, pp. 121-123).

Sartre also wrote:
All human activities are equivalent . . . Thus it amounts to the same thing whether one gets drunk alone or is a leader of a nation (John Paul Sartre, Being And Nothingness, New York: Philosophical Library, 1956, p. 766).

Man now creates his own destiny; he is the master of his own fate. Jeremy Rifkin wrote:
We no longer feel ourselves to be guests in someone elses home and therefore obliged to make our behavior conform with a set of preexisting cosmic rules. It is our creation now. We make the rules. We establish the parameters of reality. We create the world, and because we do, we no longer feel beholden to outside forces. We no longer have to justify our behavior, for we are now the architects of the universe. We are responsible to nothing outside ourselves, for we are the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and ever (Jeremy Rifkin, Algeny, New York: Viking Press, 1983, p. 188).

If we evolved by mere chance, then there is no one out there to tell us how to live.

6. No Hope

Finally, if the theory of evolution is true and mankind is here by chance, then there is no purpose for our existence. Hope, then, is merely an illusion. The rejection of a Creator God leads an individual to hopelessness and despair. Russell Kirk observes:

To practical men and women in this work-a-day world, do these questions of the origin of the universe, the earths environment, and mankind make any real difference? Cannot such abstract disputations be resigned to preachers and professors?
No they cannot. For upon the questions about origins depend the answers of whether life is worth living and how it is to be lived . . . The bent condition of human existence in these closing decades of the 20th century is an affliction resulting principally from the decay of belief in an ordered universe and in a purpose for human existence (Russell Kirk, "The Rediscovery of Creation," National Review, May 27, 1983, p. 616).

Logically, if one accepts evolution, then genuine hope for the future does not exist.

Summary

The acceptance of the theory of evolution has far-reaching ramifications for humanity. If the biblical answer is not true, then the God of the Bible does not exist, the Bible is incorrect, mankind is an accident with no need for a Savior, and we are without any moral absolutes or realistic hope for the future. Belief in evolution undermines the entire Christian faith.

Fortunately, we have an intelligent alternative to the theory of evolution - special creation.