Evolution: Behind "Enemy" Lines

Brandon Renfroe

Topic(s): Evidences, God, Jesus, Science

Links to this entire series:

• Evolution: Behind "Enemy" Lines: Part 1
• Evolution: Behind "Enemy" Lines: Part 2
• Evolution: Behind "Enemy" Lines: Part 3

It happens every year. Students leave home, many for the first time, venturing off to various colleges and universities throughout our nation. Bright-eyed and impressionable, filled with the endless enthusiasm and boundless energy only youth can provide, they arrive at campus ready to face a brave new world. Locating their classes, paying their bills, having to do their own laundry for the first time—even simple tasks can be initially daunting. It will take months before some finally acclimate to the rigors of college life.

For most, it will also be the first time their faith has faced a serious challenge. No longer under the watchful eye of mother and father, outside the friendly confines of home students will be confronted by professors who did not share in their religious upbringing. In the halls of academia, they will encounter men and women more familiar with Darwin, Haeckel, and Gould than with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. How will they fare when long-cherished beliefs are called into question and even subjected to ridicule?

The majority of students—and their parents—are unprepared for the barrage they will encounter in the secular science and philosophy classrooms. They will face intimidation from those with superior intellectual credentials, pressure from their peers to conform to what is generally accepted, and embarrassment if their religious training has not equipped them for higher-order discussions. As result, many young people lose their faith in God and revert to a form of agnosticism, if not downright atheism. Lives that were filled with so much promise and potential will lie in ruins, spiritually speaking.

The college experience should be among the most enjoyable in a young person’s life; college should not be the place their faith goes to die. Having studied biology at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and now teaching science in the public school system, it is clear to this writer that evolution is not an impregnable fortress of iron and steel, buttressed by pillar upon pillar of “scientific” facts, as is commonly portrayed in the popular media. Rather, it is a teetering shanty haphazardly constructed on shifting sands that eventually will be washed away with the tide of time.

As someone who has spent many hours behind “enemy lines,” allow me to offer a few helpful strategies to better prepare yourself, and your loved ones, for the Darwinistic deluge they are certain to endure.

What Is at Stake

It must be realized that when discussing evolution, we are dealing with a definite worldview. If evolution is imbibed, it will affect not only what an individual believes about his ultimate origin and eternal destiny, but will also impact his day-to-day behavior. Building upon Charles Darwin’s “survival of the fittest,” Adolf Hitler brutally executed more than six million Jewish men, women, and children. Make no mistake: ideas have consequences!

According to the Bible, the primary purpose of mankind is to “fear God, and keep his commandments” (Ecclesiastes 12:13). According to evolution, as one recent text reveals, “The ultimate goal of all living organisms [is] to pass their genes on to successive generations” (Smith and Smith, 4). This coincides with the words of militant evolutionist Richard Dawkins: “You are for nothing. You are here to propagate your selfish genes. There is no higher purpose in life” (Bass, 60; quoted in Jackson, The Blind Bookwriter).

As even some of its proponents concede, one consequence of accepting evolution is freedom—liberation from the moral constraints placed upon humanity by an omnipotent Creator. As two textbook authors relate:

The beauty of evolution by natural selection is that it does not require a direction or final cause. It is guided only by random changes in the sequence of the four nucleotides of the DNA that is the blueprint of each individual organism, constrained only by the necessity of survival and reproduction—the transmission of that DNA to succeeding generations (Smith and Smith, 26).

A thousand years before the birth of Christ, the psalmist exclaimed, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork” (Psalm 19:1). There is elegance in every sunset, mystery in the deep blue seas, and allurement in the many natural wonders formed by the benevolent hand of God (cf. Psalm 95:5). To the disciple of Darwin, however, “beauty” lies in purposelessness, and the only constraining influence placed upon mankind is “the necessity of survival and reproduction.” How a process can be “guided” yet lack a “final cause” is not mentioned by the authors. Apparently, belief in evolution also frees its advocates from having to offer coherent explanations.

The Limits of Science

Our English word science derives from the Latin scientia, denoting “knowledge.” To learn about science, ideally, is to acquire useful information about the amazing world in which we live. Unfortunately, not everything which sails under the heading of science may be legitimately termed as such.

At the outset, before the first textbook is opened, the first pair of safety goggles sported, and the first Bunsen burner heated, students should be informed as to the limits of science. Strictly speaking, science deals with the empirical. Thus, if an entity is not directly observable by means of the senses, if it cannot be experimented upon, with the results subject to verification, then it falls outside the purview of the scientific method. Consequently, any view pertaining to the origin of the universe—such as evolution—falls outside the parameters of actual science.

Students need not be intimidated by haughty pronouncements that evolution is “scientific fact.” In actuality, much of what passes for “science” today is not genuine science at all, but rather “scientism”—the religion of those who refuse “to retain God in their knowledge” (cf. Romans 1:28). Unfortunately, professors who subscribe to this humanistic/naturalistic ideology are the rule on most campuses, not the exception.

Bait and Switch: A Hook, Line, and Sinker Approach

How do Darwinian enthusiasts snag unsuspecting pupils? The textbook method is typically twofold: generic definition, followed by bait and switch maneuvering. The first item on the agenda of most professors is to assuage their students’ fears by insisting that evolution need not be a matter of significant controversy. In order to accomplish this goal, they will define the term with such broad strokes as to eliminate any possibility of dissent. “All evolution means,” the professor will gently suggest, “is change over time.” That sounds reasonable enough, and few students will disagree.

The instructor will then follow up this simplistic definition by making a direct appeal to the students: “Have you changed any over the last few years? For example, are you taller now than you were five or ten years ago? Do you wear the same style of clothing that you did as a child?” At this point, many students will be laughing as they recall how fashion trends have “evolved.” They will lament how “nerdy” they dressed as youngsters, as compared to the “trendsetters” they currently view themselves. The clever professor has used humor to disarm his pupils, and his mission is already half accomplished: many students have swallowed the bait, hook, line, and sinker—and in the complete absence of a single piece of supporting evidence!

All that remains to inculcate unwitting students in the first principles of evolution is to complete the “bait and switch” ploy of marketing fame. Many are all-too-familiar with advertisements which seek to lure prospective customers into an establishment, only to learn, upon their arrival, that the promised bargain was too good to be true. The advertiser baited them with the ad, only to switch the item on sale, or the price—or both. In this case, the professor initially lured the students with an overly simplistic definition, then switched the concept to cover all forms of evolution.