I’ve split a previous post in order to more clearly present:

1. The goal of evolution (see at this site the post Evolution isn’t a salvation issue, and that’s the gospel truth!), and

2. What some in the American education apparatus consider to be a primary goal of the sciences.

To get there, let’s first sample some of the secular thoughts that are in print regarding the tension between evolution and the faith Christians have in God’s account of creation.

Here are a couple of quotes from an article written by Tania Lombrozo and published June 29, 2015, at https://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2015/06/29/418289762/don-t-believe-in-evolution-try-thinking-harder (the National Public Radio website):

“The theory of evolution by natural selection is among the best established in science, yet also among the most controversial for subsets of the American public.”

And,

“Evolution isn’t controversial for scientific reasons, but it is controversial, in part, for psychological reasons.”

The article is titled Don’t believe in evolution? Try thinking harder. Did you catch that? If you don’t buy into the theory of evolution, you’re just not thinking it through, pal; there’s probably something in your psyche preventing you from seeing the “truth” of evolution.

Here’s a quote from an article written by John Rennie titled 15 answers to creationist nonsense published in the Scientific American magazine on July 1, 2002, and available at https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/15-answers-to-creationist/

“Creationists’ arguments are typically specious and based on misunderstandings of (or outright lies about) evolution.”

And,

“These answers by themselves probably will not change the minds of those set against evolution. But they may help… in this important struggle for the scientific integrity of our civilization.”

Where do I start? First of all, Rennie doesn’t provide an ironman for the creationist perspective, which is an attribute I see extended oftentimes by polite and intellectually honest people. Rennie, far from providing an ironman for creationist arguments, doesn’t even set up a strawman. He simply gives the very picture of a looney in a tinfoil hat as the creationist. He starts with an insult, then moves to a generalization that isn’t at all true of creationist scientists that I know of, and he ends with the idea that the struggle to silence the creationist is – hang onto your seats, people! – a “struggle for the scientific integrity of our civilization.”

Do you see the importance that some evolutionists place on winning the argument in our schools?

Did you know there even was such an argument? Or, did you think that every evolutionist is pretty much like you, believing that we should all live together and coexist as partners in life, not trying to press their views on anyone?

John Rennie, and possibly the editors of the Scientific American magazine, certainly aren’t willing to coexist with creationists. They hate our views – your views, if you’re a Biblical creationist. They think those views need to be dismantled for the very “scientific integrity of our civilization.”

So, creationist views are controversial for psychological reasons, and they have to be changed. But, how?

Warren D. Allmon offers an answer to that dilemma in an article titled Why don’t people think evolution is true? Implications for teaching, in and out of the classroom published December 14, 2011, in BioMed Central (part of the Springer Nature group). You can find it at https://evolution-outreach.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1007/s12052-011-0371-0

Here’s what Allmon offered:

“Other authors… maintain that the primary goal of science education should be ‘changing student beliefs,’ specifically the abandonment by students of all nonscientific explanations… that evolution by natural selection seeks to explain.” 

The primary goal. Not one goal among several imperatives, or even a primary goal; but, the primary goal of science education. What’s the goal? To change the belief you’ve worked to present to your children and instill in them: That God’s Word is true.

They want the primary goal of scientific education to be convincing your children to abandon those beliefs.

Abandon.

Their beliefs.

In God.

At least some of the educators seeking to ever-refine the American education system don’t see your belief in God’s account of creation as a valid system. They see it as an obstacle to their own system, which is godless evolution. They think getting your children to cast away their belief in God is the primary goal of science education.

You may be thinking, “That’s not exactly what they said.”

OK, then; let’s walk it through.

In order to get someone to abandon the nonscientific explanations that evolution otherwise explains, you have to get them to accept evolution. They have to stop believing in Biblical creation and start believing the naturalistic explanations.

Who should we trust? Almighty God has said that His account is true. His thoughts on the debate are very clear, and they’re written in Exodus.

“For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day.”

Exodus 20:11 (NIV)

There are a number of other Bible verses supporting God’s account of creation. Among all of them, I chose this one because it’s unequivocal. Not only is it unequivocal, it’s also an actual quote of God written down by Moses.

God Himself spoke those words. He said them out loud.

God said those words out loud.

Proponents of what Allmon reported think that what God said isn’t true, and they want your children to stop believing that God spoke the truth.

‘Did God really say that? What God said is wrong. Evolution is what’s right.’

This, folks, is what’s happening in the American education system today. I’m not saying that every science teacher in American public schools of all levels is pushing this with the intent described by Allmon. I’m saying that among the people who design the instructional systems that teachers are required to use, as well as the attendant textbooks for those systems, there are those who have as a strategy to get your child to replace their faith in God with naturalistic explanations.

Now, a quick retort may be along the lines of, “They don’t have to abandon God! They just have to reconcile what they believe about origins. They can believe whatever else in the Bible they want to believe.”

That’s an argument starving for substance.

The four great existential questions are origin, meaning, morality, and destiny. If God is wrong about origin – my origin, your origin, the origin of the child in school – if God is wrong about that, then why would anyone believe what God says about meaning, morality, and destiny?

If the very first chapter of the very first book of the Bible is a fairy tale, then it follows the whole of the Bible is suspect. Why believe any of it? The atheist Bozarth recognized that all too well when he wrote in The American Atheist magazine, “Destroy Adam and Eve and the original sin, and in the rubble you will find the sorry remains of the Son of God.”

And, that’s exactly what’s happening out there in our nation today: People are abandoning the Bible. Depending on which study is referenced, from around two-thirds to nine-tenths of college-aged people who grew up in Christian homes will abandon their faith during their college-age years.

What makes you think your children will be immune to the reasoning that if Genesis is wrong, so is the rest of Scripture?

What makes you think they haven’t already considered it?

That’s a tough one, I know. But keep this in mind: The American public school system does not give glory to God, nor does it give thanks to Him. In fact, it’s quite the opposite, and very close to what the apostle Paul wrote in the book of Romans.

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Romans 1:18-21 (NIV)

It bears repeating: The American public school system does not give glory to God, nor does it give thanks to Him. The American public school system not only doesn’t believe in God’s account of creation, it intends to replace the faith your child has in God with a faith in naturalism. That’s a one-for-one replacement, not coexistence. And, coexistence, in this matter, is utterly impossible.

Forget the illogical arguments that evolution can be reconciled with Genesis, which it cannot, and consider this implication: If evolution is true, then death and suffering predated modern humans.

If evolution is true, then death and suffering predated people.

If death and suffering predated people, then what curse did God pronounce on Adam & Eve? How did death come about from Adam’s sin if death was already in the Earth from the start of life, which predated people by billions of years? And, from what would people have to be atoned?

At this point, if one accepts evolution, then the account of creation in Genesis has to be abandoned. You cannot believe them both at the same time.

In the words of philosophers: “A thing cannot be both A and non-A at the same time and in the same manner.” Evolution cannot be true if creation is true. One must be A and the other must be non-A. They cannot each be held up as explanations for the origin of all things, including life. Either A or non-A must be true, but not both. Either evolution or creation, but not both.

According to naturalistic explanations there is no need for redemption because death & suffering have been part of life since abiogenesis occurred billions of years ago in a warm primordial soup. There was no Adam & Eve, nobody fell, and no curse was pronounced.

Everything in the previous two sentences is a lie, by the way.

As I wrote in Evolution isn’t a gospel issue… It isn’t enough, anymore, to just say that we don’t believe in naturalistic explanations.

Folks, this is the price we pay every time we allow the naturalistic explanation to hang in the air without offering the alternative, which is the truth of God’s Word. That’s our part, people. It’s our mission field.

Do the work, friends. Read the articles. Buy and study the books. And, when the lies of the naturalistic explanations come from any source in your hearing, stand up to them by speaking the Word of Almighty God. Let people hear the truth. Don’t let the lie go unopposed and not addressed. Your kids are listening. They’re watching you.

Get into the mission field. It’s crucial. We’re not fighting for the scientific integrity of our civilization. We’re fighting for the eternal condition of our children, our grandchild, our friends.

And that’s far, far more important.

“As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

Isaiah 55:10-11 (NIV)

May God’s peace be upon you as you work to reinforce His truth in your children. Amen!