Bible Basics

Time and Evolution

Many people today are impressed with the case for evolution because of the evidence they believe is presented in the fossil record. There is no scientific data that proves all living creatures have evolved from primitive inorganic substances by means of natural process.  In fact, not a single fossil has ever been discovered that clearly demonstrates a link between the “kinds” of organisms. An attempt to answer this dilemma is to make an appeal to “time” as a means of explaining the theory of evolution. The claim is that evolution occurs much too slowly to be observed by humans; that it has progressed over vast eras of time. Without explaining how, evolutionary chronology has the universe coming into being some 15-20 billion years ago, with the earth being approximately 4.5 billion years old and life being spontaneously generated about 2-3 billion years ago. Finally, man (homo sapiens) is to have appeared some 3 1/2 million years in the past. While the atheist has no problem accepting these enormous figures, it does create difficulties for one who believes in God and the Bible, for the first chapter of Genesis teaches that not only did God create “the heavens and the earth,” He did so in six days. Can this biblical record be reconciled to this system of evolutionary chronology?  We’ll find out next week.

                                                                                                               -- Clark Dugger

Bible Basics