A speaker at a religious conference said no one has yet proven to him that human beings evolved from one single, simple organism millions or billions of years ago.
A speaker at a religious conference said no one has yet proven to him that human beings evolved from one single, simple organism millions or billions of years ago.
Nor, he said, can scientists prove convincingly that species evolve via what he calls "Darwinism" (macroevolution).
Gordon Hawkes, a philosophy grad student, made those points during a talk he gave entitled Defining Evolution.
It was one of many presentations given during the Unveiling the Truth religious conference, held Oct. 15 at Olds First Baptist Church.
Hawkes defined Darwinism as "an undirected, unguided physical process" according to natural laws.
He said he has asked the following question to several people – including biologists -- and no one has been able to give him a satisfactory answer:
"What do you think is the most powerful evidence you have that that story is true – that all life came from a single organism millions of years ago and that through unguided, undirected physical processes, arrived at us (humankind)?"
Hawkes cited the example of a friend.
"He was silent for over two minutes," he said. "Finally he said, 'well all scientists believe in it.'"
Hawkes said he asked what evidence those scientists point to that makes them believe evolution is a fact.
"He said, 'well, every single journal out there records evolution,'" Hawkes said.
He said when asked that question, a biologist he knew answered, "finches?"
Hawkes said decades ago, scientists found that the beaks of finches became larger to get at food that was harder to obtain. However, he said that change turned out to be only "a .5-millimetre difference on an average of 80 birds."
"The very next year there was a flood. What happened? The proportions reverted exactly back to what they were before," he said.
"That's a pattern that's been repeating itself since the '70s. It has not changed. The proportion has been essentially static over that time."
He said proponents of evolution point to the wide variety of dogs on the earth that all apparently descended from original species like wolves.
"Is this an example of an unguided, undirected process?" Hawkes asked.
"No," he said, suggesting people had deliberately bred various dogs to create new kinds of canines.
Hawkes said some people – including some scientists – say the concept of evolution is compatible with Christianity.
"I'm no genius in logic, but you tell me: how could God guide an unguided process? Can He direct an undirected process? Isn't it by definition something that God can have nothing to do with?" Hawkes asked.
"That's how most scientists will define it. Because remember – they're coming from the materialist world view where there are no divine beings imposing their will on man and this world."
He also questioned how scientists could square the concept of a God that doesn't interfere in the world with a central tenet of Christianity – that God came down to earth as Jesus Christ.
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