by Michael Peyton

Created on: August 13, 2009

God and Charles Darwin's theory of evolution are mutually exclusive. It is important to note that the god I am referring to is the god of the three large monotheistic religions which are Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It is impossible for this god to exist and the theory of evolution to exist in the same universe. The Holy Bible and Darwin's theory of evolution present two opposing ideas about creation that cannot both be true.

The book of Genesis 1:27 says "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." This is of course after god created all the plants and animals. The story of creation in the Holy Bible is very simple to understand and straight-forward. God, after creating the earth, creates plants in a single day. After creating every species of plant, god creates sea creatures and birds the next day. On god's final day of work, he creates land animals and humans. Strangely, the Holy Bible does not mention on which day god created dinosaurs but since he created all living things in three days, humans must have lived at the same time as dinosaurs. It must have been a very frightening and dangerous world for the first humans. It should be noted that god gave humans, man in particular, dominion over all the plants and animals of the world.

Darwin's theory of evolution is also very easy to understand. The idea is that all species on earth, including humans, are descendants of a common ancestor. Through a process called natural selection, life, which began as simple single celled organisms, has changed into more complex plants and animals better suited to survive in their environments. Natural selection is sometimes referred to as "survival of the fittest." What this means is individual life forms that are better suited to survive in a particular environment due to their traits, are more likely to survive and reproduce, passing on those traits to their offspring. Over millions of years, very small and subtle changes can add up to become larger ones and new species are formed. It was through this process of natural selection that species evolved and formed the diversity of life that we see on this planet today. All species, including humans, formed through this process and therefore, are related. This implies that humans are animals which can be an uncomfortable thought for some and certainly contrasts the idea that man has dominion over all life on earth.

As you can see, if god simply created all life on earth it could not have possibly come about through the process of natural selection and vice versa. Therefore we can use simple logic to answer the original question in this form: If A is true, B is false. If B is true, A is false. Therefore, A and B cannot both be true If we use that same structure replacing A with creation and B with evolution, we come up with this: If creation is true, evolution is false. If evolution is true, creation is false. Therefore evolution and creation cannot both be true.

There may be some who argue that the god of the Holy Bible could have created plants, animals, and man through the process of natural selection. If that is the case, why didn't the authors of the Holy Bible just say so? For anyone who wants to argue that god and Darwinism can coexist I have one word for you: dinosaurs.

Without altering either of the ideas, it is impossible to make god fit with Darwinism or make Darwinism agree with god. To attempt to do so would be akin to trying to play a game of Hockey with the rules of Baseball. Any attempt to fit Darwinism with god will eventually end in failure.

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