BREAKING THE SILENCE

                I have been fascinated with science from the time as I was a little boy. I remember being intrigued as I peered for the first time at the wing of a fly through the eyepiece of my microscope. I bought science equipment at our local drug store, with the desire to do experiments, even though I didn’t know what that really entailed.

                Those early interests in science blossomed into a degree in biology at college. I almost didn’t complete my degree because I took too many biology classes. During my time in college I was able to dig deeply into the realities of our world. One of my favorite classes was a class in endocrinology. During that class, I was able to observe the significant changes that happen in an animal when a specific hormone was removed. I was also fascinated by my class in genetics. Working with fruit flies, I saw firsthand how genetic characteristics are passed on from one generation to the next. I also saw the changes that can take place in a population over time.

                During my journey through my biology degree, I encountered the theory of evolution. I quickly became aware of two very different applications of this theory. The one application is what I will call micro-evolution. This is the gradual changes that take place within specific species. This is the type of evolution that Darwin observed during his monumental discoveries in the Galapagos Islands. Everyone who has studied populations can attest to this type of natural selection.

                The other type of evolution is what I am calling macro-evolution. This is the theory that the kind of evolution we can observe within species took place between species to create new species. This is the classic microbe to man theory of evolution. After observing micro-evolution, Darwin extrapolated the concept to explain how all life forme;, moving from single cell organisms to the enormous diversity we see today.

                 I have been reading a new book by F. LaGard Smith that has masterfully exposed some of the insurmountable obstacles to macro-evolution. The title of the book is Darwin’s Secret Sex Problem. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is willing to take an honest look at the now universally excepted theory of evolution. Smith affirms the truth of micro-evolution while raising serious questions about macro-evolution. At the heart of his thesis is the question, how did male/female sex come into being. This issue is referred to as the Queen of evolutionary problems by those who champion evolution as the answer to life’s existence. One of the major sticking points is how did the process of asexual reproduction called meiosis evolve into what we know as sexual reproduction called mitosis. In meiosis, cells divide producing an exact copy of themselves. In mitosis, two different sets of chromosomes are mixed to produce a different entity, related to the parents but distinct from them.

                The story of creation, as recorded in the book of Genesis, is not a scientific treatise on how God created the world, but a clear and powerful statement that He is the author of all that we know and don’t yet know. In simple, clear statements, Genesis outlines a systematic creation event. Although it does not go into detail about the mechanism of how God created the different components of creation, it does give us some very important clues to the boundaries that God set for creation. Particularly relevant to the argument in Smith’s book is Genesis 1:20-25.

                And God said, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky." So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth." And there was evening, and there was morning--the fifth day.

                And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind." And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

                Multiple times the story records that God created living creatures according to their kind. The same thing is said about plants. The apex of the creation story comes with the arrival of man in Genesis 1:26-28.  

  Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

So God created man in his own image,

in the image of God he created him;

male and female he created them.

God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."

                It is time for us to take another honest look at a “theory” that has been presented as an established “fact”. Dr. Smith’s book is a good place to start an honest dialog. The diversity and complexity of sexual reproduction throughout the world seriously weakens the idea that all life gradually developed from the same source, unless we recognize that that source was God.