Evolution "yes" and "no"

While reading a book on moral philosophy I had to dismiss the author’s acceptance of the theory of evolution as fact so that I could get to the research that he said proved his thesis.  The book, however, challenges readers to recognize how they too readily choose arguments they know are in agreement with their way of thinking.  And so I applied that challenge to my rejection of the theory of evolution.  I admit that I reject the theory first, because I believe God created everything and I believe He created it as is recorded in Genesis 1 (for those who are curious, I am not certain that a literal six days interpretation is necessary to be orthodox but that is for another post or two).  And so I too find arguments to back up where I started.  But, that does not mean that I can’t accept what scientific evidence has proven. 

Is evolution a fact plain and simple?  Well, it depends on how you define evolution.  If by evolution we simply mean that present day organisms are descended from organisms that lived earlier with modifications, then “yes” we can agree that evolution is a fact.  There is nothing in the Bible about God as creator that contradicts such a statement as fact.

If, however, a person was to say that evolution is a fact plain and simple and then define evolution as “the reconstruction of the evolutionary tree of life that would show all of the branches going back to some primordial ancestor in the past,” then I would say, “no” I don’t believe in such a theory.  I don’t believe in such a theory because of all of the metaphysical arguments that present God as the First Cause of created matter and motion and because the “science” doesn’t prove the definition accurate.  Since I am using the word “fact”, consider that there are no facts that confirm that all that presently exists in life forms came from one primordial ancestor.  For example, there is no data from fossil records that confirm that a bat and a whale came from the same primordial ancestor.  And if there was, the amount of fossil records that would have to exist is mind blowing.   And that is just based on the two species examples.  For all species to now exist and that have existed but are now extinct there would be trillions of fossil trails left that clearly show changes from species to species and yet there are not even thousands, hundreds or tens of such trails. 

All said above is reason enough why I reject the theory of evolution and accept God as the creator of all things.  This post is for the purpose of putting forth a succinct argument that most of us have but have yet articulate. 

(Thanks to Dr. William Lane Craig for his evolution definitions.)