Proverbs 14:5 “The simple believes everything, but the prudent gives thought to his steps.”

In my teenagers’ Sunday School class, I never know where they want to go in our discussions because they often have questions that don’t relate to that week’s study. It’s one of the real perks to teaching teenagers – they always make things interesting. And this past week was no different.

Several of my teens go to Lees Summit High School. Their biology teacher has begun teaching them about Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. In case some of you aren’t sure what the theory says, here’s a simple summary put in terms of questions teenagers have about life and how Darwin’s theory answers them.

Question #1: Who am I? Answer from Evolution: I’m the winning result of millions of totally random mutations between organisms over millions of years, as my species fought for survival in a harsh world.

Question #2: Where did I come from? Answer from Evolution: I originated by a luck-of-the-draw event when living matter suddenly came from nonliving. And I kept evolving from an original, common ancestral organism, with many transitional steps as I developed from that original ancestor to a human being.

Question #3: Why am I here? Answer from Evolution: I’m here on earth for no specific purpose, since it’s blind luck I was born and survived. As Professor William Provine of Cornell University famously said: “If Darwinism is true, then there are five inescapable conclusions: 1) there’s no evidence for God, 2) there’s no life after death, 3) there’s no foundation for right and wrong, 4) there’s no ultimate meaning for life, 5) people don’t really have free will.” This is what your teenager is learning right now in high school biology class. It’s no wonder teenagers get confused when 5 days a week they are taught this information in our school system, and then Sunday in church they are taught God created them. Who’s telling the truth?

My teenagers kicked off the questions on evolution by talking about peppered moths: “We believe that God created us and the world, but in biology class we are being taught that we evolved from other organisms through natural selection, and the evidence that proves this is peppered moths.” Interesting – so we evolved from some other life form, and we know this because of peppered moths? Well, let’s back up a second and define another term – natural selection. It is the crowning jewel of Darwinian evolution.

Natural selection is known as “survival of the fittest”: continual, small variations between individuals of a species, as observed in nature, give advantages or disadvantages in the struggle for survival. Organisms with favorable traits are more likely to survive and reproduce than those with unfavorable traits. Those with significant advantages would survive longer to transmit these favorable traits by inheritance to their offspring. Given enough time, this process results in new, higher types of organisms – like us!

Dr. Johnathan Wells, in his book ‘Icons of Evolution’, explains how the ‘peppered moth’ has been used to show natural selection in action: “During Britain’s industrial revolution, normally light-colored moths near heavily polluted cities became dark colored. In the 1950’s, Bernard Kettlewell conducted experiments that touted natural selection in action. Predatory birds ate the light-colored moths that rested on pollution-darkened tree trunks, while the dark moths were hidden better on these darker tree trunks. So the darker form survived and reproduced at greater numbers. In 1975, geneticist P.M. Sheppard exclaimed that ‘This phenomenon with peppered moths is the most spectacular evolutionary change ever witnessed and recorded by man’”. So there you have it – a stunning bit of evidence for natural selection. Or is it?

Dr. Wells then explains why today, peppered moths have been abandoned by evolutionists as evidence for Darwinian natural selection: “Kettlewell staged his photos of moths on tree trunks (it was later found they do not rest on tree trunks). He also released the moths in daylight, when birds preyed on his moths, and they weren’t in their natural hiding places.” Kettewell’s experiment was deceitful. Further experiments in the 1970’s and 80’s revealed no evidence for advantages to either light or dark colored moths for survival.

Evolutionary biologist Professor Jerry Coyne of the University of Chicago summed up the state of peppered moth evidence for Darwinian evolution in 1998: “From time to time, evolutionists re-examine a classic experimental study and find, to their horror, that it is flawed or downright wrong. The ‘prize horse in our stable of examples’ is in bad shape, and, while not yet ready for the glue factory, needs serious attention.”

I think our verse sums up a problem we have in our school system right here in Lees Summit. Our children are being taught what to think, not how to think. We need to remove false information from the text books.

“The Evidence of Faith’s Substance”, Article #282 – February 10, 2018