Claim CA651:
If evolution is true, then God is directly responsible for death. God
pronounced his original creation "very good" (Gen. 2:1), which implies
that God is sadistic, taking pleasure in watching the suffering and dying.
A God of grace and mercy would not use the principle of survival of the
fittest.
Source:
Morris, Henry M. 2000. The vital importance of believing in
recent creation. Back to Genesis 138 (June): a-c.
Morris, John D. 2001. What could the God of scripture call "very
good"? Back to Genesis 145 (Jan.): d.
Response:
- Humans do not get to decide what God would and would not do. To make
such a decision is to place oneself above God.
- If a God of grace and mercy would not allow natural selection, then a
God of grace and mercy does not exist. Extinctions and selective
individual deaths continue today. If a creator God exists,
then God, at the very least, is responsible for creating the
circumstances that cause extinction and death and for allowing them to
continue. This is true even if you believe that death is the result of
the Fall, which God implemented in response to sin.
If creationism is true, then God is directly responsible for death.
Blaming Adam, not God, for all suffering is scapegoating. Adam was
human, so he did not have that much power. Even if Adam motivated God
to cause suffering, God was the one responsible for bringing it to
pass.
- There would be little good about a world without death. Either there
would be no reproduction, in which case none of us would exist, or
animals would be many layers deep and would have no room to move
around. Death is a necessary part of life.
- The attitude behind the claim not only separates one from God but
encourages ingratitude with the world, saying we cannot see it as "very
good" as it is. Suffering is a state of mind and is largely a function
of the person's attitude more than of external circumstances. As
Abraham Lincoln said, "People are about as happy as they make up their
mind to be." To blame suffering on others is to look for scapegoats.
- Creationists link death and decay with the second law of thermodynamics,
with the consequence that no decay before the Fall means the second law
of thermodynamics was not in effect before the Fall. However, the
second law of thermodynamics is intimately connected with the flow of
time. Since the Bible says that time was established before the Fall,
thermodynamics and therefore decay must have existed then, too.
- Origins are not determined by one's personal decision of what religion
to follow.
Further Reading:
Larson, Gary. 1998. There's a Hair in My Dirt!: A Worm's Story.
New York: Harpercollins.
created 2001-2-18, modified 2004-2-15
