Evolution's Evangelists

"It is absolutely safe to say that, if you meet somebody who claims not to believe in evolution, that person is ignorant, stupid, or insane (or wicked, but I'd rather not consider that)."-- Richard Dawkins

The the tenets of evolution have become a matter of faith, the foundation of a worldview where random chance is the organizing principle and survival of the fittest is the highest law.

And like other systems of belief, it has its clerics (those invested as scientific authorities), its adherents (e.g., the education system and the media), its mission (to apply its "truth" to every sphere of human endeavor through research in the fields of biology, geology, cosmology, psychology, etc.)--and, of course, its heretics. Enter the evangelists of evolution, troubleshooters who step in to defend the evolutionary community from "the ignorant, the stupid, or insane."

In the world of Richard Dawkins, religion is a force of "organized ignorance" that must be actively opposed, but "blind physical forces" that "mimic…conscious design" and through random chance somehow mysteriously lead to "organized and adaptive complexity"--those are what we should trust and believe in; they are the bedrock of our world and our lives.

It is no wonder that Dawkins has elsewhere concluded that "life has no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind pitiless indifference." If this is what evolution offers, can there be any other result but despair?

Like Dawkins, Scott accepts the primacy of evolution in scientific endeavors--and indeed, in society as a whole.

"You can't really be scientifically literate if you don't understand evolution.…And you can't be an educated member of society if you don't understand science."

Science is quintessentially an open-ended procedure in which ideas are constantly tested, and rejected or modified. Dogma--an idea held by belief or faith--is anathema to science.

Although many other evolutionists are active "evangelists" in the world today, P. Z. Myers deserves a mention because of his prolific presence in cyberspace, mainly through blogs on his website Pharyngula.

"I would think the concerted and largely successful effort in our culture to equate Christianity with the idiocy of belief in a 6000 year old world or a god who meddles in trivialities or denying the facts of a natural world would p*** you off. Unless it's true, that is, that you don't mind having your religious beliefs associated with flaming anti-scientific lunacy."

"Maybe you should try squawking a little louder. You could start by writing to David Bracklin and letting him know that stupidity isn't supposed to be a Christian sacrament."

"Unless it is, of course. I wouldn't know. Atheist, remember? All I know is what I see, the stuff the loudest of you bray out in public, and boy, you Christians sure seem to hate good science."

"The Internet has opened new avenues for research and for offering data of all kinds…as well as misinformation of all kinds.

Web surfers must be wary of "half-truths and hidden assumptions" on the sites that they visit.

Although using cruder language, Myers basically offers nothing new to the debate. He may state his case more brusquely than other evolutionists, but the argument essentially remains the same--evolution is fact, evolution vs. creationism is a case of science vs. religion, science and religion are anathema to each other, therefore scientific creationism should be banished to the lunatic fringe.

When someone embraces evolution and rejects the historical authenticity of the Fall, he has no basis for believing he has need of a Savior.

Mike Jacobson is a medical doctor who now works full-time as a counselor at a local church. He recently sent AiG a true story about two traveling “evangelists” who are visiting churches and colleges across the USA telling the antithesis of the Gospel—the Great Story of Evolution. One of these evangelists, Michael Dowd, was a pastor who converted to evolution while at seminary.

When someone embraces evolution and rejects the historical authenticity of the Fall (i.e. Genesis 1–3), he has no basis for believing he has need of a Savior (i.e. John 1–3). That truth is clearly seen in the sad tale that follows.

For a number of months now, I have been receiving an interesting publication entitled Research News & Opportunities in Science and Theology. It appears to share a similar purpose to that of this ministry: to integrate the study of science with faith. The October 2002 issue reported on the formation of the International Society for Science and Religion, based in Spain.

This highly “intellectual” newspaper appears to cater particularly to the university or seminary level professor. Not surprisingly (though sadly), this “science and religion newspaper” gives much greater weight to what it refers to as “science” than it does the religion that it is supposedly attempting to integrate. Whatever “science says” goes, and if science does not affirm a religious belief, then it presumes the religious belief to be false—or mythical at best. Consider some article titles: “World religions seek peace through science,” “Wesleyan scholars search for a new creation at Oxford,” “The moral obligation of taking Darwin seriously” and finally “Evolution’s traveling “evangelists” tell the sacred tale: unique ministry strings together the story of Earth.”

This last article was the most troublesome—and revealing. Written by a doctoral student at Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, it details the traveling “ministry” of “evangelists” Michael Dowd and Connie Barlow, who take the “Great Story” to any church or campus that will hear them.

According to the article, Mr Dowd’s spiritual journey began with a “born-again” experience on a mountaintop in Germany, after which he enrolled in an Assembly of God College. To his great dismay, he discovered that the school embraced evolution. Eventually, a “friend convinced him that evolution was not a tool of Satan and that one need not be anti-intellectual to be a Christian.” Dowd’s interest in evolution continued as a United Church of Christ pastor.

Eventually, he met and fell in love with Connie Barlow, a “longtime Unitarian Universalist.” In April 2002, they began a traveling ministry together. And what is this Great Story? Is it the story of Jesus, and God’s love for humanity? Hardly. According to these evangelists, it’s much better.

In reading through a timeline of this Great Story, I looked particularly for the answer to three questions: Who is God? What about sin? And who is Jesus? Here are the answers according to this “gospel.” First, God is “that Ultimate Reality.”

What is their take on sin and the Fall? Well, it was not really a fall; it was “an enormous leap in complexity, and a hugely positive development’!

50,000–500,000 years ago SYMBOLIC LANGUAGE emerges, marking the birth of beliefs and metaphors for comprehending the nature of Reality and our relationship to it in all its manifestations. This marks a radical shift. For 80–95% of human history we experienced life—we remembered, made choices, learned, pair-bonded, raised children, and were guided by instinct, experience, and non-verbal tradition, or “culture’—without any internal conversation going on in our heads. In other words, we lived and communicated as other animals do—intuitively and experientially, making full use of our senses—and were guided by the whole of Reality (within and outside us) just as all other creatures are.

Mythically, while this can be considered HUMANITY’S FALL FROM THE GARDEN, it should also be recognized as AN ENORMOUS LEAP IN COMPLEXITY, and a hugely positive development at a number of levels. Symbolic language widens the range of possible feelings that can be experienced. It makes abstract thought achievable—hence, science and religion. It also allows us to communicate something of the past—storytelling—and to work with others in planning future actions. In all of these ways, symbolic language makes it possible for the Universe to come to know and experience itself in a new way, in and through the human. (Emphasis in the original)

Jesus supposedly brought a new “understanding” of “Reality” as a Forgiving Father and redeemer of humanity and understood himself “to be one with, and a unique revelation of, the Source and wholeness of Reality.” Unfortunately, that same reflection of deity is apparently attributed to the rest of us. As one little girl wrote after hearing the Great Story, “It was unbelievable that we are 13 billion years old! And that we are made out of stardust it [sic] makes me feel like a Goddess. I don’t like it. I love it.”

Here we see the “true reality” that results from listening to this fabrication. A young child does not see a holy God for who He is, her lost state as a consequence of sin and her need for redemption through faith in Christ. No, instead, she is excited about the presumptive connection she has with the stars that gives her a sense that she is a “goddess.” Who needs Jesus when you are a goddess? It reminds me of the words of the serpent in the Garden when he said, “Ye shall not surely die.” That was not a Great Story. It was, and still is, The Great Lie.

If you or someone you know has struggled with the authenticity of the Creation account, I suggest any of a number of resources from Answers in Genesis (AnswersInGenesis.org). Also, a friend who had serious doubts found his questions answered in an excellent book In Six Days.

A former evangelical pastor now travels fulltime across America preaching the ‘gospel of evolution’

Michael Dowd ‘evolutionary Christianity’ involves ‘enthusiastically embracing a deep-time worldview’, which will embrace ‘biblical and traditional expressions, conservative and liberal’, and is (wait for it) ‘God-glorifying, Christ-edifying, scripture-honoring … ’

He uses a lot of ‘Godspeak’ like this. For another example: ‘ … the Gospel can free a person from addiction to sin and self-absorption, enabling each of us to savor the fruit of the Spirit.’ But it soon becomes clear that such terms do not mean what you used to think.

For example, ‘scripture-honoring’ means that every passage in any sacred text from any culture, if it does not fit the evolutionary/deep-time worldview, is labeled as ‘flat-earth’. Revealingly, he states:

The bottom line—accountability for sin

It’s been said before that those who are most passionate about defending so-called ‘Christian evolution’ are generally those who really would like the freedom to do away with parts of the Bible that are, to them, unpalatable. These are the bits that involve what Paul called ‘the offense of the Cross’—including the reality of judgment for man’s sin. The ‘give-away’ of this in Dowd’s case is the following paragraph describing the implications of the ‘evolution revolution’:

Charming people away from God’s Word

It’s not hard to see how the ‘missionary work’ of this presumably engaging couple—with that flow of ‘spiritual’ talk combined with such enthusiasm for the subject—would be disarming for many.

Nevertheless, theirs is a tragically misguided and misguiding work, and ultimately deadly to truth. No matter how we might fancy ourselves as heirs of a progressive culture, the bottom line is that God is unchanging, and so are the foundational truths in His Word, including the history of how we inherited our sin nature, and thus why we need a Saviour. And of how sin and death—the very heart of the Gospel message—entered the world.

The faith has been ‘once delivered to the saints’ (Jude 1:3); it is not something that is subject to rewriting to suit the spirit of the age.

At least the likes of Dawkins are being consistent by pointing out the reality if the story of evolution is true. If hydrogen, left to itself, has indeed turned into people, then one may as well get used to the stark loneliness of a meaningless universe—and not invent philosophical nonsense like this in an effort to persuade people that they can have their cake and eat it too.

Richard dawkins and stephen hawkings are of the intellectual historical science types that try to deceive people through their "science" which is not real science but just their vain imaginations. (Evolution = Millions Of Years + Your Imagination)

Michael Dowd is of the type that deceives christians and non christians into believing another gospel that is a deception of satan.

Whenever you hear anyone including a deceiver like michael dowd, stephen hawkings, richard dawkins, carl sagan etc, deny the Word Of God or invent a perversion of Word Of God you can be sure they are satan's evangelists.

These shall go away into everlasting punishment.
Matthew 25:46 The Eternity Of Hell's Torments (Audio) The Eternity Of Hell's Torments (Right Click Link To Save As MP3)

The Great White Throne Judgement Of The LOST

Some people accept evolution as fact despite the millions or billions of years explanation that is NO explanation of anything.

Psalm 19:1-3 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. 19:2 Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. 19:3 There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.

www.FineTunedUniverse.com Refutes, disproves, discredits, invalidates, contradicts, rebuts, opposes and denies evolution theories that claim the universe was created from nothing or that the universe has evolved over millions or billions of years.

www.Gen1.org Refutes, disproves, discredits, invalidates, contradicts, rebuts, opposes and denies evolution theories that claim the universe was created from nothing or that the universe has evolved over millions or billions of years.

A former evangelical pastor now travels fulltime across America preaching the ‘gospel of evolution’

The bottom line—accountability for sin

Charming people away from God’s Word

These shall go away into everlasting punishment.
Matthew 25:46 The Eternity Of Hell's Torments (Audio) The Eternity Of Hell's Torments (Right Click Link To Save As MP3)

The Great White Throne Judgement Of The LOST

The Creation Answers Book

A former evangelical pastor now travels fulltime across America preaching the ‘gospel of evolution’

The bottom line—accountability for sin

Charming people away from God’s Word

These shall go away into everlasting punishment. Matthew 25:46 The Eternity Of Hell's Torments (Audio) The Eternity Of Hell's Torments (Right Click Link To Save As MP3)

The Great White Throne Judgement Of The LOST

The Creation Answers Book

These shall go away into everlasting punishment.
Matthew 25:46 The Eternity Of Hell's Torments (Audio) The Eternity Of Hell's Torments (Right Click Link To Save As MP3)