Both the Bible and the theory of evolution explain how the universe came to be. You can believe one or the other, but you cannot believe both…because the two explanations are incompatible with each other. They contradict each other in multiple ways.
I speak as someone who has invested considerable time and energy into trying to reconcile the Bible and evolution. Why would I go to this effort? Because a great many educated and respected people believe in evolution…and some of them believe in it very strongly. I’ve even heard some evolutionists suggest that to teach one’s children the Bible’s account of creation instead of evolution is a form of child abuse. For these reasons, I don’t casually or flippantly reject evolution – but, having given the idea due consideration, I do reject it – and emphatically so. The Bible demands it be rejected.
The first, and most fundamental, way in which the Bible and evolution are at odds is the age of the earth.
Is the Earth Young or Old?
The terms “young” and “old” are, of course, relative. In this question, the term “young” refers to the thousands of years indicated by the Bible’s history including its genealogies, and the term “old” refers to the billions of years indicated by modern science. Therefore, two longer versions of this question would be:
- “Is the earth thousands of years old or billions of years old?”
- “Is the earth as young as the Bible says it is, or as old as many modern scientists say it is?”
Answering this question of whether the earth is young or old is at the root of whether evolution is true or not. For if the earth is young, its age does not provide enough time for evolution to have occurred. The belief in an earth much, much older than the Bible implies is necessary for evolution, and, in fact, actually preceded the belief in evolution.
Scottish geologist Charles Lyell laid the foundation for Charles Darwin by popularizing the view that came to be called “uniformitarianism” – that the earth and its geological formations were shaped by the same natural processes that are still in operation today, rather than by God’s creative word and by Noah’s flood. Lyell consciously sought to free science from the chronology and history that Moses had laid down – which view was labeled “catastrophism” to distinguish it from the uniformitarianism that Lyell was promoting. Prior to Lyell, the scientific assumption was that the fossil record was largely a consequence of Noah’s flood. Lyell’s contention was that the fossil record was better explained by sedimentation over eons of time far beyond the time frame offered by the Bible.
Charles Lyell’s teaching of an old earth in the 1830’s is what provided the context for Charles Darwin to arrive at, and teach, the theory of evolution beginning in the 1860’s. Darwin walked through the door that Lyell had opened for him. You can believe in an old earth without believing in evolution, but you can’t believe in evolution without believing in an old earth.
There are three places in Scripture that genealogies trace all the way back to Adam: Genesis (Gen 5 allows tracing from Noah back to Adam and Gen 11 allows tracing from Abraham back to Noah); 1 Chronicles (1 Chr 1-2 allow tracing from David back through Abraham to Adam); and Luke (Luke 3:23-38 allows tracing from Jesus back through David back through Abraham to Adam).
There is no reasonable way to make any of those three genealogies add up to more than thousands of years – usually about 6,000. Many people have attempted to interpreted genealogies differently, but all such interpretations have been contrived and artificial. People adhere to such views only until another contrived and artificial interpretation comes along. And the cycle just repeats.
Six Days
Aside from the age of the earth, there are three places in Scripture clearly declaring that God created the universe in six days and rested on the seventh: Genesis 1:1-2:3; Exodus 20:8-11; and Exodus 31:12-17. The Exodus 20 reference comes right in the middle of the Ten Commandments. To bear witness to something two or three different times is the biblical way to make a matter absolutely sure (2 Corinthians 13:1 and elsewhere). In other words, creation took a week. That should settle the matter. You couldn’t have a starker contrast: a one-week process versus a billions-of-years process!
Someone may counter that “day” in these verses could refer to a very long period of time. While it’s certainly true that the word “day” can sometimes refer to an indefinitely long time period (e.g. “the day of the Lord”), why not just say the creation took place in one such “day” – why would you need six of them? Consistent with this point, whenever a reference to “six days” is made elsewhere in Scripture, and there are 21 such occasions, “six days” always refers to six 24-hour days. Therefore, we have all the more reason to believe that creation took a week.
Aside from all that, if creation took place over six days by means of God speaking it into existence, the question shouldn’t be about why it happened so fast, but rather why it took so long. In other words, why didn’t it all take place in one day? God obviously had more in mind than just getting it over with as quickly as possible. To take a week was stretching out the process – not compacting it.
The Seventh Day
It is actually impossible for any old-earth chronology to be reconciled with the Bible. This is because even if one were to accept as true the false premise that “six days” refers to six long periods of time, there is no old-earth chronology that allows for the seventh day of rest required by the biblical texts – whether the seventh day is a 24-hour day or a long period of time. That is, old-earth chronologies consider all processes forming the creation to be ongoing (i.e. never ceasing, continuing to and through the present); that’s uniformitarianism. Therefore, no old-earth interpretation can fit with the cessation of creative labors described by the Bible and commemorated by the sabbath.
We Were Created; We Did Not Evolve
As you have seen, biblical creation and evolution are thoroughly contradictory. If evolution is true, then the Bible is not. And vice versa. Take your pick, but you can’t have both.
Evolution is what the Bible would call a “speculation.” It has logical flaws in addition to its incompatibility with the Bible. For example, it looks backward into time across billions of years but can’t see to the beginning – for it cannot explain how the original something ever came out of nothing.
I get it when scientists say that the universe has the appearance of age, because surely Adam and Eve had the appearance of age the instant they were created. That’s the very nature of creating something out of nothing – it looks like it’s been there longer than it has. And if it makes sense to believe that the earth is not as flat as it looks because we have trustworthy sources that tell us otherwise, then it surely makes sense for us to believe that the earth is not as old as it looks because we have trustworthy sources that tell us otherwise.
You are not an accident. None of us are. The hairs of our heads are all numbered (Matthew 10:30). And God regards you as more valuable than any animal (Luke 12:7). Evolution is a lie. You and I are creatures fashioned by a Creator.
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