Millions of Years Ago

Just about a month ago, I was assigned my main project for my one year internship at The Arboretum. My task was to create a 6 part interpretive sign series based on "Prehistoric Plants" or "Living Fossils". The focus was on trees, ferns, vines etc... that were around for a long long time, millions of years - according to the evolutionary theory. Some of the plants we picked can be found in the fossil record, and have remained unchanged, trees such as the Gingko / Maidenhair Tree. 

I remember hearing the assignment and thinking "oh no, how is this going to go down". Even the topic itself, "prehistoric plants" - has tons of implications of true evolution and old earth theories that completely contradict and oppose our beliefs as Christians. 

True evolution (I say true evolution because the word 'evolution' has been equivocated today to encompass more than it really should me, but that's a different story) is an idea that came up to explain the origin of life and the universe. The idea says that all of life started from one bacteria that over millions and millions of years, and due to chance and time has somehow resulted and "evolved" into all the diversity of plants and animals we see today. Ultimately, we believe that at the very core of evolution, it is a means to reject God and refuse to believe that a divine Creator is responsible for the world we see. Romans 1 tells us that we all, believers and non believers, do know God but we've suppressed the truth, even when its made in plain and clear through creation.

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Romans 1:18-23

Over the past year or so, the conflict between creationism and evolution is something i've been wrestling through. Growing up, I always knew that we didn't believe in evolution, but you couldn't write that on an exam and expect full marks so I just took it as it is for all those years throughout high school and university. But what ended up happening was that I never learnt to critically think through how to view the natural world through a biblical worldview. Not only until after I graduated, did I start to realize all the implications evolution has on our faith. We see clear facts that have been found, such as fossils, natural phenomenons, but do we know how to understand them through scripture? As Christians, can we explain the idea of dinosaurs? Macro vs microevolution? Is there truly evidence of evolution to begin with?

I found it incredibly hard being at work these past few weeks, as I tried to figure out how to approach this project on interpreting these "prehistoric plants" without compromising my faith. I wasn't sure if I was able to make signs that promoted evolution which we know is false and would oppose the inerrancy and authority of scripture. Every day I found myself reading up on the evolutionary and creation perspective and it felt like I was purposely infiltrating my mind with false information because I had to and then switching over and learning how to see it biblically etc... I never would have thought such a job (which I really do and still love) would be so distressing! But I praise God for it because it has challenged me and grown in me in many ways. 

So what does scripture say?

21 So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 

24 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. 25 And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:21, 24-25

Genesis 1 tells us that God made all living things "according to its kind" - though we may not know exactly what all the original "kinds" were, we do think that if they can interbreed, they would fall under one "kind". So for example, the lion and the tiger have been found to interbreed and produce a liger. Thus, perhaps there was a kind of cat that through genetic variation resulted in all the different cats we see today. 

On the other hand, evolution says that all organisms, lions, parrots, frogs, ferns, flowers etc... came from one ancestor, that over millions of years through random mutations, a single cell organism eventually became a fish, and then a cat, or a reptile to a bird. So right off the bat, we can see that this theory of true evolution is already in direct opposition to God's divinely inspired word. 

At the same time, evolution says that man has only been around for 5-7 millions years, compared to the earth that is supposedly 4.5 billion years old. Once again, this completely contradicts scripture, because we know that in Genesis, death is a result of sin, and this is found in the curse after Adam and Eve disobeyed God in Genesis 3. With billions of years of change and passing on mutations and genes (and of course, organisms dying) - evolution is saying that death wasn't a result of sin since organisms would have died before humans had evolved.

For many believers, this idea of evolution and creationism is always tossed to the side and seen as secondary, but I think and i've learnt that if you really look into it, there are some major contradictions and implications if a professing christian sides with the idea of evolution and an old earth. By believing in evolution, one is saying that God's Word is not inerrant, and therefore is not the ultimate and final authority. How do you think that would influence their understanding and application of scripture overall then? 

As for my project, I still wasn't too sure as to how to approach it. Would I find a happy middle ground? Is that even possible? Should I bring it up to my supervisor? Would it look bad if I refused the project? I hadn't figured it out or had mustered enough courage to bring it up, but yesterday, God decided to have me face it dead on - literally. I had emailed one of the staff for some clarification on understanding these "primitive plants" and shortly after, he showed up at the door to respond in person rather than over email. This completely threw me off! I was not ready, I didn't know what to say to an expert in plants, but it resulted in a few hours of good discussion and conversation. I pushed myself to respond in a loving yet challenging and objective way, and long story short, they switched my project. My supervisor has always known that I was a believer and that I sided with creationism and not evolution, but it turns out that none of this clicked until he saw me challenging our co-worker and realized that it probably wasn't the best idea to assign a project on living fossils with evolutionary implications to a budding naturalist who believed in creation. 

I was completely surprised and thankful that it got switched around - but i'm even more thankful that I could have such open and genuine conversations with my supervisor about this - i'm basically challenging all he's ever believed and known and saying it's wrong (of course, not as blunt as that). He could have been completely hostile to it, it could've gone really bad, but he was so understanding and it's really by God's grace that this all unfolded the way it did. I thank the Holy Spirit for giving me the words to say and the courage to be bold! What a journey (and it's not over yet), but God is good. 

Evolution has just been assumed to be true by so many people because "that's what it says in the books" but are we really critically thinking through what we're hearing? How often do we hear "millions of years" used in our everyday conversation? Look out for it, assumptions and implications of evolution are more prevalent that we may think!