Defending and Defeating Evolution

Just hearing the word evolution creates consternation on the face of Christian homeschoolers. We know the Bible is true and that this insidious lie has permeated every culture, casting shadows over the entire world. But are you aware of the fact that some of the teachings of evolution are accurate, valid science that we can and should support? It’s important that we understand this so that we can readily explain our position to others in an effort to shed light on what it is about evolution that we don’t support.

It all comes down to microevolution versus macroevolution. Natural selection, or microevolution, is legitimate and supported by the scientific method. Yet, when we claim that we don’t believe in evolution, scientists assume that we do not believe in natural selection (which is proven). To them, it sounds like we are claiming that the earth is flat. The truth is, we believe in evolutionary teaching that has scientific support and evidence to prove its validity. Evolution simply means change. We believe that animals have changed over time. Where we differ is on how much they have changed. We simply do not believe in the teachings of evolution that have no support or evidence, otherwise known as macroevolution. Macroevolution has never been verified, and has actually been disproved through many scientific studies.

Microevolution

Let’s take a look at microevolution. Microevolution happens when a part of an animal, like the color, shape or size of their body parts, changes over time. Now, they don’t really change on one particular animal – the animal group evolves its features over time. The animal’s body part doesn’t become something else – a fin doesn’t become a wing or legs, and feathers don’t become hair, but the animal group might be bigger or smaller, with longer legs or a shorter tail. Let me explain it this way: Pretend there are birds living in Hawaii that have long bills and enjoy eating nectar from flowers. Every bird is born with a long bill, but some just naturally have a bill that is a few centimeters longer than another, just like there are always variations in people. Two sisters might be born with curly hair, but one has hair that is just a little curlier than the other. That’s a natural variation encoded in the DNA. All animals have natural variations and DNA for different features. Back to the birds: Let’s imagine that these birds drink nectar and there are more flowers in Hawaii with longer tubes; only those birds with longer bills can reach inside these tubes. It is a fact that the more an animal eats, the more offspring they will have. If they don’t eat as much, they don’t produce as many offspring. So, the birds with longer bills get more food and produce more young. These young will probably have longer bills, but might not because the genetic code still allows for shorter bills. Over time, however, longer bills will prevail as this feature is naturally selected to be the best to survive. There will be fewer birds with short bills with which to mate, and before long, the longer billed birds will have dominated the gene pool in the area. Slowly, the birds with shorter bills will not be as abundant, and soon no longer exist as they mate with longer billed birds and produce longer billed offspring.

Thus, over many years, the only birds you see around have extremely long bills. Did the bills change? Yes and no. We say they “evolved” longer bills. We do not have a problem with this sort of evolution. This is called microevolution or natural selection. Over time, the beaks that were best suited for the environment were naturally selected to survive and thrive in that environment. We can find evidence for this sort of evolution and it will show up in the fossil record; the bones, from hundreds of years back, will show shorter beaks. Then, as we find newer bones, they show longer and longer beaks. We can see evidence for the transition from shorter beaks to longer beaks: transitional bones of transitional creatures. Yet, the beak remained a beak. It did not evolve from something else into a beak. It was always a beak. And the bird had within its DNA the ability to produce birds with longer beaks, but it couldn’t produce a mouth or teeth, because the genes inside the bird only allow it to produce bird parts.

Sadly, some make a giant leap of logic and claim that natural selection proves macroevolution, or plain ole’ evolution. They assert that because a bird’s beak can change in size over time (and we know it didn’t really change on any one bird), that a fish can change into a man, or a lizard can change into a bird. This is like saying that because we see a small mound that has ants living inside it, giant mountains must have been made by similar creatures. Macroevolution (or just evolution) is the name given to this giant leap from truth to a lie. Macro means big, and evolution means change. Macroevolution is an impossibly big change for which there is no evidence. It would require a change in DNA. It would require mutations to the DNA. Positive mutations! The kind which we never see in nature. We only see negative mutations, or downward mutations. Mutations are mistakes and we do not see positive mistakes in nature. For the DNA to change that much, there would have to be thousands upon thousands of mistakes over time in one animals species, and each one of those mistakes would all be positive and become dominant in the entire species. Impossible.

Often in school textbooks, microevolution is explained, and all the evidence is given to the students. Then, after the kids come to understand how microevolution works, the textbook tells the kids that this is how evolution works, and how we evolved from apes. Do you see how tricky that is? And many, many people, without thinking, just swallow it hook, line and sinker.


One quite amazing about some scientists' belief in evolution is that there have never, ever been any transitional creatures found between man and apes or dinosaurs and birds. There have never been any transitional creatures found for any animal species. Though millions of fossils have been unearthed, none shows a half transformed or changing body from one creature into another creature. Yet, for two hundred years, some chose to believe in the theory of evolution without one shred of evidence.

You are probably wondering why some people believe this when the evidence does not confirm their beliefs. Well, if you didn’t believe in God, and you were a scientist, you would need some explanation for why we are here. The reality is that these people want to believe it. They’ve been told it’s true and they want to believe it’s true. Frankly, when we want to believe something, it’s very difficult to change our minds. Further, once they have embraced an idea, it’s hard to convince them otherwise – especially if the alternative requires they consider God as a reality. This would change their entire lives, and that’s a scary proposition for them. It’s easier for them to deny the facts and evidence and stick with their current beliefs. Think of it this way: If someone today told you that the earth is really a flat, round circle, you wouldn’t be able to believe that. They would have to show you a lot of evidence, and you still might not believe it. No matter how convincing they were, you would maintain in your belief system that the earth is a sphere. So, don’t be so hard on those who believe in evolution. Everyone has a hard time changing their beliefs once they really believe something. Truly, it requires faith – given only by the Author of our faith, Jesus Christ – to accept the truth of the Bible and the story of Creation. The best thing we can do it pray for them. God can do more with our prayers than with all our wise and persuasive words.

Jeannie Fulbright is the author of Apologia’s Elementary Science, Exploring Creation with Astronomy, Exploring Creation with Botany and Exploring Creation with Zoology 1, 2, and 3. Jeannie homeschools her four children (ages 7 – 14) in Atlanta, Georgia. To learn more about her books or read her many articles, sign up for her homeschool encouragement newsletter, visit her website at http://www.jeanniefulbright.com/.