“Professing themselves to be wise they became fools . . . [and] changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator” (Romans 1:22, 25).
Naturalistic evolution is not a new, advanced understanding of our enlightened times. The earliest written accounts in cuneiform writing from Babylon speak of the universe and man coming out of a watery chaos. Today, scientists are still zealously looking for water on Mars. They believe then that life could have formed there.
The ancient cosmologies of China and India are also evolutionary. The Chinese philosophers saw the world as the result of “the interaction of impersonal forces, the powers of which persist interminably.” In detail they showed “the supposed sequence of organic evolution proceeding organism by organism from the simplest plants upward through grubs, insects, birds, leopards, horses, and men.” Neither is an earth age of billions of years a “discovery” of modern science but a reversion to a common belief of the ancients in the antiquity of the earth.
Along with such evolutionary beliefs also went a religious system. There are similarities of pagan thought throughout the world whether Roman, Greek, Egyptian, Canaanite, or Indian. A set of gods and goddesses represents the various aspects of nature. Their ritualistic systems and mysteries are similar and can be traced back to the ancient Babylonian system.
The Biblical record of history also shows that ancient Babel is the seat of occult religion. (Zechariah 5:7-11; Genesis 10:8-10; 11:1-9). “Babylon hath . . . made all the earth drunken: . . . therefore the nations are mad” (Jeremiah 51:7). (Why do people today still make decisions to their own destruction?) The most ancient Babylonian account of origins is called the “Enuma Elish.” Enuma Elish (meaning “when from above”) are the first two words of the cuneiform text which describes a watery chaos out of which two gods, Lahau and Lehemu, were formed. Other gods were formed and engaged in battles until Marduk gained control. Marduk then formed the world from the body of a slain god and man from his blood. These battling gods represent the struggling forces of nature as the “survival of the fittest” process prevails. Always, whatever the method, there is a belief in “eternal matter” evolving upward toward future perfection.
The Christian belief is in the eternal God who is transcendent (apart from) and acts upon His creation. “Darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:2). He was not the deep! This true God has a personal, loving relationship with man, the chief of His creation. To His children also life is sacred. They love and respect their fellowmen.
Evolutionary concepts followed down through the Greek philosophers Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates. Lucretius said, “Certainly the atoms did not post themselves purposely in due order by an act of intelligence . . . they have been rushing everlastingly throughout all space . . . till they have fallen into the particular pattern by which this world of ours is constituted. This world has persisted many a long year, having once been set going in the appropriate motions. From these everything else follows.”
In the centuries down to Darwin, Christian influence held the pagan philosophies in check in the western world. An era of great scientific advances came as Christianity replaced the mother god religion of pagan Europe. Especially after the Protestant Reformation, Bible belief in society fostered a pragmatic belief in facts and established laws of nature that could be discovered, used, and depended on because God does not change (“I am the lord, I change not.“) These laws of God in the universe became the basis of many inventions to advance civilization and to improve social welfare. This stood in contrast to the capricious, immoral acts of pagan gods which produced a people of the same nature. (Rather, the people made gods like themselves—Romans 1:23-32.)
Many scientists of the 17th and 18th centuries were creationists: We could name Francis Bacon (scientific method of research), Charles Babbage (foundations of computer science), Michael Faraday (electrical apparatus and theory), Isaac Newton, Louis Pasteur, and many more. These true scientists drew conclusions from “hands-on” experiments with facts. Many, like Robert Boyle, the founder of modern chemistry, acknowledged their limitations and credited God as the author of the laws of nature.
As we come down to Charles Darwin in the 1800s, we find that he was not the originator of his ideas. In the years before him, armchair philosophers (often rich heirs such as Darwin and Charles Lyell who did not need to work) theorized and laid the foundation of modern evolution. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, in 1809, proposed the concept that acquired characteristics could be inherited. (The giraffe got its long neck by stretching, etc.) Erasmas Darwin, Charles’s grandfather, had already proposed many evolutionary ideas. Alfred Russet Wallace, in 1858, developed the theory of evolution which Darwin is accused of plagiarizing in publishing his book.
Darwin’s book, On the Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life, was printed in 1859. Darwin taught in his book that man came from ape-like creatures and that eventually the stronger races would destroy the weaker ones. This aided the radical philosophies of Nazism and communism. Evolution served as justification for the killing of untold millions of people through wars and exterminations in the following years.
Evolution is often proclaimed as a secular idea, free of religion. However, occult spiritism accompanied the revival of evolution as it did in its origins with the ancients. Russell Wallace was deeply involved with spiritism when he formulated his theory. By 1875, Wallace came out openly in support of spiritism and Marxism. When Charles Darwin was on his trip around South America, he took a horseback ride into the interior. There he participated in a witchcraft ceremony where “something happened” to him. Later the ship dropped Darwin off at the Galapagos Islands. He studied the different varieties of finches on the islands and later used them as evidence of evolution in progress. Darwin had some theological training but no scientific education. What he saw was only the selection of traits which occurs in all kinds. He was obviously ignorant of genetics when he married his first cousin. This resulted in two children who died early and others with mental and physical handicaps. Darwin developed a depression that followed him to his death.
Today, despite its false premise, evolution has a stranglehold on the American school system. Higher education has diverged from the basic sciences into many pseudo-sciences such as metaphysics, chaos theory, and the like. Along with this, we again see the resurgence of Shamanism. The native religions of the American Indian, African witchcraft, Haitian voodoo, and such like are again venerated around the world. New Age advocates go back to learn from the “ancient wisdom” of Egypt, Greece, and Babylon.
Evolutionists claim to be secular and to wean people from religion. However, surveys show that a resurgence of spiritism has many more people today believing in supernatural experiences. Not only does evolution’s long history demonstrate that it is the companion of occult religious beliefs, but it is also accompanied by the same tragedies. Whereas the ancients offered their children to Molech, today they promote abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia.
Of course, the Holy Jehovah God of the Bible is the only constraint against such beliefs. Deceptions, ridicule, hidden agendas, and dark mysteries, which hide allegiance to Satan, often accompany evolution. Such is not objective science but originates with individuals in rebellion against God and emboldened by spiritism. It is perpetuated today as the media leads people along through news releases and movies with unfounded speculations (“In ten years we may find life in outer space,” etc.)- The masses are supposed to believe and not question the “experts.” The vulgar perversions described in the Book of Romans pictures evolutionary paganism throughout history. The call of God today, is “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues” (Revelation 18:4).
Resources:
The Troubled Waters of Evolution — Henry Morris
The Evolution Cruncher — Vance Farrell
-by Elvin Staffer