Tim Maas Retired Quality Assurance Specialist with the U.S. Army

To me, scenarios such as the one described require more faith than believing in the creation account in Genesis. Why would an omnipotent God need to work through an intervening agent? If this other species was so superior in intelligence, what happened to it? (Such an account reminds me of L. Ron Hubbard's bizarre Dianetics.)

I believe that, when we have all knowledge and understanding (which will not be in this life), we will find that it agrees perfectly with the revelation that God has given us in the Bible. The modern advancements in DNA and gene research that you cite should make us marvel all the more at God's creative work, rather than looking for alternative explanations that (in my opinion, and regardless of the protests of those who advance them) arise from a prideful unwillingness to bow before God and accept the truth that He has revealed to us as the framework or starting point for their inquiries, and (more fundamentally) to acknowledge their need for the Savior from sin to whom all of God's word directs them, and who is the ultimate fulfillment and validation of it in its entirety (John 5:39).

September 27 2017 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Nils Jansma Missionary in San Diego California

In my opinion, the original question needs to be rephrased into “Is there any evidence regarding how God created us?"

To answer this question, I will limit our consideration to three possible processes. 

One Option would be to assume that we were created exactly as described in the Second Chapter of Genesis. There we are told that God first made a clay image of a male human and then miraculously changed all the earth materials into organic human flesh and bones. (Genesis 2:7)

This changing process was likely instantaneous” in the twinkling of an eye,” similar to the change said to take place “at the last trumpet.” (1 Corinthians 15:51-52) It should be noted that the creation of Woman was accomplished by an entirely different process. Instead of earth, Eve was created out of material taken from Adam’s body. It is difficult to describe this process physically.

A Second Option would be that God used entirely natural processes which were mysteriously directed to end up with the creation of humans. This is known as Theistic Evolution and many hold to this conviction. There are numerous examples of experiments that supports some aspects of this process. 

However, it is important to know that for this to happen naturally, there needed to be built-in controls to assure a specific outcome. With regard to humans, the directed-evolution process only provided a body with God miraculously providing the soul and spirit. This is the primary difference between Theistic and Atheistic Evolution. The latter assumes that only “chance and necessity” produced all the changes displayed in the fossil record. Rationally, there is no credible proof for Atheistic Evolution. 

It should also be noted that after the emergence of the first human pair, the “built-in” process is no longer operational because God is resting from creating anything new. That is why experiments conducted today, while allowing some mutated changes to take place, is very limited in scope and cannot result in any new life forms.

The Third Option is similar to Theistic Evolution but is a form of Progressive Creation by God. The Biblical basis for this process is when the Holy Spirit altered Mary genetically, thus allowing her to produce a miraculous male child by natural processes. (Luke 1:34-35)

In Genesis we are told that the Holy Spirit was involved in the Earth’s creation from the very beginning. (Genesis 1:2) It is now known that DNA replicating life appeared in the earth’s oceans just as soon as the water cooled to a livable temperature. This life form is called Cyanobacteria and appeared in the fossil record as far back as 3.5 billion years ago. Since Cyanobacteria is a phototrophic oxygenic bacteria, it is responsible for the production of atmospheric Oxygen by the complicated process of photosynthesis that is implied on Day 2 of the creation account. (Genesis 1:6-8) Atheistic Evolutionists have no rational explanations for how such a complicated life form could develop so soon in earth’s history.

In this hypothesis, the Holy Spirit could have created Eve by placing a basic duplicate of Adam’s genes into a suitable body type available for the occasion. The femaleness simply involves attaching two X Chromosomes in place of the X-Y combination possessed by Adam. This may have been similar to Mary’s conception of Christ because she apparently only needed a Y chromosome not related to Adam to produce a perfect boy. 

All three of these processes have God at their center. However, in my opinion, there is no credible evidence for Option #1. It is entirely a miraculous process and is dependent upon one’s traditional interpretation of the words of Genesis. Option’s #2 & 3 have some support in the fossil record but are also not feasible without the miraculous involvement of God. 

Since all of the above support God as creator, in my opinion, it doesn’t really matter which option you pick. Just let the evidence be your guide.

September 29 2017 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report