Please change your statement about the YEC position on evolution.
Request:
I was reading your article about the 4 Christian views of evolution and got stuck on the way you describe YEC beliefs. “YEC believes in fixed species and completely rejects the theory of organic evolution commonly known as Darwinism or neo-Darwinism. Those who take this view believe quite literally that on the third through sixth twenty-four hours of God’s creative work, all species which have ever lived were created ex-nihilo (ie. out of nothing) in a form virtually the same as can be seen today. “ I think this is clearly a misrepresentation of what most YECers believe and I thought you might be willing to change it to more accurately represent what they really do believe. We do not believe in the fixity of species at all. We do not believe that “all species which have ever lived were created ex-nihilo in a form virtually the same as can be seen today.” I’m just curious, but where did you get this idea from? For instance, Answers in Genesis, ICR, and Creation Ministries, three of the leading YEC organizations make that point very clear. In the past perhaps this view was more prevalent, but that would have been quite a while ago I think. Sure, I would be willing to bet there are still some confused creationists around who say things like this, but the crucial thing to remember here is that this is not the view of the leading scientists and promoters of YEC. You will want to verify this of course, but that should be easy to do. Please check their websites or write them an e-mail to get clarification. One thing we want to make sure is that we accurately represent each other’s positions. Knocking down a straw man and promoting falsehoods are something that we certainly want to avoid as believers. I will give you two articles as evidence for what I am saying, but doing a quick search on the websites should quickly produce the necessary information for you. From ICR: http://www.icr.org/article/microwave-evolution/ “Contrary to the statements of most evolutionary writers, few (if any) creationists have ever advocated the idea of absolute fixity of species. The Biblical unit of biological taxonomy, of course, is the Genesis “kind” (Hebrew, min). It may be worth mentioning that this fact was stressed in my first book on creationism some 55 years ago: It is well to observe at this point that the Bible does not teach the fixity of species, . . . Thus, it is probable that the original Genesis “kind” is closely akin to what the modern systematist calls a “family.” And let it be stated in no uncertain terms that there is no evidence that evolution ever has occurred or ever can occur across the kinds.1” From CMI: http://creation.com/sars-and-evolution “In fact, the Biblical Creation/Fall/Flood/Migration model implicitly predicts that variation and even speciation was much faster than most evolutionists predict. This is because all the varieties of land vertebrates we observe today must have come from comparatively few kinds that were on the Ark. See Speedy species surprise, Darwin’s finches: Evidence supporting rapid post-Flood adaptation, Brisk Biters and A new weed species—does it prove Creation wrong?” I hope you will quickly make this correction to more accurately represent what your brothers and sisters actually believe. Thank you so much!
Response
Let me do you one better. What about if you write the article yourself and I will publish it at my site. I do not want to put words in your mouth as a YEC and I do not want you to put words in my mouth as a believer in theistic evolution.
So… Please, if you do not mind, write a short article explaining specifically what amount of evolution could occur in the few thousand years you believe the earth has existed. I will be happy to publish it.
Just for the record, I have never said or taught that YECs believe in absolutely fixed species. In fact, to be honest, I believe I have fairly represented the idea of microevolution and have often used in my public speeches the specific examples Morris uses in the article you gave me a link (canines). I read the article and it seems to me that Morris defends this view (as stated by me) “Those who take this view believe quite literally that on the third through sixth twenty-four hours of God’s creative work, all species which have ever lived were created ex-nihilo (ie. out of nothing) in a form virtually the same as can be seen today. ” He even says that no new species has been observed by scientist to this very day. Here is the quote from the article: As a matter-of-fact, no scientist has ever observed even an unequivocally new species evolve from another species, although thousands of species have become extinct during human history! Evolutionists have to admit that: What species have been created since the first six days according to your view? Is it not your view that the species we see today are, from a genetic point of view, “virtually the same” as what was originally created? Not identical, but nearly identical on a genetic level to the originals, simply because in 8000 years or so random mutation can only create an extremely small amount of change in the higher species.
So…. I believe that my statement is a reasonable reflection of the view expressed in the article you sent me to, so do not intend to change the statement. But, like I said, I will happily publish an article by you explaining the kind of evolution you believe has happened in the last several thousand years. The more specific you can be (in terms of amount of genetic drift, mutation, etc) with regard to the amount of genetic change which can occur naturaly in a few thousand years the better.
To be honest, I believe that evidence will NOT support that all species in the feline family could have evolved from a single original feline 6000 years ago, but I believe that you ought to have a platform to defend this idea. I have no problem with this. As a Christian I believe that God could have done what you believe he did. I believe God could have created dinosaurs fossils and put them in the ground with an appearance of being 150 million years old. The God I believe in is powerful enough to do this. He could create galaxies 5 billion light years away and create at the same time light on a path from there to here as if the galaxy had actually been there for 5 billion years. God is amazing and can do whatever he wants to do. The only question to me is what does the Bible say and what does the evidence say. I have no theological axe to grind with this at all, and I am happy to have you present your view to those who come to my web site. The article you read was produced because we did what few will do, which is to put on a public event in which the different Christian views of evolution are presented by the supporters of that view. You might want to get a copy of the debate. It is available at www.ipibooks.com.
So, I look forward to hearing from you and publishing your article, and I really appreciate your sincerity for God to defend your understanding of the science and the scripture.
John Oakes
