Friends, below is a rebuttel by Ken Ham and Steve Golden to Rayan Pettey's: From The Dust: Conversations in Creation
Ken Ham believes in a literal 6 day creation and accepts the authority of scripture on creation. Ryan Pettey believes in
theistic evolution or evolutionary creation, hence millions of years of theistic evolution.
As the debate over evolutionary ideas and
a literal Genesis continues, more and more people want to get into the
discussion. Ryan Pettey, a documentary filmmaker, recently released a
documentary called From
the Dust: Conversations in Creation. One of the groups backing the
documentary is BioLogos, which promotes the belief that God used evolution—so
we guessed what his stand would be! Pettey took the angle that we’re having a
“conversation” about origins.
When Mr. Pettey’s team asked our publicist (one of the best in
the business) about filming at our Creation Museum and interviewing some staff,
our publicist shared with us that according to the filmmakers, the video would
be (in our publicist’s words) “about the scientific data in support of
creation, reading and interpreting Scripture, theological and social
implications of creation and of macro-evolution.” But we were cautioned by our
publicist that the filmmaker was a fan of BioLogos on his Facebook page, though
the filmmaker assured our publicist that his video “would examine Genesis in a
balanced way.” The longer I’ve dealt with the opposition to biblical creation,
the more I’ve come to realize that even words like “conversation” or “balance”
lose their meaning. But we thought it was important to get out our message of
biblical authority, so we agreed to have Mr. Pettey’s crew here.
After watching the final video, we saw that it was hardly a “conversation”
about creation, despite the documentary’s name. What the people involved really
wanted to do was push their agenda of promoting theistic evolution (or
“evolutionary creation,” as BioLogos calls it). Biblical creationists were
presented as people who only want “war” in the Christian faith and who deny
what is claimed to be “truth” (i.e., evolutionary ideas). The Creation Museum
was presented as the primary opponent throughout the documentary, with footage
of the museum and of one of Dr. Terry Mortenson’s lectures, and an interview
with astrophysicist Dr. Jason Lisle (who is now with the Institute for Creation
Research).
Those interviewed for the documentary included N.T. Wright,
Peter Enns, Darrel Falk, Alistair McGrath, John Polkinghorne, April Maskiewicz,
Richard Colling, and Ard Louis. Many of these scholars hold views similar to
theistic evolution, and they argue that evolution and millions of years can be
meshed with the Bible.
One of the most blatant instances of the bias toward evolution
and millions of years in this documentary was near the beginning. Richard
Colling, a former biology professor at Olivet Nazarene University (a Christian
college), talks about how sad it is that children are taught by their parents
and pastors that “believing in evolution is sort of like denying the Christian
faith. And so then they come to college and in that setting they learn that
evolution is real, and that it’s part of God’s grand design. It literally broke
my heart to see so many young students sometimes in my office in tears because
their parents are telling them and their pastors are telling them that you’ve
got to reject the science to be a Christian. And I just didn’t see that that
was necessary.”
Colling wrote a book called Random Designer, in
which he asserts that “life began apparently 3.8 billion years ago” (p. 93). So
here is another example of a professor in a Christian college teaching students
that they can mix evolution and millions of years with Scripture. Of course, as
I’ve said many times before, believing in a young earth and six literal days of
creation is not a salvation issue—but it is an authority issue! What Colling is
teaching in his book is that man’s opinion on origins is far more trustworthy
than God’s account of our origins in Genesis.
Alistair McGrath, professor of theology, ministry, and education
at King’s College, London, criticizes biblical creationists as being
“superficial” for concluding that evolutionary ideas lead to a purposeless
existence. Ard Louis, a reader in theoretical physics at the University of
Oxford, goes so far as to claim that, even though Christians see value in God’s
active creation of the universe and Adam and Eve, the way we were made doesn’t
matter! He says that instead of focusing on a literal creation, Christians
should find their value in what God thinks of them.
John Polkinghorne, an ordained Anglican priest and former
professor of mathematical physics, closes this segment of the film by saying
that truth can come through science, but that some Christians are “turning
their backs on certain types of truth.” Polkinghorne is obviously implying that
biblical creationists are denying the alleged “truth” of evolution and millions
of years.
Do any of the above comments sound like a “conversation”? All of
these scholars say they want to talk about science and faith, but they really
just want to push their compromising view of theistic evolution without
entertaining a response to their claims. The most disturbing part of this
documentary was footage from a biology class at Point Loma Nazarene
University—another Christian college.
April Maskiewicz is an associate professor
of biology at Point Loma Nazarene, which is also where Darrel Falk (who has
been the president of BioLogos) teaches. Maskiewicz is no stranger to BioLogos,
having served as an instructor last year for a Christian school teachers
training program BioLogos put on. In From
the Dust, Dr. Maskiewicz asks her students to discuss evolutionary
ideas. In the documentary footage, the students were clearly being challenged
to reconcile evolution and millions of years with the Bible. The majority of
these Christian college students took a theistic evolution stance, saying that
God’s supposed use of evolutionary methods to create was far more “glorious”
than the Genesis account.
Dr. Maskiewicz explains how she went to
college and did not have a chance to have a “conversation” about origins. She
says that, as a result, she accepted the “no brainer” ideas of evolution and
“left college an atheist.” She continues, “Ultimately, within a couple more
years, I came back to trying to reconcile my faith with what I knew about the
biology.” Her story sounds awfully similar to Dr. Falk’s, doesn’t it? (I
blogged about Darrel Falk’s struggle with evolutionary ideas in a post recently)
Dr. Maskiewicz is not having a “conversation” with her students
either. We know what God’s Word says about creation, and yet she calls
evolutionary ideas a “no brainer” and teaches students and other teachers how
to reconcile them with Genesis. I’ve talked and written before about the
compromise on biblical authority going on in our Christian colleges and
seminaries, and Dr. Maskiewicz is another in a long list of examples.
It’s sad to see the authority of Scripture
abandoned when it comes to the Genesis account of creation, Fall, Flood etc.,
all in the name of having “conversations.” And it’s even worse to see that
those “conversations” are just opportunities to indoctrinate students into
evolutionary ideas. If you’re looking for Christian colleges that boldly teach
the authority of God’s Word from the first verse of the Bible, visit www.CreationColleges.org for a list of schools that hold to a
literal Genesis. I also urge you to read my book Already Compromisedfor
more information on the state of Christian colleges today. Lastly, I encourage
your young people who are considering a Christian college to attend November’s college expo here
at the Creation Museum.
Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken
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