Retrieving Mankind’s Lost Heritage (4A)

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Part 1: The World of Prehistory
Part 3: Transition from One Environment to Another
Part 5: How Old Is the Natural World?
Part 6: Conclusion


4-A: Introduction
4-C: Laws of Science
Monkey-to-Man Evolution? Missing Evidence of Missing Links
4-F: Micro Versus Macro Evolution
4-G: The Problem with Darwinism

4-A: Introduction

Or, to re-phrase the title-question, we might ask, did the natural world evolve by itself, or was it created?

What we have learned so far – from fossil, geological, and cultural evidence – presents  a version about the origins of the natural world that may be different to what you have heard before. As outlined in previous posts, mankind has a fascinating and marvelous ancient heritage. But unfortunately, it has lain buried under misguided concepts about our past history. Those concepts were thought to be modern and progressive at one time, but now a more thorough understanding and examination of the scientific evidence reveals them to be somewhat misleading and outdated . Let us try then now to re-orient our way of thinking and understanding of the past. Let us continue the process of retrieving our lost heritage.

We will now examine evolution theory in the light of the science of genetics, DNA discoveries, fossil evidence, and dating of the Earth’s age.

Every scientist knows that, before pronouncing a theory or hypothesis as fact or as a “law”, you must prove its truth by using the experimental method. Until one has tested a theory exhaustively enough to see that it works in practical reality, only then does it become legitimate; only then can one begin to proclaim it as a new “law of science”.

But when it comes to investigating the more distant past history of mankind and the earth, this experimental method is often ignored; scientists tend to skip this normal and established procedure called investigation, experimentation, and testing.  Instead of letting the evidence speak for itself, it ends up getting misinterpreted, then forced, pounded, and made to fit into the mold of preconceived ideas.

Along this line, here is a revealing quote from the brother of Charles Darwin, commenting on Charles’ recent book The Origin of Species :

      “In fact the a priori reasoning [the theory] is so entirely satisfactory to me that if the facts won’t fit in, why so much the worse for the facts is my feeling”

     – Erasmus Darwin (November 23, 1859)

What he meant here was that the theory seemed to him so utterly profound that the facts, even if contrary to evolution, should just mind their own business and take a back seat to the theory. Well, that is a case of putting on the blinders – a poor scientific approach… and poor detective work!

True science is based on

  • accurate observation
  • thorough investigation
  • unbiased interpretation

And if true Science points us to the reality of a supernatural Creator, then that is what we ought to believe and follow in our study of Science.

Unfortunately however, that regrettable attitude of willfully ignoring evidence has prevailed and caused great misunderstanding in the collective mind of mankind… to the point now where everyone assumes that evolution is the only valid explanation for the origins of the natural world. And because of that universal assumption, any evidence to the contrary is ignored, denied, discredited, and otherwise swept away out of sight under the academic rug.

Proponents of evolution may be very good scientists in their areas of specialization, but when it comes to understanding our distant origins, all scientific sense, even common sense, seems to fly out the window. Likely, this stems from an unwillingness to acknowledge the role of the Creator in forming the natural world, which arches beyond what can be explained by science. Among scientists, the need to explain everything is both a strength and a weakness, it would seem.

Our modern situation could be compared to the time when people believed that the sun revolved around the earth. Nowadays we have no trouble with this because we have been taught from an early age that the Earth revolves around the Sun. But there was a time when everyone assumed the opposite was true, that the Sun revolves around the Earth. To people back then it only seemed “sensible” to believe that… just as nowadays it only seems “sensible” to believe that great evolutionary ages of time were required for the natural world to “evolve” into its present state.


Pictures Illustrating the Old Idea of an Earth-centered Universe

In the 16th and 17th centuries, when the scientists Copernicus and Galileo tried  to advance the idea of a sun-centered universe, they were met with stiff opposition. Why? The assumption was so strong in everyone’s mind that everything revolved around the earth that their ideas seemed preposterous, even though the two scientists had solid evidence to prove the heliocentric theory as it was called.

Does this not sound a familiar ring today?  To discard the idea of a long, evolutionary development of biological and geological history seems preposterous in our minds; we’ve been taught it from an early age, and it is deeply engrained in our minds. And this is similar to how it was for people of yesteryear; it was just as difficult for them to shake off the belief that the sun should revolve around the earth and accept that the Earth revolved around the Sun. So in spite of solid scientific evidence, it still remains a difficult exercise to dismantle the old assumptions and ways of thinking about the origins of the natural world.

The “solid scientific evidence”, that can help us gain a better updated understanding about the great mystery of our origins, will be approached from five different angles:


Continue to 4B: Complexity of the Natural World
