Cedarville Magazine, Spring 2017

animated video that showed a small dinosaur running across the ground. As the dinosaur ran, it grew feathers, and then wings, and then jumped off a cliff and flew, and eventually evolved into a bird you might see in your backyard. This evolutionary belief has become so widely accepted that birds are now classified as reptiles! The video represented the changes that had to occur in dinosaurs over millions of years. Although it looks “simplistic” on the screen, reality is very different. I look at the video as a geneticist and know that for every physical change we see in the dinosaur, hundreds to millions of mutations would have to occur to make that possible. These mutations would have to add information about how to make new structures like feathers — something that has never been observed! Consider the following analogy as we try to visualize the problems of mutations for evolution: You are standing at the far end of your backyard and you want to get to your house, but you must walk a straight line (you can’t circle around the earth) and you can only take steps backward (away from the house). Even if you are given millions of years to accomplish this task, will you ever reach your house? No! The same is true for evolution. Evolutionists can have billions and trillions of years to make evolution work, but it will always fail because there is no mechanism to make the types of changes in organisms that evolution requires. ARE MUTATIONS A PROBLEM FOR BIBLICAL CREATION? Genesis 1 is clear that God’s original creation was “very good” (Gen. 1:31). There was no death, suffering, or disease, nor mutations, that could lead to such outcomes. In Genesis 3, Adam and Eve sinned, and the punishment for sin was death (Gen. 2:17; 3:19). After the fall, God no longer upheld the world in the same way, and mutations began to occur, bringing death, disease, and suffering. The Bible says that God created animals according to their “kind” (Gen. 1:11–12, 21, 24–25), which most creation scientists believe is around the family level in modern classification schemes. For example, at Answers in Genesis’ newest attraction, the Ark Encounter, we showcase the dog kind, horse kind, and cat kind. The inference from the creation and flood accounts is that animals were to reproduce according to their kinds (Gen. 1, 6). What we observe today is consistent with the biblical account of creation. We see variation within kinds (e.g., multiple species and breeds of dogs in the dog kind/ family), a few of which may be caused by mutations (e.g., fur color changes in dogs), but we never observe the types of change that will cause a dog to evolve into a cat, or anything else for that matter. And we never will, no matter how much time passes, because there is no genetic mechanism for this type of change. WHY DOES IT MATTER THAT THE BIBLE IS TRUE CONCERNING GENETICS? The Bible gives us certain biological principles, even if it doesn’t specifically mention the terms “DNA” or “genetics.” Our observations about what mutations can and cannot do is absolutely consistent with biblical creation and absolutely inconsistent with the idea of evolution over millions of years. In the church today, there are many who compromise on God’s Word in Genesis and choose to believe inman-made (andmade- up!) evolutionary ideas. Does it really matter? Is Genesis really that important? It is. If God didn’t tell us the truth concerning how, when, and why He created, why should we trust what He says about anything else? If we just evolved from some shared ancestor with the apes, Adam and Eve weren’t real people made in God’s image, and the fall never happened; then what is sin, why are we sinners, and why do we need a Savior? Ideas have consequences. As Christians, we need to uphold the truthfulness and authority of the history of Genesis so that we can effectively share the Gospel of Jesus Christ based in that history. Georgia (Hickman) Purdom ’94 is a speaker, researcher, and author for Answers in Genesis. She earned her Ph.D. in molecular genetics fromThe Ohio State University. We see variation within kinds (e.g., multiple species and breeds of dogs in the dog kind/family), a few of which may be caused by mutations (e.g., fur color changes in dogs), but we never observe the types of change that will cause a dog to evolve into a cat, or anything else for that matter. Cedarville Magazine | 15