Evolution, a Fairytale for Grownups

Christians, before posting on the Forum, please read!

This message is to Christians who are involved in, or considering joining an origins forum such as the Evolution Fairytale Forum. The following is my humble opinion, with help from scripture and based on many years of experience engaging evolutionists. I realize evolutionists who read this will likely be offended, but it is a necessary (and perhaps worthwhile) consequence of this warning.

My number one warning to Christians is this: do not let evolutionists lead you into endless arguments that will only serve to waste your time where it can be better spent elsewhere. We know from the Bible that “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12) One of the tactics of the enemy is to get you to waste your time. So please keep this in mind as you pick your battles. We need to know when to “shake off the dust” and move on (Mark 6:11). Not only is there other ministry work you may be being held from, I also consider lost family time is often not worth the limited benefits a forum may bring to God’s kingdom.

Here are the advantages and disadvantages as I see them, to help you determine the extent you want to participate in a forum on origins. Note that the following references to evolutionists are especially true if the evolutionist is an atheist (I easily encounter more atheist evolutionists than I do theistic evolutionists on discussion boards).

Advantages

1. The CvE debate is important both for witnessing to the world, and to our own churches! Evolution is a direct assault on Genesis, the very foundation of the Bible - "If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do?" (Psalms 11:3). Satan is very clever, and knows that if he places doubts in people's mind about the very first book in the Bible, then why should they believe the rest of the Bible. We need to equip ourselves to be effective creation evangelists. The Apostle Paul appealed to creation when he confronted the Greeks (Acts 17), who were the evolutionists of their day. These stoic and Epicurean philosophers did not have a foundational belief in a creator God, so preaching the cross was "foolishness" to them (1 Cor 1:23). After Paul put this foundation in place, some responded "We will hear you again on this matter", while "some men joined him and believed". Acts 17:32-34

2. Helps prepare you to debate origins in a public setting, such as with coworkers, family, etc. Keeps you tuned-up on the latest evolutionist responses.

3. Present an article or idea for review. Comments from the opposition can especially be useful, because they will often try harder to find holes or faults in your article. Evolutionists can occasionally provide good feedback, after all.

4. On occasion we may stumble upon a sincere truth-seeker, perhaps someone who never really considered that what they had been taught about evolution and the age of the earth was based on little or no evidence. Or it may be a Christian who is struggling in their beliefs and we are able to witness and/or encourage them.

Disadvantages

1. Time-consuming. Writing a good post can take time, especially when research is involved.

2. Evolutionists will try to lead you into endless debate, and they will more often than not succeed! They will always, almost without exception, get the last word. They will be relentless. This is all part of getting you to waste your time, which the spiritual enemy just loves to see you do (the evolutionist person does not necessarily “love” that they waste your time, many are probably unaware of the demonic influence on them).

3. We can succumb to the facade that we are somehow making ground with an evolutionist. The truth is, I have never once in 11+ years witnessed an activist evolutionist commit their life to Christ (frequent posters to internet boards qualify as “activists”; again we are not talking about fence-sitters, who we have had occasional success with). Evolutionists believe what they do despite any evidence presented to them. They are firmly committed to a worldview that removes accountability. Without exception, I have found that the committed evolutionist activist is always, I mean always, socially liberal. This ubiquitous connection overwhelmingly establishes the fact that you will likely never convince them, because it is not evidence but worldview that drives them; they simply do not want to be convinced (please see Romans 1:18-32).

[I realize many of us are former evolutionists, but we weren’t activists. I also realize there are exceptions to the above, but they are rare so you should not count on it happening on a forum. You should also be careful not to delude yourself into believing you are planting seeds. What I mean is this: When you plant grass, do you continually pour seeds onto you yard, over, and over, and over again? No. You plant them once and then start watering. Let the Holy Spirit bring the increase (1 Corinthians 3:6). You are wasting your time if you continually pile seeds into the same spot. ]

4. Evolutionists almost always outnumber creationists on origins boards, despite the fact that public polls show a comfortable margin of creationists over evolutionists. I believe there are two reasons for this: 1) the afore-mentioned spiritual element where the enemy is here to get you to waste your time, and 2) Christians generally do not feel the need to justify their faith on an internet forum. I for one am 100% convinced Christ is who He claims to be, and am 100% convinced of my salvation. Evolutionists on the other hand (especially atheists), feel a need to justify their faith on a regular basis. Why? We know from the Bible that deep down they really don’t believe what they believe; the Bible says they are willfully ignorant (dumb on purpose ; see Romans 1 and 2 Peter 3). The Bible also teaches that some are so far down the path to darkness that God has given up on them, such that God allows them to actually believe the lie (2 Thessalonians 2:11).

This is my humble opinion on the origins debate, and some words of wisdom from years of experience that I wanted to share with fellow Christians so they know what they are getting into if they jump into an origins forum. Generally speaking, you should only involve yourself in an origins forum for advantages 1 and 2 above - to keep you sharp on the topic, that you may later find useful when engaging coworkers, friends, and others in the world on the origins debate (occasionally you may experience advantage #4, but you shouldn't count on it). While considering these advantages, be alert that you do not at the same time fall into the trap outlined in disadvantages 2 & 3 – especially unproductive use of time. Thanks for listening!

In Christ,
Fred Williams

Note: Christian Forums such as Bible topic forums among believers is a completely different matter. I believe these are almost always a productive use of our time! As one Pastor said, “if Christ is not the topic, then you are off the topic!"