The real key word in evolutionism is chance. Few persons ever thoughtfully consider what the world would be like if chance had been the sole directive agent in the formation of the chemical compounds of which the earth is composed, or of the substances constituting the bodies of plants and animals.
Take for example the chemical substances known as organic compounds, those in which carbon is the characteristic element. Compounds that consist of hydrogen and carbon only are hydrocarbons, the chief constituents of petroleum; while those that contain in addition one atom of oxygen in each molecule are for the most part in the class of alcohols and their close relatives. A unique property of carbon is the ability to join carbon atom to carbon atom, thus making possible molecules of extensive chain or branched or ring configurations. Substances of identical composition, that is, with the same number of respective kinds of atoms per molecule, can be so diversely constituted as to have different patterns of atomic arrangement and thus be isomers of each other. Isomers will also differ in physical characteristics.
With as few as twenty carbon atoms to each molecule, actually millions of isomers of hydrocarbons and alcohols are possible. If chance were the sole directive for chemical formation, most all of the possible forms would assuredly be present in natural substances, and each of them in significant proportions. Add to this the untold billions of possible carbon compounds containing also nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur, certain metals, and larger proportions of oxygen, and the total would reach staggering astronomical figures. But there simply are not so many random compounds and extravagant numbers of kinds discoverable in natural sources. With all the research and technical knowledge that has been devoted to this field, fewer than a half million carbon compounds have been either isolated or synthesized.
Sugars constitute one of the common types of organic compounds, and are an essential kind of food material. Of the simpler six-carbon atom varieties of so-called aldehyde sugars, glucose (grape sugar) is the most common This substance is one of sixteen isomers or analogous sugars. Only three of these sixteen are at all common in nature, the other two being man-nose, and galactose, derived from milk sugar. Several of the sixteen possible forms are never found in natural products at all, and some of them have absolutely no food value. It cannot be mere chance or accident that the abundant glucose, the one most commonly produced by plants, is the very one most useful for nutrition of animal life. The directive agency of the Creator has seen to it in advance that the biological world, complex as it is beyond human understanding, is not a chaos. Nor is it of mere chance origin or behavior.
Biological Development
For the evolutionist, chance plays a still more important part in his scheme of biological development, in the postulate that life came into existence spontaneously. The basic work of Pasteur and others has demonstrated beyond possible doubt that, given sterile conditions, even the simplest bacteria do not come into being. Evolutionists dodge the issue by assuming that at some remote time and place, within some warm and chemically replete pool, there was formed by accident a compound related to the components of biological proteins, and that such a compound acted as a master pattern to induce the formation of other similar substances. They further assume that these compounds joined in a fashion that enabled them to behave as living things, with the powers of nutrition, reproduction, and the like.
Right now, research men are feverishly attempting to produce protein building blocks—amino acids—by radiation or by other treatment approximating what they presume the initial atmosphere of the earth was like. But what if a few amino acids can be thus produced? The very simplest proteins require some seventy-five or more of these units, linked together in very special fashion and in sequences that are specific and different for each type of protein. These types of protein are so diverse from one another that a protein from one kind of creature cannot be tolerated in the blood system of another, and they are markedly different for each kind of tissue even in the same individual. Hence again, chance cannot have been the guiding influence in the construction from amino acids of the proteins essential for living creatures.
Man may make a few amino acids in his laboratories. But since he cannot, with all his knowledge, skill, and facilities, synthesize therefrom even a single protein such as is found in a living organism, what chance would there be for such substances to be formed by mere accident? To ask the question is to answer it. Still further, given all the proper components of living tissue, man cannot bestow upon such material the functions of life. If he could, surely he could bring the dead to life, for in recently dead bodies all the chemical elements are present which the living individual required.
We must conclude that the scientific evidence of the past is valid in affirming that "life comes only from life." Initially, the life of every kind of creature was bestowed by Him in whose "hand is the life of every living thing,' "for 'in him we live and move and have our being.' "2
The Postulate of Chance Development
Besides the postulate of chance arrival of life and functions appropriate thereto, evolutionists commonly teach that simple creatures "sensed" in some manner the lack of certain additional functions, organs and appendages, and that, in response to that recognition, they proceeded to develop the desired additions to their complement of characteristics. As water dried up from ponds and lakes in some areas, the fishes are supposed to have realized that their fins were inadequate for land locomotion, and therefore proceeded to arrange for transformation of fins into legs and feet. Other fishes are supposed to have met a similar emergency by burrowing deeply into the underlying muds and in a semistupor to have awaited replenishment of the water supply. Such creatures are thought to have become the ancestors of salamanders and the like.
Equipped for Survival
The theory that creatures acquire functions or organs on a custom-made plan is groundless. Plants and animals did not come into existence unequipped for survival, else they would not have had opportunity either to live or to "evolve" other forms better suited to survive. The Creator who made each type of creature knows no emergency. He provided each plant and animal with a reserve of functions in anticipation of likely needs.
For example, while grains are growing in summer, seeds are being produced not only for propagation but also to survive less favorable conditions. Buds of trees are so constructed as to protect the delicate tissues against cold and rain. Fruits are covered with coatings that protect against microorganisms and are quite unpalatable to larger creatures until the fruit has had opportunity to ripen. Most animals can swim instinctively without swimming lessons. This list could be extended indefinitely, but we will elaborate merely one further example:
It was not the intention of the Creator that man should be injured so as to permit his vital blood to escape, but He made provision for just such incidents. Adam was supplied with a unique substance, thrombogen, which, though it can flow freely normally through the tiniest capillaries, can be converted instantly at the site of an injury into a blood-clotting substance. Thus Adam was provided with a means of preventing him from fatal bleeding from ever so slight a lesion. If that substance were always in the blood-clotting form, thrombosis would occur, stopping the flow of blood in the vessels and producing as great a hazard as a severe hemorrhage.
Just imagine Adam without prior provision of this life-saving substance, but with the evolutionist's outlook on life. Upon treading on his first thorn, he would have withdrawn it only to discover that the vital blood was fast escaping from the wound. He could have thought—in terms of evolutionistic philosophy—"I must do something about this, and quickly! I'll promptly develop a substance in my blood to stop this bleeding." But his plan would be too meager and too late either to save his own life or to transmit the proper blood-clotting mechanism to his posterity.
A similar situation would have prevailed for any one of scores and hundreds of other protective and instinctive devices possessed by animals as well as by mankind. It is preposterous to assume that any creature, upon discovery of its inadequacy in a situation about to result in death or incapacity, could "learn" the nature of his deficiency and the means of relief therefrom, "develop" a suitable protective system, and "transmit" to his progeny the results of his acumen and effort. It was only through the foresight, omniscience, and omnipotence of the divine Creator that provision was made in advance for the protection of all His creatures.
It is a grand and comforting thought also to consider that, while God did not purpose that man should sin, He made abundant provision for his redemption in case he did sin. There was provided in advance a "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." And now, Christ, the Creator and Redeemer, is preparing a place in advance for those who love Him. That provision is so glorious and adequate that "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." 5
There is no brand of evolutionism that explains the origin of biological safety devices, nor of spiritual lifesavers. Only God through Jesus Christ can accomplish such creative work, and only in His Word can we find the record of it and the promise of the protection He is willing to provide.
REFERENCES
1 Job 12:10. R.S.V.
2 Acts 17:28, R.S.V.
3 Revelation 13:8.
John 14:2, 3.
5 1 Corinthians 2:9.
