Hi
This is an excerpt from an article I wrote awhile back. The full article can be found here
scienceray.com/Philosophy-of-Science/Evolution-Fact-or-Fiction.144975
Literally hundreds of millions of fossils reside in institutions around the world. There are clear differences found in any particular fossil traced back within its Stratigraphic column (position it is found in within the earth), or tested age. Every species of life found shows a clear advancement of complexity or change in appearance relative to its age.
There have been no fossils found in a mixed state, which means a specimen that has previously been found in the age group of 150 million years with certain characteristics, has not turned up in the age group of 10 million years in the same state of evolution. Sometimes a particular species doesn’t turn up at all meaning it died out. Even if the change was very small - there was a change.
Tracing certain lizards, frogs, and salamanders from purely aquatic creatures, to amphibians, to land animals that can survive purely on land if necessary is a fact supported by evidence found through Stratigraphy (determining the age of a specimen from it’s location, or depth, in the layers of earth) and carbon dating.
Crocodiles are traced back to an animal named “Flesh Crocodile Emperor” an animal that grew to a length of 40 feet and weighed eight tons, which is twice as much as an elephant. These animals were capable of capturing and eating virtually anything on the planet. Modern crocodiles rarely exceed 14 feet and weigh no more than half a ton, although in look they have changed very little.
Science has stated with some degree of confidence that life on earth began with amino acids, mutating and merging to form ever more complex organisms. In lab experiments Amino Acids have been proven to merge with certain molecules found in water around volcanic vents, coupled with mineral contents present either in the water or surrounding rocks, and general levels of salinity; the acids changed through an application of electricity. These amino acids are generally the same, although can be mutated by sunlight and form separate solutions which interact and form new solutions. The same results are completely possible in nature with a shallow sea area, minerals, and a bolt of lightening effecting the change.
It would take hundreds of millions of years to produce complex life but this is not by any means impossible. Acids, bacteria, and viruses mutate and grow more complex everyday in our world now. Exposed to our immune system viruses and bacteria mutate and become more complex, as does our immune system in order to more effectively combat the strain of virus or bacteria that attacked it. In fact, one of the reasons there are so many different strains of Flu virus is because different people have different chemical make-ups. The same is true for the common cold; therefore, whether or not you wish to take into account a pre-determined outcome that God programmed into the universe, evolution is a fact.
However, man seems to have suddenly appeared on the scene from out of the blue. There is no physical evidence to support the Theory of Evolution for man from animal. Although man does appear to have evolved into a more complex being, that is called “static” evolution and is separate from the general theory. This fits with Genesis 2:7, just as the description of the rest of the earth in vs. 2-6 fits the primordial vision of the earth in keeping with the evolutionary development of early life forms from amino acids. Mans creation is special; man was created with a soul, separate from the rest of creation, meaning man was created in the Image of God.
For creationists, the “big bang” fits very well with Genesis 1:1-5: “The earth was without form and void, darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters, and God said let there be light” (Paraphrased). “The deep” here probably refers to empty space, and “the face of the waters” is probably an extremely dense form of matter of which everything that came to be was compressed into; whenever “waters” are referred to in Scripture, and it is obvious that actual water is not meant, the meaning is usually masses of people. Since it is through the Holy Spirit that everything is accomplished this then would be a logical assertion, so then what it means in this context would have to be everything and everyone that would ever be (Ephesians 1:3-5). “Let there be light” would then be the “bang” portion.
Taken in this view then, there would be no problems so far. What people get hung up on is the assertion that there must be six literal days of creation, as stated in scripture. Which is true, there would have to be in order for Scripture to be true. I still see no problem, because there could have been six days of preparation by God before the release of the universe. Whether that was six literal twenty-four hour periods of our day (which would be minute in Gods time), or six thousand years of our time as stated by II Peter 3:8 doesn’t matter. What that statement means to convey to all who read it is that our God is capable of doing what we see around us in a very short period
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- animals with intelligent souls that make us the only animals with a capacity for communion with Christ 