In all of the years I've studied the creation vs. evolution debate, what I find fascinating is the degree to which the philosophy of evolution has influenced the teaching methods and philosophies found in public (state) education. The term "progressive" education stems from naturalism, closely tied with Darwin's theory of Evolution: The strongly held belief that the universe and all of life is the result of natural selection combined with random chance mutations throughout a multibillion-year period of history.

For example, the belief in Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) by public educators, pervades the entire education establishment. DAP rests upon a foundation of romantic naturalism which presupposes that children are to learn only what they "naturally" wish to learn; nothing must be introduced to them which violates this principle.[1]

Hence, phonics, punctuation, spelling, multiplication, and anything else that requires rote memorization, intellectual work, or genuine struggle and effort, are anathema. In place of these basics the children are introduced to affective subject matter and methods (games, discussions, group learning and other teaching methods which highlight emotional and social manipulation above traditional cognitive learning). A majority of these methods come from behavioral psychology, a field of study which also has powerful roots located in Evolutionary philosophy.

Traditional subject or content-centered learning has been tremendously watered down in state-controlled schools. Equally significant is the shift from authentic education toward social indoctrination for the purpose of societal evolution. In order to accomplish this psychological transformation, the state (through its schools), draws attention away from the subject of study, toward the children, themselves. What’s disturbing to some concerning "child-centered education" is its ineffectiveness at imparting traditional wisdom and knowledge from one generation to the next.

Progressive educators use child-centered, DAP, and affective learning methods as tools of change (evolution), to shape or "evolve" the whole child and in particular, his/her worldview or belief system. Once this is clearly understood, it becomes easier to see that education (no matter that it is Atheist, Humanist, Christian, or Marxist) is inherently and inescapably religious.[2]

All of education involves the advocacy of an underlying worldview, paradigm, or belief system. This worldview may be the paradigm of the Church (for Christian schools), or the state (our public schools). Again, regardless of the underlying philosophy, education rests upon worldview training, which by its very nature, is religious in orientation (the imparting and advocacy of a belief, accepted paradigm, or dominant philosophical framework).

Biblical Revelation vs. Human "Wisdom"

Why do pastors and Churches congregations need to examine the gravity of the creation vs. evolution debate? What's the big deal here? Perhaps answering the following questions might provide a means by which to apprehend how creation vs. evolution colors the "big picture":

1. What philosophical framework best describes the modern state's worldview with regard to its education system (the public school’s philosophical keystone for origins, science, psychology, geology, history, astronomy, mathematics, language arts, humanities, etc.)?

2. Is public education's worldview based upon God's revelation, or the absurdity and finite nature of simple human insight?

3. Darwinian thinking has resulted in the public education's advocacy of moral and intellectual relativism (the idea there are no absolutes; truth is relative, and ethics are situational). This shift away from traditional right and wrong used to be called Values Clarification, today it is being sold as Character Education; both of which are philosophical offsprings of evolutionary Darwinism. In this light, is there a connection between America’s moral decline and the state’s aggregate promotion (by force of law) of Darwinian relativism throughout the entire U.S. K-12 education system?

Ken Ham, Director of the Answers In Genesis, creation science evangelism ministry, offers his perception regarding this particular query:

"God’s absolutes dictate that there are rules by which we must abide. Christianity cannot co-exist in a world community with relative morality as its basis. One or the other will yield. There are two world views with two totally different belief systems clashing in our society. The real war being waged is a great spiritual war. Sadly, today many Christians fail to win the war because the fail to recognize the nature of the battle.

"It is my contention that this spiritual conflict is rooted in the issue of origins (creation/evolution). Although the thought may sound strange or new to the reader, Biblically, and logically this issue is central in the battle for men’s souls."[3]

Evolution and Our Legal/Justice System

Evolutionary thinking has become the basis of nearly every facet of the social, psychological, academic, political and scientific fields. What about our legal/justice system?

Originally, "rule of law" was based upon constitutional principle; judges rendered decisions based upon the original intent of the law and/or Constitution. Today, however, this is no longer the case.

Our modern American judiciary, influenced by the "science" of evolutionary progressivism, gives us decisions based upon case-law (the decisions of previous judges, which may, or may not rest with the law). This makes acceptable the practice of rendering court decisions which depart from the intent of law, known as "judicial activism." Thus, our legal system rests not upon law, nor our Constitution, but the "interpretation" (always subject to change) of judges. The system shifted its emphasis away from the substance of law toward the evolving interpretations of those who sit on the bench. Why did this happen?

Our law schools, closely linked to the Humanist evolutionary worldview discount the importance of "rule of law" to the maintenance of a representative, constitutional Republic. Rule by Law is based upon the absolute nature of law. This is contrary to the philosophy of evolution (change). To counter the stability of the Constitution and "rule of law," law schools took their eyes off the U.S. and state Constitutions, and now look to the judiciary. Hence we no longer have a justice system based upon the rule of law; instead it rests upon "rule of the judge," which is always subject to change (evolve).

The consequence of this legal metamorphosis is that attorneys, judges, and yes, even so-called "constitutional experts" no longer recognize the U.S. Constitution nor our federal and state laws. Instead they ignore what these documents articulate and interpret concepts into them which are not present in the original meaning (Roe vs. Wade, for example).

Speculation Imposed Upon God’s Word

The Christian Church is no different in its treatment of the Book of Genesis. We tend to ignore what is there, and presuppose ideas concerning time and ages, concepts that are clearly absent from the text or interpretation of same. We fail to discern how the imposition of evolutionary interpretation corrupts the rest of the Bible. We want to harmonize Genesis (God’s Holy Word) with evolutionary "science." However, science is a word we use to describe what we know, what we consider to be knowledge. In order for something to be known it must have been observed, tested, and found to be true.

Macro-evolution (non-living matter-to-human transformation) has never been observed, and thus, cannot be tested. Falling outside of the confines of scientific knowledge, evolution is more of a philosophical model used to explain our existence minus the presence of God. It is the conjectural hope of those who do not accept God’s revelation of Himself in the Person of Jesus Christ as being true.

Neither does evolution qualify as a theory, because theories are supposed to be testable, of which evolution is not. So, what is evolution?

Evolution, when properly understood, is nothing more than speculation, the speculation of those who cannot (due to their religion) believe in a Creator-God. Mere speculation, when repeated often enough by teachers, textbooks, media circles, and even some of our Christian seminaries (at the exclusion of Creationism), is accepted as fact by the less-informed. So what do we do with the "scientific fact" of Evolution? Some Christians attempt to change God’s Word to fit what they believe to be true regarding origins. These folks mutate God’s Word the same way the Supreme Court corrupts the U.S. Constitution, through interpretation. And, what many seminary professors and Church pastors fail to accept is that once one attempts to render Genesis beyond its original meaning (i.e., replace the Creation Week with a few billion years), one run into serious problems with the rest of the Bible.

A way to understand the importance of Genesis is to attempt teaching the New Testament minus the teacher’s ability to reference the first eleven chapters of this basis for the remainder of both the Old and New Testaments. The effort will render the Bible completely meaningless, to say the least. Without Genesis, the continuity, meaning and purpose of God’s Word unravels into a compilation of irrelevant text.

Mixing Oil with Water

What happens when we attempt to mix speculation with truth? What happens if we accept that Genesis 1-11 is wrong because evolution conflicts with Scripture? Off hand, the first thing that comes to mind is that neither Adam, nor Eve existed, and therefore there was no original sin (the Fall). Without the Fall, we have no need of Christ and His work upon the Cross. Get the picture?

Concerning the Creation Week there’s Exodus 20: 11, when God communicated the Ten Commandments to Moses, and said "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them is, and then rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it." (KJV). Justify this passage with evolutionary thinkers who attempt to turn six days into billions of years. Justify the billions of years with the genealogies of Mary and Joseph found in the Gospels. Justify the imposition of billions of years upon the variety of Old Testament genealogies found before and after the Noahic Flood. I guess God did not know what he was talking about; or He lacked the vocabulary to tell us He used billions of years to evolve instead of create all of reality. Bunk!

God is not the author of confusion. We humans, however, seem to excel in disorienting one another. If there is perplexity over this issue, it rests with those who accept the idea that mankind can impose human doctrine upon Biblical revelation in order to modify the latter.

Christ, Himself, tells us in Matthew 19: 4, 5: "4 And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, 5 And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?" (KJV). When did God make (not evolve) male and female humans? Jesus tells us "at the beginning," not four billion years after a lengthy evolutionary process!

Finally, if Genesis 1-11 is rendered meaningless or corrupted through reinterpretation (much like our judges do with the Constitution, now considered a "a living document"), the basis for family and marriage come into question. We must understand what Christ was drawing upon in the above passage (Mt. 19: 4,5). If Genesis becomes meaningless, this includes Genesis 2:24 which Christ quoted from above.

"Evolution vs. Creation" Does Matter!!

Our recognition of the significance of origin philosophy to other fields of study helps us to discern a majority of society’s social ills as symptomatic of evolutionary Humanism. This philosophy became the primary line of thought which provided the fertile soil that birthed Marxism, resulting in the slavery of hundreds of millions of people, the death of millions of others and to this day, countless lives filled with darkness and misery.

Yes! The implications of "Creation vs. Evolution" are significant to the spiritual warfare Christians face today, significant indeed!

Reference Notes:

1. For additional information related to DAP see J. E. Stone’s, 1996, "Developmentalism: An Obscure but Pervasive Restriction on Educational Improvement" http://olam.ed.asu.edu/epaa/v4n8.html . I’ve had the pleasure of corresponding with Dr. Jones (professor of education at East Tennessee State University) on the subject of DAP and separating school and state.

2. Religion: 2 a. any specific system of belief and worship, often involving a code of ethics and a philosophy [the Christian religion, the Buddhist religion, etc.] b. any system of beliefs, practices, ethical values, etc. resembling, suggestive of, or likened to such a system [humanism as a religion]. Brackets in the original. Source: Webster’s New World Dictionary of American English 3rd College Ed., 1988, Simon & Schuster: New York, p. 1134.

3. Ken Ham, The Lie: Evolution, 1987, Creation-Life Publishers, Master Books Division, P.O. Box 1606, El Cajon, CA 92022, ISBN 0-89051-158-6, p. 5. For additional materials, literature and other resources related to Creationism, visit the following websites:

a. Answers In Genesis (AIG)


b. Institute for Creation Research (ICR)


c. Creation Research Society (CRS)


d. The Creationism Connection


e. CEANet Creation Links Page