Science has repeatedly shown the incredibly small chance of organic life arising from inorganic non-life (biogenesis). There would be a better chance of winning a lottery every day for the next century. An evolutionary naturalist in Britain admitted:
... more than 40 years of work has failed to produce any convincing detailed scheme as to how living cells could have evolved from simple organic molecules.1
Indeed, the only success these origin-of-life experiments have had is to produce a gooey tar on the walls of the reaction vessel. The naturalist has no choice, no recourse, but to place their faith in the infinitesimal odds that life just might spring from this sludge. The rejoinder is, "Well, the chances of the mechanistic formation of life are not zero [but it's awfully close!], and if that's the case, I'll take my chances that this universe and people are the product of time, chance and random processes." They are betting their eternal destiny on chances that any odds master would see as much too slim to even consider.
These same people view the Bible in terms of gross error, superstition and contradictions. But when shown that the Biblical text is reliable and the manuscripts are 99.8% true to the original they say, "But it's not 100%!"
Scripture is eminently true starting with our origin. Theologian James Orr stated,
No stronger proof could be afforded of the truth and sublimity of the biblical account of the origin of things than is given by the comparison of the narrative of creation in Genesis 1-2:4, with the mythological cosmogonies and theogonies found in other religions.2
Jewish scholars had great regard for the Pentateuch and other Old Testament books. They took intense care for their preservation and exact copy procedure once the scrolls wore out. A noted Jewish archaeologist stated, "It may be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever controverted a biblical reference."3 Josh McDowell stated that there is more evidence for the historical reliability of the New Testament than any ten pieces of classical literature considered. Ultimately we look to the Lord Jesus for His evaluation of Scripture. One finds time and again His stating, "Have you not read... ?" (cf. Luke 6:3; Mark 2:25; 12:10; Matthew 12:3; 19:4). Clearly, "The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever" (Isaiah 40:8).
How tragic it is to have people who will place their faith in impossible odds, feeding the hope that they are products of impersonal evolutionary forces, while at the same time embracing the .2% "error" (variation in the text) in the Bible as an excuse to not believe any of it.
We at ICR affirm what Martin Luther said long ago, "When the Scripture speaks, God speaks."
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1. Palmer, T. Controversy: Catastrophism & Evolution, Kluwer Academic, 1999, p. 264.
2. Orr, J. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Grand Rapids, 1939, 1956.
3. Glueck, N. Rivers in the Desert, Philadelphia: Jewish Publ. Society, 1969, p. 84.
