by Patrick C . Marks, D. Min., and Brian Thomas, Ph.D.*
In the first article of this series, we explained that truth—that which matches reality—is something we can know, and any attempts to deny it are futile. The next step is to recognize truth. We need the law of noncontradiction for that.
This law states that two opposite ideas can’t both be true at the same time and in the same relationship. For example, the two prevalent views about our origins, creation and evolution, cannot both be the correct view of history. Why? They oppose each other.
Evolution describes our origins through entirely natural processes. The creation account as found in Genesis is instead supernatural, as two verses illustrate: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7). The idea that evolution somehow created lifeforms opposes biblical creation in more ways than just denying the supernatural.
If evolution were true, billions of years of death involving countless unfit animals changed life-forms all the way from fish to philosophers. In contrast, Genesis explains that death entered the world because of and after Adam and Eve’s disobedience to God. Either death entered creation after and because of sin, or death existed long before and not because of sin. Both cannot be true.
Additionally, Genesis 1 says that God created creatures to reproduce according to their kinds. As a case in point, changes in the many dog trait variations—like body size, fur length, and coat colors—never altered the basic dog body plan that all healthy dogs share. Dogs don’t and won’t turn into any other kind, like a pig. In opposition to this, evolution teaches that as animals reproduced, they slowly built different basic body plans. One might align with evolution’s reproduction between kinds or biblical creation’s reproduction according to kinds, but to merge these two is not a logical option. They clearly contradict each other.
Some well-meaning Christians wonder if God might have created using an evolutionary process. However, as we have seen, this is an attempt to merge opposite concepts. According to the law of noncontradiction, it’s either one or the other. You can’t have both. But the law of noncontradiction cannot tell us by itself if either evolution or creation is true. So where does that leave us?
Each view should be examined to determine how well it holds up against the evidence. Our next article will start to examine the evidence for creation.
Dr. Marks is the senior pastor at Calvary Chapel FourteenSix in Surprise, Arizona, and earned a D.Min. in apologetics from Veritas International University. Dr. Thomas is a research scientist at the Institute for Creation Research and earned his Ph.D. in paleobiochemistry from the University of Liverpool.
