Recently, President George W. Bush stated that he believes that the concept of evolution does not conflict with a belief that God created the world.
In an interview with ABC’s Cynthia McFadden at the White House that aired on Monday, December 8, 2008, on Nightline, Bush said that he isn’t a literalist when it comes to reading the Bible, but he thinks “you can learn a lot from it.”1
When asked about creation and evolution, he said, “I think you can have both.” He clarified:
I think God created the Earth, created the world; I think the creation of the world is so mysterious it requires something as large as an almighty, and I don’t think it’s incompatible with the scientific proof that there is evolution…I happen to believe that evolution doesn’t fully explain the mystery of life.1
Indeed, evolution, which requires massive amounts of death over millions of years, does not explain the mystery of life at all. Furthermore, creation and evolution are completely antithetical to one another. One of Darwinism’s biggest fans, Stephen J. Gould, once wrote:
The radicalism of natural selection lies in its power to dethrone some of the deepest and most traditional comforts of Western thought, particularly the notion that nature’s benevolence, order, and good design, with humans at a sensible summit of power and excellence, prove the existence of an omnipotent and benevolent creator who loves us most of all…. To these beliefs Darwinian natural selection presents the most contrary position imaginable.2
In his latest book, 5 Reasons to Believe in Recent Creation, Institute for Creation Research CEO Dr. Henry M. Morris III addressed the common misconception among Christians that creation science and Darwinian evolution are compatible. Dr. Morris discussed how the biblical account does not allow for a Darwinian evolution of descent with modification, that science does not observe evolution happening today, that the geological and fossil records do not contain evidence of transitions, and that God’s character forbids and His purpose for creation excludes evolution.3
Bush called himself a “simple president,” implying that he does not feel qualified to speak authoritatively on scientific matters. Few people do, since American science education, under the guise of “separation of church and state,” has for decades hindered students from understanding even basic science by limiting their studies to the evolutionary worldview and forbidding an open exploration of the evidence. This effort to suppress sound science continues as special interest groups pressure the Texas State Board of Education to drop the teaching of evolution’s “strengths and weaknesses” from the state science curriculum requirements, which the Board will review in early 2009.4
Before the evolutionists turned to courts and political policy to dictate evolutionary science education in the public classrooms, scientific origins issues involving creation and evolution were explored and discussed in the places where they should be: in the lab, in the field, and in the proceedings of scientific societies. Today, advances in fields such as molecular biology5 and even paleontology6 are shedding new light on the complexity of life, debunking outdated uniformitarian concepts and providing more nails for Darwinism’s coffin.
During his presidency, Bush has affirmed his faith in the Christian God a number of times. And like many professing Christians, he errs in placing human wisdom and what some call science over the authority of the living Word of God. He has believed the pervasive, yet fraudulent, claim that evolution is a fact and that the biblical account cannot be literally true. If Christians even in the highest places of governmental authority cannot trust in the accuracy and authority of God’s Word, then how can we hope that they will lead our nation in “a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty”?7
References
- Escherich, K. Excerpts: Cynthia McFadden Interviews President George W. Bush. Nightline. Posted on abcnews.go.com December 8, 2008, accessed December 10, 2008.
- Gould, S. J. 2007. The Richness of Life: The Essential Stephen Jay Gould. McGarr, P. and S. R. Rose (eds.). New York: W. W. Norton, 446.
- Morris III, H. M. 2008. 5 Reasons to Believe in Recent Creation. Dallas, TX: Institute for Creation Research. Available at http://www.icr.org/store.
- Dao, C. Proposed Texas Standards Censor Sound Science. ICR News. Posted on icr.org September 29, 2008, accessed December 10, 2008.
- Thomas, B. Self-sacrificing Cells Demonstrate a Selfless Designer. ICR News. Posted on icr.org December 1, 2008, accessed December 10, 2008.
- Thomas, B. Happy Birthday, Sue; How Old Are You? ICR News. Posted on icr.org August 20, 2008, accessed December 10, 2008.
- 1 Timothy 2:2.
* Ms. Dao is Assistant Editor.
Article posted on December 12, 2008.
