I get frustrated with young earth creationists’ critiques of evolutionary creationism. They’re often full of contradictions and consistently based on uninformed, overly literal interpretations of ancient texts.
Here’s a quick example of the kind of contradictions I mean from a recent review of my Genesis 1 and Science in the Constructive Conversation series:
“Since evolution cannot be demonstrated by the scientific method of observation, I feel it is no more than the religion of scientism. The timetable of millions of years is also based on man’s observation.”
I’ve italicized the two times this gentleman uses “observation” because it gets at the heart of the contradiction. Basically, what he’s saying is “Evolution can’t be demonstrated by what is observed and its timetables of millions of years are based on observation.” Huh?
And then there’s the mishandling of ancient texts by treating them like a twenty-first century news source or science textbook. Here are a few examples from Answers in Genesis that a friend and member of our church plant recently shared with me:
“In many instances, the belief in millions of years totally contradicts the clear teaching of Scripture. Here are just three:
- Thorns—Fossil thorns are found in the fossil record, supposedly hundreds of millions of years old. So these supposedly existed millions of years before man. However, the Bible makes it clear that thorns only came into existence after the Curse.“Then to Adam He said, ‘Because you have… eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying You shall not eat of it’: Cursed is the ground for your sake…. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you” (Genesis 3:17-18).
- Disease—Evidence of diseases like cancer, brain tumors, and arthritis, can be found in the fossil remains of animals said to be millions of years old. The Scripture teaches that after God finished creating everything, with man as the pinnacle of creation, He described the creation as ‘very good’ (Genesis 1:31, emphasis added). Certainly, God calling cancer and brain tumors ‘very good’ does not fit with the nature of God described in Scripture.
- Diet—Genesis 1:29-30 explains that Adam and Eve and all the animals were vegetarian before sin entered the world. However, the fossil record includes many examples of animals eating other animals—supposedly millions of years before and thus before sin.”[1]
Over the next two weeks, I’d like to respond to #1 and #2 above. If you’re interested in my response to #3, you can pick up Genesis 1 and Science or see here.
Again, below is my response to #1 and next week I’ll respond to #2:
Written in the agrarian, ancient world of the Near East, Genesis 3 has both a literal and metaphorical purpose. It has nothing to do, however, with proving a young earth or discrediting evolutionary creationism. Yes, the text does point to something real but it serves a larger purpose of vividly illustrating the frustration of the curse—a frustration that many of us know well. Work itself is not the problem. In fact, when work is connected with our passions or skills it can be pleasurable and even exhilarating. But when you add entropy to the mix—the fact that everything is constantly breaking down and wearing out (including us!), Murphy’s law, inadequate resources, poorly designed or constructed materials, increased red tape due to security threats, extreme weather conditions, etc., we feel the thorns. In other words, you don’t need to live in an agrarian society to feel the painful, frustrating “thorn and thistle” effects of the fall.
Whether you’re working outside on a construction project (like my friend, Reid, above), mowing your lawn for the umpteenth time, or stuck inside at a computer or desk dealing with unrealistic policies and people, this passage is for you. Even if you’re retired or at home dealing with endless laundry and sick kids, I hope you’ll find Old Testament Scholar Ian Provan’s observations reorienting and helpful in some way. You are not alone in your struggles:
“Human beings are created to work the garden and take care of it (Genesis 2:15). They are made to rule and subdue the earth (1:28). This would have always required effort, and indeed pain… Farming hurts, and it would have even in a world that lacked “thorns and thistles”… In the minds of the authors of Genesis 1-3, however, no such world ever existed. Thorns and thistles are already part of the vegetation of the earth in Genesis 1-2, and they assuredly come under the heading of the Hebrew siakh, the inedible plants described in Genesis 2:5 (and translated by the NIV as “shrubs”). They are not newly created in Genesis 3 any more than “plants of the field” (Heb. ‘eseb hassadeh) that are good to eat…
It is not that there will be thorns and thistles now, where there were none before. It is just that work will now involve more pain than before. It will be experienced in a different way—as a struggle with the earth that is more reluctant to give up good things but insists instead on producing “thorns and thistles for you” (Genesis 3:18). The wording of this clause is strange, and it underlines that it is not the world that has changed but people’s experience of the world. People and land now live under a curse. The land will still provide food, but only a greater cost. Both edible and inedible plants already exist, and both will continue to grow. But what Genesis 3 is keen to impress on the reader is that much harder work will now be required to grow enough of the edible plants to survive.” (120-121)
Iain Provan, Seriously Dangerous Religion (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2014), 120-121.
[1] Ken Ham and Bodie Hodges, How Do We Know That the Bible is True? (Green Forest, AZ: Master Books, 2019) 287.