Ken Ham Declares Darwin Was Wrong Day

On February 2 a resolution was introduced to the United States House of Representatives that seeks support to have February 12 recognized nationwide as “Darwin Day.” This is reportedly an attempt to recognize "Charles Darwin as a worthy symbol on which to focus and around which to build a global celebration of science and humanity intended to promote a common bond among all of Earth's peoples.” This follows on the heels of an announcement that Delaware governor Jack Markell has announced “Charles Darwin Day” in the state of Delaware. This day will be “a time to reflect and celebrate the importance of [Darwin’s] scientific achievements.” It will be recognized on February 12 to commemorate Darwin’s birthday, February 12, 1809.

Governor Markell and the state of Delaware are not the first to celebrate Darwin on February 12. Many secularists, and sadly even many churches, have commemorated Darwin’s birthday over the years with Darwin Day celebrations.

But those who promote Charles Darwin Day are really promoting an anti-God religion. The evolutionary worldview is an attempt to explain the universe and life without God. It’s a religion of naturalism and atheism. Sadly, many Christians buy into this religion and simply squeeze God into the gaps somewhere. By doing this, it is really no different than the Israelites who adopted the idolatry of the pagan nations and added it to their religious system.

Darwin Was Wrong Day

In response to “Charles Darwin Day” in Delaware, Ken Ham, CEO of Answers in Genesis, has declared Darwin Was Wrong Day. Ken responded with the following:

Secularists are becoming increasingly aggressive and intolerant in promoting their anti-God philosophy. Evolutionary ideas provide the foundation for this worldview because they seemingly allow mankind the ability to explain the existence of life and the universe without God. As Christians, we need to be bold in proclaiming the truth of God’s Word to a hurting (groaning, Romans 8:22) world. This year, on February 12, instead of celebrating Darwin’s anti-God religion, we can take this opportunity to show the world that Darwin’s ideas about our supposed evolutionary origins were wrong, and that God’s Word is true, from the very beginning. Let’s make February 12 Darwin Was Wrong Day and point people to the truth of God’s Word.

No Life from Non-Life

The Charles Darwin Day statement from the Delaware governor calls evolution “the foundation of modern biology, an essential tool in understanding the development of life on earth.” But, in reality, biological evolution goes directly against what we know from studying observational science.

The Law of Biogenesis states that life only comes from other life; life never arises from non-life. There are no known exceptions to this law. Everywhere we look we see life, but all of this life came from other life (i.e., pine trees come from other pine trees, sparrows come from other sparrows, and bacteria come from other bacteria). Despite years of searching and experimenting, secularists just cannot illustrate (other than by conjecture) any mechanism by which non-living chemicals could ever become living. Yet, according to evolution, the law of biogenesis had to have been broken at least once when the first single-celled life emerged from non-living matter. But there is absolutely no known mechanism that can do this!

There never was a time when life arose from non-life because life came directly from the Life-giver.

While the Law of Biogenesis is inconsistent with naturalistic evolutionary ideas about the origin of life, it is perfectly consistent with a biblical model of origins. There never was a time when life arose from non-life because life came directly from the Life-giver, our Creator God, just as it says in Genesis. And that’s what observational science confirms!

No Mechanism for Evolution

As if having no verifiable explanation for the origin of life was not a big enough problem for evolution, there’s another equally formidable challenge to Darwin's idea. There is no known mechanism that can change one kind of animal into a totally different kind. Yes, different species can form within a kind—but that is not biological evolution. Such changes only reflect the incredible amount of information in the genes of each kind that result in considerable variability.

Evolution is supposed to largely be driven by natural selection and mutations coupled with lots and lots (and lots!) of time. But evolution requires the addition of new information into the DNA of a living organism that adds new traits. For example, you can’t change an amoeba into a hummingbird without adding a lot of new information to produce new features! New features require new information, and molecules-to-man evolution is all about adding new features. But this is a major problem for evolutionists because there is no known mechanism that can add brand-new information into DNA resulting in new traits that lead from amoebas to hummingbirds!

Darwin's proposed mechanism for evolution, natural selection, can’t add new information for new traits into the genome. Rather, what is called “natural selection” works on existing information. It’s actually the exact opposite of evolution. While biological evolution requires an addition of new information and traits, natural selection usually results in a loss of genetic information. As organisms become more adapted to their environments, they lose genetic variability. This is what one would expect based on the Bible’s account that God created organisms “after their kind.”

Take bacteria, for example. Suppose an antibiotic is being used to kill a certain type of harmful bacteria. A small portion of the population, however, is missing a certain enzyme (likely due to mutations). This is the same enzyme that interacts with the antibiotic to kill the bacteria. Since this small population is lacking that enzyme, they won’t die and will continue to produce more resistant bacteria like themselves. So they gained resistance. But is this evolution? Not at all. The antibiotic resistance was the result of a loss of information and a trait, not a gain! It’s the opposite of evolution.

Mutations cannot add new information resulting in new traits required for molecules-to-man evolution.

Mutations also cannot provide the needed new information and new traits. Mutations are changes in DNA and, supposedly, these mutations help drive molecules-to-man evolution. However, most mutations are negative or neutral to the organism. A few mutations have been known to provide a positive benefit to the organism in certain conditions, but these do not result in an increase of new information and traits. Usually these beneficial mutations result in the loss of information and the loss of a trait (such as eyes in cave fish). So mutations cannot add new information resulting in new traits required for molecules-to-man evolution either!

While evolution is unable to explain how massive amounts of information can arise naturally and randomly, this fits perfectly with a biblical worldview. God created the original kinds in Genesis and placed within each one the genetic information needed to survive in a changing environment. God knew that the Fall and the earth-changing global Flood of Noah’s day would come and, in His wisdom, He designed organisms with the genetic variability to be able to survive in different environments. That’s why members of the cat kind can live in such incredibly diverse places as lions on the grassy Serengeti in Africa, tigers in the steamy jungles of India, cougars in the coniferous forests of North America, and domestic cats on couches in our living rooms!

Evolution Is Bad Science

Far from being the “foundation of modern biology,” evolution has actually held back scientific discoveries. If you start with the wrong foundation and the wrong beliefs about the past, as Darwin did, you will reach erroneous conclusions. This is exactly what has happened with evolutionary biology.

Evolution predicts that the human body should be filled with vestigial organs. These are supposed to be largely useless leftovers from our evolutionary past that have either lost their function or have reduced functionality. Over the years, around 180 organs have been labelled as vestigial, such as our appendix, coccyx, and pineal gland. This label hindered research into the actual function of these organs because, well, why bother researching a leftover of evolution? But now all of these organs have been shown to have a function! Evolutionary beliefs held back scientific research and discovery because they started with the wrong foundation and therefore reached the wrong conclusions.

The DNA of living organisms used to be considered full of “junk” DNA. Human DNA was thought to consist of 98% useless DNA that was the cumulative leftover from our evolutionary ancestors. For years these massive portions of DNA were neglected in study because they did not have an obvious function, and evolution predicts junk DNA. But more research is quickly coming to light that shows that likely 80% of our DNA is functional, and many researchers suspect that number will rise to 100%.

If God created all life, we should expect it to exhibit intelligent design.

In both of these cases, evolutionary presuppositions held back scientific research. While the data did not match evolutionary predictions, it does match what is to be expected from the biblical creation model. If God created all life, we should expect it to exhibit intelligent design. Therefore our bodies should not be full of vestigial organs or junk DNA. Of course, because of the Curse and the Fall, things do not work quite the way God designed them to because of mutations and other defects in a fallen world. Nonetheless, we should expect our bodies to be well designed, and this is exactly what we find.

The science of biochemistry and genetics confirms the Bible’s account of origins.

Darwin’s Impact

Despite their inconsistency with the observable data, Darwinian ideas have been the dominant view among scientists for decades. This view has remained largely uncontested in secular universities and institutions because those who dare disagree are often punished for doing so. The evolutionary worldview of atheistic naturalism is being taught exclusively to generations of students, most of whom are not being alerted to the major scientific problems with it. Darwin’s impact was a legacy of anti-God ideas about the history of life that have been taught as fact to millions. And the reason why so many scientists believe this impossible process is because it is a spiritual issue. As God tells us in Romans 1, those who reject the creator God are “without excuse,” and “suppress the truth in unrighteousness.”

But Darwin was wrong! Life did not arise by chance, nor did one kind of animal turn into another totally different kind. Rather, life was created by God, just as it says in Genesis. We need to be bold in proclaiming the truth of God’s Word to a world that has rejected it in favor of secular ideas about the history of life and the universe.

Celebrate Darwin Was Wrong Day!

Use the commemorations of Darwin’s birthday as an opportunity to tell others about the truth of God’s Word. Share this article with your fellow students, family, friends, coworkers, and church. Instead of celebrating the anti-God legacy of Darwin, we need to show the world the truth of God’s Word, from the very beginning, and encourage them to put their faith in our Creator, Jesus Christ.