“It’s Here, so It Must Have Evolved.”

A conclusion does not prove the premises are true. That is, if the answer is “four,” we could arrive at that any number of ways: 2 + 2, 5 - 1, etc. In the same way, evolutionists often assume that since certain species or traits exist, this is proof of evolution because that’s how it must have happened. This argument, however, is self-reflexive and useless. The Bible offers another (and more sound) framework for how those traits and species came to be.1

An evolutionist with this argument commits the fallacy of begging the question. Since he assumes what he is trying to prove—how we got here—he uses circular reasoning. The argument is fallacious because it’s arbitrary. A creationist could just as easily respond, “It’s here, so it must have been created.” Dr. Jason Lisle gives some more examples of begging the question:

• “Evolution must be true because it is a fact.”
• “It makes no sense to deny evolution; it is a well-established fact of nature.”
• “Creation cannot be true because you would have to ignore all that scientific evidence.”
• “The Bible cannot be true because it contains miracles. And miracles would violate the laws of nature!”
• “The Bible cannot be correct because it says that stars were created in a single day; but we now know that it takes millions of years for stars to form.”
• “The Bible cannot be true because it teaches that the earth is only thousands of years old; whereas, we know the earth is billions of years old.”2

Evolutionists with those arguments are arbitrarily assuming what they are supposed to be proving. According to Dr. Lisle, identifying circular reasoning is a key component to challenging old earth views:

Old earth arguments are all based on the assumptions of naturalism (nature is all that there is) and a large degree of uniformitarianism (present rates and processes are representative of past rates and processes). Then, by extrapolating from present rates of various earth processes, the person estimates how long it would take to build up or erode certain geological features or how long it would take for a radioisotope to decay.

But the Bible denies naturalism and uniformitarianism (e.g., erosion rates during the global flood). By assuming naturalism and uniformitarianism, the critic has already merely assumed that the Bible is wrong. He then uses this assumption to conclude that the Bible is wrong. His reasoning is circular.3

Molecules-to-man evolution is built on anti-biblical assumptions. Therefore, creationists can challenge those assumptions and expose evolution as a philosophy made up by man as an alternative to the historical account of the Bible, which claims to be the Word of the Creator God.

God is not pleased by the foolish unbelief of those who reject the ultimate standard of His Word. After Christ’s death, Resurrection, and appearance to more than 500 eyewitnesses (1 Corinthians 15:6), people still refused to believe. Jesus had previously said, “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets [the Old Testament], neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead” (Luke 16:31).

People cling to ideas like evolution because their hearts are hard, preferring their sin rather than submission to the Lord. “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil” (John 3:19; cf. Romans 2:5). But the good news is that the Creator can make sinners into new creations through repentance and faith in Christ (i.e., being spiritually born again, not “evolving” into better, moral do-gooders). Christians are living testimonies of God’s creative power!

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:17–21)