By Hank Zumach, January 26, 2009

We all need to respect the right of people like Faith Blum to have and express their opinions. However, one must wonder why, if they were to be published at all, such opinions were published by the Tribune as a “Community Columnist” as opposed to an article on the Faith page.

Her explanation of evolution is grossly inaccurate. Blum’s remarkable display of ignorance would be laughable in nearly any other setting. Her apparent belief that about 3,500 years ago the entire planet was covered in water and the only humans left alive consisted of eight members of one family, floating around in a homemade boat full of dinosaurs, would make for good Saturday morning cartoon material if it were not based on fundamentalist religious myth.

Many of the Tribune’s community columnist contributions have been well-written, thoughtful, and informative. Last Sunday’s was not one of them.

Creationism is right and evolution is wrong
By Faith Blum

A very influential man was born on Feb. 12, 1809. He was born in England, was known as the father of evolution and went from almost becoming a clergyman to trying to disprove creation.

His name was Charles Darwin. This year is the celebration of his 200th birthday. What do we really know about Darwin’s theory on The Origin of Species? Both sides, creation and evolution, have presuppositions. When scientists look at the evidence, they look at it through their presupposed ideas. When a creationist and an evolutionist look at a site where extinct animals are fossilized, they each see the site differently.

The creationist looks at the site and says, “The worldwide flood killed off most of these animals, and thus we have these fossils. The climate after the flood was so different from before the flood that the animals coming off the ark slowly died off.”

Meanwhile, the evolutionist says, “This site was once covered in water, and over millions of years, the animals were buried and fossilized.” Or, as a recent Tribune article said, “The scientists … say their report offers up … proof it was a comet that set off the sudden, thousand-year freeze and wiped out the big animals of the era.”

Both scientists had presuppositions, saw the same evidence, and reached different conclusions.

The same is true with the origin of life. Creationists believe that the universe and everything in it was created by God. Evolutionists believe that it all came about by random chance.

An analogy: “The Evolution of Cars.”

A man decided to research how cars came to be. He went to the junk yard with the hypothesis that cars had evolved. As he was walking through the junk yard, he found a unicycle. Farther on, he found a bicycle. Still farther, he found a tricycle. Next, he came upon a Volkswagen Beetle, then a Porsche with snazzy leather seats, a minivan with heated seats, and still later he found an 18-wheel semi outfitted with a bed, refrigerator, etc. Having found his evidence all in order, he was convinced that cars had evolved from a unicycle over millions of years.

Ridiculous? Of course, but how is it any different from evolution? Evolutionists say that humans evolved from single-cell organisms, slowly becoming more and more complex. And yet, not even the fanciest, most complex, well-designed car can even come close to the complexity of DNA!

Which theory takes more faith to believe? That a creative God created everything, or that by random chance, boiling mud produced a cell that became a man?

If evolution is true, what is the meaning of life? We are born, live our life however we please and die.

However, if creation is true, then we are born to give glory to God, live our life in God’s plan, and, if we have accepted Jesus Christ as our savior, we will go to heaven.