In the comments of my
Kent Hovind post, Nick, a young-earth creationist (YEC), asks:
Do you believe in evolution? I might as well just come out and tell you… I don'’t. I am a YEC as Kent Hovind is. But I am not closed minded. Can you please give me proof, any proof for evolution[?]
Nick is a bit younger than me, and at his age, I was also a fervent YEC, ready to defend the faith with the piles of "evidence" for creationism against what I perceived to be the "transparent lies" of the evolutionists. Having been there, I feel that honest questions like his deserve complete answers. This is a very commonly asked question due to the fact that YEC leaders have convinced so many congregations that there is not a sure-fire evolutionist answer.
The answer to the question is absolutely, resoundingly
yes - there are innumerable evidences for evolution. But, speaking from experience, I was not convinced to abandon my YEC convictions by some single, simple proof. My transformation in thinking resulted from several years of detailed study. My thoughts changed in a two-step process. First, I was convinced by scientific evidence that YEC theories are completely unworkable. I was assured of this long before I considered evolution to be a viable alternative. Second, I slowly and meticulously studied evidences for evolution, and I now find it to be the most plausible explanation for human origins.
Please note: it is not a matter of simple
belief, it is a matter of
study and
truth.
I certainly owe the readers of this blog a complete biography of my scientific and spiritual journeys. But, as this is my first day off in a very long time, my answer to Nick's question will constrained to a list of references for further reading. Included among them are a multitude of evidences for evolution.
As a starting point, these websites offer excellent introductions to evolution:
Understanding Evolution - http://evolution.berkeley.edu/Evolution - http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/A good repository of information and debates on evolution is Talk.Origins:
http://www.talkorigins.org/On the Talk.Origins archive is one of the best repositories of evidences for evolution. This is written at a more advanced level than most material on the Internet. It is worth wading through, however.
29+ Evidences for Macroevolution - http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/comdesc/Similarly, Talk.Origins also maintains an archive of the distortions that YEC leaders put out there to mislead the flock on scientific matters. It is arranged by topic. If you hear a creationist claim, check out the rebuttal here:
Index to Creationist Claims - http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/Similarly, the following site exists specifically to counter every claim Kent Hovind has ever made:
An Analysis of Kent Hovind (Dr. Dino) - http://www.kent-hovind.com/Finally, an author whose work was of great interest to me while I was leaving the YEC fold was Glenn Morton. A professional geophysicist, Glenn worked at and published research for the Institute for Creation Research (ICR) until his scientific honesty led him away from the ICR party line. Though he has suffered a split with ICR's YEC theory and become an evolutionist, he has attempted to maintain his Christian faith. [
I have not maintained this same faith, and I do not agree with his theological discussions.] Glenn's site is hard to navigate, but the content is worth it. A multitude of articles can be found here:
http://home.entouch.net/dmd/dmd.htmNick, I sincerely wish you the best of luck wrestling with this issue. Take your time with this - a real answer takes real study! Make sure that in the end you are convinced because of your own thoughts and conclusions - not those impressed upon you by a YEC teacher, by a scientist, or by me. But in all this, keep this as your standard of measure: what can be shown to be
TRUE.
Feel free to keep asking me questions.
