Evolutionary theory is only a theory, but often accepted as scientific and historic fact. The theory, made extremely popular by the likes of Charles Darwin and his philosophical progeny, colors the entirety of a person’s worldview. If one believes that evolution on a macro scale is both possible and legitimate as an explanation for man’s place in the cosmos, then things like ethics, metaphysics, and even historical studies cease to matter.

In fact, if evolutionary theory is believed, nothing truly matters at all. After all, the cosmos is theorized to be the result of an accidental cosmic bang—the earth is supposed to be 4.5 billion years old, and man is thought to be the achievement of millions of years of macro-evolutionary advancements, climbing the scale of progress from accidental, protoplasmic goo, to monkey, to Neanderthal, to homosapien. In such a theoretical system, nothing really matters because history is always forgotten, ethics are invented in the minds evolved pieces of goo, and there’s no real meaning behind anything. 

Of course, the entire theory loses traction once one begins to seriously ask the question, “Where did the cosmic big bang originate? Where did the necessary matter come from?” Though more theories are offered, none are truly compelling. There must be something that created the something, because something does not simply begin to exist on its own. What the origin of the universe requires is the eternal existence of a transcendent Being, who did not come into existence but simply always has been. And, as it turns out, Christianity offers such a Being in the transcendent, eternal, and Triune God of Scripture. 

Scripture and a More Compelling Origin

The Scriptures offer the most compelling alternative to the Darwinian Theory of Evolution. The Bible gives man a compelling meaning in the cosmos, imbuing his life with purpose and meaning with the insistence that man was intelligently designed by God, in the image of God, and for the purposes of God. Rather than being a cosmic accident, the Bible speaks of man as having been intentionally and intelligently designed by God. 

In Genesis 1:26-27, the Bible records man’s origins by explaining: “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.””

Right out of the gate, the Bible explains that God created man to be in His own image, He created mankind to have dominion over the earth, and He created male and female so that mankind could, ultimately, procreate and fill the earth in his subduing of it, for the glory of God. Then, God blessed the first man and woman as He sent them forth to take dominion. 

It does not take one a long time to see how these truths completely change one’s worldview and outlook on man’s place in the cosmos. Suddenly, human life matters and is imbued with meaning. If man is in God’s image, then every life is precious and valuable. Murder is wrong because God created humans to reflect His glory upon the earth, and to extinguish that glory by the taking of a life is one of the worst things a person can do. 

Suddenly, an entire ethical system can be established, based on the Word of God. This is because, since man is made in God’s image, and since God has spoken to man in His Word, man must listen and obey what his divine Creator commands. Thus, the basis of love is established; man must love his fellow man, made in the image of God, because he is called to love his God, and to love the Creator necessitates one love His creation as well—especially those beings bearing His own likeness and image. 

Mankind also has a purpose. He’s not a cosmic mistake, but a person made and fashioned by God Himself, for a specific purpose. Though there is not enough space here to describe and detail all the things human beings may be called to do in their lifetime, at the most foundational level, all people exist for the purpose of subduing the environment around him, for the glory of God. This doesn’t mean that man simply utilizes and warps his environment to achieve supremacy and dominance over various animal species to make himself the top of the food chain, and the one most fit for survival; it means that man rules the earth as viceregents, reflecting God’s glory every place he goes. 

And, whereas an evolutionary worldview would permit abominations like abortion, the Christian worldview can allow for no such injustices. The fact that man was made in God’s image means that from the womb to the tomb, life is meaningful and valuable. At the very moment of conception—and in one sense, from eternity past—that person has had an eternally designed purpose, created by the Creator Himself. 

Evolution’s Belittling of Man

We have already seen how the Biblical view of creation offers a far more compelling worldview than that offered by evolutionary theory. This is because the Biblical view of creation is the true and historical view, as opposed to evolutionary theory, which is merely an attempt to obscure the origins of mankind. Man was created in the image of God, and despite sin corrupting and marring that image, the image still exists even in unrepentant sinners.

This means that mankind is more than evolved goo, more than evolved amphibians with opposable thumbs, more than advanced apes, and is actually of the greatest worth and value in the created order. 

In fact, as the Christian philosopher, Boethius, wrote in The Consolation of Philosophy, man is actually the pinnacle of God’s creation. But, when concepts like evolution blur reality, the result is that man forgets his place in creation. “The condition of human nature is just this; man towers above the rest of creation so long as he realizes his own nature, and when he forgets it, he sinks lower than the beasts. For other living things to be ignorant of themselves, is natural; but for man it is a defect.”

Evolutionary theory is not only wrong, but absolutely defective. Those who buy into it become, by implication, defective in their ethical reasoning, philosophical understanding, and metaphysical upholding. Apart from recognizing his origins—that he is made by God and in God’s image—there can be no advancement of civilization. Perhaps one of the most damnable results of evolutionary theory is that it evolves and advances nothing. Rather, it demoralizes and devolves man’s thinking until, eventually, man finds himself staring into the abyss, and the abyss stares back at him. Unthinking. Unfeeling. Uncaring. 

It’s untruth, unreality. And the only solution is to return to the biblical worldview of man created by God, in His own image.