Evolution is a concept that many of us find rather difficult to define. Most of us will probably associate evolution with materialist and atheistic scientists who seek to explain everything by natural causes, because their pride leads them to refuse to bend the knee to what they do not see. Or perhaps we might associate it with Theistic evolutionists, people who want to believe in God but who have been so blinded by rationalism, and the elevation of modern science to almost infallible status, that they give more importance to human science, than they do to Divine Revelation and its traditional interpretation.

in an exchange with Dr. Edward E. Max

© 2000 L.M. Spetner. All Rights Reserved. [Last Modified: 09 March 2006]
Originally published on The True.Origin Archive web site

Dr. Edward E. Max posted an essay entitled The Evolution of Improved Fitness by Random Mutation Plus Selection on The TalkOrigins Archive. He asked me for my comments and, as a result, I wrote a critique of his essay (of his version updated 12 July 1999) and sent it to him on 2 August 2000.

To conclude this whole question of faith and its various branches, we have still to consider, Venerable Brethren, what the Modernists have to say about the development of the one and the other. First of all they lay down the general principle that in a living religion everything is subject to change, and must in fact be changed. In this way they pass to what is practically their principal doctrine, namely, evolution. To the laws of evolution everything is subject under penalty of death – dogma, Church, worship, the Books we revere as sacred, even faith itself.

Pope Saint Pius X – Pascendi Dominici Gregis.

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen 1:1).[1] He created the light, which He separated from the darkness; the waters, the sky, and the land; the plants and the trees; the sun, the moon, and the stars; the fish, the birds, and the animals (Gen 1:2-25). “And God saw that it was good” (Gen 1:25). Then, as the crowning jewel of His creation, “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Gen 1:27). God gave man dominion over all the other creatures that He created (Gen 1:28). “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold it was very good” (Gen 1:31).

Dear Mr. Owen;

I left the Catholic Church in my late teens. I was doing things that made me feel guilty and going to Mass made it worse so instead of repenting, seeking God’s forgiveness and the Grace to change, I went my own way. (The song we used at my 8th grade Catholic school graduation was Sinatra’s “I Did it My Way”!)

During my 20+ years away from the Church I became enamored of the Eastern philosophies of Chuang Tzu, Lao Tzu, Buddhism, Baghwan Shree Rashneesh. To recover from a serious compulsive drinking problem I joined a twelve-step program and began to seek God more systematically in 1988. I read a fair amount of Buddhist literature but also attended Unity church services, First Metaphysical Church of Flint services, read all kinds of pop-psych and new age literature, read some Catholic materials sent by my sister Linda, investigated alternative healing methods, trained in a TM offshoot called Silent Sharing, and studied massage therapy. I went to a Church of the Nazarene service once and attended Mass for a few months while dating a Catholic woman. No conversion yet.

In 1998, while working with my sister Linda in a network marketing business, a good friend of my sister’s made a deal with me that he would buy some of the stuff we were selling if I would agree to pray the Rosary daily for two weeks and ask Mary to reveal her Son to me. Being open-minded and wanting to make the sale; I agreed. A series of events followed that in hindsight seem to have been marvelously orchestrated.

A couple months later I took a part time job in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I wanted sunshine and mountains and got that plus a whole lot more. Next, I met Jennifer (my future wife) who was also a twelve-step group member. We began to date. Jenny was an atheist convert to evangelical protestant Christianity. I would not listen to any of her talk about Jesus being the only way. I firmly believed there were “many spokes to the wheel” that led to God at the center. One of the things that interested me in Jenny’s collection was a variety of Creation Science videos and books.

I remember watching a debate between Phillip E. Johnson and William B. Provine first. Then in quick succession I watched a series of videos from Answers in Genesis by Ken Ham and Gary Parker. I pulled out a Bible and starting reading it at Genesis. I read Darwin on Trial by Johnson and Bones of Contention by Lubenow, Creation: Facts of Life by Parker and Genesis and the Decay of the Nations by Ham. In the meantime my sister Linda was sending me Catholic materials to read and audio tapes. Also, I was attending Mass with Jenny and her three girls every other week. She wasn’t even Catholic but that’s where she was going to church. The long and the short of it is that things started to make sense to me—Creation, the Bible, morality. In talking to my sister during this time I remember her saying “The Holy Spirit is opening up your heart.” It seemed to be true.

Dinosaurs were my favorite topic in second and third grade. I knew the names of the geologic eras and the supposed sequence of events. It was amazing to discover all the holes in the evolutionary scheme of things—to discover the inaccuracies in carbon and radiometric dating, the lack of fossil record of any transitional species, the genetic evidence for common parents to all mankind, the frauds perpetuated in the so-called human evolutionary line, and the way micro-evolution (genetic variation, variety within species) has been palmed off for proof of macro-evolution (one species turning into another species).

After about ten months of investigation it became clear that I needed to become a Christian and return to the sacraments. That was in the fall of the Jubilee Year 2000. Since then I have continued to study Creation Science. The Kolbe Center for the Study of Creation has been a great help with many excellent resources. I now teach catechism to 7th, 8th and 9th graders and always present some of this evidence for creation. I am eternally grateful to my wife Jenny and to all the wonderful people I have known who had the courage to honestly explore the evidence for themselves instead of accepting the pseudo-science about macro-evolution that most of us get spoon-fed all our lives.

Rick Mudd
Santa Fe, New Mexico