Persuasive Speech

Whited

Am Lit/Comp

TOPIC: EVOLUTION WAS NOT USED TO CREATE LIFE

THESIS/POSITION STATEMENT: EVOLUTION WAS NOT USED TO CREATE LIFE BECAUSE IT IS NOT COMPATIBLE WITH THE BIBLE, IS NOT SUPPORTED BY SCIENTIFIC METHOD, AND IS MERELY A THEORY WITH LITTLE CREDIBILITY.

  1. INTRODUCTION
  2. HOOK: Life everywhere around us. Evident in the humming of insects, singing of birds, rustlings of small animals in underbrush. It exists in the icy polar regions and in parched deserts. Present from sea’s sunlit surface to its darkest depths. High in the atmosphere tiny creatures float about. Beneath our feet untold trillions of microorganisms at work in the soil, making it fertile for the growing of green plants, which sustain other forms of life. Many people wonder how all got here. A variety of answers offered from classroom to the church auditorium. Some ask: Is it possible that God used evolution to make men from beasts? Did God direct bacteria to develop into fish and then to continue developing through reptiles and mammals, so that finally a race of apes became humans? Some scientists and religious leaders claim to believe both the theory of evolution and the Bible. Perhaps you have wondered, ‘Is the belief that man evolved from animals afact?’*****
  3. THESIS/POSITION STATEMENT: No, God did not use evolution to create life because this teaching is not compatible with the Bible, is not supported by the scientific method, and is merely a theory with little credibility.
  4. BODY
  5. POINT 1—NOT COMPATIBLE WITH BIBLE
  6. Evolutionists generally claim that a population of animals gradually developed into a population of humans, denying that there was once only one man.
  7. Bible presents very different picture. Says that we originate from one man, Adam. Presents Adam as historical person. Gives us names of wife, some of his children. Tells us in detail what he did, what he said, when he lived, and when he died. Jesus did not consider account as just a story. When addressing well-educated religious leaders, said [READ Matthew 19:3-5) Jesus then quoted the words about Adam and Eve recorded at Genesis 2:24.
  8. Luke, a Bible writer and a careful historian, presented Adam as a person who was as real as Jesus. Luke traced Jesus’ genealogy back to the first man. (Luke 3:23-38)
  9. Also, when apostle Paul spoke before audience that included philosophers who were educated in famous Greek schools, told them: “The God that made the world and all the things in it ... made out of one man every nation of men, to dwell upon the entire surface of the earth.” (Acts 17:24-26) Clearly, the Bible teaches that we descended from “one man.” Is what the Bible says about man’s original condition compatible with evolution?
  10. According to the Bible, the Creator made first man perfect. It is impossible for God to make things any other way. The creation account says: “God proceeded to create the man in his image ... After that God saw everything he had made and, look! it was very good.” (Genesis 1:27,31) What is a perfect man like?
  11. Perfect man has free will, able to imitate God’s qualities completely. The Bible says: “The true God made mankind upright, but they themselves have sought out many plans.” (Ecclesiastes 7:29) Adam chose to rebel against God. By his rebellion, Adam lost perfection for himself and offspring. Man’s fall from perfection explains why we often disappoint ourselves, even though we want to do what is good. The apostle Paul wrote: “What I wish, this I do not practice; but what I hate is what I do.”—Romans 7:15.
  12. A perfect man would live forever in perfect health, according to the Bible. It is evident from what God said to Adam that if the first man had not disobeyed God, he would never have died. (Genesis 2:16, 17; 3:22,23) Jehovah would not have declared the creation of man to be “very good” if the man had a tendency to get sick or to rebel. The fall from perfection explains why the human body, though marvelously designed, is susceptible to deformities and disease.
  13. Evolution is therefore incompatible with the Bible. Evolution presents modern man as an improving animal. The Bible presents modern man as the degenerating descendant of a perfect man.
  14. Idea that God directed evolution in order to produce man is also incompatible with what the Bible says about God’s personality.
  15. If God guided the process of evolution, it would mean that he guided mankind into its present diseased and distressed state. However, the Bible says of God: “The Rock, perfect is his activity, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness, with whom there is no injustice; righteous and upright is he. They have acted ruinously on their own part; they are not his children, the defect is their own.” (Deuteronomy 32:4,5).
  16. Cannot believe in evolution and in Jesus Christ. “Christ died for our sins.” One of basic teachings of Christianity. (1Corinthians 15:3; 1Peter 3:18) The Bible teaches that sin is the cause of death. The Bible contrasts Adam with Jesus Christ and says: “Just as in Adam all are dying, so also in the Christ all will be made alive.” (1Corinthians 15:22) By laying down his life, Jesus paid the price for the sin that we inherited from Adam. Do you see, then, that evolution is incompatible with Christianity? If we doubt that “in Adam all are dying,” how can we hope that “in the Christ all will be made alive”?
  17. POINT 2: NOT CONFIRMED BY SCIENTIFIC METHOD
  18. Scientific method: Observe what happens; based on those observations, form a theory as to what may be true; test the theory by further observations and by experiments; and watch to see if the predictions based on the theory are fulfilled. Is this the method followed by those who believe in and teach evolution?
  19. Astronomer Robert Jastrow says: “To their chagrin [scientists] have no clear-cut answer, because chemists have never succeeded in reproducing nature’s experiments on the creation of life out of nonliving matter. Scientists do not know how that happened.”—The Enchanted Loom: Mind in the Universe (New York, 1981), p. 19.
  20. Evolutionist Loren Eiseley acknowledged: “After having chided the theologian for his reliance on myth and miracle, science found itself in the unenviable position of having to create a mythology of its own: namely, the assumption that what, after long effort, could not be proved to take place today had, in truth, taken place in the primeval past.”—The Immense Journey (New York, 1957), p. 199.
  21. Some might argue that evolution is accepted by all in science community. HOWEVER, according to New Scientist: “An increasing number of scientists, most particularly a growing number of evolutionists ... argue that Darwinian evolutionary theory is no genuine scientific theory at all. ... Many of the critics have the highest intellectual credentials.”—June25, 1981, p. 828.
  22. Physicist H. S. Lipson said: “The only acceptable explanation is creation. I know that this is anathema to physicists, as indeed it is to me, but we must not reject a theory that we do not like if the experimental evidence supports it.” (Italics added.)—Physics Bulletin, 1980, Vol. 31, p. 138.
  23. POINT 3: EVOLUTION ONLY A THEORY; NOT CREDIBLE
  24. scientificFossil Record—what does it show? Darwin acknowledged: “If numerous species ... have really started into life at once, the fact would be fatal to the theory of evolution.” (The Origin of Species, New York, 1902, Part Two, p. 83). Fossil record shows that life DID begin all at once.
  25. Darwin’s Origin of Species (London, 1956) says: “As we know, there is a great divergence of opinion among biologists, not only about the causes of evolution but even about the actual process. This divergence exists because the evidence is unsatisfactory and does not permit any certain conclusion. It is therefore right and proper to draw the attention of the non-scientific public to the disagreements about evolution.”—By W. R. Thompson
  26. “A century after Darwin’s death, we still have not the slightest demonstrable or even plausible idea of how evolution really took place—and in recent years this has led to an extraordinary series of battles over the whole question. ... A state of almost open war exists among the evolutionists themselves, with every kind of [evolutionary] sect urging some new modification.”—C. Booker (London Times writer), The Star, (Johannesburg), April20, 1982, p. 19.
  27. The scientific magazine Discover said: “Evolution ... is not only under attack by fundamentalist Christians, but is also being questioned by reputable scientists. Among paleontologists, scientists who study the fossil record, there is growing dissent.”—October 1980, p. 88.
  28. “Many scientists succumb to the temptation to be dogmatic, ... over and over again the question of the origin of the species has been presented as if it were finally settled. Nothing could be further from the truth. ... But the tendency to be dogmatic persists, and it does no service to the cause of science.”—The Guardian, London, England, December 4,1980, p. 15.
  29. Clearly, this theory is questionable at best.

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  1. CONCLUSION
  2. Tie in to hook: We can clearly conclude that evolution, while widely accepted, is not the tool the God used to create. This is evident because, first and foremost, it is not compatible with the Bible. Secondly, evolution does not stand up against the scientific method and is therefore invalid as a theory.
  3. Call-to-action: So, what I encourage you to do today is to think about the evidence presented. If you believe in evolution as fact, do not be afraid to question it further. Consider the other option, the option that God created humans as the product of his own hands. Consider the Bible account of creation and contemplate what it means. Do not leave here today without doing so.