Biblical and Constitutional Politics
Racism, Atheistic Evolution, and Divine Creation
As I said on Saturday, we condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of bigotry, hatred, and violence. It has no place in America. And as I have said many times before, no matter the color of our skin, we all live under the same laws; we all salute the same great flag; and we are all made by the same Almighty God. We must love each other, show affection for each other, and unite together in condemnation of hatred, bigotry, and violence. We must discover the bonds of love and loyalty that bring us together as Americans.
Racism is evil, and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.
We are a nation founded on the truth that all of us are created equal. We are equal in the eyes of our Creator, we are equal under the law, and we are equal under our Constitution. Those who spread violence in the name of bigotry strike at the very core of America (copied from Quartz).
The above is an excerpt from President Donald J. Trump’s speech on the Monday after the protests turned violent in Charlottesville, VA on September 11-12, 2017.This is an unambiguous anti-bigotry statement designed to unite the country.
However, many today do not believe “we are all made by the same Almighty God” and “all of us are created equal. We are equal in the eyes of our Creator.” As such, they do not believe “Racism is evil.” They in fact justify their racism due to that non-belief in a Creator God. The relationship of racism and a person’s beliefs about human origins will be addressed in this article.
Basics of Atheistic Evolution
The theory of atheistic evolution is complex, with many different competing viewpoints thereof and much disagreement over many of the specifics. But the following is a simple summary of the generally agreed upon basics as they relate to the subject at hand. For detailed discussions of these points and the various views thereof, see the references at the end of this article.
That said, according to the theory of evolution, the universe began with the Big Bang about 12.7 billion years ago. The earth was formed about 4.5 billion years ago. Life began to evolve on earth about one billion years ago. Then human beings began evolving from a lemur-like creature about six million years ago.
Over this vast amount time of human evolution, small changes in the DNA occurred, causing changes in outward appearance and physical and mental characteristics. Different lines emerged, some being evolutionary dead ends, but one line leading to various simians, such as monkeys and apes. Another line led to various humanoid species, specifically the homo genus, which included at one time or another between 12-20 different species, with the most recent being homo erectus, homo neanderthalensis (Neanderthals), and homo sapiens, which includes modern humans.
The difference in how far along these different humanoids species developed along the evolutionary lines would vary greatly, as would their intelligence levels, though they were still able to interbreed. Specifically, homo erectus would have been less developed and less intelligent than the Neanderthals, and the Neanderthals less developed and less intelligent than the homo sapiens. Moreover, the development and intelligence levels of all of these various humanoids would have been far less than today’s humans.
This evolution of humanoids began somewhere in Africa, but eventually, anywhere from two million to 300,000 years ago, these various humanoids traveled northward through the Middle East, then spread throughout the entire world, crossing land bridges into Australia, the Americas, and other land masses now separated from Eurasia by water.
However, these land bridges would have existed at greatly different times, most likely during the recurring Ice Ages, each many millennia apart. This means, the migrations into the various continents occurred tens of thousands of years apart, with the Americans being the last continents to be colonized some 12,00 years ago.
As they migrated, different humanoids would have developed different unique characteristics due to the differing climates they encountered. But these differences would have taken great amounts of time to develop, along the lines of tens of thousands of years. This then led to the different human races.
Throughout this time, the entire humanoid population remained rather stable at about one million. But then, after this vast amount of time, about 10,000 years ago, the homo sapiens finally evolved sufficient intelligence to figure out that if you plant a seed in the ground, it will grow into a plant with edible stuff on it. It also took that long period of time for humanoids to learn how to domestic animals. It was these innovations that led to the population explosion that resulted in our current human population of over seven and half billion.
Finally, it should be noted, all of this occurred due to purely natural forces, with no divine intervention whatsoever. That is why the theory is being referred to as atheistic evolution.
Implications of Atheistic Evolution for Racism
There are many implications of this atheistic evolutionary viewpoint when it comes to the difference between human races and racism, with one of the most important points to note being the timescale. Again, it took upwards of six million years for modern humans to develop and upwards of tens of thousands of years for the differences between human races to develop.
Given these timescales, it is only logical to assume different human races would have developed at different rates, with some races now being more highly developed and thus more intelligent than others. Charles Darwin, the founder of modern-day evolutionary theory, realized this and articulated it in his book Descent of Man.
In the following quote, it should be noted that by “civilised races of man” Darwin means whites or Caucasians. By “the savage races” he means non-whites, especially Africans and Australian aborigines. That is the terminology he uses throughout his book. Also, in this paragraph, Darwin is trying to explain why there are not transitional fossils between simians and earlier and later humanoids.
The great break in the organic chain between man and his nearest allies, which cannot be bridged over by any extinct or living species, has often been advanced as a grave objection to the belief that man is descended from some lower form; but this objection will not appear of much weight to those who, from general reasons, believe in the general principle of evolution.
Breaks often occur in all parts of the series, some being wide, sharp and defined, others less so in various degrees; as between the orange and its nearest allies—between the Tarsius and the other Lemuridae—between the elephant, and in a more striking manner between the Ornithorhynchus or Echidna, and all other mammals. But these breaks depend merely on the number of related forms which have become extinct.
At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilised races of man will almost certainly exterminate, and replace, the savage races throughout the world. At the same time the anthropomorphous apes, as Professor Schaaffhausen has remarked (18. ‘Anthropological Review,’ April 1867, p. 236.), will no doubt be exterminated. The break between man and his nearest allies will then be wider, for it will intervene between man in a more civilised state, as we may hope, even than the Caucasian, and some ape as low as a baboon, instead of as now between the negro or Australian and the gorilla (Darwin. Kindle Locations 2935-2944).
Thus Darwin believed gorillas were more advanced in their evolutionary development than baboons, and Caucasians were more advanced in their evolutionary development than “the negro or Australian.” But once the gorillas and the negro and Australian are eliminated, then the gap between humans and simians will be greater. This then explains why there are not transitional forms in the fossil records, as such extinctions occurred in the past, leaving gaps in the fossil records. The corollary to this is that non-whites and aborigines are closer in their evolutionary development to the gorilla than Caucasians are.
But it should be noted, evolutionists today claim that since the time of Darwin, fossil evidence of transitional forms between simians and earlier and later humanoids have been discovered. But this only reinforces the implications—if humanoids have been evolving through varieties of more and more advanced humanoid forms, then it is only logical to assume this evolutionary development is still occurring among homo sapiens. And with the claimed long amounts of time involved, some races of homo sapiens would have progressed further along in their evolutionary development than others.
This difference would be exaggerated by some developing races of early homo sapiens interbreeding with the still present but less developed homo erectus and Neanderthals, while others did not. Those that did would have a drag on their evolutionary development from the presence of homo erectus and Neanderthal DNA.
This implication of atheistic evolution had a profound effect on Adolf Hitler. Following Darwin, he believed whites were more evolutionarily advanced and thus more intelligent than non-whites, with the German race being the most advanced of all, and the Jewish race being the least advanced. He thus believed that by exterminating the lower races and especially the Jews, it would lead to the advancement of humanity as a whole.
Hitler truly believed this advancement by way of eugenics would be his greatest legacy. That is why, as the war was ending, and the allies were closing in on Germany, he had many of his forces occupied with the transfer and extermination of the Jews, even though that left fewer soldiers to fight on the front lines. This was so, as he considered winning the war to be less important than completing his eugenics program.
Hitler truly believed that latter generations would praise him for exterminating the Jews and other lower races, as we would see how greatly humans advanced without the drag these lower versions of humans put on human evolutionary development.
Modern-day neo-Nazis, White Supremacists and their ilk follow in Darwin’s and Hitler’s footsteps in continuing to believe that whites are more evolutionarily advanced and thus more intelligent than non-whites. That belief justifies their racism in their minds. And the idea of using eugenics, which is to say, of killing supposed lower forms of human beings to better humanity is now being seen in Iceland, where they are celebrating that they have virtually eliminated Down’s Syndrome by systematically aborting all pre-born babies with this disorder (CBS).
Basic of Divine Creation
There are various divine creation theories, but the view being used in this article would more specifically be called “young-earth creationism.” This is contrasted with old-earth creationism, intelligent design, and other theistic theories of origins. For details in this regard, see Chapter One of Volume One of this writer’s three volume set, Why Are These Books in the Bible and Not Others?
That said, according to the young-earth theory of divine creation, God “made the heaven and the earth” (Gen 1:1) just a few thousand years ago. This creation was accomplished in six, 24-hour days. However, it is difficult to calculate an exact date for Creation based on the Biblical evidence given the rounding off or ratcheting of numbers, textual variants, and other confounding factors. But allotting for all of the variables, the range for the date of Creation would be 3822 to 5665 BC. But using the simplest calculations and the standard Hebrew text, the date would be 4220 BC. This dates Creation to 6,237 years ago at this writing.
But whenever it was, on day six, God created the man (Adam) and the woman (Eve) in His image and placed them in the Garden of Eden (Gen 1:26,27). They were told to “Be increasing, and be being multiplied, and fill the earth and exercise lordship over [or, subdue] it” (Gen 1:28).
At the time of their creation, Adam and Eve and their immediate descendants had the same if not greater intellectual capabilities as we do today. They each also had a greater genetic diversity than we do today.
After an unspecified amount of time, Adam and Eve sinned against God and were cast out of the Garden of Eden (Gen 3:1ff). It was at that time that suffering and death entered the world (Rom 5:12). Adam and Eve proceeded to have “sons and daughters” (Gen 5:4). These children populated the world.
Over the next 1,500 years or so, the human population continued to increase. It is not stated in the Bible what the population of the world was by then, but it could have been anywhere from a few thousand to upwards of a million based on the number of generations given in Genesis 5.
It should also be noted that since these early humans had the same or even greater intellectual capacity than we do today, they very a quickly learned to plant crops and to domestic animals. For a detailed discussion in this regard and how the diet of early humans developed, see this writer’s book Creationist Diet: Second Edition.
But here, this varied diet enabled a rapid population growth to occur from the start of humanity. All of these people during these fifteen centuries would have been interrelated, all being descendants of Adam and Eve
However, as the human population grew, humanity became increasing wicked, and God punished the world with a worldwide Flood (Gen 6-9). This Flood would have occurred in about 2500 BC. But before the Flood, God told righteous Noah to build an ark for himself, his wife, his three sons, their wives, and sets of animals. This Flood destroyed all humans and animals, except for those kept safely on the ark. After the Flood, the world began to be repopulated by Noah’s sons and their wives and the animals from the ark (Gen 10:1ff).
However, rather than scattering over the earth as they were supposed to do, these humans built a tower “whose top will be as far as the heaven” (Gen 11:4). God judged this project by confusing the languages of the people. Then “the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of the earth” (Gen 11:7-9). This pivotal event occurred within a hundred years or so after the Flood, or about 2400 BC. There was probably a few thousand people alive by this time.
Most likely, those who now spoke the same language grouped together and began to disperse over the planet, with each people group consisting of just a few hundred people. Starting from the Middle East, they traveled southward to Africa and northward into Eurasia and then to the other continents.
This migration was possible due to the land bridges that developed between land masses due to the one Ice Age that occurred within a century or so after the flood, or about the same time as the Towel of Babel event was happening. As such, when the people were dispersed, they could migrate to the various continents over a short period of time, probably over just a few hundred years.
As these groups migrated and separated, they would have developed unique characteristics due to the different climates they encountered. Thus, those who migrated southward into Africa and had darker skin would have survived better than those with lighter skin as the darker skin would have enabled them to withstand the radiant sun without experiencing sunstroke and sun-caused cancers. Conversely, those with lighter skin who migrated northward would have survived better than those with darker skin as the lighter skin would have enabled them to create sufficient amounts of vitamin D despite the lack of sunlight. And that is how dark-skinned people came to be predominate in Africa, while those with light skin came to predominate in Europe.
Other unique people group characteristics would have developed due to the inbreeding that followed the dispersion after Babel. By inbreeding is meant that close relatives married one another. Since the peoples separated by small groups, such inbreeding was inevitable. This inbreeding would cause these changes to occur very quickly, over just a few generations. Such inbreeding is seen in the Book of Genesis, with Abram marrying his half-sister and Jacob and Isaac marrying their cousins (Gen 20:2; 24:1ff; 29:1ff). As a result, the genetic diversity of each people group would become more limited, so that eventually, some people groups could only produce those with darker skin shades, while others could only produce those with lighter skin shades.
However, each people group would not be exclusive in their relationships, with outsiders sometimes marrying into the group. This is also seen in the Bible with Hebrews marrying non-Hebrews, such as Joseph marrying an Egyptian woman (Gen 41:45), Moses marrying an Ethiopian woman (Numb 12:1), and Boaz marrying Ruth, a Moabite (Book of Ruth).
This means there is no such as a pure-bred Hebrew, as there is non-Hebrew blood throughout the Hebrew bloodline. The same would be the case for all other people groups. No one knows for sure who their great, great, great, great, great-grandfather or grandmother were, so those who think they are purely of one people group could easily have the blood of another people group in them.
Moreover, to go from the eight people that were in the ark to today’s population of over seven and a half billion requires less than a 0.5% growth rate. Given the high intellectual capacity of all people groups throughout this time, that is more than possible. In fact, it is a slow rate of growth, far less than the 1.1% seen in 2017, which itself is less than it has been in the recent past, with a high of 2.08% being seen in 1970 (WorldOMeters).
It is only widespread deaths from war, famine, and disease throughout human history that has kept the human population from being far greater than it is today. It is the evolutionists that have a hard time accounting for why there are so few humans today given their much greater timescale.
Lastly, it can be seen that much of this history occurred due to the direct intervention of God. The initial Creation, the Flood, and the dispersion at Babel all occurred due to direct acts of God, while God has been sovereignly overseeing human history throughout (Dan 2:19-22; 4:34-37; Acts 17:24-28). That is why this theory is called divine creation.
On a technical note, homo erectus, homo neanderthalensis, and homo sapiens would have all been descendants of Adam and Eve and thus fully human, while all other supposed homo intermediaries would also be either true humans or true simians. Whether these other varieties of humans would have died in the Flood or shortly thereafter is a matter of debate among divine creationist scientists.
All human beings alive today are descended from Adam and Eve, through Noah and his wife, through Noah’s three sons and their wives. This means all members of all people’s groups are interrelated. It is for this reason that from a divine creation viewpoint, it is inaccurate to talk about different human races, as there is only one race, the human race. That is why the term “people groups” is being used in this article in these sections on divine creation.
This is also why it is inappropriate to talk about different “colors” of human skin. All humans have brown skin, with only the “shade” of brown differing. This is a testament to all humans being interrelated, with Adam and Eve most likely having a medium brown shade of skin. Being in the middle, they would have had the genetic capacity for anywhere from very dark to very light shades of brown. But as the people groups dispersed and inbreed, one or the other extreme would be lost in that people group, accounting for the differing shades of brown skin between people groups seen today.
However, in rare cases, this ability to produce children with differing shades of brown is retained. This is seen in the picture below. Click for a larger image.
Yes, this picture is real. Those adorable girls are fraternal twins. And note the medium brown shade of their parents’ skin. This is probably what Adam and Eve looked like. Since we all have such a heritage, and given situations like this, it makes racism nonsense. We are all one family, no matter what our skin shade. This point is reinforced by the occasional interbreeding that occurred between people groups. In fact, many racists have been embarrassed when they found out they have an ancestor who was a member of the people group they have been bigoted against.
Moreover, the interrelation of all people groups means that all people groups have the same intellectual capacity. In ancient times, it was expressed differently due to the differing climates they encountered. Thus, for instance, those traveling north during the Ice Age were forced to live in caves to protect themselves from the harsh climate, slowing the rate of technological development and accounting for what we today call “cavemen.” The same would go for those traveling to hot climates and accounting for what some like Darwin would call “savages.” But they are not savages, nor do they have lower intellectual capacities. They have just been living in a harsh climate that did not allow them to express that intelligence beyond basic survival skills.
Also, since the different human people groups separated just a few thousand years ago, there has not been time for one people group to be further along in their development than another nor to have developed greater intellectual capabilities than another.
Finally, there would be no significance to homo erectus, homo neanderthalensis, and homo sapiens interbreeding, as all three types of humans would be equal.
Given all of this, there is no cause whatsoever for racism or eugenics among those who believe in young-earth divine creation. All humans are created in the image of God. All humans are interrelated. All humans are equal. All people groups have the same intellectual capacities. We are all one race, the human race.
The Cursing of Canaan
Before closing this article, it would be good to consider the one passage of Scripture racists use to justify their bigotry:
24So Noah became sober from the wine and knew as much as his younger son did to him. 25And he said, “Cursed be Canaan; a bond-servant of a household bondservant will he be to his brothers.” 26And he said, “Blessed [be] the LORD God of Shem, and Canaan will be his bond-servant. 27May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the houses [or, habitations] of Shem, and let Canaan become their bond-servant (Gen 9:24-27).
Racists interpret this passage as follows: As a result of Noah cursing Canaan, Canaan’s light skin color was turned dark brown. And when Canaan was cursed, the curse fell not just upon Canaan but upon all of his descendants, so all of his descendants are cursed and have dark brown skin. Canaan and his descendants then migrated to Africa, and thus all Africans have dark brown skin and are cursed. And since they are cursed, it is appropriate to discriminate against those with dark brown skin.
However, this interpretation is wrong on every point. First, it was already said that all people have brown skin, just the shade thereof differs. Originally it was probably medium brown, which probably would have included Canaan, as this was before the Babel incident. Again. differing shading occurred later due to differing climatic conditions each people group entered as they migrated outward after the Babel incident.
Second, there is no indication whatsoever that the curse involved skin shades.
Third, the curse is on Canaan himself. No mention is made of it being upon his descendants.
Fourth, Canaan and his descendants did not migrate to Africa. In the genealogy in the following chapter, the descendants of Canaan are described as follows:
15Now Canaan fathered Sidon his firstborn and the [ancestor of the] Hittities [LXX, Chettite] 16and the Jebusite and the Amorite, and the Girgashite 17and the Hivite and the Arukite and the Asennite 18and the Aradian and the Samarean and the Amathite; and after this the tribes of the Canaanites were dispersed. 19And it happened the boundaries of the Canaanites [were] from Sidon until [one] comes to Gerara and Gaza, until [one] comes to Sodom and Gomorrah [LXX, Gomorrha], Admah [LXX, Adama] and Zeboiim [LXX, Seboim], as far as Lasha [LXX, Dasa] (Gen 10:15-19).
All of these people groups and cities were in the Middle East, not Africa. In fact, many of these people groups were those which the Israelites battled when they entered the Promised Land, which is in the Middle East, as described throughout the Historical Books of the Old Testament.
Fifth, far from all Canaanites being cursed, the last mention of a Canaanite in the Bible is in Matthew 10:4, where one of Jesus’ disciples is called “Simon the Canaanite.” Therefore, Jesus did not believe Canaanites were cursed and should be discriminated against. He instead made a Canaanite one of His twelve apostles.
Sixth and lastly, recent DNA studies found that Canaanite DNA persists in today’s Lebanese (CBN News. DNA). Lebanon is in the Middle East, not Africa, further proving the Canaanites did not migrate to Africa. Moreover, Lebanese do not have not a dark shade of brown skin like Africans have.
On a side note, when this DNA study was first released, many news outlets used it to proclaim, “The Bible was wrong! The Canaanites were not wiped out!” But they were forced to retract when it was pointed out to them that the Bible teaches no such thing (CBN. The Bible).
As indicated, the Canaanites are mentioned throughout the Historical Books of the Old Testament and even into the New Testament. It was sometime after that that they lost their national identity, only now to resurface in today’s Lebanese.
Conclusion
The purpose of this article is to consider the implications of atheistic evolution versus the implications of divine creation in regards to racism. It is not to enter the debate as to which is true. It also must be noted that just because a person prefers the implications for racism of one theory versus another does not means that viewpoint is correct.
However, what is true is that it is perfectly logical for someone who believes in atheistic evolution to be a racist and even to advocate eugenics. That does not mean that all people who believe in atheistic evolution are racist or want to eradicate another race. Far from it. But it is hard for an evolutionist to argue against racism or eugenics, as both are logical outcomes of the theory.
Conversely, it is illogical for someone who believes in divine creation as articulated in Biblical young-earth divine creation theory to be a racist or to advocate eugenics. That is not to say there are not divine creation racists, but their racism in in contradiction to their divine creation belief. A more consistent view would be to recognize the interrelation and thus equality of all people and people groups.
Finally, going back to the events in Charlottesville, VA that opened this article, for a discussion of the groups involved in the protests and resulting violence and why “both sides” are to blame, see my article Alt-Right vs. Alt-Left in Charlottesville, VA posted on my politics website.
References:
All Scripture quotes are taken from: Analytical-Literal Translation of the Bible (ALT). Copyright © 1999-2016 by Gary F. Zeolla (www.Zeolla.org).
For Evolution:
Darwin, Charles. The Descent of Man. Kindle Edition. Bolding added.
Encyclopedia Britannica. Human evolution.
Smithsonian, National Museum of Natural History. Introduction to Human Evolution.
National Geographic. Human Evolution 101.
National Geographic. In Neanderthal DNA, Signs of a Mysterious Human Migration.
New Scientist. Introduction: Human Evolution.
For Creation:
Answers in Genesis. Are There Really Different Races?
Creation in the 21st Century TV show hosted by David Rives, seen on TBN. Various episodes.
Creation Ministries International. The origin of the human races.
Creation Wiki. Human Race.
Institute for Creation Research. Origin Of The Races.
Origins TV show, hosted by Dr. Don Chapman, seen on the Christian TV network WPCB in Pittsburgh, PA. Various episodes.
Other:
CBN News. DNA Study Reveals Lebanese Are Descendants of Biblical Canaanites.
CBN News. ‘The Bible Was WRONG!’: Media Massively Bungle Bible Story — and Are Forced to Issue Corrections.
Quartz. Full text: Donald Trump says “racism is evil” in his latest statement on Charlottesville. Paragraph divisions, bolding and capitalization of Almighty, Creator, and Constitution added as such should be capitalized.
Gospel Coalition. Race, the Gospel, and the Moment.
WorldOMeters. World Population.
Racism, Atheistic Evolution, and Divine Creation. Copyright © 2017 By Gary F. Zeolla.
Joe Biden's Failing Presidency
This series of five books provides the definitive record of Biden’s failures in his first two years as President. These failures should not be forgotten, as they laid the foundation for his continual failures in his subsequent years as President. He has been failing miserably on both domestic issues and in foreign policy. Those failures are all chronicled in these five books.
The above article was posted on this website August 27, 2017.
Alphabetical
List of Pages
Contact
Information
Text
Search
Biblical and Constitutional Politics
Ethics, Spirituality, Christian
Life
Science and Science Fiction